Lyric Stanzas

Monody is song for a single voice. It has its own stanza-forms, simpler and more regular than those of the choral poets. The subject here is the Lesbian poets, Sappho and Alcaeus.

Lesbian strophes. The verses are built from cola whose syllable-count is fixed. This tradition never resolves a long into two shorts, nor contracts two shorts into a long.^[1] This fixed count is called isosyllabism, and it is the chief peculiarity of the Aeolic metres.^[2] The one freedom is the aeolic base, the first two positions of some cola. In practice the first is more often long than short, and the Lesbian poets seldom make both short.^[3] Almost all Lesbian poetry is strophic, with two, three or four verses to the strophe. Where there are three or four, they are not all of one form.^[4] Such short strophes were repeated throughout a poem, and often reused from poem to poem.^[5] West’s example is Sappho fr. 94.6–8, where the third verse amplifies the first two. He calls this pattern aaA. The first two verses are glyconics, gl, × × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ —; the third, glᵈ, is a glyconic expanded by one dactyl:^[3]

The base of the first glyconic is — ⏑, and of the others — —. χαίροισ’ ἔρχεο is run together by elision. The same analysis can be written glyc ‖ glyc ‖ glyc da |||.^[6]

Sapphic and Alcaic. The two commonest strophe-forms have the same aaA pattern:^[4]

(⁝ reproduces West’s dotted bars; the small arcs he prints over some positions of the third periods are not reproduced.) West allows that the third Sapphic period could be labelled ∧ia hag ⁝ ad. But he warns that the label hides what matters: the period is the first two stretched out. For the third Alcaic period he gives no label at all, only the scheme, presented as the Alcaic parallel.^[4] These strophe-forms were used in many different poems, and the forms were probably bound to particular melodies.

West’s labels name the cola. ∧ia is an iambic metron without its first position, — ⏑ —; hag, the hagesichorean, is × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — —; pe, the penthemimer, is × — ⏑ — ×; dod, the dodrans, is — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ —; and ad, the adonean, is — ⏑ ⏑ — —.^[7]

Ancient copies split the third period of each over two written lines, at a frequent caesura. In the Sapphic this is after position 11, and in the Alcaic after position 9. Hence Horace treats them as four-line strophes, and editions still usually print them so.^[8] D’Angour presents them in that form, AAAB for the Sapphic and AABC for the Alcaic. He adds that the last two lines are joined so tightly that they run as one rhythmic unit, in synapheia.^[9] The four-line layout goes back to Hellenistic and imperial practice, and there is no metrical pause between the third and fourth lines.^[10] Here is a Sapphic strophe, the first of Sappho’s hymn to Aphrodite, set out by West’s cola:

And an Alcaic strophe by Alcaeus:

A strophe of one period. Now and then a whole strophe is a single compound period, as in Sappho fr. 96.12–14.^[11] This strophe reads as one verse, with all its lines in synapheia:^[6]

Words run over the line-ends (τεθά|λαισι, ἄν|θρυσκα), so there is no period-end until the close. West marks the α of ἐέρσᾱ, κάλᾱ and τεθᾱ́- long (the Lesbian long ᾱ). So the base of the first glyconic is — ⏑ (σᾱ κά-). And he divides δὲ β|ρόδα, so δέ is long before βρ.^[11]

Outside the strophe. Some of Sappho’s fragments are in hexameters on the Ionian model. They have features alien to normal Lesbian verse: contraction, correption and a short syllable before stop + liquid (fr. 105). One aeolic poem, fr. 44, is a narrative with a heroic setting. It admits the same abnormalities except contraction. Its metre is gl²ᵈ used stichically, line after line.^[11]

Notes

1. ^ West 1987, p. 32.
2. ^ Battezzato 2021, p. 121; cf. Battezzato 2009, p. 134.
3. ^ ^{a b} West 1987, p. 33.
4. ^ ^{a b c} West 1987, p. 34.
5. ^ Battezzato 2009, p. 132.
6. ^ ^{a b} Battezzato 2021, p. 128.
7. ^ West 1987, pp. 31, 33.
8. ^ West 1987, p. 35 with n. 1.
9. ^ D’Angour 2022, ch. 9, §’Archaic Lyric Meters’.
10. ^ Battezzato 2021, p. 127.
11. ^ ^{a b c} West 1987, p. 35.

