HEPHTHEMIMERIS

HEPHTHEMIMERIS, or Hephthemimeris, is also a caesura after the third foot; that is, on the seventh half-foot. It is a rule, that this syllable, though it be short in itself, must be made long on account of the caesura, or to make it an hephthemimeris. As in that verse of Virgil,

Et furtis agnatus amor, et conscia virtus.

It may be added, that the caesura is not to be on the fifth foot, as it is in the verse which Dr Harris gives us for an example:

Ille latus niveum molli fultus Hyacintho.

This is not a hephthemimeris caesura, but a hemhemimeris, i. e. of nine half feet.