Home › Glossary › Letter H

Hipponactean dimeter

Meter
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

A two-foot line composed of hipponactean feet (typically — — u u —)

Detailed Definition
Hipponactean dimeter is a rare Aeolic metrical form consisting of two Hipponactean cola per line, each cola typically structured as a choriamb followed by a pyrrhic and spondee (˘ ˘ ¯ ¯ ˘ ˘ ¯ ¯); used by archaic Greek poets like Sappho for lyrical intensity and rhythmic complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hipponactean dimeter appears in Greek lyric fragments like those of Hipponax: “χθὼν μέλαινα, θεῶν μῆτερ” (Black earth, mother of gods); In English adaptation, Robert Herrick’s “Upon Julia’s Clothes” uses similar brevity: “Whenas in silks my Julia goes”; Contemporary poet Anne Carson mimics Hipponactean dimeter in “The Beauty of the Husband”: short, abrupt lines conveying emotional volatility; Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” echoes the form’s concision: two lines capturing a fleeting vision; Sappho’s Fragment 31 uses Hipponactean-like dimeter for visceral immediacy: “He seems to me equal to the gods…”; Modern experimental poets like Caroline Bergvall use Hipponactean dimeter to fracture syntax and emphasize sonic texture.
Additional Notes
Two hipponactean feet. Hipponactean = iamb + trochee (limping meter). Related: scazon, choliambic. Study: limping effect in short line.
Also Known As
Hipponactean pair invective dimeter
Skip to main content