in medias res

adv.
In or into the middle of a sequence of events, as in a literary narrative.

[Latin in mediās rēs : in, into + mediās, accusative pl. feminine of medius, in the middle of + rēs, accusative pl. of rēs, thing.]

(in MAY-dee-uhs rays, in MEE-dee-uhs REEZ, in MAY-dee-as RAYS)

adverb
In or into the middle of things.

Etymology
From Latin in medias res, from in (in, into) + medius (middle) + res (thing). A related term is ab ovo (from the beginning, literally, from the egg). Both come from Horace's Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry), where the Roman poet advises that an epic poem ought to begin in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning. The story is then told by flashbacks.]

Usage
"The story begins in medias res, with Shay dead and Hano and Katie on the run after an unspecified but obviously grave crime." — Terrence Rafferty; New Dubliners; The New York Times; Apr 20, 2008.

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in medias res [in med‐i‐ahs rayss], the Latin phrase meaning ‘into the middle of things’, applied to the common technique of storytelling by which the narrator begins the story at some exciting point in the middle of the action, thereby gaining the reader's interest before explaining preceding events by analepses (‘flashbacks’) at some later stage. It was conventional to begin epic poems in medias res, as Milton does in Paradise Lost. The technique is also common in plays and in prose fiction: for example, Katherine Mansfield's short story ‘A Dill Pickle’ (1920) begins in medias res with the sentence

‘And then, after six years, she saw him again.’

See also anachrony.

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[Latin, Into the heart of the subject, without preface or introduction.]

(in may-dee-uhs, mee-dee-uhs rays)

In the middle of the action. Epics often begin in medias res. For example, the Odyssey, which tells the story of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus, begins almost at the end of his wanderings, just before his arrival home. In medias res is a Latin phrase used by the poet Horace; it means “in the middle of things.”

In the very midst of things.

The literary device of beginning a narrative, such as an epic poem, at a crucial point in the middle of a series of events. The intent is to create an immediate interest from which the author can then move backward in time to narrate the story.

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