Abstract
In this article, we will show that the use of the augment in Homeric speech introductions and conclusions was not random, but could be explained by morphometric, syntactic and semantic constraints. Later, these rules were no longer understood: the augment became a mandatory marker of past tense in Greek prose, while its absence in Homer (which was also motivated by rules and constraints) was reinterpreted as an archaism and an element of the poetic language. The article only focuses on Homeric speech introductions and conclusions, and leaves out a discussion of Homer and epic poetry in general, of Mycenaean and the other Indo-European languages that have the augment.
