A priamel () is a literary and rhetorical device consisting of a series of listed alternatives that serve as foils to the true subject of the poem, which is revealed in a climax. For example, Fragment 16 by the Greek poet

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 ...

(translated by Mary Barnard) begins with a priamel: :Οἰ μὲν ἰππήων στρότον οἰ δὲ πέσδων :οἰ δὲ νάων φαῖσ᾽ ἐπὶ γᾶν μέλαιναν :ἔμμεναι κάλλιστον ἔγω δὲ κῆν᾽ ::ὄττω τὶς ἔραται. ::Some say a cavalry corps, ::some infantry, some, again, ::will maintain that the swift oars ::of our fleet are the finest ::sight on dark earth; but I say ::that whatever one loves, is. Other examples are found in Pindar's First Olympian,

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 ...

, Villon,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

, as well as in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, both Old Testament and New Testament: :Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. ( AV) (Psalms 20:7) :And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air ''have'' nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay ''his'' head. ( AV) (

Luke Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

9:58) William H. Race, in his book on the subject, writes: :As for the term itself, "priamel" was unknown to ancient writers. There is no word in Greek or Latin which describes it, and no discussion in the voluminous writings on rhetoric which indicates any theoretical knowledge of it. It is, in short, an invention of the twentieth century and applied anachronistically to classical poetry and prose. The German term ''Priamel'' (from Latin ''praeambulum'') was introduced to classical studies by the German philologist Franz Dornseiff in his ''Pindars Stil'' (1921); it originally referred to "a minor poetic genre composed primarily in Germany from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Such ''Priameln'' are, on the whole, short poems consisting of a series of seemingly unrelated, often paradoxical statements which are cleverly brought together at the end, usually in the final verse." Compare the anonymous Priamel "Ich leb und weiss nit, wie lang ..." that was attributed to Martinus von Biberach. While the name "priamel" is modern, the form itself may be ancient. Martin L. West's ''Indo-European Poetry and Myth'' collects examples from a wide ranging set of rhetorical figures in Indo-European languages, from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

, as well as Latin and Greek. West relates the priamel to the "augmented triads" found in other ancient Indo-European literatures, a form in which three items are listed, and the third item on the list is described by an adjective to give it extra weight: :ἢ Αἴας ἢ Ἰδομενεὺς ἢ δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς ::Whether Ajax, or Idomeneus, or godlike Odysseus

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 ...

, ''

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 ...

'' 1.145 West also relates the priamel to Behaghel's law of increasing terms, which states that the longest and most important of a series of listed phrases tends to appear at the end.

References

{{Authority control Rhetorical techniques

See also

References