The metrical families one by one: dactylic, iambic, trochaic, aeolic, ionic, anapaestic, dochmiac and the rest.
Anapaestic · 1 of 3
Marching anapaests
Drama has three modes of delivery: recitation without music, recitation with music (παρακαταλογή, parakatalogē), and song. The recited parts are in stichic metres, or in long stretches of one unvarying rhythm. Marching anapaests are among them.[1] Recited anapaests are generally thought to have had aulos accompaniment.[2] Two kinds of anapaestic metre occur in drama, marching and lyric. The marching kind is much the commoner.[1]
The metron. An anapaest, ἀνάπαιστος (anapaistos), is the foot ⏑ ⏑ —, two shorts followed by a long.[3] The anapaestic metron is ⏔ — ⏔ —: a biceps, a princeps, a biceps, a princeps.[4] Each biceps may be ⏑ ⏑ or —. The first princeps, and less often the second, may be resolved. But a sequence of four short syllables is generally avoided. So the normal resolved form is — ⏑ ⏑ — —, with contracted bicipitia.[5] Hephaestion says: “the anapaestic admits in every place the spondee, the anapaest, rarely the proceleusmatic, and in the dramatists the dactyl too”.[6] In these true (marching) anapaests, princeps and biceps were equal in duration. They differ from dactylic cola that begin with a biceps. In those, as in the hexameter, the princeps was probably shorter than the biceps.[7]
The run. Marching anapaests come in long runs of irregular length, with catalexis at each period-end. Editions set them out as dimeters with an occasional monometer, but the division is arbitrary. Synapheia holds from the start of the run until the catalectic close.[1] The dimeter may be no more than a layout handed down by copyists.[8] Period-end without catalexis occurs now and then inside a run at a sense-pause, especially in emotional contexts. But it never occurs with a short open vowel in the last position.[9]
Diaeresis. There is normally word-end (caesura) after every metron, except the last before the catalexis, and even there in two instances out of three. Where there is not, it occurs after the first short of the next biceps.[10] Word-end at the end of each metron is a typical feature of anapaests. In the recited kind an over-run of one short is allowed.[11]
Catalexis: the paroemiac. The run ends in a catalectic dimeter, ⏔ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — — ‖. This is called the paroemiac.[12] In recited anapaests it marks the end of the system.[8] Hephaestion explains the name, and doubts it. The dimeter catalectic, he says, “is called paroemiac because certain proverbs (παροιμίαι) are in this metre”, as πότε δ’ Ἄρτεμις οὐκ ἐχόρευσεν. “But there are proverbs in epic and iambic metre too, so it is unreasonable to call this alone paroemiac”.[13] Here is his proverb, set out by metra:
πότε δ’ Ἄρτεμις οὐκ ἐχόρευσεν;
When did Artemis not dance?
A proverb quoted by Hephaestion, Enchiridion 8.6: the paroemiac, an anapaestic dimeter catalectic. Red: the shortened second metron.
synthetic ∿
He adds that Cratinus used it in continuous sequence.[13]
The comic tetrameter. The anapaestic tetrameter catalectic is frequent in Old Comedy.[14] West’s scheme:
⏔ — ⏔ — | ⏔ — ⏔ — | ⏔ — ⏔ — ⁝ ⏑ ⏑ — — ‖
synthetic ∿ · the rhythm: a long note for —, a short one for ⏑
About nine lines out of ten have the caesura after the second metron. Nearly as many have one after the first too. Nearly half have one after the third, and this caesura is regular when the fifth princeps is resolved.[15] Hephaestion calls the line the Aristophanean, “not because Aristophanes was its first inventor, since it occurs in Cratinus too, but because Aristophanes used it a great deal”. He finds it earlier still in Epicharmus:[16]
ὅτ’ ἐγὼ τὰ δίκαια λέγων ἤνθουν καὶ σωφροσύνη νενόμιστο
When I flourished, pleading the just cause, and temperance was the rule.
Aristophanes, Clouds 962, as Hephaestion quotes it: an anapaestic tetrameter catalectic. Red: the catalectic close, ⏑ ⏑ — —. Dashed bars: word-end between the metra.
synthetic ∿
The Greek is as Hephaestion quotes it; Perseus has ’νενόμιστο.
