|
Metron (poetry)
A metron , (from ancient Greek "measure"), plural ''metra'', is a repeating section, 3 to 6 syllables long, of a poetic metre. The word is particularly used in reference to ancient Greek. According to a definition by Paul Maas, usually a metron consists of two long elements and up to two other elements which can be short, ''anceps'' or '' biceps''.Maas, Paul (translated by H. Lloyd-Jones) (1962) ''Greek Metre'', pp. 38–39. Thus an iambic metron is x – ᴗ – (where "x" represents an ''anceps'' element), a trochaic metron is – ᴗ – x, an ionic metron is ᴗ ᴗ – –, an anapaestic metron is ᴗᴗ – ᴗᴗ –, a cretic metron – ᴗ –, a baccheus is ᴗ – –, and a spondee is – –. This definition of the metron (i.e. as having two long elements) does not apply to the dactylic hexameter or to the dochmiac metre, but some scholars regard the dactyl (– ᴗᴗ) and the dochmiac (ᴗ – – ᴗ –) as metra in their own right. Some of the more complex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Maas (classical Scholar)
Paul Maas (18 November 1880, in Frankfurt am Main15 July 1964, in Oxford) was a German scholar who, along with Karl Lachmann, founded the field of textual criticism. He studied classical philology at the universities of University of Berlin, Berlin and University of Munich, Munich, receiving his doctorate in 1903. In 1910 he obtained his habilitation and in 1920 became a full professor at Berlin. In 1930 he was appointed chair of classical philology at the University of Königsberg. In 1934 he was forced into retirement by the Nazi government, and in 1939 he emigrated to Great Britain, where he taught classes at Oxford University.Maas, Paul In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, , S. 597. After his death, he was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery's Jewish section in Oxford. Maas's ...
|
Trochaic Septenarius
In ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius or trochaic tetrameter catalectic is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being much rarer trochaic octonarius. It is used in drama and less often in poetry. Together with the Iambic trimeter#Latin iambic senarius, iambic senarius, it is one of the two most commonly used metres of Latin comedy. It has a long history dating back to the 7th century BC. The term septenarius is mostly used for the form of the metre which is used in Roman drama, especially the comedies of Plautus and Terence. This consists of a line of fifteen elements, usually divided into two hemistichs of 8 and 7 elements. Any element except the last two could be resolution (meter), resolved, i.e. divided into two short syllables. The basic pattern of the line was as follows: , – x – x , – x – x , , – x – x , – u – , Here – stands for a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anaclasis (poetry)
Anaclasis Lewis, J. J. (1908/1913). ''Pocket Ophthalmic Dictionary'', 4th ed. (from the Greek "bending back, reflection") is a feature of poetic metre, in which a long and a short syllable (or long and '' anceps'' syllable) exchange places in a metrical pattern. Ancient metricians used the term principally of the Greek galliambic rhythm , u u – u , – u – – , , which they believed was derived from a regular ionic dimeter , u u – – , u u – – , by a reversal of syllables 4 and 5, creating metra of unequal length , u u – u , and , – – u – , . Although the original meaning of the term anaclasis referred to situations when the substitution of u – for – u occurred across the boundary between two metra, in modern times scholars have extended the term to any situation where the sequence x – ('' anceps'' + long) responds to – x (long + ''anceps'') in a parallel part of a verse or poem. Thus for example, Martin West applies the term to metres of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marius Victorinus
Gaius Marius Victorinus (also known as Victorinus Afer; fl. 4th century) was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician and Neoplatonic philosopher. Victorinus was African by birth and experienced the height of his career during the reign of Constantius II. He is also known for translating two of Aristotle's books from ancient Greek into Latin: the ''Categories'' and ''On Interpretation'' ('' De Interpretatione''). Victorinus had a religious conversion, from being a pagan to a Christian, "at an advanced old age" (c. 355). Life Victorinus, at some unknown point, left Africa for Rome (hence some modern scholars have dubbed him ''Afer''), probably for a teaching position, and had great success in his career, eventually being promoted to the lowest level of the senatorial order. That promotion probably came at the time when he received an honorific statue in the Forum of Trajan in 354. Victorinus' religious conversion to Christianity (c. 355), "at an advanced old age" according to Jerome, made a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mora (linguistics)
