The Greek musical scales were descending scales unlike the modern scales we use today. Just as our modern C major scale runs C D E F G A B C', the Greeks would have rendered it C B A G F E D CC (we represent an octave lower by writing that note double). This seems cumbersome. Why would the Greeks have done this? Isn't it counter-intuitive? Perhaps not.

The 2nd century Syrian-Greek scholar, Nicomachus, writes in his work, The Manual of Harmonics, "It is probable that the names of the notes were derived from the seven stars which traverse the heavens and travel around the earth. For they say all swiftly whirling bodies necessarily produce sounds…" The planetary sounds Nicomachus refers to are tones that were considered the most primal and archetypal music. Earthly music is but a pale reflection of the pure and ineffably gorgeous Music of the Spheres. All the planets moving produce a unison through harmonization with one another. This was called harmonia. The tones produced by each planet was fixed and the cosmic symphony was for the benefit of earth and its life.

This heavenly or divine music was attributed to the ceaseless motion of the planets. The Greek word for star, ÜóôÞñ or "aster" is derived, states Nicomachus, the planet's lack of stasis (i.e. it is always rotating and orbiting) and so is "not in stasis" or áóôáóéò (astasis). The planet is "constantly running" or in Greek, Üåß èÝùí (aei theon) from which are derived èåüò ("theos" or god) and áéèÞñ ("aither" or ether). Plato, however, stated that aster was derived from ÜóôñáðÞ ("astrape" or lightning).

But why was the lowest note given the name hypate which is derived from hypaton meaning "highest up"? This was in reference to the planet Saturn or Kronos as the Greeks called it. Saturn is the outermost of the visible planets. So it is highest up and a string stretched from earth to Saturn would be the lowest pitch because it is the longest string and the longer the string the lower the pitch. The Greeks, still thinking of the solar system in terms of geocentricity, saw the planets laid out closest to farthest as: moon, Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), sun, Ares (Mars), Zeus (Jupiter) and Kronos (Saturn). So the lowest planets in the Greek system was the moon. Its note is called neate which was derived from neaton or lowest. Its string is the shortest and so possesses the highest pitch.