Abstract

The publication in 1907 of the Berlin papyrus containing Sappho's poem τεθνάκην δʹ δόλως θέλω κτλ posed in the clearest possible form the problem, already highly controversial, of the metrical structure of the Glyconic and its associated metres; and many answers have been suggested to the question ‘What is the peculiar nature of the Glyconic line which permits of its being related to two types of line apparently constructed on quite different principles?’ What follows is an attempt to consider this problem once more, with reference to other simple types of line which seem to provide analogies for the process which I believe to have occurred.