This is for scanning the Aeneid (Dactylic hexameter)
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
Hmm ... I actually never put the main caesura in the second foot ... the way I usually do it (in Latin, I have no idea about Greek) is to look for a sense break in the 3rd and assume a masculine caesura there, and if there is none, then I look for a sense break in the 4th. Caesurae in the 4th foot are usually accompanied by a secondary caesura (mostly in the 2nd, sometimes in the 3rd I suppose), so I put in a secondary one in brackets there. If there is no masculine caesura in both the 3rd and the 4th foot, I usually take the feminine caesura in the 3rd, but that happens rather rarely in Latin. However, I never assume the main caesura to be in the 2nd foot (I haven't heard of that practice before).I think that generally it is in the middle of the 3rd foot, but sometimes in the fourth or even second. Which one depends on where the main sense break is.
The caesura after profugus is in the 4th foot in the 2nd line, so I would have given it a secondary caesura in the 2nd:eg.
Arma vi|rumque ca|nó, ||Trói|ae quí |prímus a|b órís
Ítali|am fá|tó profu|gus,||Lá|vínaque| vénit
(3rd foot)
I usually pause after the first et in this one ... I suppose that's debtable. I know it breaks up the et ... et, but it pairs up terris and alto more strongly.lítora;| mult(um) il|l(e) et ter|rís|| iac|tátus et| altó
(4th foot)
As I mentioned above, I have the main caesura in the 4th here to go along with the secondary one in the 2nd. I'm fine with the break in the 4th here because it breaks up the synchysis symmetrically (ab // A ob B).ví supe|rum || sae|vae memo|rem Iú|nónis ob |íram
(2nd foot)
multa quo|qu(e) et bel|ló pas|sús, ||dum |condere|t urbem,
I would have given secondary caesurae after et and deos here.infer|retque de|ós Lati|ó, ||genus| unde La|tínum,
(4th foot)
So here's a question I've had for a while. When I learned to read dactylic hexameter, I learned by listening to professors who knew how to do it right. After a while it became natural. Their general wisdom was "don't worry about caesura, if you read with proper emphasis on the long and short syllables, it will come naturally." Fast forward, I use the same method with my students. I recently took a reading course in Lucretius, and the instructor affirmed "Yes, you have an excellent grasp of the meter and read extremely well." But when my students ask, how do you determine caesura, I don't really have an answer, just a description. Is there a more objective way of determining it, a formula?
I appreciate your entire response, but quote the above simply to say that my professors cared about meter, but simply assumed caesura would take care of itself. I was looking for something a bit more concrete, even though they appear to have been right...Caesurae were never much of a topic and most university teachers and even professors I know don't care too much about metre...
Well, I didn't say they didn't care at all ... By 'they didn't care too much', I simply mean that hardly anyone bothered to devote a session to metre or discuss it to an extent that I would have wished. I suppose somebody telling me 'it just takes care of itself' would fall under the same category for me.I appreciate your entire response, but quote the above simply to say that my professors cared about meter, but simply assumed caesura would take care of itself.
I was looking for something a bit more concrete, even though they appear to have been right...
Yes, the strongest sense break is after vi superum.When I wrote that I was probably working on the assumption that caesura simply refers to the strongest sense break in the line. To me, it seems ridiculous that there would be a stronger break after memorem than after superum, since vī superum and saevae...īram are the two different phrases, and the ablative seems more closely connected with the verb than the causal prepositional phrase. Thus articulating a break after memorem seems to conflict with the sense, especially as it isolates saevae memorem from the words on which they depend grammatically.
Right, I understand it now.
Scansion was basically completely absent from our teaching, so I need a lot of practice. Can I have a go with just reading it?Good!
This is Aen. 2,40-49: Can you identify the main caesurae?'
Scansion was basically completely absent from our teaching, so I need a lot of practice. Can I have a go with just reading it?
Primus ibi ante omnis | magna comitante caterva
Laocoon ardens summa | decurrit ab arce,
et procul 'o miseri,| quae tanta insania, cives?
creditis avectos |hostis? aut ulla putatis
dona carere dolis Danaum? | sic notus Ulixes?
aut hoc inclusi | ligno occultantur Achivi,
aut haec in nostros | fabricata est machina muros,
inspectura domos | venturaque desuper urbi,
aut aliquis latet error;| equo ne credite, Teucri.
quidquid id est, timeo |Danaos et dona ferentis.'
Thanks Are the (//) are weak caesurae or alternative positions?