Global InformationCorreption information
In Latin and Greek poetry, correption (Latin: correptiō [kɔrˈrɛpt̪ioː], "a shortening")[1] is the shortening of a long vowel at the end of one word before a vowel at the beginning of the next.[2] Vowels next to each other in neighboring words are in hiatus.
Homer uses correption in dactylic hexameter:
- Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·
— Odyssey 1.2 - Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full
many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
— translation by A.T. Murray
Here the sequence η ε in bold must be pronounced as ε ε to preserve the long—short—short syllable weight sequence of a dactyl. Thus, the scansion of the second line is thus:
πλαγχ θε, ε | πει Τροι | η ςι ε | ρον πτο λι | εθ ρο νε | περ σε
- ^ correptio. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
- ^ Stanford, W.B. (2009). Homer: Odyssey I-XII. Duckworth. pp. lv. ISBN 978-1853995026.