Oxford Bibliographies - Greek Metrics

Oxford Bibliographies - Greek Metrics
02/11/2012 18:31
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Greek Metrics
Joel Lidov
Introduction
Greek metrics is the discipline that studies the patterns and arrangements of syllables and words that characterize Greek poetry. Its
domain extends from the study of the properties of syllables (that is, prosody) to the analysis of the structure of the largest poetic
components: stanza, strophe, and triad. It overlaps with a number of other disciplines, and there is no agreement on what
constitutes the boundaries of metrics proper. Since the patterning is associated with the effect of rhythm, and because most early
poetry was sung, metrics is especially allied to the study of the other performed rhythmical arts, namely music and dance. As a
study of one aspect of Greek as a language, it shares concerns with various branches of linguistics, both comparative and
historical. Metrics depends on having reliable textual data, and metrical regularities can assist in restoring texts, so metrics is
closely allied with textual criticism. The specific practices of poets, periods, or genres can often be distinguished on the basis of
their metrics, and in these respects metrics is part of stylistics and literary history. It is also a field of ancient scholarship, which can
be studied for its own sake or treated as evidence. Finally, of course, metrics describes poetic choices and the structure of poems
and so is a part of the study and appreciation of literature generally. The aim of metrics is to construct a general system that
provides a basis for describing individual compositions; scholars who emphasize differently the associations that metrics has with
other disciplines often emphasize very different features in their construction of general systems. Rhythmically inclined scholars
concern themselves with the actual temporal quantities, text critics with features that can be reduced to rules, and linguists with the
different ways structures can be realized. The metrical literature, however, is largely made up of presentations of different systems
or of detailed discussions of individual problems. Only rarely do such works compare the difference in theoretical frameworks;
instead, metrical scholarship tends to fall into various, partly national, schools with shared assumptions. They can best be
understood through the history of the modern scholarship. This bibliography will include, therefore, works in use in the early 21st
century, significant and accessible studies from the history of the discipline clarifying the origin of theories, and exemplary special
studies.
Handbooks and Reference Works

These works provide overviews of Greek verse forms; most also provide some details about the actual use of the commonest
meters. (Longer studies, some quite different from the basic systems of these handbooks, will be listed separately.) They propose
different systems of description or differing emphases but also reflect the extremely concise descriptive system of Maas 1962 (a
translation of the 1927 German original incorporating Paul Maass later additions), which has proved fundamental for all later work,
notwithstanding Maass own insistence that metrics is most closely allied to textual criticism. Snell 1962, starting from Maas,
develops a descriptive system based on metra and cola in a thin volume that has proved to be widely useful and influential; in
particular, Bruno Snell popularized a scheme for describing longer Aeolic forms in terms of internal expansion (the third edition is
preferable to the fourth of 1982). The popular American school text Halporn, et al. 1963 provides a simplified version of Snells
handbook. Korzeniewski 1968, an expanded version of Snells system, is worth consulting for its fuller and more helpful discussions
of some of the difficulties, but Dietmar Korzeniewskis attempts to relate meter and meaning have not been widely approved. The
popular British school text Raven 1968 (first edition 1962) draws partially on Maas, partially on an earlier tradition of analysis by foot
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and metron; its original treatment of Aeolic in terms of a choriambic nucleus has been influential. West 1982 was the first
handbook fully to reflect the rethinking of the presentation of Greek meter made possible by the accumulation of archaic fragments
from the papyri; M. L. West adds a historical organization to the customary division into metrical types but also recasts Snells and
Maass systems in terms of his own theoretical approach. His descriptive system now provides the standard reference, and his
thorough, detailed collection of metrically relevant data is indispensable. West 1987 rewrites the presentation of the essential
information from West 1982 for use as a school text. Parker 1996 provides a synopsis of what might be called the common
understanding of Anglophone and German scholarship, avoiding the peculiarities of any one system.
Halporn, James W., Martin Ostwald, and Thomas G. Rosenmeyer. 1963. The meters of Greek and Latin poetry.
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
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Basic American textbook. The Greek part is based on Snell 1962; frequently reprinted and now available from Hackett.
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Korzeniewski, Dietmar. 1968. Griechische Metrik. Die Altertumswissenschaft. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft.
Usefully expands Snell 1962 but adds some questionable theories about the interaction of meaning and metrical emphasis, making
use also of D. S. Ravens theories of Aeolic. See the review by R. Kannicht in Gnomon 45 (1973): 113134.
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Maas, Paul. 1962. Greek metre. Translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Oxford: Clarendon.
Concise, fundamental recasting of how verse is to be described. Maas isolates repeating sequences and emphasizes a verse
scheme made up of elements filled by syllables in actual verses. Includes descriptions of compositional practice in hexameter and
trimeter.
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Parker, L. P. E. 1996. Metre, Greek. In The Oxford classical dictionary. 3d ed. Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony
Spawforth, 970975. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Excellent synopsis avoiding disputable features of particular theories.
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Raven, D. S. 1968. Greek metre: An introduction. Rev. ed. London: Faber and Faber.
Basic British school text featuring a rich set of examples of variant forms rather than abstract schemes.
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Snell, Bruno. 1962. Griechische Metrik. 3d ed. Gttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
The best starting point for study. A comprehensive presentation of all metrical types, balancing comments and schematic
representations, and written in a lucid, very accessible style. Snell adopts Paul Maass controversial scheme for dactylo-epitrites
but offers more analysis of Aeolic verse.
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West, M. L. 1982. Greek metre. Oxford: Clarendon.

Although out of print, the standard reference for classification and descriptive terminology and especially details of the practices of
individual periods, genres, and poets.
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West, M. L. 1987. Introduction to Greek metre. Oxford: Clarendon.

An abridgement of West 1982 with some more explanations of basic concepts, more emphasis on the more common meters, less
bibliography, and less detail about variations. Out of print.
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Bibliographies, Guides, and Dictionaries

The works listed in this section are aids to using and understanding the modern scholarship on Greek metrics. The guides to
literature, Dale 1957 and Parker 1970, organize the publications of the years covered and discuss some of the issues that they
raise. Comprehensive and detailed bibliographic data since 1924 can be found under the rubric LinguistiqueMtrique (in the
older volumes Linguistique et philologieMtrique, rythmique, prosodie) in the general bibliography, Lanne philologique. There
is a select bibliography of some three hundred items in Sicking 1993, in which the introductory chapter also offers a critical
discussion of some of the main theories of the 20th century, and which is particularly useful for estimating Paul Maass and Bruno
Snells contributions (see Recent Developments for its theoretical contributions). The technical terms of metrics are mostly derived
from Antiquity, but different authors use the same words differently and, where there is no ancient term, use different modern ones
for the same phenomena. There is a glossary-index in West 1982 (see Handbooks and Reference Works), but the definitions are
sometimes bound to M. L. Wests theories. The best listing remains Schroeder 1929, which takes account of both ancient and
modern uses (for the former, see Ancient Sources), although it often reflects the controversies of its time. Danielewicz 1996 is a
helpful work that deserves wider distribution. Jerzy Danielewicz lists and defines all the metrical signs used by different modern
metricians and compares their analyses of dactylo-epitrites and of Aeolic verse; he also has a chapter on the work of Thomas Cole
(see Cole 1988 in Recent Developments). A discursive history of metrical thought, with many summaries of modern scholarship, is
provided in Lenchantin de Gubernatis and Fabiano 1973.
Lanne philologique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

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Bibliography of metrics with minimal summaries can be found in the Subjects and Disciplines section under Linguistique
Mtrique (or, in older volumes, Linguistique et philologieMtrique, rythmique, prosodie). Also in annual printed volumes.
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Dale, A. M. 1957. Greek metric 19361957. Lustrum 2:551.

A critical bibliography with some extended discussion.
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Danielewicz, Jerzy. 1996. The metres of Greek lyric poetry: Problems of notation and interpretation. Pomoerium
Supplementa 1. Bochum, Germany: Druck und Verlag Von Pomoerium.
Summarizes differing notation systems and illustrates different analyses of dactylo-epitritic and Aeolic verse; the final chapter
examines Thomas Coles theory of epiploke.
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Lenchantin de Gubernatis, Massimo, and Gianfranco Fabiano. 1973. Problemi e orientamenti di metrica greco-latina. In
Introduzione allo studio della cultura classica. Vol. 2, 381476. Milan: Marzorati.
Discussions of some problems of theory and nomenclature with an extensive survey of scholarship on Greek metrics.
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Parker, L. P. E. 1970. Greek metric 19571970. Lustrum 15:3798.

