Greek and Latin metre is an overall term used for the various rhythms in which Greek and Latin poems were composed. The individual rhythmical patterns used in Greek and Latin poetry are also known as "

metres The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

" (US "meters"). Greek poetry developed first, starting as early as the 8th century BC with the epic poems of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and didactic poems of

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

, which were composed in the

dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...

. A variety of other metres were used for lyric poetry and for classical Greek drama. Some of the earliest Latin poems, dating from the 3rd century BC, were composed in Saturnian verse, which is not used in Greek. Apart from these Saturnian poems, which today survive only in fragments, all Latin poetry is written in adaptations of various Greek metres. Although a large number of Greek metres were adapted, Latin verse tends to imitate only the simpler forms, and complex stanzas in irregular and rapidly changing metres such as the dactylo-epitrite used in many of

Pindar Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

's choral odes are not found in Latin.

Prosody

Apart from Saturnian verse, whose basis is not well understood, and some types of medieval rhythmic verse, all classical Greek and Latin metre is ''quantitative'', that is, based on different patterns of long and short syllables, rather than ''syllabic-accentual'', that is, based on patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Prosody, that is, the rules for deciding which syllables are short and which are long, is more or less the same in Greek and Latin. Syllables which end in a short vowel, like the first syllable of Greek or Latin , are treated as short; syllables which contain a long vowel or diphthong, or which ended with a consonant, like the first syllable of , , or , were treated as long. If a single consonant comes between two vowels, it is usually taken with the second syllable, even at the end of a word: thus is divided ''mi-se-rest'' (short, short, long). If two consonants came between two vowels, they are usually divided between the syllables, e.g. . However, there are some ambiguous cases; for example, the first syllable of can be treated as either long (''pat-rem'') or short (''pa-trem'') in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

. An important feature of both Greek and Latin prosody is

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...

. If a word ending in a short vowel (or -m in Latin) is followed by a word beginning with a vowel (or h-), the final vowel is usually not regarded as a separate syllable. In Greek the vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. Thus the word is reduced to in the phrase: () (seven long syllables). In Latin the elided vowel continued to be written, but was presumably not pronounced or else pronounced very rapidly. Occasionally even a long vowel was elided, as in the following example, which also illustrates the ambiguity of ''patr-'', since has a short first syllable here and a long one: : : The process of determining which syllables are long and which are short, and showing how the words of a poem match a metrical pattern, is known as ''scansion''. The above line of Virgil is scanned as follows, where – represents a long syllable, and ᴗ a short one: : – – , – ᴗ ᴗ , – – , – – , – ᴗ ᴗ , – –

Rhythmic types

The different individual metres can be classified according to their predominant rhythmic type. In the examples below, the symbol x represents a syllable that can be either long or short. For example: *Iambic: x – ᴗ – ... *Trochaic: – ᴗ – x ... *Dactylic: – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ ... *Anapaestic: ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ... *Choriambic: – ᴗ ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ – ... *Ionic: ᴗ ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ – – ... *Anacreontic: ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ – ᴗ – – ... *Bacchiac: ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ... *Dochmiac: ᴗ – – ᴗ – ... or ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ – ... etc. *Cretic: – ᴗ – – ᴗ – ... *Spondaic: – – – – ... *Aeolic: x x – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ – (and variations) There are also metres which combine different rhythms, for example the dactylo-epitrite, which combines trochaic and dactylic elements.

Major forms

The greater part of Ancient Greek poetry is composed of stichic () metres, which are those in which the same verse-pattern is repeated line after line with no strophic structure. The six main stichic metres used in Greek, according to

Martin Litchfield West Martin Litchfield West, (23 September 1937 – 13 July 2015) was a British philologist and classical scholar. In recognition of his contribution to scholarship, he was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2014. West wrote on ancient Greek music ...

, are the following. (Strictly speaking, the elegiac couplet is strophic, not stichic, but West considers its use in extended poems makes it suitable for inclusion here.) *

Dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...

, the meter of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'', ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'' and ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', used for epic and other narrative and didactic poetry *

Elegiac couplet The elegiac couplet or elegiac distich is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in L ...

, consisting of a line of dactylic hexameter and one of

dactylic pentameter The dactylic pentameter is a verse-form which, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, follows a dactylic hexameter to make up an elegiac couplet. It features two halves, each consisting of two dactyls, for which spondees can be substituted in the fi ...

, employed by

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

for all his extant works except the ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' *

Iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic metra (each of two feet) per line. In English poetry, it refers to a meter with three iambic feet. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin po ...

, the most common meter in the dialogue portions of tragedy and comedy (also known in Latin as

Iambic senarius Roman comedy is mainly represented by two playwrights, Plautus (writing between c.205 and 184 BC) and Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the autho ...

