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Literary
Times and Terms
Classic Literature Definitions
and Resources. |
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Epic - In Depth
Epic
A long narrative poem recounting actions, travels, adventures, and heroic
episodes and written in a high style (with ennobled diction, for example).
It may be written in hexameter verse, especially dactylic hexameter,
and it may have twelve books or twenty four books. Characteristics of
the classical epic include these:
- The main character
or protagonist is heroically larger than life, often the source and
subject of legend or a national hero
- The setting covers
several nations, the whole world, or even the universe
- The episodes,
even though they may be fictional, provide an explanation for some
of the circumstances or events in the history of a nation or people
- The action, often
in battle, consists of courageous and heroic deeds, often revealing
the superhuman strength of the heroes
- The gods and
lesser divinities take an active interest in the outcome of actions
and sometimes intervene
- All of the various
adventures form an organic whole, where each event relates in some
way to the central theme
- The narrative
presents the deeds of the hero objectively, revealing his failings
as well as his virtues
Typical in epics is
a set of conventions (or epic machinery). Among them are these:
- Poem begins with
a statement of the theme ("Arms and the man I sing")
- Invocation to
the muse or other deity ("Sing, goddess, of the wrath of Achilles")
- Begins in
medias res (in the middle of things)
- Catalogs (of
participants on each side, ships, sacrifices)
- Long, formal
speeches by main characters
- Histories and
descriptions of significant items (who made a sword or shield, how
it was decorated, who owned it from generation to generation)
- Frequent use
of epic simile (a long simile where the image becomes an object of
art in its own right as well as serving to clarify the subject).
- Frequent use
of epithets ("Aeneas the true"; "rosy-fingered Dawn";
"tall-masted ship")
- Use of patronymics
(calling son by father's name): "Anchises' son"
- Journey to the
underworld
- Use of the number
three (attempts are made three times, etc.)
- Previous episodes
in the story are later recounted
Examples:
- Homer, Iliad
- Homer, Odyssey
- Virgil, Aeneid
- Tasso, Jerusalem
Delivered
- Milton,
Paradise Lost
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