CAESURA (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. for " cutting," Gr.

See also:

• ROW, JOHN (c. 1525—1580)

row))  , in prosody, a rest or pause, usually occurring about the middle of a verse, which is thereby separated into two parts (e&Xa, members) . In Greek and Latin hexameters the best and most common caesura is the penthemimeral (i.e. after the 5th half-foot) : Wimp aerSe, Bela, I HjXr aISecs'AX.1)'Sios Arma vi rumque ca I no, Tro I jae qui I primus ab oris . Another caesura very common in Homer, but rare in Latin verse, is after the 2nd syllable of the 3rd dactyl: Otral vorot re 17raos AEI Os S' ere IXelero /IouXi1 . On the other hand, the hephthemimeral caesura (i.e. after the 7th half-foot) is common in Latin, but rare in Greek: Formo sam reso nare do Ices Ama I ryllida silvas, The " bucolic " caesura, peculiar to Greek (so called because it is chiefly found in writers like Theocritus) occurs after the 4th dactyl: "Avbpa µor Evv€re, I Moi aa, ro I X6rporov, I Ss paXa I roA]Aa In the pentameter verse of the elegiac distich the caesura is always penthemimeral . In the iambic trimeter (consisting of three dipodia or pairs of feet), both in Greek and Latin, the most usual caesura is the penthemimeral; next, the hephthemimeral: 'St TEK pa AO.SI /,ov rol 1 rbXat I via I rpo4 Supplex 1 et o I ro reg I na per 1 Proser pinae . Verses in which neither of these caesuras occurs are considered faulty . On the other hand, secondary or subsidiary caesuras are found in both Greek and Latin; thus, a trithemimcral (after the 3rd half-foot) is combined with the hephthemimeral, which divides the verse into two unequal parts . A caesura is often called masculine when it falls after a long, feminine when it falls after a short syllable . The best treatise on Greek and Latin metre for general use is L . Muller, Die Metrik der Griechen and Romer (1885) ; see also the article VERSE .