The Lyric Metres of Euripidean Drama - Universidade de Coimbra

2. Trochaic
Trochaic
In extant tragedy, the extended use of trochaic lyric is practically confined
to Euripides’ later plays. Pure lyric trochees are infrequent in Aeschylus
and never constitute more than a fleeting modulation in an alien context. 44
Sophocles was not averse to an occasional sprinkling of lyric trochees, but
only in Oedipus at Colonus do we find anything approaching an extensive use
of the rhythm in the later Euripidean manner. 45 Trochaic cola are also rare in
our earliest Euripidean plays. But from Supplices on, we find trochaic metres
making occasional appearances (as in Sophocles) in contexts not primarily
trochaic; then, all of a sudden (as it were), in Helen and Phoenissae we encounter
an unprecedented, highly concentrated use of trochaic dimeters, imaginatively
varied by syncopation, resolution and catalexis. 46
Entirely or predominantly trochaic songs in Greek tragedy are:
(a) Hel. 167-78~179-90, 191-210~211-28, 229-252, 330-74: this
remarkable string of trochaic songs at the beginning of Helen is quite
unparalleled; West and Willink have drawn attention to the presumed novelty
of the technique here. 47
(b) Ph. 239-49~250-60: the second strophic pair of the parodos (first
strophic pair is aeolo-choriambic).
(c) Ph. 638-56~657-75, 676-89: first stasimon; the only wholly trochaic
choral song in tragedy.
(d) IA 231-41~242-52, 253-64~265-76, 277-302: second and third
44 Cf. A. Pe. 638~645 (tr: see Parker 1990: 338-339), ScT 351~363 (tr + lk), 352~364 (2
tr), 355~367 (tr + lk), 832-3~840-1 (4 tr), 975~987 (4 tr), Eum. 496~505 (2 tr). At PV 414-
17~420-22, there is a surprising sequence of three trochaic dimeters, on which see Griffith
(1977: 37-39).
45 Cf. Ai. 606~620 (2 tr), 607~621 (tr + sp? cr + ba ?), 902~948 (tr + cr), El. 1284 (tr + cr + tr),
1285 (2 tr), 1286 (2 tr), OT 883~897 (2 tr), 894~907 (2 tr), 895~908 (2 tr + cr), Trach. 826b~836b
(tr), 827~837 (tr + sp), 828~838 (tr + sp), 879 (2 tr), Ant. 360~370 (2 tr + cr), 880 (2 tr), 881 (2
tr), Phil. 864 (2 tr), OC 1080~1091 (2 tr), 1081~1092 (2 tr), 1220~1235 (3 tr), 1221~1236 (2
tr), 1222~1237 (2 tr), 1680~1707 (2 tr), 1681~1708 (2 tr), 1684~1711 (2 tr), 1688~1715 (2 tr),
1730~1743 (2 tr), 1731~1744 (2 tr), 1732~1745 (2 tr), 1733~1746 (2 tr), 1734a~1747 (mol + tr),
1734b~1748 (sp + tr), 1735~1749 (sp + 2 tr), 1736~1750 (pa + tr).
46 The catalectic trochaic dimeter ( — ∪ — x — ∪ — : tr + cr), known as lecythion, also
appears ubiquitously in tragedy as a syncopated iambic colon ( — ∪ — x — ∪ — : cr + ia): see
below, p. 40.
47 Cf. West (1982: 102-3); Willink (2010: 169 n. 4, 176 n. 22).
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