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For other meanings of epic, see Epic (disambiguation).
File:GilgameshTablet.jpg

Tablet containing a fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh

An epic (from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός (epikos'pi), from ἔπος (epos) "word, story, poem"[1]) is a lengthy narrative poem , ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.[2]

Definition[]

Epic (epic) a. Ep"ic [L. epicus, Gr. (?), from (?) a word, speech, tale, song; akin to L. vox voice: cf. F. épique. See Voice.] Narrated in a grand style; pertaining to or designating a kind of narrative poem , usually called an heroic poem, in which real or fictitious events, usually the achievements of some hero, are narrated in an elevated style. "The epic poem treats of one great, complex action, in a grand style and with fullness of detail. T. Arnold."

Epic (epic) n. Ep"ic An epic or heroic poem. See Epic, a.[3]

History[]

Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were originally an oral poetic form. Nonetheless, epics have been written down at least since the works of Virgil, Dante Alighieri, and John Milton. Many probably would not have survived if not written down. The first epics are known as primary, or original, epics. One such epic is the Old English story Beowulf.[4] Epics that attempt to imitate these like Milton's Paradise Lost are known as literary, or secondary, epics. Another type of epic poetry is epyllion (plural: epyllia), which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means 'little epic', came in use in the nineteenth century. It refers primarily to the type of erotic and mythological long elegy of which Ovid remains the master; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance, particularly those influenced by Ovid. One suggested example of classical epyllion may be seen in the story of Nisus and Euryalus in Book IX of Aeneid.

Oral epics or world folk epics[]

The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. 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 showed that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance.

Epic: a long narrative poem in elevated stature 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.

An attempt to deliminate nine main characteristics of an epic:[5]

  1. It opens in medias res. (Citation needed)
  2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe. (Citation needed)
  3. Begins with an invocation to a muse (epic invocation). (Citation needed)
  4. It starts with a statement of the theme. (Citation needed)
  5. Includes the use of epithets. (Citation needed)
  6. Contains long lists (epic catalogue). (Citation needed)
  7. Features long and formal speeches. (Citation needed)
  8. Shows divine intervention on human affairs. (Citation needed)
  9. "Star" heroes that embody the values of the civilization. (Citation needed)

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 culture. Conventions of epics: (Citation needed)

  1. Praepositio: Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic. This may take the form of a purpose (as in Milton, who proposed "to justify the ways of God to men"); of a question (as in the Iliad, which Homer initiates by asking a Muse to sing of Achilles' anger); or of a situation (as in the Song of Roland, with Charlemagne in Spain).
  2. Invocation: Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. (This convention is obviously restricted to cultures influenced by European Classical culture. The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, or the Bhagavata Purana would obviously not contain this element).
  3. 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.
  4. Enumeratio: 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. Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
  5. Epithet: Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases: e.g., Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn" and "wine-dark sea."

Literate societies have often copied the epic format The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgil's Aeneid, which follow both the style and subject matter of Homer. Other obvious examples are Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Tulsidas' Sri Ramacharit Manas.

Notable epic poems[]

Beowulf.firstpage

The first page of the Beowulf manuscript

This list can be compared with two others, national epic and list of world folk-epics.[6]

Ancient epics (to 500)[]

  • 20th to 10th century BC:
    • Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian mythology)
    • Atrahasis (Mesopotamian mythology)
    • Enuma Elish (Babylonian mythology)

(The date of compositions of Babylonian epics is often hard to determine, as they may survive on manuscripts that are much later than the first composition. There is also the complication that they underwent successive revisions and redactions.)

