Meters

This is the reference for metrical scansion in pyaegean: you hand it a line of Ancient Greek verse and a metre, and it fits the whole line to that metre's quantity template — recovering the feet, the long/short sequence, and (for the spoken metres) the main caesura. Use it to check whether a line scans, to see how it scans, or to pull the metre out of a corpus line by line.

It works offline, with no third-party dependencies, on the syllables and quantities pyaegean already computes. If you only want the heavy/light weight of the syllables in a single word (not a fitted line), that's the simpler per-syllable prosody tool, not this page.

New here? Start with Getting Started. For the wider Greek toolkit see Greek NLP; for the spoken-vs-written-language caveats see Limitations.

The one-line version

from aegean import greek

greek.scan_hexameter("ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ").pattern
# '—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—×'

Or from the terminal (needs pip install "pyaegean[cli]"):

aegean greek scan "ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ"
# —⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—×
# hexameter: dactyl, dactyl, dactyl, dactyl, dactyl, final; caesura: trochaic

Notation (the three glyphs)

Every pattern is written with three symbols. There is nothing else to learn.

Glyph	Name	Means
`—`	heavy (longum)	a long/heavy syllable
`⏑`	light (breve)	a short/light syllable
`×`	anceps	"either" — a position the metre lets be long or short (also the line-final brevis in longo)

Feet are separated by | in the printed pattern. The aeolic lines are printed as one unbroken run (they aren't divided into feet).

The metres at a glance

Every supported metre, its quantity template, and a real line that scans. Each example below was run through aegean greek scan ... --meter <name> (or the matching Python call) and shows its actual output.

`--meter` value	Template (— heavy · ⏑ light · × anceps)	Example line that scans
`hexameter`	five dactyl-or-spondee feet + `—×`	`ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ`
`pentameter`	`— ⏑⏑ — ⏑⏑ — ‖ — ⏑⏑ — ⏑⏑ —`	`κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.`
`trimeter`	`× — ⏑ —` × 3 (final element anceps), with resolution	`ὦ κοινὸν αὐτάδελφον Ἰσμήνης κάρα`
`glyconic`	`× × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ×`	`Ἀφροδίτα δολόπλοκε`
`pherecratean`	`× × — ⏑ ⏑ — ×` (catalectic glyconic)	`δεῦρο Μοῦσα λίγεια`
`sapphic_hendecasyllable`	`— ⏑ — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ×`	`φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν`
`adonean`	`— ⏑ ⏑ — ×` (close of the Sapphic stanza)	`ἰμερόεν δὲ`
`alcaic_hendecasyllable`	`× — ⏑ — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ×`	`ἀσυννέτημμι τὼν ἀνέμων στάσιν`
`alcaic_enneasyllable`	`× — ⏑ — × — ⏑ — ×`	`κρόνωι βασιλεῦσι δῶτορ` (illustrative)
`alcaic_decasyllable`	`— ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ×`	`δέξατο νυμφίον ἐς θαλάμους` (illustrative)

The alcaic_enneasyllable and alcaic_decasyllable examples are short illustrative cola chosen to land exactly on the template; the rest are genuine verse openings (Homer, Simonides, Sophocles, Euripides, Sappho, Alcaeus). All ten were verified against the running scanner.

The list of aeolic line names is also available in code:

from aegean import greek
greek.AEOLIC_LINES
# ('glyconic', 'pherecratean', 'sapphic_hendecasyllable', 'adonean',
#  'alcaic_hendecasyllable', 'alcaic_enneasyllable', 'alcaic_decasyllable')

The functions

There is one function per metre family plus a dispatcher. The CLI mirrors them through a single --meter flag.

Python	What it scans	CLI equivalent
`greek.scan_hexameter(line)`	dactylic hexameter	`aegean greek scan LINE` (default)
`greek.scan_pentameter(line)`	elegiac pentameter	`aegean greek scan LINE --meter pentameter`
`greek.scan_trimeter(line)`	iambic trimeter (with resolution)	`aegean greek scan LINE --meter trimeter`
`greek.scan_aeolic(line, line_type)`	one named aeolic line	`aegean greek scan LINE --meter <line_type>`
`greek.scan_line(line, meter)`	any of the above, by name	`aegean greek scan LINE --meter <meter>`
`greek.syllable_options(line)`	the raw pre-metrical analysis	—

scan_line is the general entry point: pass "hexameter", "pentameter", "trimeter", or any aeolic line name. The named functions are just convenient shortcuts.

