ADVERSARIA LITERARIA, No. XLI.-The Word Пpo- 17th century-&c. &c... Literary Intelligence Page 149 153 FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION. A Dissertation on the Hiatus in the Poems of Homer, and the Limits which circumscribe the power of the A Passage in Demosthenes, which many learned men have • Remarks on the supposed Dionysius Longinus'.... 268 De Eschyli Heliadibus, a GODOFR. HERMANNO .... 276 Notice of Bibliotheca Sussexiana: a descriptive Cata- logue, accompanied by Historical and Biographical A Dissertation on the Hiatus in the Poems of Homer, and the Limits which circumscribe the power of the On Greek Syntax....... Nuga, No. XVII.-Notes on Thucydides, Tibullus, Horace, Lucan, Martial, Sulpicia, Statius, and Claudian 314 CLASSICAL JOURNAL; N°. LXIX. MARCH, 1827. A Dissertation on the Hiatus in the Poems of Homer, and the Limits which circumscribe the power of the Ictus Metricus, &c. A HIATUS, according to the learned Heyne, takes place when a word ending with a short vowel precedes a word beginning with a vowel or diphthong. The restriction to the case, when the former of the two words ends with a short vowel, though not adopted by some writers, will, I conceive, be found perfectly correct; and it is as convenient for practice as it is logically true. The case of a long vowel or diphthong ending a word, which is succeeded by another beginning with a vowel or diphthong, should be separately considered. Accordingly in the following sentence from Xenophon's Anabasis, 'Ixavos μèv yap, ὥς τις καὶ ἄλλος, φροντίζειν ἦν, ὅπως ἕξει ἡ στρατιά – αὐτοῦ τὰ - ἐπιτήδεια, και παρεσκευάζειν ταῦτα -· ἱκανὸς δὲ καὶ ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς παροῦσιν, ὡς πιστέον εἴη Κλεάρχῳ, a hiatus occurs after στρατιὰ, τὰ, and Taura, as denoted by the small stroke. But as the hiatus. has reference to pronunciation solely, it follows, that if the same words in hexameter verse are pronounced differently from what they would be pronounced, were they in a prosaic composition, the hiatus must have in some respects a different place. The distinction may be illustrated from the following words, taken from the orations of Demosthenes on the Crown, Tov yap ἐν ̓Αμφίσσῃ πόλεμον, δι ̓ ὃν εἰς ̓Ελάτειαν, cap. 47. in init. (Bekker.); in repeating which Demosthenes doubtless made a stop. (though a very short one) at the end of every word, and a longer one at the end of móλsμov: he also made the syllables emphatic, according to the position of the common mark of accent. But had these words been written in a poem composed of hexameters, they would have been pronounced nearly as follows: Tov VOL. XXXV. NO. LXIX. A yap ἐν ¦ ̓Αμφίσσης πολεμόνι δι' όν ¦ εἴς ̓Ελατείαν. The mark denotes a moderately short pause, one considerably shorter, and I one much shorter than the former; and where no mark is put, no pause is to be made. Likewise the 4th, 12th, and 31st verses of the 1st Iliad, were, as we may be pretty well assured, thus read or chanted : ત "Ηρωιών, αὐτούς! δε ἐλώρια | τεύχε κυἱνέσσιν ̓Α' τρειδιήςι· ὁ γαρ | ἦλθε θοάς: ἐπι νήας Αχαίων This is the only method I can discover, which distinguishes both the words and the feet; and at once conveys the true meaning, and preserves the metrical harmony: and it is worthy of observation, that we use nearly the same method in reciting our dactylic verses: I am monarch of áll I survey, My right there is 1 nóne to dispute; round to the sea, fówl and the | brute. are the | charms seen in thy I face? midst of allarms, horrible | place.-COWPER, The reader should however be reminded, that all the pauses which take place in the recitation of the above verses or the ancient poetry, are but short ones, though they differ in length. But at the least, no one, I conceive, will assert, that in My 'Aπóλλwvos. v. 75. a pause is to be made after μviv, but all must so far coincide with me as to read it Μήνιν ̓Απολ. But where no pause is made, no hiatus can in the nature of things take place : it follows, that in αὐτούς, δὲ ἐλώρια, ̓Ατρειδής, τε ἀναξ &c. there is no hiatus whatever. From the above plan of recitation, the correctness of which is almost self-evident, it appears likewise, that there is a hiatus in ἄντιο ώσαν v. 31. στέμμα θεοίο, v. 28. &c. which differs in magnitude only from that in 'Aya|μéμvovi vdave. v. 24. inasmuch as a greater pause takes place after μévovi, than there does after fe, and avTIO. I revere, indeed, the talent and learning of Bentley, and I applaud the ingenuity and application of Heyne, but I must reject their system of the digamma, because it is encumbered with such difficulties, that Hermann, one of its partisans, is forced to say, "quod si quis propter diganima non ferendum putabit, meminerit, quam pauci sint in Homero versus, de quibus certum quid pronunciari possit;" because it destroys the |