Home › Glossary › Letter P

Pherecratean line

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

An Aeolic line (— — ∪ — ∪ ∪ —) often paired with glyconics in Sappho and Alcaeus

Detailed Definition
A Pherecratean line is a classical Greek metrical form consisting of a choriamb (long-short-short-long) followed by two short syllables and a long (– ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ –), used in Aeolic verse and occasionally imitated in modern poetry for its lyrical, song-like cadence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Pherecratean line (a classical meter: – u – –) appears in fragments of Pherecrates’ comedies; In Horace’s Odes I.8, adapted for lyrical brevity; In A.M. Juster’s translations of Horace into English; In Annie Finch’s ritual poetry, reviving Pherecratean rhythm for feminist liturgy; In modern Latinist verse by David Slavitt, preserving ancient comic cadence.
Additional Notes
Line using pherecratean meter (shortened catalectic form). Classical Greek origin. Typically dactylic tetrameter catalectic. Related to other classical shortened meters. Useful for recreating ancient verse forms.
Also Known As
Pherecratean measure Greek comic line Cataletic glyconic Shortened glyconic
Skip to main content