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epos

  (ĕp'ŏs') pronunciation
n.
  1. A number of poems, not formally united, that treat an epic theme.
  2. An epic.

[Latin, from Greek.]


 
 
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: EPOS

(Electronic Point Of Sale) See point of sale.


 
Literary Dictionary: epos

epos, the epic poetry of an early oral tradition.

 
French Literature Companion: Epic Poetry

Epic poetry, while broadly covering long heroic poems which recount legendary or historical narratives of national importance, has in fact meant very different things over the centuries in France. Central to literary production in the high Middle Ages, it continued to enjoy great critical prestige in later centuries, even though the numerous epic efforts of French writers since the Renaissance have for the most part failed to win a place in the canon. Only in the 20th c., dominated by the novel, has the epic ceased to attract poets.

The earliest mention of epic poetry in France comes in Einhard's Vita Karoli (9th c.), in which we learn that Charlemagne ordered ancestral songs of the Franks to be collected. These were presumably oral compositions in Frankish, and provided one stream leading to the great flowering of chansons de geste in the 12th and 13th c. By the end of the Middle Ages these poems had undergone considerable influence from the romance, whose themes and narrative techniques were adopted and grafted onto subjects drawn from the traditional stock relating to Carolingian or Merovingian times, to the Crusades, or to ancient Greece and Rome through the influence of the romans d'antiquité. The surface form of the chansons de geste was preserved, although rhyme had replaced assonance in the laisse and the standard line was now the alexandrine rather than the decasyllable.

Originally a communal literature, epic had become the province of individual poets like Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube and Bodel as early as the 12th c., and, under the increasing influence of humanistic thought in the 15th and 16th c., it came to be seen as the pinnacle of achievement to be aimed at by poets. The models adopted were Virgil, Statius, and to a lesser extent Homer. In his Franciade Ronsard elaborated a legend first propounded in Fredegarius's history of the Franks (7th c.) in providing a Trojan ancestry for the kings of France. Despite some moments of poetic grandeur the academic sterility of the thematic conception led to the poem's failure as an epic model. Les Tragiques by Agrippa d' Aubigné could not provide a model for future generations either, but its firm rooting in the personal experience, and prejudices, of its Protestant author during the Wars of Religion give the poem an immediacy and power lacking in Ronsard's erudite imitation of antiquity. Du Bartas's Semaines, while not epic poems in the traditional sense of the word, were perhaps the most influential long French poems of the period; they had a powerful impact on English poets from Spenser to Milton.

While the 17th c. did not abandon Greco-Roman models and themes, the inspiration of Tasso and the resurgence of a sense of national identity and cultural self-confidence, especially in the second half of the century, led to the reawakening of interest in great figures of the French Middle Ages. This produced poems on Clovis (by Desmarets, Clovis ou la France chrétienne, 1657), St Louis (by Le Moyne, Saint Louis ou la Sainte Couronne reconquise, 1653), and Charlemagne (by Le Laboureur, Charlemagne 1664, and by Nicolas Courtin, Charlemagne ou le Rétablissement de l'empire romain, 1666, and Charlemagne pénitent, 1687). These tend to be of chronicle inspiration, with unwieldy rambling plots; Desmarets seeks essentially to provide a model of Christian kingship for the young Louis XIV, while Le Laboureur and Courtin, in his first poem, present the career of the first Holy Roman Emperor in the colours of a national hero and popular saint. Courtin's second poem, which may reflect changing attitudes at Louis XIV's court, if not intended as a ‘mirror of the prince’, makes Charlemagne's soul the battleground between mere imperial glory (represented by the devil) and self-domination (represented by St James of Compostela). Le Moyne's poem, although marred like its contemporaries by a weight of digressions, achieves a certain breadth of inspiration by drawing not only on national historiography, but also on Tasso's vision of the crusade and on native epic and romance traditions. The 17th c. also saw a plethora of moralistic poems combining Old Testament subjects (Susanna and the Elders, Judith and Holofernes, Saul and David, the Creation) with classical models.

The 18th c. produced only one epic of note, Voltaire's La Henriade, a belated treatment to add to the many contemporary eulogies of the king of Navarre, which presents Henri IV as an enlightened enemy of l'infâme. The 19th c. took its premisses for writing epic poetry from a different source from that in vogue from the 16th to 18th c. The rise of Romanticism in Germany in the late 18th c. had renewed interest in Volksepos as an expression of national identity, and the work of Herder and Diez was soon communicated to France. The great epics of antiquity, and the freshly rediscovered epics of the Middle Ages, were considered to be the result of compilation and polishing by learned poets of short songs produced more or less spontaneously by participants in the events recounted. This provided Romantic poets with a new method of structuring epics by thematic groupings of shorter, more intense poems, enabling them to recapture the lyric aspect of epic lost since the mid-12th c. Along with the rediscovery of the Middle Ages proper came a renewed appreciation of Renaissance and early Baroque literature, which was often confused with the medieval.

