Epic poetry
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An epic is a lengthy, revered narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.[1] A work need not be written to qualify as an epic, although even the works of such great poets as Homer, Dante Alighieri, and John Milton would be unlikely to have survived without being written down. The first epics are known as primary, or original, epics. Epics that attempt to imitate these like Virgil's The Aeneid and John Milton's Paradise Lost are known as literary, or secondary, epics.[2] Another word for 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 The Aeneid.
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[edit] 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 studies 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.
Epics have 6 main characteristics:
- The hero is of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance.
- The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world, or the universe.
- The action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
- Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
- A style of sustained elevation is used.
- The poet retains a measure of objectivity.
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 from which the epic originates. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture.
Conventions of Epics:
- 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, where Homer asks the Muse which god it was who caused the war); 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 obviously restricted to cultures which were influenced by Classical culture: the Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, or the Bhagavata Purana would obviously 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."
Literate societies have often copied the epic format; the earliest European examples of which the text survives 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.
[edit] Notable epic poems
- This list can be compared with two others, national epic and list of world folk-epics.[3]
[edit] Ancient epics (to 500)
- 20th to 18th century BC:
- Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian mythology)
- Atrahasis (Mesopotamian mythology)
- 8th to 6th century BC:
- Enuma Elish (Babylonian mythology)
- Iliad, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
- Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
- Works and Days, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
- Jaya, ascribed to Vyasa (Hindu mythology)
- Lost Greek epics ascribed to the Cyclic poets:
- Epic Cycle including Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Sack of Troy, Return from Troy, Telegony
- Theban Cycle including Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni (epic), Alcmeonis
- Others: Titanomachy, Heracleia, Capture of Oechalia, Naupactia, Phocais, Minyas, Danais'
- 7th to 5th century BC:
- Bharata, ascribed to Vaisampayana (Hindu mythology)
- 5th to 4th century BC:
- Mahabharata, ascribed to Vyasa (Hindu mythology) (5th to 1st century BC)
- Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki (Hindu mythology) (5th century BC to 4th century AD)
- Lost Greek epics: poems by Aristeas (Arimaspeia), Asius of Samos, Chersias of Orchomenus
- The Book of Job
- 3rd century BC:
- 2nd century BC:
- 1st century BC:
- 1st century AD:
- Metamorphoses by Ovid
- Pharsalia (Bellum Civile or Civil War) by Lucan
- Punica (Bellum Punicum or Punic War) by Silius Italicus
- Argonautica by Gaius Valerius Flaccus
- Thebaid by Statius
- 2nd century:
- Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoṣa (Indian epic poetry)
- Saundaranandakavya by Aśvaghoṣa (Indian epic poetry)
- 2nd to 5th century:
- The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature:
- Cilappatikaram by Prince Ilango Adigal
- Manimekalai by Seethalai Saathanar
- Civaka Cintamani by Tirutakakatevar
- Kundalakesi by a Buddhist poet
- Valayapati by a Jaina poet
- The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature:
- 3rd to 4th century:
- 4th century:
- Evangeliorum libri by Juvencus
- Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
- Raghuvamsa by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
- 5th century:
- Dionysiaca by Nonnus
[edit] Medieval epics (500-1500)
- 8th to 10th century:
- Beowulf (retelling of Anglo-Saxon legends)
- Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius (below), known only as a brief fragment
- David of Sasun (Armenian language)
- 9th century:
- Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit "Stories of the Lord") written from earlier sources
- 10th century:
- Shahnameh (Persian mythology) (epic poem detailing Persian legend and history from prehistoric times to the fall of the Sassanid Empire)
- Waltharius by Ekkehard of St Gall, Latin version of the story of Walter of Aquitaine
- The Battle of Maldon, brief Old English epic describing a recent battle
- 11th century:
- Poetic Edda (Norse mythology) (collection of poems of Norse mythology from various sources; dates of composition vary within the collection, but the majority of poems existed before the 12th century based on the excerpts in the Prose Edda)
- Ruodlieb, Latin epic by a German author
- Digenis Akritas (Byzantine epic poem)
- La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)
- Epic of King Gesar (Tibetan epic; compiled from earlier sources)
- Epic of Manas (Kyrgyz epic, possibly later)
- 12th century:
- The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli
- Alexandreis, Latin epic by Walter of Châtillon
- De bello Troiano and the lost Antiocheis by Joseph of Exeter
- Carmen de Prodicione Guenonis (Latin version of the story of the Song of Roland)
