ON IRXEGULARITIES IN THE VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 119 XI.-ON THE CRREGULARITIES IN THE VERSIFICA- TION OF HOMER. By JANESYATES, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. [Read April the 25th.l [Mr. JmES YATEScommunicated to the Society “ An Essay on the Irregularities in Homer’s Versification.” Mr. Yates stated that his Essay had been written many years ago, and had been originally communicated to a private Society bearing 1 he same name as our own. As the essay ex- tended to a considerable length, Mr. Yates read only parts of it, omitting, besides other portions of it, very many lines cited from Homix in proof of his positions. Professor Malden has kindly prepared the MS. for the press, retaining in general Mr. Yates’s words, and adding notes of his own, with the consent of the author.] In the poems attributed to Homer we perpetually find combinations of letters, which contradict the established rules of prosody. Among the ancients these irregularities seem to have excited littlle attention; but by modern critics they have been placed among the most curious subjects of classical investigation. 3 t will he the object of the following essay to explain the circumstances in which they occur, and the causes to which they are to be ascribed. Respecting thesc irregularities, it may be remarked as a universal principle, that they consist not in the excess, but in the deficiency of letters. For in every instance, the prosody may be made regular by the insertion of one or two additional letters. It will be proved, that, in many cases, such letters were originally in the text; but that, in others, the time which would have been occupied in their enunciation, was filled up in a direrent manner. As it would tic impossible to ascertain in what instances letters have been omitted out of the original text, until we have determined what latitude was taken in deviating from the general rules of prosody, it appears proper to attcnd, first, to those cases in which the time was completed without the use of letters sul)sequently expunged. I.’ In the first place, the time was often occupied by u K 120 ON IRREGULARITIES IN THE VERSIFICATION OP HOXEH, pause depending upon the sense. Any one who recites poetry uses the liberty of making such pauses longer or shorter, and more or less distinct, according to his own taste and choicc. Examples of this license atyeeting the versification preseiit themselves with a variety of eircmnstances. A short vowel at the end of a word is not cut off, and a diphthong or long vowel retains its timc, although tlic word following bcgins with another vowel; and where a consonant interveucs, a syllable naturally short is used as long. Thus in- 11. Vi. v. 46. Zhypc~,'ArpCoq &. - viii. v. 120. Ti& imep8;pov @~@alov,'Hv~o~fa. - ib. v. 105. 'AXX' 6y' +Gv 6xCwv 2~~/3ljm0,;+pa i8qaL. - ib. v. 158. Ah72v' lo~6v'61~182 TpG& ~e tcal"Eic.rwp. The license occurs, whether the syllable be the first, second, or third of a foot" ; and whether there bc, or be not, a cfesura. The principle here statcd is an obvious one, arising from the nature of sound, which ncccssarily occupies time, and of Zan- guage, which requires that the time, usually given to sound, be occupied at intervals by pauses. The cffcct of the pause has bcen recognized by some of the most distinguished writers upon this subject+. 6 11. Besides the pause, the time necessary to complete the metre was, in many cases, filled up by lengthening the sound of syllables naturally short, or retaining short vowels, which * In the 3n-t syllable of a foot more especially, the principle to be mentioned next comes into play likewise.-ED. t Eandem, nisi majorem, efficaciam habet interpunctio, quze brevem syllabam excipit. Cujus gencris longe plurima Ilias et Odyssea exempla snppeditant, ct tempus, sivc moram, quEe syllabae deerat, paus2 explent, ut etiamnum musici nostri facere consueverunt. ..... .Neque autem hanc numero ipsi insitam vim vcteres prorsus effugisse statueiidum est. Jam Eustathius ad 11. 5. 265, 1). 645, vulgatam scripturam, pIufos, &.K$s re hd8opct1, eo nomine defendit, scribens : ri) 6; p.dufon t)Krfhci pcrpipL"&sZuraCOa mju Xijyouuau 8th r<u ~piP;uKOlluUv'Apurdp~y rehcc'au urtyp$v, Kalri) & a&$ oih ~pou;[ovKal urhuipov r+ $wujIs X6yv Koiuijs uuXhapijs. Profecto autem in apriro cst, eam ob rem nonnunquam syllabas brevissimas produci, qiiibus alio modo jus illud vix concederidam essct ; idque, quo giavior, qua: a tergo quasi instat, iuterpmictio est, eo lubentius odmitti posse.