Homofonia sylabiczna w klasycznej epice rzymskiej

Abstract

The subject of this article is a particular type of sound patterning – syllabic homophony – present in the greatest works of classical Roman epic: De rerum natura by Lucretius, Aeneis by Vergil and Metamorphoses by Ovid. It presents an outline of research history of this figure of speech, which was well known and frequently used in Latin poetry (and drama) for a long time before being specified with that very modern term. It also provides examples of this particular form of repetition in a strong conviction that its use by epic poets is intentional and that it comes in quite a variety of sounds, being not only a repetition of the exact same syllables (‑re re‑) but also those having the same onset consonant and variable vowels (‑ra‑ re‑). The author gives also some statistical observations of her own describing distinctive use of syllabic homophony in different places of the verse (mainly the clause) in three given poems.