(n.d.-present)
The term epic generally refers to long, episodic narrative poems featuring larger-than-life characters who engage in actions requiring great courage and strength. Epic heroes hold national or international importance and are celebrated as symbols of national values and embodiments of the heroic ideal. Such greatness is underscored by the epic’s elevated, formal style, an objective point of view, and a vast, expansive setting.
Historically, epics were recited to audiences as songs by bards. As writing increased in popularity, however, these long story-songs were written down and circulated in book form.
Epics typically begin with an invocation (a prayer) to a muse, whom the narrator asks for inspiration to tell a valuable and memorable story. The epic then begins in the middle of a central action or key event, a technique known as in medias res (Latin for “in the middle of things”). Thus, the epic’s narrative opens in the middle of a serious and significant moment, such as a battle. In Homer’s Iliad, for instance, the drama opens after the war between the Greek forces and the inhabitants of Troy has been raging for 10 years.
After opening in medias res, the epic’s story unfolds, and the history of the dramatic action is revealed intermittently. The narrator frequently digresses from the action’s central plot to tell the history of a particular character or some other story, a digression that adds meaning to the main action and to the epic’s main themes. In Virgil’s Aeneid, for instance, the narrator departs from the main story to discuss a highly valuable and symbolic shield that was forged by Vulcan and given to Aeneas by his mother.
Another common characteristic shared by epics is an element of supernaturalism. Gods, spirits, and angels interject themselves in human affairs and act as supernatural forces influencing the epic’s characters and actions. In some epics, in fact, the hero is part divine, as in the Aeneid, where Venus, the goddess of love, is Aeneas’s mother.
Other key characteristics of epics include extensive cataloging of things and characters (resembling lists in the Old Testament), elaborate. comparisons known as epic similes, and long formal speeches.
Epics generally fall into two categories, the folk epic and the art epic. Folk epics are works of unknown authorship and are composed by several individuals. Art epics, on the other hand, are those thought to be written by a single author. The art epic is generally more moral in its purpose and more critical about the events and characters portrayed. Additionally, the events of these epics typically take place further in the past.
Important folk epics include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Old English Beowulf, the German Nibelungenlied, and the East Indian Mahabharata.
The Aeneid, by P. Vergilius Maro (Virgil), the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, and Paradise Lost by John milton are examples of the art epic.
Works about Epics
Merchant, Paul. The Epic. London: Methuen, 1971.
Newman, John Kevin. The Classical Epic Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986.
