Patterns of Sound Classification in Greek Antiquity: The Quality of Ligyrotēs

In ancient Greece, the categories used to evaluate and judge their sounds in terms of ‘pleasantness’ depended on various factors, changing over time and place, although there seems to have been agreement on some of the most appreciated values. This paper aims at exploring that particular quality identified by the Greeks with the term ligyrotēs, usually translated as "shrillness" of sounds, in order to understand what they exactly meant with this word, if and how much such a quality was appreciated and, in more general terms, which was the role played by the acoustic phenomena in ancient Hellenic society.