Elision of Oxytones and Non-oxytones in Aeschylus

Abstract

Abstract Elided oxytones, in which the accent is shifted to the penultimate syllable of the elided word, are very rare in Aeschylus. There are only twenty-four occurrences in the extant plays, and ten of these occurrences have textual issues. Analysis of elisions in Agamemnon shows that nonoytone words with short final syllable are elided more than six times more frequently than oxytones. Neuter plural oxytones are elided more frequently than other oxytone word types. When oxytones are elided emphasis may be given to the elided word. There is no favored location for elision of oxytones in trimeters and no change in frequency of elided oxytones over Aeschylus’ career.