Ovid's Metamorphoses are written in Dactylic Hexameter. Hexameter indicates that each line in the poem has six (hex) feet, and each of these feet has a dactyl. A dactyl is one long syllable followed by two shorts. However, in Ovid there are times where he replaces one long followed by two shorts with two longs. Metrically they are the same, but are marked differently. Longs are marked by a " - " and shorts are marked by a " u ". Foot dividers are marked by a " / " . Elisions are marked with a circle and an arrow. This occurs when two vowels are in contact and the mouth naturally elides the words ( '-um' followed by '-est' elides as well). The circle indicates which word you don't pronounce. Caesuras " // " are pauses in the meter. Below is the story with the metrical notations.