) * Trochaic tetrameter (

catalectic A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line. A line ...

) (in Latin also known as

Trochaic septenarius In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius (also known as the trochaic tetrameter catalectic) is a form of ancient poetic metre first used in 7th century BC Greek literature. It was one of the two most common metres of Roman ...

) * Iambic tetrameter catalectic (in Latin also known as Iambic septenarius) *

Choliambic Choliambic verse (), also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic,. is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called ''scazon'', or "lame iambic", ...

(also known as Scazon), a variation on the Iambic trimeter These are not the only stichic metres used in Greek and Latin poetry. Among others are: * Eupolidean * Sotadean * Anapaestic septenarius *

Galliambic ''Versus Galliambicus'' (Latin), or the ''Galliambic Verse'' (English), is a verse built from two anacreontic cola, the second one catalectic (i.e., lacking its final syllable). The metre typically has resolution in the last metron, and often e ...

* Phalaecian hendecasyllable

Lyric metres

Epodic metres

Epodic metres are a simple kind of strophic verse practised by some Ionian poets of the archaic period, namely

Archilochus Archilochus (; ''Arkhílokhos''; 680 – c. 645 BC) was a Iambus (genre) , iambic poet of the Archaic Greece, Archaic period from the island of Paros. He is celebrated for his versatile and innovative use of poetic meters, and is the earliest ...

Hipponax Hipponax (; ; ''gen''. Ἱππώνακτος; ), of Ephesus and later Clazomenae, was an Ancient Greek iambic poet who composed verses depicting the vulgar side of life in Ionian society. He was celebrated by ancient authors for his malicious w ...

, and

Anacreon Anacreon ( BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early ...

. Mostly these consist of either a dactylic hexameter or an iambic trimeter, followed by an "epode", which is a shorter line either iambic or dactylic in character, or a mixture of these. The first or second line can also end with an ithyphallic colon (– ᴗ – ᴗ – x). For examples of such epodic strophes see: *

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

Alcmanian Alcmanian verse refers to the dactylic tetrameter in Greek and Latin poetry. Dactylic tetrameter in Alcman Ancient metricians called the dactylic tetrameter the Alcmanic because of its use by the Archaic Greek poet Alcman, as in fragment 27 ''PMG ...

These metres were imitated in Latin in

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

's Epodes.

Aeolic verse

Aeolic verse Aeolic verse is a classification of Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Greece, Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, Alcaeus, who composed in the ...

begins with the short lyric poems of the

Lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

poets

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

and

Alcaeus Alcaeus of Mytilene (; , ''Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios''; – BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hell ...

. Nearly all the poems of Sappho and Alcaeus are composed in strophes (stanzas) of two, three, or four verses, in which at least one line would be different from the others. The most common rhythm is the

glyconic Glyconic (from Glycon, a Greek lyric poet) is a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic and most commonly used form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others. The basic shape (often abb ...

(x x – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ x), but this could be expanded or varied in a number of ways. *

Glyconic Glyconic (from Glycon, a Greek lyric poet) is a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic and most commonly used form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others. The basic shape (often abb ...

* Pherecratean * Asclepiad *

Sapphic stanza The Sapphic stanza, named after the Ancient Greek poet Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of Quatrain, four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, imitations of the form since the Middle Ages typically feature rhyme and accen ...

, so called for

Alcaic stanza The Alcaic stanza is a Greek lyrical meter, an Aeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC. The Alcaic stanza and the Sapphic stanza named for Alca ...

, so called for

* Adonean or

Adonic An adonic (Latin: ''adoneus'') is a unit of Aeolic verse, a five-syllable metrical foot consisting of a dactyl followed by a trochee. The last line of a Sapphic stanza is an adonic. The pattern (where "-" stands for a long and "u" for a short s ...

The following is also a kind of aeolic verse, though used

stichic Poetry made up of lines of the same approximate meter and length, not broken up into stanzas, is called stichic (as opposed to stanzaic). Most poetry from the Old English period is considered stichic. Most English poetry written in blank verse, su ...

ally: * Phalaecian hendecasyllable The simpler kinds of Aeolic verse were imitated in Latin by

in his

Odes Odes may refer to: *The plural of ode, a type of poem * ''Odes'' (Horace), a collection of poems by the Roman author Horace, circa 23 BCE *Odes of Solomon, a pseudepigraphic book of the Bible *Book of Odes (Bible), a Deuterocanonical book of the ...

, while the Phalaecian hendecasyllable was used frequently by

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...

, and

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...

Dorian lyric

The early Dorian lyric poets include

Alcman Alcman (; ''Alkmán''; fl. 7th century BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets. He wrote six books of choral poetry, most of which is now lost; h ...

