Cretic and paeonic

Cretic and paeonic rhythms in lyric and comedy, and their relation to iambic verse.

The metrical families one by one: dactylic, iambic, trochaic, aeolic, ionic, anapaestic, dochmiac and the rest.

Cretic and paeonic · 1 of 3

The cretic and the paeons

The cretic is the metron — ⏑ —. It is five morae long. A mora is the unit of time: a short syllable takes one, a long syllable two, so — ⏑ — lasts 2 + 1 + 2. “Cretic-paeonic” is West’s name for verse built from it.^[1] Writers on the music say the same in their own terms. The rhythm is quintuple time, two beats against three, familiar from east-European folk music. It is a five-time foot with no fixed preference for 2 + 3 or 3 + 2. It is versatile enough for the solemn Delphic hymns and for the bawdy songs of Aristophanes.^[2] Here a cretic opens a line of Euripides’ Medea:

εἰ δὲ σὸς πόσις καινὰ λέχη σεβίζει

cr — ⏑ —εἰ—eiδὲ⏑deσὸς—soshipponacteanπό⏑poσις—sisκαι—kaiνὰ⏑naλέ⏑leχη—chēσε⏑seβί—biζει—zei

If your husband honours a new bed,

Euripides, Medea 155–156. Red: the cretic, 2 + 1 + 2 = 5 morae, before an aeolic colon.

synthetic ∿

Learners meet the shape in two quite different places. It is a metre in its own right, in Alcman and in the lively songs of Aristophanes. It is also a shape that appears inside iambic song when a position is suppressed. The two must be kept apart.

The ancient feet. Hephaestion counts the three-syllable feet of five times. They are the bacchius ⏑ — —, the amphimacer or cretic — ⏑ —, and the palimbacchius — — ⏑. The molossus — — — has six.^[3] Among the four-syllable feet of five times are the four paeons: first — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑, second ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑, third ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑, fourth ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ —.^[4]

His chapter on the “paeonic” metre says that it has three kinds: cretic, bacchiac and palimbacchiac. The palimbacchiac is unsuited to song. The cretic is suited to it, “and it admits resolutions into the so-called paeons”. The poets themselves called it cretic. Cratinus does so in the Trophonius: ἔγειρε δὴ νῦν, μοῦσα, κρητικὸν μέλος, “wake now, Muse, a Cretan song”.^[5] The bacchiac is rare, found only in short stretches.^[6]

The modern view. The modern account starts from Alcman 58. Its lines are built of cretic metra, — ⏑ — (cr), and end in a catalectic metron — —, one that lacks its final position. Later poets admit resolution, the splitting of a long into two shorts. This gives — ⏑ ⏖ or ⏖ ⏑ —, the “paeonic” feet, or sometimes ⏖ ⏑ ⏖. These resolutions show that the metron is a unit of five morae. It is distinct from the “spurious” cretic ⌊ ⏑ — (∧ia), which appears in later iambic lyric as the equivalent of an iambic metron.^[7] Here are two resolved cretics, each with its last long split, in a line of the Bacchae:

λωτὸς ὅταν εὐκέλαδος

first paeon — ⏑ ⏖λω—lōτὸ⏑toς ὅ⏑shoτα⏑tafirst paeonν εὐ—neuκέ⏑keλα⏑laδο(ς)⏑do(s)

when the sweet-sounding pipe

Euripides, Bacchae 160: two cretics, each with its last long resolved into two shorts (red). Each still lasts 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 morae. The final -ς (-s) of εὐκέλαδος (eukelados) begins the next line’s first syllable, so -δο- (-do-) is short.

synthetic ∿

The two shapes look alike on the page, but they differ in time. In the genuine cretic the first long is an ordinary two-mora long, and the whole metron lasts five morae. Syncopated iambics are iambics with a position suppressed; the sign ∧ marks the gap. In them the long marked ⌊ is a triseme. It is held for three morae, so that the metron keeps the six morae of × — ⏑ —.^[8] The musical documents bear this out. A cretic shape embedded in iambic rhythm has its first syllable prolonged, and in trochaic rhythm its last. A rhythmical papyrus (P.Oxy. 2687) prescribes this, and the placing of rests in the scores confirms it.^[9]

Counting morae. Each box is a syllable, as wide as the time it takes; the small figure is its length in morae. Above the dashed line, six morae: the syncopated metron keeps the time of the iambic one because its first long (red) is a triseme, held for three. Below it, five: the genuine cretic and its resolved forms, which stop one mora short (red dotted line).

