Demeter and Artemis
When Orpheus still reign the throne and summer filled
From year to year, the goddess bound to grain appeared
to ask the king a boon. Her daughter’s sunny soul
Had set, descended through the earth, to live beside
The buried bones of men, to weep their wailing end.
In hope reverse the voyage low demand a stag
Of white, an ivory deer that walks the wood and wears
A worthy crown. Then give the gift to god below
Upon a wooden pyre, and burn the body black,
Till beastly god below, is full of feasted fire.
A bowman bound to king on high would volunteer
To lead the hunt. As summer soon would fall asleep
and cold to creep the evening air, he promise seek
without delay and find the sacrifice revered.
The king approved his champion and said beware.
While hunt begun the grain goddess began to mourn.
Her fallen tears she never pour to water cow
Or crop. Eternal summer set and fall began.
The bright and beautiful became a barren brown
And grey. The light began to dim and winter come.
For ninety days the archer hunts, always alert
For subtle signs of deer. And then beneath the feet,
He find a print, so ever clear. He wonder if
A buck as he would bare a crown befit the task,
So quickly tend to track the trail of sacred beast.
Though archer bound to goddess grain the mighty buck
did not. For he and all the creatures found in wood,
Were made of mother moon. So when the archer start
To near, a child dear her heart; she fell the crown
From high his head, and paint him brown as wooden bark.
So hunters found upon the forest searching for
A deer, remember well, that where you dwell is not
Your home to reap. For every beast and bird alive
Belongs to mother moon. For only she decides
If thee in winter feast, or famine through the fall.
Line notes from Demeter and Artemis
1 - Orpheus was the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries
2 - Demeter was the goddess of grain
3 - Demeter’s daughter is Persephone
4 - “descended through the earth” is a reference to the Hades abduction of Persephone
6 – Stags are sacred to Artemis
7 – According to Homer, animals that are not normally white are often considered sacred if they are found white
8 – “god below” is Hades
9 – According to Homer, normally only the fat, skin, and bones are given to the gods. The whole animal is only given in special circumstances.
28 – “mother moon” is Artemis
Summary
This project is my first formal presentation of ancient Greek poetry. For foundational information, I started with a cursory study of the ancient to modern Greek language. I then studied some ancient and Byzantine Greek poetry, from Homer and Sophocles to Christopher of Mytilene of the 11th century. Next, I studied the most common poetic meters from ancient to Byzantine Greek including dactylic hexameter, elegiac couplet, and iambic trimeter. After these foundations, I made daily attempts to write in qualitative Greek meter using the full list of metrical rules. Doing so, I realized that the English language needed assistance to fit inside Greek meters.
To come up with an English system that works in Greek meter, I examined Longfellow’s Evangeline. This 1414-line work, possibly the most famous English work written in a Greek meter, was assessed to find acceptable exceptions. Through this analysis, I created a set of exceptions that were needed to write Greek meter in English. The summary of these exceptions includes allowing certain consonant combinations like consonant diagraphs to count as a single letter (e.g. th, ng), giving a small amount of leeway to select prefixes and suffixes, and letting some words count as short syllables despite two consonant sounds following (e.g. the, of).
With an English method of writing in Greek meter in hand, I decided to write a piece in iambic trimeter. I started with this meter due to its proximity to English iambic hexameter. This said, many differences exist between the two. First, English iambic hexameter is a series of unaccented-accented syllable combinations (quantitative poetry), Greek iambic trimeter uses a series of short-long syllable combinations (qualitative poetry). Another difference being that in English, unaccented-accented pairs may switch to accented-unaccented pairs at the writer’s preference. Greek does not allow this flexibility. Though some syllables have the option of being long or short, each syllable is predetermined as either long, short, or optional for either. Another difference is that in English, most syllables may be placed in the accented or unaccented position. In Greek, all syllables are long or short based on their spelling and the word that comes after. The poet has no ability to change this. The fourth major difference between the two is in the rhythm. A Greek poem should be recitable to a metronome in stable rhythm. Each foot, line, and stanza should take the same amount of time to recite as every other. A final difference is the use of alliteration over rhyming. Where a poem in iambic hexameter may utilize some alliteration, Greek iambic trimeter uses alliteration prolifically as there is not a rhyme scheme to unite the poem.