Stesichorus Stesichorus (; , ''Stēsichoros''; c. 630 – 555 BC) was a Greek Greek lyric, lyric poet native of Metauros (Gioia Tauro today). He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres, and for some ancient traditions about his life, such as hi ...

, and

Ibycus Ibycus (; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet, a citizen of Rhegium in Magna Graecia, probably active at Samos during the reign of the tyrant Polycrates and numbered by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria in the canon (fiction), ca ...

. The choral odes of these poets tend not to be in any one metre, but consist of lines of irregular pattern containing dactylic, aeolic, and trochaic elements. Among the fragments of Alcman's poetry there are also some

cretic A cretic ( ), also known as an amphimacer ( ) and sometimes paeon diagyios, is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long (– ᴗ –). In Greek poetry, lines made entirely of cretic feet are less common than other metres. An e ...

and spondaic lines. Later, in the choral odes of

Simonides Simonides of Ceos (; ; c. 556 – 468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Kea (island), Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed by them as worthy of criti ...

Bacchylides Bacchylides (; ''Bakkhulides''; – ) was a Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets, which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been noted in Bacchylidea ...

, and

, three main types of metre were used: dactylo-epitrite, aeolic, and iambic. The first of these is a mixture of dactylic elements (e.g. the hemiepes – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ –) and so called "epitrite" elements (e.g. – ᴗ – x – ᴗ –) with linking syllables between them. These poets wrote in the Doric dialect, with forms such as 'Athene' instead of the

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

, and this custom was continued in the choral songs in the tragedies written by Athenian poets such as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The later Dorian poets wrote their odes in triadic structure (

strophe A strophe () is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of var ...

, antistrophe, and

epode According to one meaning of the word, an epode is the third part of an ancient Greek choral ode that follows the strophe and the antistrophe and completes the movement. The word epode is also used to refer to the second (shorter) line of a two-l ...

), where the strophe and antistrophe were of identical metrical pattern, and the epode of a different pattern. The complex rhythms of the Dorian poets are not found in Latin, but there are a few poems composed in the simple Alcmanian strophe, consisting of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic tetrameter, as in Horace, Odes 1.7 and 1.28 and Epode 12.

Ionic metres

* Ionic * Anacreontic *

, a relatively rare form of which ''Carmen'' 63 by

is the only complete example from antiquity * Sotadean

(late 6th century BC) was an Ionian rather than Dorian, and wrote all his poetry in the Ionian dialect. He wrote some songs in aeolic metres, or aeolic mixed with iambic elements. But he also wrote songs in ionic metre, often using the anaclastic form known as anacreontic, or a mixture of anacreontic and pure ionic elements. The ionic metre is occasionally found in Greek tragedies in appropriate settings, for example in

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

's ''

The Persians ''The Persians'' (, ''Persai'', Latinised as ''Persae'') is an ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilog ...

'' and in

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

' ''

The Bacchae ''The Bacchae'' (; , ''Bakkhai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumou ...

''. Ionic metres are rare in Latin. Horace Odes 3.12 is a rare example composed entirely in ionic feet, with ten feet to each stanza. Anacreontics are also very rare.D. S. Raven (1965), p. 130, quotes an example from

Claudian Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (Greek: Κλαυδιανός; ), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almo ...

, ''Fescennina'' 2. The

metre of

's poem 63 (but of which there are no extant examples in Greek) is a development of the anacreontic. The

Sotadean metre The sotadean metre (pronounced: ) was a rhythmic pattern used by and named after the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Sotades. It is generally classified as a type of ionic metre, though in fact it is half ionic and half trochaic. It has several variati ...

, named after the poet

Sotades Sotades (; 3rd century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. Sotades was born in Maroneia, either the one in Thrace, or in Crete. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). The city was at that time a remarkabl ...

(3rd century BC) is another variation of ionic. It was also used occasionally in Latin, for example in two poems in

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Britannica.com. (; ; ; s ...

Other lyric metres

* Anapaestic * Dochmiac

Bibliography

* Allen, W. S. (1978). ''Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin'' (2nd edition). Cambridge. * Maas, P. (translated H. Lloyd-Jones) (1962). ''Greek Metre''. Oxford. * Raven, D. S. (1962). ''Greek Metre: An Introduction''. Faber & Faber. * Raven, D. S. (1965). ''Latin Metre: An Introduction''. Faber & Faber. * West, M. L. (1982). ''Greek Metre''. Oxford. * West, M. L. (1987)
''An Introduction to Greek Metre''
Oxford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Classical meters Arts-related lists Poetic rhythm Stanzaic form