![]() Iliad I.108 "you have not yet spoken a good word nor brought one to pass": Some lines require a knowledge of the digamma for their scansion, e.g. Proper names sometimes take forms to fit the meter, for example Pouludamas instead of the metrically unviable Poludamas. ![]() Homer also altered the forms of words to allow them to fit the hexameter, typically by using a dialectal form: ptolis is an epic form used instead of the Attic polis as necessary for the meter. For example, Homer allows spondaic fifth feet (albeit not often), whereas many later authors never do. ![]() They are also characterised by a laxer following of verse principles than later epicists almost invariably adhered to. Homer’s hexameters contain a higher proportion of dactyls than later hexameter poetry. Homer employs a feminine caesura more commonly than later writers: an example occurs in Iliad I.5 ".and every bird thus the plan of Zeus came to fulfillment": This line also includes a masculine caesura after θεά, a break that separates the line into two parts. Note how the word endings do not coincide with the end of a metrical foot for the early part of the line this forces the accent of each word to lie in the middle of a foot, playing against the ictus. Mênin á | eide, the | á, Pē | lēïá | deō Akhi | lêosĭactyl, dactyl, spondee, dactyl, dactyl, spondee. The first line of Homer’s Iliad-"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles"-provides an example: Thus in general, word breaks occur in the middle of metrical feet, while ictus and accent coincide more often near the end of the line. ![]() If the ictus and accent coincide too frequently the hexameter becomes "sing-songy". The Homeric poems arrange words so as to create an interplay between the metrical ictus-the first syllable of each foot-and the natural, spoken accent of words. Early epic poetry was also accompanied by music, and pitch changes associated with the accented Greek must have highlighted the melody, though the exact mechanism is still a topic of discussion. 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. Such values may not correspond with the rhythms of ordinary spoken English. Syllables containing long vowels, diphthongs and short vowels followed by two or more consonants count as long all other syllables count as short. The preceding line follows the rules of Greek and Latin prosody. They are generally considered the most grandiose and formal meter.Īn English-language example of the dactylic hexameter, in quantitative meter:ĭown in a | deep dark | dell sat an | old cow | munching a | beanstalk Hexameters are frequently enjambed-the meaning runs over from one line to the next, without terminal punctuation-which helps to create the long, flowing narrative of epic. Hexameters also have a primary caesura-a break between words, sometimes (but not always) coinciding with a break in sense-at one of several normal positions: After the first syllable of the second foot after the first syllable in the third foot (the "masculine" caesura) after the second syllable in the third foot if the third foot is a dactyl (the "feminine" caesura) after the first syllable of the fourth foot (the hephthemimeral caesura). (Note that - = a long syllable, ⏑ = a short syllable, ⏕ = either one long or two shorts, and X = anceps syllable.) Thus the dactylic line most normally is scanned as follows: The sixth foot can be filled by either a trochee (a long then short syllable) or a spondee. The fifth foot is usually a dactyl (around 95% of the time in Homer). Specifically, the first four feet can either be dactyls or spondees more or less freely. In strict dactylic hexameter, each foot would be a dactyl (a long and two short syllables), but classical meter allows for the substitution of a spondee (two long syllables) in place of a dactyl in most positions. A dactylic hexameter has six (in Greek ἕξ, hex) feet.
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