Epic poetry tells a dramatic story in a poem. There are characters in the story. It is usually long, and takes place in different settings. Epic poems started in prehistoric times as part of oral tradition. The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas is one of the longest written epics in history.[1]
Beowulf is a famous example, written in Old English. Well-known people who wrote epics were Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Edmund Spenser and Milton.[2] William Wordsworth's Prelude plays with epic ideas though the poem is autobiography.
Epics have seven main characteristics:
Conventions of epics:
Omeros (1990), Derek Walcott
Empire of Dreams (1988), Giannina Braschi
Ancient Greece: Arts and Culture | ||
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Sculpture | ||
Painting and pottery | ||
Sports and Games | Boxing • Gymnasium • Heraia • Kleomedes of Astypalia • Kottabos • Milo of Croton • Olympic Games • Palaestra • Pankration • Theogenes • Wrestling • | |
Architecture | ||
Theater | Aeschylus • Aristophanes • Comedy • Euripides • Greek chorus • Satyr play • Sophocles • Theatre of ancient Greece • Tragedy • | |
Literature | ||
Places | ||
People | Alcibiades • Aristotle • Galen • Herodotus • Hippocrates • Pausanias (geographer) • Pericles • Plato • Plutarch • Socrates • Xenophon | |
Miscellanea |