Acknowledgements Rhythm Without Beat originally appeared in 2014 as a preliminary study to my thesis Audible Punctuation: Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody, which was defended in 2015. Rhythm Without Beat started from the notion of poetically effective enjambment, and questions the relevance of the verse as the rhythmical, syntactical, and performative unity. It provides arguments and evidence against the widely accepted notion of the single verse as… Read more
Introduction: Sense, Syntax and Prosody What exactly did Homer leave behind? Was it a long series of hexameters? Yes and no. In writing, both the Iliad and the Odyssey appear as continuous repetitions of stichic verses. The epic narrative is cast in the hexametric mould: every single line fits one hexameter. The metrical shape of the hexameters varies, but all the verses of the Iliad and the… Read more
1. The Unit of Homeric Discourse: Enjambment, Special Speech and Metrically Defined Grammatisation 1.0 Introduction For the modern reader, the punctuation of a text furthers comprehension of its contents. In spoken language, the person speaking may use differences in intonation, tempo and articulatory prominence to further the audience’s comprehension of what is being said. Punctuation in printed texts mimics to a certain extent the purpose of… Read more
2. The Grammatical Clause in Homer 2.0 Introduction In chapter 1, I have discussed the problems concerning the various ways in which the syntax of Homeric discourse has been analysed by, among others, Chantraine, Bakker, and Clark. Discussing the descriptions of Homeric syntax also included dealing with the issue of enjambment in Homer, and the concept of grammatisation within metrical boundaries. Existing studies of Homeric discourse… Read more
3. Metrics and Phonology of Grammatical Clauses 3.0 Introduction The real compositional principle behind the verse-to-verse structure of both the Iliad and the Odyssey seems to be a progressive tendency that strings together a large and possibly infinite number of single-clause informational units. The progression results from continuation, itself due to transitional constituents with clear pragmatic value, but little semantic function. The grammatical clauses that this… Read more
4. Audible Punctuation in Prosody 4.0 Introduction In the preceding chapters I have shown that developing grammatisation in Homer results in grammatical clauses of variable size, strung together into a progressive tendency with the aid of extra-clausal transitional constituents. Parts of the grammatical clauses take the shape of minor phonological phrases, as do the transitional constituents. Developing grammatisation seems to make use of… Read more
Introduction In the Iliad, the relationship of Mērionēs and Idomeneus plays a peripheral role as compared to the central relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. As we shall see, the behavior of Mērionēs and Idomeneus towards one another is a variation on the theme of the heroic relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. The Iliad also describes the relations of gods and men. The antagonism of Akhilleus and Apollo is set against… Read more
1. Mērionēs a. Mērionēs as opaōn The word opaōn is found in the Iliad principally in the context of characterizing the relationship between Mērionēs and Idomeneus. Mērionēs is called the opaōn of Idomeneus four times: τοῖσι, δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ᾽Ιδομενεὺς καὶ ὀπάων ᾽Ιδομενῆος Μηριόνης, ἀτάλαντος Ἐνυαλίῳ ἀνδρειφόντῃ … Η 165-66 = Θ263-64 σημαίνει φυλάκεσσι, καὶ ᾽Ιδομενῆος ὀπάωνΜηριόνης, τοῖσιν γὰρ ἐπετράπομέν γε μάλιστα. Κ 58-59 τὸν δὲ μετ᾽ Ἰδομενεὺς καὶ… Read more
II. Etymology of Opaōn We have introduced etymological considerations from time to time in the analysis up to this point. It may be helpful, however, to examine the etymology of opaōn more closely. Chantraine traces opaōn back within Greek to an attestation of the dative form in Linear B texts as o-qa-wo-ni. [1] This forms suggests that there was at one time a digamma,… Read more
III. The Formulaic Use of Opazō In attempting to understand what a word means in traditional diction, it is necessary to examine the ways it is employed, the formulas of which it is a part. We may begin with Milman Parry’s definition of a formula as “a group of words which is regularly employed under the same metrical conditions to express a given essential idea.” [1]… Read more
