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In the grim past of archaic Latin, there is only...well, inscriptions and grammar. Which means that this week’s translation has a lot of exciting renditions of “Here is an example of the anapest” and “This monument commemorates this dude sacking this city.” Thrill to ancient explanations of poetic meter! Admire a long sequence of nearly identical references to military victories!
*throws a handful of confetti, blows a tiny horn*
Wheeee.
1. Bucolic
The bucolic meter comes similarly from the heroic. The heroic, if part of the line ends with four feet, creates the bucolic, as with:
“The Muses first from Jove, all things full of Jove”
Theocritus uses this meter, Virgilius scorns it.
2. Heroic Pentameter
However, what ends the fifth foot with that part of the line is called heroic pentameter, as with:
“Turnus fell to the earth with doubled weight.”
3. Logaoedic
And we see that the logaoedic meter arose from the anapestic, if you end the anapestic meter with an antibacchic, as in Greek:
[I am not transcribing the Greek here.]
in Latin,
“Should a god do this, I will give myself exhausted to you.”
4. Scazon (Iambic Trimeter)
In iambic meter, if you have made the penult long, it’s called scazon, which they call choliambic and hipponactean,* as with:
“The salacious tavern and you tent-mates”
5. Phaelecian hendecasyllabic
Look how the phaelecian meter has the first part in antispastic meter and the second in iambic, as with:
“the sparrow of my delicate girl”
For the first syzygy is antispastic, but the following part, “My Ciaean girl,” has an iambic catalectic dimeter. The same part is called the anacretin caesura. The first part could have come from the dactylic, the following part from the iambic thus:
“spotless Pieredes my Camenas”
the division will be this much,
“spotless Pieredes, assist our vows”
and
“my Camenas, I invoke your sisters”
6. Ithyphallic**
The ithyphallic meter is from the trochaic. For it is established out of three trochaes, which is, if you speak of three Bacchics, as thus:
“Builder or world”
Moreover it is said from there, that in Athens when in the mysteries of Liberus the soothsayer stirred up a straight log in the method of witchcraft, and they sang in this type of meter, it was called “phallophoroi” or “phallodoi”. This is also called aeschrionic.
7. Saturnic.
Saturnic meter was first used in Italy. Moreover it is said to come from Saturnia, the oldest city in Italy. And this obscure verse is seen in various places, because men used it at random and without care; nevertheless conquerors inscribed tablets on the Capitoline especially with verses of this type, as such:
“Who broke the highest kingly wealth”
However, in the first part it has an iambic dimetric catalectic, in the second part a trochaic dimetric brachycataletic, which we also called the ithyphallic, as with:
“Poets will give a bad thing to Naevio of Metellus”
You will recognize the rest partly in Horace, partly in original books of authors, from which we have excerpted these things.
8. Horatian Meters
Now before we come to the Horatian meter, which he acquired partly from the old Greeks, and partly composed for himself, I wish to warn about all the things which we call paragoge to be put together from those original meters, or addition or subtraction or connection or permutation: addition, as with:
“Harsh winter is dissolved by the change of spring and kindness”
For it adds a syllable to the heroic meter, which makes the verse longer; subtraction, nevertheless:
“And they drag dry keels by design”
For the subtracted syllable makes the trimeter shorter; connection:
“Enough now of snowy lands and fearful”
For the first caesura of this is trochaic, the second iambic: permutation, just as when Archilocus made the first part of the heroic, the second of the iambic, as with:
“to write little verses struck with serious love”
Horace changed it and made the first iambic, and the second heroic, thus:
“the occasion during the day and while the stems are green”
Moreover these poems of Horace, which I began to speak about, the Greeks called monostrophes, because they have with the first strophe two or three or four colons following other similar ones laid out, and the colons are not changed in another part by an intervening epode. We spoke of what a colon is now, by which these poems are called dicolons or tricolons or tetracolons.
However, in poems written legitimately with lyrics, this is monostrophe, it is necessary that these three things be found: strophe, antistrophe, epode. For a long time ago songs written to the gods were formed from these three: they called the strophe from the right to walk around the altar, the antistrophe from the left to return, afterwards, when they carried through the remainder of the song standing in the sight of the god, the epode, “that with the strophe and antistrophe they walked.” From this the name was translated into these “epodes”, which have two unequal verses. For as the song finished the epodes from there, thus this second verse finished the sense: for this is legitimate in epodes.
