View source for Dactylic hexameter

{{short description|Poetic meter consisting of six feet}}
{{further|Prosody (Latin)|Prosody (Greek)}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2021}}
{{Greek and Latin metre|sidebar}}

'''Dactylic hexameter''' is a form of [[meter (poetry)|meter]] used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry{{r|west1987|p=19}} as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry{{r|raven1965|p=90}}.
Its name is derived from Greek {{lang|grc|δάκτυλος}} ({{grc-transl|δάκτυλος}}, "finger") and {{lang|grc|ἕξ}} ({{grc-transl|ἕξ}}, "six").

Dactylic hexameter consists of six [[Metrical foot|feet]]. The first five feet contain either two long syllables, a [[spondee]] (– –), or a long syllable followed by two short syllables, a [[Dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] (–ᴗᴗ). However, the last foot contains either a spondee or a long syllable followed by one short syllable, a [[trochee]](– ᴗ){{r|clark2004|p=120}}{{r|west1987|p=19}}. The six feet and their variation is symbolically represented below:

{| style="text-align: center;"
 | 1 || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || 2 || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || 3 || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || 4 || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || 5 || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || 6
 |-
 | – <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u> || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || – <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u> || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || – <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u> || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || – <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u> || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || – <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u> || <nowiki>|</nowiki> || – x
|}

The hexameter is traditionally associated with classical [[epic poetry]] in both [[Greek language|Greek]]{{r|raven1962|p=17}}{{r|west1987|p=43}} and [[Latin]]. Consequently, it has been considered to be ''the'' grand style of Western classical poetry. Examples of epics in hexameter are [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]''{{r|west1987|p=19}}, [[Apollonius of Rhodes]]'s ''[[Argonautica]]'', [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', [[Lucan]]'s ''[[Pharsalia]]'', [[Valerius Flaccus (poet)|Valerius Flaccus]]'s ''Argonautica'', and [[Statius]]'s ''[[Thebaid (Statius)|Thebaid]]''.

However, this meter had a wide use outside of epic. Greek works in dactylic hexameter include [[Hesiod]]'s didactic ''[[Works and Days]]'' and ''[[Theogony]]''{{r|west1987|p=19}}, some of [[Theocritus]]'s ''Idylls'', and [[Callimachus]]'s hymns. In Latin famous works include [[Lucretius]]'s philosophical {{lang|la|[[De rerum natura]]}}, Virgil's ''[[Eclogues]]'' and ''[[Georgics]]'', book 10 of [[Columella]]'s manual on agriculture, as well as satirical works of [[Gaius Lucilius|Lucilius]], [[Horace]], [[Persius]], and [[Juvenal]]. Later the hexameter continued to be used in Christian times, for example in the {{lang|la|Carmen paschale}} of the 5th-century Irish poet [[Coelius Sedulius|Sedulius]] and [[Bernard of Cluny]]'s 12th-century satire {{lang|la|[[De contemptu mundi]]}} among many others{{citation needed|date=May 2025|reason=Phrase "many others" sound like something that could benefit from being backed up by a citation.}}.

Hexameters also form part of [[elegiac]] poetry in both languages, the [[elegiac couplet]] being a dactylic hexameter line paired with a [[dactylic pentameter]] line{{r|raven1962|p=45}}{{r|raven1965|p=104}}. This form of verse was used for love poetry by [[Propertius]], [[Tibullus]], and [[Ovid]], for Ovid's letters from exile, and for many of the epigrams of [[Martial]]{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}.

== Structure ==

Dactylic hexameter poetry consists of lines, which are divided into feet and further divided into syllables.{{r|clark2004|p=120}}.

=== Feet ===

A hexameter verse contains six [[Foot (prosody)|feet]]{{r|raven1962|p=43}}{{r|raven1965|p=90}}{{r|west1987|p=19}}. The first five feet can be either a [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] or a [[spondee]]{{r|raven1962|p=43}}{{r|raven1965|p=91}}{{r|west1987|p=19}}. However, because Latin is much richer in long syllables than Greek, spondaic feet are more common in Latin hexameter{{r|raven1965|p=91}}. In both Greek and Latin hexameter the fifth foot is usually a dactyl, and a spondee is also rare in the third foot in Greek hexameter{{r|raven1965|p=43}}{{r|raven1965|p=91-92}}. The sixth foot can be filled by either a [[trochee]] or a spondee{{r|raven1962|p=43}}{{r|raven1965|p=91}}. Thus a dactylic hexameter line is [[scansion|scanned]] as follows:

: — <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>  |  — <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>  |  — <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>  |  — <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>  |  — <u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>  |  — ×

Where "—" represents an accented (hard) syllable, "ᴗ" represents an unaccented (soft) syllable, "<u>ᴗ ᴗ</u>" represents either two soft syllables or one hard syllable (poet's option), and in this case "×" represents 'anything goes' (including a silent pause).

An example of this in Latin is the first line of Virgil's ''Aeneid''{{r|aeneid|p=1.1}}:

: {{lang|la|arma virumque canō, Troiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs}}
: "I sing of arms, and of the man who first from the shores of Troy ..."

The scansion is generally marked as follows, by placing long and short marks above the central vowel of each syllable:
:{| style="text-align:center;"
|-
| — ᴗ ᴗ || {{pipe}} ||  — ᴗ ᴗ || {{pipe}} || —  — || {{pipe}} || —  — || {{pipe}} || — ᴗ ᴗ || {{pipe}} || — — 
|-
| ar ma vi  || {{pipe}} || rum que ca || {{pipe}} || nō Troj || {{pipe}} || jae quī || {{pipe}} || prī mu sa || {{pipe}} || bō rīs 
|-
| ''[[dactyl]]'' || {{pipe}} || ''dactyl'' || {{pipe}} || ''[[spondee]]'' || {{pipe}} || ''spondee'' || {{pipe}} || ''dactyl'' || {{pipe}} || ''spondee'' 
|}

In dactylic verse, short syllables always come in pairs, so words such as {{lang|la|mīlitēs}} ''"soldiers"'' or {{lang|la|facilius}} ''"more easily"'' cannot be used in a hexameter{{citation needed|reason=This is true, no doubt about it. But it'd still be nice to have a source cited. Besides, where are Greek examples?|date=March 2025}}, although the substitutes ''"warrior"'' and ''"easier"'' could be.

=== Syllables ===

Unlike English verse, which is based on stress, ancient Greek and Latin poetry is based on the length, i.e. relative duration, of a syllable{{r|clark2004|p=119}}{{r|raven1962|p=10}}{{r|raven1965|p=22}}. In scansion only the sounds are meaningful, and word boundaries do not matter{{r|clark2004|p=119}}{{r|west1987|p=12}}.

