V. V. Fayer Caesura in Greek hexameter and the problem of weak word-breaks (pp. 910–922)

Author

V. V. Fayer (National Research University "Higher School of Economics", Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities)

Pages\n 910–922

Summary\n

Traditional description of caesura in Greek hexameter is problematic in cases of weak word-breaks, i.e. the cases, where the graphic word-division does not exactly correspond to prosodic partitioning of the given line. The first part of the article deals with theoretical foundations of description of caesura, mainly with the concept of caesuras as phonetic pauses. At least some audio records from the archive of Milman Parry show, that the breathing pause and the word break should not necessarily go together. The second part of the article enumerates weak word-breaks in all lengthy hexametric texts from Homer to Nonnus. The lines, where regular caesura is bridged with a clitic, and the lines, where elision appears in the only possible (according to traditional description) colometric division are considered as “violations” of prosodic rules. Keywords Metrics, Greek hexameter, caesura, elision, clitics

References\n

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