- Architrenius, satirical Latin epic by John of Hauville
- Liber ad honorem Augusti by Peter of Eboli, Latin narrative of the conquest of Sicily by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
- 13th century:
- Nibelungenlied (Germanic mythology)
- Brut by Layamon
- Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise ("Song of the Albigensian Crusade"; Occitan)
- Epic of Sundiata
- El Cantar de Mio Cid, Spanish epic of the Reconquista
- De triumphis ecclesiae, Latin literary epic by Johannes de Garlandia
- Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
- 14th century:
- Cursor Mundi by an anonymous cleric (c. 1300)
- Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri
- Africa, Latin literary epic by Petrarch
- The Tale of the Heike (Japanese epic war tale)
- 15th century:
[edit] 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:
- The Barons' Wars by Michael Drayton (1603; early version 1596 entitled Mortimeriados)
- The Purple Island by Phineas Fletcher (1633)
- Szigeti veszedelem, also known under the Latin title Obsidionis Szigetianae, a Hungarian epic by Miklós Zrínyi (1651)
- Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667)
- Paradise Regained by John Milton (1671)
- Prince Arthur by Richard Blackmore (1695)
- King Arthur by Richard Blackmore (1697)
- 18th century:
- Eliza by Richard Blackmore (1705)
- Redemption by Richard Blackmore (1722)
- Henriade by Voltaire (1723)
- La Pucelle d'Orléans by Voltaire (1756)
- Alfred by Richard Blackmore (1723)
- Utendi wa Tambuka by Bwana Mwengo (1728)
- Leonidas by Richard Glover (1737)
- Epigoniad by William Wilkie (1757)
- The Works of Ossian by James MacPherson (1765)
- Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire** by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (1773)
- Der Messias by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1773)
- Rossiada by Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov (1771-1779)
- Vladimir by Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov (1785)
- Athenaid by Richard Glover (1787)
- Joan of Arc by Robert Southey (1796)
- 19th century:
- Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1801)
- Madoc by Robert Southey (1805)
- Columbiad by Joel Barlow (1807)
- Milton: a Poem by William Blake (1804-1810)
- The Curse of Kehama by Robert Southey (1810)
- Roderick, the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey (1814)
- The Revolt of Islam (Laon and Cyntha) by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)
- Endymion, (1818) by John Keats
- Hyperion, (1818), and The Fall of Hyperion, (1819) by John Keats
- L'Orléanide, Poème national en vingt-huit chants, by Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes (1821)
- Don Juan by Lord Byron (1824)
- Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (1834)
- Smrt Smail-age Čengića by Ivan Mažuranić (1846)
- Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (1849 Finnish mythology)
- Kalevipoeg by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1853 Estonian mythology)
- The Prelude by William Wordsworth
- The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855)
- La Fin de Satan by Victor Hugo (written between 1855 and 1860, published in 1886)
- La Légende des Siècles (The Legend of the Centuries) by Victor Hugo (1859-1877)
- Martín Fierro by José Hernández (1872)
- Clarel by Herman Melville (1876)
- The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson (B.V.) (finished in 1874, published in 1880)
- Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer (1886)
- Lāčplēsis ('The Bear-Slayer') by Andrejs Pumpurs (1888; Latvian Mythology)
- 20th century:
- Lahuta e Malcís by Gjergj Fishta (composed 1902-1937)
- The Ballad of the White Horse by G K Chesterton (1911)
- Mensagem by Fernando Pessoa
- The Hashish-Eater; Or, The Apocalypse of Evil by Clark Ashton Smith (1920)
- Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose (1950)
- Astronautilía-Hvězdoplavba by Jan Křesadlo
- The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek verse, composed 1924-1938)
- The Cantos by Ezra Pound (composed 1915-1969)
- 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)
- Aniara by Harry Martinson (composed 1956)
- Libretto for the Republic of Liberia by Melvin B. Tolson (1953)
- Mountains and Rivers Without End by Gary Snyder (composed 1965-1996)
- The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill (composed 1976-1982)
- Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)
- 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- )
[edit] Other epics
- The Anathemata by David Jones (1952)
- Canto general by Pablo Neruda
- Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
- Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner (opera)
- Parsifal by Richard Wagner (opera)
- Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray
[edit] References
[edit] See Also
- Chanson de geste
- Duma (Ukrainian epic)
- Bylina (Russian epic)
- Hebrew and Jewish epic poetry
- Tanakh
- Indian epic poetry
- Serbian epic poetry
- Yukar (Ainu epic)
- List of world folk-epics
- Monomyth
- National epic
- Bible
- Calliope (Greek muse of epic poetry)
- Epic Hero
- Alpamysh
[edit] Notes
- ^ Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005, p2128. ISBN 0-312-41242-8
- ^ "epic". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6). (2004). New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ According to that article, world folk epics are those which 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.
[edit] External links
- WorldChronicle.net
- 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.
[edit] 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