A mora (plural ''morae'' or ''moras''; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as ''ba'' consists of one mora (''monomoraic''), while a long syllable such as ''baa'' consists of two (''bimoraic''); extra-long syllables with three moras (''trimoraic'') are relatively rare. Such metrics are also referred to as syllable weight. The term comes from the Latin word for "linger, delay", which was also used to translate the Greek word χρόνος : ''chrónos'' (time) in its metrical sense. Formation The general principles for assigning moras to segments are as follows (see Hayes 1989 and Hyman 1985 for detailed discussion): # A syllable onset (the first consonant or consonants of the syllable) does not represent any mora. # The syllable nucleus represents one mora in the case of a short vowel, and two morae in the case of a long vowel or diphthong. Consonants se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anacreontics
Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. In modern poetry, Anacreontics are short lyrical pieces that keep the Anacreontic subject matter but not the metre. The Greek meter image:P.Oxy. II 220.jpg, A section from an ancient metrical treatise concerning the ''anacreonteus''. Above the description the lengths of all but the first syllable can be seen marked out; the final syllable is marked as anceps. Near the beginning of the description it is reported that some call the ''anacreonteus'' "Parionic" (παριωνικόν) because of its resemblance to the "class of Ionic meters" (Ἰωνικῶν γένους). ( P.Oxy. II 220 col. vii, 1st or 2nd century CE). The Anacreontic verse or anacreonteus is the eight-syllable line u u – u – u – – (where u = syllable weight, brev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram. Early life Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his ''Epigrams'', composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday; hence he was born during March 38, 39, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arsis And Thesis
In music and prosody, arsis (; plural arses, ) and thesis (; plural theses, ) are respectively the stronger and weaker parts of a musical measure or poetic foot. However, because of contradictions in the original definitions, writers use these words in different ways. In music, arsis is an unaccented note (upbeat), while the thesis is the downbeat. However, in discussions of Latin and modern poetry the word arsis is generally used to mean the stressed syllable of the foot, that is, the ictus. Since the words are used in contradictory ways, the authority on Greek metre Martin West recommends abandoning them and using substitutes such as ''ictus'' for the downbeat when discussing ancient poetry. However, the use of the word ''ictus'' itself is very controversial. Greek and Roman definitions Earliest use The ancient Greek writers who mention the terms arsis and thesis are mostly from rather a late period (2nd-4th century AD), but it is thought that they continued an earlier tradi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallace Lindsay
Wallace Martin Lindsay (12 February 1858 – 21 February 1937) was a classical scholar of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a palaeographer. He was Professor of Humanity at University of St Andrews. Biography Lindsay was born in Pittenweem, Fife, to Alexander Lindsay, a Free Church minister, and his wife Susan Irvine (''née'' Martin). Educated at Edinburgh Academy, the University of Glasgow, where he was Blackstone Scholar, and Balliol College, Oxford. He was a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, from 1880 to 1899, when he was appointed as Professor of Humanity (as the professorship in Latin was called) at the University of St Andrews. Lindsay wrote numerous studies, covering a range of topics in Latin from the works of Plautus and Martial to the development of medieval Latin. Some of his books were translated into French and German. He also wrote articles in the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and notes on the palaeography of the Cathach of St. Columba. He pioneer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 variations, but the usual pattern is this: : – – u u , – – u u , – u – u , – – An example from Petronius is: : :"three times I seized the terrible two-edged axe in my hand" A characteristic of the sotadean metre is its variability. Sometimes the trochaic rhythm is found in the first metron or the second; sometimes the ionic rhythm continues through the whole line. Usually each metron has exactly 6 morae, but there is also a less strict type of sotadean found in some writers in which a metron may have 7 morae, such as – u – –, – – – u, or – – u –. There is also frequent resolution (substitution of two shorts for a long syllable). The sotadean was used both in Greek and in Latin literature, but it is not very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
