(ii)An eleven-syllable line with a caesura after four or five syllables and
the cadence ∪−− ||, used in four-line stanzas (tris
̇t
̇ubh) or to conclude
a song in twelve-syllable lines. The second, fourth, and eighth syllables
tend to be long, and the two syllables following the caesura short.
The typical schemes are (a)×∪––×∪–– | ∪––∪––∪––∪––∪−− || , (b)×−∪––−∪–– |
∪∪∪––∪−− ||.
(iii)A twelve-syllable line, also used in four-line stanzas (jagatı ̄), resem-
bling the eleven-syllable except that it has an extra short syllable in the
cadence, ∪––∪−∪− || instead of ∪––∪−− ||.The relationship between (iii) and (ii) is matched exactly in Greek verse,
where very frequently, besides lines ending in... ∪––−∪− ||, there occur (often
to conclude a sequence) others that differ only in ending... ∪−− ||. T h e
latter are called catalectic in relation to the former, and the former acatalectic.
This systemic parallel is one important point of correspondence between
Greek and Vedic.
A second feature is that in both traditions the regulation of quantities
is strictest in the cadence of the verse and least strict at the beginning.
Greek verses in historical times are fairly closely regulated throughout,
but –– as already noted by Westphal –– what seems to be a relic of original
freedom at the start of the verse appears in the so-called ‘Aeolic base’ of
certain Lesbian metres, where the first two syllables may be indifferently long
or short.
The most typical of these metres, one that can be followed through Greek
poetry for many centuries, is the eight-syllable glyconic, ××−∪∪−∪−.
Apart from its slightly more fixed scheme, this is very much like the Vedic
octosyllable, which indeed may appear in a form identical to the glyconic. Out
of the thirty octosyllables that make up RV 6. 54, for example, ten are good
glyconics, as in stanza 5ab:
Pu ̄s
̇a ́ ̄ ga ́ ̄ ánu etu nah
̇, −−−∪∪−∪− ||
Pu ̄s
̇
a ́ ̄ raks
̇
atu árvatah
̇. −−−∪∪−∪− ||
There also occur, particularly in early hymns, seven-syllable verses which in
some cases appear as a catalectic version of the eight-syllable (××××∪−
− ||), in others as a foreshortened or headless (‘acephalic’) version (×××∪−
∪− ||).^69 Both have counterparts in common Greek verses, the pherecratean
(××−∪∪−−) and the telesillean (×−∪∪−∪−) respectively. There is a
catalectic form of the latter known as the reizianum (×−∪∪−−).
In the Lesbian poets the glyconic and other such units are used as
(^69) See B. Vine, ZVS 91 (1977), 246–55.
48 1. Poet and Poesy