What is Epic

Epic:

A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. May epics were drawn from oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. Two of the most famous epics of Western civilization are Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. The great epic of the Middle Ages is the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian poet Dante. The two most famous English epics are the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf” and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, which employs some of the conventions of the classical epic.