A Reading Course in Homeric Greek, Book 2

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A Reading Course in Homeric Greek

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564. COMMENT

85-90.Being soldiers hardened by long years of war and plundering of the enemy,

Odysseus’ men have no scruples about making the most of an opportunity and

carrying off a few ‘souvenirs.’ Odysseus resists the tempting suggestion, in the hope

that the stranger will freely offer some of his rich possessions as a token of friendly

hospitality, according to universal custom and good manners in the Homeric world in

regard to travelers. Besides, he is curious to see who lives in the vast cave.

89. Odysseus allows that it would have been better not to have awaited the stranger’s
    return. It need not be interpreted to imply that they should have taken anything with
    them in leaving—though in Homeric ethics that would not have been considered a
    grave wrong under the circumstances.


90. Odysseus is characteristically eager to find out about things.


91. A somber foreshadowing of tragedy to come. But why the emphasis on
    companions? What will happen to their leader?


92. READING HOMER RHYTHMICALLY


93. Quantity. The rhythm of Greek and Latin verse is not built on a pattern of
    stressed and unstressed syllables (as in English poetry), but on one of long and
    short syllables—on their quantity or time-length when naturally pronounced.
    The rhythm of classical poetry, then, is built on the same principles as the
    rhythm of music.

a. A syllable is long: (1) by nature, when it contains a long vowel or a

diphthong: e.g., aÈtÆ, where both syllables are long (2) by position, when

its vowel (even though naturally short) is followed by two or more

consonants or by one of the double consonants z, j, c. E.g., ¶ndon (first

syllable long), êndra (first syllable long), d¢ ste¤nonto (first and third

syllables long by position, the second by nature), êc.

b. A syllable is otherwise short — i.e., when it has a short vowel, alone or

followed by only one simple consonant: e.g., de, min

Note: Sometimes the poet treats a mute followed by a liquid as a single

consonant, so that the preceding vowel remains short (e.g., sx°tliow,

where e is short); but ordinarily this combination makes the syllable long by

position (e.g., ¶tlh, where e is long).

c. Special: a long vowel or diphthong is often treated as though short when it

occurs in the last half of the foot and is followed by another vowel in the

same or following word. This is really half-elision. For example, éll' §g∆

oÈ, where v is short.

A short vowel may be treated as long when it is in the first syllable of a foot,

since it is there strengthened by the metrical stress. A short vowel may be

treated as long for a different reason—because of a lost W (digamma) whose

influence remains and combines with a second consonant to make the vowel

long by position in the regular way (e.g., §mÚn ¶pow, where the final

Lesson 83

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

2. 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.

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APPENDIX B

Reading Homer Rhythmically

(“settling down together as one”).