Hello
I cannot parse the hexameter in this verse
Unde locum Grai dixerunt nomine Aornum
I see that there is an elision between the two final words. But there is always a syllable too much in my attempts. Like below where capitalised vowels have ictus
Unde locUm grai dIxerUnt nOmin aOrnum
The Unt and the Nom obviously clash
Thanks
I'm trying to read Terence's Hecyra. Second prologue, verse 16:
Quia sciēbam dubiam fortūnam esse scaenicam
This is how i scanned it:
- Qui-a s-ci- (amphibrach)
- -ē-bam (spondee)
- du-bi-am (anapaest)
- for-tū- (spondee)
- -n(am) es-se s- (spondee)
- -cae-ni-cam (cretic)
I doubt that cretic is legal here so there should be some mistake in my scansion. Can somebody help me with this?
So I’ve been doing a lot of scansion practice on hexameter.co lately, and usually when I scan something wrong I know immediately what I did wrong.
However, that isn’t the case with this line from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (15.450):
Haec helenum cecinisse penatigero aeneae
I scanned it as DDSS, like:
Haec helenūm cecinīssē pēnā//tigero aeneae
with an elision at the end making “tigeraeneae”
however, the answer says it is DDDD, with no elision.
My questions for you, then, are:
1- why is there no elision?
2- and are the last two feet both Spondees? And if so, how can I tell when a line has two spondees at the end, rather than a dactyl followed by a spondee?
Thank you!
Also, sidenote: is there an app like attikos but for latin? Like an app for ios where I can read in latin a bunch of famous latin pieces?
Currently learning a bit about the meter of Latin poetry, and while I have no trouble figuring out what syllables should be long or short, I can't figure out how to read it the way my professor wants. He reads it as a sort of chant, which feels awkward and doesn't make sense to me from what I have on the paper. Assuming I have some grasp of how Latin is meant to sound, should I just read the line naturally?? Any tips for how to make this make sense to me??
EDIT: just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has responded and been so helpful. This was my first venture into Latin reddit, and I was a little nervous because I only really dabble in it for academic requirement related reasons. Thanks for not making me feel dumb!
I have written a riddle in Latin hexameter verses. Can you solve it? Please use spoiler tags for your answers.
Possideō cornū nullum, mihi necque pharetra.
Nostra sagitta ,tamen, vēlōciter omnia tangit
quae capiunt hīc fīnītē speculāria clāra.
Nōnnumquam gracilis decorat mihi corpora cauda.
Saepe meōs fēles violenter percutit artūs,
illa vorāre, tamen, mē morsū nōn valet umquam.
Any recommendations for excellent resources on this topic? I want to make my own poetry because arma virumque cano troiae qui primus ab oris sounds cool.
Hello,
I have these lines from the Iliad (14.349-350):
πυκνὸν καὶ μαλακόν, ὃς ἀπὸ χθονὸς ὑψόσ’ ἔεργε. τῷ ἔνι λεξάσθην, ἐπὶ δὲ νεφέλην ἕσσαντο
Would love to learn these by heart, athough don't know how to accentuate them properly. I'm new to hexameter, thus my capabilities and knowledge aren't really advanced.
Could the answer be similar to this?
--|-uu|-uu|--|-uu|-x -uu|--|-uu|-uu|--|-x
What are the rules that apply to this case?
Thank you for hearing me out.
Dozier, Watson's hit, bleeding on floor, then is leaning by door, click click
Hosier, Crimson fist crushing this norm that is fleeing the core, tick tick
Who sees her? Subaru? Beatrice is, Spirit is, Healing her, Crying miss?
Snapping back, Reality, "Is that, Frederica still?" - Lisping Addict
Overproduced is this Iliad, nothing is iller than illmatic.
Still adding bits till this thrill has cease, this disease, should at least leave with ease.
Able to see these things, Hallucinating brings images crashing in.
I see the allure of a resting, but fate has done labeled me unstable.
