CLA/WLIT
196
Ancient Lyric Poetry
POETIC DEVICES: CHIASMUS and PALINDROME
Examples from our texts:
1. In its simplest form chiasmus
involves two pairs of repeated
words. However variety may be achieved by replacing one element with a
synonym:
Gilgamesh 11.91 f.
I watched (A) the appearance of the weather (B),
The weather (B) was awesome to behold (A)
2. A chiastic arrangement is sometimes extended to more than two
elements, in which case one might call it a palindrome:
Atrahasis 1.366 f.
He (A) would speak (B) with his god (C), / And his god (C) would speak
(B) with him (A)
Genesis: 9:6
Whoever sheds (A) blood (B) of man (C), by man (C) shall his blood (B)
be shed (A)
3. There can also be chiasmus of phrases, sometimes interrupted by
intervening material:
Atrahasis 1.191-7:
(Enki:) “Let man assume the
drudgery of god” (A)
They summoned and asked the birth-goddess,
The midwife of the gods, wise Mami,
“Will you be the birth-goddess, creatress of humankind?
Create a human being, let
him bear the yoke (B),
The yoke let him bear
(B), the task of Enlil,
Let man assume the drudgery
of god” (A).
Old Akkadian Love Charm, 4-8
(Foster, 66)
I am guided by the sapflow
of the incense-tree (A).
Two beautiful maidens were blossoming,
They went down (B) to the garden (C),
To the garden (C) they went down (B),
The cut from the sapflow of
the incense-tree (A).
4. As with words, a phrase may be answered not
verbatim but by an
equivalent idea, or the antithesis (negation) of the
idea. Further variety comes from
contrasting lengths, and the paraphrase may further the narrative with
its new material and associations:
Enuma Elish 4.41-44
Then he (Marduk) made a net
(A) to enclose Tiamat within,
He deployed the four winds
(B) that none of her might escape:
South Wind, North Wind, East
Wind, West Wind,
Gift of his grandfather Anu
(B); he fastened the net at
his side (A).
Come in, Shepherd! (Foster,
167 f.)
This fellow's a nuisance
(A) for the dogs and shepherd.
Why should they be annoyed
with him (B)?
He fetched and carried
(C)
He came and went (D), he fetched and carried (C).
A peace offering for the
shepherds (-B)? This
fellows a nuisance (A)!
In
the following passage note that 1) variety (variatio)
is achieved by negating the repetition of B; 2) The arrangement is a
true palindrome, since there is only one element D; at the same time D
repeats or varies C.
John
3: All things were made
(A) through him (B),
and without him (-B) was not anything made that was made
(-A)
5. Chiasmus / palindrome can also be used in sound-patterning:
Enuma Elish 4.57
He was garbed in a ghastly ghostly garment (trans. Foster).
The Akkadian reads: Nahlapti apluhti pulhati halipma
The chiasmus is hlp (A) plh (B) plh (B) hlp (A). But note that each AB
pair is itself palindromic (hlp:plh)