In Latin and Greek poetry, correption (Latin: correptiō [kɔrˈrɛpt̪ioː], "a shortening")[1] is the shortening of a long vowel at the end of one word before a vowel at the beginning of the next.[2] Vowels next to each other in neighboring words are in hiatus.
Homer uses correption in dactylic hexameter:
- Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·
— Odyssey 1.2 - Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full
many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
— translation by A.T. Murray
Here the sequence η ε in bold must be pronounced as ε ε to preserve the long—short—short syllable weight sequence of a dactyl. Thus, the scansion of the second line is thus:
πλαγχ θε, ε | πει Τροι | η ςι ε | ρον πτο λι | εθ ρο νε | περ σε
Attic edit
Typically, in Homeric meter, a syllable is scanned long or "closed" when a vowel is followed by two or more consonants. However, in Attic Greek, a short vowel followed by a plosive and a liquid consonant or nasal stop remains a short or "open" syllable.[3] This is called Attic correption, sometime known by its Latin name correptio Attica.
Therefore, the first syllable of a word like δᾰ́κρυ could be scanned as "δά | κρυ" (open/short), exhibiting Attic correption, or as "δάκ | ρυ" (closed/long), in keeping with the conventions of Homeric verse.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ correptio. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
- ^ Stanford, W.B. (2009). Homer: Odyssey I-XII. Duckworth. pp. lv. ISBN 978-1853995026.
- ^ Smyth, Herbert (1984). Greek Grammar. Harvard University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0674362500.