οὐδ’ ὅστις πάροιθεν ἦν μέγας, παμμάχῳ θράσει βρύων, οὐδὲ λέξεται πρὶν ὤν· ὃς δ’ ἔπειτ’ ἔφυ τριακτῆρος οἴχεται τυχών. Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν. ⏗|⏗|–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|⏗‖–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖ –⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖ –⏑|–⏑|–⏑|⏗‖–⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖ –⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|–⏑⏑|⏗|–ꞈ‖ –⏑|–⏑|–⏑|–ꞈ‖ ⎰ 6 ⎛ ⎱ 4 ⎜ ⎛ 4 ⎜ ⎜ 4—mesode. ⎜ ⎝ 4 ⎝ ⎰ 6 ⎱ 4 The chief interest of this subject is the art wherewith the Greek masters accompanied variations of emotion and the like with variations of rhythm. This passage affords a simple and stately example. The heavy opening (⏗⏗) is followed by the more confident trochees till, at the last line but one, religious rapture (in the strophe) and the ardour of triumph (in the antistrophe) burst forth with the leaping cyclic dactyls. We have now become acquainted with three rhythmical masses: the colon, the period, the strophe. Are there others? What is a “verse” in lyrics? There is no such thing.[882] One must, of course, distinguish between a “line” and a “verse”. Lines there must be—that is an affair of the scribe and the printer; verses are rhythmical units, and there is no rhythmical mass in Greek lyrics between the colon and the period. How then are we to arrange our periods, there being no verse-division? The most obvious way is to write each colon as a separate line. The difficulty is that we shall often be compelled to break words:— θάρσος εὐπειθὲς ἵζ- ει φρενὸς φίλον θρόνον ... ψαμμίας ἐξ ἀκτᾶς βέβ- ηκεν.... Another method is to let each line run on until we reach a colon-ending which coincides with a word-ending. Here is no new rhythmical rule: it is purely a question of convenience for the eye. Next, shall we ever write lines of (say) two cola the first of which does close with a word-ending? It is natural so to do when to the two cola in question there correspond (whether periodically or strophically) two cola which _must_ on this system fill one line only. For instance, in Æsch., _Supplices_, 656, we shall write— – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏗ –⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏗ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑– και γαρ υποσκιων ‖ νυν στοματων ποτασθ‖ω φιλοτιμος ευχα ‖, though the first colon ends at the end of ὑποσκίων, because the corresponding passage of the antistrophe runs— – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏗ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏗ –⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ᷋ και γεραροι δε πρεσβ‖υτοδοκοι γεμοντ‖ων θυμελαι φλεγοντων ‖, where the first colon ends inside a word. It is purely a matter of taste whether we give a line to each colon, in which case the drawback is the breaking of words, or continue our line till breaking of words is excluded, the trouble about which method is the reader’s difficulty in seeing where some of the cola begin.