Together with the extremely scanty Hittite and Luwian evidence, this sug-
gests that proto-Anatolian poets may have practised composition in verses or
cola of commensurate length, including some of seven or eight syllables, and
sometimes arranged them in three- or four-line strophes. We cannot establish
whether there were definite quantitative patterns that they favoured, or if they
were familar with the catalectic–acatalectic opposition. Proto-Anatolian, of
course, is not the same as proto-Indo-European, and if its metre was indeed
lessfinely chiselled than that of MIE, it remains an open question which of
the two more faithfully reflects the PIE situation.
AlliterationWatkins has noted some instances of alliteration in the Luwian fragments. It
is also noticeable in the Lydian documents, not as an invariable feature but
as an intermittent ornament. As such it is observable in most of the Indo-
European poetic traditions.^90 It is often conspicuous in Vedic;^91 sometimes in
the Ga ̄tha ̄s and the pre-Christian Armenian fragments; rarely in Greek,
though examples can be found.^92 In western and northern Europe it was
cultivated especially where an initial stress-accent developed, in Italic, Irish
(but not Celtic overall), Germanic, and to a lesser extent Latvian. In historical
Latin verse, although the generalized initial accent no longer prevailed, many
words still did have it, and alliteration is a prominent feature in the early
period. So it is in Irish, and we have seen that the terminology applied to it
both in Irish and in Norse acknowledges it as having a structural significance
in composition. In Germanic versification it had long been obligatory and
governed by definite rules. These were already in operation by the time of the
earliest runic inscription (c. 200 ), and probably before Tacitus’ time.^93
In view of this diffusion there is every likelihood that alliteration was an
occasional, though not a constitutive, feature of Indo-European verse. We
shall see in the next chapter that the choice and arrangement of words formed
(^90) Cf. Wackernagel (1943), 5; Schmitt (1967), 40 n. 259; Watkins (1994), 714–16; (1995),
109–14, 188; Gamkrelidze–Ivanov (1995), 735–7.
(^91) E.g. RV 1. 67. 6 priya ̄ ́ pada ̄ ́ni pas ́vó ní pa ̄hi; vis ́va ̄ ́yur Agne guha ̄ ́ gúham
̇
ga ̄h
̇
, 10. 14. 7 préhi
préhi pathíbhih
̇
pu ̄rviyébhir, yátra ̄ nah
̇
pu ̄ ́rve pitárah
̇
pareyúh
̇
. Cf. W. Krause, ZVS 50 (1922),
121–3; J. Gonda, Acta Orientalia 18 (1939), 50–79; id. (1959), 177–200; S. Sani, SSL 12 (1972),
193–226.
(^92) Cf. M. S. Silk, Interaction in Poetic Imagery (London 1974), ch. 8. A noteworthy instance is
Hes. Op. 25 f. κα? κεραμε7 κεραμει
κοτει κα? τκτονι τκτων, | κα? πτωχ: πτωχ;ι φθονει κα?
α, οιδ: α, οιδ;ι, where the verbs in each line are chosen to alliterate with the nouns.
(^93) Cf. West (2004), 48.
58 1. Poet and Poesy