  • 8th to 6th century BC:
    • Iliad, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
    • Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
    • Works and Days, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
    • Theogony, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
    • Catalogue of Women, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
    • The Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
  • 5th to 4th century BC:
    • Mahābhārata, ascribed to Vyasa (Hindu mythology) (5th to 1st century BC)
    • Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki (Hindu mythology) (5th century BC to 4th century AD)
  • 3rd century BC:
  • 2nd century BC:
    • Annales by Quintus Ennius (Roman History)
  • 1st century BC:
  • 1st century AD:
    • Metamorphoses by Ovid (Latin mythology)
    • Pharsalia by Lucan (Roman history)
    • Punica by Silius Italicus (Roman history)
    • Argonautica by Gaius Valerius Flaccus (Roman poet, Greek mythology)
    • Thebaid and Achilleid by Statius (Roman poet, Greek mythology)
  • 2nd century:
    • Buddhacarita by Template:Unicode (Indian epic poetry)
    • Saundaranandakavya by Template:Unicode (Indian epic poetry)
  • 2nd to 5th century:
    • The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature:
      • Silappadikaram by Prince Ilango Adigal
      • Manimekalai by Seethalai Saathanar
      • Civaka Cintamani by Tirutakakatevar
      • Kundalakesi by a Buddhist poet
      • Valayapati by a Jaina poet
  • 3rd to 4th century:
    • Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna
  • 4th century:
    • Evangeliorum libri by Juvencus
    • Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
    • Raghuvaṃśa by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
    • De Raptu Proserpinae by Claudian
  • 5th century:
    • Argonautica Orphica by Anonymous
    • Dionysiaca by Nonnus

Medieval epics (500-1500)[]

  • 7th century:
    • Táin Bó Cúailnge (Old Irish)
    • Bhaá¹­á¹­ikāvya, Sanskrit courtly epic based on the Rāmāyaṇa and the AṣṭādhyāyÄ« of Pāṇini
    • Kiratarjuniya by Bharavi, Sanskrit epic based on an episode in the Mahabharata
    • Shishupala Vadha by Magha, Sanskrit epic based on another episode in the Mahabharata
  • 8th to 10th century:
    • Beowulf (Old English)
    • Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius (below), known only as a brief fragment
    • David of Sasun (Armenian)
  • 9th century:
    • Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit) "Stories of the Lord", based on earlier sources
  • 10th century:
    • Shahnameh (Persian literature; details Persian legend and history from prehistoric times to the fall of the Sassanid Empire)
    • Waltharius by Ekkehard of St. Gall (Latin); about Walter of Aquitaine
  • 11th century:
    • Taghribat Bani Hilal (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
    • Ruodlieb (Latin), by a German author
    • Digenis Akritas (Greek); about a hero of the Byzantine Empire
    • Epic of King Gesar (Tibetan)
  • 12th century:
    • Chanson de Roland (Old French)
    • The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli
    • Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon (Latin)
    • De bello Troiano and the lost Antiocheis by Joseph of Exeter
    • Carmen de Prodicione Guenonis, version of the story of the Song of Roland in Latin
    • Architrenius by John of Hauville, Latin satire
    • Liber ad honorem Augusti by Peter of Eboli, narrative of the conquest of Sicily by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (Latin)
    • The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Bylinas (11th-19th centuries)
  • 13th century:
    • Nibelungenlied (Middle High German)
    • Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach - (Middle High German)
    • Brut by Layamon (Early Middle English)
    • Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise ("Song of the Albigensian Crusade"; Occitan)
    • Antar (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
    • Sirat al-Zahir Baibars (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
    • Epic of Sundiata
    • El Cantar de Mio Cid, Spanish epic of the Reconquista (Old Spanish)
    • De triumphis ecclesiae by Johannes de Garlandia (Latin)
    • Gesta Regum Britanniae by William of Rennes (Latin)
    • Jewang ungi by Yi Seung-hyu ("Rhymed Chronicles of Sovereigns"; 1287 Korea)
  • 14th century:
  • 15th century:
    • Alliterative Morte Arthure (Middle English)
    • Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo (1495)
    • Shmuel-Bukh (Old Yiddish chivalry romance based on the Biblical book of Samuel
    • Mlokhim-Bukh (Old Yiddish epic poem based on the Biblical Books of Kings)
    • Book of Dede Korkut