In Greek, a long syllable is called {{lang|grc|συλλαβὴ μακρά}} ({{grc-transl|συλλαβὴ μακρά}}) and a short syllable is called {{lang|grc|συλλαβὴ βραχεῖα}} ({{grc-transl|συλλαβὴ βραχεῖα}}).<ref>Liddell, Scott, Jones, ''Greek Lexicon'' s.v. [https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%AE συλλαβή] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511083430/https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%AE |date=2022-05-11 }}.</ref> In Latin the terms are {{lang|la|syllaba longa}} and {{lang|la|syllaba brevis}}.<ref>Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary'', s.v. [https://logeion.uchicago.edu/syllaba syllaba] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511083430/https://logeion.uchicago.edu/syllaba |date=2022-05-11 }}.</ref>

==== Greek ====

In Greek, a syllable is long if it contains a long vowel, a [[diphthong]], or two consonants follow the vowel(s) of the syllable{{r|allen1968|p=97}}{{r|clark2004|p=119}}{{r|raven1962|p=22}}. That is to say, a syllable with a short vowel is scanned as long as it contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or if it is closed; and a syllable is closed only if it ends with a consonant, otherwise it is open{{r|west1987|p=12}}.

For example, all syllables in {{lang|grc|μήτηρ}}, {{lang|grc|οἰκτείρω}}, and {{lang|grc|φλόξ}} are long{{r|raven1965|p=22-23}}. However, there are exceptions to the rules mentioned above{{r|raven1962|p=23}}.

==== Latin ====

In Latin, a syllable is long (by nature) if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong{{r|allen1965|p=89}}{{r|raven1965|p=23}} and long (by position) if it contains a short vowel followed by two consonants, even if these are in different words{{r|raven1965|p=24}}. For example, all syllables in {{lang|la|Ae-nē-ās}} and {{lang|la|au-rō}} are long by nature, whereas {{lang|la|et}}, {{lang|la|ter}}, {{lang|la|tot}}, and {{lang|la|vol}} in {{lang|la|<u>et</u> <u>ter</u>rīs}}, {{lang|la|<u>tot</u> <u>vol</u>-ve-re}} are long by position.

However, when a [[Liquid consonant|liquid]] — l or r — follows a [[plosive]], a syllable containing a short vowel may remain short by position{{r|raven1965|p=25}}. For example, {{lang|la|pa-trem}} could be scanned either as having a short first syllable {{lang|la|pa-trem}} or as having a long first syllable {{lang|la|pat-rem}}{{r|allen1965|p=89}}.

In scansion the letter ''h'' is ignored{{r|raven1965|p=24}}, and ''qu'' counts as a single consonant{{r|raven1965|p=24}}. So, for example in the phrase {{lang|la|et horret}} the syllable ''et'' remains short, and in the word {{lang|la|aqua}} the first syllable remains short too.

The semiconsonantal ''i'' and ''u'' are scanned as consonants{{r|raven1965|p=24}}. For example, in {{lang|la|Iuppiter}} and {{lang|la|iēcit}}, ''i'' is considered a consonant, pronounced like the English ''y''. Thus {{lang|la|Iup-pi-ter}} has three syllables and {{lang|la|iē-cit}} has two. But, in {{lang|la|I-ū-lius}} the first ''I'' is a vowel and forms a separate syllable{{r|allen1965|p=38}}. Additionally, an ''i'' between two or more vowels stands almost without exception for a double consonant{{r|allen1965|p=39}}; so, for example {{lang|la|a-io}}, standing for {{lang|la|a-iio}} has two syllables{{r|allen1965|p=39}}.

In some editions of Latin texts the consonant ''v'' is written as ''u'', in which case ''u'' is also often consonantal. This can sometimes cause ambiguity; e.g., in the word {{lang|la|uoluit}} (= {{lang|la|vol-vit}}) "he rolls" the second ''u'' is a consonant, but in {{lang|la|uoluit}} (= {{lang|la|vo-lu-it}}) "he wanted" the second ''u'' is a vowel.

===Elision===

In Latin, when a word ends in a vowel or -m and is followed by a word starting with a vowel or h, the last vowel is usually suppressed or [[Elision|elided]]{{r|raven1965|p=27}}. For example, {{lang|la|poss(e) Ītalia; Teucrōr(um) āvertere, monstr(um) horrendum}}{{r|raven1965|p=27}}.

In Greek, short vowels elide freely{{r|raven1962|p=24}}; however, long vowels are not elided, though they may be shortened in some cases{{r|raven1962|p=24}}: E.g. {{lang|grc|Πηληϊά<u>δεω</u> Ἀχιλῆος}} ({{grc-transl|Πηληϊά<u>δεω</u> Ἀχιλῆος}}).

In modern Greek writing the elision is shown by an apostrophe. For example:
{{blockquote
 |text=
   {{lang|grc|ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε}}<br>
   {{grc-transl|ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε}}<br>
   which caused countless sufferings for the Achaeans
 |author=[[Homer]]
 |title=Iliad, 1.2
}}

The Greek style of not eliding a long vowel is sometimes imitated in Latin for special effect, for example, {{lang|la|fēmine<u>ō u</u>lulātu}} "with womanly wailing" (''Aen''. 9.477){{citation needed|reason=Raven (1965) p. 101 says nothing of the sort, the §74 describing Greek imitations talks about the line-ending, not elision, giving as an example Aeneid 4.215.|date=March 2025}}.<ref>Raven (1965), p. 101.</ref>

When a vowel is elided, it does not count in the scansion{{r|raven1962|p=24}}. So, for the purposes of scansion, {{lang|la|Iu-n(o) ae-ter-num}} has four syllables.

=== Caesura ===

A [[caesura]] is a word break in the middle of a foot or metron{{r|raven1962|p=25}}. In Greek hexameter there is a caesura after i) the first syllable of the 3rd foot, a strong or masculine caesura, ii) the second syllable of a dactyl in the 3rd foot, a weak or feminine caesura, or iii) the first syllable of the 4th foot{{r|raven1962|p=44}}; the first two being more common than the last{{r|clark2004|p=121}}{{r|raven1962|p=44}}{{r|raven1965|p=93}}.
In Latin hexameter the weak caesura is rarer than in Greek hexameter{{r|raven1965|p=94,96}}. On the one hand, in Virgil the strong caesura is found in ca. 85% of the time{{r|butcher1914|p=124}}.

An example of a weak caesura can be found from the first line of Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]''{{r|raven1962|p=44}}:

:{{lang|grc|ἄνδρα μοι / ἔννεπε, / <u>μοῦσα</u>, πο/λύτροπον, / ὃς μάλα / πολλὰ}}
:{{grc-transl|ἄνδρα μοι / ἔννεπε, / <u>μοῦσα</u>, πο/λύτροπον, / ὃς μάλα / πολλὰ}}
:"Tell me, Muse, of the man of many wiles, who very much"

And an example of a strong caesura follows on the next line of Odyssey{{r|raven1962|p=44}}:
:{{lang|grc|πλάγχθη, ἐ/πεὶ Τροί/ης ἱερ/ὸν πτολί/εθρον ἔ/περσεν:}}
:{{grc-transl|πλάγχθη, ἐ/πεὶ Τροί/ης ἱερ/ὸν πτολί/εθρον ἔ/περσεν:}}
:"wandered, after having sacked the sacred citadel of Troy."

