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The Epic
Definition: a long narrative poem, typically recounting the history or legends or deeds of a
national hero.
Question: how could we retain our history as a nation or a people if we had not yet developed the
craft of writing?
Characteristics of the epic:
--originated as oral, narrative poetry
--employs traditional and legendary material about gods and heroes
--its repetitions of poetic formulas as well as lines, whole passages, and incidents
suggests its beginnings in improvisation and its oral nature
--lists of ships, warriors, gods, goddesses, and those slain in battle recall a time
when historical records were transmitted by recitation (also recalls geneologies, such as
those related in the Bible).
The epic is a public art: the early Greek poems were public entertainment delivered on occasions
such as feast days or religious festivals, such as the festival of Dionysus, during which the famous
Greek plays were presented.
The primitive social function of the epic poet in times before writing was as a walking
encyclopedia of society: the one who knew the myths, legends, maxims, proverbs, magic, and
practical science of the community. The poet held this function because verse provided the
simplest framework for memorization. Thus, poets such as Homer were the historians of their
culture and epics were the repositories of the people's history--a sort of capsule history of a nation
or people.
Didactic function of the epic: these poems also taught the exemplary, or not so exemplary,
manners and morals that the society prized most, such as heroic valor, fairness, ways of proper
comportment, and so on.
The highest definition of epic is the encyclopedic epic poem which summarizes the learning of its
time as well as telling one of the central stories in its society's mythology.
The Bible may be considered an epic in a way, along with the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Dante's
Divine Comedy, which covers the entire "comedy" or mythology of Christianity in the three great
journeys through hell, purgatory, and paradise.
Intro to Iliad
1. The Iliad and Odyssey were composed wholly or substantially without the help of writing by a
poet or poets who were essentially illiterate, and were presented to an audience who could not
read.
2. The verses were sung or intoned with some accompaniment by a harp-like instrument known
as the lyre.
3. The typical heroic poem could probably have been heard in an afternoon or an evening, or part
of one. The Iliad is more like 24 epic poems--almost like the serialization of a novel.
Epic & Intro to Iliad
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4. The narrative thread of the Iliad is based upon the theme that opens the poem: the wrath of
Achilles.
5. The Iliad tells us about the morals and manners of the ancient Greeks--what, in their society is
considered right and wrong, proper and improper (ex. the Heroic Code).
6. Epics such as the Iliad and Odyssey are records of humanity at the birth of civilization, when
emotions and basic human feelings and traits were still on the surface, not covered by a veneer of
sophistication and civilization.
7. Rules of the game: all's fair in love and war. If you are at war with another nation, then you
have the right to plunder--the spoils of war. This is probably the reason many of the men are on
this expedition, for they can "get rich quick" by claiming their share of the plunder from the cities
they sack.
8. Why do the men follow Agamemnon, who seems less imposing than Achilles?
Zeus-made kings: Agamemnon is the basileus, or king on this expedition, and according to
Greek thought, derives his authority from Zeus. Even Achilles cannot thwart or defy the
commands of Agamemnon, since he is an earthly representative of Zeus, divinely ordained, so to
speak.
9. The Wrath of Achilles
How does Achilles wrath provide the central plot for an entire epic?
According to the heroic code, Achilles, as the foremost Greek warrior, deserves a considerable
part of the plunder the Greek forces have accumulated. Achilles' sense of honor is highly
developed, and he is fighting more for personal glory than for material gain. However, he sees
Agamemnon as unfair in the way he takes the majority of the plunder for himself: "O wrapped in
shamelessness, with your mind forever on profit."
We can see a cause/effect relationship driving the plot, following from Achilles' wrath at the way
Agamemnon has treated him:
1. Achilles' pride is wounded and he takes himself and his men out of the battle.
2. The Greeks begin losing.
3. Patroclus begs Achilles' armor, goes into battle, and is killed by Hector.
4. Achilles' grief and rage cause him to reenter the fight, even though he knows his own
death will be a result.
5. Achilles finally corners Hector, killing the great Trojan hero, and effectively sealing
his own doom, as well as Troy's.
6. Ironically, Achilles' final act in the epic is to break the heroic code by allowing Priam
to retrieve the dead Hector for proper burial.
Epic & Intro to Iliad