
In
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
, an epic is a lengthy
narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with
gods
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
or other
superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
, epic poems consist of formal speech and are usually learnt word for word, and are contrasted with
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
s that consist of
everyday speech where the performer has the license to recontextualize the story to a particular audience, often to a younger generation.
Influential epics that have shaped
Western literature and
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
include
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' and ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'';
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
''; and the anonymous ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...
'' and ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
''. The genre has inspired the adjective ''
epic'' as well as
derivative works in other mediums (such as
epic films) that evoke or emulate the characteristics of epics.
Etymology
The English word ''epic'' comes from
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, which itself comes from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
adjective (), from (),
'word, story, poem'.
In Ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in
dactylic hexameter (), which included not only
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
but also the wisdom poetry of
Hesiod, the utterances of the
Delphic oracle, and the strange theological verses attributed to
Orpheus. Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to ''heroic epic'', as described in this article.
Overview

Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
, were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances. Later writers like
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
,
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes ( ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; ; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Go ...
,
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
,
Camões, and
Milton adopted and adapted Homer's
style and subject matter, but used devices available only to those who write.
The oldest epic recognized is the ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'' (), which was recorded in ancient
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
during the
Neo-Sumerian Empire. The poem details the exploits of
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...
, the king of
Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
. Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure.
The longest written epic from antiquity is the ancient Indian ''
Mahabharata'' (–3rd century AD), which consists of 100,000
ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at ~1.8 million words it is roughly twice the length of ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
'', four times the length of the ''
Rāmāyaṇa'', and roughly ten times the length of the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' and the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'' combined.
Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'', the ancient Indian ''
Mahabharata'' and ''
Rāmāyaṇa'' in Sanskrit and ''
Silappatikaram'' and ''
Manimekalai
''Maṇimēkalai'' (, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably somewhere between the 2nd century to the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a ...
'' in Tamil, the Persian ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
'', the Ancient Greek ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'' and ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'',
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'', the Old English ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...
'',
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
's ''
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...
'', the Finnish ''
Kalevala'', the German , the French ''
Song of Roland'', the Spanish ''
Cantar de mio Cid'', the Portuguese ''
Os Lusíadas'', the Armenian ''
Daredevils of Sassoun'', the Old Russian ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign'',
John Milton's ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
'', ''
The Secret History of the Mongols
The ''Secret History of the Mongols'' is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolic languages. Written for the Borjigin, Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and parti ...
'', the Kyrgyz
''Manas'', and the Malian
''Sundiata''. Epic poems of the modern era include
Derek Walcott's ''
Omeros'',
Mircea Cărtărescu's
''The Levant'' and
Adam Mickiewicz's ''
Pan Tadeusz''. ''
Paterson'' by
William Carlos Williams, published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958, was inspired in part by another modern epic, ''
The Cantos'' by
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
.
Oral epics
The first epics were products of
preliterate societies and
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from
people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...
poetic traditions.
Oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
was used alongside written scriptures to communicate and facilitate the spread of culture.
In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early 20th-century study of living oral epic traditions in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
by
Milman Parry and
Albert Lord demonstrated the
paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
was dictation from an oral performance.
Milman Parry and
Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics, the earliest works of Western literature, were fundamentally an oral poetic form. These works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all of Western epic (including Virgil's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' and Dante's ''
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...
'') self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems.
Composition and conventions
In his work ''
Poetics'', Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with
lyric poetry and drama (in the form of tragedy and comedy).
:Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is an imitation in verse of characters of a higher type. They differ in that Epic poetry admits but one kind of meter and is narrative in form. They differ, again, in their length: for Tragedy endeavors, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this limit, whereas the Epic action has no limits of time. This, then, is a second point of difference; though at first the same freedom was admitted in Tragedy as in Epic poetry.
:Of their constituent parts some are common to both, some peculiar to Tragedy: whoever, therefore knows what is good or bad Tragedy, knows also about Epic poetry. All the elements of an Epic poem are found in Tragedy, but the elements of a Tragedy are not all found in the Epic poem. – Aristotle, ''Poetics'' Part V
Harmon & Holman (1999) define an epic:
;Epic: A long narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.
::: — Harmon & Holman (1999)
Harmon and Holman delineate ten main characteristics of an epic:
# Begins ''
in medias res
A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the chronological middle of the plot, rather than at the beginning (cf. '' ab ovo'', '' ab initio''). Often, exposition is initially bypassed, instead filled i ...
'' ("in the thick of things").
# The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.
# Begins with an invocation to a
muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
(epic invocation).
# Begins with a statement of the theme.
# Includes the use of
epithets.
# Contains long lists, called an
epic catalogue.
# Features long and formal speeches.
# Shows divine intervention in human affairs.
# Features heroes that embody the values of the civilization.
# Often features the tragic hero's descent into the
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
or
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
.
The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat them in their journey, and returns home significantly transformed by their journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from. Many epic heroes are
recurring character
A recurring character is a fictional character, usually in a prime time TV series, who frequently appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main f ...
s in the legends of their native cultures.
