CHORIAMBIC

VERSE, or CHORIAMBICS  , the name given to Greek or Latin lyrical poetry in which the sound of the choriambus predominates . The choriambus is a verse-foot consisting of a trochee united with and preceding an iambus, -o - . The choriambi are never used alone, but are usually preceded by a spondee and followed by an iambus . The line so formed is called an asclepiad, traditionally because it was invented by the Aeolian poet Asclepiades of Samos . Choriambic verse was first used by the poets of the Greek islands, and Sappho, in particular, produced magnificent effects with it . The measure, as used by the early Greeks, is essentially lyrical and impassioned . Mingled with other metres, it was constantly serviceable in choral writing, to which it was believed to give a stormy and mysterious character . The Greater Asclepiad was a term used for a line in which the wild music was prolonged by the introduction of a supplementary choriambus . This was much employed by Sappho and by Alcaeus, as well as in Alexandrian times by Callimachus and Theocritus . Among the Latins, Horace, in imitation of Alcaeus, made constant use of choriambic verse . Metrical experts distinguish six varieties of it in his Odes . This is an example of his greater asclepiad (Od. i .

0:-- . ne i quaesieris i scire nefas I quem mihi, quem I tibi Finem Di dederint Leuconoe; nec Babyloniios Tentarlis numeros . I Ut melius I quicquid erit, pati ! Seu pluires hiemes, I seu tribuit

Jupiter ulitimam, Quae nunc j oppositis debilitat I pumicibus mare Tyrrhelnum . In later times of Rome, both Seneca and Prudentius wrote choriambic verse with a fair amount of success . Swinburne even introduced it into English poetry: Love, what J ailed them to leave life that was made J lovely, we thought I with love ? What sweet I vision of sleep I lured thee away I down from the light above ? Such lines as these make a brave attempt to resuscitate the measured sound of the greater asclepiad . (E . G.) CHORICIUS, of Gaza, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the time of Anastasius I . (A.D . 491-518) .

He was the

pupil of Procopiusof Gaza, who must be distinguished from Procopus of Caesarea, the historian . A number of his declamations and descriptive treatises have been preserved . The declamations, which are in many cases accompanied by explanatory commentaries, chiefly consist of panegyrics, funeral orations and the stock themes of the rhetorical schools . The 'EI OaMJ40L or wedding speeches, wishing prosperity to the bride and bride-groom, strike out a new line . Choricius was also the author of so-called ' EKCapfcets, descriptions of works of art after the manner of Philostratus . The moral maxims, which were a constant feature of his writings, were largely drawn upon by Macarius Chrysocephalas, metropolitan of Philadelphia (middle of the 14th century), in his Rodonia (rose-garden), a voluminous collection of ethical sayings . The style of Choricius is praised by Photius as pure and elegant, but he is censured for lack of naturalness . A special feature of his style is the persistent avoidance of hiatus, peculiar to what is called the school of Gaza . Editions by J . F . Boissonade (1846, supplemented by C . Graux in Revue de philologie, 1877) and R .

Forster (1882–1894); see also C . Kirsten, Quaestiones Choricianae in Breslauer philologische . Abhandlungen, vii . (1894), and article by -W, Schmid in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, iii . 2 (1899) . On the Gaza school see K . Seitz, Die Schule von Gaza (Heidelberg, 1892) .