The phenomenon and its place in the epic kunstsprache

It is a characteristic feature of Greek epic diction that compound verbs, which would be integral words in classical Greek, can be split by so-called tmesis. Consider the following example:

1. τὸν καὶ Μηριόνης πρότερος πρὸς μῦθον ἔειπε (Il. 13.306)

It is obvious that in this line, πρός does not form a prepositional phrase with μῦθον. Rather, it belongs with ἔειπε and forms what we from the standpoint of classical Greek usage would call a compound verb. And still, this compound verb is discontinuous, because the poet has chosen to separate the verb and the particle. We can tell that the poet chose this version and did not simply follow the constraints of the metre, since it would be easy to compose the same line without separating πρὸς and ἔειπε:

1. ∗τὸν καὶ Μηριόνης πρότερος μῦθον προσέειπε

It could even be said that version (2) is prosodically preferable, since Il. 13.306 as given by our manuscripts violates Wernicke's law in having a fourth biceps which is long by position. But of course, it is likely that Ionic πρός has here replaced Aeolic ποτί, and that the verse had a resolved fourth biceps in the original version.

Besides illustrating tmesis, this example shows the importance of preference hierarchies in the study of the Homeric dialects. As we know, Homer prefers Ionic forms to Aeolic ones, except when the latter are metrically necessary. Thus, the text has the Ionic form πρός which gives a correct, though slightly irregular, hexameter. The mere coexistence of Ionic πρός and Aeolic ποτί (as well as numerous other dialectal doublets) in Homer is less important than the fact that there is a preference hierarchy which we can give a historical interpretation in terms of phases in the evolution of the epic diction: πρός is preferred whenever the metre allows it, so it is the form of the later generation of poets.