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In Latin and Greek poetry, correption (Latin: correptiō [kɔrˈrɛpt̪ioː], "a shortening") is the shortening of a long vowel at the end of one word before a vowel at the beginning of the next.
Homer uses correption in dactylic hexameter:
- Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·
— Odyssey 1.1-2 - Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full
many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
— translation by A.T. Murray
Here in the first line the οι diphthong in the second word "μοι" would normally be a long vowel and thus create a long syllable, but because the next word begins with a vowel, the οι diphthong suffers correption, in the form of a partial ellision whereby its long syllable is reduced to a short one. Similarly, in the second line the sequence η ε (in bold print) must be pronounced as ε ε to preserve the long—short—short syllable weight sequence of a dactyl. The scansion of the second line is thus:
πλαγχ θε, ε | πει Τροι | η ςι ε | ρον πτο λι | εθ ρο νε | περ σε
