A pyrrhic (; el, πυρρίχιος ''pyrrichios'', from πυρρίχη ''pyrrichē'') is a
metrical foot used in formal
poetry. It consists of two unaccented,
short syllable
In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical Indo-European verse, as developed in Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin, distinctions of syllable ...
s. It is also known as a dibrach.
Poetic use in English
Tennyson used pyrrhics and
spondees quite frequently, for example, in ''
In Memoriam'':
When the blood creeps and the nerves prick.
"When the" and "and the" in the second line may be considered as pyrrhics (also analyzable as
ionic meter).
Pyrrhics alone are not used to construct an entire poem due to the monotonous effect.
Edgar Allan Poe observed that many experts rejected it from English metrics and concurred:
The pyrrhic is rightfully dismissed. Its existence in either ancient or modern rhythm is purely chimerical, and the insisting on so perplexing a nonentity as a foot of two short syllables, affords, perhaps, the best evidence of the gross irrationality and subservience to authority which characterise our Prosody.
War dance
By extension, this rhythmic pattern apparently formed the basis of an
identically named ancient Greek war dance.
Proclus
Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor ( grc-gre, Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers ...
thought it was the same as the ''hyporcheme'' (''hyporchēma''), while
Athenaeus distinguished them; this may have depended on whether song accompanied the dance. Citing
Aristoxenus, Athenaeus said the pyrrhic is a
Spartan dance for boys carrying spears to prepare for war, and noted the intense speed of the dance. In
Plato's ''
Laws'', the dance is described as representing the offensive and defensive movements in battle. Other Greeks associated it with
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
. There are a number of Classical and later reliefs that depict pyrrhic dancers, even if the motif was not widely used during the Roman era.
References
Metrical feet
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