Doubt on pronunciation of verbs (stressing)

Question

I have recently heard somebody (quoting Virgil) saying "Timèo Danaos...". This sounds awkward to me, but I confess I have not studied Latin for ages.

I remember that timeo is a verb like moneo, II conjugation, the infinitive is timère (the e is long). I remember also that the accent is mòneo and not monèo. Thus I would say tìmeo and not timèo.

Am I right? Is it true that the stressed syllable the "ti-"? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The word is tĭmĕō, so the vowels are short, short, and long. The stress is indeed on the first syllable according to the standard stress rules in Latin. Thus the e is neither long nor stressed, so I agree that any kind of emphasis on it would be awkward.

The stress on the first syllable is the standard stress in prose, but in metric poetry the stress (or rather ictus) depends on the whole verse. Vergilius wrote this line in dactylic hexameter, and in that context the ictus would fall on the last syllable of timeo.

Whether you want to follow prose stress or scan the verse with the metric structure is a matter of taste. But either way, you would never stress the middle syllable.

Answer 2

The complete answer has already be given by Joonas Ilmavirta; here are a few words on the prosody, which however only makes sense if you say the complete verse. As we know, these are the last words of Laocoön's speech (and, sadly, of his whole life), trying to persuade his fellows Trojans to not receive the horse from the Greeks. The whole verse (Æneid, II, 49)

Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis

is a dactylic hexameter with a spondee at the fourth foot:

–⏑⏑ | –⏑⏑ | –⏑⏑ | – – | –⏑⏑ | – –

to be read with a trithemimeral (aka "masculine") and an hephthemimeral cæsura:

Quìcquid id èst || timeò Danaòs || et dòna ferèntis

Thus this hexameter is exactly like this other one, about another old priest in the same war (Iliad, I, 35)

πολλὰ δ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ἀπάνευθε κιὼν ἠρᾶθ᾽ ὃ γεραιὸς

same feet, same cæesuræ.