Quando i metri vengono da soli: a proposito di Luc. Men. 1

Abstract

In the opening scene of Lucian’s Menippus, the protagonist, after citing some Euripidean trimeters, explains that his metrical delivery is due to his recent meeting with Euripides (and Homer) in Hades; in these self-explanatory words Harmon detected a comic iambic trimeter (αὐτόματά μοι τὰ μέτρα ἐπὶ τὸ στόμα ἔρχεται). The paper aims to demonstrate that this metrical segment, far from being incidental, is not even a comic quote, as Harmon himself suggests, but rather a slip by Menippus, metrically rough precisely because it is not intentional; the literary meaning of this Lucianic verse is then investigated.