THE epic, talso called epic or heroic poetry, it is a literary genre whose composition consists of a poem long, narrative, usually talking about the deeds of a hero, about historical or mythical events, about elements considered fundamental to a given culture. It is a text dedicated to exposing glorious episodes, enhancing its main characters and recording for posterity their achievements, worthy of being remembered and decorated.
What is epic?
Mixing narrative and lyrical, the epic brings, in the form of verses, historical facts combined with one mythological background. It is the case of The Lusiads, in Camões, for example: the author narrates, in 8,816 verses, the undertaking of the Great Navigations Portuguese cities, a historical event, set amid recurring mythological mentions, such as the wrath of Spleen, contrary to the Portuguese, and the affection of Venus, which inspired them good luck on the trip.
The epic, however, is a much older genre than Camões' composition. You
Sumerians, around 2000 a. C., narrated in verse the call Epic of Gilgamesh, considered the oldest literary work of mankind. However, the epic was based as a literary genre only in the Ancient Greece, with the famous compositions attributed to the poet Homer, entitled Iliad and Odyssey.This is what the Greeks called a genus of lofty poetry, that is, a specific format for the production of texts intended for narrate great deeds, important stories of a civilization.
With the Roman invasion and the incorporation of Greek culture into the Latin civilization, the poet Virgil wrote the Aeneid, so that the epic was consolidated as a literary form of Antique classic, being resumed by several poets over the centuries to produce texts related to national history, to one mythical past or legendary.
Read more: Books that became movies, just like the Iliad
Characteristics of an epic
The purpose of the epic is always to narrate in a grand tone a event or legend in great national importance. Because it is a textual genre classic, its composition must follow a structure and a combination of fixed elements.
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• Elements of an epic
• There is always a storyteller, a lyrical self that drives the narrative. However, the focus is always on the presentation of facts;
• There is an distance of the narrator of what is narrated;
• Presence of action, that is, from the narration of events;
• Chain of actions, which are presented in a progressive way;
• Stories centered on charactersmorally high – national heroes whose feats bring them closer to gods, and who refer to a cultural collectivity – and narrated in grand style and tone, always looking for the glorification of the deeds presented, worthy of being remembered and immortalized, for representing the values of a nation or group;
• Division into autonomous parts, organized in a self-sufficient way, since they could exist structurally and historically by themselves;
• Constant presence of characters mythological, mainly from the Greco-Latin tradition.
Structure of the epic
To be classified as an epic, the work must contain the following structures:
• Proposition: introductory part, in which the poet presents the theme to be sung;
• Invocation: moment in which the poet invokes the muses or gods, to give them breath and perseverance to masterfully narrate the long poem;
• Dedication: of optional use, it is the part in which the poet dedicates the epic to someone;
• Narration: part in which the poet narrates, in fact, the great events practiced by the protagonist.
See more: Arcadism in Brazil: aesthetics that used epic traits in some of his works
Examples of epic
• (approx. VIII a. C.), of Homer Iliad
Epic that narrates one of the episodes of Trojan War. Starred by Achilles, warrior and demigod, who, taken by a fiery wrath, turns against Agamemnon, chief of the Greek troops, causing the death of his best friend, Patroclus, and countless others companions.
corner I
Sing, O goddess, the wrath of Achilles the Pelid
(deadly!, which brought so much pain to the Achaeans
and so many brave souls of heroes cast in Hades,
getting their bodies prey for dogs and birds
of prey, while the will of Zeus was fulfilled),
from the moment they first fell out
the Atrida, sovereign of men, and the divine Achilles.
Among them which of the gods caused the conflict?
Apollo, son of Leto and Zeus. the god was enraged
against the king and therefore spread among the army
a terrible disease from which the hosts died,
because the Atrida had disregarded Khryse, his priest.
Now this one had come to the swift ships of the Achaeans
to rescue her daughter, bringing countless riches.
Holding Apollo's tapes in his hands that hits from afar
and a golden scepter, he entreated all the Achaeans,
but especially to the two Atridas, conductors of men:
“O Atridas and you, other Achaeans of beautiful cnemids!
May the gods, which Olympus hold, grant you,
plunder the city of Priam and return safely to your homes!
But release my beloved daughter and receive the ransom,
out of respect for the son of Zeus, Apollo who hits from afar.”
[...]
(Iliad)
• Odyssey (approx. VIII a. C.), of Homer
Centered on the hero Odysseus, also called Ulysses, king of Ithaca, whose cunning and intelligence make him a man capable of great deeds. He had the idea of the Trojan Horse, of hiding Greek warriors inside a huge wooden horse, offered as a gift to the Trojans. Odysseus spends years away from his kingdom and is considered dead; The Odyssey narrates the hero's adventures and his journey home.
corner I
Tell me, Musa, of the cunning man who so wandered,
after Troy destroyed the holy citadel.
Many were the peoples whose cities he observed,
whose spirits he met; and there were many at sea
the sufferings he went through to save his life,
to get the companions to return to their homes.
But them, although he wanted him, he could not save.
No, they perished due to their madness,
fools, who devoured the sacred cattle of Hyperion,
the Sun—and so the god denied them the day of return.
Of these things speak to us now, O goddess, daughter of Zeus.
In that time, all those who fled the craggy death
they were at home, safe from war and the sea.
