Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/160

138 138 HISTORY OF THE the effort required in the anapaestic or dactylic member, the voice should find repose in the trochaic clause, and that the verse should thus proceed with agreeable slowness. Hence the soft plaintive tone, which may easily be recognised in .the fragments of the asynartetes of Archilochus, as well as in the corresponding imitations of Horace*. Another metrical invention of Archilochus was a prelude to the formation of strophes, such as we find them in the remains of theiEolic lyric poets. This was the epodes, which, however, are here to be consi- dered not as separate strophes, but only as verses ; that is, as shorter verses subjoined to longer ones. Thus an iambic dimeter forms an epode to a trimeter, an iambic dimeter or trimeter to a dactylic hexa- meter, a short dactylic verse to an iambic trimeter, an iambic verse to an asynartete ; the object often being to give force and energy to the languid fall of the rhythm. In general, however, the purposes of these epodic combinations are as numerous as their kinds ; and if it appears at first sight that Archilochus was guided by no principle in the forma- tion of them, yet on close examination it will be found that each has its appropriate excellence f. § 9. As to the manner in which these metres were recited, so im- portant a constituent in their effect, we know thus much, — that the uniformity of the rhapsodists' method of recitation was broken, and that a freer and bolder style was introduced, which sometimes passed into the grotesque and whimsical ; although, in general, iambic verses (as we have already seen ) were in strictness not sung but rhapsodised. There, was, however, a mode of reciting iambics introduced by Archilochus, by which some poems were repeated to the time of a musical instru- ment, and others were sung§. The paracataloge, which consisted in the interpolation of a passage recited without strict rhythm and fixed melody, into a piece composed according to certain rules, was also ascribed to Archilochus. Lastly, many entertained the opi- nion (which, however, seems doubtful,) that Archilochus introduced the separation of instrumental music from singing, to this extent, — that iambic epodes, the violent love which has consumed his heart, darkened his sight, and deprived him of reason; probably in reference to his former love for Neobule, which he had then given up. Horace's eleventh epode is similar in many respects. f When one epode follows two verses there is a small strophe, as fragm. 38 : — ATvoj TIS uvfyeZvaiv ooi, uii up' aXwrtv^ kxito; viuvivi ft,tat. If the two last verses are here united into one, aprobde is formed, which is the reverse of the epode ; it often occurs in Horace. Another example of a kind of strophe is the short strain of victory which Archilochus is said to have composed for the Olympic festival to Hercules and Iolaus (fragm. 60) ; two trimeters with the ephymnion TfotXXec kuXxUiki. % Chap. iv. § 3. §<ra; ph laftfZi'a xiynrtui vruok <r?iv xgoZtriv, rk V alard/xi, Plutarch ubi sup. Probably this was connected with the epodic composition ; though, according to Plutarch, it also occurred in the tragedians.
 * See especially fragm. 24, where Archilochus describes, in asynartetes with