Simonidea

Abstract

The notes which follow are concerned almost entirely with questions of metre and rhythm; and since the lyric forms of Simonides are, nearly every-where, ‘systematic’ and not stichic, it is not easy to speak of these without involving oneself—and the reader—in problems of a nature somewhat controversial. In particular, it is impossible to avoid the use of the terms ‘logaoedic’ and ‘dactylo-epitritic’; and it is impossible to use these without explaining what sense one attaches to them. I will begin, therefore, by discharging this necessary, but tiresome, duty. I call it tiresome, because in the country of Bentley and Porson and Elmsley and Gaisford no one any longer cares to scan Greek verse. The history of metrical study in England in the last century begins with Jebb's Sophocles (which popularized a German metric already discredited in Germany), and ends with chapter VI. of Mr. Norwood's Greek Tragedy. People ask why the classics are dying. It is because the wrath of God is coming upon the children of Jebb and Mr. Norwood.