- Spitzner, De Versu Grzecorum IIeroico, p. 20. according to the usual practice would be cut OR. This prin- ciple may be dduced, almost as obviously as the last, from thc nature of spccch and of verse. Since metre consists in the succession of long and short sounds arranged in a certain orclcr, any one who recites verses, will, through the force of habit, become disposed to enunciate long and short syllables in their proper metrical places according to the prescribed arrangement, although their times are not represented by the letters bcfore his eyes. Yielding to this propensity, he will supply the deficiencies of the metre by dwelling upon those syllables, the shortening or elision of which would interrupt its regularity. This prolongation, or retention, of short syllables in accom- modation to the metre may take place, whether those syl- lables are the $nu1 or initial, or, in some cases, even medial syllables of a word. Hence this mode of supplying metrical deficiencies is far more frequent than that already described, which can be employed only in final syllables : and although the admission of this license is restricted by a regard to the necessity of determining the metre by a succession of syllables which are of the proper length in their own nature, yet the instances of its adoption are much more numerous than the cases in which the metre is completcd by the intervention of a pause. The following passages selected from the 8th book of the Iliad are examples :- v. 13. "H ~LV.&X;v $$lo & I Tdprapov. v. 25. m(plplov I O;X&.rro~o. v. 66. &&o I kpdv $pap. v. 229. nij @av. v. 248. r+coq e?udJ+o~oraxelqq. V. 262. 6081pw ~~.ITLI~L~UQVOL &XI+. v. 267. udrceli' TeXalpwvLLGao. v. 290. 8610 h;ri+7rov?. VV. 300 & 309. cEl.rr6 vevlpij+~v ZaXXev. v. 324. Bijtce 6' 61~2 vevlplj. v. 359. +~L/LE'vo~ZV I Ta,ipL& yaly. V. 392. "Hpq 184 p&u\rLyL. v. 473. roX4pov &ro\ra;ueraL. v. 474. l~pZv Gpj6as. v. 517. ALJ~+LXor I dyyy.lfXX6vrwv. The cases referable to the principle here described, consist, jirst, of diphthongs or long vowels, which retain their time, instead of becoming short, before anothcr vowcl ; secondly, of short vowels (a, e, L, o), which in thc samc situations do not suffcr elision ; and, tliirclly, of short rowels, foUo.l\ccrl by a h 2 122 ON IRREGULARITIES IN THE VERSIFICATION OF HORIEH, single consonant either at the end of the same word or at the beginning of the next, which supply the place of long syl- lables. In most, if not in all cases of this third class, the syllable was made long by dwelling, not upon the vowel, but upon the consonant. This may be inferred from the analogy of those syllables, which are not final, but in which the same prolongation occurs. In these the consonant is usually written double, as in 'Ax~Xxf&,'OBUCTCTE~F, &mq, &TL. In the few cases where it is not so doubled, such as i;pp~poc. "Apq,~,we may infer from analogy, that it was pronounced, though not written, double"; and by extending the analogy to the final syllables, which were lengthened upon the same principle, we may conclude, that in them also the consonant is to be pronounced twice, though written only once. A circumstance which confirms this doctrine is, that the pro- longation of short syllables, whether at the end of words, or not at the end, commonly took place before the consonants, which were most readily dwelt upon, or doubled, in pronun- ciation, namely, the four liquids, X, p, v, p, and the letter CT. This tends to prove that the prolongation depended upon the consonant rather than upon the vowel. According to this view the instances of short vowels used. as long, cited from the 8th Iliad, ought to be pronounced as follows :-mplp ploy O~X~~TOLO,T&OP CTEX&$OLO raXEIq9, BoCprv VCTGCL~&OL Ctx~+jv, drdv veupfj+~v,&2v veuplj, +Bt!pevw UEY ra.rpt!& yaG, "Hpq Gp ~ACTT~L,rpiv vi+h; and perhaps o&ceLr TeXapo- v&ao -f. It has been usual with the authors, who have treated of these irregularities, to say that they were occasioned by the cemra. A long section in Spitzner's Treatise is entitled De * That the consonant was not always doubled appears from instances in which a short vowel was changed into a diphthong or a corresponding long vowel, as in 06k6pevos for rh$~evos,OhX6p7roio from*OAvpros, and the adjectives jvepdeis, $p6'6eis, from the nouns dvepos, Jpa8oS. There is no reason why a vowel should not be lengthened before aconsonant, as well as before another vowel, as in e'lapos from the nominative Zap, and the fami- liar forms X~~~LOS,,yaheios.-ED. ?. Hardly At;$ $~XOL, since the aspirate consonants are never doubled. Here, more probably, the final vowel was lengthened, Ati @Ao~.--ED. BY JAMES YATES, ESQ.