Therefore this lyric song***, which has these three parts, is called periodic; the same three parts, if it stands from these three. For the song usually has abundantly and plentifully the antistrophic periode, and sometimes in the middle, this is between the strophe and antistrophe, the mesode. Moreover the cola or commata are sometimes found in the strophe, from the deliberately written various ends of the metrical line; the antistrophe is brought back from here repeatedly by the colon, to the same meters; the third epode is now added with any sort of meter. This is, as I said, what they call a triad.
But since the Greek poets accurately preserved this, the Greek masters teach you more sweetly from their examples. Now let us come to the division of the meters.
9. Paeonic Meter
Four paeonic verses were composed by the comedian Aristophanes from that paeon, which consists of a long syllable and three shorts. Moreover it encloses a cretic, which itself consists of the same types and as much length as the other does, and is one syllable shorter, so that, if it flows with the same number, without rhythms, it does not make the meter. An example of this:
“The vast, inborn talent cleanses with music, / the talent holds with songs in the mouth / just as the wild Tiber glides into the sea.”
10. Proceleumatic
The proceleumatic consists of two pariambs, which is of four short syllables, whose example I have in the demonstrated foot and which I will now refer to:
“There the woman Bromia rests her goddess feet / the he-goat agitates the rapid cattle on the ground / the listless head and avid hand are not warm.”
This verse has three proceleumatics, a fourth pariamb, is closed with a semi-foot, and thus as the removed proceleumatic syllable falls in the tribacchic and follows, so that--as I said--there is not the number, and no meter.
11. Saturnic Verse
There must be a discussion on saturnic verse, which our compatriots claim is of our own region in Italy, but they are decieved. For it is derived from Greece variously and in many ways, not only from the comedies but also from the tragedies. Moreover our ancient men--for I will speak truly as to how they acquired it--did not use it by an observed law nor by one type of guardianship, as they agreed on verses among themselves, but except for when they made very difficult things, they observed some shorter and some longer, so that I scarcely find it among the work of Naevius, which I will offer as an example. I have found the same type among the works of Euripides and Callimachus and certain ancient writers of comedies, such as:
“You compare deceits lovingly with the greedy thrushes”
just as with Archilocus:
“whom Archimedes conquered, not needing a reason”
and a third type:
“It produce him by a plan by which he would be more shameless.”
However, among our own poets in the ancient tablets, which our triumphant generals established on the Capitoline and followed with inscriptions of their victory in saturnic verses, I also found the same kind of examples: from the tablet of Regullus,
“by separating a great war for subjugating kings,”
which is a bit similar to the one that I placed a little earlier,
“It produce him by a plan by which he would be more shameless.”
From the tablet of Acilius Glabrio,
“He brings forth, flees, overthrows the greatest legions,”
and among the words of the poet Naevius I found these suitable ones:
“They carry pretty bowls, golden goblets”
and in another place
“nine sisters in agreement, daughters of Jove”
But from all of these, which are the roughest and which least accommodate the demonstration, the best is the one which the Metelli put forth about Naevius, being however much irritated by that verse,
“The Metelli will give a bad thing to the poet Naevius.”
For this saturnic is composed from a hipponatic quadratic iambic after the caesura and a phallic meter. An example of the hipponatic quadratic:
“What unworthy harms, what nefarious friends?”
For “the Metelli will give a bad thing” is similar to that, “what nefarious friends,” to which a subtracted first syllable makes the phallic meter, “nefarious friends.” From these things the saturnic is composed, so that thus equal to this,
“What unworthy harms, nefarious friends?”
in this way,
“The Metelli will give a bad thing to the poet Naevius.”
---
* I may have misspelled this, but it’s kinda hard to get good spellcheck on obscure poetic terminology. Google Docs helpfully offers that maybe I mean “hippo action”? No, actually, I do not.
** So called because it’s the meter used in hymns sung to Priapus. The ithyphallus would be the big wooden penis carried around in festivals of Bacchus. They just don’t make holidays like that anymore, do they?
*** I occasionally swap between “song” and “poem” in this translation because there are several words being used here which can mean either just as easily in the Latin. So don’t read too much into my choice of either. (Or, uh. Into my terrible awkward grammar in this section. Please.)
---
The source I’m working from for the military inscriptions has the English for each inscription listed to its side. I’ll still be working through those myself, to make sure I know how they work--and because I don’t feel like memorizing English directly, which would just be silly--but I won’t be putting those up unless I happen to come up with a notably different translation from the one offered, because it’s just not different enough to be worthwhile (and to not feel like plagiarism). You can rest assured that when I’m translating long works, like Plutarch’s Themistocles, my translation is often significantly different from any English version that I have available for reference. Sometimes appallingly so!
