Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων
τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν.
⏗|⏗|–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|⏗‖–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖
–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖
–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|⏗‖–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖
–⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|⏗|–ꞈ‖
–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖
⎰ 6
⎛ ⎱ 4
⎜ ⎛ 4
⎜ ⎜ 4—mesode.
⎜ ⎝ 4
⎝ ⎰ 6
⎱ 4
The chief interest of this subject is the art wherewith the Greek masters accompanied variations of emotion and the like with variations of rhythm. This passage affords a simple and stately example. The heavy opening (⏗⏗) is followed by the more confident trochees till, at the last line but one, religious rapture (in the strophe) and the ardour of triumph (in the antistrophe) burst forth with the leaping cyclic dactyls.
We have now become acquainted with three rhythmical masses: the colon, the period, the strophe. Are there others? What is a “verse” in lyrics? There is no such thing.[882] One must, of course, distinguish between a “line” and a “verse”. Lines there must be—that is an affair of the scribe and the printer; verses are rhythmical units, and there is no rhythmical mass in Greek lyrics between the colon and the period. How then are we to arrange our periods, there being no verse-division? The most obvious way is to write each colon as a separate line. The difficulty is that we shall often be compelled to break words:—
θάρσος εὐπειθὲς ἵζ-
ει φρενὸς φίλον θρόνον ...
ψαμμίας ἐξ ἀκτᾶς βέβ-