General Characteristics of an Epic

1
General Characteristics of an Epic

2

• long narrative poem

3

• retelling important events in the life of a
  central hero who is usually seen as
  representative to his culture

4

• opens with an invocation to the gods or muse of
  epic poetry

5

• begins in medias res (in the middle)

6

• catalogue of warriors

7

• arming the hero

8

• journey to the underworld

9

• intervention of the gods in human endeavors

10

• single combat

11

• apotheosis (means glorification, usually to a
  divine level, coming from the Greek word
  apotheoun, "to deify".)

12

• combination of original narrative with stock
  formulaic phrases

13

• episodic (Episodic memory relates to the types
  of memory that result from specific incidents in
  a life time)

14

• elaborate similes

15

• extended digressions

16

• enhances our belief in the worth of human
  achievement and in the dignity and nobility of
  man

17
Epic Style

• The style is marked by repetition, a pronounced
  use of epithets and a variety of names for the
  main characters. The speaker often refers to
  events, places, and characters outside the main
  narrative, giving the poems a feeling of great
  scope and comprehensiveness.

18

• The style (usually called high style) is elevated
  and formal. All the epics begin with an epic
  invocation, involving an announcement in the
  first person of the subject (or argument) of the
  work (The Iliad and The Aeneid announce a double
  subject) and an extremely brief description of
  the main action of the work, in the course of
  which the speaker calls upon a muse to inspire
  the speaker and give him strength to carry out
  his weighty undertaking and to answer an epic
  question about the causes of the main action.

19

• Classical epic begins in medias res (in the
  middle of things), at a critical point in the
  action, rather than at the beginning of the story