In comedy anapaestic runs sometimes follow directly on a passage of tetrameters.[17]
In the comedy of the fourth century before Menander, long passages in anapaestic dimeters often list the dishes of a meal. Fragments of Anaxandrides (fr. 42), Antiphanes (fr. 130) and Ephippus (fr. 12) are examples. The feature seems more or less confined to that period of comedy.[18]
Where it is used. Spoken anapaests may accompany entrances and perambulations.[19] The Hecuba is the only extant tragedy whose parodos has no song. It brings the chorus on in recited anapaests.[2] The chorus’s entry in the Agamemnon is scanned on the Worked example tab. Hephaestion lists six ways in which the metre may end, from hypercatalectic to brachycatalectic.[6]
Later. Anapaests were little used in the Hellenistic period. They became somewhat more common under the Empire, especially for hymns (including some Christian ones). The first hymn of Synesius consists of 734 anapaestic monometers, any of which may have hiatus or brevis in longo at the end. In the second and third centuries the apokroton, ⏔ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ‖, is common. In some texts it alternates freely with the paroemiac. There we know that the paroemiac’s final — — was sung as a three-time long and a long. So it was rhythmically equivalent to — ⏑ —.[20] Synesius uses a shorter form, ⏔ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ‖, for three of his hymns.[21]
Notes
- ^ a b c West 1987, p. 48.
- ^ a b Battezzato 2005, p. 151.
- ^ Hephaestion, Ench. 3.2.
- ^ West 1987, pp. 29, 85.
- ^ West 1987, pp. 29–30.
- ^ a b Hephaestion, Ench. 8.1.
- ^ West 1987, p. 38.
- ^ a b Lourenço 2011, p. 45.
- ^ West 1987, p. 48 n. 2.
- ^ West 1987, p. 48 with n. 3.
- ^ Lourenço 2011, p. 46.
- ^ West 1987, p. 88.
- ^ a b Hephaestion, Ench. 8.6.
- ^ West 1987, p. 29.
- ^ West 1987, p. 30.
- ^ Hephaestion, Ench. 8.2–3.
- ^ West 1987, p. 49.
- ^ Sidwell 2014, p. 66.
- ^ West 1987, p. 61.
- ^ West 1987, p. 75.
- ^ West 1987, p. 76.
Anapaestic · 2 of 3
Lyric anapaests
Sung anapaests look like marching anapaests on the page, but they behave quite differently. Metrical features, not layout, tell the two apart.[1] Seven features distinguish them:[2]
| Lyric anapaests | Marching anapaests (for contrast) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doric dialect colouring, in tragedy and its parody | not so coloured |
| 2 | dimeters often without word-division between the metra | word-end after each metron[3] |
| 3 | much contraction, so that the acatalectic dimeter is very often eight longs and the catalectic seven | not so marked |
| 4 | catalectic dimeters anywhere, even at the beginning of the song, and often two or more in succession (even a catalectic monometer, E. Alc. 93); one would expect each to make period-end, and there is sometimes hiatus | catalexis at each period-end[3] |
| 5 | acatalectic dimeters in final place | the run ends catalectic[3] |
| 6 | sequences of four shorts (biceps + resolved princeps or the reverse) | four shorts generally avoided[4] |
| 7 | admixture of non-anapaestic cola, especially dochmiac, or definite change to another rhythm | uniform rhythm throughout |
Several of these marks hold good across Euripides. In lyric anapaests word-end between metra is kept less strictly than in recited ones. Shapes made mostly or wholly of longs predominate in the later plays. The paroemiac may open a run, or even be repeated line after line. And a period can end without catalexis.[5]
A specimen. West’s example is from Ion’s monody as he scares the birds from the temple, E. Ion 154–69. Every biceps is contracted in the opening lines. Lines 155–157 are catalectic, and 158–159 have no caesura:[2]
154 ἔα ἔα·
outside the metre
154a φοιτῶσ’ ἤδη λείπουσίν τε
155 πτανοὶ Παρνασοῦ κοίτας·
156 αὐδῶ μὴ χρίμπτειν θριγκοῖς
157 μηδ’ ἐς χρυσήρεις οἴκους —
158 μάρψω σ’ αὖ τόξοις, ὦ Ζηνὸς
159 κῆρυξ, ὀρνίθων γαμφηλαῖς
ἰσχὺν νικῶν.
Ah! Already the birds are on the wing and leaving their roosts on Parnassus. I warn you not to come near the cornices nor the gold-decked house. I shall shoot you with my bow, herald of Zeus, though you beat the strength of all birds with your beak.
