3rd century BC–3rd century AD), which consists of 100,000 ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at ~1.8 million words it is roughly twice the length of Shahnameh, four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa, and roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. The longest written epic from antiquity is the ancient Indian Mahabharata ( c. Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure. The poem details the exploits of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. 2500–1300 BCE), which was recorded in ancient Sumer during the Neo-Sumerian Empire. The oldest epic recognized is the Epic of Gilgamesh ( c. Later writers like Virgil, Apollonius of Rhodes, Dante, Camões, and Milton adopted and adapted Homer's style and subject matter, but used devices available only to those who write. Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer, were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances. Overview The first edition (1835) of the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to heroic epic, as described in this article. In ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter ( epea), which included not only Homer but also the wisdom poetry of Hesiod, the utterances of the Delphic oracle, and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus. The English word epic comes from Latin epicus, which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός ( epikos), from ἔπος ( epos), Tablet containing a fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh LiteratureĪn epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. For other uses of "epic", see Epic (disambiguation).
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