Hey guys, good afternoon. I 'm just trying to understand the difference between an Ictus and a Word-accent. I need to understand it for appreciate this commentary of Austin :
Aeneid.1.52-59
"The first word of the line, i.e. luctantis (‘struggling’), contains a hint of enactment within itself: in the way Virgil has positioned luctantis within the verse, the word does exactly what it means: it struggles. The ‘struggling winds’ are thus a particularly striking contribution to the ‘struggle between ictus and word-accent’ spotted by Austin.
Let me spell this out: in luctantis, the ictus falls on luc- and -tis, the word-accent on -tan-; in uentos, the ictus falls on -tos, the word accent on ven-; in tempestatesque, the ictus falls on -pest- and -tes-, the word-accent on -tat-; in sonoras ictus and word-accent coincide on -nor-."
Latin words have a “natural accent” with rules which determine where the stress occurs. When these words are placed in a metrical scheme which depends on the quantity of the syllables as in hexameters there is a potential conflict between the “natural accent” of a word and the stress which naturally arises from the long syllable at the beginning of each foot in the line (the ictus). Sometimes the ictus will coincide with the “natural accent” sometimes it will not. Virgil often has clashes in the first 4 feet followed by coincidence in the final 2.
lūctān|tīs | vēn|tōs || tēm|pēstā|tēsquĕ sŏ|nōras
So the first ictus falls on lūc but lūctān|tīs has a natural accent on tān so there is a conflict. The second ictus is on |tīs, the third is on tōs. The natural accent on vēn|tōs is on vēn so there is again a conflict been ictus and natural accent. From the final paragraph of your post you can fill in the rest of the line.
I dont know what commentary you are using but does it not explain this?
If not you could get Virgil’s Metre A Practical Guide For Reading Latin Hexameters by G. B. Nussbaum.
It’s a book by Indo Gildenhard where he cites Austin. Thanks for your answer Seneca, it was very helpful and for your buying tip. I bought recently this book for improve my metrical knowledge : https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Composition-Wimbledon-Publishing-Classics/dp/1898855722/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=latin+meter&qid=1598366282&s=books&sr=1-2.
I hope this is good.