Dactylic hexameter

Six feet: feet 1–5 each a dactyl (—⏑⏑) or spondee (——), the sixth always —×. Quantities are resolved across word boundaries, including correptio epica (a word-final long vowel in hiatus may scan short).

from aegean import greek

sc = greek.scan_hexameter("πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν")
sc.pattern        # '—⏑⏑|——|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—×'
sc.caesura        # 'penthemimeral'
[f.name for f in sc.feet]
# ['dactyl', 'spondee', 'dactyl', 'dactyl', 'dactyl', 'final']

aegean greek scan "πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν"
# —⏑⏑|——|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—×
# hexameter: dactyl, spondee, dactyl, dactyl, dactyl, final; caesura: penthemimeral

Elegiac pentameter

The second line of the elegiac couplet: two dactyl-or-spondee feet, a longum, the central diaeresis (‖), then two obligatory dactyls and a final longum.

from aegean import greek

# Simonides' Thermopylae epitaph
greek.scan_pentameter("κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.").pattern
# '—⏑⏑|——|—|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|×'

aegean greek scan "κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι." --meter pentameter
# —⏑⏑|——|—|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|×
# pentameter: dactyl, spondee, longum, dactyl, dactyl, longum; caesura: —

No caesura is reported for the pentameter (its central break is structural, not a detected word-break), so the caesura field is None.

Iambic trimeter

The spoken metre of tragedy and comedy: three metra of × — ⏑ — (the final element anceps). Long elements may be resolved into two shorts, so a 13-syllable line can still be a clean trimeter.

from aegean import greek

# Antigone 1 — no resolution
greek.scan_trimeter("ὦ κοινὸν αὐτάδελφον Ἰσμήνης κάρα").pattern
# '×—⏑—|×—⏑—|×—⏑×'

# Bacchae 1 — Διό- resolves to ⏑⏑, giving 13 syllables
sc = greek.scan_trimeter("Διόνυσον, ὃν τίκτει ποθ' ἡ Κάδμου κόρη")
sc.pattern              # '×⏑⏑⏑—|×—⏑—|×—⏑×'
len(sc.syllables)       # 13

aegean greek scan "ὦ κοινὸν αὐτάδελφον Ἰσμήνης κάρα" --meter trimeter
# ×—⏑—|×—⏑—|×—⏑×
# trimeter: metron, metron, metron; caesura: hephthemimeral

The trimeter reports a penthemimeral or hephthemimeral caesura when a word-break falls at the right element.

Aeolic lyric lines

These are fixed quantity templates — the choriambic nucleus does not resolve, so the line either matches the template exactly or it doesn't. Interior × positions are the aeolic base; the final × is brevis in longo. Use scan_aeolic(line, line_type) (or scan_line(line, line_type)).

from aegean import greek

greek.scan_aeolic("φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν", "sapphic_hendecasyllable").pattern
# '—⏑—×—⏑⏑—⏑—×'   (Sappho 31.1)

greek.scan_aeolic("ἀσυννέτημμι τὼν ἀνέμων στάσιν", "alcaic_hendecasyllable").pattern
# '×—⏑—×—⏑⏑—⏑×'   (Alcaeus 326.1)

greek.scan_aeolic("Ἀφροδίτα δολόπλοκε", "glyconic").pattern
# '××—⏑⏑—⏑×'

aegean greek scan "φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν" --meter sapphic_hendecasyllable
# —⏑—×—⏑⏑—⏑—×
# sapphic_hendecasyllable: sapphic_hendecasyllable; caesura: —

The full set of aeolic templates:

`line_type`	Template	Note
`glyconic`	`× × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ×`	the base aeolic colon
`pherecratean`	`× × — ⏑ ⏑ — ×`	catalectic glyconic
`sapphic_hendecasyllable`	`— ⏑ — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ×`	the line of the Sapphic stanza
`adonean`	`— ⏑ ⏑ — ×`	the short close of the Sapphic stanza
`alcaic_hendecasyllable`	`× — ⏑ — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ×`	the line of the Alcaic stanza
`alcaic_enneasyllable`	`× — ⏑ — × — ⏑ — ×`	the 9-syllable Alcaic colon
`alcaic_decasyllable`	`— ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — ×`	the 10-syllable Alcaic colon

