[B-Greek] Modern Greek pronunciation for poetry

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Tue Sep 20 07:35:13 EDT 2005


I might just add one other useful feature of metrical reading of  
Homeric verse: part of such reading involves recognition of the  
standard caesurae in the line and that helps one to see the  
architecture of Homeric verse -- the way the formulae first expounded  
in Milman Parry's epochal studies operate, e.g.

MHNIN/ AEIDE QEA/ PHLHIADEW/ ACILHOS
OULOMENHN, hH MURI(A) ACAIOIS/ ALGE(A) EQHKEN ...

There's the power of the word order: the opening hexameter beginning  
with MHNIN, the very theme of the epic and closing with the majestic  
drawn-out epithet and name of the epic's hero, Achilles; then there's  
the powerful participial-adjectival adjective OULOMENHN in the  
opening colon of line 2, which as a unit characterizes the MHNIN  
enunciated in the first colon of line 1; thereupon there's the neat  
expression MURI(A) ACAIOIS -- "countless to the Achaeans"  
highlighting the dative of recipient of the griefs all in a compact  
phrase hH MURI' ACAIOIS, then following the pause of the so-called  
bucolic diaeresis, the thudding predicate, ALGE(A) EQHKEN. Rhythmic  
reading of Homer, I am personally convinced, is essential to  
appreciating the intricate art of Homeric verse.

On Sep 20, 2005, at 6:57 AM, Jeremy D. Brightbill wrote:

> Bert de Haan wrote: "Obviously I am in a different league than  
> either one of
> you, (I am a boy scout and not a marine.) If I try to read it in  
> meter I
> have no idea what I am reading.  I have not found that the hexameter
> sustains itself in my mind.  I would love to hear someone read a  
> page or so
> of the Iliad with an organ in the background playing the pitch and  
> the vowel
> length. I enjoy reading the Iliad without getting the meter but it  
> would be
> great if "getting" the meter would increase the enjoyment.
> Bert de Haan."
>
> Oh, you would enjoy it ten times more with the meter!  I don't know  
> where I
> fit on the Boy Scout to Marine continuum :) but I've found that  
> learning to
> read Homer with the meter is *definitely* worth the investment.  In  
> Homer,
> the meter is everything!  (Perhaps an overstatement, but  
> still....)  The
> poems were originally oral compositions, and the bards would  
> improvise on
> the spot as they stood before the audience.  This was possible  
> because they
> started with a pool of stock phrases that would fit at different  
> parts of
> the hexameter line.  A lot of the phrases don't have much meaning in
> themselves, but you see the genius of the poet as you read line  
> after line
> and see how he fits the phrases into the metrical system to carry  
> the story
> forward.
>     As others have mentioned, it's quite difficult to read the Iliad
> with pitch and vowel length, but it's not so hard to pronounce the  
> verse
> ictus as stress.  I used Clyde Pharr's "Homeric Greek" textbook,  
> and he
> recommends memorizing the first 50 lines of the Iliad in order to  
> get the
> meter in your head.  That worked really well for me.
>     This might be getting off-topic for B-Greek, so I'll just mention
> two sites that have good resources: www.aoidoi.org and  
> www.textkit.com.  The
> latter has a discussion forum for people who are learning Homeric  
> Greek.
>
> Jeremy Brightbill
>
>
>
> ---
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>


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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