• To be a long syllable, there must be either:
  
• a long vowel (eta and omega are always long: diphthongs are mostly always long: iota and alpha are sometimes long)
• two consonants in a row after the vowel (it doesn't matter whether the vowel itself is long or not in that case)
• To be short, a syllable must:
• have a short vowel (alpha, epsilon, omicron are short: iota and upsilon are sometimes short)
• NOT have two consonants after it

Sometimes resonants don't count as consonants: let's worry about that if we need to, but not now.

• Feet: Homer has two feet--the dactyl and the spondee
  
• Long + short + short = dactylus = DUM da da
• Long + Long = spondee = DUM DUM

• Lines: the Homeric line has 6 feet: hence it is called a hexameter

• SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:
• The last syllable of a line counts as whatever the meter requires REGARDLESS of its actual length as a syllable.
• The line consists entirely of spondees and dactyls, therefore:
• THERE CAN NEVER BE THREE OR MORE SHORTS IN A ROW
• THERE CAN NEVER BE JUST ONE SHORT WITH A LONG ON EITHER SIDE
• The last two feet of a Homeric line have a dactyl then a spondee:
• thus they have the same pattern as:
  
• STRAWberry JAMPOT
• SHAVE and a HAIRCUT.
• ENGLISH DACTYLIC HEXAMETERS:
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poerm Evangeline, about Acadians in Maine starts out:
• This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
  Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
  Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
  Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
  Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
  Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

2. HOMERUS Epic. Odyssea {0012.002} Book 15 line 490