In Latin and Greek poetry,correption (Latin:correptiō[kɔrˈrɛpt̪ioː], "a shortening")[1] is the shortening of along vowel at the end of one word before avowel at the beginning of the next.[2] Vowels next to each other in neighboring words are inhiatus.
Homer uses correption indactylic hexameter:
Here the sequence η ε in bold must be pronounced as ε ε to preserve thelong—short—shortsyllable weight sequence of adactyl. Thus, the scansion of the second line is thus:
πλαγχ θε,ε |πειΤροι |η ςι ε |ρονπτο λι |εθ ρο νε |περ σε
Typically, in Homeric meter, asyllable is scanned long or "closed" when a vowel is followed by two or more consonants. However, inAttic Greek, a short vowel followed by aplosive and aliquid consonant ornasal stop remains a short or "open" syllable.[3] This is calledAttic correption, sometime known by its Latin namecorreptio Attica.
Therefore, the first syllable of a word like δᾰ́κρυ could be scanned as "δά | κρυ" (open/short), exhibiting Attic correption, or as "δάκ | ρυ" (closed/long), in keeping with the conventions of Homeric verse.