A critical bibliography with some extended discussion, continuing Dale 1957.
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Schroeder, Otto. 1929. Nomenclator Metricus: Alphabetisch geordnete Terminologie der griechischen Verswissenschaft.
Heidelberg, Germany: Winter.
A fairly comprehensive list with definitions that cover a range of uses; its usefulness is limited by its immersion in contemporary
debates.
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Sicking, C. M. J. 1993. Hauptprobleme der Forschung von 1900 bis heute. In Griechische Verslehre. By C. M. J. Sicking, 9
30. Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft. Munich: Beck.
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A critical survey with special attention to the theories the author regards as most important. See also Bibliographie on pages 216
224, a select but not analytical bibliography.
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Ancient Sources
The history of metrical studies goes back to the Alexandrian scholars in the 3rd through the 2nd centuries BCE, particularly
Aristophanes of Byzantium, who divided the lyrics of Pindar and the tragedians into short segments, or cola, and before that to the
studies of rhythm by Aristoxenus (4th century BCE) and possibly Damon of Athens (or of Oa) in the 5th century BCE. Most of the
earliest material is lost, but some of it can be reconstructed from the surviving scholarship of late Antiquity, including metrical
scholia. There are abundant later materials. While it is characteristic of most German and English scholars to regard the ancient
material as relevant only to the history of scholarship, one modern theory, mostly followed in Italy, holds that the ancient sources
are a guide to the actual practices of the classical poets.
HEPHAESTION AND RELATED MATERIAL
The most important ancient source is Hephaestion 1906, an epitome of an abridgment of a forty-eight-book treatise from the 2nd
century CE. It describes meters in terms of cola made up of prototypes (metra) made up of feet. Scholia to it and fragments of other
books, possibly also by Hephaestion, are edited with it. It is made accessible in van Ophuijsen 1987, which translates the
Enchiridion and corresponding passages from Aristides Quintilianus 1963, section by section, together with an extensive
interpretive commentary. Van Ophuijsen 1993 provides a similarly thorough commentary and translation of the short books on
strophic structure attributed to Hephaestion. The metrical scholia to Pindar, edited in Tessier 1989, provide a full colon by colon
analysis that largely conforms to Hephaestions system, although the latter does not discuss choral lyric.
Aristides Quintilianus. 1963. De musica libri tres. Edited by R. P. Winnington-Ingram. Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Leipzig:
Teubner.
Sections on meters, mostly in Book 1, closely parallel Hephaestions system and help fill it out.
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Hephaestion. 1906. Hephaestionis Enchiridion cum commentariis veteribus. Edited by M. Consbruch. Bibliotheca
Teubneriana. Leipzig: Teubner.
Also includes the two books on stanza structure (Peri Poematos, Peri Poematon). The only surviving metrical handbook.
Hephaestion is always cited by Consbruch page number, but not all citations distinguish inferences based on the scholia from
statements in the text proper. Frequently reprinted.
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Tessier, Andrea, ed. 1989. Scholia metrica vetera in Pindari carmina. Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Leipzig: Teubner.
Conservative edition with a very full apparatus of the major source of ancient metrical analysis in action.
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van Ophuijsen, J. M. 1987. Hephaestion on metre: A translation and commentary. Mnemosyne Supplementum 100. Leiden,
The Netherlands: Brill.
No text is provided, and only the Enchiridion proper is included. The commentary is thorough on all matters of text and meaning.
Parallel passages from Aristides Quintilianus are included throughout.
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van Ophuijsen, J. M. 1993. On poems: Two Hephaestionic texts and one chapter from Aristides Quintilianus on the
composition of verse. Aufstieg und Niedergang der rmischen Welt II 34.1: 796869.
Texts, translation, and commentary on the (=.) and (=.), with parallel passages taken together.
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OTHER SOURCES
The earliest relevant text to survive is Aristoxenus 1990, that of the 4th-century-BCE scholar Aristoxenus, who was primarily
concerned with music and musical rhythm. On the basis of his writings, many modern theorists have held that the metrical patterns
of long and short should always be interpreted to make them conform to the possibilities of musical rhythmic structures, which
recognize more than two basic quantities. An important source that we do not have directly is Heliodorus, a 1st-century-CE scholar
who probably provided the colometry we find in the manuscripts of Artistophanes comedies and who wrote a commentary on them,
parts of which survive in the scholia. White 1912 extracts the metrical scholia and reconstructs the design of his edition and
commentary. Holwerda 1964 and Holwerda 1967 revise and extend this by examining key terms and problems on the basis of D.
Holwerdas work on the new edition of the Aristophanes scholia. Heliodorus is considered to be a major influence on the metrical
texts found in the Latin grammarians, who provide an abundance of names, quotations, and categorizations for the cola of ancient
lyric, both Greek and Latin; they were more interested in describing the relations of cola to each other than in the analysis of them
by metra. They are mostly gathered in Volume 6 of Keil 1874, with minimal commentary in the apparatus. A new web-based
edition, Corpus grammaticorum Latinorum, has some more recent texts and is searchable. There is abundant commentary on the
perception and study of ancient poetry in the work of a 1st-century-BCE critic, Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1910. An exhaustive
dictionary-concordance of all ancient terminology has been begun in Morelli 2006.
Aristoxenus. 1990. Elementa Rhythmica: The fragment of Book II and the additional evidence for Aristoxenean rhythmic
theory. Edited and translated by Lionel Pearson. Oxford: Clarendon.
Also includes P. Oxy. 2687, sometimes attributed to Aristoxenus. Users should beware that the editor believes that these texts
describe a correct system for analyzing lyric into regular bar lengths with, for example, 2/4 or 6/8 time signatures.
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Corpus grammaticorum Latinorum.

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Replaces some of the texts in Keil 1874 and adds a number of research tools.
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Dionysius of Halicarnassus. 1910. On literary composition. Edited by W. R. Roberts. London: Macmillan

The source of many comments on the ancient perception and appreciation of verse.
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Holwerda, D. 1964. De Heliodori commentario metrico in Aristophanem I. Mnemosyne 17:113139.

Extend and revises White 1912 by examining key terms and features of Heliodoruss analytic method on the basis of new editions
of the Aristophanes scholia. Continued in Holwerda 1967.
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Holwerda, D. 1967. De Heliodori commentario metrico in Aristophanem II. Mnemosyne 20:247272.

DOI: 10.1163/156852567X00023 Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
Continues Holwerda 1964.
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Keil, H., ed. 1874. Grammatici latini. Vol. 6, Scriptores artis metricae. Leipzig: Teubner.
The texts of Marius Victorinus, Maximus Victorinus, Caesius Bassus, Atilius Fortunatianus, Terentianus Maurus, Marius Plotius
Sacerdos, Rufinus, Mallius Theodorus, and additional metrical fragments. Readily available online.
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Morelli, Giuseppe, ed. 2006. Nomenclator metricus graecus et latinus, -. Alpha-Omega: Reihe A, Lexika, Indizes,
Konkordanzen zur klassischen Philologie. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms-Wiedmann.
First volume of a still incomplete but very full concordance of ancient terminology.
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White, John Williams. 1912. The commentary of Heliodorus and metrical scholia. In The verse of Greek comedy. By John
Williams White, 384421. London: Macmillan.
A readable essay reconstructing Heliodoruss editorial efforts and the texts of all the scholia (without translation) that provide the
evidence of his work. Reprinted in Hildesheim in 1969.
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STUDIES OF ANCIENT THEORY
Wallace 1991 examines the testimonia for the thought and activities of the Sophist Damon of Oa at the end of the 5th century BCE.
During that period there was a major innovation in musical styles, which affected poetic composition and makes it difficult to know
how much later evidence applies to earlier practices. Csapo 2004 gives a full description of what can be deduced about this new
music. Against the common view, Fleming and Kopff 1992 argue that the colometry of papyri and manuscripts should be used to
reconstruct not only the Alexandrian colometry but also the original 5th-century poetic intention. The text of the Pindar scholia in
Irigoin 1958 is now outdated (see instead Tessier 1989 in Hephaestion and Related Material), but the valuable introductory
chapters describe the origins of the colometry in Alexandrian practice and its subsequent history up until modern editions. Parker
2001 similarly concludes that the Alexandrian editors were serving their own purposes. Most scholars now accept some form of the
argument reviewed and defended in Leonhardt 1989 that there were two theories of metrical analysis current in Antiquity: prototype
theory focused on the combinations of two disyllabic feet into metra, then of two metra into cola; while derivation theory focused on
cola and derived them from segments of the trimeter or hexameter. Gentili 1988 presents the argument for reconstructing all
ancient metrics and theory as internally consistent parts of the same cultural practice. In accordance with this view, Gentili and
Lomiento 2008 presents the recovered synthesis as an effective description of Greek verse. Whatever the merits of this historical
argument, the book brings together a wealth of information about ancient theoretical practice in all its seeming diversity. In
particular, the glossary in chapters 3 and 4 rivals Schroeder 1929 (see Bibliographies, Guides, and Dictionaries) as a guide to
metrical terminology, and the bibliography is a guide to discussions of individual problems of ancient theory.
Csapo, E. 2004. The politics of the new music. In Music and the Muses: The culture of mousike in the classical Athenian
city. Edited by Penelope Murray and Peter Wilson, 207248. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
How poets, including Euripides, came to imitate pipe music rather than speech rhythm and sought emotional effects.
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Fleming, Thomas, and E. Christian Kopff. 1992. Colometry of Greek lyric verses in tragic texts. Studi Italiani di Filologia
Classica, 3d ser., 10:758770.
Argues that it is possible to reconstruct the 5th century poetic and musical structure.
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Gentili, Bruno 1988. Metro e ritmo nella dottrina degli antichi e nella prassi della performance. In La musica in Grecia.
Edited by Bruno Gentili and Roberto Pretagostini, 516. Rome: Editori Laterza.
Argues that the verbal rhythm of long and short syllables was always expressed through a musical rhythm in performance, and that
analysis in these terms was common to all ancient scholars, beginning with Damon.
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Gentili, Bruno, and Liana Lomiento. 2008. Metrics and rhythmics: History of poetic forms in ancient Greece. Translated by
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E. Christian Kopff. Pisa, Italy: Serra.

