Computerized Scansion of Ancient Greek Hexameter

A metrical system is the particular rhythm upon which a verse is structured. Classical Ancient Greek poetry demonstrates a wide variety of metrical systems, the most ancient one being the hexameter. Two of the longest and most famous poems of Ancient Greek poetry, namely Iliad and Odyssey, were composed in the hexameter by Homer. This system is named 'hexameter', because the verse is divided into six sections, and so is the rhythm of reciting it. Each section has a fixed scheme, thus it can have only two or three syllables in a predefined combination. The aim of this project was the development of a program that will automatically scan such a verse, by using the least possible computing and linguistic resources. The term 'scansion' denotes the discovery of the particular pattern of the metrical system of the verse. That is in which positions of the verse long syllables are located, in which positions are short, and how these syllables form the fixed scheme of every section of the verse. Words inside verses were carefully selected to conform to the above standards.