Note 150 — Chapter XXIX · LYRIC POETRY. — THE SEVEN WISE MEN.

I employ, however unwillingly, the word thesis here (arsis and thesis) in the sense in which it is used by G. Hermann (“Illud tempus, in quo ictus est, arsin; ea tempora, quæ carent ictu, thesin vocamus,” Element. Doctr. Metr. sect. 15), and followed by Boeckh, in his Dissertation on the Metres of Pindar (i, 4), though I agree with Dr. Barham (in the valuable Preface to his edition of Hephæstion, Cambridge, 1843, pp. 5-8) that the opposite sense of the words would be the preferable one, just as it was the original sense in which they were used by the best Greek musical writers: Dr. Barham’s Preface is very instructive on the difficult subject of ancient rhythm generally.