Book contents
- Homer’s Living Language
- Homer’s Living Language
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction The Paradox of Homeric Creativity
- Chapter 1 Formularity
- Chapter 2 Meter
- Chapter 3 Dialect
- Chapter 4 Creativity
- Conclusion Creativity, Memory, and the Muses
- Glossary of Linguistic Terms
- References
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- Index of Homeric forms
- Index of PIE forms
- Index of Homeric phraseology
Chapter 2 - Meter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2024
- Homer’s Living Language
- Homer’s Living Language
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction The Paradox of Homeric Creativity
- Chapter 1 Formularity
- Chapter 2 Meter
- Chapter 3 Dialect
- Chapter 4 Creativity
- Conclusion Creativity, Memory, and the Muses
- Glossary of Linguistic Terms
- References
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- Index of Homeric forms
- Index of PIE forms
- Index of Homeric phraseology
Summary
This chapter covers the general features of the Homeric hexameter and the most famous debates therein, before asking the more general question as to what was the usefulness of meter for oral-traditional poets. Section 1 introduces the metrical scheme of the hexameter (including incisions and bridges), the principles of scansion and syllabification. Section 2 explores the colometry of the hexameter, and introduces the prosodic hierarchy. It also employs intonational data to argue tha the Homeric hexameter coincided with an intonational phrase, and its cola mostly with phonological phrases, and provides a new prosodic account of enjambement in Homer. Section 3 covers previous attempt at establishing the historical origin of the hexameter, arguing that the account of Kiparsky 2018 is the most promising. Section 4 looks at the speech of professional sportscasters, and argues that it shows several types of prosodic regularization that is akin to a basic type of meter. Extensive prosodic regularization diminishes the options available to a speaker, making it easier to sustain high levels of fluency. Meter arguably fulfilled a similar task in oral-traditional composition in performance.
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- Homer's Living LanguageFormularity, Dialect, and Creativity in Oral-Traditional Poetry, pp. 64 - 129Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024