Aeneid iv, 625 exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor

[gr5959]

I need help to understand the grammar of this line, e.g. what verb form is "exoriare"? And what is the prosody of this line? If it is a hexameter, why? G.R.

[Madame X]

You’re reading the original Latin? Well, take my limited and mighty pathetic knowledge for what it’s worth but I believe that’s the 2nd person “hortatory” (or rather, since it is the 2nd person it might be considered the “jussive” instead although I think their function is similar enough to forgive any confusion…hmmhmm, any Latin scholars here?) subjunctive for the indefinite subject, ‘aliquis ultor’. And yeah, The Aeneid is considered one of the staple works of dactylic hexameter, your example included (although I’ll admit scansion, in addition to Latin in general, was never one of my strong points ;)). As for the why of it; it was the revered form of the time and not arbitrarily so since the meter was meticulously structured to animate the work in such a manner that one might, at an opportune moment, more or less hear the clashing of swords, for example, through a precise metrical aberrance. Among other neat techniques, of course.

[gr5959]

Thank you, that helped a lot! G.R.