Epics

Epics

Epics are long, narrative (they tell a story) poems.  There are 2 types of epics:  literary and folk epics.  Literary epics were written down by their creator (The Iliad and The Odyssey), and folk epics started out as stories passed down by word of mouth (orally) until eventually they were written down (Beowulf).

To be a true epic, a work must be written in verse (in other words, it must be a poem).

Epics usually are stories that are important to the development, protection, or history of a nation or its people (for example, Beowulf protects Denmark from Grendel and his own people, the Geats, from a fire-breathing dragon).

Most epics (especially literary epics) contain at least some of these characteristics:

• They open in medias res (“in the middle”) rather than at the beginning.
• They have an invocation (prayer) to a Muse (one of the 9 goddesses in charge of art forms—Calliope was the Muse of epic poetry)
• They are vast in scope (have a large setting), covering an entire region, nation, nations, the world, or the universe.
• Supernatural elements intervene in the action (gods, goddesses, monsters, demons, etc.)
• The hero is larger than life and may possess extraordinary strength or powers.
• The hero is usually an aristocrat or important person, a leader or king.
• Somewhere near the beginning of the epic there is usually a long list of names, perhaps a genealogy. 
• Epics tend to use a lot of metaphors and/or similes.  Often there be a lot of caesuras (pauses in the middle of a line of a poem).
• Epics usually make use of a lot of epithets (a descriptive term—a word or phrase—accompanying, or occurring in the place of, a name).  An example of an epithet would be “oxen-eyed Hera” or “the wine-dark sea” or even “the snot-green sea” (James Joyce used this in Ulysses).  An epithet can also be a descriptive title, like Frederick the Great, Richard the Lion-Hearted or Ivan the Terrible. 
• Similar to epithets are kennings, which may also appear in epics (especially in Beowulf).  Kennings are usually two words joined by a hyphen, that are descriptive and may be used in place of a name, like “whale-road” for sea.
• There will be a theme, and often it will be stated somewhere near the beginning of the epic.
• There are usually long, formal speeches, especially those given by the protagonist.

Famous epics:  The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, The Divine Comedy, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Faerie Queen, Paradise Lost, Faust, The Lady of the Lake, and Idylls of the King.