An epic poem, epic (from Latin epicus, from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός, epikos, from ἔπος, epos, "word, story, poem"), epos (from Latin epos, from Greek ἔπος, epos), or epopee (from French épopée, from neo-Latin epopoeia, from Ancient Greek ἐποποιία, epopoiia) is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. 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 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. Classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey) or mental (as typified by Achilles in the Iliad) or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to heroism.
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 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. The most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64.
Some of the most famous examples of epic poetry include the Ancient Greek Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the ancient Indian Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas, and Mahabharata, Dante's Divine Comedy, the Portuguese Lusiads, and John Milton's Paradise Lost.
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 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)
An attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic:
- Begins in medias res.
- The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.
- Begins with an invocation to a muse (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 on human affairs.
- Features heroes that embody the values of the civilization.
- 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 culture.
Conventions of epics:
- Preposition: 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).
- 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 restricted to cultures influenced by European Classical culture. The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, or the Bhagavata Purana do not contain this element.)
- 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.
- 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.
- Epithet: Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases: e.g., Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn" and "wine-dark sea".
Poets in literate societies have sometimes 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.
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 Greek and Latin poems were written in dactylic hexameter. Old English, German and Norse poems were written in alliterative verse with alliteration but usually without rhyme. Italian, Spanish and Portuguese long poems were usually written in terza rima or especially ottava rima. 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 periods the decasyllable 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.
This list can be compared with two others, national epic
and list of world folk-epics
.
Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian mythology)
Atrahasis (Mesopotamian mythology)
Enuma Elish (Babylonian mythology)
Legend of Keret (Ugaritic mythology)
Cycle of Kumarbi (Hurrian mythology)
Mahābhārata, ascribed to Veda Vyasa (Indian mythology)
Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki (Indian mythology)
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)
Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliupersis, Nostoi and Telegony, forming the so-called Epic Cycle (only fragments survive)
Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni and Alcmeonis, forming the so-called Theban Cycle (only fragments survive)
A series of poem ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity (of which only fragments survive): Aegimius (alternatively ascribed to Cercops of Miletus), Astronomia, Descent of Perithous, Idaean Dactyls (almost completely lost), Megala Erga, Megalai Ehoiai, Melampodia and Wedding of Ceyx
Capture of Oechalia, ascribed to Homer or Creophylus of Samos during antiquity (only fragment survives)
Phocais, ascribed to Homer during antiquity (only fragment survives)
Titanomachy ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth (only fragment survives)
Danais (written by one of the cyclic poets and from which the Danaid tetralogy of Aeschylus draws its material), Minyas and Naupactia, almost completely lost
Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes
De rerum natura by Lucretius (Latin Literature, Epicurean philosophy)
Georgics by Virgil
Aeneid by Virgil (Roman mythology)
Astronomica by Marcus Manilius
Metamorphoses by Ovid (Greek and Roman mythology)
Pharsalia by Lucan (Roman history)
Punica by Silius Italicus (Roman history)
Thebaid and Achilleid by Statius (Roman poet, Greek mythology)
Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoṣa (Indian epic poetry)
The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature: Cilappatikāram, Manimekalai, Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, Valayapathi, Kundalakēci
Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna
Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
Raghuvaṃśa by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
Argonautica Orphica by Anonymous
Dionysiaca by Nonnus
Mahavamsa, written in Pali
Táin Bó Cúailnge (Old Irish)
Bhaṭṭikāvya, Sanskrit courtly epic based on the Rāmāyaṇa and the Aṣṭādhyāyī 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
Beowulf (Old English)
Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius (below), known only as a brief fragment
Daredevils of Sassoun (Armenian)
Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit) "Stories of the Lord", based on earlier sources
Lay of Hildebrand and Muspilli (Old High German, c.870)