Originally published in Italian as Metrica e ritmica: Storia delle forme poetiche nella Grecia antica (2003). Very full survey of verse
forms, analyzed according to the authors reconstruction of ancient theory (see the review by Joel Lidov, Bryn Mawr Classical
Review 2004.09.09). Valuable source for brief discussions of ancient terminology and concepts.
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Irigoin, Jeanne. 1958. Les scholies metriques de Pindare. Bibliothque de lcole des Hautes tudes 310. Paris:
Champion.
Introductory chapters describe the history of colometry and metrical commentary.
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Leonhardt, Jrgen. 1989. Die beiden metrischen Systeme des Altertums. Hermes 117:4362.
Reconfirms with revisions the distinction between derivationist and prototype theory first proposed by F. Leo in 1889.
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Parker, L. P. E. 2001. Consilium et ratio? Papyrus A of Bacchylides and Alexandrian metrical scholarship. Classical
Quarterly 51:2352.
DOI: 10.1093/cq/51.1.23 Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
Concludes that the Alexandrians sought short cola useful for comparing responsions and texts.
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Wallace, Robert W. 1991. Damone di Oa ed i suoi successori: Unanalisi delle fonti. In Harmonia mundi: Musica e filosofia
nellantichit. Edited by Robert W. Wallace and Bonnie MacLachlan, 3053. Rome: Edizioni dellAteneo.
Distinguishes between anachronistic retrojections and what can be known about Damons theories and his interest in the
correlation of music and behavior.
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Stichic and Elegiac Verse

