|
Archilochian
Archilochian or archilochean is a term used in the metrical analysis of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The name is derived from Archilochus, whose poetry first uses the rhythms. In Greek verse In the analysis of Archaic and Classical Greek poetry, archilochian usually describes the length x – u u – u u – x – u – u – – (where "–" indicates a longum, "u" a breve, and "x" an anceps syllable). The alternative name erasmonideus comes from Archilochus' fr. 168 West: :Ἐρασμονίδη Χαρίλαε, , χρῆμά τοι γελοῖον :ἐρ έω, πολὺ φίλταθ᾽ ἑταίρων, , τέρψεαι δ᾽ ἀκούων. As indicated, a caesura is observed before the ithyphallic (– u – u – –) ending of the verse. (Because of this, the name ''erasmonideus'' has sometimes been used to refer only to the colon x – u u – u u – x preceding the ithyphallic.) The verse is also used stichically in Old Comedy, for example in Aristophanes, ''Wasp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ''Odes'' as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."Quintilian 10.1.96. The only other lyrical poet Quintilian thought comparable with Horace was the now obscure poet/metrical theorist, Caesius Bassus (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient Receptions of Horace'', 280) Horace also crafted elegant hexameter verses (''Satires'' and '' Epistles'') and caustic iambic poetry ('' Epodes''). The hexameters are amusing yet serious works, friendly in tone, leading the ancient satirist Persius to comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling; see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences) is the basic rhythm, rhythmic structure of a verse (poetry), verse or Line (poetry), lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody. (Within linguistics, "Prosody (linguistics), prosody" is used in a more general sense that includes not only poetic metre but also the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or informal, that vary from language to language, and sometimes between poetic traditions.) Characteristics An assortment of features can be identified when classifying poetry and its metre. Qualitative versus quantitative metre The metre of most poetry of the Western world and elsewhere is based on patterns of syllables of particular typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.The remnant of a commemorative inscription, dated to the 3rd century BC, lists four, possibly eight, dramatic poets (probably including Choerilus, Phrynichus, and Pratinas) who had won tragic victories at the Dionysia before Aeschylus had. Thespis was traditionally regarded the inventor of tragedy. According to another tradition, tragedy was established in Athens in the late 530s BC, but that may simply reflect an absence of records. Major innovations in dramatic form, credited to Aeschylus by Aristotle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trochee
In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (also described as a long syllable followed by a short one). In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb. Thus the Latin word "there", because of its short-long rhythm, in Latin metrical studies is considered to be an iamb, but since it is stressed on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee. The adjective form is ''trochaic''. The English word ''trochee'' is itself trochaic since it is composed of the stressed syllable followed by the unstressed syllable . Another name formerly used for a trochee was a choree (), or choreus. Etymology ''Trochee'' comes from French , adapted from Latin , originally from the Greek (), 'wheel', from the phrase (), literally 'running foot'; it is connected with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spondee
A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'. Spondees in Ancient Greek and Latin Libations Sometimes libations were accompanied by hymns in spondaic rhythm, as in the following hymn by the Greek poet Terpander (7th century BC), which consists of 20 long syllables: "Zeus, Beginning of all things, Leader of all things, Zeus, I make a libation to Thee this beginning of (my) hymns." In hexameter poetry However, in most Greek and Latin poetry, the spondee typically does not provide the basis for a metrical line in poetry. Instead, spondees are found as irregular feet in meter based on another type of foot. For example, the epics of Homer and Virgil are written in dactylic hexameter. This term suggests a line of six dactyls, but a spondee can be substituted in most positions. The first line of Virgil's ''Ae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dactyl (poetry)
A dactyl (; el, δάκτυλος, ''dáktylos'', “finger”) is a foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. The best-known use of dactylic verse is in the epics attributed to the Greek poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In accentual verse, often used in English, a dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable). An example of dactylic meter is the first line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem ''Evangeline'' (1847), which is in dactylic hexameter: :''This is the / forest prim- / eval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks, The first five feet of the line are dactyls; the sixth a trochee. Stephen Fry quotes Robert Browning's poem " The Lost Leader" as an example of the use of dactylic metre to great effect, creating verse with "great rhy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide variety of genres, most of which did not survive. He espoused an aesthetic philosophy, known as Callimacheanism, which exerted a strong influence on the poets of the Roman Empire and, through them, on all subsequent Western literature. Born into a prominent family in the Greek city of Cyrene in modern-day Libya, he was educated in Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. After working as a schoolteacher in the city, he came under the patronage of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus and was employed at the Library of Alexandria where he compiled the ''Pinakes'', a comprehensive catalogue of all Greek literature. He is believed to have lived into the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes. Although Callimachus wrote prolifically in prose and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assemblywomen
''Assemblywomen'' ( grc-gre, Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι ''Ekklesiazousai''; also translated as, ''Congresswomen'', ''Women in Parliament'', ''Women in Power'', and ''A Parliament of Women'') is a comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes in 391 BC. The play invents a scenario where the women of Athens assume control of the government and institute reforms that ban private wealth and enforce sexual equity for the old and unattractive. In addition to Aristophanes' political and social satire, ''Assemblywomen'' derives its comedy through sexual and scatological humor. The play aimed to criticize the Athenian government at the time.Zumbrunnen, John. "Fantasy, Irony, And Economic Justice In Aristophanes' Assemblywomen And Wealth." American Political Science Review 100.3 (2006): 319–333. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. Plot The play begins with Praxagora emerging from a house on an Athenian street before daybreak. She ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iphigenia In Tauris
''Iphigenia in Tauris'' ( grc, Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, ''Iphigeneia en Taurois'') is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, ''Helen'', as well as the lost play '' Andromeda'', and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, a tragi-comedy or an escape play. Although the play is generally known in English as ''Iphigenia in Tauris'', this is, strictly speaking, the Latin title of the play (corresponding to the Greek Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις), the meaning of which is ''Iphigenia among the Taurians''. There is no such place as "Tauris" in Euripides' play, although Goethe, in his play '' Iphigenie auf Tauris'' (on which Gluck's opera ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' is based), ironically utilising this translation error, posits such a place. The name refers to the Crimean Peninsula (ancient ''Taurikḗ''). Background Years before the time period covered by the play, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medea (play)
''Medea'' ( grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'') is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering his new wife as well as her own two sons, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life. Euripides' play has been explored and interpreted by playwrights across the centuries and the world in a variety of ways, offering political, psychoanalytical, feminist, among many other original readings of Medea, Jason and the core themes of the play. ''Medea'', along with three other plays, earned Euripides third prize in the City Dionysia. Some believe that this indicates a poor reception, but "the competition that year was extraordinarily keen"; Sophocles, often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ... 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 him, but the ''Suda'' says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (''Rhesus (play), Rhesus'' is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedMoses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. ixhe became, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
