Later and Hellenistic metres

Once the lyric metres of drama and of Pindar are understood, the metre of the next thousand years is, by comparison, easy to follow. New metres are rare, and the few that arise fit readily into the old categories. The overall trend is towards a simpler, narrower range. Some forms become stereotyped. Others, such as dactylic lyric and dochmiac, fall into disuse. And more and more of poetry is written in three stichic metres: the hexameter, the elegiac couplet and, less often, the iambic trimeter.^[1] What remained of lyric is the subject here. The next treats the stichic metres.

Book lyric. Hellenistic poets writing for the book, especially in the third century, tried out many verse-forms taken from archaic monody. For the most part they were not trying to imitate song, strophic or astrophic. They wanted to enlarge the stock of stichic and distichic metres that written poetry could use.^[2] Learned Hellenistic poets did not reproduce the old strophic structures, but reused lyric metres line by line or in epodic pairs.^[3] Sometimes the metre reflects an avowed model. Theocritus in poems 28–31 uses the Lesbian metres gl²ᶜ and gl²ᵈ for poems in Lesbian dialect (so too Barbantani 2009, p. 307, on Aeolic metre and dialect in Id. 28–31). From 29.39 onwards he even affects the old double-short form of the aeolic base, generally abandoned since the fifth century.^[2] Here is the opening of 28, the poem on the distaff:

Each line is gl²ᶜ, a glyconic with two added choriambs. Where a verse is expanded with choriambs, word-end often falls between them.^[4] Here it falls after the second choriamb in every line (¦), and after the first only in line 1. The scansion follows West’s quantity marks: φιλέρῑθ’, ᾱ̓λακάτᾱ, ἐπᾱ́βολος, Κύπ|ριδος, and ᾱ̓πάλω in line 4, where West prints ὄππᾱ … ὑπ’ ἀπάλω for Perseus’ ὅπᾳ … ὑπαπάλω.^[2]

Callimachus’ Iamboi take over metres of the early iambographers, such as the choliambic and the catalectic trochaic trimeter. They add two epodic pairings of his own.^[2] In using lyric metres stichically or in epodes, Callimachus brought lyric close to iambus, where stichic metres such as Hipponax’s choliamb were at home.^[5] Quite a range of aeolic and iambic verses was used stichically. Some of them were novel, like the catalectic iambic octameter of Boiscus (SH 233, as West prints it):^[2]

Βοΐσκος ἀπὸ Κυζικοῦ, καινοῦ γραφεὺς ποιήματος,
τὸν ὀκτάπουν εὑρὼν στίχον Φοίβωι τίθησι δῶρον.
(second line) ⏑ — ⏑ — — — ⏑ — — — ⏑ — ⏑ — — (ia ia ia ia∧)
Boiscus of Cyzicus, writer of a new poem, having invented the eight-foot line, gives it to Phoebus as a gift.

The verse has 31 syllables: eight iambic metra less one position, with the catalectic last metron ⏑ — — that West describes for catalectic iambic verses.^[6] The second line scans without difficulty as three iambic metra and the catalectic close. In the first half West marks the α of ἀπό long, filling the fourth position. The quantity of the υ of Κυζικοῦ, which stands in the sixth (long) position, is not marked. So the first half is not scanned here. Boiscus’ evident pride in having invented the line shows how these poets regarded their work.^[2] Few of these metres lasted. Two that continued into the Roman period were the phalaecian, gl ia∧, the metre of Catullus’ hendecasyllables, and the priapean, gl ¦ ph.^[7] The phalaecian runs — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ⏑ — —: a glyconic followed by a catalectic iambic metron.

Song that survived. Beside the book-poets, real singing went on in cult and at parties. Its metres are those of the archaic repertory, simplified:^[8]

Two ionic schemes. Here are West’s schemes of the two ionic verses of low and cultic song.^[9] The sotadean is named after Sotades (early third century BC). It is a catalectic ionic tetrameter whose metra are broken up into many shapes. It takes one form from each column and ends — — ‖ (⏕ a long or two shorts; ⏔ two shorts or a long; ⏒ usually short, sometimes long):^[10]

The galliambic, the metre especially of Cybele’s cult (Catullus 63 is in it), combines a dimeter with a catalectic dimeter: ⏔ — ⏕ ⏑ ⏑ — — | ⏑ ⏑ — ⏕ ⏑ ⏑ — ‖.^[9]

Two features of this later song deserve notice. First, synapheia weakens. Synesius’ monometers may each end with hiatus or brevis in longo. The hymns of the Empire lean towards short metrical units that stand on their own, without synapheia.^[11] Second, the accent begins to count. In the later Anacreontea the line avoids ending with a proparoxytone word, and paroxytones are most favoured. Byzantine anacreontics clearly favour an accented syllable in position four and, still more, in position seven.^[12] West contrasts the “Protean” sotadean with Corinna’s unvarying ionic dimeters.^[9] The contrast is a reminder that strictness and freedom coexisted throughout the period.