In Latin (but not in Greek, as the above example shows), a feminine caesura in the 3rd foot is usually accompanied with masculine caesuras in the 2nd and especially in the 4th feet{{r|raven1965|p=96}}:

:{{lang|la|infan/dum, re/<u>gina</u>, iu/bes reno/vare do/lorem}}{{r|aeneid|p=2.3}}
:"You are bidding me, o queen, to renew an unspeakable sorrow"

Sometimes caesuras in the 2nd and 4th feet of a line make do, and there is no caesura in the 3rd foot{{r|raven1965|p=96}}. For example:

:{{lang|la|inde to/ro pater / Aene/as sic / orsus ab / alto}}{{r|aeneid|p=2.2}}
:"then from his high couch Father Aeneas began as follows"

==In Greek==

The hexameter was first used by early Greek poets of the oral tradition, and the most complete extant examples of their works are the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', which influenced the authors of all later classical epics that survive today. Early epic poetry was also accompanied by music, and [[Pitch accent|pitch changes]] associated with the accented Greek must have highlighted the melody, though the exact mechanism is still a topic of discussion.<ref>Cf. Alan Shaw's 1997 essay [https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/some-questions-on-greek-poetry-and-music/ Some Questions on Greek Poetry and Music]. Electronic Book Review. 1 March 1997. Retrieved 19 May 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220125074512/http://electronicbookreview.com/essay/some-questions-on-greek-poetry-and-music/ Archived page (January 25, 2022)]</ref>

The first line of Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' provides an example:

:{{lang|grc|μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος}}
:{{grc-transl|μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος}}
:"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilles"

Dividing the line into metrical units or feet it can be scanned as follows:

:{{lang|grc|μῆ-νιν ἄ / ει-δε, θε / ά, Πη / λη-ϊ-ά / δεω Ἀ-χι / λῆ-ος}}
:{{grc-tr|μῆ-νιν ἄ / ει-δε, θε / ά, Πη / λη-ϊ-ά / δεω Ἀ-χι / λῆ-ος}} (-''deō'' is one syllable)
: — ∪ ∪ | — ∪ ∪ | — — | — ∪ ∪ | — ∪ ∪ | — —

This line also includes a masculine caesura after {{lang|grc|θεά}}, a break that separates the line into two parts. Homer employs a feminine caesura more commonly than later writers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seymour |first=Thomas D. |date=1885 |title=On the Feminine Caesura in Homer |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2935780 |journal=Transactions of the American Philological Association |volume=16 |pages=32 |doi=10.2307/2935780 |issn=0271-4442|url-access=subscription }}</ref> An example occurs in ''Iliad'' 1.5:

:{{lang|grc|οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή}}
:"... and every bird; and the plan of Zeus was fulfilled"

:{{lang|grc|οἰ-ω / νοῖ-σί τε / πᾶ-σι, Δι / ὸς δ’ ἐ-τε / λεί-ε-το / βου-λή,}}
:{{grc-tr|οἰ-ω / νοῖ-σί τε / πᾶ-σι, Δι / ὸς δ’ ἐ-τε / λεί-ε-το / βου-λή,}}
: — — | — ∪ ∪ | — ∪, ∪ | — ∪ ∪ | — ∪ ∪ | — —

Homer's hexameters contain a higher proportion of dactyls than later hexameter poetry{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. They are also characterized by a laxer following of verse principles than later epicists almost invariably adhered to{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. For example, Homer allows spondaic fifth feet (albeit not often), whereas many later authors do not{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}.

Homer also altered the forms of words to allow them to fit the hexameter, typically by using a [[Ancient Greek dialects|dialectal]] form: ''ptolis'' is an epic form used instead of the Attic ''polis'' as necessary for the meter{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. Proper names sometimes take forms to fit the meter, for example ''Pouludamas'' instead of the metrically unviable ''Poludamas''.


Some lines require a knowledge of the digamma for their scansion, e.g. ''Iliad'' 1.108:
:{{lang|grc|ἐσθλὸν δ’ οὐτέ τί πω εἶπας ἔπος οὔτ’ ἐτέλεσσας}}
:{{grc-tr|ἐσθλὸν δ’ οὐτέ τί πω εἶπας ἔπος οὔτ’ ἐτέλεσσας}}
:"you have not yet spoken a good word nor brought one to pass"

:{{lang|grc|ἐσ-θλὸν / δ’ οὐ-τέ τί / πω εἶ/πας ἔ-πος / οὔτ’ ἐ-τέ / λεσ-σας}}
:{{grc-tr|ἐσ-θλὸν / δ’ οὐ-τέ τί / πω εἶ/πας ἔ-πος / οὔτ’ ἐ-τέ / λεσ-σας}}
: — — | — ∪ ∪ | — — | — ∪ ∪ | — ∪ ∪ | — —

Here the word {{lang|grc|ἔπος}} (''epos'') was originally {{lang|grc|ϝέπος}} (''wepos'') in Ionian; the [[digamma]], later lost, lengthened the last syllable of the preceding {{lang|grc|εἶπας}} (''eipas'') and removed the apparent defect in the meter. A digamma also saved the hiatus in the third foot. This example demonstrates the [[oral tradition]] of the Homeric epics that flourished before they were written down sometime in the 7th century BC{{citation needed|reason=All this is true, but it is not obvious for those with little or no background in classical studies. A citation wouldn't hurt.|date=March 2025}}.

Most of the later rules of hexameter composition have their origins in the methods and practices of Homer{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}.

== In Latin ==
[[File:AENEIS.png|thumb|Diagramming of the opening lines of the ''[[Aeneid]]'']]

The dactylic hexameter was adapted from Greek to Latin{{r|raven1965|p=91}}. Though the metre was taken from Greek unaltered, the Latin language has a higher proportion of long syllables than Greek, and so it is by nature more spondaic{{r|raven1965|p=91}}. Additionally, the Roman poets did not avoid the weak caesura in the fourth foot as much as the Greeks did{{r|raven1965|p=98}}.

=== Ennius ===

The earliest example of hexameter in Latin poetry is the panegyric history of Rome, ''Annales'', by [[Ennius]]{{r|king2009|p=137}}, establishing a standard for later Latin epics. Ennius experimented with different kinds of lines{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}, for example, lines with five dactyls:

:{{lang|la|tum tuba / terribi/li soni/tu tara/tantara / dixit}}<ref>Ennius ap. Prisc. p. 842 P. (Ann. v. 452 Vahl.)</ref>
:"Then the trumpet with terrifying sound went 'taratantara!'"

or lines consisting entirely of spondees:

:{{lang|la|olli / respon/dit rex / Alba/i Lon/gai}}<ref>Ennius, ''Annales'' 1.31.</ref>
:"To him replied the king of Alba Longa"

lines without a caesura{{r|raven1965|p=95}}:

:{{lang|la|sparsis / hastis / longis / campus / splendet et / horret}}<ref>Ennius, ''Varia'' 14V.</ref>
:"With scattered long spears the plain gleams and bristles"

lines ending in a one-syllable word or in words of more than three syllables{{r|raven1965|p=99}}:

:{{lang|la|unus ho/mo no/bis cunc/tando / restitu/it rem}}<ref>Ennius ''Annales'' 370.</ref>
:"A single man, by delaying, restored the situation for us."