The stichic verse forms and the elegiac couplet constitute the vast bulk of ancient verse. Their basic form is self-evident, and the
discussions of them stand somewhat apart from most discussions of the general character of Greek verse. Interest in them centers
on the rules that govern word placement and word-end location (caesuras and bridge positions), and on the phenomena of
contraction and resolution. These studies typically contrast the outer metricthe possible patterns of long and short syllables
and the inner metricthe restrictions on word and word-end placement within the line. The sources in Handbooks and Reference
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Works (especially Maas 1962, West 1982, and West 1987) include the most important rules and describe the differences between
archaic, classical, and Hellenistic practice. Most of the specialized studies look at only one metrical type, but Raalte 1986 examines
all stichic types and compiles much detailed information about inner and outer metrical form, which is valuable separately from the
a priori theory of rhythm that organizes the presentation.
Raalte, Marlein van. 1986. Rhythm and metre: Towards a systematic description of Greek stichic verse. Studies in Greek
and Latin Linguistics 3. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum
Surveys all stichic forms, including trochaic and choliambic, and compiles information about internal variation (contraction, anceps,
resolution), word and word-end localization, and enjambment.
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HEXAMETER
Frnkel 1968 (revised from the 1926 original) is the cornerstone of modern studies of the inner metric of the hexameter. H. Frnkel
reinterpreted the rules restricting word placement to show that the hexameter could be understood as a structure of four short cola,
which he defined as semantic units, regularly divided at three caesural areas. ONeill 1942 provides tables that demonstrate that
different individual word shapes tended to be located at particular positions within the line. Porter 1951 (partly influenced by
Russian formalism) combined these observations to construct a theory that the hexameter was normatively structured by four
metrical cola; these influenced the semantic divisions but were independent of them. H. N. Porter emphasized the importance of
examining the context when analyzing the lines that varied from the norm. He also restricted the number of possible caesural
points. Kirk 1966 offers alternate explanations of the data to defend the idea that the basic division was into two semantic cola, with
an alternate three-colon structure. Barnes 1986 reviews all the arguments in these and subsequent studies and tests them against
a fuller collection of data. Harry R. Barnes concluded that the theory of four metrical cola was basically correct but that no theory
answered the problem of the differences between semantic divisions and metrical ones, and between the medial caesura and the
others. For postclassical hexameter, Adrian Hollis, in Callimachus 2009, compiles the details of the restrictions on variation in both
outer and inner metric in Callimachuss practice; these justify the notion of Callimachean refinement. Fantuzzi 1995 discusses the
bucolics of Theocritus in their historical and contemporary contexts. The distinctive features of the even later hexameter are the
subject of Wifstrand 1933, which is also interested in the effect of the increasingly stringent metrical restrictions on the style of the
poets language. Devine and Stephens 1976 puts to rest a misunderstanding of an important point of prosody that has led (still in
M. L. West) to an incorrect description of the hexameter (other linguistic studies are deferred to Comparative Linguistics).
Barnes, Harry R. 1986. The colometric structure of Homeric hexameter. Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 27:125150.
Reviews the evidence for cola in the hexameter and concludes that the four-colon theory is most probable as a description of its
structure.
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Callimachus. 2009. Callimachus: Hecale. Edited by Adrian Hollis. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Hollis provides specific details for the incidence of dactylic and spondaic feet, word-end restrictions, hiatus, correction, and elision
in Callimachuss hexameters.
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Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1976. The Homeric hexameter and a basic principle of metrical theory. Classical
Philology 76:141163.
DOI: 10.1086/366245 Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
Disproves the widely held assumption that the long that replaces two shorts in the hexameter differs from the fixed long.
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Fantuzzi, Marco. 1995. Variazioni sullesametro in Teocrito. In Struttura e storia dellesametro Greco. Vol. 1. Edited by
Marco Fantuzzi and Roberto Pretagostini, 221264. Studi di metrica classica 10. Rome: Grupo Editoriale Internazionale.
Examines the different ways Theocritus handles the hexameter in comparison to the epic and didactic forms of his contemporaries
and of the archaic poets.
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Frnkel, Hermann. 1968. Der homerische und der kallimachische Hexameter. In Wege und Formen frhgriechischen
Denkens. 3d ed. By Hermann Frnkel and Franz Tietze, 100156. Munich: Beck.
Proposes a four-colon structure for the hexameter; the basis of modern studies of the form.
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Kirk, G. S. 1966. The structure of the Homeric hexameter. Yale Classical Studies 20:76104.
Offers alternative explanations for Hermann Frnkels and H. N. Porters observations of cola divisions and argues that the line is
essentially composed of two semantic cola.
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ONeill, E. G., Jr. 1942. The localization of metrical word types in the Greek hexameter. Yale Classical Studies 8:105178.
Shows that different word shapes are preferentially put in specific places in the hexameter, even though they could in theory be put
elsewhere; contains full tables.
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Porter, H. N. 1951. The early Greek hexameter. Yale Classical Studies 12:363.
Offers a variant on Hermann Frnkels system, in which the four cola are understood as a normative metrical structure and only
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secondarily as units of meaning, and catalogues and analyzes the types of variant expressions of the form.
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Wifstrand, Albert. 1933. Von Kallimachos zu Nonnos: Metrisch-stilistische Untersuchungen zur spteren griechischen
Epik und zu verwandten Gedichtgattungen. Skrifter utgivna av Vetenskaps-societeten i Lund. Lund, Sweden: Ohlssons.
Details the evolution of the hexameter form with special attention to the influence of a stress accent in the late period and the
considerable restrictions it placed on the possible quantitative verse types.
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HOMERIC ENJAMBMENT
The relation of thought and grammatical structure to the verse line is the subject of studies of enjambment, which has become a
field of its own in Homeric studies. The modern study began with Parry 1971 (originally published in 1929), which first proposed a
scheme of four types based on grammatical completeness at the point of enjambment. Kirk 1966 offers a modification of these.
Higbie 1990 revises the scheme on the basis of a closer examination of types of structure. Clark 1997 relates the problem more
closely to the problem of composition by formula. Bakker 1990 seeks to recast the whole discussion by looking for the
completeness of lines in terms of the short, single idea units discovered by the pragmatic analysis of spoken discourse.
Bakker, E. J. 1990. Homeric discourse and enjambment: A cognitive approach. Transactions and Proceeding of the
American Philological Association 120:121.
Proposes an analysis of Homeric narrative by short idea units so that cases of enjambment are significantly reduced.
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Clark, Matthew. 1997. Out of line: Homeric composition beyond the hexameter. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Considers enjambment as an aspect of compositional strategies
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Higbie, Carolyn. 1990. Measure and music: Enjambement and sentence structure in the Iliad. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Provides a new set of categories for considering the effects of enjambment.
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Kirk, G. S. 1966. Verse-structure and sentence-structure in Homer. Yale Classical Studies 20:105152.
Revises M. Parrys classification of enjambment.
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Parry, M. 1971. The distinctive character of enjambment in Homeric verse. In The making of Homeric verse: The collected
papers of Milman Parry. Edited by Adam Parry, 251265. Oxford: Clarendon.
Provides a classification of enjambment into four types to analyze the violations of the assumption that the line is a unit of meaning.
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ELEGIAC
Much of the study of the elegiac couplet has focused on the comparison of its hexameter line with the stichic hexameter,
particularly in regard to the distribution of metrical word types and enjambment. Raalte 1988 collects data for the rhythmic patterns
of the couplet as a whole and compares the elegiac to the stichic hexameter. Barnes 1995 examines the two kinds of hexameter in
terms of enjambment and word- and clause-end positions. The conclusions show that while the basic structure is similar, if not
identical, more frequent enjambment and a preference for forms that contrast with the pentameter (such as a feminine caesura)
show that the couplet is the unit of composition. Variations in practice among the later elegists are more likely to reflect a choice of
model than diachronic development; to describe them it is necessary to know the generic norms. Fantuzzi 2002, demonstrating that
the new papyrus shows the same metrical characteristics as the previously known poems of Posidippus, contributes a summary of
known Callimachean restrictions on the use of dactyls and spondees, of word-end location, and of elisions. David Sider
(Philodemus 1997) provides an overview of the norms of Hellenistic practice.
Barnes, Harry R. 1995. The structure of the elegiac hexameter: A comparison of the structure of elegiac and stichic
hexameter verse. In Struttura e storia dellesametro Greco. Vol. 1. Edited by Marco Fantuzzi and Roberto Pretagostini,
135162. Tudi di metrica classica 10. Rome: Grupo Editoriale Internazionale.
A careful comparison of both forms of the verse in regard to their use of verbal compositional elements.
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Fantuzzi, Marco. 2002. La tecnica versificatoria dei P. Mil. Voigl. VIII 309. In Il papiro di Posidippo un anno dopo: Atti del
convegno internazionale di studi; Firenze 1314 giugno 2002. Edited by Guido Bastianini and Angelo Casanova, 7997.
Florence: Istituto papirologico G. Vitelli.
Examines the inner and outer metrical characteristic of Posidippuss composition in the new papyrus in relation to what was known
from the Greek anthology and to the practice of other Hellenistic poets.
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Philodemus. 1997. The epigrams of Philodemos. Edited by David Sider. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
The introduction brings together the details of the practice of the Hellenistic elegist as a basis of comparison for the practice of
Philodemus.
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Find this resource:
Raalte, Marlein van. 1988. Greek elegiac verse rhythm. Glotta 66:145178.
Studies the patterns of composition in both lines and compares the hexameter of the elegy to the stichic hexameter.
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TRIMETER
Schein 1979 accumulates and analyzes the data for word-shape position, word-end position, and resolution frequency in Aeschylus
and Sophocles and demonstrates the trimeters development from a three-colon to a four-colon structure (see also Raalte 1986 in
Stichic and Elegiac Verse). Seth Schein also provides a lucid summary of previous work on the trimeter and offers two brief
examples of an explication of the rhetorical effect of variation in structure in continuous passages. Descroix 1931 uses detailed
tables showing the use of different foot types, word shapes, resolutions, and substitutions in an effort to present a full history of the
verse. Marcovitch 1984 is primarily a literary study looking at the context for all examples of trimeters with three words to see how
the poets use this special effect; the analysis is unsystematic but provides an unusually extended overview of the use of the form
from the iambographers to the Byzantines. Resolution is especially a major topic in Euripidean studies, ever since Zieliski showed
that it could be used to put the plays into chronological groups according to the severity or freedom of restriction. Devine and
Stephens 1980 critiques Zieliskis rules but finds that the half that withstand criticism still leave a valid basis for the chronology.
Cropp and Fick 1985 develops precise definitions of resolution and uses sophisticated statistical methods both to determine that
there are only minimal stylistic differences between different generic components of a tragedy (prologue, messenger speech, and
so forth) and especially to provide the most accurate possible relative datings. A different phenomenon that allows comparison of
poetic practices is the occurrence of hiatus between trimeters that are enjambed, since this is more restricted than hiatus following
end-stopped trimeters. Battezzato 2008 explores the relative degrees of freedom among the tragedians after reconsidering the
criteria for classifying different types of enjambment in trimeters. Dik 2007 tests whether special salience should be given to words
in particular positions in the trimeter or in relation to the point of enjambment and finds that the rules of normal speech take priority.
Battezzato, Luigi. 2008. Enjambement, iati e stile di recitazione nella tragedia greca. In Linguistica e retorica della tragedia
greca. By Luigi Battezzato, 103138. Sussidi Eruditi. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
Establishes criteria for enjambment, provides data on the incidence of hiatus at enjambment, and relates the differences among the
tragedies to differences in tempo of delivery, in preference for synaphy, and in approximation of normal speech. Also includes a
study of short vowels at line end.
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Cropp, Martin, and Gordon Fick. 1985. Resolutions and chronology in Euripides: The fragmentary tragedies. Bulletin of
the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 185. London: Institute of Classical Studies, Univ. of London.
Builds on previous work with careful textual and statistical methods to refine the dating of both the surviving and the fragmentary
plays.
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Page 14 of 34
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Descroix, J. 1931. Le trimtre iambique: Des iambographes la comdie nouvelle. Mcon, France: Protat frres.
A detailed accounting, in terms of feet, of the frequency of verse types according to the number and position of long anceps and the
position of resolution and of the different caesura positions. Reprinted in 1987 (New York: Garland).
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Devine, A. M., and L. D. Stephens. 1980. Rules for resolution: The Zielinskian canon. Transactions of the American
Philological Association 110:6379.
Reduces the number of criteria that can be used to date the play but accepts the basic groupings.
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Dik, Helma. 2007. Word order in Greek tragic dialogue. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Applies pragmatic analysis to show that the metrical properties of the trimeter do not change the normal distribution of emphasis
within a sentence.
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Marcovich, Miroslav. 1984. Three-word trimeter in Greek tragedy. Beitrge zur klassischen Philologie 154. Knigstein,
Germany: Hain.
Examines individually all uses from the iambographers through the Byzantine period to appreciate the literary use of trimeters that
have only three words.
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Schein, Seth. 1979. The iambic trimeter in Aeschylus and Sophocles: A study in metrical form. Columbia Studies in the
Classical Tradition 6. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Collects data for internal composition of the trimeter, provides a history and a bibliography of the scholarship, and offers a sample
of how the data can be used interpretively.
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Comprehensive Systems
Overlapping waves of theory in the 19th and 20th centuries have each contributed something to the variety of methods that
constitute modern metrics: notions of musical rhythm, historical reconstructions, the pragmatic observation of texts and individual
practices, Indo-European studies, and comparative linguistics.
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RHYTHMICAL AND MUSICAL THEORIES
Modern metrics begins with a series of publications by especially, Gottfried Herman and August Boeckh in the first decades of the
ninetenth century; their most lasting contributions were the formers recognition of dactylo-epitrite as a separate rhythmic type and
the latters description of the textual basis for the period (verse) as a component of the stanza. But Boeckh 1811 also defended the
assumption that all meters were by nature rhythmically like those in contemporary Western music, requiring equal measures that
began with a strong beat. The culminating presentation of such theories was a massive, multivolume synthesis of ancient musical,
rhythmical, metrical, and ethical writings by August Rossbach and Rudolph Westphal. Schmidt 1894 provides a simplified, practical
guide to a version of this system in English, and users of Richard C. Jebbs Sophocles and Basil L. Gildersleeves Pindar will find
there a key to their now bizarre-looking metrical schemes. Nietzsche 1967 (originally published in 1871) was among the first to
demonstrate that the ancient evidence did not support the notion of equally spaced strong beats, and the house of cards had
mostly collapsed by the end of the 19th century, although Goodell 1901 defends many but not all of the key tenets through a
discursive and sensible examination of much of the testimonia (which he quotes at length); some of his particular conclusions are
still accepted. Radically simplified forms of the theory have had a long life, especially among those convinced that it provides a true
appreciation of ancient rhythm. Its hallmark is the treatment of Aeolic as logaoedic: a mixture of trochees and dactyls in which the
time values of syllables are adjusted to produce equality. Hardie 1920, an influential English school text before the appearance of
Raven 1968 (see Handbooks and Reference Works), defends it against later theory. Hardie 1920 is useful as one of the few works
to analyze the arguments on both sides. A simple representation of the equal-bar theory in Kitto 1942 is still sometimes cited, and
the theory is vigorously advocated by Lionel Pearson in Aristoxenus 1990 (see Other Sources).
Boeckh, August. 1811. Pindari opera quae supersunt. Vol.1.2, De metris Pindari libri tres. Leipzig: Apud Ioann August
Gottlob Weigel.
One of the founding works of modern metrics, including definition of the period (verse), but also responsible for theories making
Greek verse equivalent to modern music.
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Goodell, Thomas Dwight. 1901. Chapters on Greek metric. Yale Bicentennial Publications. New York: Scribner.
A review and discussion of the ancient sources on which the theories of equal-bar rhythms are based, still useful despite the bias
toward a modified form of that theory.
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Hardie, William Ross. 1920. Res metrica: An introduction to the study of Greek and Roman versification. London:
Clarendon.
Defends reading Greek cola as a system of equal measures. Useful as a guide to the arguments and as the background to much
British commentary.
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Kitto, H. D. F. 1942. Rhythm, metre, and black magic. Classical Review 56:99108.
Page 16 of 34
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Oversimplified theory of Greek verse as musical measures but still cited by nonmetricians.
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Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1967. On the theory of quantitative rhythm. Translated by J. Halporn. Arion 6:233243.
An early refutation of the theory of ictus and of the possibility of appreciating Greek verse aesthetically.
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Schmidt, J. H. Heinrich. 1894. An introduction to the rhythmic and metric of the classical languages. Translated by John
Williams White. Boston: Ginn.
Exposition of the extreme, musically based theory of verse and stanza structure that was dominant at the end of the 19th century.
The translator later regretted his adherence.
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RHYTHMICAL PHRASES AND MEANING
Several scholars, by concentrating on rhythms (usually with an analogy to music) rather than analysis, have tried to demonstrate
the relation of meter and sense. Headlam 1902 idiosyncratically but invitingly proposes that poets composed with rhythmic phrases
or motives comparable to musical phrases but not necessarily identical with metra or cola, overlapping or linked, each with an
individual ethos. Thomson 1961 (first published in 1929) develops this into a whole system of rhythmic phrases, frequently
overlapping, by which poets regulated the relation between meaning and meter. The foundation was too subjective to bear the
weight of a system, but the two ideas, of meaningful and of overlapping phrases, have both reappeared in different guises. (See
Cole 1988 in Recent Developments and also M. L. Wests Fusion of Meter and Rhythm.) Rash 1981, though limited to one play of
Aeschylus, is one of the very few studies successfully to connect particular metrical phrases (in this case a colon) to meaning and
ideas. Scott 1984 shows how changes in rhythmical type can be incorporated into a literary reading of the Oresteia. Georgiades
1956 (also published in a 1958 German edition) develops a totally different musical conception, positing that sequences of longs
and shorts in the verbal phrasing, never varying in their proportions, form rhythmic measures of varying lengths and create the
aesthetic effects of Greek poetry, much as they still do in types of Greek folk music.
Georgiades, T. 1956. Greek music, verse, and dance. Translated by Erwin Benedict and Marie Louise Martinez. New York:
Merlin.
Revision and translation of Der griechische Rhythmus (1949). Proposes that ancient meters follow a continuous Greek folk tradition
of music with varying bar lengths, requiring no adjustment of relative quantities in different rhythms. Reprinted in 1973 (New York:
Da Capo).
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Headlam, W. 1902. Greek lyric metre. Journal of Hellenic Studies 22:209227.

