Horace, Art of Poetry, tough passage

[hlawson38]

Context: Horace states the conventions governing the iamb and the trimeter.

Because I'm not strong in prosody, I may do violence to this passage.

251 syllaba longa brevi subiecta vocatur Iambus,
252 pes citus: unde etiam trimetris adcrescere iussit
253 nomen iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus,
254 primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem,

My translation:
A long syllable attached after a short is called an iamb
a quick-moving foot: accordingly it ordered the name of trimeter to be annexed to
the (concept of) the iambic, even though the trimeter calls for six beats (senos ictus),
each one (of these six ) the same.

Grammar calls
syllaba . . . brevi subiecta: subiecta modifies syllaba; brevi is dative complement of subiecta

iussit: implied subject is pes, or iambus

similis sibi: the antecedent of sibi is iambus, or pes

iambeis: dat. pl. of iambeus, an adjective used substantively, dative complement of adcrescere

adcrescere: s.v. accresco L&S: "To be added to by way of increase or augmentation, to be joined or annexed to..."

cum . . . redderet: I render this as cum concessive.

pes, iambus, ictus: As i understand, pes is the general term for poetic foot; iambus is the name for a particular kind of poetic foot, and ictus is the name for the stressed syllable in a poetic foot.

Remaining puzzles: My translation hardly explains why a line of six feet is called a trimeter. As I understand a Latin iambic trimeter, consists ideally of six iambs, three groups of two each. If you think of each pair as the unit of versification, then trimeter makes sense, but I couldn't find that idea in this selection. Besides that Horace seems to use pes and ictus interchangeably. I expect his audience could get this quickly with little contextual discussion, as I cannot.

[mwh]

trimetris noun, iambeis adj.: “to iambic trimeters”

primus ad extremum similis sibi: “the first (foot) to the last (foot) like itself” i.e. all six feet identical.

He’s not using pes and ictus interchangeably. Each foot (two syllables) has one ictus (on the second=long syllable).

I’m not sure the cum clause is concessive, though that does seem the best way of making any sense of it.

But this is not Horace at his most lucid, in fact it reads like a parody of a inept schoolmaster. Strictly speaking iambic trimeters are Greek, whereas Latin has iambic senarii (six-footers), with all six feet metrically identical (similis sibi), unlike in the Greek trimeter which does indeed have three metra (also six feet, but admitting spondees only in alternate feet, hence the concept of the metron). Perhaps Horace is conflating the two (and the Latin senarius did develop out of the Greek trimeter), but even so you’re quite right, it’s glaringly not explained “why a line of six feet is called a trimeter.”

I think “etiam trimetris adcrescere iussit nomen iambeis” must mean “It (Iambus personified) told its name to grow/accrue to iambic trimeters too," meaning that the iambic trimeter, the standard meter of Greek drama (and of Latin drama, kind of), is an accretion of iambic feet; both the individual foot and the trimeter are “iambi.”

Don't know if this helps at all. I just don't understand what Horace thought he was doing. It's most unsatisfying. Is it all a caricature of peripatetic teaching? There have been big serious books written about the poem, but I find it very hard to take seriously. Is it the didactic treatise (in poetic form) that it purports to be or is it (to use a now too familiar term) a fake didactic treatise? Do you have to read such uncongenial stuff?

[hlawson38]

In the light of mwh's commentary, I want to try again, expanding the treatment to include lines 251-258.

251 syllaba longa brevi subiecta vocatur Iambus,
252 pes citus: unde etiam trimetris adcrescere iussit
253 nomen iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus,
254 primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem,
255 tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad auris,
256 spondeos stabilis in iura paterna recepit
257 commodus et patiens, non ut de sede secunda
258 cederet aut quarta socialiter.

Another trial translation:

a long syllable joined after a short is called an iamb,
a lively foot: from there it ordered its name to grow
into iambic trimeter, even though it presents six accented syllables (senos ... ictus)
from the first to the end [of the line] similar to itself: not so long ago
so that it might come more slowly and weightily to the ears
it [i.e. the iambic trimeter line] admitted the steady spondee into the ancestral domain
accommodating and tolerant, but not so obligingly as to
give up the second [foot] or the fourth [foot].

If I understand rightly, Horace lays out a historical thesis: that the iambic trimeter began as a line of six iambs, and then allowed replacing iambs with spondees, but not in the second or fourth foot. It may be that the historical thesis is presented not too seriously, but this is a matter of tone which I cannot judge. And I have no idea how this thesis stands in the present scholarly discussion.

[mwh]

Yes I think that’s it. As historical reconstruction it won’t wash, but at least it’s coherent.

[hlawson38]

Thank you mwh for keeping an eye on my struggles with this passage.