Here are three syncopated metra in a row, in a line of the Agamemnon:

μνησιπήμων πόνος· καὶ παρ’ ἄ-

∧ia ⌊ ⏑ —μνη—mnēσι⏑siπή—pē∧iaμων—mōnπό⏑poνος—nos∧iaκαὶ—kaiπα⏑paρ’ἄ-—r’ā

the painful memory of woe; and to the unwilling too

Aeschylus, Agamemnon 180: three syncopated iambic metra among iambics. Red: the first long of each, held for three morae.

synthetic ∿

For West, Bacchylides 17 proves the equivalence. Responsion is the matching of strophe and antistrophe, position by position. At eight places the scheme of this ode lets a syncopated iambic metron in one stanza answer an unsyncopated one in the other, mostly ⏕ ⏑ — with ⏒ — ⏑ —. The time of the missing short goes to one of the longs beside it, which becomes a triseme.^[10] Maehler reads the same ode as cretic instead (the reading is disputed).

Shape	Name in West	What it is	Where
— ⏑ —	cr	genuine cretic, 5 morae; resolvable	Alcman, Aristophanes, Delphic paeans
— ⏑ ⏖	“first paeon”	the commonest resolved form in drama	West p. 55
⏖ ⏑ —	“fourth paeon”	the rarer resolved form	West pp. 39, 55
⏖ ⏑ ⏖	fully resolved cretic	occasional	West p. 39
⌊ ⏑ —	∧ia	syncopated iambic metron, 6 morae with a triseme	Pindar, tragedy
⏑ — ⌊	ia∧	syncopated iambic, “baccheus”	tragedy
⌊ ⌊	∧ia∧	syncopated iambic, “spondee”; in the iambic odes of Simonides, Bacchylides and Pindar at period-end only	West pp. 46, 52

Three of the rarer shapes in lines of verse:

16.11 τόσα χοροὶ Δελφῶν

fourth paeon ⏖ ⏑ —τό⏑toσα⏑saχο⏑choροὶ—roispondeeΔελ—delφῶν—phōn

songs as many as these the Delphian choirs

Bacchylides 16.11. Red: the first long of the cretic resolved into two shorts.

6.1 Λάχων Διὸς μεγίστου

iaΛά⏑laχων—chōnΔι⏑diὸς—osia∧ “baccheus” ⏑ — —με⏑meγίσ—gisτου—tou

Lachon from Zeus the highest

Bacchylides 6.1: an iambic metron, then one that has lost its short syllable.

ἄγ’ αὖτ’ ἐς οἶκον τὸν Κλεησίππω

iaἄ⏑aγ’αὖ—g’auτ’ἐ⏑t’eς οἶ—soiiaκον—konτὸν—tonΚλε⏑kleη—ē∧ia∧ “spondee”σίπ—sipπω×pō

Come, home again to the house of Cleesippus.

Alcman, quoted by Hephaestion: two iambic metra and, at the end of the line, one with two positions suppressed.

synthetic ∿

Why “paeonic” is added. In drama West qualifies “cretic” with “paeonic” for two reasons. One is how often the resolved form — ⏑ ⏖ (rarely ⏖ ⏑ —) occurs there. The ancient metricians called this form the first paeon. The other is the need to tell it apart from the “cretics” that appear by syncopation among iambics. West doubts that cr and ∧ia can always be kept strictly apart, given certain things in Aristophanes. But he holds that the cretic is still plainly a category of its own, separate from iambic.^[11]

The practical test is resolution. A cretic among dochmiacs in Agamemnon 1136 ff. is totally resolved. That proves these to be genuine cretics and not syncopated iambics.^[12] A recurring sequence of three shorts between longs is the distinguishing mark of the metre.^[11] Aristophanes’ paeonic verses are the main classical home of the rhythm, and they show the same fluidity between paeonic and trochaic. The Hellenistic paeans of Delphi are almost entirely paeonic, with long syllables often split between two notes.^[13] In Agamemnon 1142 a fully resolved cretic stands beside a plain one:

