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Book II, line 355 of the Aeneid:

Sīc animīs iuvenum furor additus. Inde—lupī ceu

(Thus rage was added to the spirits of the young men. From there, like wolves [and the sentence continues in the next line])

The last two feet of this hexameter (starting at Inde) seem off to me. Normally there should be an accented syllable at -pī, to create the "DUM da da DUM dum" cadence, but the first syllable is accented in lupī.

Is this simply a fault in Virgil's verse? How should it be read aloud: by forcing the accent onto the second syllable of lupī (which to me seems unnatural) or by following the ordinary rhythm of the words: "DUM da DA dum dum" (which to me sounds ungainly and doesn't make a nice cadence)?

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    Is there a specific reason you're expecting word accent and verse accent to coincide there but not in e.g. animīs?
    – Cairnarvon
    Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 14:03
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    @Cairnarvon I thought that in hexameter, the long syllables did not necessarily coincide with the accented syllables in feet 1–4, and indeed this variation produces some of the poetic expressiveness. But I thought that normally the accent does match the length in feet 5 and 6, producing a "shave and a haircut" cadence. No?
    – Ben Kovitz
    Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 14:43
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    Yes, that's often claimed (and also often disputed). I just wanted to confirm that that was the analysis you were starting from.
    – Cairnarvon
    Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 14:56
  • @Cairnarvon Some lecture notes I found online says "there are only 57 indisputable fifth-foot conflicts in all of Vergil vs.e.g. 63 in the first 444 periods of the Odyssey", citing Wilkinson 1963, p. 122.
    – cmw ♦
    Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 15:20
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    @cmw Isn't that comparing Latin to Greek? The differences in stress patterns between the languages alone can account for quite a different rate of conflict with metric accent.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 16:32

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