Home > Catalogue > Lexis > Num. 40 (n.s.) – Giugno 2022 – Fasc. 1 > When the Metres Come by Themselves: About Luc. Men. 1

Lexis | Num. 40 (n.s.) – Giugno 2022 – Fasc. 1

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Research Article

When the Metres Come by Themselves: About Luc. Men. 1

Gabriele Palermo    Università Ca' Foscari Venezia    

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abstract

In the opening scene of Lucian’s Menippus, the protagonist, after citing some Euripidean trimeters, explains that his metrical delivery is due to his recent meeting with Euripides (and Homer) in Hades; in these self-explanatory words Harmon detected a comic iambic trimeter (αὐτόματά μοι τὰ μέτρα ἐπὶ τὸ στόμα ἔρχεται). The paper aims to demonstrate that this metrical segment, far from being incidental, is not even a comic quote, as Harmon himself suggests, but rather a slip by Menippus, metrically rough precisely because it is not intentional; the literary meaning of this Lucianic verse is then investigated.

Published
June 30, 2022
Accepted
Feb. 9, 2022
Submitted
Jan. 17, 2022
Language
IT

Keywords: Menippus • Iambic trimeter • Metrical play • Lucian • Prosimetrum

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Lexis/2724-1564/2022/01/013

Copyright: © 2022 Gabriele Palermo. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.