Aeolic verse is a classification ofAncient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets ofArchaicLesbos,Sappho andAlcaeus, who composed in their nativeAeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek andRoman poets and some modern European poets.

Sappho and Alcaeus' verses differ from most other Greek lyric poetry in theirmetrical construction:

• Verses consist of a fixed number of syllables (thus, for example, noresolution, contraction, orbiceps elements).
• Consecutiveanceps syllables may occur, especially at the beginning of the verse (where two initial anceps syllables are called theaeolic base). (This forms an exception to the principle, otherwise observed in Greek verse,^[a] that two successive unmarked elements are not permitted. Lines beginning with multiple anceps syllables are also exceptional in not being classifiable as having rising or falling rhythm.)

Antoine Meillet and later scholars, by comparison toVedic meter, have seen in these principles and in other tendencies (the sequence ... – u u – u – ..., the alternation of blunt and pendant verses^[b] conserved traces ofProto-Indo-European poetic practices.

In Sappho and Alcaeus, the three basic metrical groups – u u – u – (dodrans or choriambo-cretic), – u u – (choriamb) and – u – (cretic) figure importantly, and groups are sometimes joined (in what is probably a Greek innovation) by a link anceps.^[2] Aeolic poems may bestichic (with all lines having the same metrical form), or composed in more elaboratestanzas orstrophes.

One analysis of Aeolic verses' various forms identifies a choriambic nucleus ( – u u – ), which is sometimes subject to:

• dactylic expansion (some number ofdactyls preceding the choriamb, or "prolongation" of the pattern that alternates long elements with double-short elements);
• choriambic expansion ("juxtaposition" of additional choriambs).

For example, anAsclepiad may be analyzed as aglyconic with choriambic expansion (gl^c,gl^2c), and a glyconic with dactylic expansion produces the stichic length (x x – u u – u u – u u – u – , orgl^2d) in which Sappho composed the poems collected in Book II.

In this analysis, a wide variety of Aeolic verses (whether in Sappho and Alcaeus, or in later choral poetry) are analyzed as a choriambic nucleus (sometimes expanded, as just mentioned), usually preceded by anceps syllables and followed by various single-short sequences (e.g. u – , u – u – , and, by the principle ofbrevis in longo, u – u – – , u – – , – ), with various additional allowances to accommodate the practice of the later poets.^[3] By also taking the cretic unit, mentioned above, into account, this analysis can also, for example, understand the third line of theAlcaic stanza—and other stanza lines as in Sappho frr. 96, 98, 99—as Aeolic in nature, and appreciate how the initial three syllables of theSapphic hendecasyllable were not variable in Sappho's practice.

Ancient metricians such asHephaestion give us a long list of names for various Aeolic lengths, to which modern scholars have added. For the most part, these names are arbitrary or even misleading, but they are widely used in scholarly writing. The following are the names for units with an unexpanded "choriambic nucleus" (i.e.: – u u – ):

Comparison, with "choriambic nucleus" emphasized:

x x– u u – u – – (hipp)  x– u u – u – – (^hipp)x x– u u – u –   (gl)  x– u u – u –   (^gl)x x– u u –   –   (pher)  x– u u –   –   (^pher)

Because theAlexandrian edition of Sappho's works divided the poems into books mostly based on their meter, an overview of its contents is a convenient starting point for an account of the Lesbian poets' meters.

Sappho and Alcaeus' poetic practice had in common, not just the general principles sketched above, but many specific verse forms. For example, the Sapphic stanza, which represents such a large part of Sappho's surviving poetry, is also well represented in Alcaeus' work (e.g. Alcaeus frr. 34, 42, 45, 308b, 362). Alcaeus frr. 38a and 141 use the same meter as Book II of Sappho, and Alcaeus frr. 340 – 349 the Greater Asclepiad as in Book III. One notable form is theAlcaic stanza (e.g. Alcaeus frr. 6, 129, 325 – 339), but this too is found in both poets (Sappho frr. 137 – 138).^[i]

Many of the additional meters found in Sappho and Alcaeus are similar to the ones discussed above, and similarly analyzable. For example, Sappho frr. 130 – 131 (and the final lines offr. 94's stanzas) are composed in a shortened version (gl^d) of the meter used in Book II of her poetry. However, the surviving poetry also abounds in fragments in other meters, both stanzaic and stichic, some of them more complicated or uncertain in their metrical construction. Some fragments use meters from non-Aeolic traditions (e.g. dactylic hexameter, or theIonic meter of Sappho fr. 134).