:{{lang|la|nec m(i) au/rum pos/co nec /mi preti/um dede/ritis}}
:{{lang|la|non cau/ponan/tes bel/lum sed / bellige/rantes}}<ref>Ennius, ''Annales'' 194–5.</ref>
:"I do not demand gold for myself nor should you give me a price:
:not buying and selling war, but waging it"

or even lines starting with two short syllables{{r|raven1965|p=92}}:
:{{lang|la|melanu/rum, tur/dum, meru/lamqu(e) um/bramque ma/rinam}}<ref>Ennius, ''Varia 42V.''</ref>
: | u u – | – – | –, u u | – – | – u u | – –
:"the blacktail, the rainbow wrasse, the bird wrasse, and the maigre" (kinds of fish)

However, most of these features were abandoned by later writers or used only occasionally for special effect{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}.

===Later writers===

Later Republican writers, such as [[Lucretius]], [[Catullus]], and even [[Cicero]], wrote hexameter compositions, and it was at this time that the principles of Latin hexameter were firmly established and followed by later writers such as [[Virgil]], [[Horace]], [[Ovid]], [[Marcus Annaeus Lucanus|Lucan]], and [[Satires of Juvenal|Juvenal]]{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. [[Virgil]]'s opening line for the ''[[Aeneid]]'' is a classic example:

:{{lang|la|Arma vi/rumque ca/nō, Trō/iae quī/ prīmus ab/ ōrīs}} 
:"I sing of arms and of the man who first from the shores of Troy ..."

In Latin, lines were arranged so that the metrically long syllables —- those occurring at the beginning of a foot -— often avoided the natural stress of a word. In the earlier feet of a line, meter and stress were expected to clash, while in the last two feet they were expected to coincide, as in {{lang|la|prímus ab/ óris}} above. The coincidence of word accent and meter in the last two feet could be achieved by restricting the last word to one of two or three syllables.<ref>Raven (1965), pp. 98–101.</ref>

Most lines (about 85% in Virgil){{citation needed|date=March 2025}} have a caesura or word division after the first syllable of the 3rd foot, as above {{lang|la|ca/nō}}. Because of the penultimate accent in Latin, this ensures that the word accent and meter will not coincide in the 3rd foot. But in those lines with a feminine or weak caesura, such as the following, there is inevitably a coincidence of meter and accent in the 3rd foot{{r|raven1965|p=98}}:

:{{lang|la|insequi/tur cla/<u>mórque</u> vi/rum stri/dórque ru/déntum}}
:"there follows shouting of men and rattling of ropes"

To offset this, whenever there was a feminine caesura in the 3rd foot, there was usually also a masculine caesura in the 2nd and 4th feet, to ensure that in those feet at least, the word accent and meter did not coincide.

===Metrical effects===

By the age of [[Augustus]], poets like [[Virgil]] closely followed the rules of the meter and approached it in a highly rhetorical way, looking for effects that can be exploited in skilled recitation{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. For example, the following line from the ''Aeneid'' (8.596) describes the movement and sound of galloping horses:

:{{lang|la|quadrupe/dante pu/trem soni/tū quatit/ ungula/ campum}}
:"with four-footed sound the hoof shakes the crumbling plain"

This line is made up of five dactyls and a closing spondee, an unusual rhythmic arrangement that imitates the described action. A different effect is found in 8.452, where Virgil describes how the blacksmith sons of Vulcan forged Aeneas' shield. The five spondees and the word accents cutting across the verse rhythm give an impression of huge effort:

:{{lang|la|ill(ī) in/ter sē/sē mul/tā vī / bracchia / tollunt}}
:"They with much force raise their arms one after another"

A slightly different effect is found in the following line (3.658), describing the terrifying one-eyed giant Polyphemus, blinded by [[Odysseus|Ulysses]]. Here again there are five spondees but there are also three elisions, which cause the word accent of all the words but {{lang|la|ingens}} to coincide with the beginning of each foot:

:{{lang|la|monstr(um) hor/rend(um), in/form(e), in/gens, cui / lumen a/demptum}}
:"A horrendous huge shapeless monster, whose eye (lit. light) had been removed"

A succession of long syllables in some lines indicates slow movement, as in the following example where Aeneas and his companion the Sibyl (a priestess of Apollo) were entering the darkness of the world of the dead:

:{{lang|la|ibant / obscu/ri so/la sub / nocte per / umbram}}
:"they were going in the darkness beneath the lonely night through the shadow"

The following example (''Aeneid'' 2.9) describes how Aeneas is reluctant to begin his narrative, since it is already past midnight. The feminine caesura after {{lang|la|suadentque}} without a following 4th-foot caesura ensures that all the last four feet have word accent at the beginning, which is unusual.<ref name=Raven98>Raven (1965), p. 98.</ref> The monotonous effect is reinforced by the assonance of ''dent ... dent'' and the alliteration of S ... S:

:{{lang|la|... Et / iam nox / umida / caelo}}
:{{lang|la|praecipi/tat, sua/déntque ca/déntia / sídera / sómnos.}}
:"And already the moist night is falling from the sky
:and the setting constellations are inviting sleep"

Dactyls are associated with sleep again in the following unusual line, which describes the activity of a priestess who is feeding a magic serpent (''Aen.'' 4.486). In this line, there are five dactyls, and every one is accented on the first syllable:

:{{lang|la|spárgens / úmida / mélla so/pórife/rúmque pa/páver}}
:"sprinkling moist honey and sleep-inducing poppy"

A different technique, at 1.105, is used when describing a ship at sea during a storm. Here Virgil places a single-syllable word at the end of the line. This produces a jarring rhythm that echoes the crash of a large wave against the side of the ship:

:{{lang|la|... et undīs}}
:{{lang|la|dat latus;/ insequi/tur cumu/lo prae/ruptus a/quae mōns.}}
:"(The boat) gives its side to the waves; there immediately follows in a heap a steep mountain of water."

The Roman poet [[Horace]] uses a similar trick to highlight the comedic irony in this famous line from his ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'' (line 139):

:{{lang|la|Parturi/ent mon/tes, nas/cetur/ rīdicu/lus mūs}}
:"The mountains will be in labor, but all that will be born is a ridiculous ... mouse"<ref>Based on a traditional proverb. Cf. Jacobson, Howard (2007). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44079065 "Horace "AP" 139: parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510190903/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44079065 |date=2022-05-10 }}. ''Museum Helveticum'', Vol. 64, No. 1 (März 2007), pp. 59–61. (JSTOR)</ref>

Usually in Latin the 5th foot of a hexameter is a dactyl. However, in his poem 64, Catullus several times uses a 5th foot spondee, which gives a Greek flavour to his verse,<ref name="Raven 1965, p. 92">Raven (1965), p. 92.</ref> as in this line describing the forested [[Vale of Tempe]] in northern Greece:

:{{lang|la|Tempe, / quae sil/vae cin/gunt super /<u>impen</u>/dentes,}}
:"Tempe, which woods surround, hanging over it"

Virgil also occasionally imitates Greek practice, for example, in the first line of his 3rd Eclogue:

:{{lang|la|dīc mihi, / Dāmoe/tā, cu/ium pecus? // an Meli/boei?}}
:"Tell me, Damoetas, whose cattle are these? Are they Meliboeus's?"

