Galljambus

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The galliambic (also Galliamb ) is in ancient Greek Verslehre a meter , according to the Galloi , the priests in the cult of Asian goddess Cybele 's and named after their cult songs. It is a catalectic tetrameter of the Ionicus a minore with diheresis according to the second foot and the metric scheme

◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡—— ‖ ◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡ ◡

By interchanging the 4th and 5th element ( anaclasis ) and resolving the length in the third metron , the most common form in Catullus emerges :

◡◡ — ◡ — ◡—— ‖ ◡◡ — ◡◡◡◡ ◡

The form is then generalized to:

◡◡ —◡ — ◡—— ‖  ◡◡ —◡ ◡◡ ◡ ◠

As already mentioned, examples can be found in Catullus ( Carmen 63) and also in Callimachos , in the Saturae of Varro and in Maecenas .

There were replicas in English poetry by Meredith ( Phaethon. Attempted in Galliambic Measure , 1887) and Tennyson ( Boadicea , 1864).

literature

  • Sandro Boldrini : Prosody and Metrics of the Romans. Teubner, Stuttgart & Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-519-07443-5 , pp. 137f.
  • Alexander Dale: Galliambics by Callimachus. In: The Classical Quarterly, New Series. Vol. 57, No. 2 (Dec. 2007), pp. 775-781.
  • Robert C. Ross: Catullus 63 and the Galliambic Meter. In: The Classical Journal. Vol. 64, No. 4 (Jan., 1969), pp. 145-152.
  • Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature. 8th edition Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-520-84601-3 , p. 289.