Literary Genres: The Classical Epic Tradition

Literary genres are based on a category of literary composition, which contains literary techniques,
devices, tones, and contents. Even though literary genres are thought to consist only of short stories,
novels, essays, drama/plays, and poems in the modern world, the scale is much longer and more
comprehensive. Additionally, it is crucial to note that literary genres are created by common literary
conventions that change over time as new genres emerge. Therefore, their contents not only evolve
according to cultural contexts but also contemporary questions of morals and norms. With respect to
this, the classical epic tradition has an important role in analyzing literary works through history and
questioning of morals and norms according to its particular characteristics.

First and foremost, the term "epic" can be classified in two ways; either narrowly through a study of a
selected variety of classical epics, or widely by considering the entire range of writing that could be
considered epic. However, mainly, the meaning of genre is originated from French, which means
kind, sort, or style. In the earliest history, a variety of literary genres were defined by mostly the
Ancient Greeks, who were also known as the earliest literary critics of modern ancient civilization,
such as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Aeschylus, Aspasia, and Euripides. Besides, all the types of
literary composition that prevailed in ancient Greece were written and constructed to discover
cultural, moral, or ethical questions, which were ultimately identified as not only epic, but also
tragedy, and comedy genres.

The Classical Epic Tradition

Initially, in order to comprehend the epic works and have the ability to analyze them, one must
learn the basic structure of the epic tradition. The definition of epic poetry is a long narrative
poem telling of a hero’s deeds, which demonstrates that epic poetry generally is about heroism.
However, in some cases, the epic poem may not involve heroic signs and figures. If epic poetry
does not contain warfare, it is generally about adventure. However, it is essential to mention that
conflict might be included in both heroism and adventure. In other words, if an epic poem has
warfare, it may contain an adventure. For instance, the illustrations of English epic works, John
Milton’s Paradise Lost (seventeenth-century epic classic), Beowulf (the oldest surviving epic
poem), and Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (in early modern English) contain both an
adventure and nobility. Epic poetry, in other words, is interwoven acts of courage, nobility, and
adventure.

An epic is a type of poem, not prose. That is, it contains a certain rhythm, a form of lines or
stanzas, and a regular meter. An epic poem has to be long, which means that it is different than
a typical lyric poem. Other than that, an epic poem should be narrative. In other words, it tells a
story. Another feature of an epic poem is that the readers usually see a common type of hero.
To explain this profoundly, the heroes are generally warriors, yet it is not a must. There might be
any other types of characters. To give a simple example, in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the
characters are not warriors but trying to reach God. In a way, they deprive themselves of a
certain purpose, which can be counted as a representation of heroism. To put it differently, the
epic hero is not an ordinary person. He is either of noble birth or high position, and often of great
historical or legendary importance. Not to mention the fact that exhibiting the character traits or
qualities reflects the significant ideals of society. To be more specific, braveness,
courageousness, and honesty are the main ideals that are cherished by society in an epic
poem. Hence, it can be said that the epic heroes are courageous, and superhuman figures and
their deeds reflect the values of the era. They perform actions that often determine the fate of a
nation or group of people. They do not fight for themselves. On the contrary, they fight for their
notion. For example, in Beowulf and Divine Comedy, the heroes fight for saving humanity
according to Christian doctrine.

An epic was born as an oral tradition. Due to this fact, there is no doubt that works can take their
contents from various subjects as myths, heroic legends, histories, religious tales, philosophical
or moral theories since the aim is to transmit people’s traditions from one generation to another,
without the aid of writing.

Conventions of an Epic Poem

An epic poem may begin with invoking the Muses. Muses, in Greek and Roman mythology, are
nine Goddesses, who are basically the source of inspiration. In that kind of beginning, the poet
prays to the Muses in order to give him a divine inspiration to tell a story of a hero.

In addition to this, an epic poem begins “in medias res”, in other words, “in the middle of
everything”. The setting is vast in scope, and often involving more than one nation. It has not
limited space or single territory. The plot, on the other hand, is complicated by supernatural
beings or events and may involve a long and dangerous journey through foreign lands. Lastly,
the dialogue often includes long, formal speeches delivered by the major characters. In a lyric
poem, there is no dialogue, which presents that the dialogues are quite important in epic poetry.

Themes
The theme reflects timeless values, such as courage and honor, and encompasses universal ideas,
such as good and evil or life and death. The style includes formal diction and a serious type.
There is the use of Epithets which is the listing of heroes and combatants that appear at the
beginning of the poems.