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Abstract
In this paper I shall deal with Doric features in hexameter poetry, a kind of poetry that on account of its historical development has often been considered hardly affected by Doric dialect features before the Hellenistic period. Rather than reappraising the much-debated traces of Doric in the Homeric and Hesiodic epics, I will concentrate upon hexameter poetry from the 5th century BC. My starting point is a well-known passage of Empedocles. I shall then turn to a fragment attributed to Panyassis by some scholars. Finally, I will offer some remarks on the role played by Doric in the hexameter texts of the Classical period, and draw the conclusion that it is likely to have been more conspicuous than is usually assumed.
