Today's Composition Assignment: Blame

[annis]

The theme: people who steal books from libraries.

Iambics are the customary meter for abuse, but this isn't required. I'll post mine in a few days.

[mingshey]

I cannot make up any kind of poetic meters out of my limited hoard of words.

Just this far:

ω} βιβλούς τε μεμβράνας τε καὶ πυκτίδας κλέπτων ἐκ βιβλιοθήκων ἐς ἥνδε οὐδένος ὤψ δύνατος ὁράειν ἐκ τῆς μεμβράνης ὣς θὼρ ἀρκτίων αἶγα ἢ βοῦν τεύξεις κατακαύσει τε τῶν μηρία )απόλλωνι ἑκηβόλῳ; ἢ ἐκ βιβλῶν κοιλῶν νῆας κοίλας καὶ θοὰς τεύξεις πλεύσεις τε ἐξ ἐπινείου λευκοφαίου ἐπὶ λιβικήν;

at line 6, for λιβικός, I'm not sure if I'd better put it in feminine implying πατρίς, πολίς, or γῆ, or neut. implying ἐπίνειον.

[annis]

Gosh.

at line 6, for λιβικός, I'm not sure if I'd better put it in feminine implying πατρίς, πολίς, or γῆ, or neut. implying ἐπίνειον.

I am not sure either.

I am a bit confused by line 2 (specifically ὤψ), which leaves me a bit unsure about the surrounding lines, but I like it. I am surprised to see θώρ here.

[mingshey]

Well, I tried to say, in lines 1 and 2, something like,
"O (you who's) stealing(or, conceals) papyri and parchments and codices from libraries to where nobody's eye can see..."

Yes, it doesn't indeed make quite a good sense with the following lines. And I see that, with ὤψ, δυνατός must be feminine, δυνατή. And the accent was also wrong.

ω} βιβλούς τε μεμβράνας τε καὶ πυκτίδας κλέπτων ἐκ βιβλιοθήκων ἐς ἥνδε οὐδένος ὤψ δυνατή ὁράειν
Corrections are always welcome.

[whiteoctave]

nothing worse than bibliokleptomaniacs! i would have thought choliambs, aka scazons, would have been more suited to invective. i like your choice of diction, mingshey.

φέρ’ εἰπέ μοι σύ, κλέπτα φαῦλε τῶν δέλτων βίβλων τε, τῷ Πορσῶνι τῷ τε Βεντλείῳ οὺκ ἐντροπὴν ἔχεις γε; λεῖπε, παντοῦργε, σοφωτάτων ταῦτ’ ἔργα τοῖς σοφοῖς ἧσσον.

~D

[annis]

I'm afraid my offering is going to seem labored after whiteoctave's.

πιαίνεται μὴν ἀφρόνως ὕλῃ μόνον κλέπτης βίβλου λαίμαργος, οὐδέ τινι λόγῳ. εἴτ’ ἂν σπαράσσῃ ποικιλῶν ἑὸν δόμον τὰ ζωγραφήματ’ ἐξελών, γραφὰς βαλών, εἴτ’ ἂν μενοινῶν ἄργυρόν σφε πωλέῃ, κατεσθιέσθω θηρσί θ’ ἁρπάσοισί τε.

I apologize for the second line.

Edit: fixed 4th line.

[annis]

Well, I tried to say, in lines 1 and 2, something like,
"O (you who's) stealing(or, conceals) papyri and parchments and codices from libraries to where nobody's eye can see..."

ω} βιβλούς τε μεμβράνας τε καὶ πυκτίδας κλέπτων ἐκ βιβλιοθήκων ἐς ἥνδε οὐδένος ὤψ δυνατή ὁράειν
Corrections are always welcome.

I would say you should use ἔνθα for the "(to) where ..." idea, possibly with a participle phrase with ἄγω, φέρω, λαμβάνω or something similar.

Also, we're not allowed to not contract ὁράω.

[whiteoctave]

thanks W, i very much like your poem, especially the way it reads, the last line being especially carping.
i fear your fourth line breaks Porson's Law, but it shouldn't be too difficult to change.

~D

[annis]

i fear your fourth line breaks Porson's Law, but it shouldn't be too difficult to change.

Argh! I ran into Mr Porson several times writing this, and managed to placate him for the other lines.

Hmm. γραφὰς βαλών?

[whiteoctave]

yes, RP is an annoyingly pervasive presence. it is amusing to note that in a set of seventeen iambic lines written as an undergraduate my age he breaks the law he was to discover no less than thrice.
γραφα—ς or χᾰρτας is fine.

~D

[annis]

yes, RP is an annoyingly pervasive presence.

A shame πορσῶνι isn't a cretic.

[Kasper]

No, don't worry, I am not coming late to this assignment with some primitive attempt. My attention is, although quite late, drawn by these two comments:

Iambics are the customary meter for abuse

i would have thought choliambs, aka scazons, would have been more suited to invective.

What determines what meter is fit or a certain subject? Where can I find examples of this, or of an overview of (all) meters and associated subjects?

[annis]

What determines what meter is fit or a certain subject?

Tradition. Except the rules for such pairing of meter and subject are never really clear-cut or fixed. Nagy discusses praise and blame poetry in The Best of the Achaeans.

The choliambs were invented by Hipponax whose poetry is famously angry (one author calls them squalid) so those meters were considered appropriate for venting for quite a while. But eventually this association faded and Babrius could write his quite tame verse versions of Aesopian fables in choliambs.

Certain cola and meters sometimes had associations with particular religious cults (the ithyphallic for songs for the phallophoria, etc.) or particular regions ("cretics"). But these associations don't seem to preclude the cola from being used widely elsewhere.

[Kasper]

Thanks Will! Great information as usual.

[auctor]

Sorry for coming in late to this discussion but Aristotle in Poetics, round about 1449 describes iambics as being suitable.

... these others began by composing invectives. [...], and it is still called iambics today, from being the metre in which they wrote 'iambs', or lampoons, against one another.

per Penelope Murray & T S Dorsch, 'Classical Literary Criticism', Penguin 2000

Paul McK