A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἡγέλοχος), an Athenian tragic actor, who incurred the ridicule of the comic poets, Plato, Strattis, Sannynon, and Aristophanes, by his pronunciation of the line of Euripides (Eur. Orest. 269)--

  1. Ἐκ κυμάτων γὰρ αὖθις αὖ γαλήνʼ ὁρῶ
.

The scholiasts tell us that the sudden failure of the actor's voice prevented him from indicating properly the synaloepha, and that thus he altered γαλήνʼ, a calm, into γαλῆν, a weasel. The incident furnishes a proof that elided vowels were not completely dropped in pronunciation. (Aristoph. Frogs 304; Schol. in loc.; Schol. in Eurip. Orest. 269.)

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