High and sharp

Use in the book

The comparison between art and nature contrasts high with low notes and long with short ones. Music combines these differences into harmony. Oxys concerns pitch in this example, whereas length concerns duration; it says nothing by itself about a note’s loudness or emotional intensity.

Places to read

1. I.40.1.58High and low pitches are combined with contrasting durations.
2. I.3.16Oxus expresses visual keenness in a statement about divine sight.
3. I.55.2.8Oxu names the sour cause of the described effects on the tongue.

Translation in this edition

“High” is clearer than “sharp” here, since modern musical sharpness can suggest a particular alteration of a note.

Sharpness and sourness

Oxus means sharp or keen and can extend across senses to an acid or sour taste. At I.3.16, it describes the gods’ keen eye, not a flavor. In sensory contexts the shared vocabulary must be translated according to the organ and effect being described; the same Greek adjective need not receive the same English word in sight, sound, and taste. I.55.2.8 explicitly calls the cause of the tongue’s seething and fermentation oxu, “sour,” supplying the taste use beside visual keenness.