Latin Scansion in the Aeneid

Does anyone have a scanned copy of the Aeneid (book 12) or a list of scansion for hexameter rules? I just can't seem to understand all the rules and fill in the gasp.

Thanks

Reply 1

Lily_45

Hey, I see you posted this a while ago so I'm afraid this might not be much use to you now, but I can try and explain hexameter scansion rules.
Although first, I would say check out the other threads on TSR if you haven't already, the link below, or Mathew Owen/John Taylor's explanations- they'll probably be much better than mine!
https://hexameter.co/how-to-scan

That said, I'll try and summarise dactylic hexameter scansion:

-There are six feet overall, and all of them are either dactyls (long, short, short, i.e. "— V V") or spondees (long, long, i.e. "— — ").
-The last two feet of any line of dactylic hexameter will ALWAYS be dactyls, so you just need to work out the other four feet.
-Always look for any elisions first, then look for any vowels that you can work out the length of using rules you've learned.
* E.g. rules like: diphthongs are always long; a vowel before two or more consonants is always long (unless it's a br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, fl, gl, or pl); if two vowels next to each other are not a diphthong (e.g. 'ea'), then the first is always short, etc etc.

-Once you've used those rules to work out all the vowels you can, you should then be able to fill in any gaps by using a bit of maths.

This is probably not one of the best explanations, but hope it might be somewhat helpful??

Reply 2

Magistra2010

'The last two feet of any dactylic hexameter will always be dactyls’ is wrong, I’m afraid.
In fact, the penultimate (i.e. the fifth) foot is almost always a dactyl, and the final foot is always a spondee. The penultimate foot may occasionally be a spondee, for special effect (see examples below); and the final syllable of the last foot may be short by nature, but in recitation it takes up the same amount of time as a long syllable and so it can be marked long.

A line containing a spondee in the fifth foot is called a ‘spondaic line’. According to George Duckworth, there are 32 spondaic lines in Vergil. (Duckworth, George E. Variety and Repetition in Vergil's Hexameters. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 1964, Vol. 95, 9-65; for no. of spondaic lines in Vergil, see p. 24.)

Here are a few examples:

•

Tune ille Aeneas, quem Dardanio Anchisae (Aen. I.617)

•

constitit atque oculis Phrygia agmina circumspexit (Aen. 2.68)

•

Pilumno quos ipsa decus dedit Orithyia (Aen. XII.83)

•

quae quondam in bustis aut culminibus desertis (Aen. XII.863)

•

cara deum suboles, magnum Iovis incrementum (Ecl. IV.49)

•

pro molli uiola, pro purpureo narcisso (Ecl. V.38)

•

Stant et iuniperi et castaneae hirsutae (Ecl. VII.53)

•

ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur (G. I.221)

•

saxa per et scopulos et depressas conuallis (G. III.276)

•

Cecropiumque thymum et grave olentia centaurea (G.IV.270)

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