Phalaecus

(Φάλαικος), a lyrie and epigranmatic poet, from whom the metre called Φαλαίκειον took its name. (Hephaest. p. 57. Gaisf.) He is occasionally referred to by the grammarians (Terentian. p. 2424; Auson. Epist. 4), but they give us no information respecting his works, except that he composed hymns to Hermes. The line quoted by Hepihaestion (l.c.) is evidently the first verse of a hymn. He seems to have been distinguished as an epigrammatist (Ath. x. p. 440d.); and five of his epigrams are still preserved in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, Andl. vol. i. p. 421), besides the one quoted by Athenaeus (l.c.). The age of Phalaecuis is iuncertain. The conjecture of Reiske (eq. Fab. Bibl. race. vol. iv. p. 490) is founded on an epigram which does not properly belong to this writer. A more probable indication of his date is furnished by another epigram, in which he mentions the actor Lycon, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graee. p. 327); but this epigram also is of somewhat dobtful authorship. At all events he was probably one of the principal Alexandrian poets.

The Phalaecian verse is well known from its frequent use by the Roman poets. The Roman grammarians also call it Hendecasyllabus. Its normal formn, which admits of many variations, is

It is much older than Phalaecns, whose name is given to it, not because he invented, but because he especially used it. It is a very aneient and important lyric metre. Sappho frequently used it, and it is even called th μέτρον Σαπφικὸν ἦτοι φαλαικείον (Atil. Fort. p. 2674, Puttsch; Terentian. p. 2440). No example of it is found in the extant fragments of Sapphio; but it occurs in those of Anacreon and Simonides, in Cratinus. in Sophocles (Philoct. 136-151), and other ancient Greek poets.

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