The sotadean metre (pronounced: /soʊtəˈdiən/)[1][2] was a rhythmic pattern used by and named after the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Sotades. It is generally classified as a type of ionic metre, though in fact it is half ionic and half trochaic. It has several variations, but the usual pattern is this:
– – u u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
An example from Petronius is:
ter corripuī terribilem manū bipennem
"three times I seized the terrible two-edged axe in my hand"
A characteristic of the sotadean metre is its variability. Sometimes the trochaic rhythm is found in the first metron or the second; sometimes the ionic rhythm continues through the whole line. Usually each metron has exactly 6 morae, but there is also a less strict type of sotadean found in some writers in which a metron may have 7 morae, such as – u – –, – – – u, or – – u –. There is also frequent resolution (substitution of two shorts for a long syllable).
The sotadean was used both in Greek and in Latin literature, but it is not very common. It had a reputation for being vulgar and indecent; but it was also sometimes used for more serious purposes, for example, didactic poems such as Lucius Accius's now lost history of Greek and Latin poetry, or Terentianus Maurus's grammatical treatise on the letters of the alphabet.
The lost treatise Thalia by the heretical Christian theologian Arius is also believed to have been written in sotadean metre, but it has been shown to be in a slightly different type, longer by one syllable.
The sotadeanmetre (pronounced: /soʊtəˈdiən/) was a rhythmic pattern used by and named after the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Sotades. It is generally classified...
trimeter These are not the only stichic metres used in Greek and Latin poetry. Among others are: Eupolidean Sotadean Anapaestic septenarius Galliambic Phalaecian...
considered to be made up of feet, e.g. hendecasyllable. In some kinds of metre, such as the Greek iambic trimeter, two feet are combined into a larger...
her surviving poetry: fragments 1-42. Sappho's most famous poem in this metre is Sappho 31, which begins as follows: Φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν...
addition, in two of his poems (55 and 58b) Catullus uses a variation of the metre, in which the 4th and 5th syllables can sometimes be contracted into a single...
missing publisher (link). Raven, D. S. (1965). Latin Metre. Faber and Faber. West, M. L. (1983), Greek Metre, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-814018-5{{citation}}: CS1 maint:...
Greek Metre: An Introduction. (Routledge) Raven, D. S. (1965). Latin Metre: An Introduction. (Routledge) West, M. L. (1987). Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford:...
Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 51, pp. 151, 164, 169. Reading Latin Verse Aloud: Metre and Scansion What is Elegy? (Archive.org)...
In languages with quantitative poetic metres, such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, and classical Persian, an anceps (plural ancipitia or (syllabae)...
cola, the second one catalectic (i.e., lacking its final syllable). The metre typically has resolution in the last metron, and often elsewhere, leading...
metre". The Classical Quarterly, 32(2), 281–297; pp. 287–8. D. S. Raven (1965). Latin Metre: An Introduction, p. 142. D. S. Raven (1965). Latin Metre:...
use different patterns of long and short syllables, known as meters (UK: metres). For example, the epic poems of Homer were composed using the pattern |...
In iambic and trochaic metres, the two syllables of the brevis breviāns for the most part are found where an element in the metre has been resolved into...
celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants, and named it after Sotades. Sotadeanmetre Suda σ 871 Fontaine, M. "Before Pussy Riot: Free Speech and Censorship...
Archilochian or archilochean is a term used to describe several metres of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The name is derived from Archilochus, whose poetry...
Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1, pp. xxviii, xliv. Raven, D. S. (1965), Latin Metre, p. 146. Becker, A. S. (2012). "Rhythm in a Sinuous Stanza: The Anatomy...
tend to follow the ictus of the metre. However, with a dactylic hexameter, except in the last two feet, where metre and accent coincide, this is not...
Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving...
scared; but it gave birth to a mouse." The Greek verse above, in the Sotadeanmetre, was supposedly said by the 4th-century BC Egyptian King Tachōs to the...
In Greek and Latin metre, brevis in longo (/ˈbrɛvɪs ɪn ˈlɒŋɡoʊ/; Classical Latin: [ˈbrɛwɪs ɪn ˈlɔŋɡoː]) is a short syllable at the end of a line that...
Terence makes much more use of the iambic octonarius metre than Plautus. In Plautus a change of metre often accompanies the exit or entrance of a character...
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