An Unknown Correlation in Hexametric Poetry and the Interpretation of the Brevis in Longo Principle

ABRITTA, ALEJANDRO

CLASSICA

Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos

Año: 2017 vol. 30 p. 9 - 24

0103-4316

The goal of this paper is to show that (some)Ancient Greek hexametric poets were not indifferent to the quantity of thefinal syllable of the verse, by studying the correlation between that quantityand the different possible word ends in the fourth foot of the verse. Theresults of the study suggest that in some poets there was a certain preferencefor ?rhythmic coherence? within the second colon, which indicates that, even ifthere was ?compositional indifference? regarding the quantity of the lastsyllable, there was not ?actual indifference?.