meter

Texts

The Structure of Greek Tragedy: An Overview

There are different terms for different parts of a Greek drama, some of which modern scholars took from Aristotle and other ancient drama critics. The typical structure of an Ancient Greek tragedy is a series of alternating dialogue and choral lyric sections. (There are exceptions, and technical divisions naturally do not explain intellectual and emotional “soft power” aspects of a great Greek tragedy.) The dialogue sections are in typically speechverse,… Read more

Ancient Greek language,  Reading Homer

Reading Homer aloud: pronunciation, rhythm, enjambments

In this video, Keith Stone asks Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame about reading Homeric poetry aloud. Topics include: pronunciation and its changes through time; pausing at enjambments; mastering the rhythm by memorizing passages; fixed metrical patterns; rhythm built into the language; predictability of ends of hexameter lines. Examples taken from:[1] Odyssey 1.187–193 (enjambments): ξεῖνοι δʼ ἀλλήλων πατρώιοι εὐχόμεθʼ εἶναι ἐξ ἀρχῆς, εἴ πέρ τε γέροντʼ εἴρηαι ἐπελθὼν Λαέρτην… Read more

Ancient Greek language

Practicing Homeric epic meter: dactylic hexameter, with Leonard Muellner

In this video, Leonard Muellner demonstrates and provides help for those learning dactylic hexameter—the meter of Homeric epic. You can hear the rhythm and, by pausing the video, you can practice by repeating what you have heard, or by reading ahead for yourself as demonstrated in the video. The text shown on screen, which includes some lines marked up in a visual way, is also available as a PDF handout… Read more

Ancient Greek language

Introduction to the Meter of Homeric Epic, with Leonard Muellner

We are pleased to share the following video about ancient Greek meter, featuring Professor Leonard Muellner. In this video, Muellner describes the basic rules of prosody, with a focus on dactylic hexameter, the meter of Homeric epic, and iambic trimeter, a meter used in ancient Greek tragedy. This presentation is accessible to those just beginning to learn about ancient Greek. Members can post your comments, questions and perhaps take a… Read more

Word Study

οἴνοπα πόντον: Oinops and the Wide Open Sea

~ A guest blog by Sarah Scott & Janet Ozsolak and the Oinops Study Group ~ Zeus struck my ship with his thunderbolts, and broke it up in the middle of the wine-faced [oinops] sea [pontos] (Odyssey vii, 249–252) Although we had searched on the Greek word oinops, once we had the list of passages we had been reading them in translation. The word ‘sea’ had been prominent in the… Read more