Only to that one, who so wanted to return to his wife,
Calypso, divine nymph among the goddesses, retained
in concave caves, anxious for him to become her husband.
But when the year came (after many others had passed)
in which the gods decreed that he should return to Ithaca,
not there, even among his people, did he turn away from trials.
And all the gods had pity on him,
all but Poseidon: and until his land reached,
the god did not tame his wrath against the divine Odysseus.
But far away Poseidon had moved away, towards the Ethiopians,
of these divided Ethiopians, most remote among men:
some are where the sun rises, others where the sun sets.
There Poseidon had moved away to receive
a hecatomb of sheep and bulls;
and there he enjoyed the feast. As for the other gods,
in the palace of Olympian Zeus they were gathered.
And the first to speak was the father of men and gods.
For to his heart came the memory of the blameless Aegisthus,
whom he had murdered Orestes, son of Agamemnon.
Thinking of him, he addressed the other immortals like this:
“See how mortals accuse the gods!
From us (they say) come misfortunes, when they are,
for their madness, who suffer more than they should!
As now Aegisthus, beyond what he was allowed,
of Atrida married the woman, killing Agamemnon
on his arrival, knowing full well of the steep disgrace—
because we had warned him when we sent
Hermes, the vigilante Slayer of Argos:
that he would not kill Agamemnon or take his wife,
for by the hand of Orestes would come Atrida's vengeance,
when he reached adulthood and yearning for the land he felt.
Thus spoke Hermes to him; but your good advice the spirit
of Aegisthus did not convince. Now he has paid everything at once.”
[...]
(Odyssey)
Also access: Fantastic Tale - textual genre that has features similar to those of the epic
• Aeneid (approx.19 a. C.), by Virgil
Epic centered on Aeneas (or Aeneas), a mythical hero surviving the Trojan War, whose destiny would be the founding of the city of Rome. It is, therefore, the Narrative of the Origin of Roman Civilization, dealing with the power and expansion of the Empire.
corner I
I, who sang in the thin oven
Rude songs, and coming from the forests,
I made the neighboring farms content
The settler's greed, grateful company
To the villagers; from mars now the horrible
Weapons corner, and the man who, from Troy
Profugo, to Italy and from Lavino to the beaches
Fado first brought him. on sea and on land
Much violently shook the supreme hand,
And the remembered rancor of the seva Juno;
He suffered a lot in wars, in Ausomnia when
Found the city and introduce the gods to it:
Hence the Latin nation and Albanian priests,
And the walls come from sublimated Rome.
Muse, the causes point me, the offense number,
Or why the sovereign dea hurts
Compelled the famous hero into pity
To such bids to pass, to return such cases.
For so many angers in heavenly breasts!
Tyrian colony overseas, Carthage,
From Italo Tiber opposed to the mouths,
There was a mighty emporium, ancient, rugged
Art of war; to which, it is told, Juno
He even postponed his favorite Samos:
There coach, weapons there had; and, yearns the fado,
In the orb enthroning it then already traces and tries.
But from Teucro he had heard that the progeny,
Of Penos subverting the fortresses,
It would come to be, Libya collapsed,
To the broad king of the bellicose people:
That in this way the Fates spin it.
Saturnia fears him, and the pro of his Files
He recalls the tasks he had excited at Troy;
Not even heart injuries, raw pains:
Intimately imprinted Paris' decision,
The insult of beauty in belittling,
And the detested race and the honors last
Of the Ganymede abduction. in these hates
Overlit, those of Greece and Achilles imitation
Salvos Troas, from Lazio, was stretching,
All over the unisonous plane thrown;
And wandering around for years and years,
From sea to sea, luck repulsed them.
So serious was the planting of people from Rome!
[...]
(Aeneid)
• The Lusiads (1592), by Luís Vaz de Camões
It narrates the feats of the Great Portuguese Navigations inspired by the form of the great Homeric epics.
corner I
The weapons and barons assigned
Which, from the western Lusitana beach,
By seas never sailed before
They even went beyond Taprobana
And in perils and strenuous wars
More than human strength promised,
And among remote people they built
New Kingdom, which so sublimated;
And also the glorious memories
Of those Kings who were dilating
The Faith, the Empire, and the Vicious Lands
From Africa and Asia have been devastating,
And those who by valiant works
They go from the law of Death releasing:
Singing will spread everywhere,
If my ingenuity and art help me so much.
Cease of the Greek sage and the Trojan
The great navigations they made;
Shut up Alexandro and Trajan
The fame of the victories they had;
That I sing the illustrious Lusitano chest,
Whom Neptune and Mars obeyed.
Cease all that the ancient Muse sings,
What other higher value rises.
And you, Tagides mine, for servant
You have in me a new burning device
If ever, in humble verse, celebrated
It was from my river happily,
Now give me a high and sublimated sound,
A grand and current style,
Why from your waters Phoebus command
That they are not envious of the Hippocrene.
Give me a great and sounding fury,
And not from rough avena or ruda frauta,
But with a bellicose tuba,
That the chest lights up and the color to the gesture changes;
Give me the same song as the famous
Your people, that Mars helps so much;
Let it spread and sing in the Universe,
If such a sublime price fits in verse.
[...]
(The Lusiads)
By L. da Luiza Brandino
Literature teacher
