La reprise décalée, un procédé de renouvellement formulaire dans la poésie lyrique et épique grecque. Sur les composés gr. πολυδηνης / skr. púrudaṃsas-, gr. *μελιFεπης / skr. mádhuvacas-

 

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The stylistic figure which consists in replacing one element of a traditional syntagm or compound by an equivalent and taking over the cancelled element in another place with a different syntactic function was frequently used in epic and lyric Greek poetry and appears to be a traditional mean of formulaic renewing. According to this principle, one can identify old traditional formulae or compounds ‘hidden’ in the Homeric text (such as poludhvnh", which is known only through Hesychius, but has a perfect match in Sanskrit). This poetic device also enables us to reconstruct an inherited compound *meliÛephv" ‘with honey words’, corresponding to ved. mádhuvacas-, never attested in Greek poetry because of its metrical shape, but which was clearly known to Homer and Hesiod.

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