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Literature vocabulary · Genres and Forms

Epic

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈepɪk/nounCommon term

In literature, epic means: A long narrative poem about the heroic deeds of legendary figures, often involving gods, wars and journeys and telling the story of a people.

In Turkish: destan, epik şiir, epope

How it is used

Classic examples are the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid and Milton's Paradise Lost. Critics talk about the epic hero, epic conventions and the mock epic, which uses epic style for trivial subjects. In Turkish culture, destan covers works like the Oğuz Kağan and Manas epics.

Example sentences

  1. The Odyssey is an epic that follows one man's ten-year journey home.

  2. Like every classical epic, the poem opens with a call to the Muse.

Common collocations

  • epic poem
  • national epic
  • epic hero
  • mock epic
  • Homeric epic
  • poetryLiterary writing arranged in lines that uses rhythm, sound, imagery and often rhyme to express feelings and ideas in a concentrated way.
  • in medias resA Latin phrase meaning 'into the middle of things', used for a story that begins in the middle of the action and explains earlier events later.
  • genreA category of literature defined by shared features of form, style or subject, such as poetry, drama and the novel, or crime, fantasy and romance.
  • verseWriting arranged in lines with a rhythm, as opposed to prose; also a single line of a poem or a group of lines in a song.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Genres and Forms

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