Meditation practices, used by many religious and esoteric systems, mainly in the Far East, but also in Christianity, are in fact methods of coordinating heart and respiration rates. This explains their several favourable effects on human body and has nothing to do with divine or metaphysical influences. The amazing thing, proved by recent scientific research, is that the same effect can be achieved by reciting the Homeric Epics with their proper metre: The wondrous dactylic hexameter is the base, which in fact maintains its benevolent effect, even with translation to other languages, such as English or German.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Cysarz, D. et al., Oscillations of heart rate and respiration synchronize during poetry recitation, American Journal of Physiology — Heart and Circulatory Physiology 287, 2004, 2 (online edition).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Paipetis, S.A. (2008). The Miraculous Homeric Metre. In: Paipetis, S.A. (eds) Science and Technology in Homeric Epics. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8784-4_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8784-4_41
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8783-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8784-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)