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Anceps in Tragedy (1): Lyric Iambics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2020

Kiichiro Itsumi
Kiichiro Itsumi*
Affiliation:
University of Tokyocor1corresp
*
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Abstract:

Anceps is not so free that either a long or a short syllable may be used on equal terms. In fact, some strong tendencies are observed in lyric iambics in tragedy. Long syllable is avoided especially at the final anceps in dimeter/trimeter, for instance. Frequencies are statistically calculated each in turn in various combinations of iambic metra, and irregular occurrences are examined in contexts. In contrast to iambics, anceps tends to be long in D/e. Sophocles employs long anceps more frequently than the other two tragedians because his iambics sometimes verge on D/e. In general, long anceps is used in different ways from short. The effect it brought about would not have been felt unless long anceps was delivered differently from short, that is, at the same length as a true long.

Keywords

Greek metreancepslyric iambicsGreek tragedy
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 140 , November 2020 , pp. 1 - 33
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

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Footnotes

A preliminary version of this paper was read at the FIEC Congress in Bordeaux 2014. I should like to thank Professor Gauthier Liberman for providing the occasion. This article is based on the first half of that paper, and totally revised and enlarged. I am most grateful to Dr L.P.E. Parker, who gave me helpful suggestions and corrections during a series of revisions, and also to Professor Patrick Finglass, who read the final version and corrected my English.