Archilochian

{{Short description|Greek and Latin poetic form}} {{Greek and Latin metre|sidebar}} '''Archilochian''' or '''archilochean''' is a term used to describe several metres of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The name is derived from Archilochus, whose poetry first uses the rhythms.

==In Greek verse== ===Erasmonidean=== In the analysis of Archaic and Classical Greek poetry, '''archilochian''' or '''archllochean''' usually describes the following length: :x – u u – u u – x | – u – u – x<ref>L.P.E. Parker, ''The Songs of Aristophanes'', Oxford, 1997, p. xvii</ref>

(where "–" indicates a longum, "u" a breve, and "x" an {{lang|la|anceps}} syllable). The alternative name '''erasmonideus'''<ref>Bruno Snell, ''Griechische Metrik'', 4th ed., Göttingen, 1982, pp. 41f. n. 11; C.M.J. Sicking, ''Griechische Verslehre'', Munich, 1993, p. 128 (here and in the index ×× is misprinted for × at the beginning of the verse)</ref> or '''erasmonidean''' comes from Archilochus' fr. 168 (West):

:{{lang|grc|Ἐρασμονίδη Χαρίλαε,}} | {{lang|grc|χρῆμά τοι γελοῖον}} :{{lang|grc|ἐρέω, πολὺ φίλταθ᾽ ἑταίρων,}} | {{lang|grc|τέρψεαι δ᾽ ἀκούων.}}

:{{grc-transl|Ἐρασμονίδη Χαρίλαε,}} | {{grc-transl|χρῆμά τοι γελοῖον}} :{{grc-transl|ἐρέω, πολὺ φίλταθ᾽ ἑταίρων,}} | {{grc-transl|τέρψεαι δ᾽ ἀκούων.}}

:'Erasmonides Charilaos, I'm going to tell you an amusing thing, :most dearest of friends, and you will enjoy hearing it.'

As indicated, a caesura is observed before the ithyphallic (– u – u – –) ending of the verse. (Because of this, the name ''erasmonideus'' has sometimes been used to refer only to the colon x – u u – u u – x preceding the ithyphallic.<ref>Peter Kruschwitz, " Die antiken Quellen zum Saturnischen Vers," ''Mnemosyne'' 55 (2002), p. 478</ref>)

The verse is also used stichically in Old Comedy, for example in Aristophanes, ''Wasps'' 1518-1537 (with irregular responsion<ref>Sicking, ''Griechische Verslehre'', p. 185; Parker, ''The Songs of Aristophanes'', pp. 258-261</ref>) and in Cratinus fr. 360 (Kassel-Austin), where, as Hephaestion notes,<ref>J. M. van Ophuijsen, ''Hephaestion on Metre'', Leiden, 1987, pp. 139f.</ref> no caesura is observed before the ithyphallic ending: :{{lang|grc|Χαῖρ᾽, ὦ μέγ᾽ ἀχρειόγελως ὅμιλε, ταῖς ἐπίβδαις,}} :{{lang|grc|τῆς ἡμετέρας σοφίας κριτὴς ἄριστε πάντων,}} :{{lang|grc|εὐδαίμον᾽ ἔτικτέ σε μήτηρ ἰκρίων ψόφησις.}}

:{{grc-transl|Χαῖρ᾽, ὦ μέγ᾽ ἀχρειόγελως ὅμιλε, ταῖς ἐπίβδαις,}} :{{grc-transl|τῆς ἡμετέρας σοφίας κριτὴς ἄριστε πάντων,}} :{{grc-transl|εὐδαίμον᾽ ἔτικτέ σε μήτηρ ἰκρίων ψόφησις.}}

:'Welcome, o foolishly-laughing crowd, to the post-festival days, :best of all critics of our wisdom, :your mother, the applause of the theatre-seats, bore you happy.'

The verse also occurs in the choral lyric of tragedy and comedy, with the same caesura as in the example from Archilochus, as a rule, for example in Aeschylus, ''Seven Against Thebes'' 756-7 ~ 764-5, Sophocles, ''Oedipus Rex'' 196-7 ~ 209-10, Euripides, ''Medea'' 989-90 ~ 996-7, ''Iphigenia in Tauris'' 403 ~ 417, and Aristophanes, ''Assemblywomen'' 580-1.<ref>Sicking, {{lang|de|Griechische Verslehre}}, p. 128.</ref>

===Another definition=== The Byzantine metrician Trichas used the name '''archilocheion''' for the trochaic trimeter catalectic: :– u – x  – u – x  – u –,

This is seen in Archilochus, fr. 197 (West), and is used stichically by Callimachus, fr. 202 (Pfeiffer).<ref>Sicking, ''Griechische Verslehre'', p. 111</ref>

==In Latin verse== In Latin poetry, the term "archilochian"<ref>Nisbet & Hubbard (1970), p. xiv.</ref> or "archilochean"<ref>Raven (1965), p. 112.</ref> is used to refer to a number of different metres, called the "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th archilochian". However, different authors disagree on the numbering. The description below follows Rudd (2004) and Raven (1965).