Fred is here, I am on a tea break, writing notes; carriage, a shaking mill.
I'm still on the-..."How now?! Bleeding! Wha-" Memories, switching up, listen up!
My will's still real, she's here, spirit, Beatrice is WITH ME! You see? I'm me.
I'm free, where's Subaru? I can't, is blind but you'll see soon that I'll be there.
//This took too long to do, please comment more often, I need to see if my seed is not up to needs//
Hello, here is an imagining of the speech Tiresias would have given to Odysseus/Ulixēs/Ulysses/Ὀδυσσεύς in the Odyssey. Please let me know if there are any mistakes in the metre (or grammar (or even mythological accuracy for that matter)), but don't worry about making it scan if the mistakes make it impossible. Also, I haven't really tried to write particularly good hexameter (I haven't been thinking much about caesura placement) I just want to make sure it fits within the metrical rules for Dactylic Hexameter and makes sense.
https://preview.redd.it/c5ztw5hpq6g51.png?width=1258&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f2968781e39d94fb1294e6b9a42758cb88446ec
Long story short, I'm an Italian student of Latin. I had studied it in a fairly shallow way when in high school, but now I want to have an active competence in it, if possible. In particular, I would like to be able to write in verse someday, since I already enjoy writing (very mediocre :P) metrical poetry in the languages I know.
So, a question about the dactylic hexameter, which seems to be the most commonly used metre in classical poetry. I've looked at its pattern, and it appears to have feet with either one long syllable and two short ones, or two long syllables. In other words, you never see more than two consecutive short syllables. How can one, then, use a word whose root has three (or more) short syllables, like 'philosophia'? Would such a word be off-limits when writing in dactylic hexameters?
>Alma Redēmptōris Māter quae pervia caelī
>
>Porta manēs et stēlla maris, succurre cadentī
>
>Surgere quī cūrat populō. Tū quae genuistī,
>
>Nātūrā mīrante, tuum sānctum Genitōrem,
>
>Virgō prius ac posterius, Gabriēlis ab ōre
>
>Sūmēns illud Avē, peccatōrum miserēre.
I am a little confused about the scansion of part I've emboldened here in the fifth line. It looks to me like - - | uu - | - uu | - uu | - uu | - -, where I think the second foot can't be right, so I've been considering the possibilities that:
- It's a fudge, the poet just had to sacrifice the metre for the words,
- I've got the length of some vowels wrong, e.g.: "Virgo priūs ac" would give me - uu | - -,
- Prius is pronounced here as a diphthong: "Virgō prjus ac" would give me - - | - -,
- There's some other rule to be applied here that I don't know.
Does anyone know what I'm missing or what the intention here would have been?
I know the difference between them, but how do you identify them in a poem that hasn't been scanned?
Commas are long syllables, dots are short.
, . .| , , |, , | , , |, . . | , .
Kl̥numé kēnmō tóysōm n̥rṓm, n̥-gʷʰdʰsitós kléwos
--We have often heard the songs of those heroes, the imperishable fame
, , | , ,|, , | ,,| , . . | , .
kʷóysōm su-kln̥wóntm̥s plōims ānóke, tóysu
--of whom many good listeners has reached, in those
, . .|, . . | , . .| , , | , . .| , .
m̥gəsú oywosyu, dyḗws-kʷe dʰégʰōm stā́m yéwone, kʷósmi
--great ages, the sky and the earth were young, when
, . .| , . . |, . .| , . .| , . . | , .
kl̥ptá su-deywómos n̥gʷnís protm̥mós-kʷe tként gʰmónes, n̥dʰér
--was stolen from the good gods the first fire and received by earthlings1, under
, , |, . . |, ,|, . .| , . .|, .
léwksey m̥dstrés ókʷ n̥kīént néres klewóm polewes.
--the bright eye of The Measurer2, many men wished to attain fame.
1: The mythological theft of fire is attested in several IE religions.