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Seeks to isolate phrases into classes by their rhythmic type in order to organize the relation of meter and meaning.
Find this resource:
Rash, James Nicholas. 1981. Meter and language in the lyrics of the Suppliants of Aeschylus. New York: Arno.
Using standard modern colometry, demonstrates that certain phrases can be associated with certain ideas.
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Scott, William C. 1984. Musical design in Aeschylean theater. Hanover, NH: Univ. Press of New England.
Concentrates on types of rhythm to discuss how meter affects meaning, with particularly good results in a literary analysis of the
Oresteia.
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Thomson, G. D. 1961. Greek lyric metre. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Heffer.

Develops W. Headlams idea into a full analysis to show how poets use varying and overlapping rhythmical phrases expressively.
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HISTORICAL THEORIES AND THE NEW METRICS
In the late 19th- and early 20th-century context, historical refers to the development of the verse forms from a supposed primitive
type, an Urvers with four fixed long syllables (and a variant with three) and varying syllables between, before, and after, and whose
typical form in Greek is the eight-syllable colon of two metra. The historical method was adopted by Ulrich von WilamowitzMoellendorff (Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1984), and he also isolated the choriambic dimeter as the particular origin of Aeolic verse.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1984 is more pragmatic than systematic, and the authors sorting of lyric into types of cola (Vierheber and
Dreiheber), sometimes varying in length by omission of initial as well as final syllables, withstood the rejection of his historical
assumptions and became the basis for modern metrics. (Alexander Turyns edition of Pindar provides colometries that illustrate
Wilamowitz-Moellendorffs method.) Schroeder 1930 is the culminating demonstration of a rigid analysis into metra defined by their
number of longs. With a slightly different emphasis, the theory was also compatible with a return to Hephaestions style of analysis,
hence the new metrics, which emphasized scansion by tetrasyllabic groups corresponding to his prototypes (exemplified in Ernst
Diehls edition of the lyric poets). Prototype theory posited the equivalence of similar prototypes and found textual support in the
cases of apparent free responsion, or sequences with a different orderings of long and short, in the manuscripts of tragic and
Pindaric lyric. Koster 1934 examines the dispute between strict tetrasyllabic analysis (involving choriambs and ionics) and colonbased descriptions (involving dactyls) in the especially controversial genre of dactylo-epitrite. White 1912 (a more general study
than the title would suggest) represents a fully argued synthesis of new metric and historical theories in which the choriambic
treatment of most Aeolic but not of dactylo-epitrite is maintained. A similar but less theoretical path is followed in Koster 1966 (first
published in 1936), whose modified new metrical analyses are reflected in some more recent French and Dutch scholarship
(compare also Raven 1968 in Handbooks and Reference Works).
Koster, W. J. W. 1934. Dactylepitriti an metra choriambo-ionica? Classical Quarterly 28:145155.

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DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800019972 Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation

Looks at the evidence for both colometric and prototype analysis and decides in favor of the former.
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Koster, W. J. W. 1966. Trait de mtrique grecque suivi dun prcis de mtrique latine. 4th ed. Leiden, The Netherlands:
Sijthoff.
Modified version of traditional analysis by foot, metron, and colon, as found in Hephaestions handbook.
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Schroeder, Otto. 1930. Grundriss der griechischen Versgechichte. Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften.
Heidelberg, Germany: Winter.
Expounds a theory of scansion by units with a fixed number of longs (Vierheber); briefly but extremely influential on text editions.
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White, John Williams. 1912. The verse of Greek comedy. London: Macmillan.
Full exposition and explanation of a system that justifies analysis into feet, prototypes (metres), and cola on the basis of a
historical theory. Reprinted in Hildesheim, Germany, in 1969.
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Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von. 1984. Griechische Verskunst. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche

