Prosody Questions

[Lex]

Do elided vowels still count with respect to scansion? For instance:

(D)πολλὰς δ' | (S)ἰφθί | (S)μους ψῡ | (S)χὰς Ἄι | (D)δι προΐ | (S)αψεν

I use (D) to indicate that the foot is a dactyl, and (S) a spondee, since using macrons, breves and bars on the line above might not line up properly depending on the reader's font. I assumed the first foot, with δὲ elided to δ', is a dactyl, and read the first iota in ἰφθίμους as long by position. I also read the last syllable in Ἄιδι and the α in προΐαψεν as long by position. How badly did I screw this up?

Also, how important do you think it is to learn prosody when learning Epic? I'd love to skip this part of the lessons, but am afraid it might get me into trouble.

[annis]

Do elided vowels still count with respect to scansion?

Nope.

(D)πολλὰς δ' | (S)ἰφθί | (S)μους ψῡ | (S)χὰς Ἄι | (D)δι προΐ | (S)αψεν

... I assumed the first foot, with δὲ elided to δ', is a dactyl, and read the first iota in ἰφθίμους as long by position.

There are two problems with scanning the first foot that way. First, the 1st declension accusative plural ending -ας has a long alpha. Second, scansion works by the line, rather than word, so πολλὰσδ’ιπφίμους — the -σδ- combination will cause the previous syllable to scan long no mater what the natural length of the vowel.

Also, how important do you think it is to learn prosody when learning Epic? I'd love to skip this part of the lessons, but am afraid it might get me into trouble.

Homer did make a lot of effort to do this, so I would encourage you to learn it. The Epic hexameter isn't too bad with a little practice. In terms of helping, it is sometimes useful to be able to identify the caesura of the line, since a number of funky syntactic things happen across or next to that boundary.

[Lex]

How about something like this?

(S)πολλὰς | (S)δ' ἰφθί | (S)μους ψῡ | (S)χὰς Ἄι | (D)δι προΐ | (S)αψεν

[annis]

(S)πολλὰς | (S)δ' ἰφθί | (S)μους ψῡ | (S)χὰς Ἄι | (D)δι προΐ | (S)αψεν

There should probably be a diaeresis in Hades, Ἄϊδι, making the fourth foot a dactyl. But otherwise fine.

[Lex]

In this line:

χρῡσέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ, καὶ ἐλίσσετο πάντας Ἀχαιούς,

Pharr says that χρῡσέῳ is an example of synizesis, and that χρῡσέῳ ἀνὰ is an example of rule 1173:

"When a word ends in a long vowel or diphthong and the next word begins with a vowel, the long final vowel or diphthong is regularly shortened."

So, does this all together mean that the έῳ in χρῡσέῳ is pronounced monosyllabically by synizesis, and then shortened?

Also, καὶ ἐλίσσετο is also given as an example of 1173. Would that make the line scan like so?:

(D)χρῡσέῳ ἀ | (S)νὰ σκή | (D)πτρῳ, καὶ ἐλ | (D)ίσσετο | (D)πάντας Ἀ | (S)χαιούς,

[annis]

So, does this all together mean that the έῳ in χρῡσέῳ is pronounced monosyllabically by synizesis, and then shortened?

Yep.

Also, καὶ ἐλίσσετο is also given as an example of 1173. Would that make the line scan like so?:

(D)χρῡσέῳ ἀ | (S)νὰ σκή | (D)πτρῳ, καὶ ἐλ | (D)ίσσετο | (D)πάντας Ἀ | (S)χαιούς,

Yep again.

[Lex]

I actually got it right the first time?! Whoot!!!

[mingshey]

I thought in the first foot "έῳ ἀ" was counted as one long syllable by synizesis.
(S)χρῡσέῳ ἀ | (S)νὰ σκή | (D)πτρῳ, καὶ ἐλ | (D)ίσσετο | (D)πάντας Ἀ | (S)χαιούς,

So when I encountered this line I didn't seek an explanation like rule 1173.

[Lex]

I was a bit surprised when I realized that metrical rules like synizesis and epic correption could be "stacked", so to speak. This begs the question, are there any rules for how this stacking is done?

[annis]

I was a bit surprised when I realized that metrical rules like synizesis and epic correption could be "stacked", so to speak. This begs the question, are there any rules for how this stacking is done?

Let loose the the hounds of generativism!

Actually, I see synizesis as more of a change inflicted on a word to wedge it into the meter, since it can happen within a word, too (θεός often comes in for this, or acc.pl. pronouns, ἡμέας, σφέας, κτλ.). By far the most common uses are in -εο-, -εω- and -εα-, vowel combinations that'll contract in most dialects after Homer anyway. After that change the next set of metrical rules having to deal with word boundaries can be applied.