Evidence for the Greek Accent

AbstractThis chapter surveys the evidence for ancient Greek accentuation, beginning with the interest in accents shown by ancient authors preceding or standing outside the main grammatical tradition relating to accentuation. The ancient grammarians themselves provide the basis for most other sources of evidence, and are treated in particular detail (especially Herodian). The other sources surveyed are accent marks in papyri; fragments of ancient Greek music displaying correlations between word accents and musical melody; accentuation of medieval manuscripts; and the evidence for early medieval accentuation provided by prose rhythm and poetic metre.