A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter A

Athenian New Year

Historical Festival
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Ancient Athenian civic and religious calendar beginning in summer, marked by festivals like the Skirophoria and Panathenaea

Detailed Definition
The Athenian New Year began around midsummer (Hekatombaion, July–August) and was tied to agricultural cycles and civic renewal, culminating in the Great Panathenaea. It involved processions, sacrifices, and the presentation of a new peplos to Athena. In poetry, this New Year symbolizes civic identity, divine patronage, and the rhythm of communal life. Though less prominent than Roman New Year themes, it appears in classical and neoclassical works as a marker of Athenian cultural pride and the interweaving of politics, religion, and art.
Example
Example in poetry:
Solon’s reforms tied the Athenian New Year to the summer solstice and civic renewal; Poets use the Athenian New Year to reflect on democratic ideals and communal rebirth; In historical verse, the festival marks the start of archon terms and legal calendars; Modern poets reference the Athenian New Year to contrast ancient and modern timekeeping; The festival appears in odes to civic duty and seasonal alignment; Poets evoke its link to Apollo to explore reason, order, and solar cycles.
Additional Notes
Athenian New Year began in summer (Hekatombaion, roughly July), marked by the Panathenaia festival; unlike January-based calendars, it aligned with agricultural and civic cycles; poets referencing it can tap into themes of renewal, civic identity, and the interplay of myth and polis—especially useful when contrasting ancient temporalities with modern linear time in historical or lyric poetry.
Also Known As
Hekatombaion New Year
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