4. The Metrical Context of κλέοc ἄφθιτον in Epic and Lyric There is a serious difficulty with the theory that epic formulas are derived from lyric formulas. The attestations of Greek lyric verses, let alone Pherecratic verses specifically, are scant. Furthermore, what little survives is… Read more
5. The Wedding of Hektor and Andromache: Epic Contacts in Sappho 44LP Had this ill-fated couple ever really lived through a single happy day in their lives? Oh, yes: there was a time, once. In a reverie from the past, Andromache is growing up in… Read more
6. Formula and Meter: A Summary In L’épithète traditionnelle, [1] Parry recorded his discovery that the word-break patterns of epic hexameter mark the places where formulas generally start and end. I am now prepared to add to his thesis this corollary: that… Read more
7. The Metrical Context of Rig-Vedic śráva(s) ákṣitam and ákṣiti śrávas The general form of the Vedas is that of lyrical poetry. They contain the songs in which the first ancestors of the Hindu people, at the very dawn of their existence as a separate… Read more
8. An Inquiry into the Origins of Indic Trimeter Let us first survey the basic types of dimeter and trimeter which are formally comparable in Greek and Indic. In the case of dimeters, the correspondences are obvious, and the essentials have already been presented in the Introduction. Read more
9. The Distribution of Rig-Vedic śrávas: An Intensive Correlation of Phraseology with Meter The usage of a word like śrávas in the Rig-Veda is subject to manifold constraints in matters of positioning and associations with other words. It now becomes imperative to examine such constraints in relation… Read more
Epilogue: The Hidden Meaning of κλέοc ἄφθιτον and śráva(s) ákṣitam Having reconstructed a poetic expression which antedates even the meters in which it is preserved, we may well wonder about its traditional impact. What implicit message did the expression *klewos n̥dhgwhitom contain? What strength of… Read more
Appendix A. μήδεα and ἄφθιτα μήδεα εἰδώc Within the framework of Homeric diction, the noun μήδεα can mean either ‘thoughts, schemes’ (as in Γ 202) or ‘genitals’ (as in σ 67). There are many typological parallels to such a semantic ambivalence in μήδεα. For example, Old High… Read more
Appendix B. Dovetailing: Speculations on Mechanics and Origins Glyconics, among other Greek meters, ‘dovetail’ forward. [1] That is, the word-break at the end of one Glyconic can be skipped and transferred to the position after the first long/short (⏓) of a following… Read more
Selected Bibliography Albano-Leoni, F. 1968. “Su alcune corrispondenze formulari omerico-vediche.” Orientalia Suecana 17:137–154. Allen, A., and Frel, J. 1972. “A Date for Corinna.” Classical Journal 68:26–30. Allen, W. S. 1966. “Prosody and Prosodies in Greek.” Transactions of the… Read more
