{Greek Literature [continued] [– Lyric Poetry]}[8th February 1991]

[Redbook8:239-240][19910208:1520b]{Greek Literature [continued] [– Lyric Poetry]}[8th February 1991]

:1520

[continued]

‘Lyric Poetry. Hesiod, unlike Homer, told something of himself, and the same is true of the lyric poets.... There had always been lyric poetry in Greece. All the great events of life as well as many occupations had their proper songs, and here too the way was open to advance from the anonymous to the individual poet.

‘The word lyric covers many sorts of poem. On the one hand, poems sung by individuals or by chorus to the lyre, or sometimes to the flute, were called melic; elegiacs, in which the epic hexameter, or verse line of six metrical feet, alternated with a shorter line, were traditionally associated with lamentation and a flute* accompaniment; but they were also used for personal poetry, spoken as well as sung. Iambics (verse of iambs, or metrical units, basically of four alternatively short and long syllables) were the verse form of the lampoon. Usually of an abusive or satirical – burlesque and parodying – character, they were not normally sung.’

**

*cf [[Redbook8:211][19910205:1030d]{Dionysus and Apollo}[5th February 1991](&ff?),] 211

[The aulos is apparently often referred to a s a type of flute, although it appears to have been a reed-blown instrument]

**– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 20:] 401

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