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For other uses of "epic", see Epic (disambiguation).

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An epic poem is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily involving a time beyond living memory in which occurred the extraordinary doings of the extraordinary men and women who, in dealings with the gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants, the poet and their audience, to understand themselves as a people or nation.'[1]

Etymology[edit]

The English word epic comes from the Latin epicus, which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός (epikos), from ἔπος (epos),[2] "word, story, poem."[3]

In ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter (epea), which included not only Homer 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[edit]

The first edition (1835) of the Finnish national epic poetry Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot

Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer, 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, Apollonius of Rhodes, Dante, 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 (c. 2500–1300 BCE), which was recorded in ancient Sumer during the Neo-Sumerian Empire. The poem details the exploits of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure.[4]

The longest epic written is the ancient Indian Mahabharata (c. 3rd century BC—3rd century AD),[5] 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, four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa, and roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined.[6][7][8]

Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Indian Mahabharata and Rāmāyaṇa, the Tamil Silappatikaram, the Persian Shahnameh, the Ancient Greek Odyssey and Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Old English Beowulf, Dante's Divine Comedy, the Finnish Kalevala, the Estonian Kalevipoeg, the German Nibelungenlied, the French Song of Roland, the Spanish Cantar de mio Cid, the Portuguese Os Lusíadas, the Armenian Daredevils of Sassoun, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Epic poems of the modern era include Derek Walcott’s Omeros 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.[9]

Oral epics[edit]

The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions.[citation needed] Oral tradition was used alongside written scriptures to communicate and facilitate the spread of culture.[10] In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans 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 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 and Dante's Divine Comedy) self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems.

Composition and conventions[edit]

In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry and with drama in the form of tragedy and comedy.[11]

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

In A Handbook to Literature (1999), Harmon and Holman 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 and Holman)[12]

An attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic:[12]

  1. Begins in medias res.
  2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.
  3. Begins with an invocation to a muse (epic invocation).
  4. Begins with a statement of the theme.
  5. Includes the use of epithets.
  6. Contains long lists, called an epic catalogue.
  7. Features long and formal speeches.
  8. Shows divine intervention in human affairs.
  9. Features heroes that embody the values of the civilization.
  10. Often features the tragic hero's descent into the underworld or hell.

The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his 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 characters in the legends of their native cultures.

Conventions of Indic Epic[edit]

The above passages convey the experience of epic poetry in the West, but somewhat different conventions have historically applied in India.

In the Indic mahākāvya epic genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Indeed, the traditional characteristics of a mahākāvya are listed as:[13][14]

  • 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".[15]

Themes[edit]

Classical epic poetry recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey) or mental (as typified by Achilles in the Iliad) or both.[citation needed] Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to heroism.[citation needed]

Conventions[edit]

Proem[edit]

The poet may begin by invoking a Muse or similar divinity. The poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero.[16]

Examples:

Sing goddess the baneful wrath of Achilles son of Peleus - Iliad 1.1
Muse, tell me in verse of the man of many wiles - Odyssey 1.1
From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing - Hesiod, Theogony 1.1
Beginning with thee, O Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old – Argonautica 1.1
Muse, remember to me the causes – Aeneid 1.8
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire – Paradise Lost 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 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 "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, 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[edit]

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 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, which in turn presupposes a knowledge of the romance and oral traditions.

Enumeratio[edit]

Epic catalogues and genealogies are given. 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 list of trees I.i.8–9.
  • In Paradise Lost, the list of demons in Book I.[17]
  • In the Aeneid, the list of enemies the Trojans find in Etruria in Book VII. Also, the list of ships in Book X.[18]
  • In the Iliad:[19]
    • Catalogue of Ships, the most famous epic catalogue
    • Trojan Battle Order

Stylistic features[edit]

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's "rosy-fingered dawn" and "wine-dark sea."
  • Epic similes

Form[edit]

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;[20] instead, Sumerian poems derived their rhythm solely through constant repetition and parallelism, with subtle variations between lines.[20] Indo-European epic poetry, by contrast, usually places strong emphasis on the importance of line consistency and poetic meter.[20] Ancient Greek epics were composed in dactylic hexameter.[21] Very early Latin epicists, such Livius Andronicus 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,[22] usually without rhyme. The alliterative form can be seen in the Old English “Finnsburg Fragment” (alliterated sounds are in bold):

