Epic Poetry-Mady
Other Epic Poems
Purpose
Reflect universal concerns
The fate of a nation
Loyalty
Life and death
Non-Features
No problems
doesn't include super human strength
No culture
Isn't a poem
Literary Devices
Epithet
A pronoun that replaces or describes someone
"Odysseus, raider of cities,topic"(428).
Epic simile
A simile that is in a Epic poem. Several lines long.
"Then he dismembered them and made his meal,/
gaping and crunching like a mountain lion/" (195-196).
"then lay down like a mast among his sheep"(202).
"I leaned on it/turning it as a shipwright turns a drill/
in planking" (293-295).
Odysseus is telling the story to the King
Spent 7 years with Caylipso.
Zeus sent Hercules to free Odysseus
Landed on the Locus Island
Main topic
recounts the adventures of an epic hero
performs deeds requiring remarkable bravery and cunning
tend to highlight cultural norms
interactions of the hero and his civilization with the gods
Features
Epic Hero
Posses superhuman strength
"He left his rams/and he-goats in the yard outside, and swung/high overhead a slab of solid rock/to close the cave" (141-143).
Helped or Harmed by Gods or fate
"O hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands,/
if I am thine indeed, and thou art father:/
grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never/
see his home:" (443-446).
Embodies qualities valued by a culture
"We would entreat you, great Sir, have a care/
for the gods courtesy; Zeus will avenge/the unoffending guest"(173-175).
Overcomes perilous situations
"Then we unloaded all the Cyclops flock/
to make division, share and share alike,/
only my fighters voted that my ram,/
the prize of all, should go to me" (465-468).