Anaclasis Oxford English Dictionary.Lewis, J. J. (1908/1913). Pocket Ophthalmic Dictionary, 4th ed. (from the Greek "bending back, reflection") is a feature of poetic metre, in which a long and a short syllable (or long and anceps syllable) exchange places in a metrical pattern.
Ancient metricians used the term principally of the Greek galliambic rhythm | u u – u | – u – – |, which they believed was derived from a regular ionic dimeter | u u – – | u u – – | by a reversal of syllables 4 and 5, creating metra of unequal length | u u – u | and | – – u – |.
Although the original meaning of the term anaclasis referred to situations when the substitution of u – for – u occurred across the boundary between two metra, in modern times scholars have extended the term to any situation where the sequence x – (anceps + long) responds to – x (long + anceps) in a parallel part of a verse or poem.Paul Maas (1962), Greek Metre, p. 25. Thus for example, Martin West applies the term to metres of the aeolic type, in which sometimes | – x – u | or | u – u – | are treated as interchangeable with | – u u – |.West, M. L. (1987): An Introduction of Greek Metre (Oxford), pp. 8, 33.
A similar phenomenon has also been observed in classical Persian poetry, for example in the metre of the ruba'i (quatrain), in which the iambic | u – u – | and choriambic | – u u – | rhythms can be used as alternatives in the same poem. Persian also exhibits a second form of anaclasis, in which the ionic dimeter | u u – – | u u – – | exists alongside | u – u – | u u – – |, with reversal of syllables 2 and 3.Hayes (1979). The metrician Paul Kiparsky has argued that anaclasis (or "syncopation") is a common feature of Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian metres and believes that is inherited from Indo-European poetry.Kiparsky (2018).
In English a feature similar to anaclasis can be found in inversion in the iambic pentameter, when stressed and unstressed elements are reversed, especially at the beginning of a line.
In optics, the word "anaclasis" refers to the bending of light as it passes from a less dense to a more dense medium. A ray of light entering a pool of water from an angle will be bent downwards.
Connected with anaclasis is the adjective anaclastic, but this is a relatively modern formation, first recorded, in an optical sense, in the 18th century."Anaclastic" was first recorded in English, in the field of optics, in 1796. Its first use is attributed to the French astronomer Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan: Oxford English Dictionary.
Ancient metrical writers
The Greek word "bending backwards; reflection" comes from the verb "I break or break off (e.g. a branch)". From this comes the compound "I bend back; reflect", which seems often to be used of bending back the neck; another meaning is of light or sound being reflected.Liddell, Scott, Jones. Greek-English Lexicon ἀνακλάω.
In its metrical sense the noun is in fact used by only one ancient writer, Marius Victorinus, but the related present participle () "being bent back, being reflected" is used by several metrical writers, namely by Victorinus himself, Hephaestion, Atilius Fortunatianus, and Choeroboscus, mostly with reference to the galliambic metre.
The author of On the Sublime (attributed to "Longinus", 1st century AD) uses the perfect participle () "broken up" in a similar context, in the phrase () "a speech rhythm which is broken up and agitated". He says this is caused by the introduction of pyrrhics (u u), trochees (– u) and dichorees (– u – u) "which ultimately degenerate into dance rhythms".[Longinus], Subl. 41, quoted in Sapsford, T. (2022). Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures. Oxford University Press, p. 205.
Hephaestion (2nd century AD) discusses how the ionic dimeter can be either "pure" or "mixed". The pure form is | u u – – | u u – – |, while the mixed form is either | u u – u | – u – – | or | – – u | u u u – – |, combining a metron of 5 time units with one of 7 time units. In this passage he states that the galliambic metre was later called "being bent back". (However, the text of this passage is uncertain and it is possible that the words "later it was called anaclomenon" are a later addition.)Mulroy (1976)Nauta (2004).
Marius Victorinus (4th century AD) also discusses the combining of a five-time-unit metron and a seven-time-unit metron to form the galliambic rhythm. He adds that musicians refer to this phenomenon as and says that the metra are called "because they lean backwards () in the same way as our bodies lean backwards in certain dance movements".Keil, 6.93; see Mulroy (1976). Presumably such dances were like that of the accompanying illustration, which shows a female worshipper of Dionysus. It is possible, however, that the name comes not from dance-movements but from the fact that the second metron "bends back" to take up part of the time of the first one.J. Seager (translator) (1830), Hermann's Elements of the Doctrine of Metres, p. 98.
Another 4th-century metrician Atilius Fortunatianus also uses the term , although the poetic example he gives is not completely galliambic but in a metre which consists of two anacreontics without catalexis.Keil, , 6.289.
George Choeroboscus (9th century AD?), in a discussion of the galliambic metre, suggests another possible etymology for the word : he says it is possible that the name comes from the weakness () and softness of the voice of the (eunuch priests) who sang hymns in this metre.Mulroy (1976), p. 62.
The idea that anaclasis means "bending backwards" explains the poet Martial's use of the adjective "lying on its back" to describe the galliambic when he gives his reasons for refusing to write either in the galliambic or in the sotadean metre:
Martial, 2.86.1–2.
"Because I don't boast in poems which lie on their back, nor do I read the A is a passive homosexual, also a professional male dancer: Sapsford (2022), pp. 146–9. Sotades backwards..."
The second line refers to the fact that certain dactylic hexameter lines, if the words are arranged in the reverse order, turn into sotadeans.Quintilian, 9.5.90; Sapsford (2022), p. 111.
