The ‘Choriambic Dimeter’ of Euripides

The ‘choriambic dimeter’, or ‘wilamowitzianus’, is favoured by Euripides. Aeschylus does not use this colon,1 while Sophocles, as explained below, restricts it to a few stanzas and occasional sequences. But Euripides has at least one ode composed of ‘chor dim’ standing κατà στίχoν with glyconic in all of his middle and later plays except Tro2 ‘Chor dim’ has a strong affinity with glyc. They not only mix within an ode but make strophic responsion with each other. P. Maas regards ‘chor dim’ as an anaclastic variant of glyc: and indeed some scholars give the name ‘glyc’ to the colon.4