What a scansion gives you back

Both scan_* and scan_line return a LineScansion. Its fields:

Field / property	Type	What it is
`.line`	`str`	the input line
`.meter`	`str`	the metre it was fit to
`.pattern`	`str`	the glyph pattern (`—⏑⏑\|…`), feet joined by `\|`
`.feet`	tuple of `Foot`	each foot's `name`, `syllables`, `quantities`
`.syllables`	tuple of `str`	the line's syllables, in order
`.quantities`	tuple of `str`	the resolved quantity per syllable (`"heavy"` / `"light"` / `"anceps"`)
`.caesura`	`str` or `None`	`"penthemimeral"`, `"trochaic"`, `"hephthemimeral"`, or `None`
`.caesura_index`	`int` or `None`	the syllable index the caesura precedes
`.ambiguous`	`bool`	`True` if more than one scansion fit the template

Each Foot carries:

`Foot` field	What it is
`.name`	`dactyl`, `spondee`, `longum`, `final`, `metron`, or the aeolic line name
`.syllables`	the syllables spanned by this foot
`.quantities`	the resolved quantities for those syllables

from aegean import greek

sc = greek.scan_hexameter("ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ")
sc.feet[0].name           # 'dactyl'
sc.feet[0].syllables      # ('ἄν', 'δρα', 'μοι')
sc.feet[0].quantities     # ('heavy', 'light', 'light')
sc.quantities[2]          # 'light'  — μοι, shortened by correptio before ἔννεπε

In Jupyter or Colab a LineScansion renders as a small card with the line, the glyph pattern, the metre, and a foot-by-foot table; everywhere else it prints as the pattern string (str(sc) == sc.pattern).

JSON from the CLI

--json emits the whole analysis as machine-readable JSON (feet, per-syllable quantities, caesura, the ambiguity flag):

aegean greek scan "ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ" --json

{
  "meter": "hexameter",
  "pattern": "—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—⏑⏑|—×",
  "feet": [ { "name": "dactyl", "syllables": ["ἄν","δρα","μοι"],
              "quantities": ["heavy","light","light"] }, … ],
  "syllables": ["ἄν","δρα","μοι", … ,"πολ","λὰ"],
  "quantities": ["heavy","light","light", … ,"heavy","anceps"],
  "caesura": "trochaic",
  "ambiguous": false
}

The CLI also reads a line from stdin when you pass - as the argument, so you can pipe a corpus through it.

Scans-or-declines (it never fudges)

The scanner only returns a scansion that genuinely fits the template. A line that does not fit raises ScansionError from Python and exits non-zero (with the reason) from the CLI — it does not silently produce a wrong reading.

from aegean import greek

try:
    greek.scan_hexameter("ἄνθρωπος")
except greek.ScansionError as exc:
    print(exc)
# line does not scan as dactylic hexameter (3 syllables): 'ἄνθρωπος'

aegean greek scan "ἄνθρωπος"
# aegean: line does not scan as dactylic hexameter (3 syllables): 'ἄνθρωπος'
# (exit code 1)

An unknown metre name is reported the same way, with the list of valid names:

aegean greek scan "φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν" --meter not_a_metre
# aegean: unknown meter 'not_a_metre'; available: adonean, alcaic_decasyllable,
#   alcaic_enneasyllable, alcaic_hendecasyllable, glyconic, hexameter,
#   pentameter, pherecratean, sapphic_hendecasyllable, trimeter
# (exit code 1)

How the quantities are decided

Before fitting, every vowel nucleus is given the set of quantities it could carry, not a single value — the metre then resolves the open choices. The rules:

Situation	Quantity
closed by position (two+ consonants, or a double ζ/ξ/ψ, before the next nucleus)	heavy
short vowel before muta cum liquida (stop + liquid/nasal)	common — heavy or light
open, long nucleus (η, ω, circumflex, iota-subscript, or a diphthong)	heavy
open, short nucleus (ε, ο)	light
open dichronon (α, ι, υ — length not fixed by spelling)	common — heavy or light
word-final long vowel/diphthong in hiatus (correptio epica)	also allowed to shorten

You can see this raw, pre-metrical layer directly — useful for debugging why a line does or doesn't scan:

from aegean import greek

greek.syllable_options("πατρός")
# [('πα', ['heavy', 'light']), ('τρός', ['light'])]
#   πα is common: short α before the stop+liquid cluster τρ (muta cum liquida)

This is the line-level analysis (cross-word position and correptio applied). For the simpler within-a-word weight of each syllable, use greek.scan, which returns heavy / light / common per syllable without fitting any metre.

