Catalogues, Priamels, and Stanzaic Structure in Early Greek Elegy

Abstract

Catalogues and priamels figure prominently in the longer fragments of early Greek elegy. In this brief study I survey a half-dozen of these elegiac lists and show that the early poets regularly use a five-couplet stanza to create a formal structure for their compositions. In some cases the catalogues appear to be "set-pieces" adaptable in the midst of performance to a number of different contexts.