Epic

An epic or heroic poem is ??? Homer ??? The earliest Greek poems of antiquity are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey ??? Virgil, consciously imitating Homer, produced the most famous epic poem of Augustan Rome, the Aeneid. In both Greek and Latin, the most common epic meter was dactylic hexameter.

Famous English epics include the Old English poem Beowulf, and, in the Renaissance, Spenser's Faerie Queene and Milton's Paradise Lost.

Don't use the term epic loosely for anything large in scope. Although networks will try to convince you every miniseries and telemovie is "epic," don't believe 'em -- or, at least, don't use that sort of advertising cant in an English class.

From the Guide to Literary Terms by Jack Lynch.
Please send comments to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

Note: This guide is still in the early stages of development. Bear with me.