Greek and Latin ionic metres
Anacreontic An early example of anaclasis in an ionic metre is found in the fragments of the poet Anacreon (late 6th century BC), who would often mix anacreontic and pure ionic dimeters in the same poem. D. S. Raven quotes this example:Raven (1965), p. 129.
Anacreon, fr. 44 D(2).5–8.
u u – – | u u – – (pure ionic) u u – u | – u – – (with anaclasis)
"And there is no longer much time of sweet life left"
The anacreontic continued to be a popular metre into Byzantine times. In this period, there was a tendency for the word accent to follow the metre. According to Martin West, in the case of the anacreontic, in Byzantine times the accent tended to fall on the 4th and especially on the 7th position of the line: u u – u′ – u –′ –.West (1987), p. 74. This would have given it a strongly syncopated rhythm, different from the alternating rhythm of an iambic line.
Not all modern metrical specialists agree that the anacreontic derives from the ionic. According to the metricians Chris Golston and Tomas Riad, the anacreontic is the more basic rhythm and the ionic is derived from it.Golston & Riad (2005), pp. 106–108. Similarly Martin West writes: "We are hampered by not knowing whether u u – u – u – – and u u – – u u – – are of separate origin, and if not, which was primary."West (1982), p. 285.
Galliambic The metre most closely associated with the term "anaclasis" is the galliambic, the music sung by the eunuch devotees of the goddess Cybele. The best known example is Catullus's Attis (poem 63). It consists of two anacreontics, the second one catalectic and with a resolution in the last metron:Raven (1965), p. 130.
u u – u | – u – – || u u – u u u u – "Attis, after sailing over the high seas in a swift ship..."
The first half has anaclasis, but the resolution in the second half makes it difficult to say if it has anaclasis or not.
Apart from two lines quoted by Hephaestion, neither of which seems to have anaclasis, no poems in this metre survive in ancient Greek.
Sotadean A third metre using anaclasis is the sotadean, named after the 3rd century BC poet Sotades. It is found in both Greek and Latin. The metre is usually analysed in terms of the (– – uu). The surviving examples have several forms, but the most common is one which has an ionic rhythm in the first half, and a trochaic rhythm in the second:Raven (1965), p. 131–132.
(Petronius) – – u u | – – u u | – u – u | – – "Three times I seized the terrible two-edged axe with my hand"
Sometimes, in addition to the 3rd metron, the trochaic rhythm is also found in the first or second metron:
(Plautus) – – u u | – u – u | – u – u | – – "whatever happens to be pleasing to a man, he thinks it's possible"
In another variation, the trochaic or ionic 6-mora metron is replaced by a 7-mora metron such as – u – – or – – – u.
As with anacreontic poems, sotadean lines are sometimes mixed in the same poem with lines of pure ionic metre.
Since it is not known whether the ionic or the anacreontic was the original metre, it is unclear whether the sotadean should be thought of as being basically ionic with anaclasis in the second half, or basically trochaic with anaclasis in the first half.
Aeolic metres The term anaclasis, originally used only of ionic metres, was expanded by modern metricians from Wilamowitz (1886)von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1886) Isyllos von Epidauros, cited by Kiparsky (2018), p. 97. onwards to include other types of metre, including aeolic. The most common and basic form of aeolic is the glyconic, of which the basic form is this:
x x – u u – u –
Aeolic metres are usually described as being built up from an aeolic base (x x), followed by a choriamb (– u u –), then an iambic ending (u – –). Paul Kiparsky, however, argues that it is likely that the eight-syllable glyconic originated in a simple iambic dimeter by anaclasis:Kiparsky (2018), p. 99.
x – u – | u – u – (iambic dimeter) x – – u | u – u – (glyconic)
Similarly Kiparsky argues that the minor asclepiad and the phalaecian hendecasyllable can be seen as developments of the iambic trimeter:
x – u – | u – u – | u – u – (iambic trimeter) x – – u | u – u – | u – – (phalaecian hendecasyllable) x – – u | u – – u | u – u – (minor asclepiad)
An example of the hendecasyllable is the following from Catullus: Catullus 5.1. "Let's live, my Lesbia, and let us love"
The glyconic metre also sometimes itself undergoes anaclasis. For example, in the example below the second line has the normal form of the glyconic ending in u – u –, while the first line has a rarer anaclastic form ending in – u u –:
Euripides, Phoenissae, 210–211; cf. West (1987), p. 58.
uu u – – – u u – uu u – u u – u –
"over the unharvested plains of Sicily with the Zephyr's breezes"
The telesillean metre (which is a headless glyconic) similarly has two forms. For example, the following line, which comes from the strophe (first part) of a choral ode, has the anaclastic form, while the second line, which comes from the corresponding place in the antistrophe (answering part) has the normal form:West (1987), p. 59.
Sophocles, Tr. 929.
u – u – u u –
Sophocles, Tr. 960.
– – u u – u –
Classical Persian
The ionic rhythm is common in medieval Persian poetry, together with variations which have been thought to arise from it by anaclasis. In fact some of the very earliest poems recorded in modern Persian of the Islamic period, dating from the 9th century AD, were in the ionic metre.Elwell-Sutton (1975), pp. 77–8. According to a count of 20,000 lyric poems made by L. P. Elwell-Sutton, fully two-thirds of lyric poems in classical Persian are in the ionic rhythm or one of its two anaclastic forms.Elwell-Sutton (1976), p. 162.
Ruba'i