Thematically, I wrote a piece based on the Trial by Fire and Royal Archer time and themes. For the first, the event is being held when the Greeks held the Eleusinian Mysteries. These Mysteries were held by the cult of Demeter and Persephone to honor Persephone’s journey to and from the underworld. As such, I wanted to focus part of my poem on this theme. The second theme, Royal Archer, is lived through poetic themes of the hunt and stag. Together make an original story which I set after Persephone has been taken by Hades to the underworld, but before Demeter makes the deal with Zeus for Persephone’s partial return.
Below is the poem followed by a page of line notes. After which is my write up of Greek meter and my process to find English exceptions. Following is a summary of those changes and literary examples used in the process. The final page lists references.
Full Write-Up of Greek Meter
Greek meter is a foreign concept to most English readers. As such, this paper is but an introduce to the style. Additionally, this proposed system to write Greek meter in English is still in its infant stages. What is displayed below is meant to be a starting point and not a conclusion.
For brevity’s sake, I made certain assumptions about the reader. In future write-ups these assumptions will be fewer as the write-up becomes a full research paper. These assumptions are that the reader is familiar with period English poetry and its metrical concepts. Additionally, the reader has a basic knowledge of ancient Greek literature and history. An understanding of the Greek alphabet is also helpful.
As a statistical note, in this write-up I refer to several analyses I performed on various literary works. I only include the results and a brief example of each text analyzed and not the raw data found. This was done for conciseness.
Research Process
The first research step was to have a basic understanding of the Greek language. To do so, I studied modern Greek on Duolingo and ancient Greek through articles. I then studied the language’s history and evolution. What stood out the most was that Greek vowels went from a mixture of long and short sounds to exclusively short ones during the Byzantine period (Bernard & Livanos, 2018). This is especially interesting because Greek poetry before the Byzantine period was written based off vowel length (Annis, 2006; Vaughan, 2020). This stated, some of the most exulted writers of the Byzantine period, such as Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous, still wrote as though the vowel lengths differed as an homage to their cultural ancestors (Bernard & Livanos, 2018).
Syllables
The second step of the process was to grasp the basic components of ancient Greek poetry. Unlike romance languages and English which use an accent or stressed system (Oliver, 1994), Greek poetry looks at their syllables by length. In this system, syllables are considered either long or short based off how long it takes to pronounce them. A long syllable theoretically takes twice as long to pronounce as a short one (Annis, 2006). To understand if a syllable is considered long or short, in all meter types, the following rules can be used.
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Open syllable - one that is followed by a single consonant or no consonant at all
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Closed syllable - one followed by more than one consonant
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Short vowels in open syllables are scanned short (e.g. lot, bar, the)
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Short vowels in closed syllables are scanned long (e.g. frost, hard, rent)
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Long vowels are long (e.g. tote, spike, take)
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Diphthongs are long (e.g. rain, lay, break, fear, boy)
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Synaphaea: syllable length is determined by line and not word alone.For example “of the” is a long syllables because the “o” is followed by two consonants.
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Exception. If a plosive π, β, φ, τ, δ, θ, κ, γ, χ (p, b, t, d, k, c, g) is followed by a liquid λ, ρ (l, r) or a nasal μ, ν (m, n) in the same word, the short vowel may be considered short or long. (e.g.)
The Roman world continued the use of Greek metered poetry. However, with a different letter system, they added an additional rule. An H that begins a word does not count as a consonant. (University of Michigan, (2014).