Buchgesellschaft.
Mostly composed of earlier articles, this wide-ranging, if somewhat unsystematic, collation of knowledge and observation over the
whole field of Greek metric sets the stage for all 20th century studies, despite its outdated organizing theory of a skeletal Urvers.
Originally published in Berlin in 1921.
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PAUL MAAS, BRUNO SNELL, AND THE OBSERVATION OF PATTERNS
Paul Maas, as a text editor, rejected free responsion on the grounds that all instances would also be otherwise improved if
emended to restore strict responsion, and in Maas 1962 (see Handbooks and Reference Works) he abjures all the theoretical
presentations to insist only on observation. He posited repeated patterns of basic sequences (metra) and cola; for dactylo-epitrite
he provided units that are neither metra nor cola. His method placed precise and narrow limits on the possibility of any responsion
of long and short, and much textual criticism is still devoted to the question of what free responsions are allowed and how instances
are to be emended. He accepted but regarded as irrelevant the different durational values of elements in different rhythms. Snell
1962 (see Handbooks and Reference Works) goes further in disregarding the time values and in treating metra, expandable short
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cola, and dactylo-epitritic units equally as independent rhythmic entities to be used in analysis; this equation remains controversial.
Bruno Snells application of his method in Pindar 1964 and, with his explanation, in Bacchylides 1961 (reprinted in all subsequent
Teubner editions) elucidates the method and also remains the standard reference for these poets. In general, in lyric the problem
for all scholars became the correct separation of verse into cola. Maas 1970 (originally published in 1904) establishes the
alternatives by showing that Bacchylides separated cola within a period, whereas Pindar did not. Irigoin 1953 proposes a rigid
method based on the theory that cola are never separated by word end within a verse (period). Kraus 1957 looks at early dramatic
strophes to discover the cola that structure each one through repetition of motives and variation.
Bacchylides. 1961. Carmina cum fragmentis. Edited by Bruno Snell. Leipzig: Teubner.
The analysis in the text and especially the prefatory section on meter illustrate and explain Snells theories of Greek lyric meter.
Subsequent Teubner editions, including those by H. Maehler, retain these sections unaltered.
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Irigoin, Jean. 1953. Recherches sur les mtres de la lyrique chorale greque: La structure du vers. tudes et commentaires
16. Paris: Klincksieck.
Looks for bridge positions to demonstrate that periods (verses) can be divided into cola wherever they occur. In consequence,
identical periods can be formed from different cola.
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Kraus, Walther. 1957. Strophengestaltung in der griechischen Tragdiez. Vol. 1, Aischylos und Sophokles. Vienna: R. M.
Rohrer.
Argues that the correct choice among the possible analyses by colon is the one that makes possible a coherent construction of the
whole strophe through repetition and variation. Krauss understanding of the structure of strophes is widely influential.
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Maas, Paul. 1970. Kolometrie in den Daktyloepitriten des Bakchylides. In Pindaros und Bacchylides. Edited by William
Musgrave Calder and Jacob Stern, 308321. Wege der Forschung. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft.
Shows two possibilities of period construction: with cola divided and with cola in synaphy. Reprint from Philologus 63, n.f. 17
(1904): 297309). Also available in Maass Kleine Schriften (Munich: Beck, 1973), 818.
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Pindar. 1964. Carmina cum fragmentis. 4th ed. 2 vols. Edited by Bruno Snell. Leipzig: Teubner.
The analyses in the text, combining a graphic analysis and a labeling system, and the collation of meters in the Metrorum
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Conspectus demonstrate Snells theories of analyzing periods and cola. They are reprinted verbatim in all subsequent Teubner
editions.
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DALE AND COLOMETRIC ANALYSIS
Dale 1968 considers all of drama and builds on Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorffs conclusions by using sense patterns and
context to define more precisely the basic cola and their rhythmic types (which, A. M. Dale strongly insisted, were distinguished in
performance by variable durations of long and short). Dales study remains the most important guide to dramatic lyric, and in
general a guide to colometric analysis. The determination of verse structures (periods) is essential to this method; the proper
location of divisions between cola within verses becomes a matter of close observation and judgment built on the examination of
individual texts. Dale 1969 ranges widely to explore some of the complexities of this, particularly in regard to final syllables of verse.
Parker 1966 researches rules governing word end in lyric, and Parker 1976 examines the problems of clausular structures. Stinton
1990 looks at the coincidence of discourse pause and verse end. Scarcely an article on the text of Greek lyric does not treat the
issues of analysis in terms described in the work of one or more of these authors, and many contribute to refine the process. An
exemplary, instructive, short, and self-contained illustration of the methods of colometric analysis is Willink 2002. Though Parker
1997 categorically rejects Dales willingness to make ad hoc adjustments when analyzing a verse into cola, her introduction gives
an overview of the essentials of Dales system and is probably the best place for students to start a study of dramatic meter.
Dale, A. M. 1968. The lyric metres of Greek drama. 2d ed. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.
The most important text on dramatic lyric, with implications for colometric analysis generally. Classifies cola by rhythmic type and
uses broad observation to sort out their appearances in texts. Appendix lists the seventy or so most common cola.
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Dale, A. M. 1969. Observations on dactylic. In Collected papers: A. M. Dale. By A. M. Dale, 185209. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge Univ. Press.
Starts with the problem of the rare case of cola ending in double short to examine the whole problem of locating colon end.
Conclusions are too dependent on Dales notions of variable quantity. Originally printed in Wiener Studien 77 (1964): 1536.
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Parker, L. P. E. 1966. Porsons law extended. Classical Quarterly 16:126.

Looks at the whole question of word end after long anceps, bringing together separately observed restrictions under one general
rule.
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Parker, L. P. E. 1976. Catalexis. Classical Quarterly 26:1428.

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Examines the problem of how cola end and of the relation to each other of cola that differ only at the end.
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Parker, L. P. E. 1997. The songs of Aristophanes. Oxford: Clarendon.

The introductory chapters are an excellent introductory handbook to the colometry of choral lyric, largely following A. M. Dales
methods, and to the relations of metric and text editing. The book itself supplies scansions and analysis of Aristophanes.
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Stinton, T. C. W. 1990. Pause and period in the lyrics of Greek tragedy. In Collected papers on Greek tragedy. By T. C. W.
Stinton, 310361. Oxford: Clarendon.
Examines the coincidence of metrical period end and sense-unit pauses as an aid to determining the correct placement of period
end in a dramatic strophe. Originally printed in Classical Quarterly 27 (1977): 2772.
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Willink, C. W. 2002. The metre of Stesichorus PMG 15/192. Mnemosyne, ser. 4, 55.6: 709711.
Reviews all the factors that go into making a determination of colon and so provides an excellent illustration of the colometric theory
of analysis.
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INDO-EUROPEAN METRICS
Meillet 1923 first argued the close correspondence of Aeolic and Vedic meters. Watkins 1963 put the theory on a more solid footing
with a wider comparative perspective. West 1973b reconstructed the earliest forms as syllable counting, and West 1973a brought
the history of Greek verse down to the archaic period, emphasizing the formation of cola. Nagy 1974 provides a formal analysis of
the derivation of all the verse types, with an emphasis on the development of hexameter from shorter lyric verse, and argues that
the history of metrical form was part of the history of oral formulas. Nagy 1996 provides a revised version of this argument for the
evolution of each verse type and should now be considered a primary statement of the prehistoric diachronic development of poetic
meter. An important consequence of the theory of Indo-European origins is that it justifies assuming that the Aeolic poetic tradition
developed separately from the tradition found in the hexamter epic. Gasparov 1996 puts Greek in the context of the other modern
derivatives of Indo-European, with a surprising emphasis on the persistence of syllable-counting in Greek.
Gasparov, M. L. 1996. A history of European versification. Edited by G. S. Smith and Leofranc Holford-Strevens.
Translated by G. S. Smith and Marina Tarlinskaja. Oxford: Clarendon.
Surveys and classifies the history of verse forms in the poetry of Indo-European languages in the European tradition.
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Page 22 of 34
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Meillet, A. 1923. Les origines indo-europennes des mtres grecs. Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France.
Explores the similarity of Greek and Vedic meters, particularly in regard to Aeolic.
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Nagy, Gregory. 1974. Comparative studies in Greek and Indic meter. Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 33.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Examines the Indo-European heritage of both metrical form and oral formula.
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Nagy, Gregory. 1996. Metrical convergences and divergences in early Greek poetry and song. In Struttura e storia
dellesametro Greco. Vol. 2. Edited by Marco Fantuzzi and Roberto Pretagostini, 63119. Studi di metrica classica 10.
Rome: Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale.
A complete analysis of the diachronic development of Greek verse forms. Revised version of the appendix to Nagys Pindars
Homer (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1990). The original version is available online.
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Watkins, Calvert. 1963. Indo-European metrics and archaic Irish verse. Celtica 6:194249.
Looks at verse forms in a number of languages to establish firmly the prehistoric basis of meter in Indo-European languages.
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West, M. L. 1973a. Greek poetry 2000700 B.C. Classical Quarterly 23:179192.

Traces the development of the historical forms showing that cola formation took place before the verse developed rhythm.
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West, M. L. 1973b. Indo-European metre. Glotta 51:161187.

