Hexameter

Hexameter is a metrical line consisting of six feet. In classical poetics, the term most often denotes dactylic hexameter, the standard metre of ancient Greek and Latin epic. Each line is built from six feet; in the traditional Greek and Latin form the first four feet are typically dactyls or occasionally spondees, the fifth is usually a dactyl, and the sixth is usually a spondee or trochee, commonly ending with a long syllable. In these languages, syllable length (long versus short) is determined by quantity rather than stress, and a caesura or pause may occur after the first, second, or occasionally third foot.

Substitutions and auxiliaries are common in practice. A line may include spondaic substitutions, elision, or other license to maintain natural meaning while preserving the overall six-foot length. The form is most closely associated with the epic tradition: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and later Latin epic poets such as Statius and Lucan.

Beyond the classical languages, hexameter can be approximated in other tongues, particularly in attempts to imitate classical epic mood. In English, the term heroic hexameter refers to six-beat lines used mainly in translations or experimental verse, where the exact quantitative basis is not preserved but the sense of six-beat rhythm is sought.

See also: dactyl, spondee, caesura, hendecasyllable.