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The Use and Origin of Apostrophe in

R. M. Henry

The Classical Review / Volume 19 / Issue 01 / February 1905, pp 7 - 9 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00991121, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00991121

How to cite this article: R. M. Henry (1905). The Use and Origin of Apostrophe in Homer. The Classical Review, 19, pp 7-9 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00991121

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 128.122.253.228 on 18 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. ooniunx glntio, gluto, glutus raraes smaragdus corulus gorytus recipero stellio, etc. cotlidie religio stillicidimn cottona hania robigo crocodilus hibrida tesca ei'umina hirnea sanguinolentus troclilea interimo and perimo sarracum de- and dis- in compounds scaena uaco ligurio scida ualetudo ec- in compounds in clas- scrupulum ue- prefix sical times magnopere and other com- sepulcrum uehemens eiuro pounds of opere setius elleborus miscellaneus euhoe (Signed) R. S. CONWAY. exhedra penna and derivatives percontor A. E. HOUSMAN. fascia periurus W. H. D. EOUSE. feramen petorritum J. P. POSTGATE. Mix phaselus S. E. WIN BOLT. formidolosus pistris, pristis January 13, 1905. promunturium galbanatus, galbina protenus, etc.

THE USE AND ORIGIN OF APOSTROPHE IN HOMER.

THE use of apostrophe as a feature of H 104 (Menelaos proposes to answer Hek- style in Homer does not seem to have met tor's challenge) h6a K4 rot, M , (pdvy with much notice and, so far as I am /3I6TOIO •cf.Xtvrfi- aware, has received as yet no adequate expla- II 787 (Patroklos meets Apollo) hff apa nation. Geddes (Problem of the. Homeric TOC, TldrpOKXe, Ttkeun). Poems, p. 36, n. 14) gives a list of the II 812 (Euphorbos attacks Patroklos) os Tot passages where apostrophe occurs and notes TrpuJros £