Morae and Terms
The smallest unit in Greek meter is the morae. A long syllable is counted as two morae and a short syllable as one. A meter’s rules dictate how many morae are in a foot. The standard dictation is ᴗ for a short syllable and – for a long. A listing of morae can be found on table 1.
Table 1: Foot Patterns by Morae (Annis, 2006)
3 Morae Iamb ᴗ -
Trochee - ᴗ
Tribranch ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ
4 Morae Spondee - -
Dactyl - ᴗ ᴗ
Anapest ᴗ ᴗ -
5 Morae Cretic - ᴗ -
Bacchius ᴗ - -
6 Morae Choriamb - ᴗ ᴗ -
Ionic ᴗ ᴗ - -
The style of the foot determines the flow and feel of a piece. When the feet are combined, they make a poetic metered line (see table 2 for examples). These lines are then repeated to form the poem. Before describing each meter though, a few other terms are needed (Annis, 2006; Vaughan, 2020).
The caesurae, notated as ǀ, are grammatical pauses. These are often in well-defined locations based on meter. Anceps, notated with an x, dictate that a syllable can be long or short. A marking of ᴗ ᴗ means that it can be written with two short or one long syllable. The / is a symbol that separates the feet from each other. It does not have a pronunciation though (Annis, 2006; Vaughan, 2020).
Meter
The ancient Greeks used many styles of meter however, three are of especial note. The first major meter is dactylic hexameter. This is the meter of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. The 13 to 17 morae give it a drawn out, heroic, grandiose feel. Next, is the elegiac couplet which was used for lyrical poetry by authors such as Tyrtaeus, Solon, Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. It was often sung and accompanied by a lyre. It is also the only meter written with two different lines. The third is iambic trimeter, the meter used by playwrights such and Aeschylus and Sophocles. It is less heroic than dactylic hexameter, not sung like the elegiac couplet, and used for a large variety of works in Greek and Latin. As it is often a series of short-long couplets it can sound familiar to the English ear (see table 2 for details).
Table 2: Common Ancient Greek Meter (Annis, 2006; Vaughan, 2020)
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Dactylic hexameter: - uu / - uu / - uu / - uu / - uu / - x
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Elegiac couplet: - uu / - uu / - uu / - uu / - uu / - x
- uu / - uu / - // - uu / - uu / -
-
Iambic trimeter: x - u - / x - u - / x - u -
Rhyme and Alliteration
The Greek meter was held together through alliteration, not rhyming. Though the elegiac couplet rhymed in couplets, the other major forms did not have a formal rhyme scheme. This said, the Greek language does not have much variety to their word endings. For example, 33 of the first 100 words in the Odyssey end in vowel-n (ν) (Homer, 750 BCE, see example 1). However, the Greeks consistently and intentionally used alliteration. For example, in scanning the opening chapter of the Odyssey, Homer alliterates the first letter in roughly 90% of his lines (Francis Storr, Ed., n.d.a.) Sophocles similarly does so. A scan of Oedipus shows roughly 70% of his lines use first letter alliteration (see example 2). This is especially impressive considering Sophocles uses iambic trimeter which averages just over five words per line in Greek. Some lines only have three words (Francis Storr, Ed., n.d.b.). As a note, in the assessments I ignored words like και and τον which mean and and the respectively as they were likely short and not emphasized during speech.
First Try
With morae, meter, and method in hand I began writing verse with precise ancient Greek principles. After two months of near daily attempts, I realized the obvious, English is not Greek. I could muddle through a stanza or two but to make a full poem was difficult at best. The reason was English, when using Greek rules, relies heavily on long syllables. As such, the standard dactyl (- ᴗ ᴗ ) became very difficult to come by. To help with this I turned to English authors.
Longfellow
A few English authors have attempted to write in Greek meter with the most famous being Longfellow’s Evangeline. The problem with Longfellow’s example however, was that he does not use the Greek dactylic hexameter meter ( – u u ) precisely. For example, his opening words are This is the. Here, This is a really a short syllable because the i only has one consonant behind it where it should be long. The is should be a short vowel, however, it is long because it has three consonants after it. Even allowing the th to be a single letter like the Greek theta (θ), it still would have two behind. In his first stanza, counting syllables to match spondee or dactyl appropriately, he should have 40 short syllables. I only count 7. To examine further, I explored the poem for its exceptions to the Greek rules.