νόμον ἄνομον, οἷά τις ξουθὰ

cr fully resolved ⏖ ⏑ ⏖νό⏑noμο⏑moν ἄ⏑naνο⏑noμο⏑mocr — ⏑ —ν οἷ—nhoiά⏑aτις—tis∧ia∧ξου—xouθὰ×thā

a strain that is no strain, like some quick-voiced bird,

Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1142, among dochmiacs. Red: both longs of the first cretic resolved, five shorts for five morae.

synthetic ∿

Neighbours. Cretics and bacchei occur in short sequences among dochmiacs. The combinations cr δ, δ cr, ia δ and δ ia are common. There are also “dragged” cretics, with a long in the middle position.^[12] In Aristophanes the resolved (paeonic) cretic — ⏑ ⏖ has a special affinity with the trochaic metron. He passes from cretics into trochaics and back, or mixes them, or lets a resolved cretic respond with a trochaic metron. It is as though, for comic song and dance, the heart of trochaic rhythm were the shape — ⏑ × ⏑.^[11] In Birds 327–35 ~ 343–51 the anapaest in its resolved, proceleusmatic form, ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑, becomes interchangeable with the cretic (paeon).^[14]

The ancient tetrameter. A tetrameter is a line of four metra. Hephaestion describes the standard comic line. Some poets take first paeons in every place except the last, where they put a cretic, “and so they compose the much-talked-of tetrameter”. He quotes Aristophanes’ Georgoi and Wasps and Eupolis’ Kolakes.^[15]

Notes

^ West 1987, pp. 39, 55.
^ West 1992, pp. 140–141; Landels 1999, c. p. 121.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 3.2.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 3.3.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.1.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.8.
^ West 1987, p. 39.
^ West 1987, pp. 7, 47.
^ Devine and Stephens 1994, p. 115.
^ West 1987, p. 47.
^ ^a ^b ^c West 1987, p. 55.
^ ^a ^b West 1987, p. 57.
^ West 1992, pp. 141–142.
^ West 1987, p. 61.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.2.

Sources

West, M. L. 1987. Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford. p. 7 (triseme), p. 39 (cretics in Alcman; paeonic resolutions; the 'spurious' cretic), pp. 46–47 (syncopated iambic metra; Bacchylides 17), p. 52 (cretic, baccheus, spondee as syncopated iambics), p. 55 (cretic-paeonic in drama: first paeon, distinction from ∧ia, affinity with trochaic), p. 57 (genuine cretics and dragged cretics among dochmiacs), p. 61 (anapaest interchanging with cretic), Glossary-index pp. 85, 88, 90 (baccheus, molossus, paeon, palimbaccheus, tribrach) (all checked against page images).
Maehler, H. 2004. Bacchylides: A Selection. Cambridge. p. 17 (Bacchylides 17 read as cretic).
Hephaestion, Enchiridion 3.2–3 (the five-time feet and the four paeons) and 13.1–4 (the paeonic metre) (ed. Consbruch 1906), public domain; Greek text from First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0.
West, M. L. 1992. Ancient Greek Music. Oxford. pp. 140–143 (paeonic rhythm as quintuple time; Aristophanes' paeonic verses and their fluidity with trochaics; the Delphic paeans almost entirely paeonic, with longs split between two notes); from read-music's notes of the OCR, printed page = PDF page − 11.
Landels, J. G. 1999. Music in Ancient Greece and Rome. London. c. p. 121 (the cretic or paeonic as a five-time foot, — ⏑ — with the resolved variants, divided 2 + 3 or 3 + 2; used for the Delphic hymns and for Aristophanic comedy alike); read in the reflowed e-book, page estimated from the text layer's markers.
Devine, A. M. and L. D. Stephens. 1994. The Prosody of Greek Speech. New York and Oxford. p. 115 (a cretic set in iambic rhythm has its first syllable prolonged, in trochaic its last: P.Oxy. 2687 and the musical documents); read on the text layer of ch. 3, printed page = PDF page + 84.
Worked examples: Euripides, Medea 155–156 and Bacchae 160 (ed. Murray), Aeschylus, Agamemnon 180 and 1142 (ed. Smyth), Bacchylides 6.1 and 16.11 (ed. Jebb), all via the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0; Alcman, quoted by Hephaestion (Consbruch's text via First1KGreek); scansions and translations from the site's own pages for these passages.

