An Epic is a long narrative in verse on a great and serious subject related in an elevated style. An epic tells a generally well-known story and is centered round a heroic or semi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation or the human race. The action in an epic is serious and there is a good deal of physical and spiritual conflict. The characters and events are portrayed in detail, elaborate descriptions of places and actions are given, figures of speech are used and usually an elevated and lavish style is adopted. Aristotle ranked the epic second only to tragedy. It was the norm of great poetry in the 16th and 7th century English. Dryden wrote, "A heroic poem, truly such, is undoubtedly the greatest work which the soul of the man is capable to perform."
Historically, there have been two types of epics - the primitive epic (or) the epic of growth and the epic of art (or) the literary epic.
- The epic of growth is not entirely the work of a single author but is evolved from pre-existing legends, folk poems and sagas.
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| The Mahabharata |
- It is the final product of a long series of accretions and synthesis shaped by the conscious intervention of some great poet.
- Well-known examples of this type of epic are Iliad and Odyssey, the English Beowulf and the Indian epics
The Ramayana and The Mahabharata.
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| The Ramayana |
- All epics of growth deal with the same subject matter - deeds of heroes.
- These heroes belong to the race and their exploits for the core of mythology.
- As such the epics of growth contain supernatural and religious elements.
- The style of such epics is marked by directness and simplicity.
- Stylistic devices may be repeated but they are never obscure.
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| The literary epic - Paradise Lost |
- The epic of art (or) the literary epic is the product of individual genius.
- Of this kind, the earliest was Virgil's 'Aenid'. It became a model for the later epic poets.
- In English, the supreme example of literary epic is Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.
- Arnold's 'Sohrab and Rustom', the fragmentary epic 'Hyperion' by Keats and Spenser's 'Faerie Queen' also belong to this category.
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| The literary epic - The Aeneid |
- A literary epic is the result of the poet's eruditions and scholarly research though it shares several of its characteristics with the epic of growth.
- Most traits of the traditional epic are found in the literary epic also.
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