The best method I found to examine Longfellow’s English exceptions to Greek meter came from the third and fourth to last syllables of each line. The reason being that the first four dactyls could be a spondee - - or a dactyl - ᴗ ᴗ. The fifth however must be a dactyl. After the fifth foot are two syllables, either a trochee - ᴗ or a spondee - -. As the first four feet can vary in count, though the final cannot, the only reliable short syllables in the poem are the third and fourth syllables from the end. Examining these syllables, I notated all the various ways Longfellow transgressed the Greek meter rules.
The categories of exceptions include letter combinations, word exceptions, prefixes, and suffixes. For letter combinations, though he uses the Greek exceptions of plosives followed by liquids and nasals to stand for a single letter, he uses other letter combinations as well including tw, ct, ch, sc, th, sn, nt, wh, ng. There are also many words he uses as short syllables regardless of what comes after them. These words are and, in, on, their, of, that, o’er, is, with, out, the, from, were, they, his, and its. Longfellow also uses many suffixes and a few prefixes as short syllables even if they would not be counted as such normally. These syllables include: -ing, -an, -er, -age, -man, -in, -sons, -ards, -ion, -es, ed, -ons, -ate, -cense, -ly, -ty, -ers, ite, -age, -ant, de-, re-, and con-. With this analysis in hand, I looked at possible exceptions I thought appropriate from the ones I thought took too many liberties.
Creating a New System
My goal was to create an English system that met the original feel and intent of Greek poetry. As this poetry is qualitative, it relies on rhythm and alliteration to create a sense of wholeness in the piece. As such, it was imperative that my English usage met with this intent. This meant that long-syllables had to be long and short-syllables had to be short. Additionally, that alliteration was international well used.
Consonant Diagraphs
In Greek there are a few letters that became consonant diagraphs in English. These include θ theta for th (e.g. theology), ψ psi for ps (e.g. psychology), and φ phi for ph (e.g. philosophy). English has continued to use these letter combinations adding a few more consonant diagraphs including sh, ch, wh, ng. It would then follow that if consonant diagraphs were considered a single letter in Greek, they could be done so as well in English versions of Greek poetry. At a minimum, these added three would fall into the same category as the plosive-liquid combination rule stated above. As such, this becomes our first set of English exceptions, th, ps, and ph are always considered a single letter. However, sh, ch, wh, and ng, as well as the other plosives, can be considered one or two letters based on context and the readers dialect.
Longfellow’s Combinations
Other consonant combinations, not listed above or in the Greek rule set, came about from the Longfellow study including combinations tw, ct, sc, sn, and nt. Of these five, I decided to reject all but one, sc. The reason was that each take the time of two consonants to pronounce. To reemphasize the paramount purpose, the work must have a consistent rhythm. The vowel in the short syllable can only be followed by a single consonant. And that consonant must sound like a single consonant. For example, th and s, have the same verbal length. So in both “by there” and “by sending”, the y gets to the e in the same time. However, “by twin” and “by snail” both take longer for the y to reach the vowel because both letters are pronounced separately.
Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefixes and suffixes often slide gracefully off a core word. With this word attachment, their pronunciation space shortens. As such, the rules around them can be slightly relaxed. For example, in “sweeter than” the er takes up half the time of sweet or than, despite having two consonants after (counting th as one). However, this cannot be implied indefinitely. In “sweeter still” the er takes up as much vocal space as the sweet and still. From this assessment it is concluded that the lack of space between core word and their prefix or and suffix allows for two consonants between a vowel and the following vowel for the original vowel to remain short.