Text © metrehelp.org, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hephaestion: public domain via First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0. Euripides, Aeschylus, Bacchylides: Perseus Digital Library (eds Murray, Smyth, Jebb), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quotations from copyrighted works are not covered by this licence.

Cretic and paeonic · 2 of 3

Who used cretics

Alcman. The earliest cretics in West’s survey are Alcman’s (PMG 58). These are two lines of pure cretic metra, closed by the catalectic — —.^[1] Hephaestion quotes the same lines as his example of a cretic hexameter catalectic, “composed of amphimacers alone”. He adds that the paeonic metre can run as far as six metra “because it does not exceed thirty times”:^[2]

Ἀφροδίτα μὲν οὐκ ἔστι, μάργος δ’ Ἔρως οἷα ⟨παῖς⟩ παίσδει

cr — ⏑ —Ἀφ—aphρο⏑roδί—dicrτα—taμὲ⏑meν οὐ—noucrκ ἔσ—kesτι⏑tiμάρ—marcrγος—gosδ’Ἔ⏑d’eρω—rōcrς οἷ—shoiα⏑aπαῖς—pais— —, catalecticπαίσ—paisδει—dei

ἄκρ’ ἐπ’ ἄνθη καβαίνων, ἃ μή μοι θίγῃς, τῶ κυπαιρίσκω.

cr — ⏑ —ἄκ—akρ’ἐ⏑r’eπ’ἄν—p’ancrθη—thēκα⏑kaβαί—baicrνω—nōν ἃ⏑nhaμή—mēcrμοι—moiθί⏑thiγῃς—gēiscrτῶ—tōκυ⏑kyπαι—pai— —, catalecticρίσ—risκω—kō

It is not Aphrodite: it is wild Eros playing like a child, stepping down onto the flower-tips of the galingale. Do not touch them, I beg you.

Alcman, PMG 58, quoted by Hephaestion: five cretics and a catalectic close in each line; no position resolved.

synthetic ∿

West marks the syllable-divisions Ἀφ|ροδ- and ἀκ|ρ’. So both opening syllables are long by position, and the ι and final α of Ἀφροδίτα are long.^[1] No position is resolved. The five-time metron is used in its plain form.

Bacchylides (disputed). Hephaestion notes that “whole songs are composed in cretics, as in Bacchylides”, and quotes the opening of one.^[3] West’s three categories for Simonides, Bacchylides and Pindar are dactylo-epitrite, aeolic and iambic. He counts Bacchylides 17 among the iambic poems. At eight places in it, syncopated and unsyncopated iambic metra respond.^[4]

Maehler reads the same ode differently. For him the story of Theseus’ voyage to Crete is told in a predominantly “Cretan” metre of cretics and paeons. Bacchylides experiments with it much as Pindar experiments with dactylo-epitrite. Maehler finds a new “long cretic”, — ⏑ — ⏑ —, again and again. He finds link-syllables as in dactylo-epitrite, mostly short except at the beginning or end of a period. Lines that seem to begin iambic are better taken as a cretic with a preceding syllable. And an apparent lekythion is better taken as cr ⏑ cr, not cr ia.^[5]

Tragedy. Tragedy has hardly any cretic-paeonic. The only wholly cretic strophe is Aeschylus, Suppliants 418–22 ~ 423–7. The strophe that follows begins cretic but turns into dochmiacs.^[6] Otherwise cretics appear in short sequences in dochmiac contexts. There their resolution marks them as genuine cretics rather than syncopated iambics.^[7]

Old Comedy. Aristophanes uses cretics particularly in his earlier plays. Periods are of various lengths, at least up to thirteen metra. But the commonest is a tetrameter, cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr ‖: three resolved metra and a final unresolved one.^[6] This is Hephaestion’s “much-talked-of tetrameter”. He illustrates it from the Georgoi:^[8]

ὦ πόλι φίλη Κέκροπος, αὐτοφυὲς Ἀττική,

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ὦ—ōπό⏑poλι⏑liφί⏑phi1st paeonλη—lēΚέ⏑keκρο⏑kroπο⏑po1st paeonς αὐ—sauτο⏑toφυ⏑phyὲ⏑ecr — ⏑ —ς Ἀτ—satτι⏑tiκή—kē

χαῖρε λιπαρὸν δάπεδον, οὖθαρ ἀγαθῆς χθονός.

