A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

344 METRE. [371.
The plea on which a short vowel is allowed before
may be extended, as Fick points out (Bezz. Beitr. xiv. 316), to some forms of
atfiSvrjui now written without the cr, viz. KedaaOev (II. 15. 657), KfSaffOfvres, &c.
Metrical necessity, however, would not justify the same license with a/ciSvarai
(emKiSvarai II. 2. 85O r c.), e-ffieiSvaTo, e-ffttzSaaae (for which lavceSacre is available).
Neglect of Position is perceptibly commoner in the Odyssey than in the
Iliad. Apart from cases in which the necessities of metre can be pleaded*
viz. proper names and words beginning with w -, it will be found that the
proportion of examples is about 3:1. It will be seen, too, that some marked
instances occur in Books 23 and 24 of the Iliad. In Hesibd and the Homeric
Hymns the rule is still more lax. Thus in Hesiod a vowel is allowed to be
short before KV (Op. 567, Fr. 95), and -irv
(Theog. 319). In the scanty
fragments of the Cyclic poets we find "ntirpcarai (Cypria), irdrpt (Little Iliad),
'A-yx" KXVTOV KT\. (ibid.}, a//3ea (Iliupersis).
371.1 Lengthening before p, X, jut, v, a, 8. There are various
words beginning with one of these letters (the liquids p, X, p, v,
the spirant , Aiyvj, Aiapo?, AiTrapo?, At?, Xairapri,
Xotyos, and occasionally in a few others but not : (e.g.) in
such frequently occurring words as AVKIOJ, Ae'xo?, Aetmo.
fi, in jueyaj, fjLtyapov, .juioipa, /zaAaKo?, /jte'Aoj, juieAtrj, /maorif, poOos :
but not (e.g.) juax.ojucu, jote'ro?, jue'Xa?, /xa/cap, fjivQos.
in v, vcvpri, ue'^oy, i>i