Resolution

In iambic trimeter, a long element may be resolved into two shorts (one extra syllable). The scanner allows this where the practice does — on the resolvable long elements only, never on the breves or the line-final element.

from aegean import greek

sc = greek.scan_trimeter("Διόνυσον, ὃν τίκτει ποθ' ἡ Κάδμου κόρη")  # Bacchae 1
len(sc.syllables)   # 13 — one element resolved (Διό- = ⏑⏑)
sc.pattern          # '×⏑⏑⏑—|×—⏑—|×—⏑×'

The aeolic lines do not resolve (their choriambic nucleus is fixed), so for them a line is a straight template match: right syllable count and every position's quantity available, or it declines.

Synizesis (curated, never guessed)

Synizesis is two (or three) written vowels read as a single metrical syllable — e.g. the -εω of Πηληϊάδεω in Iliad 1.1. This is lexical, not predictable from spelling, so pyaegean never infers it. A small curated lexicon lists the words where it is standard; a line that only fits via synizesis on a word outside that lexicon still declines rather than guessing.

Word	Coalescing vowels	Why it's in the lexicon
Πηληϊάδεω	`εω`	the genitive ending `-εω` is one syllable (Iliad 1.1)
πόλεως	`εω`	Attic genitive, frequent in tragic trimeter
χρυσέῳ etc.	`εω`	adjectival `-εω` / `-εῳ`
θεούς	`εου`	three written vowels collapse to one syllable

With the entry present, the line scans:

from aegean import greek

greek.scan_hexameter("μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος").meter
# 'hexameter'   — Πηληϊάδεω is in the lexicon, so Iliad 1.1 scans

# πόλεως counts as two metrical syllables (πό + λεως) inside a trimeter
sc = greek.scan_trimeter("πόλεως ἄνακτα τόνδε δεσπότην ἐμόν")
sc.syllables[:2]    # ('πό', 'λεως')
sc.pattern          # '×—⏑—|×—⏑—|×—⏑×'

A diaeresis blocks the coalescence: in Πηληϊάδεω the ϊ (with diaeresis) is its own syllable, exactly as the metre requires:

greek.syllable_options("Πηληϊάδεω")
# [('Πη', ['heavy']), ('λη', ['heavy']), ('ϊ', ['heavy', 'light']),
#  ('ά', ['heavy', 'light']), ('δεω', ['heavy'])]

The lexicon is contribution-friendly and test-enforced: each entry must be required by a real verse line that otherwise fails to scan. Three-vowel coalescences beyond the listed θεούς-type case are out of the current model.

Notes and limitations

Synizesis is not inferred. A line needing it on an un-listed word declines. See the lexicon above; new entries are welcome.
Resolution is supported in the iambic trimeter; the aeolic lines are fixed templates and do not resolve.
Metres in scope: dactylic hexameter, elegiac pentameter, iambic trimeter, and the seven aeolic lines above. Dactylo-epitrite and free astrophic lyric are not yet covered.
The scanner reads the text as written (Unicode polytonic or Beta Code converted first); it does not edit, emend, or restore the text for you.
When more than one valid scansion fits, the first is returned and .ambiguous is set to True — inspect it before trusting a single reading.

For the full picture of what the Greek prosody/scansion tools can and can't do, see Limitations.

Meters

Meters

The one-line version

Notation (the three glyphs)

The metres at a glance

The functions

Dactylic hexameter

Elegiac pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Aeolic lyric lines

What a scansion gives you back

JSON from the CLI

Scans-or-declines (it never fudges)

How the quantities are decided

Resolution

Synizesis (curated, never guessed)

Notes and limitations

See also

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