Here there is a break in sense after a 4th-foot dactyl, a feature known as a bucolic diaeresis,<ref>From the Greek {{lang|grc|βουκόλος}} ({{grc-transl|βουκόλος}}) "looking after cattle".</ref> because it is frequently used in Greek [[pastoral]] poetry. In fact it is common in Homer too (as in the first line of the ''Odyssey'' quoted above), but rare in Latin epic.<ref>Bassett (1905).</ref>

===Stylistic features of epic===
Certain stylistic features are characteristic of epic hexameter poetry, especially as written by Virgil.

====Enjambment====
Hexameters are frequently [[Enjambment|enjambed]]—the meaning runs over from one line to the next, without terminal punctuation—which helps to create the long, flowing narrative of epic. Sentences can also end in different places in the line, for example, after the first foot.<ref>Raven (1965), pp. 102–103.</ref> In this, classical epic differs from medieval Latin, where the lines are often composed individually, with a break in sense at the end of each one.

====Poetic vocabulary====
Often in poetry ordinary words are replaced by poetic ones, for example {{lang|la|unda}} or {{lang|la|lympha}} for water, {{lang|la|aequora}} for sea, {{lang|la|puppis}} for ship, {{lang|la|amnis}} for river, and so on. Some ordinary Latin words are avoided, e.g. {{lang|la|audiunt, mīlitēs, hominibus, facilius, mulierēs, familiae, voluptātibus}} etc., simply because they do not fit into a hexameter verse.

====Hyperbaton====
It is common in poetry for adjectives to be widely separated from their nouns, and quite often one adjective–noun pair is interleaved with another. This feature is known as [[hyperbaton]] "stepping over". An example is the opening line of Lucan's epic on the Civil War:

:{{lang|la|<u>bella</u> per Emathios – plus quam <u>civilia</u> – campos}}
:"Wars through the Emathian – more than civil – plains"

Another example is the opening of Ovid's mythological poem [[Metamorphoses]] where the word {{lang|la|nova}} "new" is in a different line from {{lang|la|corpora}} "bodies" which it describes:

:{{lang|la|in <u>nova</u> fert animus mutatas dicere formas / <u>corpora</u>}} (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.1)
:"My spirit leads me to tell of forms transformed into new bodies."

One particular arrangement of words that seems to have been particularly admired is the [[golden line]],<ref>The term {{lang|la|aureus versus}} was first used in print in 1612: John Owen, epigram 5.51.</ref> a line which contains two adjectives, a verb, and two nouns, with the first adjective corresponding to the first noun such as:

:{{lang|la|<u>barbara</u>qu(e) horribili stridebat <u>tibia</u> cantu}}<ref>Catullus, 64.265.</ref>
:"and the barbarian pipe was strident with horrible music"

Catullus was the first to use this kind of line, as in the above example. Later authors used it rarely (1% of lines in Ovid), but in silver Latin it became increasingly popular.<ref>Heikkinen (2015), p. 61.</ref>

====Alliteration and assonance====
{{main|Alliteration (Latin)}}
Virgil in particular used alliteration and assonance frequently, although it is much less common in Ovid. Often more than one consonant was alliterated and not necessarily at the beginning of words, for example:
:{{lang|la|at ReGina GRavi iamdudum sauCia Cura}}
:{{lang|la|VuLNus aLit VeNis et CaeCo Carpitur igni.}}<ref>Virgil, ''Aen.'' 4.1–2.</ref>
:"But the queen, now long wounded by grave anxiety,
:feeds the wound in her veins and is tormented by an unseen fire"

Also in Virgil:
:{{lang|la|LoCa NoCTe TaCeNTia LaTe}}<ref>Virgil, ''Aen.'' 6.265.</ref> "places silent with night everywhere"
:{{lang|la|iLLae Remis VaDa LiViDa VeRRunt}}<ref>Virgil, ''Aen.'' 6.320.</ref> "those ones with oars sweep the dark shallows"

Sometimes the same vowel is repeated:
:{{lang|la|m<u>ē</u>, mē, adsum qui f<u>ē</u>ci, in m<u>ē</u> conv<u>er</u>tite f<u>er</u>rum}}<ref>Virgil, ''Aen.'' 9.427.</ref>
:"on me, me, I who did it am here, turn your swords on me!"

:{{lang|la|n<u>e</u>c fr<u>e</u>na r<u>e</u>mittit, / n<u>e</u>c r<u>e</u>tiN<u>e</u>re val<u>e</u>t, N<u>e</u>c N<u>o</u>mina N<u>o</u>vit equ<u>o</u>rum}}<ref>Ovid, ''Met.''  2.192.</ref>
:"he does not let go of the reins, but he is not strong enough to hold them back, and he does not know the names of the horses"

====Rhetorical techniques====
Rhetorical devices such as anaphora, antithesis, and rhetorical questions are frequently used in epic poetry. Tricolon is also common:
:{{lang|la|haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est;}}
:{{lang|la|portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti.}}<ref>Virgil, ''Aen.'' 6.325–6.</ref>
:"All this crowd that you see, are the poor and unburied;
:that ferryman is Charon; these, that the wave is carrying, are the buried."

====Genre of subject matter====
The poems of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid often vary their narrative with speeches. Well known examples are the speech of Queen Dido cursing Aeneas in book 4 of the ''Aeneid'', the lament of the nymph Juturna when she is unable to save her brother Turnus in book 12 of the ''Aeneid'', and the quarrel between Ajax and Ulysses over the arms of Achilles in book 13 of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. Some speeches are themselves narratives, as when Aeneas tells Queen Dido about the fall of Troy and his voyage to Africa in books 2 and 3 of the ''Aeneid''. Other styles of writing include vivid descriptions, such as Virgil's description of the god Charon in ''Aeneid'' 6, or Ovid's description of Daedalus's labyrinth in book 8 of the ''Metamorphoses''; similes, such as Virgil's comparison of the souls of the dead to autumn leaves or clouds of migrating birds in ''Aeneid'' 6; and lists of names, such as when Ovid names 36 of the dogs who tore their master Actaeon to pieces in book 3 of the ''Metamorphoses''.