...I should put some of those up side-by-side now and again so that you can see what I mean.
*throws a handful of confetti, blows a tiny horn*
Wheeee.
1. Bucolic
The bucolic meter comes similarly from the heroic. The heroic, if part of the line ends with four feet, creates the bucolic, as with:
“The Muses first from Jove, all things full of Jove”
Theocritus uses this meter, Virgilius scorns it.
2. Heroic Pentameter
However, what ends the fifth foot with that part of the line is called heroic pentameter, as with:
“Turnus fell to the earth with doubled weight.”
3. Logaoedic
And we see that the logaoedic meter arose from the anapestic, if you end the anapestic meter with an antibacchic, as in Greek:
[I am not transcribing the Greek here.]
in Latin,
“Should a god do this, I will give myself exhausted to you.”
4. Scazon (Iambic Trimeter)
In iambic meter, if you have made the penult long, it’s called scazon, which they call choliambic and hipponactean,* as with:
“The salacious tavern and you tent-mates”
5. Phaelecian hendecasyllabic
Look how the phaelecian meter has the first part in antispastic meter and the second in iambic, as with:
“the sparrow of my delicate girl”
For the first syzygy is antispastic, but the following part, “My Ciaean girl,” has an iambic catalectic dimeter. The same part is called the anacretin caesura. The first part could have come from the dactylic, the following part from the iambic thus:
“spotless Pieredes my Camenas”
the division will be this much,
“spotless Pieredes, assist our vows”
and
“my Camenas, I invoke your sisters”
6. Ithyphallic**
The ithyphallic meter is from the trochaic. For it is established out of three trochaes, which is, if you speak of three Bacchics, as thus:
“Builder or world”
Moreover it is said from there, that in Athens when in the mysteries of Liberus the soothsayer stirred up a straight log in the method of witchcraft, and they sang in this type of meter, it was called “phallophoroi” or “phallodoi”. This is also called aeschrionic.
7. Saturnic.
Saturnic meter was first used in Italy. Moreover it is said to come from Saturnia, the oldest city in Italy. And this obscure verse is seen in various places, because men used it at random and without care; nevertheless conquerors inscribed tablets on the Capitoline especially with verses of this type, as such:
“Who broke the highest kingly wealth”
However, in the first part it has an iambic dimetric catalectic, in the second part a trochaic dimetric brachycataletic, which we also called the ithyphallic, as with:
“Poets will give a bad thing to Naevio of Metellus”
You will recognize the rest partly in Horace, partly in original books of authors, from which we have excerpted these things.
8. Horatian Meters
Now before we come to the Horatian meter, which he acquired partly from the old Greeks, and partly composed for himself, I wish to warn about all the things which we call paragoge to be put together from those original meters, or addition or subtraction or connection or permutation: addition, as with:
“Harsh winter is dissolved by the change of spring and kindness”
For it adds a syllable to the heroic meter, which makes the verse longer; subtraction, nevertheless:
“And they drag dry keels by design”
For the subtracted syllable makes the trimeter shorter; connection:
“Enough now of snowy lands and fearful”
For the first caesura of this is trochaic, the second iambic: permutation, just as when Archilocus made the first part of the heroic, the second of the iambic, as with:
“to write little verses struck with serious love”
Horace changed it and made the first iambic, and the second heroic, thus:
“the occasion during the day and while the stems are green”
Moreover these poems of Horace, which I began to speak about, the Greeks called monostrophes, because they have with the first strophe two or three or four colons following other similar ones laid out, and the colons are not changed in another part by an intervening epode. We spoke of what a colon is now, by which these poems are called dicolons or tricolons or tetracolons.
However, in poems written legitimately with lyrics, this is monostrophe, it is necessary that these three things be found: strophe, antistrophe, epode. For a long time ago songs written to the gods were formed from these three: they called the strophe from the right to walk around the altar, the antistrophe from the left to return, afterwards, when they carried through the remainder of the song standing in the sight of the god, the epode, “that with the strophe and antistrophe they walked.” From this the name was translated into these “epodes”, which have two unequal verses. For as the song finished the epodes from there, thus this second verse finished the sense: for this is legitimate in epodes.
Therefore this lyric song***, which has these three parts, is called periodic; the same three parts, if it stands from these three. For the song usually has abundantly and plentifully the antistrophic periode, and sometimes in the middle, this is between the strophe and antistrophe, the mesode. Moreover the cola or commata are sometimes found in the strophe, from the deliberately written various ends of the metrical line; the antistrophe is brought back from here repeatedly by the colon, to the same meters; the third epode is now added with any sort of meter. This is, as I said, what they call a triad.