Kakawin Ramayana, Javanese version of the Ramayana (c. 870)
Shahnameh (Persian literature; details Persian legend and history from prehistoric times to the fall of the Sassanid Empire, by Ferdowsi)
Waltharius by Ekkehard of St. Gall (Latin); about Walter of Aquitaine
Poetic Edda (no particular authorship; oral tradition of the North Germanic peoples)
Vikramarjuna Vijaya and Ādi purāṇa (c. 941), Kannada poems by Adikavi Pampa
Ajitha Purana and Gadaayuddha (c.993 and c.999), Kannada poems by Ranna
Neelakesi (Tamil Jain epic)
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)
Carmen Campidoctoris, the first poem about El Cid Campeador (c. 1083)
Borzu Nama, ascribed to 'Amid Abu'l 'Ala' 'Ata b. Yaqub Kateb Razi (Persian epic with a main character and a poetic style related to the "Shahnameh")
Faramarz Nama (Persian epic with a main character and a poetic style related to the "Shahnameh")
The Song of Roland (Old French)
The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Georgian) 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)
Naishadha Charita by Sriharsha
Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, medieval re-telling of the Trojan War
Poem of Almeria (Latin)
Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou by Wace, chronicles in Norman language
Eupolemius by an anonymous German-speaking author
Bahman Nama and Kush Nama, ascribed to Hakim Īrānšāh b. Abi'l Khayr
Banu Goshasp Nama
Ramavataram by Kambar, based on the "Ramayana"
Nibelungenlied (Middle High German)
Kudrun (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
Osman's Dream (Ottoman Turkish)
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)
Van den vos Reynaerde (Middle Dutch)
Poema de Fernán González, cantar de gesta by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza; 1250–1266 (Old Spanish)
Jewang ungi by Yi Seung-hyu ("Rhymed Chronicles of Sovereigns"; 1287 Korea)
Basava purana by Palkuriki Somanatha (Telugu)
Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Cursor Mundi by an anonymous cleric (c. 1300)
Africa by Petrarch (Latin)
The Tale of the Heike, Japanese epic war tale
The Brus by John Barbour (Scots)
La Spagna, attributed to Sostegno di Zanobi (c. 1350-1360)
Mocedades de Rodrigo (c. 1360)
Siege of Jerusalem (c. 1370-1380, Middle English)
Zafarnamah by Hamdollah Mostowfi
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
Morgante by Luigi Pulci (1485), with elements typical of the mock-heroic genre
The Wallace by Blind Harry (Scots chivalric poem)
Troy Book by John Lydgate, about the Trojan war (Middle English)
Heldenbuch, a group of manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit
Ibong Adarna, whose real author is not known
Judita by Marko Marulić (1501)
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1516)
Christiad by Marco Girolamo Vida (1535)
Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões (c.1572)
L'Amadigi by Bernardo Tasso (1560)
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)
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1596)
Venus and Adonis (1593), and Lucrece (1594) by Shakespeare
La Argentina by Martín del Barco Centenera (1602)
La Cleopatra by Girolamo Graziani (1632)
Biag ni Lam-ang by Pedro Bucaneg (1640)
Il Conquisto di Granata by Girolamo Graziani (1650)
Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies by Anne Bradstreet (1650)
Szigeti veszedelem, also known under the Latin title Obsidionis Szigetianae, a Hungarian epic by Miklós Zrínyi (1651)
Gondibert by William Davenant (1651)
Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671) by John Milton
Kumulipo by Keaulumoku (1700) an Ancient Hawaiian cosmogonic genealogy first published in 1889
Henriade by Voltaire (1723)
Utendi wa Tambuka by Bwana Mwengo (1728)
La Pucelle d'Orléans by Voltaire (1756)
The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis (1765-1775)
O Uraguai by Basílio da Gama (1769)
Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (1773)
Caramuru by Santa Rita Durão (1781)
Joan of Arc by Robert Southey (1796)
Hermann and Dorothea by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1797)
The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du (c. 1800)
Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1801)
Madoc by Robert Southey (1805)
The Columbiad by Joel Barlow (1807)
Milton: A Poem by William Blake (1804–1810)
Marmion by Walter Scott (1808)
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, narrating the travels of Childe Harold (1812-1818)
Queen Mab by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1813)
Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey (1814)
The Lord of the Isles by Walter Scott (1813)
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1815)
The Revolt of Islam (Laon and Cyntha) by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)
Harold the Dauntless by Walter Scott (1817)
Endymion, (1818) by John Keats
Hyperion (1818) and The Fall of Hyperion (1819) by John Keats
The Battle of Marathon by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1820)
Phra Aphai Mani by Sunthorn Phu (1821 or 1823–1845)
Don Juan by Lord Byron (1824), an example of a "mock" epic in that it parodies the epic style of the author's predecessors
Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe (1827)
Creation, Man and the Messiah by Henrik Wergeland (1829)
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)
Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (1834)
The Baptism on the Savica (Krst pri Savici) by France Prešeren (1836)
Florante at Laura, an awit by Francisco Balagtas (1838)