2: Measurer is a kenning for Dyḗws-Pater. His eye refers to the sun. Therefore "under the bright eye of the Measurer" means "under the sun".A poem against romance 😈
—————
Love I desire, but break any fall with a smile’s prosthesis —
“Chocolate, no sugar” or nicotine puffs with tobacco excluded.
What did she do with her boyfriend last weekend, the Fourth of July, and
What was the name of that band with the girl who kept kissing the guy?
Poor old Catullus both hated and loved his light Lesbia’s gaiety —
Why should I yield or succumb to a crotchet like hatred or love when
Weekday encounters suffice and the night is kept curt for another’s ipseity?
Social disaster and harmlessly flirting in perfect cohesion —
Contact of eyes reveals something unspoken in lucid communion and
Lilacs with flowers in blossom sit idle, a sign of the season, while
Carts on the light-rail explode down their tracks without compass or beacon.
Casual brushes with life can sustain me for now and beyond:
Love at first sight is the highest of goods when devoid of a bond.
Maybe you'll love me? I'll only hope that you'll love me tomorrow.
Maybe today, but the week traces sorrows, and class is tomorrow.
Maybe I'll catch you on balconies hovering over the bar or
Maybe you don't even drink -- but your blush asks for something to borrow.
Maybe we'll chill by the lake, smoke a bowl, it's a date, hella faded.
Maybe it's better to wait for the day when your fate becomes jaded.
Maybe you don't even like me, but weed remains purple and dank and
Maybe it's stupid of me to write poems for girls who are taken.
Is anyone aware of a single line of Dactylic Hexameter from Homer, Hesiod, etc. that contains all grammatical cases? For example, line 286 of Works and Days contains the nominative, dative, accusative, and vocative, but not the genitive:
σοὶ δ᾽ ἐγὼ ἐσθλὰ νοέων ἐρέω, μέγα νήπιε Πέρση.
I've found a lot of lines that come close, but never one that has all five.
Black beyond frozen shores,
Stellar winds blowing spawn.
Pocked barren lithic pores,
Lunar buds blooming dawn.
Shiny crust over mossed,
A young garden’s dew.
Moldy peach luster lost,
Glow spiders hazy blue.
Spores pulsate swelling nodes,
Shrieking howls grunting sounds.
Shrooms lactate yelling toads,
Shadow wolves' hunting grounds.
Silken silvered moon beams,
Silent short sanguine screams.
Here is another riddle in Latin hexameter verse. Can you solve it? Please use spoiler tags for your answers.
Possideō rōstrum, mihi nōn est fōrma volucris.
Artibus, ēn, nostrīs, sunt splendida pallia lūtrae.
Ēn, edepol, teneō caudam, sum nōn ego castor.
Ictū vīpereō feriam, tibi causa dolōris.
Nōn pater est Tȳphōn, mihi nōn est māter Echidna.
Amniculō vēnāns mediō, mihi lūmina clausa
nōn praedam spectant, nōn olfēcēre timōrem
nārēs haudquāquam laticī gelidō patefactae,
et miserēs aurisque ignōrat ululātūs
clausa, quod est rōstrum vēnātōrī Palinūrus.
If so, how do you go about working out if a translation in English is in the meter of the original?
Would you give me feedback back on my poem?
Written for an Ovid class, original to me.
Poem:
Iamque pedes positō tēlō aere ad mālum mēnsam
trāns terram armā sine vādēbant ignārus
Ante perīcula crēdēns impūnītus et ipse
sēcūrus cum cōmite dē occīdentī saevō
Scansion:
DDSSSS SSDSST DDSSDT SSDSSS
Translation:
And now, the soldier placing his bronze weapon (away) Ignorant, across the land he walked to the evil table, without (his) weapon Before the danger he was believing himself safe and secure With a friend, from a savage killing.
The idea is that he is poisoned at dinner by his friend
Any feedback is helpful!
EDIT: Updated version, with more 5th foot dactyls.
