Archilochian

In Latin verse

In Latin poetry, the term "archilochian" or "archilochean" is used to refer to a number of different metres, called the "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th archilochian". However, different authors disagree on the numbering. The description below follows Rudd (2004) and Raven (1965).

1st archilochian stanza

(= Nisbet & Hubbard's 2nd archilochian)

The first archilochian stanza consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic hemiepes:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x

– u u – u u x

An example is Horace, Odes 4.7, praised by A. E. Housman in a lecture in 1914 as "the most beautiful poem in Latin literature":

diffūgēre nivēs, redeunt iam grāmina campīs

arboribusque comae

'The snows have fled away, and grass is now returning to the plains

and leaves to the trees'

The above metre is called the "2nd Archilochian" by Nisbet & Hubbard (1970), who use "1st Archilochian" as another name for the Alcmanian (or Alcmanic) strophe, which consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic tetrameter.

2nd archilochian stanza

A dactylic hexameter, followed by an iambic dimeter + dactylic hemiepes:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x

x – u – x – u x | – u u – u u x

An example is Horace, Epodes 13:

horrida tempestās caelum contraxit et imbrēs

nivēsque dēdūcunt Iovem; nunc mare nunc siluae

'A dreadful storm has contracted the sky, and rain showers

and snows are drawing down Jupiter; now the sea, now the forests...'

3rd archilochian stanza

An iambic trimeter, followed by a dactylic hemiepes + an iambic dimeter (the second line is known as an 'elegiambus'):

x – u – x – u – x – u x

– u u – u u x | x – u – x – u x

This is found in Horace, Epodes 11:

Pettī, nihil mē sīcut anteā iuvat

scrībere versiculōs amōre percussum gravī

'Pettius, it does not please me at all as in the past

to write little verses smitten by a serious love'

cf. Archilochus fr. 196 (West)

4th archilochian stanza

(= Nisbet & Hubbard's 3rd archilochian)

A dactylic tetrameter + ithyphallic (3 trochees), followed by an iambic trimeter catalectic:

– u u – u u – u u – u u | – u – u – x

x – u – x | – u – u – x

(The first of these lines is known as the "greater archilochian".)

An example is Horace, Odes 1.4:

Solvitur ācris hiēms grātā vice | vēris et Favōnī

trahuntque siccās | māchinae carīnās,

ac neque iam stabulīs gaudet pecus | aut arātor ignī

nec prāta cānīs | albicant pruīnīs.

'Harsh winter is being loosened with a welcome change of spring and the West Wind;

and machines are dragging the dry keels (to the shore);

the cattle no longer rejoice in their stable or the ploughman in his fire;

nor are the meadows white with hoar frost.'

The metre's name reflects the precedent in Archilochus, for example, fr. 188 (West).

1st pythiambic

Two other similar metrical couplets imitated from Archilochus combining dactylic and iambic metra are known as the 1st and 2nd pythiambic. The 1st pythiambic cpmbines a dactylic hexameter with an iambic dimeter:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x

x – u – x – u x

This is found in Horace, Epodes 15 and 16. The following is the opening of Epode 15:

nox erat et caelō fulgēbat lūna serēnō

inter minōra sīdera

'It was night and the moon was shining in a clear sky

amidst the lesser stars'

2nd pythiambic

The 2nd pythiambic combines a dactylic hexameter with an ionic trimeter. In Horace's Epode 16 the trimeter is "pure", that is, every anceps position is a short syllable:

– u u – u u – u u – u u – u u – x

u – u – u – u – u – u x

altera iam teritur bellīs cīvīlibus aetās

suīs et ipsa Rōma vīribus ruit

'Another generation is now being worn away by civil wars,

and Rome is being ruined by its own strength'