In 1869,the 24-year-old Friedrich Nietzsche landed a professorship in Classical Philology at the University of Basel,even before he completed his doctoral dissertation.During his brief tenure,Nietzsche conducted meticulous textual criticism and uncovered problems in the work of nineteenth-century Central Europe's foremost authorities on ancient Greek rhythm.In the notebooks on his teaching and research of ancient Greek rhythm(not published until 1993;four volumes),Nietzsche intimated that Wagner had incorporated ancient Greek rhythm into Tristan and Isolde,although he did not elaborate on how he understood it.Inspired by Nietzsche's detailed analysis of Act 3,Scene 2 of Tristan and Isolde in his notebook,I argue with recourse to in-depth music analyses how Wagner might have skilfully harnessed ancient Greek rhythm within the constraints of modern music notation and metrical systems.