II. OF THE EQUAL KIND. Dactylic Rhythms. (1) Pythiambicum primum. Horace uses this distich consisting of an heroic hexameter and a dimet. iamb. acat., Epod. XIV. and XV, as XV. Nox erat et coelo fulgebat luna sereno Inter minora sidera, Cum tu, magnorum numen laesura deorum, Arctius atque hedera procera adstringitur ilex Dum pecori lupus et nautis infestus Orion Turbaret hibernum mare, Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos, Fore hunc amorem mutuum etc. The dimeter has a trisyllabic foot only once, XV. 24. The hexameter as the principal verse is followed by a trimet. dact. cat. in syllabam, as an epode. Horace has this metre, Carm. IV. 7. Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis Arboribusque comae : Mutat terra vices, et decrescentia ripas Flumina praetereunt; Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet Ducere nuda choros. Immortalia ne speres monet annus, et almum The epode consists of a dimet. iamb. acat. and a trimeter dactyl. cat. in syllab. Horace uses this distich Epod. XIII. Horrida tempestas coelum contraxit, et imbres Nivesque deducunt Jovem; nunc mare, nunc siluae Threicio Aquilone sonant; rapiamus amici Occasionem de die; dumque virent genua, Et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus. Tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo etc. The iambic series is connected in the asynartete way with the dactylic: hence in V. 8, 10, 14, the short also stands for the last long of the dimeter: Reducet in sedem vice, nunc et Achaemenio. Levare diris pectora solicitudinibus. Findunt Scamandri flumina, lubricus et Simois. The diaeresis after the iambic dimeter is always accurately observed. Pythiambicum secundum. The epode is a trimet. iamb. acat. measure Epod. XVI. Horace uses this Altera jam teritur bellis civilibus aetas, Suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit: Quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi, Aemula nec virtus Capuae, nec Spartacus acer, The iambic trimeter is preserved pure throughout, and a resolution is nowhere found. (5) Alcmanium. The epode is a tetramet. dact. cat. in disyllabum. Horace uses this measure Carm. I. 7 and 28, and Epod. XII. as Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon aut Mytilenen Aut Ephesum, bimarisve Corinthi Moenia, vel Baccho Thebas vel Apolline Delphos Insignes, aut Thessala Tempe; Sunt quibus unum opus est, intactae Palladis urbem Carmine perpetuo celebrare etc. In Epod. XII, the second dactyl in the tetrameter is three times contracted into a spondee, V. 8, 14, 22. Crescit odor, cum pene soluto. Inachia langues minus ac me. Cur properabantur? tibi nempe. In Carm. I. 28, the tetrameter has frequently spondees, not only in the second, but also in the first, and V. 2, even in the third foot. Mensorem cohibent, Archyta. In V. 24, the hiatus is found in the third arsis: Ossibus et capiti inhumato. The tetrameter has no fixed caesura; in Carm. I. 7, especially from V. 15, probably the beginning of a new ode, the caesura after the second arsis prevails. The epode of the elegiac distich is the pentameter elegiacus, so called. It originated in the heroic hexameter, inas much as the thesis of the third and sixth foot is occupied by a pause; hence the diaeresis after the third arsis is necessary. As it therefore consists of twice two and a half dactylic feet, it was called the pentameter. According to the erroneous opinion of some grammarians, it is so called because it is composed of two dactyls, a spondee and two anapaests. The diaeresis after the first trimeter is always strictly observed; only once in Callimachus it is neglected in a proper name: Ἱερὰ νῦν δὲ Διοσκουρίδεω γενεή. An elision does not remove the diaeresis, as Meleag. XII. 4. Τὸν τριπάνουργον Ἔρωτ ̓ ἔπλασεν ἐν κραδίᾳ. Catull. LXVIII. 82, 90. Quam veniens una atque altera rursus hiems. Troja virum et virtutum omnium acerba cinis. The Greeks allowed themselves, though but seldom, the hiatus in the diaeresis and the short for the long, as Theogn. 478, ed. Bekker, 992, 2. Οὔτε τι γὰρ νήφω οὔτε λίην μεθύω. Χαιρήσεις. δύναται ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἀνήρ. Λήσομαι ἀρχόμενος οὐδ ̓ ἀποπαυόμενος. Sappho: Ερμοκλείδαο τῶ Σαοναϊάδα. Many verses in which this occurs are, however, corrupt; comp. Friedemann de media syllaba pentametri Graeci. A verse in which every foot ends with a word, is bad, as Theogn. 456. Catull. LXXVI. 8. Οὕτως, ὥσπερ νῦν οὐδενὸς ἄξιος εἶ. Aut facere, haec a te dictaque factaque sunt. For the first two dactyls of the pentameter, spondees may also stand; the last two complete feet must always be dactyls, as Ovid. Amor. III. 15. v. 2. Raditur hic Elegis ultima meta meis. v. 4. Nec me deliciae dedecuere meae. v. 12. Moenia, quae campi jugera pauca tenent. It is considered more elegant if a spondee follows the dactyl, than the reverse. The Romans, especially Ovid and the other elegiac poets of the Augustan age and later, like best to close the pentameter with a word of two syllables, which however in Ovid seldom ends with a short vowel, as Heroid. III. 152. Pergama, materiam caedis ab hoste pete, but commonly with a long vowel or consonant. Tibullus and Propertius, and especially Catullus, are less careful in this. Words of three, four and five syllables are more rare in Ovid, as Pont. I. 8. 40. Quolibet ut saltem rure frui liceat. Trist. IV. 10. 2. Quem legis, ut noris, accipe, posteritas. Trist. IV. 5. 24. Indeclinatae munus amicitiae. The harshest is a word of three syllables coming at the end, because then the last arsis but one falls on the final syllable of a word, which is contrary to the Latin accentuation. Yet Catullus often closes the verse in this manner. The harshness is softened, when a monsyllable precedes the final word, as Catull. LXV. 8. Ereptum nostris obterit ex oculis. A monosyllable is not readily admitted in the middle or at the end of a pentameter, as Catull. CIII. 2. Ovid. Pont. I. 6. 26. Ambobus mihi quae carior est oculis. Omnis an in magnos culpa deos, scelus est. The monosyllabic word is less offensive, when another precedes it, as Ovid. Pont. I. 6. 46. Fast. VI. 550. Magna tamen spes est in bonitate dei. Nomina mutarunt, hic deus, illa dea est. It is usual to close a thought at the same time with the distich; several distichs, however, may form a period. Both half verses are usually closed with two words that belong together, as Ovid. Art. am. I. 13 sqq. Qui toties socios, totius exterruit hostes, The elegiac distich is by its nature excluded from the drama. Euripides uses it only once, Androm. 103-116, in a passage where the elegiac subject seems to require it. |