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑χαῖ—chaiρε⏑reλι⏑liπα⏑pa1st paeonρὸν—ronδά⏑daπε⏑peδο⏑do1st paeonν οὖ—nouθα⏑thaρ ἀ⏑raγα⏑gacr — ⏑ —θῆς—thēsχθο⏑chthoνός—nos

O city dear to Cecrops, native-born Attica, hail, shining ground, udder of the good land.

Aristophanes, Georgoi, quoted by Hephaestion, Enchiridion 13.2: three first paeons and a cretic in each line. Red: the resolved long.

synthetic ∿

He adds that in the same play Aristophanes “somewhere put the fourth paeon instead of the first”: ἐν ἀγορᾷ δ’ αὖ πλάτανον εὖ διαφυτεύσομεν, ⏖ ⏑ — ¦ — ⏑ ⏖ ¦ — ⏑ ⏖ ¦ — ⏑ —. In the second Thesmophoriazusae, he says, Aristophanes often put plain cretics in the middle of such tetrameters.^[9] Simias, by contrast, favoured unresolved cretics. In one poem he resolved both longs. He used a foot of five shorts everywhere except the last place, where he put a fourth paeon.^[10] Some poets built the tetrameter the other way round, with three fourth paeons and a closing cretic:^[11]

θυμελικὰν ἴθι μάκαρ φιλοφρόνως εἰς ἔριν.

4th paeon ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ —θυ⏑thyμε⏑meλι⏑liκὰ—ka4th paeonν ἴ⏑niθι⏑thiμά⏑maκαρ—kar4th paeonφι⏑phiλο⏑loφρό⏑phroνω—nōcr — ⏑ —ς εἰ—seiς ἔ⏑seριν—rin

Come, blessed one, graciously to the contest of the stage.

Quoted by Hephaestion, Enchiridion 13.4: three fourth paeons and a closing cretic. Red: the resolved first long.

synthetic ∿

Theopompus extended the first-paeon pattern to a pentameter, the Theopompeion.^[12] In comedy the resolved cretic has a special relationship with the trochaic metron. Anapaest and cretic are exchanged in Birds 327–35 ~ 343–51.^[13]

Delphi and the Empire. There had probably been a long tradition of cretic-paeonic hymns at Delphi. It is reflected in two astrophic paeans by Athenian poets, performed there in 127 BC and inscribed with musical notation (CA 141 ff. = Pöhlmann 19, 20). Their periods vary in length. The first two that West prints are pentameters, and the next is far longer. The four forms of metron occur in this order of frequency: — ⏑ —, — ⏑ ⏖, ⏖ ⏑ —, ⏖ ⏑ ⏖.^[14] The cretic paeans of Limenius and Athenaeus are among the Hellenistic poems that use a lyric metre stichically rather than in strophes.^[15] West compares the Hymn to Apollo 514–19, PMG 950(a) and (b), and PMG 1031. The last is an invocation of Dionysus at a θυμελικὸς ἀγών, in tetrameters ^⏖cr ^⏖cr ^⏖cr cr.^[16]

Mesomedes’ short hymn to Isis dates from the Hadrianic period. In it the metron may also take the novel forms — — ⏑, ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ or ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑. In these, anaclasis has rearranged its time-values. The hymn is in dimeters with synapheia throughout. After it, cretic-paeonic is not found again.^[17]

Columns and foundations of a temple on a mountain slope, visitors on the path. — The temple of Apollo at Delphi

Notes

^ ^a ^b West 1987, p. 39.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.6.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.7.
^ West 1987, pp. 43, 46–47.
^ Maehler 2004, p. 17.
^ ^a ^b West 1987, p. 55.
^ West 1987, p. 57.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.2.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.3.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.3–4.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.4.
^ Hephaestion, Ench. 13.5.
^ West 1987, pp. 55, 61.
^ West 1987, pp. 71–72.
^ Morrison 2022, p. 397.
^ West 1987, p. 71 n. 4.
^ West 1987, p. 72.

