[B-Greek] Modern Greek pronunciation for poetry

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Mon Sep 19 10:35:45 EDT 2005


As Randall has very nicely elucidated, the chief question is NOT  
which pronunciation of ancient Greek one uses but whether or not one  
reads the hexameter rhythm of the original meter. I have always read  
Homer in the same rhythmic manner that I read Vergil, inasmuch as  
they both wrote dactylic hexameters. I know very well that my  
pronunciation (more-or-less Erasmian) doesn't correspond to the  
pronunciation of the Homeric rhapsodes who performed at the  
Panathenaia in Athens or the other great PANHGUREIS in the ancient  
world, but how one pronounces the vowels and diphthongs is probably  
NOT the crucial matter for HEARING the rhythm of the verse. I think  
Randall has laid out the problem quite accurately. It would be nice  
to know how Vergil read Homer and how he performed his own  
compositions. I've never had the problem Randall speaks of -- losing  
the sense of the words because of the effort to sustain the hexameter  
rhythm, because I find the hexameter rhythm sustains itself more or  
less mechanically.

On Sep 19, 2005, at 10:22 AM, TuNeCedeMalis67 at aol.com wrote:

> Erasmian doesn't work with ancient Greek poetry either, right? The   
> ancients
> didn't use the stress accent we now use?
>
> Kat Doe
> homemaker
>
> In a message dated 9/19/2005 6:28:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jeremy_brightbill at sall.com writes:
>
> There  have been discussions recently about the benefits of Modern   
> Greek
> pronunciation for the NT.  But I am wondering how it would work   
> for poetry,
> since the meter is based on syllable length rather than word   
> accent.  How do
> modern Greeks pronounce Homeric poetry or Attic  drama?  I imagine  
> that they
> don't try to reintroduce the contrast in  vowel length.  Do they  
> shift the
> stress around to fit the meter?   Or do they simply ignore the  
> meter and
> pronounce the accents as stress, as  they are in the modern  
> language?  I
> would be grateful if someone could  describe the system that Greeks  
> use
> today, along with its practical  advantages and disadvantages.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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