The versification ofPindar andBacchylides' 5th century BCchoral poetry can largely be divided intodactylo-epitrite and "aeolic" types of composition. This later style of "aeolic" verse shows fundamental similarities to, but also several important differences from, the practice of the Aeolic poets. In common with Sappho and Alcaeus, in the aeolic odes of Pindar and Bacchylides:

• Two or more consecutive anceps syllables may occur at the beginning or middle of a verse (see e.g. Pindar,Nemean 4  [d]).
• There are many metrical sequences formed by prolongation, including both double-short (as in the dactylic expansion discussed above) and single-short units together (mostly double-short before single-short, e.g. – u u – u – , but also the reverse, e.g. – u – u u – , which is uncharacteristic of Sappho and Alcaeus).

These connections justify the name "Aeolic" and clearly distinguish the mode from dactylo-epitrite (which does not use consecutive anceps syllables, and which combines double-short and single-short in a single verse, but not in a single metrical group). But there are several important innovations in the "aeolic" practice of Pindar and Bacchylides:

• Verses are no longer isosyllabic (e.g., Pindar may use u u in place of – by resolution).
• Anceps syllables are mostly realized the same way in a given location (and the aeolic base is more limited in its possible realizations).
• Verse forms and sequences are more varied, so that description with reference to the earlier practice must speak of expansions, shortenings, acephalic verses, cholosis, etc.^[9]

Thetragic poets ofClassical Athens continued the use of Aeolic verse (and dactylo-epitrite, with the addition of other types) for their choral odes, with additional metrical freedoms and innovations.Aeschylus,Sophocles, andEuripides each went his own way in developing Aeolics.^[10]

Theocritus provides an example of theHellenistic adaptation of Aeolic poetry in hisIdylls 28 – 31, which also imitate the Archaic Aeolic dialect.Idyll 29, apederastic love poem, "which is presumably an imitation of Alcaeus and opens with a quotation from him,"^[11] is in the same meter as Book II of Sappho. The other three poems are composed in the Greater Asclepiad meter (like Sappho, Book III). Also in the third century BC, a hymn by Aristonous^[12] is composed in glyconic-pherecratean stanzas, and Philodamus'paean toDionysus^[13] is partly analyzable by Aeolic principles.^[14]

Aeolic forms were included in the generalRoman habit of using Greek forms inLatin poetry. Among the lyric poets,Catullus used glyconic-pherecratean stanzas (Catullus 34, 61), thePhalaecian hendecasyllable (many compositions), the Greater Asclepiad (Catullus 30) and the Sapphic stanza (Catullus 11 and51, an adaptation ofSappho fr. 31).^[j]Horace extended and standardized the use of Aeolics in Latin, also using the Alcaic stanza, the Lesser Asclepiad, and hipponacteans. In the summing-up poem "Exegi monumentum" (Odes 3.30), Horace makes the somewhat exaggerated claim:

In later Greek poetry, thephalaecian was widely used by poets including writers ofepigram. The ode to Rome (Supplementum Hellenisticum 541) in Sapphic stanzas by "Melinno" (probably writing during the reign ofHadrian) "is an isolated piece of antiquarianism."^[15]

Especially through the influence of Horace, Aeolic forms have sometimes been employed in post-Classical poetry. For example, Asclepiads have been used bySidney andW.H. Auden. Poets in English such asIsaac Watts,William Cowper,Algernon Charles Swinburne,Allen Ginsberg, andJames Wright have used the Sapphic stanza. In German,Friedrich Hölderlin excelled in Alcaic and Asclepiadic odes. Hungarian poets such asDániel Berzsenyi andMihály Babits have also written in Alcaics.

• Hutchinson, Gregory O. (2001).Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces: Alcman, Stesichorus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripides. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-924017-3.OCLC 252678757.
• Page, Denys Lionel (1955).Sappho and Alcaeus: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Lesbian Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press.OCLC 491857454. Republished in 2021:ISBN 978-1-01-422785-0
• Raven, David Sebastian (1962).Greek metre : an introduction. London: Faber & Faber.OCLC 740976547.
• Sicking, Christiaan M. J. (1993).Griechische Verslehre (in German). München: Beck.ISBN 978-3-406-35252-2.OCLC 263182822.
• Theocritus (1965). Gow, Andrew Sydenham Farrar (ed.).Theocritus. Vol. II, Commentary, appendix, indexes, and plates. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.ISBN 978-0-521-06616-7.OCLC 955936440.
• West, Martin Litchfield (1982).Greek Metre. Oxford [Oxfordshire], New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-585-30239-3.OCLC 45728601.

• Annis, William S. (January 2006)."Introduction to Greek Meter"(PDF).Aoidoi.org.
• Gosse, Edmund William (1911)."Choriambic Verse" .Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). p. 269.
• Kelly, Andrew (2010-03-30)."Pindaric Metre: 'The Other Half'".Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved2024-11-02. A recent book on Pindar's choral Aeolics
• Nagy, Gregory."A Comparative Survey of Pindar's Meters".Hopkins Press. Archived fromthe original on 2021-10-27.

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