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Labbe tells us, that Achilleus, Agyleüs, Phalareüs, Apsirteüs, are pronounced commonly in four syllables, and Nereüs, Orpheüs, Porteüs, Tereüs, in three, with the penultimate syllable short in all; but that these words, when in verse, have generally the diphthong preserved in one syllable:

Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus.

-VIRG.

He observes, however, that the Latin poets very frequently dissolved the diphthong into two syllables:

Naiaduni coetu, tantum non Orpheüs Hebrum

Panaque respectus, et nunc manet Orpheus in te.

The best rule, therefore, that can be given to an English reader is, to pronounce words of this termination always with the vowels separated, except an English poet, in imitation of the Greeks, should preserve the diphthong: but, in the present word, I should prefer I-dom'e-neus to I-dom-c-ne' us, whether in verse or prose. *See Idomeneus.

+ Imaus.-All our prosodists make the penultimate syllable of this word short, and consequently accent it on the antepenultimate; but Milton, by a licence he was allowed to take, accents it on the penultimate syllable:

As when a vulture on Imaüs bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds.

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* Iphigenia.-The antepenultimate syllable of this word had been in quiet possession of the accent for more than a century, till some Grecklings of late have attempted to place the stress on the penultimate in compliment to the original ιφιγένεια. If we ask our innovators on what principles they pronounce this word with the accent on the 1, they answer, because the i stands for the diphthong El, which, being long, must necessarily have the accent on it: but it may be replied, this was indeed the case in the Latin language, but not in the Greek, where we find a thousand long penultimates without the accent. It is true one of the vowels which composed a diphthong in Greek, when this diphthong was in the penultimate syllable, generally had an accent on it, but not invariably; for a long penultimate syllable did not always attract the accent in Greek as it did in Latin. An intance of this, among thousands, is that famous line of dactyls, in Homer's Odyssey, expressing the tumbling down of the stone of Sisyphus:

Αὖτις έπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λάας αναιδής.-Odyss. b. 11. Another striking instance of the same accentuation appears in the two first verses of the Iliad;

Μήνιν ἄειδε Θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω, ̓Αχιλήος

Οὐλομένην, ἢ μωρέ 'Αχαιοῖς ἀλλε ἔθηκη.

I know it may be said that the written accents we see on Greek words are of no kind of authority, and that we ought always to give accent to penultimate long quantity, as the Latins did. Not here to enter into a dispute about the authority of the written accents, the nature of the acute, and its connexion with quantity, which has divided the learned of Europe for so many years-till we have a clearer idea of the nature of the human voice, and the properties of speaking sounds, which alone can clear the difficulty--for the sake of uniformity, perhaps it were

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better to adopt the prevailing mode of pronouncing Greek proper names like the Latin, by making the quantity of the penultimate syllable the regulator of the accent, though contrary to the genius of Greek accentuation, which made the ultimate syllable its regulator; and if this syllable was long, the accent could never rise higher than the penultimate. Perhaps in language, as in laws, it is not of so much importance that the rules of either should be exactly right, as that they should be certainly and easily known;- -so the object of attention in the present case is not so much what ought to be done, as what actually is done; and as pedantry will always be more pardonable than illiteracy, if we are in doubt about the prevalence of custom, it will always be safer to lean to the side of Greek or Latin than of our own language.

* Iphimedia. This and the foregoing word have the accent on the same syllable, but for what reason cannot be easily conceived. That Iphigenia, having the diphthong a in its penultimate syllable, should have the accent on that syllable, though not the soundest, is at least a plausible reason; but why should our prosodists give the same accent to the i in Iphimedia? which, coming from io, and Ledew, has no such pretensions. If they say it has the accent in the Greek word, it may be answered, this is not esteemed a sufficient reason for placing the accent in Iphigenia; besides, it is giving up the sheet-anchor of modern prosodists, the quantity, as the regulator of accent. We know it was an axiom in Greek prosody, that when the last syllable was long by nature, the accent could not rise beyond the penultimate ; but we know too that this axiom is abandoned in Demosthenes, Aristoteles, and a thousand other words. The only reason therefore that remains for the penultimate accentuation of this word is, that this syllable is long in some of the best poets. Be it so. Let those who have more learning and leisure than I have find it out. In the interim, as this may perhaps be a long one, I must recur to my advice under the last word; though Ainsworth has, in my opinion, very properly left the penultimate syllable of both these words short, yet those who affect to be thought learned will always find their account in departing as far as possible from the analogy of their own language in favour of Greek and Latin.

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Læ'li-a

La-mi'rus

Læ-li-a'nus

La-og o-nus

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La-mi'a-cum bel'

La'mi-as E'li-us

Lam' pe-do

Lam-pe'ti-a (10)

Lam'pe-to, and

Lam' pe-do

Lain pe-us, and
Lam'pi-a

Lam'pon, Lam' pos,
or Lam'pus
Lam-po-ne'a
Lam-po'ni-a, and
Lam-po'ni-um

Lam-po'ni-us

Lam-prid'i-us

Eli-us
Lam'pro-cles

Lam'prus

Lan-go-bar'di (3)
La-nu vi-um
La-o-bo'tas, or
Lab'o-tas

La-od' a-mas

La-o-da' mia (30)
La-od'i-ce (8)
La-od-i-ce'a
La-od-i-ce'ne

La-od'o-chus

La-og'o-ras
La-og'o-re (s)
*La-o-me-di'a (30)
La-om'e-don

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*Laomedia.Evagore, Laomedia join,

And thou Polynome, the num'rous line.

Sce Iphigenia.

Cooke's Hesiod. Theog. v. 299.

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