The sotadean metre (pronounced: )Oxford English Dictionary.Merriam-Webster online dictionary. was a rhythmic pattern used by and named after the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Sotades. It is generally classified as a type of ionic metre, though in fact it is half ionic and half trochaic. It has several variations, but the usual pattern is this:
– – u u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
An example from Petronius is:
"three times I seized the terrible two-edged axe with my hand"
A characteristic of the sotadean metre is its variability. Sometimes the trochaic rhythm (– u – u) is found in the first metron or the second; sometimes the ionic rhythm (– – u u) continues through the whole line. Usually each metron has exactly 6 morae, but there is also a less strict type of sotadean found in some writers in which a metron may have 7 morae, such as – u – –, – – – u, or – – u –. There is also frequent resolution (substitution of two shorts for a long syllable).
The sotadean was used both in Greek and in Latin literature, and by several authors, but it is not very common. It had a reputation for being vulgar and indecent; but it was also sometimes used for more serious purposes, for example, didactic poems such as Lucius Accius's now lost history of Greek and Latin poetry, or Terentianus Maurus's grammatical treatise on the letters of the alphabet.
The lost treatise Thalia by the heretical Christian theologian Arius is also sometimes said to have been written in sotadean metre, but it has been shown to be in a slightly different type, longer by one syllable.
Construction Basic form The sotadean is considered by ancient metricians such as HephaestionTom Sapsford (2022), Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures (Oxford), pp. 202–3 (2nd century AD) and Marius Victorinus (4th century AD) to be based on the rhythm (– – u u). According to Victorinus there were two main types of sotadean, the pure ionic, consisting of four ionic metra with the last two syllables deleted:
– – u u | – – u u | – – u u | – –
The other type has two ionic metra followed by an ithyphallic (i.e. two trochees and a spondee):
– – u u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
According to Victorinus, some metricians liked to call the first type and the second type .Marius Victorinus, ed. Keil, vol. vi, p. 128. However, other metricians do not make this distinction; for example, Quintilian calls both kinds .
The process whereby – u – u is substituted for – – u u is known as anaclasis. It is, however, uncertain which of these two rhythms is primary and which is derivative.West, M. L. (1982). "Three topics in Greek metre". The Classical Quarterly, 32(2), 281–297; p. 285.
Most modern metricians, such as Martin West,West, M. L. (1987): An Introduction to Greek Metre (Oxford), p. 74. follow the same analysis as Hephaestion and Victorinus, although D. S. Raven suggested an alternative analysis based on the (u u – –) with the first two syllables omitted, as follows:D. S. Raven (1965), Latin Metre: An Introduction (Faber), p. 129.
– – | u u – – | u u – u | – u – –
However, he admits that the difference is "purely theoretical". Other scholars have sought to explain the sotadean as a kind of aeolic metre.
Variations There are frequent variations in the metre. Sometimes the trochaic rhythm (– u – u) is used in the first or second metron as well as the third (rarely in all three):
– u – u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
– – u u | – u – u | – u – u | – –
Resolution (the substitution of two short syllables for a long one) is common, so that lines such as the following may be found:
– – u u | – – u u | – u u u u | – –
u u u u u u | – – u u | – u – u | – –
Sometimes the line starts with two anapaests, or an and anapaest, such as the following:
u u – u u | –, u u u u | –, u – u | – –
u u – – | u u –, u u | – u – u | – –
There is also sometimes contraction of two short syllables into one long one, for example:
– – u u | – – – | – u u u u | – –
In all these variations, whatever the shape of the metron, in most writers it remains equal to six morae or time units. The beginning of each metron (marked in bold in the examples below) comes at regular intervals. In some writers, however, such as in the lines quoted by Stobaeus, or in the Latin sotadeans of Plautus, Accius and Varro, occasionally a metron of 7 time-units is allowed, such as | – u – – | or | – – – u |. For example:
u u u – – | – – – | – u – u | – –
– u u u u | –, u u u u | – – – u | – –
Many of the surviving verses have a after the fifth syllable. Occasionally, however, the caesura is found after the sixth syllable. There is also often a caesura after the 9th syllable.
The final syllable of the line, as usual in stichic verse, is brevis in longo; that is, the line may end with a short syllable which counts as long because of its position at the end of the line.
Reputation Sotadean verses had a reputation for being indecent and effeminate. The educationist Quintilian says that love elegies, hendecasyllables, and sotadeans were unsuitable for teaching to boys, adding "concerning sotadeans I do not even need to give a warning" ().Quintilian, 1.8.6. Pliny the Younger in one of his letters feels it necessary to make excuses for his sometimes reading comedies, mimes, lyric poems, and sotadeans, which some people thought undignified for a gentleman.Pliny, Ep. 5.3.2.
In one of his hendecasyllabic poems Martial writes dismissively of the galliambic and the sotadean metres and gives his reasons for refusing to write in them:
Martial, 2.86.1–2.
"Because I don't boast in poems which lie on their back nor do I read the Sotades backwards..."
In the word Martial alludes to the fact that galliambic verses (the metre of songs sung by the or eunuch devotees of the goddess Cybele) were regularly described as "leaning backwards" by Greek and Roman metricians. In the second line he calls Sotades a ("passive homosexual"), and refers to the fact that in some cases a dactylic hexameter, if read with the words in the reverse order, becomes a sotadean.Quintilian, 9.5.90. He says that these metres are appropriate for the likes of Palaemon, a grammarian and minor poet of the age of Nero, notorious for his dissolute life, homosexuality, and loose morals.
