The acatalectic tetrameter is employed by the dramatists as a lyric verse without a fixed caesura or diaeresis, often with many resolutions and lightly constructed, as Aesch. Suppl. 811. Λύσιμα, μάχιμα δ ̓ ἔπιδε, πάτερ, βίαια μὴ φιλεῖς ὁρῶν. Soph. Oed. Col. 1076. Τὰν δεινὰ τλᾶσαν, δεινὰ δ ̓ εὑροῦσαν πρὸς αὐθαίμων πάθη. The Dorian lyric poets have it more rarely, as Pind. Olymp. XI. 3. Εμᾶς γέγραπται. Γλυκὺ γὰρ αὐτῷ μέλος ὀφείλων ἐπιλέλαθ'. ὦ Μοῖσ', ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ θυγάτηρ. The Aeolian lyric poets perhaps more frequently, as Alcaeus in Hephaestion: Δέξαι με κωμάζοντα, δέξαι, λίσσομαί σε, λίσσομαι. The Romans use it by the line, in the dialogue of the drama; versus Boiscius or octonarius. As in the catalectic tetrameter, so called, the fourth dipody never admits the middle time, the verse is rather composed of an iambic dimeter and an iamb. tetrap. cat. Thus the Greek and Roman comic writers often use it by the line; Versus Septenarius or quadratus. Sometimes also it occurs singly as a lyric verse, as Soph. Electr. 1420. Πολύρρυτον γὰρ αἷμ' ὑπεξαιροῦσι τῶν κτανόντων. Longer combinations of the dipody are to be regarded as iambic systems. (3) The Tripody.—Tripodia iambica. The former serves sometimes in the lyric poets as the close of a rhythmical mass, as Pind. Οlymp. IV. Epod. 10. Ἐοικότα χρόνον, but also occurs elsewhere singly, as Soph. Εlectr. 479. Υπεστί μοι θράσος, or connected with other rhythms, as Pind. Olymp. XIV. 10. Ἔργων ἐν οὐρανῷ, χρυσότοξον θέμεναι παρά. It is found as a close after a catalectic trochaic tetrameter in Aristophanes, as Vesp. 339, 370. Τίνα πρόφασιν ἔχων. Ἀλλ ̓ ἔπαγε τὴν γνάθον. The catalectic tripody is the Monom. troch. cum anacrusi (4) The Tetrapody.-Tetrapodia iambica. Both are frequent in the lyric poets and dramatists, sometimes singly, as Pind. Olymp. IV. Epod. 3. Ἔλυσεν ἐξ ἀτιμίας, Aesch. Agam. 120. Βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων, Soph. Αj. 376. Ἐρεμνὸν αἷμ' ἔδευσα, sometimes in connection with other rhythms, as Aesch. Agam. 1156. Εὐάρματος Ἱέρων ἐν ᾧ κρατέων. (5) The Pentapody.-Pentapodia iambica. Both rather infrequent. For an example of the acatalectic, take Pratinas in Athen. XIV. p. 617. C. Ὁ δ ̓ αὐτὸς ὕστερον χορευέτω, of the catalectic Soph. Philoct. 1095. 215. Σύ του σύ τοι κατηξίωσας. Aesch. Sept. c. Th. Πόλεος ἵν ̓ ὑπερέχοιεν ἀλκάν. (6) The Hexapody.-Hexapodia iambica. The former is not distinguished from the lightly constructed iambic trimeter, hence it is often doubtful whether such verses are to be measured by feet or dipodies. Pind. Olymp. I. 8, is to be taken as a hexapody, not as a trimeter : Ὅθεν ὁ πολύφατος ὕμνος ἀμφιβάλλεται. The catalectic hexapody is only distinguished from what is called the catalectic trimeter, by the circumstance that the third thesis can never assume the middle time: where this distinguishing mark is wanting, therefore, it remains in most cases doubtful how the verse is to be taken. CHAPTER II. RHYTHMS, THe ground fOOT OF WHICH IS FOUR-TIMED. THE EQUAL OR DACTYLIC-ANAPAESTIC KIND. A. Falling, Dactylic Rhythms. (a) Rational Dactyls. The ground foot of the dactylic rhythm is four-timed and descending; the principal arsis rests upon the first two shorts which for reasons stated above (P. I. ch. 5. p. 20) appear almost always contracted, except perhaps in lyric poets in proper names, as Pind. Isthm. III. 63. Ἔρνεϊ Τελεσιάδα. τόλμα γὰρ εἰκώς, comp. also Nem. VII. 70, and in dramatists in other cases also, although rarely, as Soph. Ant. 797. Νύμφας, τῶν μεγάλων πάρεδρος ἐν ἀρχαῖς. The shorts in the thesis occur either resolved, or contracted -- (spondee). The resolution of the thesis renders the rhythm more rapid, the contraction slower and more solemn. The Dorian lyric poets usually contract the thesis in proper names only, as Pind. Olymp. XI. 99. The Aeolian lyric, the epic and dramatic. poets admit the spondee also in other cases. The character of the dactylic rhythm is quiet and dignified in consequence of the relation of equality between the intensity and extension (P. I. ch. 3. p. 11). The dactyl is, by its gentler fall, distinguished from the anapaest which, on the contrary, rises forcibly. The dactylic rhythm delights, according to P. I. ch. 11. p. 39, in foot and principal caesuras; even diaereses are, in certain verses, not rare. The caesura is of a double kind, either after the long, the masculine, or after the first short, the feminine, xarà tòv rooxaĩov. The acatalexis is rare on account of the want of a close. The last short of an acatalectic dactyl may by a peculiar license be changed into a long (P. I. ch. 4. p. 19). The catalexis is either in disyllabum, terminating in thesi, or in syllabam, terminating in arsi. The lyric poets often prefix to dactylic rhythms the anacrusis, the trochaic or iambic basis. In the thesis it is allowed to shorten a long by the hiatus. The Roman poets, however, make very sparing use of this liberty, as Virg. Georg. I. 281. Aen. III. 211. Eclog. VIII. 108. Hor. Sat. I. 9. 38. Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam. The dactylic arsis, especially in the principal caesuras, has the power of lengthening a short syllable, and excusing an hiatus, as Hom. II. I. 19. 24. Ἐκπέρσαι Πριάμοιο πόλιν, εὖ δ ̓ οἴκαδ ̓ ἱκέσθαι. Ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ Ατρείδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἥνδανε θυμῷ. The lengthening by the arsis is in the lyric and dramatic poets very rare, as Soph. Ant. 134. པ་ Αντίτυπα δ ̓ ἐπὶ γῇ πέσε τανταλωθείς. Pind. Olymp. VI. 103. Δέσποτα ποντόμεδον, εὐθὺν δὲ πλόον καμάτων, comp. also Pyth. IX. 114. The Latin poets, too, sometimes, though more rarely than the Greek, used in the arsis a short as if it were long, as Virg. Ecl. X. 69. Aen. V. 521. IV. 64. Omnia vincit A mor et nos cedamus Amori. Ostentans artemque pater arcumque sonantem. and allowed the hiatus in the arsis, as Virg. Ecl. II. 24. Aen. IV. 667. Ecl. III. 6. Amphion Dircaeus in Actaeo Aracyntho. |