vova oTov, 429 ovSe «£ airjaariv K.T.X. (674) E 85 TvStiSrjv 8' OVK &v yvoirji iroripoun Sis TOT£ O"ot, MevcXae B HITUT) (cf. B 58) O 697, P 366, y 124. | \F 600 TOIO Se $v/jt.b'S | iav&7 a>s ei T£ wept B and C are not intended to be OTaxw«r lepoTj (598) . . . . fi>s apa exhaustive lists of these usages, as I am o-oi,*MeeeA.a£, ju.era per]S, Harp, LTT. practice of doing so be early or late, is no II 843 Patroklos mortally wounded more to be wondered at than that he should addresses Hektor TOV 8' oAiyoSpavcW pray or recite. But that in a narrative Trpocre^njs, Harp. 'or. poem dealing with'a bygone age he should The formula TOV 8' aira/iei^o/ievos 7rpoo-£<£ijs address one of the heroes of his lay as if he Ev/i,aie a-vfiurra, occurs with slight variations were present is not obviously natural, and i 55, 165, 360, 442, 507 : o 325 (fiiy' the explanation of the use if it is to be 6 0jJV), 579 (rrjv) and x 194 (emKepro- /j.€i o"£, TlrjXios vie, /xa^ijs aKoprjrov 'Amatol, where a reference to theexplanation of why this particular method conclusion of T strongly favours the sup- of showing his ' sympathy' was adopted position that these lines did not originally by the poet. Nor does the analysis we stand immediately after T 424, and that, have given throw any light on the origin, were the original context preserved, they however it may define the use, of the figure. would come under (b); cf. I 1, with the con- Let us now see how many of the instances cluding lines of ©, 555 ff. : and Y 152 (the under A may be assigned with probability gods sit to watch the fight) dju^iVe, jfie to the earlier strata of the poems. We may $?oifie, Kal "Apr/a TTToXiiropOov. at once dismiss the examples from the To these may be added, for the sake of Odyssey and those from A, H, Y, and \I>, the comparison, two further divisions. latter four books being by almost common consent regarded as later additions. There B. Under this head come the passages remain those from N, O, II, and P, contain- where no particular hero is apostrophized ing thirteen out of the eighteen instances in but a request for information or assistance is the Iliad, II by itself having eight. addressed (o) to the Muse or Muses A 1, 8, With regard to N, Uiese (Homerische B 484 sq., 761, A 218 sq., S 508, II 112, Poesie 94 f.) following Lachmann and Bergk etc., (6) to some person or persons not regards the entire book as late: Kobert specified E 703, © 273, A 299, etc. : with (Studien zur I lias, 10b ff.), while rejecting these compare A (d) supra. the book as a whole, rescues from the wreckage of his analysis some disiecta G. The hearer is addressed : T 220, 392 : membra of the Ur-Ilias, among them the A 223 Iv6' OVK av ppitpvra. iSpts ' passage containing the line we are con- THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. cerned with, N 603, though it must be have direct evidence of the practice of apo- confessed that his reasons do not seem strophizing the dead ; and when we consider altogether convincing. The same two critics the isolation in which the souls of the dead are agreed that 0 is substantially late, were supposed to live in Hades when their though there may be genuine old material bodies were burned (v, Rohde op. cit. 30, in it (Robert op. cit. 135, 145 f., Niese Ridge way, Early Age of Greece, 525), the op. cit. 99f.); but Robert does not in- actual speaking to a dead man becomes clude either of our passages in his re- ridiculous except in connection with the construction. II in its main lines must burial ceremonies. of course belong to the original poem, but To the praises, then, of the one great of the lines we are concerned with Robert Greek hero who meets his death in the poem (op. cit. 77 ff. 93 ff.) allows only 20, 744, the author consecrates the form of speech 754, 787. and 843 to stand, and regards the used in the ritual of the dead. On any whole of the latter part of P including 679 theory of the original form of the Iliad the and 702 as late. Niese (op. cit. 89) would death of Patroklos belongs to its very get rid even of II 787. Applying these kernel. Whether an old alvos ciriTu^ios results to our list we find that Robert would has been worked into the Achilleis, or the allow six cases of apostrophe in all, in the latter has arisen out of the former is a Ur-Ilias and Niese, apparently, only four. question we can perhaps no longer decide Of Robert's six eases, one (N 603) refers to with certainty, but it is curious that this Menelaos and all the rest to Patroklos, usage should be so imbedded in the very while Niese's four are all concerned with oldest stratum of the poem. Patroklos. This is a sufficiently curious To return to our analysis of 1 he use. We result. Does it throw any light on the find specimens of A(a), A(b), and A(c) in origin of the figure 1 this early TLaTpoickua.; and they do not seem Patroklos is pre-eminent among the lead- to possess any feature in common beyond ing Greek heroes by his death. Menelaos the fact that they are all used with reference and , and Aias live for to Patroklos. A(b), seems on the whole to ever in the poem as immortal as the ' marble be the direction in which the usage was men and maidens' on the Grecian urn. most expandfd in the Iliad. Possibly the Patroklos stands alone as the victim of the e'evation of style and feeling implied by the war. His unique position is the key to the simile suggested the use of the apostrophe, unique phrasing of the poet. consecrated already to the expression of To honour the dead by an cuvos lirirvfifiios deep feeling, though the exact meaning of was a practice familiar to all ages of the the usage was either forgotten or disregarded Greeks (v. Aesch. A gam. 1547). In in the interests of the style: the same historic times this took place before the explanation would account also for its fre- body was borne out for burial (see the quent use at moments of crisis as in A(a). evidence in Rohde Psyche I3 220 ff.), and In the Odyssey it had already sunk to a the lament was probably repeated on the mere figure of speech, though why it is occasion of' the periodic visits to the tomb. always used in connection with Eumaeus it Whether the body was burned or buried, the is hard to see. spirit was supposed to hover in its vicinity The Scholia then preserve some glimmer- till the last rites were performed, and must ing of truth about the meaning of the usage : have been supposed to hear what was said it must have implied, in a way the Scholiast about it. De mortuis nil nisi bene was the had little conception of, a very real ' sym- outcome of a very real apprehension. pathy ' between the poet and his hero. That on such occasions the spirit could It may be objected that a Oprjvos of the be directly addressed we do not need to kind supposed, would not naturally be com- rely on conjecture, to prove. To take some posed in hexameters. I see that Prof. Homeric instances : (T 287 ff.) and Smyth (Greek Melic Poets, p. cxxvi.) Achilles (419 ff., 179 ff.) in their laments regards it as ' probable that the use of over Patroklos address him by name, the hexameters by Euripides in Androm. 103 ff. formpr telling him plainly how much she represents an archaic established usage that had liked him. So in * (725 ff. 748 ff, gradually gave way to the elegiac distich.' 762 ff.) the women address by name, R. M. HENRY, and again in X (431 ff. 477 ff.). Here we BELFAST, NOV. 5, 1904.