Quintilian's example of a reversible hexameter is the following:
"the sky holds the stars, the sea fleets, and a threshing-floor the harvest"
which when reversed becomes a sotadean of the pure ionic kind: To help in reading, the syllable at the beginning of each metron is marked in bold in this article. – – u u, | – – u u, | – – u u | – –
Sotades is said to have rewritten Homer's Iliad in ionic metre. The author of the treatise On Style attributed to "Demetrius" (possibly 2nd century BC), quotes one of the lines.Hamilton, F. W., & Roberts, W. R. (1991). trans. Aristotle the Poetics, Longinus on the Sublime and Demetrius On Style. Loeb Classical Library. Taking the Homeric line:
(Homer, Iliad, 22.133)
"brandishing his Pelian ash-spear on his right shoulder"
Sotades rearranged the words to make a sotadean line:
(Sotades, fragment 4a (Powell))
– – u u | –, – u u, | – u – u | – –
The author of On Style objected strongly to this rhythm, calling it "weak", "undignified", and "somewhat effeminate". He added: "the line seems to undergo a metamorphosis, just like those men who change from male to female in myths".Tom Sapsford (2022), "Desert Fragments: Kinaidic Verse in Egypt and Beyond", chapter 4 in Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures (Oxford), pp. 110–111.
In the 4th century AD, Athanasius of Alexandria repeatedly castigates Arius for imitating the metre of Sotades in his theological treatise Thalia. He calls the metre effeminate and undignified, and criticises Arius for "imitating Salome's dance and playing" instead of using a more solemn style. Similarly, Gregory of Nyssa criticised the prose rhythms of Eunomius of Cyzicus (a follower of Arius) as resembling "mincing and effeminate sotadeans" which seemed to him to go along "tapping with the foot and clicking with the fingers in time with the rhythm". West comments: "This passage is valuable as an indication of the method of delivery of real sotadeans."M. L. West (1982) "The Metre of Arius' Thalia. The Journal of Theological Studies, New Series, Vol. 33, No. 1; pp. 98, 105.
Similar metres D. S. Raven points out that another metre very similar to the sotadean is the anacreontic, made popular by the 6th-century BC singer Anacreon. In the following couplet, an ionic dimeter is combined with an anacreontic. The resultant line resembles a sotadean, except that it has an extra two short syllables at the beginning; and also the caesura is placed later:D. S. Raven (1965), Latin Metre (Faber), p. 131.
Anacreon, fr. 44 D(2).5–8.
u u – – | u u – – || u u – u | – u – –
"And there is no longer much time of sweet life left"
Another related metre of the Ionic type is the galliambic, used by Catullus in his poem 63. This consists of an anacreontic half line, followed by a catalectic anacreontic with resolution:
u u – u | – u – – || u u – u | u u u – "Attis, after sailing over the high seas in a swift ship..."
In terms of subject-matter (self-emasculation) Catullus's poem 63 is reminiscent of the poem in sotadeans by Petronius quoted below.
Quintilian suggests that the hendecasyllable line appears to be a shorter version of the sotadean:
x x – u u – u – u – –
However, nowadays the hendecasyllable is classed as a type of Aeolic metre, a different species of Greek poetry.D. S. Raven (1965) Latin Metre (Faber), p. 134. The hendecasyllable also lacks the variability seen in the sotadean; for example, it never has resolution or (except in Catullus' poems 55 and 58B) contraction.
Greek examples In the following examples, the beginning of each foot is marked in bold.
The mouse proverb Possibly one of the earliest lines in the sotadean metre is the following:Kwapisz, Jan (2016). "Sotades on kings". Eikasmos 27, pp. 121–136.
Sotades, fr. 22 Powell.
– – u u | –, – u u | – u, u u u | – – "A mountain was in labour, and Zeus was scared; but it gave birth to a mouse."A possible alternative translation is: "she was in labour with a mountain, but in the end produced only a mouse": Howard Jacobson (2007). "Horace, AP 139: parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus". Museum Helveticum, 64(1), 59-61.
The proverb is famous since it recurs in Horace's well known hexameter line: Horace, 139. "the mountains will be in labour, but all that will be born is a ridiculous mouse".Horace's line is also sometimes quoted with the present tense .
It also occurs in Phaedrus's version (book 4.24) of Aesop's fables.
The Greek verse is included in a story recounted by Athenaeus.Athenaeus, XIV, 616d-e. It was supposedly said by the 4th-century BC Egyptian King Tachōs to the Spartan king Agesilaus mocking him for his small stature. If it is true, it puts the beginning of the sotadean metre about 360 BC. However, some scholars believe that the verse may simply be a quotation from a later poem by Sotades or one of his imitators.
Because of the resolution in the 3rd metron, it is unclear whether the verse is pure iambic, or has anaclasis.
Sotades The 3rd-century poet Sotades of Alexandria has been described as a "sort of court jester travelling from one kingdom to another and making a living from poking fun at Hellenistic rulers". Only a few lines from his poetry have survived, some of an obscene or satiric nature. The following gives a flavour:
Sotades, frag. 2 (Powell).
u u – u u | –, u – u | – u – u | – – u u – u u | –, u – u | – u – u | – – – u u u u | – –, u u | – u – u | – –
"And he, uncovering the hole of his back passage, through a tree-lined chasm pushed out a thunderclap, an idle one, such as an old plough-ox lets loose."