A cretic (/ˈkriːtɪk/; also Cretic, amphimacer/æmˈfɪməsər/ and sometimes paeon diagyios)[1] is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long (– ᴗ –). In Greek poetry, lines made entirely of cretic feet are less common than other metres. An example is Alcman 58.[2] However, any line mixing iambs and trochees could employ a cretic foot as a transition. In other words, a poetic line might have two iambs and two trochees, with a cretic foot in between.
In later poets the cretic foot could be resolved into a paeonic (ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ – or – ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ) or sometimes even five short syllables (ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ).[3]
In Latin, cretics were used for composition both in comedy and tragedy. They are fairly frequent in Plautus but rarer in Terence. (See Metres of Roman comedy.)
Words which include a cretic (e.g. Latin cīvitās and its various inflections) cannot be used in works composed in dactylic hexameter or dactylic pentameter.
For Romance language poetry, the cretic has been a common form in folk poetry, whether in proverbs or tags. Additionally, some English poets have responded to the naturally iambic nature of English and the need for a trochaic initial substitution to employ a cretic foot. That is, it is commonplace for English poetry to employ a trochee in the first position of an otherwise iambic line, and some poets have consciously worked with cretic lines and fully cretic measures. English Renaissance songs employed cretic dimeter fairly frequently (e.g. "Shall I die? Shall I fly?" attributed to William Shakespeare). Because the cretic, in stress-based prosody, is natural for a comparison or antithesis, it is well suited to advertising slogans and adages.
^Squire, pp. 142, 384.
^Quoted by West, M. L. (1987). An Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford; p. 39.
A cretic (/ˈkriːtɪk/; also Cretic, amphimacer /æmˈfɪməsər/ and sometimes paeon diagyios) is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long...
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renamed and put into service under White Star, named Canopic, Romanic, Cretic and Republic, the latter of which is best known for its 1909 sinking off...
acquisition by White Star, the four liners were respectively renamed Republic, Cretic, Romanic and Canopic. These four ships were greatly similar in appearance...
anapaestic, bacchiac, and cretic). In Terence, 75% of the lines are iambic, 24% trochaic, and only 1% in other metres (bacchiac and cretic). In Plautus, 37% of...
adverbs ending in -en/-an have penultimate accent unless they end in a cretic (– u x) rhythm, thus following the Sezer rule (see below): iktisa:den ('economically')...
The basic structure is much like iambic trimeter, except that the last cretic is made heavy by the insertion of a longum instead of a breve. Also, the...
range of different metres, involving young men and slaves; and one each of cretic and bacchiac, involving the old men Simo and Theopropides. There is also...
at the end of words of cretic rhythm (– u –) such as nēminī plūra "to no one more" (this kind is known by some scholars as cretic shortening); (6) rarely...
notation. The First Hymn is in so-called vocal notation and it is in the cretic (quintuple) meter throughout. The First Delphic Hymn falls into two large...
serving Canadian Pacific Line after buyout. Scrapped in Hamburg in 1923. Cretic 1903 1903–1904 13,507 Launched in 1902 by R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company...
basic metrical groups – u u – u – (dodrans or choriambo-cretic), – u u – (choriamb) and – u – (cretic) figure importantly, and groups are sometimes joined...