VIII.]
HIS LYRIC POETRY.
115
accentuated as it should be read,[1] for convenience sake.
Hippol. 525 sqq.
1. Ἐ-ρώς Ἐρώς, ὁ κατ᾽ ὄμματων
ψυ-χαῖς χαριν οὕς ἐπίστρατεύσῃ
μη μοί ποτε σύν κακῷ φανείης,
μήδ᾽ ἀρρύθμος ἔλθοις
οὔτε γάρ πυρος οὔτ᾽
ἀσ-τρών ὑπέρτερόν βελος
οἱ-όν το τᾶς Ἀφροδίτας
ἱ-ήσιν ἔκ χερων
Ἐ-ρώς ὁ Διός παῖς
2. Ἀλ-λώς ἀλλώς παρα τ᾽ Ἄλφεῳ
φοι-βού τ᾽ ἐπι πύθιοίς τεράμνοις
βου-τάν φονον Ἕλλας αἶ᾽ ἀέξει.
Ἐ-ρώτα δε τόν τυράννον ἄνδρων
τόν τας Ἄφροδίτας
φίλτατών θαλαμων
κλη-δούχον, οὔ σεβίζομεν
περ-θόντα καί δια πάσας
ἰ-όντα σύμφορᾶς,
θνα-τοίς ὁταν ἔλθῇ.
Mr. Browning has honoured me (Dec. 18, 1878) with the following translation of these stanzas, so that the general reader may not miss the meaning or the spirit of the ode. The English metre, though not a
- ↑ The question of Greek accentuation is a very difficult one, for the modern Greeks pronounce accurately according to the accents found in our MSS. from the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. onward; and that this pronunciation is not altogether new appears from the fact that Sanskrit accents agree remarkably with them. This, in fact, points to accentuation as an original feature in Aryan speech, and older than our oldest Greek literature. On the other hand, none of the metres from Homer to Menander can be read by accent, and the modern Greeks cannot read hexameters or lyric verse without sacrificing their pronunciation. Nay, even the subtle rhythmical laws discovered in prose writers like Isocrates and Demosthenes are altogether determined by quantity and never by accent. Hence I have ventured to accentuate in this passage the syllables marked by quantity, though the appearance of the ode will shock scholars, I cannot, however, here go at greater length into this intricate question.