A blend of mysticism and humanism (drawn from Dante, Petrarch, and Shakespeare) and the politico-philosophic legacy of Rousseau mark all attempts at epic in the Romantic period. Lamartine conceived a monumental epic of humanity, Visions, in 1821. The project was never completed, but elements of it were absorbed into other works, like the 12, 000 line ‘fragment’ La Chute d'un ange (1838-40) and the ‘episode’ Jocelyn (1836). The former deals with the conflict between humanity and barbarism and the role of civilization in human development, ending rather pessimistically with the Flood; the latter, much more optimistic, mixes an idyll of human love with the ascetic renunciation required by divine love, both of which are superseded in an appeal to transcendent humanism. Jocelyn is notable for its explicit mix of narrative and lyric forms. Vigny's Poèmes antiques et modernes (1826) and Les Destinées (1864) are thematic constellations of poems dealing with the relationship of man to nature, the conflict of humanity and barbarism, and the common heroism of all sentient creatures faced with the inimical fate imposed by a jealous God. Hugo's La Légende des siècles, produced in three series (1859, 1877, 1883) with its two posthumous companion poems, La Fin de Satan (1886) and Dieu (1891), treats similar themes on a broader canvas, taking in universal history, but concentrating on medieval and Revolutionary France. In all of these poems the sense of individual or communal heroic struggle against physical odds typical of early epic is lost in the purely transcendental conflict of Good and Evil. It is perhaps in the novels of the period, particularly in those of Balzac and Hugo, that this essential aspect of epic is best captured.

[Philip Bennett]

Bibliography

  • R. A. Sayce, The French Biblical Epic in the Seventeenth Century (1955)
  • D. Maskell, The Historical Epic in France, 1500-1700 (1973)
  • W. Calin, A Muse for Heroes (1983)
 
Poetry Glossary: Epos

An epic poem; also a number of poems of an epic theme but which are not formally united.

 
Wikipedia: epic poetry
For other meanings of epic, see Epic.
Literature
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Epic • Romance • Novel • Tragedy • Comedy • Drama
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Prose • Poetry
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The epic is long, exalted narrative poetry, generally concerning a serious subject and details the heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation.[1] A work need not be written to qualify as an epic, although even the works of such great poets as Homer, Dante Alighieri, and John Milton would be unlikely to have survived without being written down. The first epics are known as primary, or original, epics. Epics that attempt to imitate these like Virgil's The Aenied and John Milton's Paradise Lost are known as literary, or secondary, epics.[2] Another word for epic poetry is epyllion (plural: epyllia) which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means 'little epic', came in use in the Nineteenth Century. It refers primarily to the type of erotic and mythological long elegy of which Ovid remains the master; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance, particularly those influenced by Ovid. One suggested example of classical epyllion may be seen in the story of Nisus and Euryalus in Book IX of The Aeneid.

Oral epics or world folk epics

The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means.

Early twentieth-century studies of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it.

Parry and Lord also showed that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance.

Epic: a long narrative poem in elevated stature presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

Epics have 6 main characteristics:

  1. the hero is of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance
  2. the setting is vast, covering many nations, the worlds or the universe
  3. the action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage
  4. supernatural forces--gods, angels, demons--interest themselves in the action
  5. a style of sustained elevation is used
  6. the poet retains a measure of objectivity

The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey, and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture.

Conventions of Epics:

  1. Opens by stating the theme or subject matter of the epic
  2. Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. (This convention is obviously restricted to cultures which were influenced by Classical culture: the Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, or the Bhagavata Purana would obviously not contain this element)
  3. Narrative opens in medias res, or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.
  4. Catalogues and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Oftentimes, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
  5. Main characters give extended formal speeches.
  6. Use of the epic simile
  7. Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases.


Literate societies have often copied the epic format; the earliest European examples of which the text survives are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgil's Aeneid, which follow both the style and subject matter of Homer. Other obvious examples are Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Tulsidas' Sri Ramacharit Manas, Invocation (prayer to the inspiring muse [of the epic]), praepositio (introduction of the epic's theme), enumeratio (counting the fighting heroes and their armies), the principles termed "in medias res"

Notable epic poems

This list can be compared with two others, National epic and List of world folk-epics.[3]

Ancient epics (to 500)

Medieval Epics (500-1500)

Modern Epics (from 1500)


Other "Epics"

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005, p2128. ISBN 0-312-41242-8
  2. ^ "epic". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6). (2004). New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. 
  3. ^ According to that article, world folk epics are those which are not just literary masterpieces but also an integral part of the world view of a people, originally oral, later written down by one or several authors.

External links

Bibliography

  • Jan de Vries: Heroic Song and Heroic Legend ISBN 0-405-10566-5
  • Cornel Heinsdorff: Christus, Nikodemus und die Samaritanerin bei Juvencus. Mit einem Anhang zur lateinischen Evangelienvorlage, Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 67, Berlin/New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017851-6

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
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Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Poetry Glossary. Copyright © 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Epic poetry".  Read more

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