Argues that the predecessor forms of Greek verse were based on lines of equal syllable count.
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COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
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Unlike all the other fields surveyed in this article, (nonhistorical) comparative linguistics has been concerned mostly with the study
of the basic prosody, rhythm, and structure of Greek verse in the stichic forms. Studies of the hexameter as a system of word
groupings were to some degree influenced by parallel work in Slavic. Erlich 1980 provides an introduction. Allen 1973 had the
explicit intent of introducing linguistic concepts, by then standard outside the world of classics, to students of classical metrics. W.
Sidney Allens distinction between vowel quantity (long versus short) and syllable quantity (heavy versus light) makes clear that
Greek verse is built on a contrast of structures (of the syllable close) rather than note-like durations. Devine and Stephens 1975
demonstrates that formally it is impossible for anceps to be treated as an intermediate duration. This break with the previous notion
of meter as durational rhythm must be considered an essential study. Allen 1973 also introduces the authors theory that Greek
meters reflect a nonaccentual word stress in spoken Greek. This argument has been widely confused by traditional scholars with
the 19th-century argument for a rhythmic ictus. For classicists, Parsons 1999, although focused on a problem in Latin, is a good
introduction to what linguists call the metrical theory of speech stress and shows how theories of speech stress can be
incorporated into actual metrical theory. Devine and Stephens 1984 argues that the multitude of rules for bridges and caesuras can
best be understood by the assumption that they reflect such a stress as a property of speech. Devine and Stephens 1993 explores
the basis of meter in the psychology of speech. Devine and Stephens 1994 collects a mass of metrically relevant data to explore
the theory of stress in speech and further illumines the relation between ordinary and metrical language.
Allen, W. Sidney. 1973. Accent and rhythm: Prosodic features of Latin and Greek; A study in theory and reconstruction.
Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 12. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
A general introduction to linguistics for students of classical verse, as well as an argument for the role of speech stress in the
hexameter.
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Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1975. Anceps. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 16:197215.
An essential article that demonstrates on formal grounds why anceps cannot have a quantity intermediate to long and short and
why the verse must be structured with only two quantities.
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Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1984. Language and metre: Resolution, Porsons bridge, and their prosodic
basis. American Classical Studies 12. Chico, CA: Scholars.
Tabulates and examines all the various bridge and caesura rules to show that they can largely be explained by assuming that a
property such as word stress is constraining the placement of words in the line.
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Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1993. Evidence from experimental psychology for the rhythm and metre of
Greek verse. Transactions of the American Philological Association 123:379403.
Valuable and very clear presentation of the psychological basis of rhythmic and metrical phenomenon, including length, anceps,
tempo, feet, and chunking.
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Find this resource:
Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1994. The prosody of Greek speech. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Although directed to reconstruction of the sound of speech, the study provides a wealth of information about the verbal rhythm in
verse.
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Erlich, Victor. 1980. Verse-structure: Sound and meaning. In Russian formalism: History, doctrine. 4th ed. By Victor Erlich,
212229. The Hague: Mouton.
Describes the theories emphasizing the roles of words as formal elements in verse form, which have been (indirectly) influential in
the development of theories of normative structure in Greek verse.
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Parsons, Jed. 1999. A new approach to Saturnian verse and its relations to Latin prosody. Transactions of the American
Philological Association 129:117137.
Explains, in terms familiar to the study of the classical languages, how the linguistic method of analyzing speech called metrical
theory, which produces a hierarchy of binary groups, can be applied to the study of meter.
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M. L. WESTS FUSION OF METER AND RHYTHM
The work of M. L. West stands somewhat apart, since he attempts to combine a renewed emphasis on meter as an expression of
musical rhythm, the improved historical theories, and some of the findings of structural linguistics. The amalgam is reflected in West
1982 (in Handbooks and Reference Works) but is not explained there. Readers should consult West 1992 for his theory that rhythm
is expressed in measured beats and in unequal bar lengths. West 1980 makes the argument for the explanatory advantages of his
rhythmic theory through the case of lyric iambs. Reviews of West 1982, starting from a variety of positions, have called into
question either the basis of his theoretical unification of meter and rhythm or the consequences, and these are helpful for
understanding the problems involved. Pretagostini 1986 takes advantage of the similarities of Wests theories with older, rhythmical
schools to criticize his combination of those with the formalism of modern studies, whereas Sicking 1986 finds the rhythmic theories
logically and linguistically untenable. Diggle 1984 does not discuss problems of theory but faults the degree to which anomalies are
justified by Wests analyses.
Diggle, J. 1984. M. L. West: Greek Metre. Classical Quarterly 34:6671.

In this review, Diggle takes issue with the applications of a theoretical analysis that allow readings in the dramatic texts that should
be considered indefensible.
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Page 25 of 34
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Pretagostini, Roberto. 1986. La metrica greca e la metrica di M. L. West: Review of M. L. West, Greek Metre. Quaderni
Urbinati di Cultura Classica 52:149154.
Explains and regrets the mixture of traditional rhythmical theories with the reductionism of the school of Paul Maas and Bruno Snell.
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Sicking, C. M. J. 1986. Review of Greek Metre by M. L. West and Griechische Metrik 4 by B. Snell. Mnemosyne 39:423432.
Argues at length that the rhythmical theories underlying Wests book are inconsistent and do not justify his account of the meters.
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West, M. L. 1980. Iambics in Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar. Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 37:137155.
Examines the use of iambics in lyric to show that, whether they are syncopated or catalectic or not, they express the rhythm of the
metron.
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West, M. L. 1992. Rhythm and tempo. In Ancient Greek music. By M. L. West, 129159. Oxford: Clarendon.
Explains the rhythmical theory that underlies his metrical system, including anaclasis (similarly to prototype theory), rhythmical
measures with time signatures, and musical bars of varying length (adapted from T. Georgiades), which are sometimes overlapping
(as in G. D. Thomson). Compare the criticisms in the review by Otto Steinmayer in Arion, 3d. ser., 4 (19961997): 223226.
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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In Dale 1969 the author A. M. Dale recognizes that analysis by cola does not work in much nondramatic choral lyric, and she
adapts Paul Maass description of dactylo-epitrite by short units into a more far-reaching rhythmical system. Some general theories
proposed in the last quarter of the 20th century reflect attempts to accommodate the findings of linguistics. Lidov 1989 observes
that the norm in Greek is an alternation of fixed and variable positions and argues that this satisfies the expectation of rhythm
without regard to colon structure. Cole 1988 provides a comprehensive theory of lyric verse based on the notion of rhythm as
temporal design by distinguishing between abstract patterns of the langue, which connect by overlap to form their varied realization
in parole. The complexities of the theory are best explored through the review Haslam 1991 and the discussion in Danielewicz 1996
(in Bibliographies, Guides, and Dictionaries). It is especially useful for the analysis of responding verses with word patterns implying
different organizations. Sicking 1993 offers a completely new presentation, using Dales metrical units to define the possible
combinations that express the structural contrast of marked and unmarked positions and analyzing their distribution into rising and
falling cola.
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Cole, Thomas. 1988. Epiploke: Rhythmical continuity and poetic structure in Greek lyric. Loeb Classical Monographs.
Cambridge, MA: Department of Classics, Harvard Univ.
Proposes that verses are not segmented into cola but are the surface expression of a limited number of underlying patterns of
rhythms.
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Dale, A. M. 1969. The metrical units of Greek lyric verse, I, II, III. In Collected Papers: A. M. Dale. By A. M. Dale, 4197.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Develops and applies a theory that there were two types of lyric verse construction: by cola, as seen in drama, and in nondramatic
choral lyric, by two metrical units (rhyhtmically equivalent to the cretic and choriamb) concatenated in various ways. Also printed
in Classical Quarterly 49 (1950): 138148; and Classical Quarterly, n.s., 1 (1951): 2030, 119129.
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Haslam, M. 1991. Review of T. Cole, Epiploke. Classical Philology 86: 229239.

Provides a skeptical but helpful explanation of Coles argument.
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Lidov, J. B. 1989. Alternating rhythm in archaic Greek poetry. Transactions of the American Philological Association
119:6385.
Argues that a normative alternation of fixed and variable positions shapes audience perception of Greek verse and provides its
rhythmic basis.
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Sicking, C. M. J. 1993. Griechische Verslehre. Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft. Munich: Beck.

Refashions the presentation of Greek meters entirely in terms of sequences created by the opposition of two quantities.
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Special Studies
For metrical problems relevant to individual authors or works, one should consult individual commentaries. Listed in this section are
a number of items that focus on particular problems or texts but offer conclusions or have implications that are more generally
significant.
Page 27 of 34
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PROBLEMS OF THEORY AND REPRESENTATION
Rossi 1963 clarifies the various phenomena called common in the ancient literature and anceps in the modern. Pretagostini
1978 looks at some passages from drama that might be analyzed by metra or by cola to bring out the fundamental difference in the
two types (in contrast to Bruno Snells willingness to combine them). This work also stands here for this authors large number of
thoughtful articles discussing verse structure in terms of ancient approaches. West 1982 looks at the importance of catalexis in
Greek verse structures, the nature of anceps, and the significance of caesura as both a term and a phenomenon. Daitz 1991
gathers the evidence relevant to the status of period end as an actual pause. Ruijgh 1987 looks for an explanation of the ancient
observations of distinctions in the length of long syllables in the phonological effect of final syllables in verse rhythm.
Daitz, Stephen G. 1991. On reading Homer aloud: To pause or not to pause. American Journal of Philology 112:149160.
Gathers all the evidence from Antiquity concerning whether period ends (and caesuras) were actual pauses in delivery, and argues
that they were.
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Pretagostini, Roberto. 1978. Sistemi e sistemi v. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 28 (1978):
165179.
Analyzes passages where it is difficult to determine the type of construction to illustrate the different character of each.
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Rossi, L. E. 1963. Anceps, vocale, sillaba, elemento. Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 91:5271.
Examines all the phenomena labeled common and anceps and suggests a clarified scheme for distinguishing among them.
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Ruijgh, C. J. 1987. : Le prolongement de la dure dune syllabe finale dans le rythme du

mot grec. Mnemosyne 40:313352.
Starting from ancient reports about different kinds of long syllable, argues that word-final lengthening played a role in the perception
of rhythm.
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West, M. L. 1982. Three topics in Greek metre. Classical Quarterly 32:281297.

