Editing Phrygian language (section)

== Phrygian poetry ==
Phrygian poetry is rare. The only examples date from after [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquest of Asia Minor (334 BCE), and they probably originated in imitation of Greek metrical epitaphs. The clearest example is the so-called "Middle Phrygian" inscription mentioned above, which consists of six [[dactylic hexameter]] lines. Also, as Lubotsky has proposed, the traditional Phrygian damnation formula on grave monuments may have been slightly reformulated to fit into a two-line hexametric shape (the stress accents, or [[scansion|ictus]], on the first syllable of each [[dactyl (poetry)|dactylus]] are in boldface):<ref>{{cite book |last=Lubotsky |first=Alexander |chapter=The Phrygian inscription from Dokimeion and its meter |editor-last1=Hajnal |editor-first1=Ivo |editor-last2=Kölligan |editor-first2=Daniel |editor-last3=Zipser |editor-first3=Katharina |title=Miscellanea Indogermanica. Festschrift für José Luis García Ramón zum 65. Geburtstag |date=2017 |publisher=Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft |location=Innsbruck |pages=427–432 |chapter-url=https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2943225/view |access-date=2021-07-18}}</ref>
: '''ιος''' νι σε'''μουν''' κνουμα'''νει''' κακουν '''αδ'''δακετ '''αι'''νι τε'''α'''μας
: '''με''' ζεμε'''λως''' κε δε'''ως''' κε Τι'''η''' τιτε'''τικ'''μενος '''ει'''του.
:: '''ios''' ni se'''moun''' knouma'''nei''' kakoun '''ad'''daket '''ai'''ni te'''a'''mas
:: '''me''' zeme'''lōs''' ke de'''ōs''' ke ti'''ē''' tite'''tik'''menos '''ei'''tou.
::: ''Whoever to this tomb harm does, or to the grave,''
::: ''among humans and gods by Zeus accursed let him be.''

[[Alliteration]] ''('b-, b-, b-')'' may be intended in a peculiar clause found on two New-Phrygian grave monuments from Erten (near [[Yazılıkaya]]) and [[Güneysaray, Emirdağ|Güney]]: 
: [''If someone damages this grave, then{{nbsp}}...'']
:{{nbsp}}... Βας ιοι βεκος με βερετ. (— pronounced, ''Bas ioi bekos me beret.'')
::{{nbsp}}''... may ''[''the god'']'' Bas not bring him bread.''

(''Bas'' is suspected to be a Phrygian fertility god. Note that ''bekos'' is the word for 'bread' given by Herodotus, while ''me'' conforms to Greek μή, 'not', and ''beret'' is cognate with Greek φέρειν, Latin ''ferre'', 'to bear'.<ref>Obrador Cursach (2018), pp. 156, 430, 431.</ref>)