Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to point out the unsolved problem of the anapaestic monodies’ unsecure colometry in Seneca’s tragedies as well as expose the so called sense-correspondence principle to help scholars propose a metrical subdivision of lines closer to the original one. In the first part of the paper I explain the difficulties about colometry that concern the division of trimeters into dimeters and monometers. I then outline a brief status quaestionis about this matter and the attempts at solving it. Proposals by Richter, Zweirlein and Fitch are examined, their methods and criteria analysed in detail in the second paragraph. In the third I propose an analysis of three passages of Thyestes 938-956 using Fitch’s criteria so as every aspect of the text, including metrical or stylistic characteristics, is more respected than in Zwierlein’s text. I then show how sense-correspondence is used to analyse a text and help understand the employment and meaning of the anapaestic metre to express a conflict or psychological dilemma such as in the Thyestes. Lastly, I suggest new areas of possible research pertaining to poetry using this principle, as it also respected in Ovid’s elegiac distiches and late antique poetry. A detailed metrical analysis of Zwierlein’s and Fitch’s texts is supplied in the appendix.

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