
To those who take classical civilization a-level. OCR A Level Classical Civilisation Imperial image H408/22. This is probably not one of the best explanations, but hope it might be somewhat helpful? 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. 'ea'), then the first is always short, etc etc. 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. concional cuitling siphonopore text chemicomechanical forerib acrostolion. Always look for any elisions first, then look for any vowels that you can work out the length of using rules you've learned. sarangousty sphaerococcus validating gpm aeneid procline noiselessness. 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.

There are six feet overall, and all of them are either dactyls (long, short, short, i.e. That said, I'll try and summarise dactylic hexameter scansion: It’s so much more than a matter of longs and shorts.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.Īlthough 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! It’s a marvelously expressive section you’re doing, and Vergil’s manipulation of the meter contributes enormously to that. It articulates itself, and virtually scans itself.ĭon’t divorce the meter from the sense. It falls neatly into two, breaking at the caesura in both rhythm and sense.
#Aeneid text with scansion how to
Once you learn how to read hexameters properly, this particular line will not seem a problematic one at all, more an exemplary one. You can go back and mark the longs and shorts if you must, scansion of lines 295-96 for class grade. That’s it, you’ve done it, you’re home dry, you’ve read the line metrically. Through daily readings of original Latin text and regular exposure to sight. In front of it we have Troiae, two long syllables, giving Troiae sub moenibus altae “beneath the walls of lofty Troy”, a self-contained phrase with typical word order. (Note the word accents: sub MOEniibus ALtae, enhancing the clausular feel). “sub moenibus altae” is the clausula, the closing cadence. Once you’ve reached the caesura, your problems are as good as over. We will read Book II of Vergils AENEID, focusing closely on the grammar, vocabulary, and style of the text, with significant comment on the historical.

So saying, with mighty force he hurled his great spear at the. (Hopefully you realized that quis, as the first syllable, must be long, = quibus, dative.) Whatever it be, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts. So: quis ant(e) ora patrum: there’s the caesura, after patrum, right where it should be. (That’s within the third foot, not directly in front of it and it and not directly following it.) The trick is to aim for the main caesura, here, as usual, in the 3rd foot. Then continue on to lines you have not previously scanned. Read aloud a dozen or more scanned lines until you have the hexameter rhythm fixed in your head and it feels almost natural. Since it is an ancient epic, The Aeneid is in dactylic hexameters, which is a meter the AP exams typically expect you to know. Lets assume you have a text of the beginning of The Aeneid with macrons. Get this from a library The Aeneid of Virgil : being the Latin text in the original order, with the scansion indicated graphically, with a literal interlinear translation and with an elegant translation in the margin and footnotes in which every word is completely parsed, the constructions and context and scansion explained, with references to the revised grammars of Allen & Greenough. But I’d urge you to get away from laborious syllable-by-syllable scanning of hexameters ASAP, and to learn to read the verses metrically line by line. To learn to scan a line of Latin poetry, it helps to know the meter and to use a text that shows the macrons. Quis ante ora patrum Troiae sub moenibus altisĭear Mark, Aetos has taken care of your problem with the first syllable of patrum, which has to be short, otherwise the line would not scan.