Choral lyric of the Dorian tradition leans towards longer periods and longer, more intricate strophes, and treats the strophe itself differently. The Ionian and Lesbian strophe-forms were, at least some of the time, stock patterns used in more than one poem. A Dorian strophe, as far as we can tell, was devised afresh for each song. It was usually made out of familiar cola, but was free to introduce new ones.^[1] Archilochus, Sappho and Alcaeus often reused one strophe-type in different poems. Stesichorus, Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides built more complex structures, each used in one poem only.^[2]

The triad. The enlargement of structure becomes still more striking with Stesichorus’ and Ibycus’ use of the triadic system. Two responding strophes, strophe and antistrophe, are followed by a third of different metrical form, the epode (ἡ ἐπῳδός, hē epōidos; sc. στροφή, strophē). The poet could then repeat the whole set as often as he liked.^[3] Stesichorus and Ibycus (and, in an early form, Alcman) compose their choral odes in this AAB pattern.^[4] The pattern is thus AAB AAB AAB..., in contrast to the AAAA of monostrophic song and the AA BB CC of drama.^[5] The triad is the usual form in Simonides, Bacchylides and Pindar. One triad can make a whole poem. Pindar frequently runs to five, and goes beyond that only in the vast Pythian 4, with thirteen. Bacchylides reaches eight at least.^[6] Pindar’s range runs from a single triad (Pythian 7) to the thirteen of Pythian 4, and the typical ode has about four.^[7]

What the early strophes look like. A strophe of Alcman’s Louvre Partheneion (PMG 1.36–49) has fourteen verses. There are lekythia and hagesichoreans in alternation (lk ‖ hag ‖ four times), two trochaic trimeters, two trochaic dimeters, and a dactylic tetrameter joined to a dactylically expanded aristophanean (4da | arᵈ |||). Period-end is established by brevis in longo (36) or hiatus (38, 39, 45). Brevis in longo is a short syllable in a long position at the end of a period; hiatus is a vowel left unelided before a vowel.^[8] Once established in one strophe, it must be assumed at the corresponding places in all the others, and conversely.^[9]

Stesichorus’ “Thebaid” shows a true triad. West prints its strophe/antistrophe, built of D-cola, links, penthemimers and a closing ia pe. He prints its epode too, of D-cola, penthemimers and a trochaic dimeter with the heavy close — — — ⏑ — —.^[10] The strophe of the Geryoneis, by contrast, is wholly dactylic, ⏔ 3da∧ ‖ ⏔ 7da∧ ‖ ⏔ 5da∧ ‖ ⏔ 14da∧∧ |||. The blunt close of the strophe is set against the pendant endings before it.^[11] A blunt close ends on a long after a short, ⏑ —; a pendant close ends on an extra syllable after the last long, — ×.^[12] Ibycus PMG 286.1–6 appears to be a whole strophe. It has three ibyceans (dodᵈ, — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ —), each a period. Then comes a fourth period of three dactylic tetrameters and an arᵈ, which enlarges the pattern of the first three and ends pendant where they end blunt.^[13]

Variety within the triad. The three metrical categories of the classical choral poets, dactylo-epitrite, aeolic and iambic, each produce triads of a different texture.^[14] Pindar’s odes fall into the same three classes, with some overlap.^[7] D/e strophes can be analysed into D (— ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ —) and e (— ⏑ —) with little trouble, as Pythian 12 shows. The very simplest aeolic poems can be analysed at sight, like the first strophe of Nemean 4.^[15]

Most aeolic strophes are harder. The opening is usually easy to analyse. But once the poet has set out an opening motif, he tends to vary and elaborate it through the rest of the strophe or triad. This produces sequences which look bewildering in isolation, but are easily derived from what has gone before. Where a colon comes from matters more than what it is called.^[16] West’s example is lines 3–5 of the strophe of Nemean 6. There a resolved glyconic is followed by a colon that replaces its resolutions by — ⏑ and ⏑ —. Then comes a lekythion produced from the glyconic by reducing its two middle shorts to a single anceps, and then a further variation on gl.^[16] Snell, who first understood the principle, sets out Pindar’s schemes with related sequences in vertical alignment, and with bracketed symbols such as (gl) for mutant forms.^[17]

The iambic odes, Simonides PMG 541, Olympian 2, Pindar fr. 75 and Bacchylides 17, are almost wholly built of syncopated and unsyncopated iambic metra, that is, metra with and without a suppressed position. They have occasional dochmiac units and, at period-end, sometimes a trochaic metron.^[17] Maehler reads Bacchylides 17 as cretic instead (disputed).