But since the Greek poets accurately preserved this, the Greek masters teach you more sweetly from their examples. Now let us come to the division of the meters.
9. Paeonic Meter
Four paeonic verses were composed by the comedian Aristophanes from that paeon, which consists of a long syllable and three shorts. Moreover it encloses a cretic, which itself consists of the same types and as much length as the other does, and is one syllable shorter, so that, if it flows with the same number, without rhythms, it does not make the meter. An example of this:
“The vast, inborn talent cleanses with music, / the talent holds with songs in the mouth / just as the wild Tiber glides into the sea.”
10. Proceleumatic
The proceleumatic consists of two pariambs, which is of four short syllables, whose example I have in the demonstrated foot and which I will now refer to:
“There the woman Bromia rests her goddess feet / the he-goat agitates the rapid cattle on the ground / the listless head and avid hand are not warm.”
This verse has three proceleumatics, a fourth pariamb, is closed with a semi-foot, and thus as the removed proceleumatic syllable falls in the tribacchic and follows, so that--as I said--there is not the number, and no meter.
11. Saturnic Verse
There must be a discussion on saturnic verse, which our compatriots claim is of our own region in Italy, but they are decieved. For it is derived from Greece variously and in many ways, not only from the comedies but also from the tragedies. Moreover our ancient men--for I will speak truly as to how they acquired it--did not use it by an observed law nor by one type of guardianship, as they agreed on verses among themselves, but except for when they made very difficult things, they observed some shorter and some longer, so that I scarcely find it among the work of Naevius, which I will offer as an example. I have found the same type among the works of Euripides and Callimachus and certain ancient writers of comedies, such as:
“You compare deceits lovingly with the greedy thrushes”
just as with Archilocus:
“whom Archimedes conquered, not needing a reason”
and a third type:
“It produce him by a plan by which he would be more shameless.”
However, among our own poets in the ancient tablets, which our triumphant generals established on the Capitoline and followed with inscriptions of their victory in saturnic verses, I also found the same kind of examples: from the tablet of Regullus,
“by separating a great war for subjugating kings,”
which is a bit similar to the one that I placed a little earlier,
“It produce him by a plan by which he would be more shameless.”
From the tablet of Acilius Glabrio,
“He brings forth, flees, overthrows the greatest legions,”
and among the words of the poet Naevius I found these suitable ones:
“They carry pretty bowls, golden goblets”
and in another place
“nine sisters in agreement, daughters of Jove”
But from all of these, which are the roughest and which least accommodate the demonstration, the best is the one which the Metelli put forth about Naevius, being however much irritated by that verse,
“The Metelli will give a bad thing to the poet Naevius.”
For this saturnic is composed from a hipponatic quadratic iambic after the caesura and a phallic meter. An example of the hipponatic quadratic:
“What unworthy harms, what nefarious friends?”
For “the Metelli will give a bad thing” is similar to that, “what nefarious friends,” to which a subtracted first syllable makes the phallic meter, “nefarious friends.” From these things the saturnic is composed, so that thus equal to this,
“What unworthy harms, nefarious friends?”
in this way,
“The Metelli will give a bad thing to the poet Naevius.”
---
* I may have misspelled this, but it’s kinda hard to get good spellcheck on obscure poetic terminology. Google Docs helpfully offers that maybe I mean “hippo action”? No, actually, I do not.
** So called because it’s the meter used in hymns sung to Priapus. The ithyphallus would be the big wooden penis carried around in festivals of Bacchus. They just don’t make holidays like that anymore, do they?
*** I occasionally swap between “song” and “poem” in this translation because there are several words being used here which can mean either just as easily in the Latin. So don’t read too much into my choice of either. (Or, uh. Into my terrible awkward grammar in this section. Please.)
---
The source I’m working from for the military inscriptions has the English for each inscription listed to its side. I’ll still be working through those myself, to make sure I know how they work--and because I don’t feel like memorizing English directly, which would just be silly--but I won’t be putting those up unless I happen to come up with a notably different translation from the one offered, because it’s just not different enough to be worthwhile (and to not feel like plagiarism). You can rest assured that when I’m translating long works, like Plutarch’s Themistocles, my translation is often significantly different from any English version that I have available for reference. Sometimes appallingly so!
...I should put some of those up side-by-side now and again so that you can see what I mean.