Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (4.1885-1886)

58 ON GREEK VERSIFICATION IN INSCRIPTIONS.

Augmented forms are preferred, and elision makes room for the
augment. Thus:

/ATjTtpa edrjKa, not /jL-qrepa OrjKa, XXXII (Att. iv) ;

ixoip eSd/xacrcr£, not polpa Sa/xucrcre, CXXVIII (Sybar. ii) ;

2 3

eiSacp-tov SI Wavov, XXV (Att. iv) ;

12 3

over' Wavov, 91 (Att. iv) ;

3 4

/xoi TaSe t\^a<s, xcvn5 1. 67 (Epid. iii) ;

4 5

evtK io-Tt(f>a.vu>drj, XXV (Att. iv) ;

5 c

yat' eKaXvtf/av. not ycua KaXvxpav, 51 (Att. iv—ii) ;

5 G

$t\.wv p.e i-n-otrjo-tv. xv (Att. vi), if verse ;
ravr ivop.i£,ov, 81 (Att. iv—ii) ;

o G

irpodde i-rreTrovOeLs, CXXVII (Sybar. ii) •

'OX.vp.-n-L ivUoiv. 940 a RM (Olymp. Samos v) ;
.5 0

8v iviKiov, 941 (Att. iii) ;
(>

[7t]ot£ iv[ixuiv\ 925 (Att. iv-ii) ;

G

■n-ore 2/rpe£a, LXXVI (Cypriote).
6

Preference for the augment outweighs most merely metrical con-
siderations.1 In particular it is, we see, a more important factor than
the choice of a trisyllable or any particular form of word at the end
of the verse.2

Some other illustrations of the preference for augmented forms
will be given below (p. 62). For examples in pentameters, see pp.
64 and 65.

B. — DACTYLS AND SPONDEES.

i. — The Fifth Foot.

Sixteen spondiac verses occur in our inscriptions :

1 Isyllus nevertheless has written os tpeiStro, xcvn5 1. 61, with rather unneces-
sary squeamishness, as hs ttpe'Sero would have been quite defensible.

2 Accordingly o-q> iaaoxras is to be written rather than a<pe aioitras in xevn.
L 75. 0