Rhythmic Prose in Plutarch’sLives

Abstract

AbstractFrom this chapter the book goes more deeply into one productive and central author: Plutarch. The basis for the book is a scansion of all of Plutarch’s Lives, not just the end of sentences but every small phrase: 2,297 pages, almost 100,000 phrases. For the other half of Plutarch’s work, the philosophical and related writings, the end of every sentence has been scanned. There thus exists a much more abundant body of material for the consideration of Plutarch than for any other Greek author. It is possible to advance from scansion into interpretation. With many detailed examples, and with the help of ancient comments, a connection is indicated between rhythm and emphasis, or attention; thus a rhythmic close draws attention to the words that create it. This can be independently confirmed from context, word-order, etc., and is demonstrated on a large scale in the book as a whole.