Epic Poetry long narrative poem presenting adventures on

Epic Poetry • long narrative poem presenting adventures on a • • grand, historic scale united through a central figure of epic proportions often following episodes that contribute to the formation of a race or nation generally involves many great deeds and is set in many locations across a wide area extended examples of human situations used to teach the virtues of the culture often impersonal, elevated & formal verse often based on oral traditions, written down in Latin manuscripts during the Middle Ages and Renaissance

EPIC CONVENTIONS • beginning in medias res • invocation of the Muse “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending…” • statement of epic purpose • Homeric or epic similes • supernatural forces (gods and goddesses) often influence characters (leads to common theme of fate vs. free will)

ORAL PROPS • common characteristics of Gods and heroes • common stories • Repetition “wine-dark sea” • epithets “Laertes’ son”

epic hero • a well-known character of high social position • • whose qualities represent those valuable to his or her society must be clever and crafty to deal with the monsters and obstacles he faces often seems almost superhuman in strength and intelligence is not perfect often struggles to overcome human weaknesses, such as pride (hubris) or temptation