Archilochian or archilochean is a term used to describe several metres of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The name is derived from Archilochus, whose poetry first uses the rhythms.

In Greek verse

In the analysis of Archaic and Classical Greek poetry, archilochian usually describes the length x – u u – u u – x – u – u – –[1] (where "–" indicates a longum, "u" a breve, and "x" an anceps syllable). The alternative name erasmonideus[2] comes from Archilochus' fr. 168 West:

Ἐρασμονίδη Χαρίλαε, | χρῆμά τοι γελοῖον
ἐρέω, πολὺ φίλταθ᾽ ἑταίρων, | τέρψεαι δ᾽ ἀκούων.

As indicated, a caesura is observed before the ithyphallic (– u – u – –) ending of the verse. (Because of this, the name erasmonideus has sometimes been used to refer only to the colon x – u u – u u – x preceding the ithyphallic.[3])

The verse is also used stichically in Old Comedy, for example in Aristophanes, Wasps 1518-1537 (with irregular responsion[4]) and in Cratinus fr. 360 Kassel-Austin, where, as Hephaestion notes,[5] no caesura is observed before the ithyphallic ending:

Χαῖρ᾽, ὦ μέγ᾽ ἀχρειόγελως ὅμιλε, ταῖς ἐπίβδαις,
τῆς ἡμετέρας σοφίας κριτὴς ἄριστε πάντων,
εὐδαίμον᾽ ἔτικτέ σε μήτηρ ἰκρίων ψόφησις.

The verse also occurs in the choral lyric of tragedy and comedy, with the same caesura as in the example from Archilochus, as a rule.[6]

Trichas used the name archilocheion for the trochaic trimeter catalectic, – u – x  – u – x  – u –, seen in Archilochus, fr. 197 West, and used stichically by Callimachus (fr. 202 Pfeiffer).[7]

In Latin verse

In Latin poetry, the term "archilochian"[8] or "archilochean"[9] is used to refer to a number of different metres, called the "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th archilochian". However, different authors disagree on the numbering. The description below follows Rudd (2004) and Raven (1965).

1st archilochian stanza

(= Nisbet & Hubbard's 2nd Archilochian)

This consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic hemiepes:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x
– u u – u u x

An example is Horace, Odes 4.7:

diffūgēre nivēs, redeunt iam grāmina campīs
arboribusque comae
'The snows have fled away, and grass is now returning to the plains
and leaves to the trees'

2nd archilochian stanza

A dactylic hexameter, followed by an iambic dimeter + dactylic hemiepes:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x
x – u – x – u x | – u u – u u x

An example is Horace, Epodes 13:

horrida tempestās caelum contraxit et imbrēs
nivēsque dēdūcunt Iovem; nunc mare nunc siluae
'A dreadful storm has contracted the sky, and rain showers
and snows are drawing down Jupiter; now the sea, now the forests...'

3rd archilochian stanza

An iambic trimeter, followed by a dactylic hemiepes + an iambic dimeter (the second line is known as an 'elegiambus'):

x – u – x – u – x – u x
– u u – u u x | x – u – x – u x

This is found in Horace, Epodes 11:

Pettī, nihil mē sīcut anteā iuvat
scrībere versiculōs amōre percussum gravī
'Pettius, it does not please me at all as in the past
to write little verses smitten by a serious love'

4th archilochian stanza

(= Nisbet & Hubbard's 3rd archilochian)

A dactylic tetrameter + ithyphallic (3 trochees), followed by an iambic tetrameter catalectic:

– u u – u u – u u – u u | – u – u – x
x – u – x | – u – u – x

(The first of these lines is known as the "greater archilochian".)

An example is Horace, Odes 1.4:

Solvitur ācris hiēms grātā vice | vēris et Favōnī
    trahuntque siccās | māchinae carīnās,
ac neque iam stabulīs gaudet pecus | aut arātor ignī
    nec prāta cānīs | albicant pruīnīs.[10]
'Harsh winter is loosened with a welcome change of spring and the West Wind;
    and machines drag the dry keels (to the shore);
the cattle no longer rejoice in their stable or the ploughman in his fire;
    nor are the meadows white with hoar frost.'

The metre's name reflects the precedent in Archilochus (for example, fr. 188 West).

The name archilochian is also applied to similar combinations of dactylic and trochaic rhythms elsewhere in Horace (Epodes 15, 16, cf. Archilochus fr. 193 West; Epode 11, cf. Archilochus fr. 196 West).[11]

The minor archilochian is equivalent to the hemiepes.

The name 1st Archilochian is sometimes applied to the Alcmanian (or Alcmanic) strophe, consisting of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic tetrameter.[12]

Bibliography

  • Nisbet, R. G. M.; Hubbard, M. (1970). A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1. Oxford.
  • Raven, D. S. (1962), Greek Metre. Faber & Faber.
  • Raven, D. S. (1965). Latin Metre. Faber & Faber.
  • Rudd, N. (2004). Horace Odes and Epodes. Loeb Classical Library 33, pp. 14–15.
  • West, M. L. (1982). Greek Metre. Oxford.
  • West, M. L. (1987). An Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford.

Notes

  1. ↑ L.P.E. Parker, The Songs of Aristophanes, Oxford, 1997, p. xvii
  2. ↑ Bruno Snell, Griechische Metrik, 4th ed., Göttingen, 1982, pp. 41f. n. 11; C.M.J. Sicking, Griechische Verslehre, Munich, 1993, p. 128 (here and in the index ×× is misprinted for × at the beginning of the verse)
  3. ↑ Peter Kruschwitz, " Die antiken Quellen zum Saturnischen Vers," Mnemosyne 55 (2002), p. 478
  4. ↑ Sicking, Griechische Verslehre, p. 185; Parker, The Songs of Aristophanes, pp. 258-261
  5. ↑ J. M. van Ophuijsen, Hephaestion on Metre, Leiden, 1987, pp. 139f.
  6. ↑ Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 756-7 ~ 764-5, Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 196-7 ~ 209-10, Euripides, Medea 989-90 ~ 996-7, Iphigenia in Tauris 403 ~ 417, Aristophanes, Assemblywomen 580-1. Sicking, Griechische Verslehre, p. 128.
  7. ↑ Sicking, Griechische Verslehre, p. 111
  8. ↑ Nisbet & Hubbard (1970), p. xiv.
  9. ↑ Raven (1965), p. 112.
  10. ↑ Allen and Greenough, New Latin Grammar, section 626.11
  11. ↑ D.S. Raven, Greek Metre: An Introduction, London, 1962, pp. 48-50
  12. ↑ Nisbet, R. G. M. & Hubbard, M (1970). A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1 (Oxford), p. xiv.
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