DOI Artikel:
Allen, Frederic D.: On Greek versification in inscriptions
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8561#0052
38
ON GREEK VERSIFICATION IN INSCRIPTIONS.
stituted for the old, as in n. 1136 (see p. 45) and n. lvi (see
p. 47). Or insertions were made. Thus the good people who had
Kaibel's n. 60 cut, not content with the pentameter
<T<D<f>p(i>v Kal XPV^V ""Scay exovo~ aptrqv,
and desiring a more specific commendation of the deceased, made
it read
awcf>pun' kol )(PVa"rV Kai epycms ""array e^ouo-a aptrrjv.
Other examples hereafter (p. 46). Herwerden has pointed out a
less clumsy but hardly less certain case of adaptation in the epitaph
ov (Tirtxvi'i 1(Xtl yvvaiK.1 i<r6X.rjv Kal auicppova <j>vvai
ttjv avrrjv 8oKtp.<j>s, rorS' cru^ey T\.vKepa :
a sentiment of puzzling ineptitude, until we realize that the too con-
scientious relatives of the dead lady had put lo-QX-qv in the place of
an original Kakrjv. One epigram of Simonides has been travestied
in the beginning of n. 768, and another still worse maltreated in the
opening verse of n. xxvi, in which the Simonidean distich (fr. 100 Bgk.
= A.P. vii, 253),
ei to KaAais QvrjiuKUv aper^s fiepos icrrl p-iyivTov.
yjplv Zk iravrov tovt a.TTevap,e Tv)(r),
appears in this extraordinary conflation :
ci to KaA.ais eo"Tt Oavtiv Kafwl tovt airivup-t Tvy>7].
In fact this whole epitaph seems to consist of reminiscences,
patched together without regard for sense or metre. On the last
verse, see p. 47.
Of course these are extreme cases. The bulk of the epigrams
with which we shall have to dea'. are the work of intelligent persons :
most are sufficiently correct in language and versification; the
minority have small infelicities of one sort or another. Of metrical
eccentricities the most frequent cause is the necessity of introducing
proper names unsuited to the metre.1
1 It is interesting to observe the various devices, legitimate and illegitimate,
by which this difficulty of proper names was met. A recalcitrant feminine name
like XaipeirrpaTT] could be subdued by putting it before a vowel: see the examples
ON GREEK VERSIFICATION IN INSCRIPTIONS.
stituted for the old, as in n. 1136 (see p. 45) and n. lvi (see
p. 47). Or insertions were made. Thus the good people who had
Kaibel's n. 60 cut, not content with the pentameter
<T<D<f>p(i>v Kal XPV^V ""Scay exovo~ aptrqv,
and desiring a more specific commendation of the deceased, made
it read
awcf>pun' kol )(PVa"rV Kai epycms ""array e^ouo-a aptrrjv.
Other examples hereafter (p. 46). Herwerden has pointed out a
less clumsy but hardly less certain case of adaptation in the epitaph
ov (Tirtxvi'i 1(Xtl yvvaiK.1 i<r6X.rjv Kal auicppova <j>vvai
ttjv avrrjv 8oKtp.<j>s, rorS' cru^ey T\.vKepa :
a sentiment of puzzling ineptitude, until we realize that the too con-
scientious relatives of the dead lady had put lo-QX-qv in the place of
an original Kakrjv. One epigram of Simonides has been travestied
in the beginning of n. 768, and another still worse maltreated in the
opening verse of n. xxvi, in which the Simonidean distich (fr. 100 Bgk.
= A.P. vii, 253),
ei to KaAais QvrjiuKUv aper^s fiepos icrrl p-iyivTov.
yjplv Zk iravrov tovt a.TTevap,e Tv)(r),
appears in this extraordinary conflation :
ci to KaA.ais eo"Tt Oavtiv Kafwl tovt airivup-t Tvy>7].
In fact this whole epitaph seems to consist of reminiscences,
patched together without regard for sense or metre. On the last
verse, see p. 47.
Of course these are extreme cases. The bulk of the epigrams
with which we shall have to dea'. are the work of intelligent persons :
most are sufficiently correct in language and versification; the
minority have small infelicities of one sort or another. Of metrical
eccentricities the most frequent cause is the necessity of introducing
proper names unsuited to the metre.1
1 It is interesting to observe the various devices, legitimate and illegitimate,
by which this difficulty of proper names was met. A recalcitrant feminine name
like XaipeirrpaTT] could be subdued by putting it before a vowel: see the examples