Euripides, Ion 154–160 (the start of West’s specimen 154–169), divided into syllables after the quantities given here. Every syllable is long: every biceps contracted (red). 155–157 are catalectic dimeters, one position short; in 158 and 159 a word runs across the boundary between the metra, so each is shown as one unit.
synthetic ∿
Line 154a is an acatalectic dimeter of eight longs. Lines 155–157 are three catalectic dimeters in a row. Each has seven longs, and each is presumably a period. In 158–159 there is no word-end between the metra. τόξοις and ὀρνίθων run across the metron-boundary.[2] West’s text marks the α of ἔα long (ἔᾱ ἔᾱ).
For West the run of catalectic lines gives the movement an agitated, stop-and-start quality.[6] Lourenço also hears a deliberately faltering delivery in lament anapaests. But he traces it to the word-end that falls after each metron, not to catalexis.[7]
Who sings them. In tragedy lyric anapaests are practically confined to monodies, and to dialogues in which an actor sings. Euripides makes the greatest use of them. He uses them most extensively in the plays of his transitional period: Hecuba, Troades, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion. Like spoken anapaests, they may accompany entrances and perambulations. A scene can move easily between sung and recited anapaests as the emotion rises and falls.[6] In Euripides the monody is the kind of song in which anapaests are most often used.[8] Less often, anapaestic cola appear in dochmiac contexts. In Euripides there is also an anapaestic metron or dimeter + iambic colon.[9]
Comedy. Comedy makes different use of the metre. It uses proceleusmatics ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ more freely. A proceleusmatic is a resolved anapaest, and it is mostly marked off by word-division.[10] An example is the birds’ panic at Av. 328–30 (West quotes 328 f.):
προδεδόμεθ’ ἀνόσιά τ’ ἐπάθομεν·
ὃς γὰρ φίλος ἦν ὁμότροφά θ’ ἡμῖν
ἐνέμετο πεδία παρ’ ἡμῖν,
We are betrayed and have suffered impious things! For he who was our friend and fed in the same fields with us …
Aristophanes, Birds 328–330 (Hall’s text and line-division, via Perseus). Red: proceleusmatics, anapaests of four shorts.
synthetic ∿
West’s word-division marks set off each ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ (προδεδόμεθ’ | ἀνόσιά τ’ | ἐπάθομεν).[6] The text and line-division here are Perseus’ (Hall). Hephaestion already knew the type, under the name “proceleusmatic”. He reports the better opinion, that it is anapaestic with a resolved anapaest in every place but the last.[11]
Cola of odd length also turn up in comedy. There is a pentapody at Ach. 285, and a tripody followed by eleven feet (1½ ‖ 5½ metra) in Lys. 478–83. West explains these by supposing that the chorus’s steps came to an odd number. Tragedy has a proceleusmatic tripody at E. IT 232.[6] In five places a pair of proparoxytone tribrach words appears to take the place of an anapaestic metron. The pair is generally in anaphora or syntactic parallelism, like ἔλιπες ἔλιπες at A. Pers. 985.[6] And in Av. 327–35 ~ 343–51 the second half of the strophe shows the anapaest (proceleusmatic) responding with the cretic (paeon). So the two become interchangeable.[6]
The lesson of the page is to look at the whole song, using these seven features, before labelling a line.
Notes
Anapaestic · 3 of 3
Worked example: the parodos of the Agamemnon
The chorus of Argive elders enters the Agamemnon in marching anapaests. The first run, 40–47, is a complete period. It is made of dimeters and monometers in synapheia, closed by a catalectic dimeter.[1]
How such lines were delivered is a separate question. West takes them as parakatalogē. This is recitation to the pipe, “perhaps chanted”, at a marching double pace. Landels argues from loudness. A chorus of twelve or fifteen speaking against the pipe would not have been heard. So he agrees that they were chanted, on one note or a short repeating pattern.[2]
The scansion of 40–47 is ours, on West’s rules. Each metron, ⏔ — ⏔ —, is set out as a group, and word-end falls at the end of every metron. Watch the bicipitia: some are two shorts, ⏑ ⏑, others one long, —. Line 43 ends with a metron of four longs:
40 δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ’ ἐπεὶ Πριάμου
41 μέγας ἀντίδικος,
42 Μενέλαος ἄναξ ἠδ’ Ἀγαμέμνων,
43 διθρόνου Διόθεν καὶ δισκήπτρου
44 τιμῆς ὀχυρὸν ζεῦγος Ἀτρειδᾶν
45 στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην,
46 τῆσδ’ ἀπὸ χώρας
47 ἦραν, στρατιῶτιν ἀρωγὰν,
This is the tenth year since Priam’s great adversary at law, king Menelaus and Agamemnon, the firm-yoked pair of Atreus’ sons, honoured by Zeus with twin thrones and twin sceptres, launched from this land the thousand-ship armament of the Argives, a fighting force to aid their cause.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 40–47. Each group is one metron, ⏔ — ⏔ —. Red: the closing paroemiac, ⏔ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — —, with its word-end after the first short of the biceps (dashed bar).