Ac onwacnigeað nū, wīgend mīne[23]
"But awake now, my warriors",
ealra ǣrest eorðbūendra,[24]
of all first the men

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[25] or especially ottava rima.[26] Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. An example is found in the first lines of the Divine Comedy by Dante, who originated the form:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vitaA
mi ritrovai per una selva oscuraB
ché la diritta via era smarrita.A
 
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa duraB
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forteC
che nel pensier rinnova la paura!B

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,[27] and rhyme royal,[28] though in the 16th century the Spenserian stanza[29] and blank verse[30] 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.[31] In Russian, iambic tetrameter verse is the most popular.[32] In Serbian poetry, the decasyllable is the only form employed.[33][34]

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 Proto-Finnic period.[35]

In Indic epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the shloka form is used.

Genres and related forms[edit]

The primary form of epic, espcially as discussed in this article, is the heroic epic, including such works as the Iliad and Mahabharata. Ancient sources also recogized 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 romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means "little epic," came into use in the nineteenth century. It refers primarily to the erudite, shorter hexameter poems of the 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.[36] The most famous example of 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 Furioso and Gerusalemme Liberata, which freely lift characters, themes, plots and narrative devices from the world of prose chivalric romance.

See also[edit]

  • Arabic epic literature
  • Alpamysh
  • Calliope (Greek muse of epic poetry)
  • Caribbean epic poetry
  • Chanson de geste
  • Duma (Ukrainian epic)
  • Epic fiction
    • List of epic poems
    • Epic fantasy
    • Epic film
    • Epic theatre
  • Hebrew and Jewish epic poetry
  • Indian epic poetry
  • Mock epic
  • Monomyth
  • Narrative poetry
  • National epic
  • National poet
  • Rimur
  • Serbian epic poetry
  • List of world folk-epics

References[edit]