===Conversational style===
Raven <ref>Raven (1965), pp. 94–5.</ref> divides the various styles of the hexameter in classical Latin into three types: the early stage (Ennius), the fully developed type (Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, with Lucretius about midway between Ennius and Cicero), and the conversational type, especially Horace, but also to an extent Persius and Juvenal. One feature which marks these off is their often irregular line endings (for example, words of one syllable)<ref>Raven (1965), p. 102.</ref> and also the very conversational, un-epic style. Horace in fact called his [[satires (Horace)|satires]] {{lang|la|sermones}} ("conversations"). The word order and vocabulary is much as might be expected in prose. An example is the opening of the 9th satire of book 1:

:{{lang|la|Ibam forte Via Sacra, sicut meus est mos,}}
:{{lang|la|nescio quid meditans nugarum, totus in illis:}}
:{{lang|la|accurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum:}}
:{{lang|la|arreptaque manu, 'quid agis, dulcissime rerum?'}}

:"I was walking by chance along the Sacred Way, as is my custom,
:meditating on some trifle or other, completely absorbed in it,
:when suddenly up ran a certain person known to me by name only.
:He grabbed my hand and said 'How are you, sweetest of things?'"

===Silver Age and Late Empire===

The verse innovations of the Augustan writers were carefully imitated by their successors in the Silver Age of [[Latin literature]]. The verse form itself then was little changed as the quality of a poet's hexameter was judged against the standard set by Virgil and the other Augustan poets, a respect for literary precedent encompassed by the Latin word ''{{lang|la|aemulātiō}}''.<ref>E.g., the younger Pliny, in referring to an orator who prided himself on not attempting to rival Cicero, replied, ''{{lang|la|Est enim ... mihi cum Cicerōne aemulātiō, nec sum contentus ēloquentiā saeculī nostrī; nam stultissimum crēdō ad imitandum nōn optima quaeque prōpōnere.}}'' ("I do attempt to emulate Cicero, as I am not content with the eloquence of our age; I think it's idiotic not to imitate the best examples.") – ''Letters'' I.5.12–3</ref> Deviations were generally regarded as idiosyncrasies or hallmarks of personal style and were not imitated by later poets. [[Juvenal]], for example, was fond of occasionally creating verses that placed a sense break between the fourth and fifth foot (instead of in the usual caesura positions), but this technique—known as the bucolic diaeresis—did not catch on with other poets.

In the late empire, writers experimented again by adding unusual restrictions to the standard hexameter. The [[rhopalic verse]] of [[Ausonius]] is a good example; besides following the standard hexameter pattern, each word in the line is one syllable longer than the previous, e.g.:

:{{lang|la|Spēs, deus, / aeter/nae stati/ōnis / concili/ātor,}}
:{{lang|la|sī cas/tīs preci/bus veni/ālēs / invigi/lāmus,}}
:{{lang|la|hīs, pater, / ōrā/tis plā/cābili/s adstipu/lāre.}}<ref>Ausonius, {{lang|la|Oratio Consulis Ausonii Versibus Rhopalicis}}.</ref>

:"O God, Hope of Eternal Life, Conciliator,
:if, with chaste entreaties, hoping for pardon, we keep vigil,
:look kindly on us and grant these prayers."

Also notable is the tendency among late grammarians to thoroughly dissect the hexameters of Virgil and earlier poets. A treatise on poetry by [[Diomedes Grammaticus]] is a good example, as this work categorizes dactylic hexameter verses in ways that were later interpreted under the [[golden line]] rubric. Independently, these two trends show the form becoming highly artificial—more like a puzzle to solve than a medium for personal poetic expression.

===Middle Ages===
{{further|Latin rhythmic hexameter}}

By the Middle Ages, some writers adopted more relaxed versions of the meter. [[Bernard of Cluny]], in the 12th century, for example, employs it in his ''De Contemptu Mundi'', but ignores classical conventions in favor of accentual effects and predictable rhyme both within and between verses, e.g.:

:{{lang|la|Hora no/vissima, / tempora / pessima / sunt: vigi/lemus.}}
:{{lang|la|Ecce mi/naciter / imminet / arbiter / ille su/premus.}}
:{{lang|la|Imminet / imminet / ut mala / terminet, / aequa co/ronet,}}
:{{lang|la|Recta re/muneret, /  anxia / liberet, / aethera / donet.}}

:"These are the last days, the worst of times: let us keep watch.
:Behold the menacing arrival of the supreme Judge.
:He is coming, he is coming to end evil, to crown just actions,
:Reward what is right, free us from anxieties, and give the heavens."

Not all medieval writers are so at odds with the Virgilian standard, and with the rediscovery of classical literature, later Medieval and Renaissance writers are far more orthodox, but by then the form had become an academic exercise. [[Petrarch]], for example, devoted much time to his ''[[Africa (Petrarch)|Africa]]'', a dactylic hexameter epic on [[Scipio Africanus]], completed in 1341, but this work was unappreciated in his time and remains little read today. It begins as follows:<ref>On this poem see: Mustard, W. P. (1921). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/289235 "Petrarch's Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511220217/https://www.jstor.org/stable/289235 |date=2022-05-11 }}. ''The American Journal of Philology'', 1921, Vol. 42, No. 2 (1921), pp. 97–121.</ref>

:{{lang|la|Et michi / conspicu/um meri/tis bel/loque tre/mendum,}}
:{{lang|la|Musa, vi/rum refe/res, Ita/lis cui / fracta sub / armis}}
:{{lang|la|Nobilis / eter/num prius / attulit / Africa / nomen.}}

:"To me also,<ref>Imitating ''Odyssey'' line 10: "Tell of these things, goddess, to us also".</ref> o Muse, tell of the man, 
:conspicuous for his merits and fearsome in war,
:to whom noble Africa, broken beneath Italian arms,
:first gave its eternal name."

In contrast, [[Dante]] decided to write his epic, the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' in Italian—a choice that defied the traditional epic choice of Latin dactylic hexameters—and produced a masterpiece beloved both then and now.<ref>{{cite book|first=Guy P.|last=Raffa|editor-first=Dante|editor-last=Alighieri|date=1995|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPkqYo-6QwkC&pg=PA267|title=Dante's Inferno, The Indiana Critical Edition (Indiana Masterpiece Editions)|chapter=Dante's Beloved Yet Damned Virgil|page=267|isbn=0253209307|publisher=Indiana University Press|access-date=2019-07-25|archive-date=2024-05-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240525095841/https://books.google.com/books?id=TPkqYo-6QwkC&pg=PA267#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

With the [[Neo-Latin]] period, the language itself came to be regarded as a medium only for serious and learned expression, a view that left little room for Latin poetry. The emergence of [[Recent Latin]] in the 20th century restored classical orthodoxy among Latinists and sparked a general (if still academic) interest in the beauty of Latin poetry. Today, the modern Latin poets who use the dactylic hexameter are generally as faithful to Virgil as Rome's Silver Age poets.

==In modern languages==
===In English===
Many poets have attempted to write dactylic hexameters in English, though few works composed in the meter have stood the test of time. Most such works are accentual rather than quantitative. Perhaps the most famous is [[Longfellow]]'s "[[Evangeline]]", whose first lines are as follows:

:"This is the / forest pri/meval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks
:Bearded with / moss, and in / garments / green, indis/tinct in the / twilight,
:Stand like / Druids of / eld, with / voices / sad and pro/phetic..."

