A Reading Course in Homeric Greek
Lesson 83
249
syllable of §mÚn is long because of the digamma with which ¶pow once
began [Wepow]).d. Synizesis. Sometimes two adjacent vowels that would ordinarily be
pronounced separately have to be forced into one syllable to fit the meter.
This is done by pronouncing the first as y, combined with the second into
one long syllable. This is called synizesis (‘settling down together as one’).
E.g., yeoi, dh outvw- Pattern. Each line has six measures or feet, corresponding to six bars in a phrase
of music. The time-value of each foot is four beats. A short syllable gets one
beat, a long syllable two.
Every foot begins with a long syllable; the second half of the foot may be either
two short syllables or another long, in either case taking the same total time to
pronounce: two beats.a. The combination of a long syllable with two short (– ) is called a dactyl;
two longs (– –) make a spondee.
b. Any foot except the last may be either a dactyl or a spondee; the last foot is
generally a spondee, sometimes a half-dactyl with anceps, which is a space
for long or short (×), but never a full dactyl. When the fifth foot is a
spondee, the line is called a spondaic line, and the slow movement is quite
noticeable.
c. The first syllable of every foot is stressed, i.e., receives the rhythmic accent,
a swelling in volume. This is called the ictus (Latin for ‘stroke’).d. Pattern of the dactylic hexameter in general:
- — /– — /– — /– — /– — / – ×
e. Rhythmic technique: regularity is secured in this pattern by the fact that
every line has twenty-four beats, broken up into six bars of four beats apiece
and each beginning with a perceptible ictus; variety is obtained by changing
the distribution and frequency of spondees in the basically dactylic scheme,
by letting the pauses in thought and phrasing fall in different sections of the
line, by altering the number of words in a verse, and by varying the
frequency and position in the line where the end of a word coincides with
the end of a foot. Homer uses practically every possible combination of all
these factors, to give his hexameters their unrivaled variety, life, and interest.
f. Practical hints for reading the hexameter: (1) Remember that every line, and
each new foot within the line, begins with a long, stressed syllable.
(2) Don’t hurry over long syllables, as though they were short, as we do in
English poetry. (3) Get the rhythm into your head, like the melody of a
song, by memorizing several lines according to exact meter and going over
them frequently, until the rhythmic pattern is fixed firmly in your mind and
flexible enough to fit any arrangement of long and short syllables as they
come up. With a little attentive practice and repetition, all will quickly
become natural and easy.) )
)) )) )) )) ))))(Latin for “stroke”).