What Is an Epic?
An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail
extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past. The word “epic”
comes from the ancient Greek term “epos,” which means “story, word, and poem.”
How Did Epics Originate?
Epic poems trace back to some of the earliest human civilizations—both European and
Asian. Take the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by some scholars to be the oldest surviving
example of great literature. The poem is thought to have been written in approximately 2100
BC and traces back to ancient Mesopotamia. It tells of the ancient king Gilgamesh, a
descendant from the Gods, who embarks on a journey to discover the secret of immortality.
What Are the Characteristics of an Epic Poem?
The meter of epics varies depending on cultural custom. Ancient Greek epics and Latin
epics were typically composed in dactylic hexameter. Old Germanic epics (including those
in Old English) typically contained non-rhyming alliterative verse. Later English language
epics were written in Spenserian stanzas and blank verse. An archetypal epic poem
typically:
Is written in a formal style
Contains third-person narration and an omniscient narrator
Frequently invokes a Muse who provides inspiration and guidance to the poet
Takes place in an era beyond the range of any living memory
Typically includes a journey across a variety of settings and terrains
Features a hero with immense bravery and resolve
Includes obstacles and circumstances that are otherworldly and even supernatural
—pitting the hero against nearly insurmountable odds
Looks with concern to the future of a civilization or culture\
Popular Examples of Epic Poems
Epic poetry has become less fashionable with time, although there remains no shortage of
poetic verse that tells long, sprawling tales. In many ways, popular music has taken up the
mantle of epic poetry, with lyricists like Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, and John Prine
spinning up tales that might have once been the province of traditional poets.
Here are some examples of some of history’s greatest literary epics.
Perhaps the most widely known epic poems are Homer’s The Iliad and The
Odyssey, both of which detail the events of the Trojan War and King Odysseus’s
journey home from Troy. These were written in Epic Greek (sometimes called
Homeric Greek), although the dates of their composition are unknown. Most
classicists believe that Homer lived sometime between 850 and 650 BC and that
his poems were committed to writing long after his death.
The Mahābhārata is an ancient Indian epic composed in Sanskrit. The text as we
know it appears to date back to 400 BC, but scholars suspect its subject matter is
thousands of years older—perhaps dating back to the eighth or ninth centuries BC.
At over 200,000 lines, it is considered the longest poem ever written, and also
contains prosed mixed in with poetry.
The Aeneid is an epic poem written in Latin by the Roman poet Virgil. Historians
place its writing between 29 and 19 BC. The narrative poem, written in dactylic
hexameter, tells of Aeneas, descended from Trojans but a forebear to the Romans
and Roman civilization. The story and subject matter of the Aeneid is similar to
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but it contains precision only available to a poet who
wrote down his compositions (as Virgil did). Homer, by contrast, conveyed his tales
orally.
Beowulf is an Old English poem that was committed to writing between 975 and
1025 AD. No author has ever been attributed to the poem, which pits the
Scandinavian hero Beowulf against the monster Grendel.
The Nibelungenlied is a long narrative poem written in Middle High German
sometime around 1200 AD. It concerns Siegfried, a legendary hero of German
mythology who appeared in oral narratives for centuries before the Nibelungenlied,
and who materialized time and again in later works like Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
The Divine Comedy was an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, composed over twelve
years and completed in 1320. The poem imagines Dante traveling through Hell,
Purgatory, and finally Heaven, in sections titled Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
Two hundred seventy years after Dante, Edmund Spenser published The Faerie
Queene. Like many epic poems, it begins with the “invocation of the muse”—a
technique popular in epic poems in which the poet asks a muse for help and
inspiration to finish the poem.
John Milton’s Paradise Lost, first published in 1667, tells the biblical tale of Adam
and Eve, the fallen angel Satan, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It is
written in blank verse form.