Iamque pedes positō tēlō aere ad mālam mēnsam
trāns terram armīs sīne ignārus inambulat ergō
ante perīculum adcrēdēbat tūtus et ipse
sēcūrus cum cōmite dē occīdentī saevō
DDSSSS SSSDDS DDSSDT SSDSSS
Nice bottom and pussy, big tit: your mama got me addicted
I'm gon' fuck titties all night, Stop me ya can't, petty limp-dick
Tho should I ask for a suck, too? Hell-to-the-no-to-the-fuck you,
Your mama chews on a dick, bitch, Wow, really sucks to be bucktooth'd.
As one of the exercises in David Califf's "A Guide to Latin Meter and Verse Composition" I have tried translating some English poetry into Latin hexameters. Has anyone else tried these sort of exercises? Can anyone think of a different way to translate these verses?
Learning and Rome alike in empire grew,
And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew;
From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom,
And the same age saw learning fall, and Rome.
Cultus in imperiō simul aequē Rōmaque crēvit,
usque sequēbantur aquilās artēsque volantēs;
cessērunt ambō violentō dēnique fātō,
et cecidēre ambō vae tandem aetātis ocellīs.
Hexameter, which was an old Java project of ours was retrofitted to be a Kotlin multiplatform project and now it is called Mixite.
Disclaimer for Java devs: everything works as it worked before, the Java interop is seamless so don't worry. The added functionality is for Kotlin / Javascript devs: Mixite can now be used in the browser as well!
Maven Central release will come soon. A stable preview version can be found here.
I thought I'd try my hand at versifying the Aeneid's proem in English dactylic hexameters (with the very occasional spondee chucked in), as a kind of 'proof of concept'. What do people think about ancient metres in English?
Arms and the man are my theme: who first from Ilium’s long strand
Came upon Italy, ousted by Fate, and Lavinium’s shore-land.
Much was he buffeted, hurtled about, both on land and the deep sea
Willed by the gods, out of spiteful Juno’s implacable fury.
Much did he suffer in war, ’til he finally founded his own town,
And gave gods unto Latium, whence the Latian tribes’ crown.
Fathers of Alba as well, the paternal forbears of our home,
Came from that place; then followed the towering walls of august Rome.
I like to think I got a pun in with 'August Rome', and I definitely had to 'expand' a little due to space constraints. The first two lines proved a breeze (OED assures me shore-land isn't a 100% made up word), but thereafter definitely started to fizzle out somewhat.
As far as versifying goes, getting dactyls in definitely feels easier than for Latin, because English has so many helpful short words (is, was, be, the, and). Spondees on the other hand seem a lot harder to do without simply sticking monosyllables together.
Yeah, the title sums it up. I’m trying to implement the elegiac couplet to another language that I think fits.
When is it acceptable to use a fifth foot spondee?
Here is another riddle in Latin hexameter verse. Can you solve it? Please use spoiler tags for your answers.
Sum tacitus custōs Hecatēs triviō, peregrīne.
Nōn ego sum Cyclōps, teneō nōn lūmina bīna.
Aspice inermem mē modo, sed modo spīcula portō.
Tē feriam numquam, nōn laedet nostra sagitta.
Sī tū dēspiciās, tamen, imperium taciturnum,
sī tū rēiciās monitum, mea lūmina caeca,
tē crucient Furiae, feriant simul omnia lēta.
Maybe you’ll love me? I’ll only hope that you’ll love me tomorrow.
Maybe today, but the week traces sorrows, and class is tomorrow.
Maybe I’ll catch you on balconies hovering over the bar or
Maybe you don’t even drink — but your blush asks for something to borrow.
Maybe we’ll chill by the lake, smoke a bowl, it’s a date, hella faded.
Maybe it’s better to wait for the day when your fate becomes jaded.
Maybe you don’t even like me, but weed remains purple and dank and
Maybe it’s stupid for me to write poems for girls who are taken.
