Accent in Composition

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88. Unaugmented forms of compound verbs are accented as though the verb were an enclitic following the preposition.

σύν-εχον

πρό-ες

παρά-θες

περί-κειται

ἀπό-σχωνται

If the final syllable of the preposition is lost by elision or apocope the accent falls on the first syllable.

ὕφ-ελκε

κάτ-θανε

But the accent falls if possible upon the augment.

προσ-έβᾰν

ἐπ-έσχον

ἐπ-ῆλθε

In other words, the augment is treated in accentuation as a preposition.

The form ἔσται keeps the accent (παρ-έσται, etc.), perhaps because it is formed by syncope from ἔσεται.

The subjunctive ξυμ-βληται (Od. 7.204) ought to be properispomenon, if it is a contracted form; cp. βλήεται (Od. 17.472). The grammarians however wrote ἀπό-θωμαι (in spite of ἀπο-θείομαι, Il. 18.409) and διά-θωμαι (Herodian, i. 469, 7, ed. Lentz). We have to recognize in such cases the encroachment of the common thematic type, though we may doubt whether the change reaches back to the earliest form of the text of Homer.

According to Herodian, the 2nd singular imperative ἐνί-σπες is paroxytone, but the other imperative form ἔνι-σπε, and the indicative forms ἔνι-σπε-ς, ἔνισπε, are proparoxytone; see Schol. on Il. 24.388. That is to say, the imperative ἐνί-σπε-ς is regular, the others are accented as if compounds of ἴσπω.

The imperative ἐπισχε in Hes. Scut. 446 may be divided ἔπ-ισχε, or ἐπι-σχε, and in the latter case we may write ἐπίσχε (with the MSS.), or ἔπισχε, like the ἔνισπε of Herodian.

The MSS. vary between (imper.) ἐνίσπες and ἔνισπε: in the two places of the Iliad (11.186, 14.470) the Venetus has ἐνίσπες; on the other hand in the only Homeric passage in which the meter gives any help (Od. 4.642) it is decisive for ἔνισπε. The accent in the MSS. nearly always follows Herodianʼs rule.

Suggested Citation

D.B. Monro, A Grammar of the Homeric Dialect. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-947822-04-7. https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/monro/accent-composition