Note 406 — Chapter III · QUINTILIAN.

ὑπὲρ ἥμισυ Κᾶρες ἐφάνησαν. Spalding, I think, detected Galliambic cadence here, regarding the first foot as an anapæst and the rest as two third pæons. You may also begin with a third pæon (ὑπὲρ ἥμι), as do many of the lines of the Atys itself. Therefore I call it “muffled,” and have dwelt on the pæon, though the Galliambic is more commonly thought of as Ionic a minore. Professor Hardie, however, suggests to me that Quintilian was actually thinking of the Sotadean metre of which he himself, lower in the chapter, quotes an example beginning rather like this.