Secrets of Dactylic Hexameter Revealed!

The Odyssey is written in a meter called dactylic hexameter. Remember Shakespeare's iambic pentameter? This is similar.

You might think of pterodactyls, or you might think of hexagons, or your eyes might just glaze over when you hear the phrase "dactylic hexameter."

You're actually right about the pterodactyls; their name is Greek for winged (pteró) fingers (daktylos). The daktylos part is what we need to remember right now.


You're right about the hexagon part too —"hex" is Greek for six, of course. That six-sided shape has something in common with the ancient Greek metrical scheme, which is made up of six "feet," or rhythmic units per line (just as iambic pentameter was made up of five — think pentagon).

Here's the thing about fingers: look at your pointer finger:
Notice it has one long section and two short ones. This is your clue to the dactyl part of dactylic hexameter:

The rhythm goes like this: long-short-short / long-short-short / long-short-short, etc. There are six "feet" in one line of Homeric verse — six, as in "hex."

But there's a trick at the end of the line! Just as all our fingers don't have three sections, neither do the feet of dactylic hexameter. The last foot is a thumb, otherwise known as a "spondee." How many sections in a thumb? Two — just like a spondee, which has two beats, usually long-long.

So, in short, dactylic hexameter is a metrical scheme in poetry which is made up of six (hex) feet, most of which are dactyls (like fingers: long-short-short).

Here's a mnemonic device for you: the very word "poetry" is itself a dactyl (thanks to Will Shortz of NY Times Crossword fame for, er, pointing this out).