Conventions of the Indian Epic
In the Indian
mahākāvya epic genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Indeed, the traditional characteristics of a ''mahākāvya'' are listed as:
* It must take its subject matter from the epics (''Ramayana'' or ''Mahabharata''), or from history,
* It must help further the four goals of man (
purusharthas),
* It must contain descriptions of cities, seas, mountains, moonrise and sunrise, and accounts of merrymaking in gardens, of bathing parties, drinking bouts, and love-making.
* It should tell the sorrow of separated lovers and should describe a wedding and the birth of a son.
* It should describe a king's council, an embassy, the marching forth of an army, a battle, and the victory of a hero.
Themes
Classical epic poetry recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'') or mental (as typified by Achilles in the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'') or both.
Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to
heroism.
Conventions
Proem
In the
proem or preface, the poet may begin by invoking a
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
or similar divinity. The poet prays to the Muses to provide them with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero.
Example opening lines with invocations:
:Sing goddess the baneful wrath of Achilles son of Peleus – ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' 1.1
:Muse, tell me in verse of the man of many wiles – ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'' 1.1
:From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing –
Hesiod, ''
Theogony
The ''Theogony'' () is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogy, genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Homeric Greek, epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1,022 lines. It is one ...
'' 1.1
:Beginning with thee, Oh
Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old – ''
Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' () is a Greek literature, Greek epic poem written by Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic epic (though Aetia (Callimachus), Callim ...
'' 1.1
:Muse, remember to me the causes – ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' 1.8
:Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
:of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire – ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
'' 1.6–7
An alternative or complementary form of proem, found in Virgil and his imitators, opens with the
performative verb "I sing". Examples:
:I sing arms and the man – ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' 1.1
:I sing pious arms and their captain – ''
Gerusalemme liberata'' 1.1
:I sing ladies, knights, arms, loves, courtesies, audacious deeds – ''
Orlando Furioso'' 1.1–2
This Virgilian epic convention is referenced in
Walt Whitman's poem title / opening line "I sing the body electric".
Compare the first six lines of the ''
Kalevala'':
:Mastered by desire impulsive,
:By a mighty inward urging,
:I am ready now for singing,
:Ready to begin the chanting
:Of our nation's ancient folk-song
:Handed down from by-gone ages.
These conventions are largely restricted to European classical culture and its imitators. The ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'', for example, or the ''
Bhagavata Purana'' do not contain such elements, nor do early medieval Western epics that are not strongly shaped by the classical traditions, such as the ''
Chanson de Roland'' or the ''
Poem of the Cid''.
In medias res
Narrative opens "
in the middle of things", with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story. For example, the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' does not tell the entire story of the Trojan War, starting with the
judgment of Paris, but instead opens abruptly on the rage of Achilles and its immediate causes. So, too, ''
Orlando Furioso'' is not a complete biography of Roland, but picks up from the plot of ''
Orlando Innamorato
''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English language, English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian language, Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the "I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matte ...
'', which in turn presupposes a knowledge of the
romance and
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
s.
Enumeratio
Epic catalogues and genealogies are given, called ''
enumeratio''. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context, such as the
catalog of ships. Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. Examples:
* In ''
The Faerie Queene
''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
'', the list of trees I.i.8–9.
* In ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
'', the list of demons in Book I.
* In the ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'', the list of enemies the Trojans find in
Etruria (Central Italy) in Book VII. Also, the list of ships in Book X.
* In the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'', the
Catalogue of Ships, the most famous epic catalogue, and the
Trojan Battle Order
Stylistic features
In the Homeric and post-Homeric tradition, epic style is typically achieved through the use of the following stylistic features:
* Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases: e.g.,
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's "rosy-fingered dawn" and "wine-dark sea".
*
Epic similes
Form
Many verse forms have been used in epic poems through the ages, but each language's literature typically gravitates to one form, or at least to a very limited set.
Ancient Sumerian epic poems did not use any kind of
poetic meter and
lines did not have consistent lengths;
instead, Sumerian poems derived their rhythm solely through constant
repetition and
parallelism, with subtle variations between lines.
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
epic poetry, by contrast, usually places strong emphasis on the importance of line consistency and poetic meter.
Ancient Greek epics were composed in dactylic
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...
.
Very early Latin epicists, such
Livius Andronicus
Lucius Livius Andronicus (; ; ) was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period during the Roman Republic. He began as an educator in the service of a noble family, producing Latin translations of Greek works, including Homer ...
and
Gnaeus Naevius, used
Saturnian meter. By the time of
Ennius, however, Latin poets had adopted
dactylic hexameter.
Dactylic hexameter has been adapted by a few anglophone poets such as
Longfellow in "
Evangeline", whose first line is as follows:
:This is the , forest pri , meval. The , murmuring , pines and the , hemlocks
Old English, German and Norse poems were written in
alliterative verse
In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly s ...