Modern epics (from 1500)[]

  • 16th century:
    • Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1516)
    • Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões (c.1555)
    • La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1569–1589)
    • La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso (1575)
    • Ramacharitamanasa (based on the Ramayana) by Goswami Tulsidas (1577)
    • Lepanto by King James VI of Scotland (1591)
    • Matilda by Michael Drayton (1594)
    • The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1596)
  • 17th century:
  • 18th century:
19th century
20th century
    • Lahuta e Malcís by Gjergj Fishta (composed 1902-1937)
    • Drake: An English Epic (1905–1908), The Torch-Bearers (1917–1930) by Alfred Noyes
    • The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton (1911)
    • Mensagem by Fernando Pessoa (composed 1913-1934)
    • The Cantos by Ezra Pound (composed 1915-1969)
    • The Hashish-Eater; Or, The Apocalypse of Evil by Clark Ashton Smith (1920)
    • The Bridge by Hart Crane (1930)
    • Kurukshetra (1946), Rashmirathi (1952), Urvashi (1961), Hunkar by Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'
    • Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose (1950)
    • The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek verse, composed 1924-1938)
    • Dymer by C. S. Lewis (1926)
    • A Cycle of the West by John Neihardt (composed 1921-1949)
    • "A" by Louis Zukofsky (composed 1928-1968)
    • Paterson by William Carlos Williams (composed c.1940-1961)
    • Victory for the Slain by Hugh John Lofting (1942)
    • The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson (composed 1950-1970)
    • Libretto for the Republic of Liberia by Melvin B. Tolson (1953)
    • Aniara by Harry Martinson (composed 1956)
    • Mountains and Rivers Without End by Gary Snyder (composed 1965-1996)
    • Helen in Egypt by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1974)
    • The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill (composed 1976-1982)
    • The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford (published 1977)
    • The Legend of Te Tuna by Richard Adams (published 1982)
    • Genesis: An Epic Poem by Frederick Turner (1988)
    • Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)
    • The Levant by Mircea Cărtărescu (1990)
    • Astronautilía HvÄ›zdoplavba by Jan KÅ™esadlo (1995)
    • The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley (1996)
    • Cheikh Anta Diop: Poem for the Living by Mwatabu S. Okantah (1997)
    • The Dream of Norumbega: Epic on the U.S. by James Wm. Chichetto (c. 1990; p. 2000- )
    • Portvcale by Tiago Lameiras (c. 2009; p. 2010)

Other epics[]

See also[]

Template:Portal

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=epic
  2. ↑ Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005, p2128. ISBN 0-312-41242-8
  3. ↑ "Epic" Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1913, 1913.MShaffer.com, Web, July 8, 2011.
  4. ↑ "epic". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6 ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. 2004. 
  5. ↑ http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/beowulf/epic.html
  6. ↑ According to that article, world folk epics are those that are not just literary masterpieces, but also an integral part of the world view of a people, originally oral, later written down by one or several authors.
  7. ↑ Guerber, H.A. (1913). The Book of the Epic. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. p. 465. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13983. "a work some authorities rank as the first American epic" 

External links[]

  • Clay Sanskrit Library publishes classical Indian literature, including the Mahabharata and Ramayana, with facing-page text and translation. Also offers searchable corpus and downloadable materials.
  • Humanities Index has notes on epic poetry.
  • World of Dante Multimedia website that offers Italian text of Divine Comedy, Allen Mandelbaum's translation, gallery, interactive maps, timeline, musical recordings, and searchable database for students and teachers.

Bibliography[]

  • Jan de Vries: Heroic Song and Heroic Legend ISBN 0-405-10566-5
  • 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
  • Fallon, Oliver. Bhatti’s Poem: The Death of Rávana (Bhaá¹­á¹­ikāvya). New York 2009: Clay Sanskrit Library, [1]. ISBN 978-0-8147-2778-2, ISBN 0-8147-2778-6
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