Correption

In Latin and Greek poetry, correption (Latin: correptiō [kɔrˈrɛptɪ.oː], "a shortening")[1] is the shortening of a long vowel at the end of one word before a vowel at the beginning of the next.[2] Vowels next to each other in neighboring words are in hiatus.

Homer uses correption in dactylic hexameter:

• Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
  πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·
  — Odyssey 1.2
• Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full
  many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
  — translation by A.T. Murray

Here the sequence η ε in bold must be pronounced as ε ε to preserve the long—short—short syllable weight sequence of a dactyl. Thus, the scansion of the second line is thus:

πλαγχ θε, ε | πει Τροι | η ςι ε | ρον πτο λι | εθ ρο νε | περ σε

Attic

Typically, in Homeric meter, a syllable is scanned long or "closed" when a vowel is followed by two or more consonants. However, in Attic Greek, a short vowel followed by a plosive and a liquid consonant or nasal stop remains a short or "open" syllable.[3] This is called Attic correption.

Therefore, the first syllable of a word like δάκρυ (ᾰ) could be scanned as "δά | κρυ" (open/short), exhibiting Attic correption, or as "δάκ | ρυ" (closed/long), in keeping with the conventions of Homeric verse.

See also

• Metaplasm
• Hiatus

References

1. correptio. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
2. Stanford, W.B. (2009). Homer: Odyssey I-XII. Duckworth. pp. lv. ISBN 1853995029.
3. Smyth, Herbert (1984). Greek Grammar. Harvard University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0674362500.