Contemporary poet [[Annie Finch]] wrote her epic libretto ''Among the Goddesses'' in dactylic tetrameter, which she claims is the most accurate English accentual equivalent of dactylic hexameter.<ref>"Preface," ''Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams'' (Red Hen Press, 2010), p. iii-iv.''</ref> Poets who have written quantitative hexameters in English include [[Robert Bridges]] and Rodney Merrill, whose translation of part of the ''[[Iliad]]'' begins as follows (see External links below):

:"Sing now, / goddess, the / wrath of A/chilles the / scion of / Peleus,
:Ruinous / rage, which / brought the A/chaeans un/counted af/flictions;
:Many the / powerful / souls it / sent to the / dwelling of / Hades..."

Although the rules seem simple, it is hard to use classical hexameter in English because English is a [[Isochrony#Stress timing|stress-timed]] language that condenses vowels and consonants between stressed syllables, while hexameter relies on the regular timing of the phonetic sounds. Languages having the latter properties (i.e., languages that are not stress-timed) include Ancient Greek, Latin, Lithuanian and Hungarian.

===In German===
Dactylic hexameter has proved more successful in German than in most modern languages. [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock]]'s epic ''[[Der Messias (Klopstock)|Der Messias]]'' popularized accentual dactylic hexameter in [[German Language|German]]. Subsequent German poets to employ the form include [[Goethe]] (notably in his ''[[Reineke Fuchs]]'') and [[Schiller]].

The opening lines of Goethe's {{lang|de|Reineke Fuchs}} ("Reynard the Fox"), written in 1793–1794, are:

:{{lang|de|Pfingsten, das / liebliche / Fest, war ge/kommen; es / grünten und / blühten}}
:{{lang|de|Feld und / Wald; auf / Hügeln und / Höhn, in / Büschen und / Hecken}}
:{{lang|de|Übten ein / fröhliches / Lied die / neuer/munterten / Vögel;}}
:{{lang|de|Jede / Wiese / sproßte von / Blumen in / duftenden / Gründen,}}
:{{lang|de|Festlich / heiter / glänzte der / Himmel und / farbig die / Erde.}}

:"Pentecost, the lovely festival, had come; field and forest
:grew green and bloomed; on hills and ridges, in bushes and hedges
:The newly encouraged birds practised a merry song;
:Every meadow sprouted with flowers in fragrant grounds,
:The sky shone festively cheerfully and the earth was colourful."

===In French===
[[Jean-Antoine de Baïf]] (1532–1589) wrote poems regulated by [[Syllable weight|quantity]] on the Greco–Roman model, a system which came to be known as ''[[Musique mesurée#History|vers mesurés]]'', or ''vers mesurés à l'antique'', which the French language of the Renaissance permitted. To do this, he invented a special phonetic alphabet. In works like his ''Étrénes de poézie Franzoęze an vęrs mezurés'' (1574)<ref>See, for example, ''[https://virga.org/baif/index.php?item=166&metrique=1 Au Roi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818214517/https://virga.org/baif/index.php?item=166&metrique=1 |date=2018-08-18 }}''.</ref> or ''Chansonnettes'' he used the dactylic hexameter, and other meters, in a quantitative way.

An example of one of his elegiac couplets is as follows. The final -e of {{lang|fr|vienne}}, {{lang|fr|autre}}, and {{lang|fr|regarde}} is sounded, and the word {{lang|fr|il}} is pronounced /i/:

:{{lang|fr|Vienne le / beau Nar/cis, qui ja/mais n'aima / autre si/non soi,}}
:{{lang|fr|Et qu'il re/garde te/s yeux, // Et, qu'il se / garde d'ai/mer.}}<ref>Jean-Antoine de Baïf, {{lang|fr|Chansonette}} XV.</ref>
:| – u u | – – | – u u | – – | – u u | – –
:| – u u | – u u | – || – u u | – u u | –
:"Let the handsome Narcissus come, who never loved another except himself,
:and let him look at your eyes, and let him try not to love you."

A modern attempt at reproducing the dactylic hexameter in French is this one, by André Markowicz (1985), translating Catullus's poem 63. Again the final -e and -es of {{lang|fr|pères}}, {{lang|fr|perfide}}, and {{lang|fr|désertes}} are sounded:

:{{lang|fr|C'est ain/si que tu / m'as arra/chée aux au/tels de mes / pères,}}
:{{lang|fr|Pour me lais/ser, per/fide Thé/sée, sur ces / rives dé/sertes ...}}<ref>André Markowicz, {{lang|fr|Le Livre de Catulle}}, éd. L'Âge d'Homme, 1985.</ref>
:| – – | – u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | –&nbsp;– |
:| – u u | – – | – u u | – u u | – u u | – – |
:"Is it for this that you have snatched me from the altars of my ancestors,
:to abandon me, traitorous Theseus, on these deserted shores?"

===In Hungarian===
[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] is extremely suitable to hexameter (and other forms of poetry based on [[metre (poetry)|quantitative meter]]).<ref>[http://real-eod.mtak.hu/2714/1/M%C3%BCvelt_magyar_nyelvtan_elemi_r%C3%A9sze.pdf  A magyar nyelv szelleme; Művelt magyar nyelvtan I., 1843] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108224412/http://real-eod.mtak.hu/2714/1/M%C3%BCvelt_magyar_nyelvtan_elemi_r%C3%A9sze.pdf |date=2022-01-08 }}, by the linguist [[János Fogarasi]], pp. 40–41 [pp. 59–60 in the PDF] ''Ha jelesb magyar költőink hexametereit olvassuk vagy halljuk, oly szabályszerűeknek találjuk a kifejezéseket, a szórendet oly erőltetésnélkülinek, s — a formától s válogatottabb szóktul elvontan — az egészet oly természetes folyamatúnak, mintha csak gondos kötetlen beszédet hallanánk.'' "When we read or hear hexameters by our Hungarian poets of note, we find the expressions so regular, the word order so uncontrived, and – detached from the form and the refined terms – the whole so naturally flowing, that it is as if we were hearing careful colloquial speech." The author then goes on to illustrate his point by quoting [https://mek.oszk.hu/01100/01122/html/cserh.htm Cserhalom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216105831/http://mek.oszk.hu/01100/01122/html/cserh.htm |date=2022-02-16 }} by [[Mihály Vörösmarty]].</ref> It has been applied to Hungarian since 1541, introduced by the grammarian [[János Sylvester]].<ref>[https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/h-B866/hexameter-C5FB/ Hexameter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811130502/https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/h-B866/hexameter-C5FB/ |date=2020-08-11 }} in ''[[A Pallas nagy lexikona|Pallas' Great Lexicon]].''</ref>

A hexameter can even occur spontaneously. For example, a student may extricate themselves from failing to remember a poem by saying the following, which is a hexameter in Hungarian:

:{{lang|hu|Itt elakadtam, sajnos nem jut eszembe a többi.}}
:― ∪ ∪ / ― ― / ― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ― 
:"I'm stuck here, unfortunately the rest won't come into my mind."