,
usually without
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
. The alliterative form can be seen in the Old English "
Finnsburg Fragment" (alliterated sounds are in bold):
While the above classical and Germanic forms would be considered stichic, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese long poems favored stanzaic forms, usually written in terza rima
or especially ottava rima.
''Terza rima'' is a rhyme, rhyming Verse (poetry), verse stanza form that consists of an hocket, interlocking three-line
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
scheme. An example is found in the first lines of the
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...
by Dante, who originated the form:
In ottava rima, each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the ABABABCC rhyme scheme. Example:
From the 14th century English epic poems were written in heroic couplets,
and rhyme royal,
though in the 16th century the Spenserian stanza
and blank verse
were also introduced. The French alexandrine is currently the heroic line in French literature, though in earlier literature – such as the chanson de geste – the decasyllable grouped in laisses took precedence. In Polish literature, couplets of Polish alexandrines (syllabic lines of 7+6 syllables) prevail.
In Russian, iambic tetrameter verse is the most popular.
In Serbian poetry, the decasyllable is the only form employed.
Baltic Finns, Balto-Finnic (e.g. Estonian, Finnish, Karelian) folk poetry uses a form of trochaic tetrameter that has been called the Kalevala meter. The Finnish and Estonian national epics, ''
Kalevala'' and ''Kalevipoeg'', are both written in this meter. The meter is thought to have originated during the Finnic languages, Proto-Finnic period.
In Indic epics such as the Ramayana and
Mahabharata, the shloka form is used.
Genres and related forms
The primary form of epic, especially as discussed in this article, is the heroic epic, including such works as the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' and ''
Mahabharata''. Ancient sources also recognized didactic poetry, didactic epic as a category, represented by such works as
Hesiod's ''Works and Days'' and Lucretius's ''De rerum natura''.
A related type of poetry is the epyllion (plural: epyllia), a brief narrative poem with a Romance (love), romantic or Mythology, mythological Theme (literature), theme. The term, which means "little :wikt:epic, epic", came into use in the nineteenth century. It refers primarily to the erudite, shorter hexameter poems of the Hellenistic poetry, Hellenistic period and the similar works composed at Rome from the age of the neoterics; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance, particularly those influenced by Ovid.
The most famous example of Classical antiquity, classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64.
Epyllion is to be understood as distinct from mock epic, another light form.
Romantic epic is a term used to designate works such as ''Morgante'', ''
Orlando Innamorato
''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English language, English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian language, Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the "I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matte ...
'', ''
Orlando Furioso'' and ''Gerusalemme Liberata'', which freely lift characters, themes, plots and narrative devices from the world of prose chivalric romance.
Non-European forms
Long poetic narratives that do not fit the traditional European definition of the heroic epic are sometimes known as folk epics. Indian folk epics have been investigated by Lauri Honko (1998), Brenda Beck (1982) and John Smith, amongst others. Folk epics are an important part of community identities.
Egypt
The folk genre known as al-sira relates the saga of the Hilālī tribe and their migrations across the Middle East and north Africa, see Bridget Connelly (1986).
India
In India, folk epics reflect the caste system of Indian society and the life of the lower levels of society, such as cobblers and shepherds, see C.N. Ramachandran, "Ambivalence and Angst: A Note on Indian folk epics," in Lauri Honko (2002. p. 295). Some Indian oral epics feature strong women who actively pursue personal freedom in their choice of a romantic partner (Stuart, Claus, Flueckiger and Wadley, eds, 1989, p. 5).
Japan
Japanese traditional performed narratives were sung by blind singers. One of the most famous, The Tale of the Heike, deals with historical wars and had a ritual function to placate the souls of the dead (Tokita 2015, p. 7).
Africa
A variety of epic forms are found in Africa. Some have a linear, unified style while others have a more cyclical, episodic style (Barber 2007, p. 50). The best known of African epics is Epic of Sundiata from Mali. Some contemporary scholarship presses against the bifurcation of "epic vs. novel".
There is also the epic of "Kelefaa Saane", "part of the repertoire that maintains the memroy of a legendary warrior prince of Kaabu, a kingdom in the Senegambia, Senegambian area of West Africa, in the nineteenth century".
China
People in the rice cultivation zones of south China sang long narrative songs about the origin of rice growing, rebel heroes, and transgressive love affairs (McLaren 2022). The borderland ethnic populations of China sang heroic epics, such as the Epic of King Gesar of the Mongols, and the creation-myth epics of the Yao people of south China.
See also
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
* Cavallo, Jo Anne, editor. ''Teaching World Epics''. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2023. 368 pages. ISBN: 1603296182.
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External links
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"The Epic" BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Carey, Karen Edwards and Oliver Taplin (''In Our Time'', 3 February 2003)
"Epic Poem" Main Features and Conventions of the Epic
{{Authority control
Epic poetry,
Narrative poems, *
Fiction forms
Adventure fiction