Post by Bitmap on Mar 3, 2023 13:43:20 GMT
callaina brought this up our chat this morning (or probably evening for her), and I thought it was worth mentioning rather than letting it drown in the floods of oblivion of that chat.
I know what a bucolic diaeresis is. It is a diaeresis between the 4th and 5th foot of an hexameter, and it is found particularly often in bucolic poetry (examples below). I had known that, and that's the way you usually find it explained (like in my Latin book). However, I always wondered what's so special about that because a diaeresis in that position can also be found in other hexametric poetry.
However, Callahan mentioned a source that such a diaeresis in bucolic poetry is mostly accompanied by a preceding dactyle in the 4th foot and hardly ever by a spondee. I checked the first 3 of Vergil's Eclogues and it turned out to be true every single time there was an incision before the last two feet that the 4th foot would be dactylic.
Just 3 examples from the first eclogue:
1,7f.:
namque erit ille mihi semper deus, illius aram
saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.
1,11f.:
Non equidem invideo, miror magis; undique totis
usque adeo turbatur agris.
1,74:
ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae.
As I said, I didn't know that ...
It adds some sense to the term "bucolic diaeresis" rather than just saying it is a diaeresis before the 5th foot.
I know what a bucolic diaeresis is. It is a diaeresis between the 4th and 5th foot of an hexameter, and it is found particularly often in bucolic poetry (examples below). I had known that, and that's the way you usually find it explained (like in my Latin book). However, I always wondered what's so special about that because a diaeresis in that position can also be found in other hexametric poetry.
However, Callahan mentioned a source that such a diaeresis in bucolic poetry is mostly accompanied by a preceding dactyle in the 4th foot and hardly ever by a spondee. I checked the first 3 of Vergil's Eclogues and it turned out to be true every single time there was an incision before the last two feet that the 4th foot would be dactylic.
Just 3 examples from the first eclogue:
1,7f.:
namque erit ille mihi semper deus, illius aram
saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.
1,11f.:
Non equidem invideo, miror magis; undique totis
usque adeo turbatur agris.
1,74:
ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae.
As I said, I didn't know that ...
It adds some sense to the term "bucolic diaeresis" rather than just saying it is a diaeresis before the 5th foot.
