galliambics, verses written in a Greek metre associated with the Galli, who were the eunuch priests of the goddess Cybele. Used in Greek by Callimachus, and more famously in Latin by Catullus, the galliambic line is a variant of the ionic tetrameter. A rare adaptation of this metre into English stress‐patterns is Tennyson's poem ‘Boadicea’, written in awkwardly long lines of between 16 and 18 syllables:

Lash the maiden into swooning, me they lash'd and humiliated.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.