Iambic poetry is constructed around the metrical unit called an iamb (a short syllable followed by a long one) and is characterized by first-person narratives featuring obscenity, invective, and personal abuse.
Date: Seventh century b. c.e. to 31 b. c.e.
Category: Poetry; literature
Summary Ancient Greek iambic poetry is defined by both its meter and its content. The origin of iambic poetry may be found in the ritual abuse associated with the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. The name “iambic” is derived from that of Iambe, a character in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter who tells obscene jokes and exposes her genitalia to raise the spirits of the goddess Demeter, who was in mourning for her abducted daughter, Persephone. The earliest examples of iambic poetry are from the Archaic poets Archilochus, Semonides of Amorgos, and Hipponax.
The Cologne Epode of Archilochus (late seventh century b. c.e.) illustrates both the obscene and the abusive nature of iambic poetry. The narrator of the poem convinces his girlfriend, called Neobule, to give in to his sexual demands. According to the ancient biographical tradition, the Cologne Epode forms part of a series of poems Archilochus wrote as a vendetta against the family of a man named Lycambes, who seemingly denied Archilochus permission to marry his daughter, Neobule; the circulation of the poems supposedly destroyed the girl’s reputation and caused the entire family to commit suicide. While one cannot accept the anecdote at face value, it is nonetheless instructive as to the invective nature of iambic poetry.
Similar invective is found in Semonides of Amorgos (mid-seventh century b. c.e.) and Hipponax (mid-sixth century b. c.e.), both of whom wrote poems for a secular audience. In one poem of Simonides, several “species” of women and their individual failings as wives are highlighted and condemned. Extant fragments of the poetry of Hipponax contain numerous threats of physical violence against a man named Bupalus, whose sexual escapades are also derided.
Iambic poetry waned in the Classical period but was revived by various poets of the Hellenistic period, especially Callimachus (c. 305-c. 240 b. c.e.), whose lamboi (Iambi, 1958) harks back to Archaic iambic poetry, in particular that of Hipponax, whom he took as the exemplar of the genre.
Significance In its earliest form, iambic poetry may have played a role in religious rituals, where it worked to reaffirm social norms. Attested iambic poetry retained the abusive nature derived from its ritual origin, but as a literary genre it was not restricted to religious occasions.
Further Reading
Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. Poleideia: The Iambi of Callimachus and the Archaic Iambic Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press,
2002.
Brown, Christopher G. “Iambos.” In A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets, edited by Douglas E. Gerber. New York: E. J. Brill, 1997. Fowler, R. L. The Nature of Early Greek Lyric: Three Preliminary Studies.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
Harvey, A. E. “The Classification of Greek Lyric Poetry.” Classical Quarterly, n. s. 5 (1955): 157-175.
West, Martin L. Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus. New York: De Gruyter, 1974.
Kelly A. MacFarlane
See also: Archilochus of Paros; Bucolic Poetry; Callimachus; Elegaic Poetry; Homeric Hymns; Literature; Lyric Poetry; Religion and Ritual.
World History