Reading a triad. Because the triad is repeated, evidence for period-end anywhere in one strophe or epode is valid for the corresponding place in every other.^[9] In tragedy, by contrast, no strophe is heard more than twice, and the signs of period-end are only occasional.^[18] The same holds for the details of a line. Here is the first line of three stanzas of Bacchylides 3, from three different triads, each keeping the same resolution at the same place:

Notes

1. ^ West 1987, pp. 35–36.
2. ^ Battezzato 2009, p. 132.
3. ^ West 1987, p. 36.
4. ^ Battezzato 2009, p. 132; Krummen 2009, p. 189.
5. ^ West 1987, p. 50.
6. ^ West 1987, p. 42.
7. ^ ^{a b} Brown 2022, p. 337.
8. ^ West 1987, pp. 4, 15.
9. ^ ^{a b} West 1987, pp. 36–37.
10. ^ West 1987, p. 37.
11. ^ West 1987, p. 38.
12. ^ West 1987, p. 6.
13. ^ West 1987, pp. 38–39.
14. ^ West 1987, p. 43.
15. ^ West 1987, pp. 43, 45.
16. ^ ^{a b} West 1987, p. 45.
17. ^ ^{a b} West 1987, p. 46.
18. ^ West 1987, pp. 51–52; Battezzato 2005, p. 151.

The plainest way to see what a triad is, is to scan a whole one. Bacchylides’ second ode, for Argeius of Ceos, is a complete poem in a single triad of fourteen short lines. It has a strophe, an antistrophe in the same metre, and an epode in a different one.^[1] A poem may consist of one triad, while Bacchylides elsewhere runs to at least eight.^[2] The ode is the smaller of two Bacchylides wrote for the same Isthmian victory. The larger, Ode 1, is in dactylo-epitrite. This one is in what Hendry calls iambic metre with priapean clausulae.^[3]

Strophe (1–5)

Epode (11–14)

The labels are Maehler’s, from the scheme Hendry reproduces (Hendry 1994, part 1).

Step by step

1. Syllables and quantities. Carry consonants over to the next vowel, and count closed syllables long.^[4] ἄϊξεν has ϊ long before ξ. σεμ- is closed. φέρουσ’ ἀγ-γε- gives a long σἀγ-. The Doric colouring of Bacchylides is chiefly a long α where Ionic has η, though the scribes often write η instead, as in φήμα.^[5] Here the article ἁ, the final -α of Φήμα, νίκᾱν and Πανθείδᾱ are all long. In 4 ὅτι μά- is three shorts. This is the base of the glyconic with its first position resolved, the resolved form ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ that West describes as normal for a two-position base in tragic aeolic.^[6] ἱεράν (hieran) in 2 must be sung as two syllables (ἱε- by synizesis, two vowels sung as one syllable) if it is to answer 7 exactly, as Maehler assumes. Hendry notes that the word has three syllables elsewhere in Bacchylides. One then has to choose between synizesis and an imperfect responsion.^[7]

2. The cola. There are three kinds, all in Maehler’s list. They are the iambic metron ⏑ — ⏑ — and the baccheus ⏑ — —, the choriamb — ⏑ ⏑ —, and two aeolic cola, the glyconic and the pherecratean.^[8] A glyconic followed by a pherecratean is the priapean.^[9] In both strophe and epode it closes the stanza: the “priapean clausula” of Hendry’s description.

3. Periods. Maehler marks only one period-end inside the strophe, after the first line (Hendry 1994, part 1). The text shows why. After 1 there is hiatus, Φήμα | ἐς, and in the antistrophe hiatus again at the same place, κλεεννῷ | αὐχένι. Hiatus is one of the signs of period-end, and what one strophe shows holds for the corresponding place in the others.^[10] Elsewhere words run across the line-ends, in one stanza or the other, at every junction from 2 to 5: χαριτώ-|νυμον, νᾶ-|σον, Ἀρ-|γεῖος and ἑβδομή-|κοντα. A period cannot end inside a word.^[11] So lines 2–5 are a single period, written on four lines. Within the verse, as in Homer, a lost digamma is assumed where it removes a hiatus. Hiatus is admitted only sometimes, before names.^[12] Jebb’s text prints a digamma in ϝισθμοῦ (7), so that αὐχένι does not stand in hiatus. Maehler does not discuss this word.

Strophe, antistrophe, epode

The antistrophe repeats the strophe syllable for syllable, even the resolved base of 4 (σον ἐπε-, 9). The epode is a different stanza built from the same material. It drops the opening ia cho ba ‖ and the double choriamb, keeps ia cho twice, and ends with the same priapean. Its glyconic now has an unresolved base ⏑ —. This is West’s point about the choral poets. The poet sets out an opening motif and then varies it through the strophe or triad, so that where a colon comes from matters more than its name.^[13]