Sources

West, M. L. 1987. Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford. p. 39 (Alcman 58, with West's quantity marks), p. 43 (the three categories of Simonides, Bacchylides and Pindar), pp. 46–47 (the iambic odes; Bacchylides 17 as syncopated iambic), p. 55 (cretic-paeonic in tragedy and Aristophanes), p. 57 (cretics among dochmiacs), p. 61 (cretic and anapaest in Birds), pp. 71–72 with p. 71 n. 4 (Delphic paeans of 127 BC; earlier parallels; Mesomedes; no later example) (all checked against page images).
Maehler, H. 2004. Bacchylides: A Selection. Cambridge. p. 17 (§5 Metre: Dithyramb 17 as a 'Cretan' ode of cretics and paeons with link-syllables).
Hephaestion, Enchiridion 13.2–7 (ed. Consbruch 1906), public domain; Greek text from First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lines of Alcman and of the comic poets quoted below are taken from Hephaestion's text.
Morrison, A. D. 2022. 'The Lyres of Orpheus', in L. Swift (ed.), A Companion to Greek Lyric. Wiley. ch. 27, p. 397 (the cretic paeans of Limenius and Athenaeus among the Hellenistic stichic uses of lyric metre).

Text © metrehelp.org, CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted Greek of Alcman, Aristophanes' Georgoi and the anonymous lyric: from Hephaestion, Enchiridion 13 (ed. Consbruch 1906), public domain via First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0. Quotations from copyrighted works are not covered by this licence.

Cretic and paeonic · 3 of 3

Worked example: Aristophanes, Acharnians 976–979

The chorus of the Acharnians has watched Dicaeopolis enjoy the fruits of his private peace. Now it sings of the good things that peace brings of their own accord. It sings too of War, the drunken guest whom they will never again let into the house. West quotes four lines as his specimen of the comic cretic tetrameter, numbering them 978–81.^[1] The text below is Hall and Geldart’s. It prints the preceding cretic lines as long verses and numbers them 971, 973, 975. So West’s 978–81 are its 976–979.

αὐτόματα πάντ’ ἀγαθὰ τῷδέ γε πορίζεται.

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑αὐ—auτό⏑toμα⏑maτα⏑ta1st paeonπάν—panτ’ἀ⏑t’aγα⏑gaθὰ⏑tha1st paeonτῷ—tōiδέ⏑deγε⏑geπο⏑pocr — ⏑ —ρί—riζε⏑zeται—tai

οὐδέποτ’ ἐγὼ Πόλεμον οἴκαδ’ ὑποδέξομαι,

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑οὐ—ouδέ⏑deπο⏑poτ’ἐ⏑t’e1st paeonγὼ—gōΠό⏑poλε⏑leμο⏑mo1st paeonν οἴ—noiκα⏑kaδ’ὑ⏑d’hyπο⏑pocr — ⏑ —δέ—deξο⏑xoμαι—mai

οὐδὲ παρ’ ἐμοί ποτε τὸν Ἁρμόδιον ᾄσεται

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑οὐ—ouδὲ⏑deπα⏑paρ’ἐ⏑r’e1st paeonμοί—moiπο⏑poτε⏑teτὸ⏑to1st paeonν Ἁρ—nharμό⏑moδι⏑diο⏑ocr — ⏑ —ν ᾄ—nāiσε⏑seται—tai

ξυγκατακλινείς, ὅτι παροινικὸς ἀνὴρ ἔφυ,

1st paeon — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ξυγ—xynκα⏑kaτα⏑taκλι⏑kli1st paeonνεί—neiς ὅ⏑shoτι⏑tiπα⏑pa1st paeonροι—roiνι⏑niκὸ⏑koς ἀ⏑sacr — ⏑ —νὴ—nēρ ἔ⏑reφυ—phy

All good things come to this man of their own accord. Never will I receive War into my house, nor shall he ever sing the Harmodius song at my table, reclining beside me, for he is a man who turns nasty in his cups.

Aristophanes, Acharnians: four tetrameters, cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr. Red: the resolved second long of each first paeon.

synthetic ∿

The scheme. Each line is a tetrameter, cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr^⏖ cr ‖. It has three metra with the second long resolved, giving the “first paeon” — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑, and an unresolved cretic to close.^[1] This is exactly the line Hephaestion describes: first paeons in every place but the last, which takes the cretic.^[2] The run of three short syllables between longs, repeated three times a line, is what marks the metre out.^[1]

Line by line.

