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The notes are often subdivided melodically ( into  ,  into  ), but not divided between more than one syllable. The poetic text accordingly shows, or would show if we had it complete, a regular alternation of five and seven long syllables. |
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The same rhythm appears in the first of two short instrumental pieces in the same papyrus (41), while the other piece (43)also in slow time, as the number of arsis-signs showsis in paeonic 5/4. The up- and down-beats, as indicated by the points above the notes, fluctuate interestingly between  (2 + 3) and  (3 + 2). We recognize here a measure described by Aristides Quintilianus: the paion epibatos (perhaps 'paeon for walking to'),  . He also attests the Greater or Double Spondee,  .68 |
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In the spondaic texts without musical notation we are reduced to guessing which were the double-length notes and what the rhythmical scheme was. Possible equivalences for the different phraselengths are |
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Three-syllable:  (paeon) or  (anapaest).
Five- or ten-syllable:  (paeon).
Seven-syllable:  (anapaest).69 |
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The ancient rhythmicians also knew of measures called orthios and trochaios semantos ('marked trochee'). The first consisted of a tetraseme arsis and a thesis of twice that length ( ), the second consisted of the same elements reversed ( ).70 These may look like further forms of slow tempo, even slower than those we have just considered. But the tetraseme and octaseme durations do not necessarily correspond to single syllables. It is true that Aristides Quintilianus states that these rhythms conduce to dignity because of the number of notes of the longest values. But no single note had octaseme length.71 From the unidentified writer on rhythm in POxy. |
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68 Aristid. Quint. pp. 35. 12, 37. 7; cf. ps.-Plut. De mus. 1141 a. 1143b. In the instrumental piece a crotchet on an up-beat is sometimes replaced by a rest. |
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69 Cf. my Greek Metre, 55 f., 172. |
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70 Aristid. Quint. p. 36. 3, cf. 36. 29, 83. 4: ps.-Plut. De mus. 1140f. |
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71 Aristid. Quint. p. 32. 27 makes tetraseme the maximum; in Anon. Bellerm. 1 (= 83) and 3 the series goes up to pentaseme, five shorts (cf. Al-Farabi pp. 150f. D'Erlanger). |
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