Silent Letters
There are some examples in English where letters are not vocalized and therefor do not count when determining if a syllable is short or long. The first example is the silent e at the end of words (e.g. late). However, the e exists to make the vocalized vowel long. So even in “late of day” the late is long despite only one consonant because the a is long. Another silent letter example is the double consonant at the end of a word (e.g. ball, wall), so “great wall of” is – u u.
Sometimes Silent Letters
Other letters including b,t,h, and k are sometimes silent in English depending on word and pronunciation. For example, knot and not take the same verbal time so “the knot” and “the not” are both u u. However, to my pronunciation, “the witcher runs” is u u u – though “the pitcher runs” is u – u -.
Exception Words
Some words appear to be short, near-regardless of their context. This became especially noticeable in the Longfellow study. He specifically used the words and, in, on, their, of, that, o’er, is, with, out, the, from, were, they, his, and its as short syllables despite multiple consonants after. So for Longfellow, “and three” would be u –. In speech experiments, some of these words appear to take the verbal space of a prefix. So even though “of their” uses two words, it is often pronounced, especially in poetry, as one. Due to this, exception words, like prefixes and suffixes, can only have two consonants after. However, to be more stringent with the rhythm, the syllable must only have three sounds to use this exception. So “the crate” is okay because the is only two sounds, th and e. However, “from near” is not because the exception word has four sounds. This makes my exception list down to and, in, on, a, of, that, is, the, they, her, his, and it.
Table 1, Summary of English Exceptions by the Author
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Letter combinations and are always considered a single letter to reflect their Greek counterparts.
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Consonant Diagraphs including andare usually considered one letter.
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Suffixes and prefixes can be considered short if the vowel is short and no more than two consonant sounds come after.Additionally, the syllable must have three or less sounds but two is much preferred.Examples include -ing, -an, -er, -in, -ion, -es, ed, -ly, -ty, -ers, de-, re-, con-.
-
Exception words can be used as short syllables if there are no more than two consonant sounds after the vowel.The exception word list includes; and
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Silent letters are ignored for determining syllable length.
Example 1: First 4 Lines of Homer’s Odyssey (Francis Storr, Ed., n.d.)
ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:
πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
πολλὰ δ᾽ ὅ γ᾽ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,
Example 2, First 4 Lines of Sophocles Oedipus (Francis Storr, Ed., n.d.)
ὦ τέκνα, Κάδμου τοῦ πάλαι νέα τροφή,
τίνας ποθ᾽ ἕδρας τάσδε μοι θοάζετε
ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν ἐξεστεμμένοι;
πόλις δ᾽ ὁμοῦ μὲν θυμιαμάτων γέμει,
Example 3, First 4 Lines of Longfellow’s Evangeline (Longfellow, n.d.)
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
References
Annis, W. (2006). Introduction to Greek meter. Aoidoi.org. http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/meter/intro.pdf
Bernard, F., & Livanos, C. (2018). The poems of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous. Harvard University Press.
Francis Storr, Ed. (n.d.a). Homer, Odyssey. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135
Francis Storr, Ed. (n.d.b). Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0191
Homer. (1997). The Odyssey (R. Fagles Trans.). Penguin Classics. (c. 750 BCE)
Longfellow, H. W. (n.d.). Evangeline: A tale of Acadie. Academy of American Poets. https://poets.org/poem/evangeline-tale-acadie
Oliver, M. (1994). A poetry handbook: A prose guide to understanding and writing poetry. Mariner.
Powell, B. B. (2021). Greek poems to the gods: Hymns from Homer to Proclus. University of California Press
University of Michigan. (2014, Feb 7). Basic guide to Latin meter and scansion. Inter-versiculos Classics. https://inter-versiculos.classics.lsa.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Irby-Basic-Meter-Guide.pdf
Vaughan, J. (2020, May 20). The structure of Greek tragedy: An overview. The Kosmos Society. https://kosmossociety.chs.harvard.edu/the-structure-of-greek-tragedy-an-overview/