976. In αὐτόματα, αὐ- is long, and three shorts follow. In the second metron πάν- is long by position, and τ’ ἀ-γα-θὰ gives the three shorts (the elided τ’ goes with the following vowel). τῷδέ γε πο- is the third metron. -ρίζεται is the fourth, with the final -αι long by nature.

977. οὐδέποτ’ ἐ- opens the line. Πόλεμον is personified, War as a party guest. Its three shorts fill the resolved position of the second metron, after the long -γώ. οἴκαδ’ ὑπο- is the third metron, and -δέξομαι the fourth.

978. τὸν before Ἁρμόδιον is short. Its ν goes with the next vowel (the rough breathing does not make position). The long of the third metron is Ἁρ-. -μόδιον gives the three shorts. The ο of -ον is short before the vowel of ᾄσεται.

979. Hall and Geldart’s text reads παροινικὸς ἀνήρ. There the third metron is resolved like the others: -ροινικὸς ἀ- gives the three shorts. West prints a different text, πάροινος ἁνήρ, with crasis (ὁ ἀνήρ, West marking the α long). So -ροινος ἁ- scans — ⏑ —. West comments on exactly that: “981 The third metron is unresolved”.^[1] The two readings differ in sense hardly at all, and the metre admits both. This is a reminder that scansion depends on the edition in hand. A metrical note in one book may describe a text that another book does not print.

Comic quantities. In ξυγκατακλινείς the α of -κατα- stays short before κλ. So does the ε of Κέκροπος in the Georgoi line that Hephaestion quotes.^[2] In Attic speech short syllables regularly remained short before stop + liquid. This is the normal scansion in the dialogue of comedy. The long scansion appears only in parody of tragedy or in a raised style (the same rule is the last in West’s list of features of the comic trimeter).^[3] For stop + liquid inside the word, the short scansion is overwhelmingly the norm in comedy. In comic dialogue the long one goes mainly with a formal style, as when tragedy is parodied.^[4] Each tetrameter ends in period-end (‖), though the sense runs on from 978 into 979.

Cretic or trochaic? Aristophanes passes from cretics into trochaics or back, or mixes them, or lets a (resolved) cretic respond with a trochaic metron. So close a link might suggest that the comic cretic was timed — ⏑ ⌊. Its last long would then be a triseme, so that it lasts as long as a trochaic metron. But a cretic of that shape could not be resolved into — ⏑ ⏖. West concludes that the affinity belongs rather to the paeonic form itself. It is as though, for comic song and dance, the heart of trochaic rhythm were the shape — ⏑ × ⏑.^[1]

The safe description of these four lines is therefore the one given above. They are four periods of genuine five-mora cretics, three of them resolved, in the pattern that Hephaestion already singled out as the standard comic tetrameter.

Two marble statues of striding men, one raising his arm to strike. — The Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e West 1987, p. 55.
^ ^a ^b Hephaestion, Ench. 13.2.
^ West 1987, pp. 16–17; cf. West 1987, p. 27.
^ Devine and Stephens 1994, pp. 34–35.

Sources

West, M. L. 1987. Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford. p. 55 (the comic cretic tetrameter; Ach. 978–81 quoted with quantity marks, and the note that the third metron of 981 is unresolved in his text; three shorts between longs as the mark of the metre; cretic and trochaic), pp. 16–17, 27 (stop + liquid in comedy), p. 39 (the five-mora metron) (all checked against page images).
Hephaestion, Enchiridion 13.2–3 (ed. Consbruch 1906), public domain; Greek text from First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Aristophanes, Acharnians 971–979 (Perseus Digital Library, ed. F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart), CC BY-SA 4.0. West cites the lines quoted as 978–81.
Devine, A. M. and Stephens, L. D. 1994. The Prosody of Greek Speech. New York and Oxford. pp. 34–35 (stop + liquid: short scansion overwhelmingly the norm in comedy and colloquial Attic; long scansion in comic dialogue metres mainly in formal style, as in parody of tragedy); checked against the text of ch. 2.

Text © metrehelp.org, CC BY-SA 4.0. Greek text: Perseus Digital Library (ed. F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quotations from copyrighted works are not covered by this licence.