Discussion of accent placement and rules: differences in Aeolic vs Doric, behavior of enclitics, use of rough and smooth breathings, significance of morae and prosodic changes, effects of syntax on accent placement with Homeric examples and reference to Herodian on orthography and accentuation.
παρὰ μὲν Αἰολεῦσι πρὸ δύο ἔχει τὸν τόνον, παρὰ δὲ Δωριεῦσι πρὸ μιᾶς; Τί δ´ ἂν εἴποι τις, τὴν περὶ ἐγκλιτικῶν μορίων καὶ περὶ πνευμάτων πραγματείαν μὴ γνοὺς ὡς χρειώδης τῇ προκειμένῃ μεθόδῳ, τίνα τέ ἐστι τὰ ἐγκλινόμενα καὶ πότε ἐγκλίνεται καὶ πότε οὔ, καὶ πότε μὲν τὸ δασὺ πνεῦμα ταῖς λέξεσιν ἐπιτίθεμεν, πότε δὲ τὸ ψιλόν; Ἀναγκαῖον καὶ τὴν περὶ στιγμῶν εἰδέναι πραγματείαν, εἴγε τὰς ὀξυνομένας τῶν λέξεων, εἰ μὴ στιγμὴ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπιφέροιτο, βαρύνειν χρεών. ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ τὸν δ´ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς· (Α 84) οὐ κοιμίζεται ἡ ὀξεῖα εἰς βαρεῖαν, ἐπειδὴ ἐπιφέρεται στιγμή. ἐν δὲ τῷ καὶ Ἀχιλλεὺς τούτῳ γε μάχῃ ἔνι κυδιανείρῃ (Η 113) βαρύνομεν τὴν τελευταίαν τοῦ Ἀχιλλεὺς διὰ τὴν σύμφρασιν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ περὶ συντάξεως λόγος χρειώδης τυγχάνει πρὸς τοῦτο· ἐπεὶ πόθεν εἰσόμεθα ἐν τῷ «Ξάνθῳ ἔπι δινήεντι» (Ε 479) πότερον ἀναστρεπτέον τὴν ἐπί πρόθεσιν ἢ ὀρθοτονητέον, εἰ μὴ ὁ περὶ συντάξεως λόγος διδάξει ἡμᾶς, εἴτε πρὸς τὸ ἐπιφερόμενον ὄνομα τὸ δινήεντι ἡ πρόθεσις φέροιτο εἴτε πρὸς τὸ προηγούμενον τὸ Ξάνθῳ; Ἀναγκαῖόν τε πρὸς τούτοις εἰδέναι ἑκάστην λέξιν ἐπὶ ποίας συλλαβῆς τὸν τόνον ἔχει· ὅπερ ἐν ἓξ μυριάσιν Ἡρωδιανῷ πεπραγμάτευται· τήν τε κατὰ τὴν ὀρθογραφίαν ἀκρίβειαν· ἐπεὶ πόθεν τὰ μὲν μηνί καὶ χηνί ὀξύνομεν, τὸ δὲ Ἀτρεῖ καὶ Πηλεῖ, δίφθογγον ἔχοντα ἐπὶ τέλους, περισπῶμεν; καὶ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν τὰ ἄλλα σχεδὸν ἅπαντα τούτοις τυγχάνει ὕλη. Ἀλλ´ ὅμως νῦν διὰ τοὺς αἰτήσαντας τὰ κεφαλαιωδέστερα τῶν θεωρημάτων, δι´ ὧν ἄν τις τὸν
Among the Aeolians it has the accent on the antepenult, but among the Dorians on the penult. And what would one say, if one did not know the treatise on enclitic particles and on breathings as necessary for the method at hand—what the enclitics are, and when a word becomes enclitic and when not, and when we place the rough breathing on words and when the smooth? It is also necessary to know the treatise on punctuation, since words that are accented with an acute, if no punctuation mark is added after them, must be made grave. For in «τὸν δ´ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς·» (Α 84) the acute is not changed into a grave, because a punctuation mark follows; but in «καὶ Ἀχιλλεὺς τούτῳ γε μάχῃ ἔνι κυδιανείρῃ» (Η 113) we make the last syllable of Ἀχιλλεύς grave because of the context. But the account of syntax too proves necessary for this; for how shall we know in «Ξάνθῳ ἔπι δινήεντι» (Ε 479) whether the preposition ἐπί must be anastrophic or accented in the normal way, unless the account of syntax teaches us whether the preposition is construed with the following noun δινήεντι or with the preceding Ξάνθῳ? And besides these it is necessary to know on which syllable each word has its accent—something that Herodian has treated in six myriads—and the precision that belongs to orthography; for how is it that we accent μηνί and χηνί with an acute, but Ἀτρεῖ and Πηλεῖ, which have a diphthong at the end, with a circumflex? And, to put it simply, almost all the other matters turn out to be material for these. Yet now, for the sake of those who have requested the more principal heads of the doctrines, through which one might the…