For the metrician, what matters in the later centuries is the technical polish of their best poets.^[1] From the early third century BC many poets strove for greater smoothness. They avoided unusual rhythms and too many short words, and restricted licences such as hiatus. In many ways Callimachus marks the high point of this refinement.^[2]

The Callimachean hexameter. It has three main features:^[2]

1. A high proportion of feminine caesurae. Every line has its caesura in the third foot.
2. Sense-pauses kept, as a rule, to a few places: after the first foot, after the second princeps, at the masculine and feminine caesurae, after the fourth-foot dactyl and at line-end.
3. A higher proportion of dactylic (uncontracted) feet than in Homer, especially in the fourth foot. Word-end after a dactylic fourth foot is called the bucolic caesura. It is already quite frequent in Homer (47% of lines), and rises to 63% in Callimachus and 74% in Theocritus’ bucolic poems.

The opening of the Hymn to Zeus shows all three:

Every line has the feminine caesura, and lines 2–5 the bucolic. Line 5 is a σπονδειάζων. This is the type affected by some Alexandrian poets, in which the fourth-foot dactyl is followed by a tetrasyllabic word scanning — — — ×.^[2]

Callimachus avoids several rhythms.^[3] He avoids offences against Hermann’s Bridge (word-end between the shorts of the fourth biceps). He avoids word-end after a contracted fourth biceps, Naeke’s Law, as in Homer’s οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί’ Ἀχαιοῖς | ἄλγε’ ἔθηκεν. He avoids word-end between the shorts of the second foot, or at its end, when there is none at the end of the first foot, which μῆνιν ἄειδε | θεά would break. He avoids word-end after the fifth princeps, except when the word scans ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ —. And he avoids a spondaic word (contracted third biceps and fourth princeps) ending in the fourth princeps, unless bucolic caesura follows. Elision of nouns, adjectives and verbs is restricted: one instance in the first hundred lines of Hymn 3, against nineteen in Iliad 1.1–100.^[4] The two bridges hold for the Hymns (except the fifth) and the Hecale. There Hermann’s Bridge is always kept, and no word ends after a contracted fourth biceps. No word ends after a contracted second biceps either (Hilberg’s Law). Callimachus’ practice differs in the fifth Hymn, the Aetia, the elegies and the epigrams.^[5]

The elegiac couplet. Epigram is normally in elegiacs, and up to the first century AD longer poems often use them too. Hellenistic versification is stricter here than in hexameter poets. Hiatus is restricted, and correption used less. The word before the feminine caesura normally ends — ⏑ by nature. After the late third century BC the syllable at the pentameter’s caesura tends to be long by nature rather than by position. And more and more the pentameter is kept from ending on an accented syllable.^[6] The same trend runs away from oxytone and perispomenon endings towards paroxytones.^[7] After about AD 50 standards grow laxer, with hiatus or brevis in longo at the pentameter caesura in the third and fourth centuries. The sixth-century poets of Agathias’ Cycle return to a stricter technique.^[8]

The trimeter. The trochaic tetrameter survives only in gnomic verse, mainly in the manner of Epicharmus. The iambic trimeter remains in regular use, and from the fourth century AD also for hymns, encomia and narrative.^[9] Hellenistic tragedy, epigram and Lycophron’s Alexandra treat it strictly, with only occasional resolution. A short final syllable lengthened by initial stop + liquid in the Gyges drama papyrus is one reason for thinking it post-classical.^[9] The trimeter in general use in late antiquity is basically the comic kind, and the distinction was no longer well understood. Lucian’s Podagra and the makeshift ending of Iphigenia in Aulis admit anapaests and breaches of Porson’s Law (on the IA ending).^[10]

