Dactylic hexameter

Further information: Prosody (Latin) and Prosody (Greek)

Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter commonly used in both Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The best known use is for epic poems, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, but it was also used for didactic and pastoral poetry in both languages, and in Latin for satire. It is also combined with a dactylic pentameter to make elegiac couplets, used in Greek for elegies and epigrams, and, especially in Latin, for love poetry.

The name dactylic is derived from Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, "finger", referring to the basic rhythm of one long and two short syllables (resembling the long and two short bones of a finger). Hexameter comes from Greek ἕξ (héx, "six", because the line consists of six feet. The first five feet contain either a dactyl (a long and two short syllables, written – ᴗ ᴗ) or a spondee (two long syllables, written – –). The last foot contains either a spondee or a long syllable followed by one short syllable, a trochee (– ᴗ). The six feet and their variation is symbolically represented below:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
– ᴗ ᴗ | – ᴗ ᴗ | – ᴗ ᴗ | – ᴗ ᴗ | – ᴗ ᴗ | – x
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