Monday, October 28, 2013

 

Asyndeton Filling Hexameters in Sidonius

In Some Lines in Lucretius and Asyndeton Filling Hexameters, I collected examples of Latin hexameter lines in which the entire verse consists of nouns or adjectives in asyndeton. I've since found many examples of the same phenomenon among the poems of Sidonius (5th century A.D.), whose fondness for this type of hexameter almost amounts to a tic of style. I've expanded the category to include hexameter lines consisting entirely of verbs in asyndeton as well. I haven't seen Geoffrey Harrison, The Verse Panegyrics of Sidonius Apollinaris: Poetry and Society in Late Antique Gaul (diss., Stanford University, 1983), but I believe he does discuss this type of line. References below are all to the Carmina in W.B. Anderson's Loeb Classical Library edition of Sidonius, Vol. I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936).

2.201 (p. 24):
circuit, hortatur, disponit, discutit, armat
2.414-415 (p. 44):
lilia, narcissos, casiam, colocasia, caltas,
costum, malobathrum, myrrhas, opobalsama, tura
5.208 (p. 78):
Rhenus, Arar, Rhodanus, Mosa, Matrona, Sequana, Ledus
5.475-477 (p. 102):
Pannonius, Neurus, Chunus, Geta, Dacus, Halanus,
Bellonotus, Rugus, Burgundio, Vesus, Alites,
Bisalta, Ostrogothus, Procrustes, Sarmata, Moschus
7.80-81 (p. 124):
Sulla, Asiatogenes, Curius, Paulus, Pompeius
Tigrani, Antiocho, Pyrrho, Persae, Mithridati
7.323 (p. 146):
Chunus, Bellonotus, Neurus, Bastarna, Toringus
11.18 (p. 200):
Aethiops, Phrygius, Parius, Poenus, Lacedaemon
13.11 (p. 214):
taurus, cerva, Gigas, hospes, luctator, Amazon
15.141-143 (p. 236):
sus, leo, cerva, Gigans, taurus, iuga, Cerberus, hydra,
hospes, Nessus, Eryx, volucres, Thrax, Cacus, Amazon,
Cres, fluvius, Libs, poma, Lycus, virgo, polus, Oete
15.175 (p. 238):
Mnemosynam, Europam, Semelen, Ledam, Cynosuram
16.49 (p. 246):
sortem, vincla, crucem, clavos, fel, missile, acetum
16.82 (p. 248):
pax, domus, umbra, latex, benedictio, mensa, cubile



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