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Ionic meter
Metre used in Greek, Latin, and Persian poetry
Metre used in Greek, Latin, and Persian poetry
The ionic (or Ionic) is a four-syllable metrical unit (metron) of light-light-heavy-heavy (u u – –) that occurs in ancient Greek and Latin poetry. According to Hephaestion it was known as the Ionicos because it was used by the Ionians of Asia Minor; and it was also known as the Persicos and was associated with Persian poetry. Like the choriamb, in Greek quantitative verse the ionic never appears in passages meant to be spoken rather than sung. "Ionics" may refer inclusively to poetry composed of the various metrical units of the same total quantitative length (six morae) that may be used in combination with ionics proper: ionics, choriambs, and anaclasis. Equivalent forms exist in English poetry and in classical Persian poetry.
Examples of ionics
Pure examples of Ionic metrical structures occur in verse by Alcman (frg. 46 PMG = 34 D), Sappho (frg. 134-135 LP), Alcaeus (frg. 10B LP), Anacreon, and the Greek dramatists, including the first choral song of Aeschylus' Persians and in Euripides' Bacchae. Like dochmiacs, the ionic meter is characteristically experienced as expressing excitability. The form has been linked tentatively with the worship of Cybele and Dionysus.
The opening chorus of Euripides' Bacchae begins as follows, in a mixture of anapaests (u u –) and ionic feet (u u – –):
:Ἀσίας ἀπὸ γᾶς :ἱερὸν Τμῶλον ἀμείψασα θοάζω :Βρομίῳ πόνον ἡδὺν :κάματόν τʼ εὐκάματον, Βάκ- :χιον εὐαζομένα.
: : : : :
: u u – | u u – : u u – – | u u – – | u u – – : u u – | u u – – : u u – – | u u – – : u u – – | u u –
:"From the land of Asia :having left sacred Tmolus, I am swift :to perform for Bromius my sweet labor :and toil easily borne, :celebrating the god Bacchus."
Latin poetry
An example of pure ionics in Latin poetry is found as a "metrical experiment" in the Odes of Horace, Book 3, poem 12, which draws on Archilochus and Sappho for its content and utilizes a metrical line that appears in a fragment of Alcaeus. The Horace poem begins as follows: :miserārum (e)st nequ(e) amōrī dare lūdum neque dulcī : mala vīnō laver(e) aut exanimārī : metuentis patruae verbera linguae.
: u u – – | u u – – | u u – – | u u – – : u u – – | u u – – | u u – – : u u – – | u u – – | u u – –
:"Those girls are wretched who do not play with love or use sweet : wine to wash away their sorrows, or who are terrified, : fearing the blows of an uncle's tongue."
In writing this 4-verse poem Horace tends to place a caesura (word-break) after every metrical foot, except occasionally in the last two feet of the line.
Anacreontics
The anacreontic | u u – u – u – – | is sometimes analyzed as a form of ionics which has undergone anaclasis (substitution of u – for – u in the 4th and 5th positions). The galliambic is a variation of this, with resolution (substitution of u u for – ) and catalexis (omission of the final syllable) in the second half. Catullus used galliambic meter for his Carmen 63 on the mythological figure Attis, a portion of which is spoken in the person of Cybele. The poem begins: :super alta vectus Attis celerī rate maria :Phrygi(um) ut nemus citātō cupidē pede tetigit :adiitqu(e) opāca silvīs redimīta loca deae, :stimulātus ibi furenti rabiē, vagus animīs :dēvolsit īl(i) acūtō sibi pondera silice.
The meter is: : u u – u – u – – | u u – u u u u – : u u – u – u – – | u u – u u u u – : u u – u – u – – | u u – u u u u – : u u – u u u u – – | u u – u u u u – : – – u – u – – | u u – u u u u –
:"Attis, having crossed the high seas in a swift ship, :as soon as he eagerly touched the Phrygian forest with swift foot :and approached the shady places, surrounded by woods, of the goddess, :excited there by raging madness, losing his mind, :he tore off the weights of his groin with a sharp flint."
In this poem Catullus leaves a caesura (word-break) at the mid-point of every line. Occasionally the 5th syllable is resolved into two shorts (as in line 4 above) or the first two shorts are replaced with a single long syllable (as in line 5, if the text is sound).
''Ionicus a minore'' and ''a maiore''
The "ionic" almost invariably refers to the basic metron u u — —, but this metron is also known by the fuller name ionicus a minore in distinction to the less commonly used ionicus a maiore (— — u u). Some modern metricians generally consider the term ionicus a maiore to be of little analytic use, a vestige of Hephaestion's "misunderstanding of metre" and desire to balance metrical units with their mirror images.
Polyschematist sequences
The Ionic and Aeolic meters are closely related, as evidenced by the polyschematist unit x x — x — u u — (with x representing an anceps position that may be heavy or light).
The sotadeion or sotadean, named after the Hellenistic poet Sotades, has been classified as ionic a maiore by Hephaestion and by M. L. West: : – – u u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
It "enjoyed a considerable vogue for several centuries, being associated with low-class entertainment, especially of a salacious sort, though also used for moralizing and other serious verse." Among those poets who used it were Ennius, Accius and Petronius.
In English
In English poetry, Edward Fitzgerald composed in a combination of anacreontics and ionics. An example of English ionics occurs in lines 4 and 5 of the following lyric stanza by Thomas Hardy:
:The pair seemed lovers, yet absorbed :In mental scenes no longer orbed :By love's young rays. Each countenance
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