King Alfred by John Fitchett (completed by Robert Roscoe and published in 1841-1842)
János Vitéz by Sándor Petőfi (1845)
Smrt Smail-age Čengića by Ivan Mažuranić (1846)
Toldi (1846), Toldi szerelme ("Toldi's Love", 1879) and Toldi estéje ("Toldi's Night", 1848) by János Arany, forming the so-called "Toldi trilogy"
Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1847)
The Tales of Ensign Stål by Johan Ludvig Runeberg (first part published in 1848, second part published in 1860)
Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (1849 Finnish mythology)
I-Juca-Pirama by Gonçalves Dias (1851)
Kalevipoeg by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1853 Estonian mythology)
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (1855)
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855)
The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1856-1863)
Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1857)
Meghnad Badh Kavya by Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1861)
Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen (1862)
La Légende des Siècles (The Legend of the Centuries) by Victor Hugo (1859–1877)
The Earthly Paradise by William Morris (1868-1870)
Ibonia, oral epic of Madagascar (first transcription: 1870)
Martín Fierro by José Hernández (1872)
Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson (c. 1874)
Clarel by Herman Melville (1876)
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs by William Morris (1876)
L'Atlàntida by Jacint Verdaguer (1877)
The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold (1879)
The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson (B.V.) (finished in 1874, published in 1880)
Tristram of Lyonesse by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1882)
Eros and Psyche by Robert Bridges (1885)
La Fin de Satan by Victor Hugo (written between 1855 and 1860, published in 1886)
Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer (1886)
Lāčplēsis ('The Bear-Slayer') by Andrejs Pumpurs (1888; Latvian Mythology)
Tabaré by Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1888; national epic of Uruguay)
The Wanderings of Oisin by William Butler Yeats (1889)
Lục Vân Tiên by Nguyễn Đình Chiểu
Amir Arsalan, narrated by Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek to the Qajar Shah of Persia
The Divine Enchantment by John Neihardt (1900)
Lahuta e Malcís by Gjergj Fishta (composed 1902-1937)
Ural-batyr (Bashkirs oral tradition set in the written form by Mukhamedsha Burangulov in 1910)
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)
Dorvyzhy, Udmurt national epic compiled in Russian by Mikhail Khudiakov (1920) basing on folklore works
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien (composed 1920-1939, published 2009)
A Cycle of the West by John Neihardt (composed 1921-1949)
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek verse, composed 1924-1938)
Dymer by C. S. Lewis (1926)
"A" by Louis Zukofsky (composed 1927-1978)
John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét (1928)
The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R. Tolkien (composed c.1930-1934, published 2013)
The Bridge by Hart Crane (1930)
Kamayani by Jaishankar Prasad (1936)
Canto General by Pablo Neruda (1938-1950)
Paterson by William Carlos Williams (composed c.1940-1961)
Sugata Saurabha by Chittadhar Hridaya (1941-1945)
Victory for the Slain by Hugh John Lofting (1942)
Rashmirathi (1952), Hunkar by Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'
Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose (1950)
The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson (composed 1950-1970)
Aniara by Harry Martinson (composed 1956)
Song of Lawino by Okot p'Bitek (1966)
The Banner of Joan by H. Warner Munn (1975)
Kristubhagavatam by P. C. Devassia (1976)
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)
Emperor Shaka the Great by Mazisi Kunene (1979)
The Lay of the Children of Húrin and The Lay of Leithian by J. R. R. Tolkien (published 1985)
Giannina Braschi's Empire of Dreams (1988)
Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)
Arundhati by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1994)
Mastorava by A. M. Sharonov (1994)
Astronautilía Hvězdoplavba by Jan Křesadlo (1995)
Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray (1998)
Sribhargavaraghaviyam (2002), Ashtavakra (2009) and Gitaramayanam (2009-2010, published in 2011) by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya
Gesta Berengarii imperatoris
Epic of Bamana Segu, oral epic of the Bambara people, composed in the 19th century and recorded in the 20th century
Epic of Darkness, tales and legends of primeval China
Epic of Jangar, poem of the Oirat people
Epic of Köroğlu, Turkic oral tradition written down mostly in 18th century
Epic of the Forgotten, Bulgarian poetic saga
Hikayat Seri Rama, Malay versione of the Ramayana
Hinilawod, Filipino epic from the island of Panay
Khun Chang Khun Phaen, a Thai poem
Klei Khan Y Dam San, a Vietnamese poem
Koti and Chennayya and Epic of Siri, Tulu poems
Kutune Shirka, sacred yukar epic of the Ainu people of which several translations exist
Parsifal by Richard Wagner (opera, composed 1880-1882)
Pasyón, Filipino religious epic, of which the 1703 and 1814 versions are popular
Ramakien, Thailand's national epic derived from the Ramayana
Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner (opera, composed 1848-1874)
Siribhoovalaya, a unique work of multi-lingual literature written by Kumudendu Muni, a Jain monk
Sundiata, an epic of Mali
Yadegar-e Zariran (Middle Persian)
Yama Zatdaw, Burmese version of the Ramayana