The choliambic. Hipponax’s “limping” trimeter has a long penultimate position. It came back in the late fourth century BC for poems meant to continue the spirit of Ionian iambus: Callimachus’ Iambi 1–4 and 13, and Herondas. A pure iambic close no longer occurs, except perhaps once in Phoenix of Colophon. The ischiorrhogic (“broken-hipped”) close — — — — ‖ has a long fourth syllable from the end. It comes about once in 24 lines in Herondas, and never in Callimachus, who also shuns anapaestic feet and resolves sparingly.^[11] The three Hellenistic choliambists are Callimachus, Herodas and Phoenix.^[12]

Babrius wrote his Aesopic fables in the metre in the first century AD. He lets anapaests stand freely in the first foot but seldom elsewhere, and has no ischiorrhogics. He always accents the penultimate syllable, which usually has a long vowel or diphthong, as the final syllable nearly always does. By his standards Hipponax’s ischiorrhogic line πάλαι γὰρ αὐτοὺς προσδέκονται χάσκοντες (fr. 9.1) fails four times over: the ischiorrhogic close, the proparoxytone ending, and short vowels in both of the last two syllables.^[13] The figures confirm Babrius’ practice. A long vowel stands in the penultimate syllable of 92.55% of his lines, and in the final syllable of 97.33%. His endings are paroxytone almost without exception.^[14]

Here is the opening of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, written in the fifth century AD. It is scanned line by line, and then checked against the rules of the strictest hexameter ever written. The method is the one for any hexameter: divide into syllables, mark the quantities, find the six feet and the caesura. What makes Nonnus’ line “later” is not the scheme, which is Homer’s, but the list of things he will not do. The passage is the first five lines of the 33 scanned on the Nonnus page.

Step by step

1. Syllables and quantities. Syllables run across word-ends. So the ν of διάκτορον and the ς of αἴθοπος begin the next syllables, and a short open syllable stays short.^[1] Inside a word a stop + liquid makes position, as normally in epic:^[2] φύτ|λην (3), ὑγ|ρὸν (4). In 2 μογοστόκον has -γοσ- closed by στ. In 5 the diphthongs of ἀμαιεύτοιο give three longs in a row.

2. The feet. Lines 1 and 3 are five dactyls and a final — —. Line 2 contracts the second biceps (-ῳ σπιν-, a spondee), line 4 the first (Βάκχου), and line 5 the fourth (-μαι-εύ-, inside ἀμαιεύτοιο). Twenty-two of the twenty-five biceps positions in these five lines are uncontracted. Two of the five lines have no spondee before the sixth foot. Alexandrian and later poets favour dactylic feet more than Homer does.^[3]

3. Caesura and diaeresis. Every line has its caesura in the third foot.^[4] It is feminine (after the third trochee) in 1, 2, 4 and 5, and masculine (after the third princeps, Σεμέλης) in 3. Lines 1–4 also have word-end after a dactylic fourth foot. This is the bucolic caesura, which rises from 47% of lines in Homer to 63% in Callimachus.^[3] In 4 τὸν ἐκ πυρὸς is one word-group, since prepositives count with what follows.^[5]

The rules, checked

Nonnus keeps the Callimachean restrictions and adds his own, not all without exception.^[6] The Dionysiaca, about 25,000 lines, stands beside Callimachus’ Hymns and Hecale as the strict form of the line.^[7] In these five lines:

Two of the habits are tendencies, not rules. When Nonnus contracts a biceps he leans towards an accented long syllable.^[8] In these lines only -εύ- of ἀμαιεύτοιο (5) carries the accent. σπιν- and -χου do not. The Nonnus page counts 18 of 30 contracted bicipitia accented over all 33 lines of the proem. And words that end — ⏑, such as πολλά or ἄλλος, are hardly ever placed so that a consonant lengthens their final syllable.^[6] In these lines no final syllable is lengthened by position at all, except the closed monosyllable ἐκ before πυρὸς.

What makes this hexameter late

The scheme and the prosody are Homer’s. What has changed is the weight of the restrictions. Homer breaks Hermann’s Bridge about once in 550 lines.^[5] Maas counts about one word-end after the fourth trochee in 390 lines.^[9] Nonnus keeps the bridge always.^[10] Homer elides nouns, adjectives and verbs nineteen times in Iliad 1.1–100, and Callimachus once in the first hundred lines of his third Hymn.^[6] Nonnus elides only words that do not inflect. And the rules about accent at the caesura and at line-end show the language changing underneath the verse. The pitch accent had been acquiring an element of stress since the Hellenistic period.^[11] Words like ἄλλος had lost the length of their last syllable in speech.^[8]