What makes this a triad

The pattern is AAB: two stanzas that answer each other exactly, then a third that answers neither but is made of their cola. In a longer ode the whole set would then repeat.^[1] Hendry reads the same syllables differently. He hears single iambs and trochees in simple triple time, with a rest at each period-end, the rhythm shifting only in the last four feet, under the victor’s patronymic Πανθείδα φίλον υἱόν (Hendry 1994, part 1). The two analyses describe the same scansion. They differ in what the listener is supposed to hear.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} West 1987, p. 36.
2. ^ West 1987, p. 42.
3. ^ Hendry 1994, introduction.
4. ^ West 1987, p. 12.
5. ^ Maehler 2004, p. 11.
6. ^ West 1987, p. 58.
7. ^ Hendry 1994, n. 8.
8. ^ Maehler 2004, p. 16; West 1987, p. 33.
9. ^ West 1987, p. 77.
10. ^ West 1987, pp. 36–37.
11. ^ West 1987, pp. 3–4.
12. ^ Maehler 2004, p. 13.
13. ^ West 1987, p. 45.

Anacreon of Teos was an Ionian. But his rhythms range far more widely than anything we have from the Ionian poets before him, with aeolic cola and ionics to the fore.^[1] His surviving lyric is composed mainly in anacreontic-ionic, iambo-trochaic and aeolo-choriambic metre.^[2] His stanzas are short, like the Lesbians’, and built from a few cola.

Aeolic stanzas. PMG 358.1–4 is three glyconics and a pherecratean (so also Cingano 2022, p. 300, and Budelmann 2009, p. 231, who notes that Anacreon’s strophes are only four lines long).^[1] The Greek follows Smyth’s text, with iota adscript:

Word-division sets the four cola clearly apart, yet they run on in synapheia. And the freedom of the aeolic base is limited. At least one of its two syllables must be long, and normally both are, as in every line of this stanza.^[1] West marks the ι of νήνῑ long.

The anaclastic glyconic ¨gl, — ⏑ ⏑ — × — ⏑ —, is used with its catalectic, the aristophanean (PMG 385–6), and with the ithyphallic (387). With choriambic expansion it gives iambo-choriambic verses. Used interchangeably and joined by an iambic dimeter, these form the strophe of 388. Where the plain glyconic opens with its two-position base, × × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ —, the anaclastic glyconic opens with the choriamb, — ⏑ ⏑ — × — ⏑ —. In 388.8 it is joined to an iambic dimeter:

In 378 the catalectic form appears with its initial position resolved (⏑ ⏑ ⏑ — …), and the resolution continues through the whole song as a deliberate ornament. With one doubtful case in Ibycus, this is the first known resolution in the sequence — ⏑ ⏑.^[3]

Ionics. Anacreon’s ionics are for the most part anaclastic, the anacreontic ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ⏑ — — (2io÷), which usually comes in pairs bound by synapheia, as in PMG 395.1–6:^[4]

West marks γηραλέοι with -έοι as one syllable (synecphonesis). The straight ionic dimeter in the penultimate colon, ⏑ ⏑ — — ⏑ ⏑ — —, makes the shape of the strophe clearer. The second strophe of the song repeats the pattern exactly.^[4] This is a characteristic metrical habit of Anacreon’s: a run of anacreontics with a plain ionic dimeter as its last line but one.^[5] Anacreon also has ionic trimeters, already used by Sappho, and a lengthened variant.^[4]

Dovetailing. A curious relationship between ionic and aeolic appears in PMG 346 fr. 1. Divided as two anaclastic glyconics and a choriambically expanded aristophanean (¨gl ¨gl arᶜ), it would be straightforward aeolic. In fact the cola are dovetailed. Word-end comes systematically one position later than expected, so that the whole reads as ionic. Some of the Athenian skolia dovetail too, and many of them shared their tunes. Skolia 898–901 share one two-verse form. A dozen others share one four-verse form, whose third verse fits none of the standard names.^[6]

The Anacreontea. Much later the Carmina Anacreontea, composed between the late Hellenistic age and the fifth century AD, kept short stanzas alive. Many use the hemiambic, basically a catalectic iambic dimeter × — ⏑ — ⏑ — — ‖, sometimes grouped in four-line stanzas.^[7] Others use the anacreontic itself, a few of them in stanzas of three, four or five lines.^[8] Most of their metres are related to these two ‘Anacreontic’ verses, the catalectic iambic dimeter and the anaclastic ionic dimeter.^[9] Anacreon himself has the first of them, in a couplet Hephaestion quotes:

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} West 1987, p. 40.
2. ^ Cingano 2022, p. 298.
3. ^ West 1987, pp. 40–41.
4. ^ ^{a b c} West 1987, p. 41.
5. ^ D’Angour 2022, ch. 9, §’Archaic Lyric Meters’.
6. ^ West 1987, pp. 41–42.
7. ^ West 1987, p. 71.
8. ^ West 1987, p. 74.
9. ^ Budelmann 2009, p. 238.