  1. ^ Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature (Bedford: St. Martin's, 2005), 2128. ISBN 0-312-41242-8.
  2. ^ "epic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ Epic Online Etymology Dictionary
  4. ^ Lawall, Sarah N.; Mack, Maynard, eds. (1999). Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces: The Western Tradition. 1 (7 ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-393-97289-4.
  5. ^ Austin, p. 21.
  6. ^ James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 399. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8.
  7. ^ T.R.S. Sharma; June Gaur; Sahitya Akademi (2000). Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 137. ISBN 978-81-260-0794-3.
  8. ^ Spodek, Howard. Richard Mason. The World's History. Pearson Education: 2006, New Jersey. 224, ISBN 0-13-177318-6
  9. ^ "Herbert Leibowitz on William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound: Episodes from a sixty-year friendship | Library of America". www.loa.org. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  10. ^ Jack Goody (1987). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–121. ISBN 978-0-521-33794-6.
  11. ^ Aristotle: Poetics, translated with an introduction and notes by M. Heath, (Penguin) London 1996
  12. ^ a b Taken from William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature, 8th ed., Prentice Hall, 1999.
  13. ^ Daṇḍin's Kāvyādarśa (The Mirror of Poetry) 1.15–19:|quote= itihāsa-kath'’-ôdbhūtam, itarad vā sad-āśrayam, | catur-varga-phal'-āyattaṃ, catur-udātta-nāyakam,
    nagar'-ârṇava-śaila'-rtu, | udyāna-salila-kṛīḍā-madhu-pāna-rat'-ôtsavaiḥ,
    vipralambhair vivāhaiś ca, kumār'-ôdaya-varṇanaiḥ, | mantra-dūta-prayāṇ'-āji-nāyak'-âbhyudayair api;
    alaṃ-kṛtam, a-saṃkṣiptaṃ, rasa-bhāva-nirantaram, | sargair an-ativistīrṇaiḥ, śravya-vṛttaiḥ su-saṃdhibhiḥ,
    sarvatra bhinna-vṛttāntair upetaṃ, loka-rañjanam | kāvyaṃ kalp'-ântara-sthāyi jāyate sad-alaṃkṛti
  14. ^ Belvalkar's translation of Daṇḍin's Kāvyādarśa 1.15–19 (S. K. Belvalkar. 1924. Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin. Sanskrit Text and English Translation. Poona: The Oriental Book-supplying Agency)|quote=It springs from a historical incident or is otherwise based on some fact; it turns upon the fruition of the fourfold ends and its hero is clever and noble; By descriptions of cities, oceans, mountains, seasons and risings of the moon or the sun; through sportings in garden or water, and festivities of drinking and love; Through sentiments-of-love-in-separation and through marriages, by descriptions of the birth-and-rise of princes, and likewise through state-counsel, embassy, advance, battle, and the hero’s triumph; Embellished; not too condensed, and pervaded all through with poetic sentiments and emotions; with cantos none too lengthy and having agreeable metres and well-formed joints, And in each case furnished with an ending in a different metre—such a poem possessing good figures-of-speech wins the people’s heart and endures longer than even a kalpa.
  15. ^ Daniel Ingalls, Sanskrit Poetry and Sanskrit Poetics, Introduction to An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry: Vidyākara's Subhāṣitaratnakoṣa. Harvard University Press. 1945. pp. 33–35. ISBN 978-0-674-78865-7.
  16. ^ Battles, Paul (2014). "Toward a Theory of Old English Poetic Genres: Epic, Elegy, Wisdom Poetry, and the "Traditional Opening"". Studies in Philosophy. 111, 1: 1–34. doi:10.1353/sip.2014.0001. S2CID 161613381.
  17. ^ Quint, David (Spring 2007). "Milton's Book of Numbers: Book 1 of Paradise Lost and Its Catalogue". International Journal of the Classical Tradition. 13 (4): 528–549. doi:10.1007/bf02923024. JSTOR 30222176.
  18. ^ Christine Perkell, ed. (1999). Reading Vergil's Aeneid: An Interpretative Guide. Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture. 23. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 190–194. ISBN 9780806131399.
  19. ^ Gaertner, Jan Felix (2001). "The Homeric Catalogues and Their Function in Epic Narrative". Hermes. 129: 298–305. JSTOR 4477439.
  20. ^ a b c Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963), The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, pp. 184–185, ISBN 978-0-226-45238-8
  21. ^ "Hexameter | poetry". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  22. ^ "Alliterative verse | literature". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  23. ^ "The Finnsburg Fragment", line 10
  24. ^ "The Finnsburg Fragment", line 32
  25. ^ "Terza rima | poetic form". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  26. ^ "Ottava rima | poetic form". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  27. ^ "Heroic couplet | poetry". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  28. ^ "Rhyme royal | poetic form". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  29. ^ "Spenserian stanza | poetic form". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  30. ^ "Blank verse | poetic form". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  31. ^ See: Trzynastozgłoskowiec, [in:] Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003 (in Polish).
  32. ^ [Alexandra Smith, Montaging Pushkin: Pushkin and Visions of Modernity in Russian Twentieth Century Poetry, p. 184.]
  33. ^ Meyer, David (27 November 2013). Early Tahitian Poetics. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9781614513759.
  34. ^ "The Spirit of the Serb – R. W. Seton-Watson 1915 « Britić".
  35. ^ Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic: An Anthology in Finnish and English. translated and edited by Matti Kuusi, Keith Bosley, and Michael Branch. Finnish Literature Society. 1977. pp. 62–64. ISBN 951-717-087-4.CS1 maint: others (link)
  36. ^ "Epyllion". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 21 February 2019.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Jan de Vries: Heroic Song and Heroic Legend ISBN 0-405-10566-5.
  • Hashmi, Alamgir (2011). "Eponymous Écriture and the Poetics of Reading a Transnational Epic". Dublin Quarterly, 15.
  • Frye, Northrop (2015) [1957]. Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-6690-8.
  • Cornel Heinsdorff: Christus, Nikodemus und die Samaritanerin bei Juvencus. Mit einem Anhang zur lateinischen Evangelienvorlage, Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 67, Berlin/New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017851-6.
  • Jansen, Jan and J Henk M.J. Maier, eds. 2004. Epic Adventures: Heroic Narrative in the Oral Performance Traditions of Four Continents (Literatur: Forschung und Wissenschaft, 3.) LIT Verlag.
  • Parrander, Patrick (1980). "Science Fiction as Epic". Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching. London: Methuen. pp. 88–105. ISBN 9780416714005.
  • Tillyard, E.M.W. (1966) [1954]. The English Epic and Its Background. New York: Oxford UP.
  • Wilkie, Brian (1965). Romantic Poets and Epic Tradition. University of Wisconsin Press.

External links[edit]

Library resources about
Epic poetry
  • Online books
  • Resources in your library
  • Resources in other libraries

Media related to Epic poems at Wikimedia Commons

  • "The Epic", BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Carey, Karen Edwards and Oliver Taplin (In Our Time, 3 Feb. 2003)