synthetic ∿
| Line | Metra | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — | two uncontracted metra; the syllable -τος of ἔτος is closed before τ-, hence long[3] |
| 41 | ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — | monometer; -κος closed before Μ- |
| 42 | ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — | the ς of Μενέλαος goes with ἄναξ, so -ο- is short; second metron — ⏑ ⏑ — —, the normal resolved form (contracted biceps, resolved princeps) |
| 43 | ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ — — — — | δι- short before θρ, as tragedy allows;[4] the second metron has both bicipitia contracted |
| 44 | — — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — | -ρὸν closed before ζ-; Ἀ- of Ἀτρειδᾶν short before τρ |
| 45 | ⏑ ⏑ — — — ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — | the ν of στόλον goes with Ἀργείων |
| 46 | — ⏑ ⏑ — — | monometer |
| 47 | — — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ¦ ⏑ — — ‖ | the paroemiac ⏔ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — —;[5] word-end falls after the first short of the second biceps (στρατιῶτιν ¦ ἀρωγὰν) |
Every metron but the last before the catalexis ends with word-end. In 47, the last before the catalexis, word-end comes after the first short of the next biceps. The rule allows this.[6] Every resolution has the normal form — ⏑ ⏑ — —, never four shorts.[7]
Landels puts the same facts in a musician’s terms. An anapaest is a dactyl reversed. A spondee or a dactyl may stand in its place. The catalectic close loses the first, unstressed half of its last foot. He leaves open whether a dactyl in an anapaestic line shifted the beat, or was heard as a spondee with its second long resolved.[8]
West’s own specimen. West quotes the next run, 60–67, with his marks of word-division, and comments on four lines:[9]
οὕτω δ’ Ἀτρέως ¦ παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων ¦ (60)— — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — ¦ἐπ’ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ ¦ πέμπει ξένιος ¦⏑ ⏑ — — — ¦ — — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦Ζεὺς πολυάνορος ¦ ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς ¦— ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — ¦πολλὰ παλαίσματα ¦ καὶ γυιοβαρῆ ¦— ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ ¦ — — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦γόνατος κονίαισιν ¦ ἐρειδομένου ¦⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ¦ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦διακναιομένης τ’ ¦ ἐν προτελείοις ¦ (65)⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ¦ — ⏑ ⏑ — — ¦κάμακος θήσων ¦ Δαναοῖσι(ν) ‖⏑ ⏑ — — — ¦ ⏑ ⏑ — — ‖Τρωσί θ’ ὁμοίως. …— ⏑ ⏑ — —So the mightier one, Zeus guardian of guest-friendship, sends the sons of Atreus against Alexander, for the sake of a woman of many husbands, to lay on Danaans and Trojans alike many limb-wearying wrestlings, with knee pressed in the dust and spear-shaft shattered in the preliminary rites.
synthetic ∿
In 62 and 63 the second princeps is resolved as well as the first, — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑. This happens in Ζεὺς πολυάνορος (West marks the α long) and πολλὰ παλαίσματα. In 64 the caesura comes one short later than usual. Word-end falls after κονίαισιν, the first short of the next biceps. And 66 closes a period although the sense runs on without a pause.[10]
That is a period ending without catalexis. Elsewhere such a period-end comes at a sense-pause, especially in emotionally charged contexts. It never comes with a short open vowel in the last position.[11] Accordingly West prints Δαναοῖσιν, with a closing ν. Perseus (Smyth) prints Δαναοῖσι. The normal resolved form — ⏑ ⏑ — — appears in 60, 62, 65 and 67.
Notes
- ^ West 1987, p. 48.
- ^ West 1992, pp. 40, 135–137; Landels 1999, c. pp. 16–17.
- ^ West 1987, pp. 12–13.
- ^ West 1987, p. 16.
- ^ West 1987, p. 88.
- ^ West 1987, p. 48 with n. 3; Lourenço 2011, p. 46.
- ^ West 1987, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Landels 1999, c. pp. 117–118.
- ^ West 1987, pp. 48–49.
- ^ West 1987, p. 49.
- ^ West 1987, p. 48 n. 2.
