Appian the Artist

Rhythmic Prose and Its Literary Implications

Bibliographic Data

ID9309728
AuthorsG O Hutchinson (0000-0002-3306-1673, United Church of Christ, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume65
Issue2
Pages788-806
Publication date2015-10-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009838815000452
OpenAlexW2605359783
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited7

If we had no idea which parts of Greek literature in a certain period were poetry or prose, we would regard it as our first job to find out. How much of the Greek prose of the Imperial period is rhythmic has excited less attention; and yet the question should greatly affect both our reading of specific texts and our understanding of the whole literary scene. By ‘rhythmic’ prose, this article means only prose that follows the Hellenistic system of rhythm started, it is said, by Hegesias, and adopted by Cicero and by many Latin writers of the Imperial period. Estimates of how much Greek Imperial prose is rhythmic have long varied drastically. Some experts suggest that all or much artistic Greek prose in the period is rhythmic, others that what little there is fades out after the first century a.d. , as part of the victory of Atticism. There has been fairly little substantial work on rhythmic prose in the first three centuries a.d. for over fifty years (more on accentual prose from the fourth). The object of this article is to investigate a large part of one author's work thoroughly, and to establish that that part is rhythmic. It will also aim to show how that conclusion should greatly affect our whole conception of the author as a writer, and our reading of his every sentence

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Art · Cicero · Linguistics · Literature · Object (grammar · Period (music · Poetry · Politics · Reading (process · Rhythm · Sentence · Victory · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Philosophy

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