===1st archilochian stanza=== (= Nisbet & Hubbard's 2nd archilochian)

The first archilochian stanza consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic hemiepes:

:– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x :    – u u – u u x

An example is Horace, ''Odes'' 4.7, praised by A. E. Housman in a lecture in 1914 as "the most beautiful poem in Latin literature":<ref>Morgan, Llewllyn (2010). ''Musa Pedestris: Metre and Meaning in Roman Verse'', Oxford; introduction.</ref>

:{{lang|la|diffūgēre nivēs, redeunt iam grāmina campīs}} :    {{lang|la|arboribusque comae}}

:'The snows have fled away, and grass is now returning to the plains :    and leaves to the trees'

The above metre is called the "2nd Archilochian" by Nisbet & Hubbard (1970), who use "1st Archilochian" as another name for the Alcmanian (or Alcmanic) strophe, which consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic tetrameter.<ref>Nisbet, R. G. M. & Hubbard, M (1970). ''A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1'' (Oxford), p. xiv.</ref>

===2nd archilochian stanza=== A dactylic hexameter, followed by an iambic dimeter + dactylic hemiepes:

:– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x :    x – u – x – u x | – u u – u u x

An example is Horace, ''Epodes'' 13:

:{{lang|la|horrida tempestās caelum contraxit et imbrēs}} :    {{lang|la|nivēsque dēdūcunt Iovem; nunc mare nunc siluae}}

:'A dreadful storm has contracted the sky, and rain showers :    and snows are drawing down Jupiter; now the sea, now the forests...'

===3rd archilochian stanza===

An iambic trimeter, followed by a dactylic hemiepes + an iambic dimeter (the second line is known as an 'elegiambus'):

:x – u – x – u – x – u x :    – u u – u u x | x – u – x – u x

This is found in Horace, ''Epodes'' 11:

:{{lang|la|Pettī, nihil mē sīcut anteā iuvat}} :    {{lang|la|scrībere versiculōs amōre percussum gravī}}

:'Pettius, it does not please me at all as in the past :    to write little verses smitten by a serious love'

cf. Archilochus fr. 196 (West)

===4th archilochian stanza=== (= Nisbet & Hubbard's 3rd archilochian)

A dactylic tetrameter + ithyphallic (3 trochees), followed by an iambic trimeter catalectic:

:– u u – u u – u u – u u | – u – u – x :    x – u – x | – u – u – x

(The first of these lines is known as the "greater archilochian".)

An example is Horace, ''Odes'' 1.4:

:{{lang|la|Solvitur ācris hiēms grātā vice}} | {{lang|la|vēris et Favōnī}} :    {{lang|la|trahuntque siccās}} | {{lang|la|māchinae carīnās,}} :{{lang|la|ac neque iam stabulīs gaudet pecus}} | {{lang|la|aut arātor ignī}} :    {{lang|la|nec prāta cānīs}} | {{lang|la|albicant pruīnīs.}}<ref>Allen and Greenough, ''New Latin Grammar'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=CBsXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA423 section 626.11]</ref>

:'Harsh winter is being loosened with a welcome change of spring and the West Wind; :    and machines are dragging the dry keels (to the shore); :the cattle no longer rejoice in their stable or the ploughman in his fire; :    nor are the meadows white with hoar frost.'

The metre's name reflects the precedent in Archilochus, for example, fr. 188 (West).

===1st pythiambic=== Two other similar metrical couplets imitated from Archilochus combining dactylic and iambic metra are known as the 1st and 2nd pythiambic.<ref>D.S. Raven, ''Greek Metre: An Introduction'', London, 1962, pp. 48-50.</ref> The 1st pythiambic combines a dactylic hexameter with an iambic dimeter:

:– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x :    x – u – x – u x

This is found in Horace, ''Epodes'' 15 and 16. The following is the opening of Epode 15:

:{{lang|la|nox erat et caelō fulgēbat lūna serēnō}} :    {{lang|la|inter minōra sīdera}}

:'It was night and the moon was shining in a clear sky :    amidst the lesser stars'

===2nd pythiambic=== The 2nd pythiambic combines a dactylic hexameter with an ionic trimeter. In Horace's Epode 16 the trimeter is "pure", that is, every {{lang|la|anceps}} position is a short syllable:

:– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x :    u – u – u – u – u – u x

:{{lang|la|altera iam teritur bellīs cīvīlibus aetās}} :    {{lang|la|suīs et ipsa Rōma vīribus ruit}}

:'Another generation is now being worn away by civil wars, :    and Rome is being ruined by its own strength'

==Bibliography== * Nisbet, R. G. M.; Hubbard, M. (1970). ''A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1''. Oxford. * Raven, D. S. (1962), ''Greek Metre''. Faber & Faber. * Raven, D. S. (1965). ''Latin Metre''. Faber & Faber. * Rudd, N. (2004). ''Horace Odes and Epodes''. Loeb Classical Library 33, pp. 14–15. * West, M. L. (1982). ''Greek Metre''. Oxford. * West, M. L. (1987). [https://archive.org/details/west-1987-introduction-to-greek-metre/mode/2up?view=theater ''An Introduction to Greek Metre'']. Oxford.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

Category:Types of verses Category:Ancient Greek poetry