For example, the epic poems of Homer were composed using the pattern | – u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | – – | (the so-called dactylic hexameter, where – represents a long syllable, and u a short one.)
[3] The word-accents in Greek poetry did not affect the meter, but contributed to the melody, in that (judging from the Seikilos inscription and other fragments) syllables with an acute accent tended to be sung on a higher pitch, and those with a circumflex were sung on two notes, the first higher than the second.
The basic scheme for this is as follows (where "x" represents an anceps syllable, that is one which may be either long or short): The group | x – u – | is known as a "metron", consisting of two feet.
[11] In the first and second metron, one of the two long syllables may be replaced by two short ones, making the following possible variations: Occasionally also, especially to accommodate a proper name, as in lines 2 and 3 of the example below, the anceps syllable may be replaced by two shorts: Unlike most other kinds of Greek poetry, it appears that the iambic trimeter was used for dialogue unaccompanied by music.
As an example of the comic version of the iambic trimeter, here are the opening lines of Aristophanes' play Lysistrata.
This metre is generally catalectic, that is, the last syllable is removed; since the final syllable of a line always counts as long, in catalexis the formerly short penultimate is changed to a long when it becomes final, as in this extract from Aristophanes play the Clouds (1399ff): In Roman comedies this meter is known as the Iambic septenarius.
Some authors analyse this catalectic form of the meter not as trochaic but as iambic, with initial not final catalexis.
The name "trochaic" is derived from the Greek verb τρέχω "I run" and it was considered a livelier and faster rhythm than the iambic.
This is used in the second edition of Aristophanes' Clouds when the chorus leader steps forward in the persona of the poet himself and addresses the audience (518-562).
Some lyric meters were used for monody (solo songs), such as some of the poems of Sappho and Alcaeus; others were used for choral dances, such as the choruses of tragedies and the victory odes of Pindar.
Catalectic lines tend to come at the end of a period or stanza:[21] The process of anaclasis, the metathesis of a short and a long syllable, yields a second pattern called Anacreontic: Beyond these more common feet, a great amount of variation is possible within the Ionic meter because of anaclasis, catalexis, resolution (meter) and syncopation.
This meter is used by the lyric poets Alcman, Sappho and Alcaeus and also in some of the choral songs of certain tragedies and comedies.
It is a choral song addressed to the stream Dirce, about the birth of the god Dionysus, whose mother Semele was struck by lightning.
[22] Aeolic verse mostly refers to the type of poems written by the two well-known poets of Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, which was later imitated by Latin writers such as Horace.
A development of Aeolic verse, but less regular and more varied, is found in the choral odes of Pindar and Bacchylides.
[4] The Glyconic can be represented as follows:[23] The Pherecratean: An unusual feature, not found in most other types of Greek verse, is the double anceps (x x) at the beginning of the line.
A simple type of Aeolic metre is the Sapphic stanza favoured by the poet Sappho, which consists of three lines in the form | – u – x – u u – u – – | followed without a break by | – u u – – |.
Thus it is represented as follows:[26] or or The epitrite is represented as follows: The dactylo-epitrite meter is often used for choral songs by Pindar and Bacchylides and also in the choruses of tragedies, for example (from Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, 542-51): Meters such as the above, which consist of a mixture of dactyls and trochees, are sometimes referred to as "logaoedic" ("speech-song"), since they are halfway between the irregularity of speech and regularity of poetry.
[27] Choral song is often in a mixture of meters, such as the Partheneion of the 7th century BC Spartan poet Alcman.
[28] The stanza below is part of the song only (lines 50-63): If φάρος "a plough (plow)" is read in the 12th line above instead of φᾶρος "a robe", the metre of the line will be A similar mixture of trochaic and dactylic meter is also found in some of Pindar's choral odes, such as the First Olympian Ode, which begins as follows with a glyconic and a pherecratean, but soon becomes more irregular: In his book on Pindaric metre, Kiichiro Itsumi characterises this ode as "amalgamated style", that is, a mixture of Aeolic and dactylo-epitrite rhythms.
[33] Metron – Each of a series of identical or equivalent units, defined according to the number and length of syllables, into which the rhythm of a line of a particular metre is divided.