The Epic (*traditional vs. New)

Definition: “A long narrative poem that tells the adventures of a hero whose actions help decide the fate of a nation or a group of people (characters).” Traditional vs. new problem: nobody writes “long narrative poems” anymore… so does that mean there are no new epics? Of course not! But we do have to look at things a little differently.

The epic hero Traditional: 1) a well-known character of high standing [think kings, princes, etc.] 2) his/her qualities represent those valuable to his/her society [think bravery, modesty, honesty] 3)the hero is usually pitted against monsters so they must be strong & courageous [often to the point of seeming superhuman … “seeming” because they aren’t … in the traditional epic, superheroes wouldn’t work]

The epic hero (continued) 4) the hero often displays cleverness & guile [they are cunning, crafty, intelligent … they come up with smart plans to get themselves out of tricky situations] 5)since the hero represents all humans, he/she must struggle to overcome human [character] weaknesses [such as pride & temptation] *”new” epics often ignore the “high social position” qualification and often fall more in-line w/ Campbell’s “ordinary joe” type of hero

Supernatural forces Supernatural forces play a critical role in an epic’s plot ~ so much so that if they’re not present, it’s probably not an epic. Examples: Traditional: gods & goddesses; monsters; “CREATURES” New: people “behaving monstrously” ~ truly evil real people often play this role Either/acceptable: magic; ghosts

The action The action in an epic involves a great many deeds [not just one or two battles] over a wide geographic area [lots of different places, sometimes many hundred or thousands of miles apart] Geography is relative … how “big” are our heroes? Mice? Probably not so “wide” to us, but to the mice … ???

Example: map of odysseus’s journey

Jason’s journey

style Formal and grand … the language is lofty and grand but easy to follow… significant use of Homeric/epic similes, extended metaphors & parallelism/parallel structure *since many new epics are movies, they lose this … often this concept is replaced by the relative “importance” of the subject matter (Wars, whistleblowers, industrial espionage, etc.)