[[Sándor Weöres]] included an ordinary nameplate text in one of his poems (this time, a [[pentameter]]):<ref>[http://ludens.elte.hu/~tir/vers/avwejs.htm Weöres Sándor: Az éjszaka csodái] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627180817/http://ludens.elte.hu/~tir/vers/avwejs.htm |date=2022-06-27 }} ("The Miracles of Night")</ref>

:{{lang|hu|Tóth Gyula bádogos és vízvezeték-szerelő.}}
:― ∪ ∪ / ― ∪ ∪ / ― // ― ∪ ∪ / ― ∪ ∪ / ―
:"Gyula Tóth tinsmith and plumber"

Similar present-day, spontaneous hexameters have been spotted by contemporary poets such as {{Wikidata fallback link|Q733736}}<ref>{{cite web |url = https://168ora.hu/kultura/a-lira-az-aszvarro-daniel-a-koltoi-szerepekrol-10294 |title = A líra az ász: Varró Dániel a költői szerepekről |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006124500/https://168ora.hu/kultura/a-lira-az-aszvarro-daniel-a-koltoi-szerepekrol-10294 |archive-date=6 October 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[János Lackfi]]:<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=866872056774285 Homérosz és a focivébé], Facebook post, June 22, 2016</ref>

:<small>(on a bar of chocolate)</small>
:{{lang|hu|Tejcsokoládé sárgabarack- és kekszdarabokkal}}
:― ∪ ∪ / ― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ―
:"Milk chocolate with apricot and biscuit bits"

:<small>(at a cash desk)</small>
:{{lang|hu|Áfás számla igényét, kérjük, előre jelezze!}}
:― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ―
:"Please indicate in advance your need for a VAT invoice."

:<small>(at a government customer service counter)</small>
:{{lang|hu|Gépjárművezető-igazolványok kiadása}}
:― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ― / ― ∪ ∪ / ― ―
:"Issuance of driver’s licenses"

Due to this feature, the hexameter has been widely used both in translated (Greek and Roman) and in original Hungarian poetry up to the twentieth century (e.g. by [[Miklós Radnóti]]).<ref>[http://www.magyarulbabelben.net/works/hu-en/Radnóti_Miklós-1909 Radnóti's poems with English translations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419162340/https://www.magyarulbabelben.net/works/hu-en/Radn%c3%b3ti_Mikl%c3%b3s-1909 |date=2023-04-19 }}, see the Fifth, Seventh or Eighth Eclogue, the seventh being the most famous, while the eighth is translated into English in hexameters.</ref>

===In Lithuanian===
''[[The Seasons (poem)|The Seasons]]'' (''Metai'') by [[Kristijonas Donelaitis]] is a famous [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] poem in quantitative dactylic hexameters. Because of the nature of Lithuanian, more than half of the lines of the poem are entirely spondaic save for the mandatory dactyl in the fifth foot.

==See also==
* [[Latin rhythmic hexameter]]
* [[Prosody (Greek)]]
* [[Prosody (Latin)]]
* [[Metres of Roman comedy|Meters of Roman comedy]]
* [[Trochaic septenarius]]
* [[Brevis in longo]]
* [[Anceps]]
* [[Biceps (prosody)|Biceps]]
* [[Resolution (meter)]]

==Notes==
<references>

<ref name="aeneid">
{{cite book
 | author = P. Vergilius Maro
 | editor = J. B. Greenough
 | location = Boston
 | publisher = Ginn & Co.
 | title = Aeneid
 | url = http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0690.phi003.perseus-lat1:1.1-1.7
 | year = 1900
}}
</ref>
<ref name="allen1965">
{{cite book
 | author = W. Sidney Allen
 | location = The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | title = Vox Latina, A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Ltin
 | year = 1965
}}
</ref>
<ref name="allen1968">
{{cite book
 | author = W. Sidney Allen
 | location = Bentley House, P.O. Box 92,200 Euston Road, London, N.W. 1
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | title = Vox Graeca, A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Greek
 | year = 1968
}}
</ref>
<ref name="butcher1914">
{{cite journal
 | author = W. G. D. Butcher
 | issue = 2
 | journal = The Classical Quarterly
 | title = The Caesvra in Virgil, and Its Bearing on the Authenticity of the Pseudo-Vergiliana
 | url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/636296
 | volume = 8
 | year = 1914
}}
</ref>
<ref name="clark2004">
{{cite book
 | chapter = Formulas, metre and type-scenes
 | editor-first = Robert
 | editor-last = Fowler
 | first = Matthew
 | last = Clark
 | location = The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, cb2 2ru, UK
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | title = The Cambridge Compation to Homer
 | year = 2004
}}
</ref>
<ref name="king2009">
{{cite book
 | author = Katherine Callen King
 | isbn = 978-1-4051-5947-0
 | location = The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom
 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
 | title = Ancient Epic
 | year = 2009
}}
</ref>
<ref name="raven1962">
{{cite book
 | author = D. S. Raven
 | location = 24 Russell Square, London
 | publisher = Faber and Faber
 | title = Greek Metre An Introduction
 | year = 1962
}}
</ref>
<ref name="raven1965">
{{cite book
 | author = D. S. Raven
 | location = 24 Russell Square, London
 | publisher = Faber and Faber
 | title = Latin Metre An Introduction
 | year = 1965
}}
</ref>
<ref name="west1987">
{{cite book
 | author = M. L. West
 | isbn = 0-19-872132-3
 | location = Oxford University Press, Walton St., Oxford OX2 6DP
 | publisher = Clarendon Press
 | title = Introduction to Greek Metre
 | year = 1987
}}
</ref>

</references>

==References==

* Bassett, S. E. (1905). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/282666.pdf "Notes on the Bucolic Diaeresis".] ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' Vol. 36 (1905), pp.&nbsp;111–124.
* Heikkinen, S. (2015). ''From Persius to Wilkinson: The Golden Line Revisited''. ''Arctos'' 49, pp.&nbsp;57–77.

==External links==
* [http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/classics/courses/metrica/ Introduction to dactylic hexameter] for Latin verse.
* [http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/meter/reading_dact_hex.php Reading dactylic hexameter], specifically Homer.
* [https://vimeo.com/89749260 Recitation of Homer Iliad 23.62-107] (in Greek), by [[Stanley Lombardo]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121002001956/http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/aeneid1.htm Oral reading of Virgil's ''Aeneid''], by [[Robert Sonkowsky]], University of Minnesota.
* [http://www.thesaurus.flf.vu.lt/eiledara/index.php Greek hexameter analysis online tool], University of Vilnius.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100322202531/http://www.classicsprofessor.com/VergilAP/scanning_hexameter.htm Audio/Visual Tutorials for Vergil's Hexameter], by Dale Grote, UNC Charlotte.
* [http://www.hexameter.co Hexameter.co], practice scanning lines of dactylic hexameter from a variety of Latin authors.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAm525BJYh4 Rodney Merrill reading his translation of Homer's Iliad], in English dactylic hexameter verse.

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[[Category:Types of verses]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek epic poetry]]
[[Category:Latin poetry]]