A study of the phenomena of catalexis, anceps, and caesura.
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Page 28 of 34
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SAPPHO AND ALCAEUS
Voigt 1971 provides a full metrical analysis for the fragments of Sappho and Alcaeus. Liberman 1999 gives a more detailed
discussion of the evidence of Alcaeus. Liberman 2007 reconstructs the meters behind the arrangement of Sapphos books. Irigoin
1956 applies the authors theory of colon synaphy to the Lesbian poets and in the process presents data for bridge and word-end
patterns.
Irigoin, Jean. 1956. La structure des vers oliens. LAntiquit Classique 35:519.
Gathers the statistics for bridge positions in Aeolic verse to demonstrate its colon structure.
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Liberman, Gauthier. 2007. Ldition alexandrine de Sappho. In I papiri di Saffo e di Alceo: Atti del convegno internazionale
di studi, Firenze, 89 giugno 2006. Vol. 9. Edited by Guido Bastianini and Angelo Casanova, 4165. Studi e testi di
papirologia. Florence: Istituto papirologico G. Vitelli.
Reconstructs all of Sapphos meters to explain the composition of the Alexandrian edition.
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Liberman, Gauthier, ed. 1999. Alce: Fragments. 2 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
The prefatory material contains a full catalgue of the meters in the fragments and a collection of all the relevant testimonia.
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Voigt, Eva-Maria, ed. 1971. Sappho et Alcaeus: Fragmenta. Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak and Van Gennep.
The standard text. It contain a conspectus metrorum analyzing all the meters according to Bruno Snells system.
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CHORAL LYRIC OUTSIDE DRAMA
Haslam 1974 collects the evidence for the meters of Stesichorus, and Haslam 1978 widens to a discussion of the evolution of
dactylo-epitrite. Gentili 1999 uses these analyses to briefly summarize the objections to Paul Maass units as a mode of analyzing
dactylo-epitrite. Frher 1976, a set of three articles, explores the colometry of a number of problematic choral texts and reconsiders
the question of freedom of responsion. Lidov 2010 uses three Aeolic strophes to argue that the simple identification of colon with
rhythm has in fact complicated the presentation of both and obscured some structures. Barrett 2007 examines in detail two
situations where the interchangeability of long and short appears to have been taken too much for granted. It documents the
peculiar restrictions (relative to other poets) that Pindar puts on the occurrence of short anceps and of period-final syllables ending
in a short vowel. Itsumi 2009 attempts a new analysis of Pindars odes not classed as dactylo-epitrite with a new set of short
metrical phrases, and in the process breaks down the rigid distinction between the two types.
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Barrett, W. S. 2007. Two studies in Pindaric metre. In Greek lyric, tragedy, and textual criticism: Collected papers. Edited
by M. L. West, 118206. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Short anceps occurs only in positions responding to a first instance in the first strophe or epode, and words ending in a short vowel
are avoided at period end.
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Fhrer, Rudolph. 1976. Beitrge zur Metrik und Textkritik der griechischen Lyriker: 1, 2, 3. Gttingen, Germany:
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
A series of studies covering three particularly difficult problems of colometry (in Simonides, Alcaeus, and Bacchylides) and the
question of freedom of responsion.
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Gentili, Bruno. 1999. Polemichetta metrica: Anceps-biceps nella Tebaide di Stesicoro? Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura
Classica 61:8991.
Cogently summarizes the objections to link anceps in Paul Maass description and Bruno Snells theory of dactylo-eptrite.
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Haslam, Michael. 1974. Stesichorean metre. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 17:757.
Brings together everything that can be reconstructed from the papyri and testimonia about Stesichorus metrical practice.
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Haslam, Michael. 1978. The versification of the new Stesichorus (P.Lille 76abc). Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
19:2957.
Broadens Haslam 1974 with new material that allows Haslam to reconstruct an origin for the dactylo-epitrite.
Find this resource:
Itsumi, Kiichiro. 2009. Pindaric metre: The other half. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199229611.001.0001 Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
A comprehensive analysis of the odes that are not dactylo-epitrite into metrical structures that break from the categories of Bruno
Snells and others analyses.
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Page 30 of 34
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Lidov, Joel B. 2010. Meter, colon, and rhythm: Simonides (PMG 542) and Pindar between archaic and classical. Classical
Philology 105:2553.
Argues that the structure of some stanzas shows that it is misleading to assume that colometry indicates the rhythm.
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DRAMA: TRAGEDY
Dale 19711983 (published posthumously) provides scansion and the authors colometric analysis of all the choruses. Pohlsander
1964 gives a metrical analysis of all Sophoclean lyric. H. A. Pohlsander provides references to the other metrical interpretations of
each passage, comments on points of difficulty and interest, and provides tables on patterns of strophe construction, overlap, and
other metrical phenomena. In Euripides 1964, W. S. Barrett offers a simplified scheme for Aeolic in drama (somewhat like that in
Raven 1968; see Handbooks and Reference Works) that many have found persuasive. Three valuable articles sort out the use of
some cola that can be particularly difficult to distinguish in all the tragedians: Itsumi 1982 on the choriambic dimeter, Itsumi 1984 on
the glyconic, and Itsumi 19911993 on the enoplian. Conomis 1964 gives the details for the use of the peculiarly tragic colon, the
dochmiac. A series of dochmiacs, or of dochmiacs and iambs, presents few problems. Medda 1993 looks at all the passages where
colometric analysis can posit dochmiacs combined with other metra. Brown 1974 starts from A. M. Dales observation of the
irregularity of cola in Euripides and, without appeals to the new music, shows the principles by which Euripides introduces more
and more freedom and variation into the inherited structure.
Brown, S. G. 1974. Metrical innovations in Euripides later plays. American Journal of Philology 95.3: 207234.
Finds the principles by which Euripides begins to vary the usual concept of the colon so that increasingly different forms function as
equivalent.
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Conomis, N. C. 1964. The dochmiacs of Greek drama. Hermes 92:2350.

Organizes all of the different forms taken by dochmiacs and determines which ones are most and least common.
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Dale, A. M. 19711983. Metrical analyses of tragic choruses. 3 vols. Bulletin Supplement 21.13. London: Institute of
Classical Studies, Univ. of London.
Furnishes scansion, colometric analysis, and the text of both strophe and antistrophe for all the choruses, arranged by metrical
type, with brief comments taken from Dales notebooks.
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Page 31 of 34
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Euripides. 1964. Hippolytos. Edited by W. S. Barrett. Oxford: Clarendon.

Offers a novel presentation of dramatic Aeolic as segments of a line centered on a choriamb; see pages 421423.
Find this resource:
Itsumi, Kiichiro. 1982. The choriambic dimeter of Euripides. Classical Quarterly 32:5974.
Classifies all of the uses in tragedy according to form and tries to trace the history of the use of this colon.
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Itsumi, Kiichiro. 1984. The glyconic in tragedy. Classical Quarterly 34:6682.

DOI: 10.1017/S000983880002930X Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
Studies all of the forms and uses of the glyconic.
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Itsumi, Kiichiro. 19911993. Enoplian in tragedy. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 38:243261.
DOI: 10.1111/j.2041-5370.1993.tb00716.x Save Citation Export Citation E-mail Citation
Tries to make sense of a particularly amorphous group of cola with successive double shorts that not all adherents of the colometric
method recognize as a single group.
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Medda, Enrico. 1993. Su alcune associazioni del docmio con altri metri in tragedia (cretico, molosso, baccheo, spondeo,
trocheo, coriambo). Studi Classici e Orientali 43:101234.
Examines problems of text and colomentery wherever dochmiacs are preceded, followed, or interrupted by metra other than
iambic.
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Pohlsander, H. A. 1964. Metrical studies in the lyrics of Sophocles. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Provides scansions, analysis of colometry with commentary, and supplementary material covering a wide range of problems.
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DRAMA: COMEDY
In addition to White 1912 (in Historical Theories and the New Metrics) and Parker 1997 (in Dale and Colometric Analysis) as
Page 32 of 34
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exemplifications of Dales methods, there are two more modern comprehensive studies of Aristophanes colometry. The scansion
of all of the plays in Prato 1962 is accompanied by the metrical scholia for each passage, with brief notes on alternative passages.
Zimmermann 19841987 organizes the analysis by internal components or genres (e.g., parabasis, hymns), rather than by play,
and provides scansion, analysis, and commentary, sometimes quite full, on formal as well as metrical features. The eupolidean is a
verse form peculiar to comedy; since each of its hemistichs appears to be a choriambic dimeter, it is also of special metrical
interest. Poultney 1979 gathers all the instances from Old and Middle Comedy and discusses its use, its relations to other types,
and its origins.
Poultney, J. W. 1979. Eupolidean verse. American Journal of Philology 100:133144.

Catalogues all instances of the form in comedy from all periods and discusses what can be known about it.
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Prato, Carlo. 1962. I canti di Aristofane: Analisi, commento, scoli metrici. Studi di metrica classical. Rome: Edizioni
dellAteneo.
Scansion and analysis of the choruses of each play with the scholia; more accepting of irregular responsion than Parker 1997 (in
Dale and Colometric Analysis).
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Zimmermann, Bernhard von. 19841987. Untersuchungen zur Form und dramatischen Technik der Aristophanischen
Komdien. 3 vols. Beitrge zur klassischen Philologie 154, 166, 178. Knigstein, Germany: Hain.
A discussion of the lyrics arranged by functional type. The commentary includes metrical analyses, and the final volume is a
scansion and analysis of all the strophes discussed.
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LAST MODIFIED: 05/25/2011

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195389661-0094
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