My problem is: where does the caesura lie? If I have scanned the line correctly, the metre is as follows:
ἐκ γὰρ Ὀ | ρέσταο | τίσις | ἔσσεται | Ἀτρεΐ | δαο
with synizesis in the second foot. But perhaps I am wrong. When scanned in this way, the traditional caesura occurring before the last or next-to-last syllable of the third foot can’t occur here since it would have to split up τίσις, and likewise a fourth-foot would have to occur in the middle of the single verb-form ἔσσεται. So what’s happening here?
Sorry you didn’t get a prompter reply. Your post has only just shown up (or did your handle bump you up to the top? ).
The caesura falls after Ορεσταο. The final –ο is artificially lengthened before the caesura (or perhaps the τ- of τίσις is doubled, with the same result). This enables Ορεσταο (the alpha is long) to fit into the dactylic hexameter. Both syllables of τισις are short.
No, it took a while before my post got approved. But I’m happy that it did! In the meantime, someone somewhere else also suggested that the -ο might be long, and that both vowels in τίσις in any case have to be short. I did not know this could happen. I mean, if apparently a short vowel (or single consonant) can be lengthened at will (seemingly) so that it fits the metre, then it kind of seems everything is up for grabs. Well, I guess I should go back and study the rules some more.
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