Structure and System of Greek Lyric Meter

Of all the meters that we encounter in our poetic texts and metrical handbooks, lyric would sit high up the taxonomic pyramid for its complexity and terminological richness. However, an economy can be found to underlie all that wealth.

In this paper, I show that the structure of (Aeolic) Greek lyric meter is not flat and merely concatenative. Morphosyntactic boundaries in over 1,400 lines of archaic lyric (excluding epinician), many of which are identifiable as instances of the meters named or known in our handbooks, suggest that lyric meters are hierarchical structures. The glyconic (gl) ○○–ᴗᴗ–ᴗ× can be decomposed into base + choriamb + iamb [○○][–ᴗᴗ–][ᴗ×]. From such a glyconic can be derived one of its anaclastic variants ¨gl [–ᴗᴗ–][○○][ᴗ×] through transposition of the choriamb and the base. If we conceive of the choriamb as longum + breve + iamb [–[ᴗ[ᴗ–]]], we can get the other variant gl¨ [○○][–[[ᴗ–]ᴗ]][ᴗ×] through anaclasis within the choriamb’s anapest. This parse is in line with the metron name’s etymology, from χορεῖος/kʰoreîos (= τροχαῖος/trokʰaîos / τρίβραχυς/tríbrakʰus [Frisk s.v. χορός/kʰorós]) + ἴαμβος/íambos (LSJ s.v. χορῐαμβ-ικός/kʰoriamb-ikós). The longer hipponactean [○○][–ᴗᴗ–][ᴗ–]× is an augmented glyconic. The shorter types (pherecratean, telesillean, etc.) fall straightforwardly out of the glyconic through truncation at either extremity ([○○][–ᴗᴗ–][–^], [^○][–ᴗᴗ–][ᴗ×], etc.). The co-occurrences of anacrusis, anaclasis, and suppression yield the rest of the inventory. This more complex view permits an unexpectedly different description of internal expansion: what we are taught as dactylic expansion, e.g., gld ○○–ᴗᴗ‹–ᴗᴗ›–ᴗ×, can be more aptly characterized as anapestic expansion gla [○○][–‹ᴗᴗ–›ᴗᴗ–][ᴗ×] (cf. Cole’s epiploke). Lastly, the underlying structural unity among the glyconic/hipponactean, the so-called anaclastic ionic ᴗᴗ–ᴗ–ᴗ–× (= ^¨hi [^ᴗᴗ–][ᴗ–][ᴗ–]×), and trochaic (lk –ᴗ–ᴗ–ᴗ× = gl¨^ [–ᴗ][–ᴗ–ᴗ][×^]) series becomes more apparent. This generative approach makes less opaque the complex responsion patterns within and across strophes, and it promises a path towards the unification of Aeolic with epinician dactylo-epitrite and choral dochmiacs.