polyptoton

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VATIS ... VATES.= For an extreme instance of Ovid's favourite figure of polyptoton (Quintilian IX 3 36-37), see the account at Met IX 43-45 of Achelous' wrestling-match with Hercules: 'inque gradu stetimus, certi non cedere, eratque / cum pede pes iunctus, totoque ego pectore pronus / et digitos digitis et frontem fronte premebam'.

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Definitions (4)

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  1. In rhetoric, a figure consisting in the use of different cases or inflections of the same word, or of words of the same immediate derivation, in the same context. One of the most celebrated examples is the distich, Mors mortis morti mortem nisi morte tulisset, Æternæ vitæ janua clausa foret.
  2. (Unless the death of Death had brought death to death by [his] death, the door of eternal life would have been closed.)

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Examples (5)

  • VATIS ... VATES.= For an extreme instance of Ovid's favourite figure of polyptoton (Quintilian IX 3 36-37), see the account at Met IX 43-45 of Achelous' wrestling-match with Hercules: 'inque gradu stetimus, certi non cedere, eratque / cum pede pes iunctus, totoque ego pectore pronus / et digitos digitis et frontem fronte premebam'. —  The Last Poems of Ovid
  • PVERO ... PVER ... FRATRI FRATER.= For Ovid's use of polyptoton, see at viii 67 uatis ... uates (p 278 23. —  The Last Poems of Ovid
  • = For Ovid's use of polyptoton, see at viii 67 _uatis ... uates_ (p 278). —  The Last Poems of Ovid
  • Other instances of polyptoton with _uates_ at _Fast_ I 25 (to Germanicus) 'si licet et fas est, _uates_ rege _uatis_ habenas' and _EP_ II ix 65 (to —  The Last Poems of Ovid
  • _penna_ vs. _pinna_, 28, 203 pentameter endings trisyllabic, 294 quadrisyllabic, 164-166 pentasyllabic, 181-182 perfect subjunctive vs. future perfect indicative forms, 215 polyptoton, Ovid's use of, 278, 378 —  The Last Poems of Ovid
 

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Etymologies (1)

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  1. L. (later F. polyptote), from Greek πολύπτωτον, neuter of πολύπτωτος, with many cases, from πολύς, many, + πτωτός, verbal adjective of πίπτειν, fall (later πτω̄σις, a case),
 

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