Ionic

Ionikus (also Jonikus , Ioniker or Joniker ; Greek ιονικός ionikos ; Latin ionicus, jonicus ) is in the ancient verse a four-part compound verse foot of two long (——) and two short (◡◡) verse elements .

Depending on the position of the two groups, a distinction is made:

ionicus a maiore ( falling ionic )

Scheme: ——◡◡

Abbreviation: io ^ma

ionicus a minore ( rising ionicus )

Scheme: ◡◡——

Abbreviation: io ^mi

Occasionally and in older sources, the terms superionic are used for the ionicus a maiore or subionic for the ionicus a minore . The ancient Greek name for ionicus a maiore is ἐπιονικός (epionikos) or Latin epionicus .

According to Snell, the distinction between ionicus a maiore and ionicus a minore is a construction of the ancient theory, which sought to analyze a kata-metron .

Ionic meter

Ionic meter measures are in ancient metrics:

( brachycatalectic ) ionic quaternar a maiore (io ^4ma), also called Sotadeus after the Alexandrian poet Sotades :

——◡◡ˌ —— ◡◡ˌ —— ◡◡ˌ— ×

ionic decameter a minore (io ^10mi). An example to be mentioned is Horace Carmina 3.12 with 4 decameters made up of 2 ionic quaternars a minore (io ^4mi) and a dipody (io ^2mi).

Meter measures with Ionikus a minor are relatively rare and the distinction between Ionikus and Bacchius (◡——) is often fraught with uncertainties. The Anacreonteus is believed to be derived from an anaclastic ionic dimeter (io ^2mi).

The name ionikos refers to the association with Ionic cult songs and dances, which were considered offensive. The Sotadeus is also the meter of kinaden poetry , which is therefore also called sotadic literature .

The ionic in German poetry

Since a sequence of stressed syllables is opposed to German, the ionic has little meaning in German poetry. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , who valued the ionic as the base of verse and words , used it frequently in the triumphal choirs of the 20th song of his Messiah , for which he created his own strophic forms. An example:

——◡◡ˌ —— ◡◡ˌ —— ◡◡ˌ ———

◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡ ———

◡◡ — ˌ — ◡ — ˌ◡◡ — ˌ — ◡◡—

◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡◡ ———

The first verse contains three falling Ions, the second two rising Ions, and the fourth one rising Ionic.

Klopstock was particularly impressed by the rising Ionikus, which he considered the most beautiful foot of words next to the Choriambus , and he also devised an engraved meter that builds on the rising Ionikus. An example verse given by himself and described as "beautiful":

◡ —— ˌ◡◡ —— ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡◡ —— ˌ ◡——

You get up, | you the defense cry | of the court | from the throne | don't hear dead.

In addition to the rising ionic, the anapest and bacchius can also be used at certain points in the verse .

Johann Heinrich Voss only used verses from rising Ionics in Die Jägerin , the first stanza:

What do you admonish about the victory mark for the crown deer, the hunter?
What do you elicit from the desert into the splendid tent of the hospitality,
Where the French horn echoes with song?

This stanza is also used by Johann Karl Wilhelm Geisheim in Der stormy May ; similarly also Friedrich Wilhelm Rogges Wehmut and Der angerende Jüngling . Jakob Minor points out the decisive role that the lecture plays for the German Ionian in the monologue of Epimeleia from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's dramatic festival play Pandora .

not my cry of fear
about myself -
I don't need it -
but hear it!
help those there
[...]

"Here it is possible to artificially suppress the minor accent on the first syllable by performing the verses in the tone of breathless fear they express."

The verses of the previous examples are wholly or partly composed of Ionic verse feet, which are also word feet. Ionics can also appear as word feet in verses in which they are not included as verse feet. An example of this is the hexameter : In Rudolf Alexander Schröder's translation of the Iliad there is this verse (V, 860):

Screamed, nine thousand alike, tens of thousands when they were with battle cry

Here are nine and tens of thousands Ionians a maiore. The ionic a minor can also be realized in the hexameter. In the classic Iliad translation by Johann Heinrich Voss, verse XX, 25 reads as follows:

Because where Achilles approaches the Trojans alone in the field battle

The word foot in the field battle is an ionic a minor.

literature

Sandro Boldrini : Prosody and Metrics of the Romans. Teubner, Stuttgart & Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-519-07443-5 , pp. 135-138.
Dieter Burdorf, Christoph Fasbender, Burkhard Moennighoff (Hrsg.): Metzler Lexicon literature. Terms and definitions. 3rd edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-476-01612-6 , pp. 359, 717.
Otto Knörrich: Lexicon of lyrical forms (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 479). 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-47902-8 , p. 105.
Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature. 8th edition Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-520-84601-3 , p. 381.
Hans-Heinrich Hellmuth: Metric invention and metric theory at Klopstock, Fink, Munich 1973.

Individual evidence

↑ See Wilhelm Pape: Concise Dictionary of the Greek Language. Vol. 1st 3rd edition 1914, p. 1006.
↑ Bruno Snell: Greek Metric. Göttingen 1982, p. 34 f.
^ Sicking: Greek verse teaching. Munich 1993, p. 158.
^ Jacob Minor: Neuhochdeutsche Metrik, Trübner, Strasbourg 1902, pp. 278f.
^ Rudolf Alexander Schröder, Collected Works in Five Volumes, Fourth Volume: Homer. Suhrkamp, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, 1952.

[1] See Wilhelm Pape: Concise Dictionary of the Greek Language. Vol. 1st 3rd edition 1914, p. 1006.

[2] Bruno Snell: Greek Metric. Göttingen 1982, p. 34 f.

[3] Sicking: Greek verse teaching. Munich 1993, p. 158.

[4] Jacob Minor: Neuhochdeutsche Metrik, Trübner, Strasbourg 1902, pp. 278f.

[5] Rudolf Alexander Schröder, Collected Works in Five Volumes, Fourth Volume: Homer. Suhrkamp, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, 1952.