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The Epic Cycle (Ancient Greek: Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος, romanized: Epikòs Kýklos) was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems, composed in dactylic hexameter and related to the story of the Trojan War, including the Cypria, the Aethiopis, the so-called Little Iliad, the Iliupersis, the Nostoi, and the Telegony.
Mu'allaqat, Arabic poems written by seven poets in Classical Arabic, these poems are very similar to epic poems and specially the poem of Antarah ibn Shaddad; Parsifal by Richard Wagner (opera, composed 1880–1882) Pasyón, Filipino religious epic, of which the 1703 and 1814 versions are popular; Popol Vuh, history of the K'iche' people
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is written using a similar style to the two Homeric epics. [162] It also makes frequent allusions to figures from classical literature and mythology, using them as symbols to convey a Christian message. [163] Lucian's A True Story was part of the inspiration for Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.
The return journey in Book 4, for example, has many parallels in the Odyssey – Scylla, Charybdis, the Sirens and Circe are hazards that Odysseus also negotiates. The Argonautica is notable too for the high number of verses and phrases imitating Homer, and for the way it reproduces linguistic peculiarities of old epic, in syntax, metre ...
In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry and drama (in the form of tragedy and comedy). [12] Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is an imitation in verse of characters of a higher type. They differ in that Epic poetry admits but one kind of meter and is narrative in form.
Homer: Greek poet credited with the authorship of the epic poems the Iliad, which tells the story of the Trojan War, and the Odyssey, which tells the story of the Greek hero Odysseus' adventures returning from that war. Encountered in Limbo, leading, "as lord", the three Latin poets Horace, Ovid and Lucan. Inf. IV, 83–90.
The Odyssey (/ ˈ ɒ d ɪ s i /; [1] Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, romanized: Odýsseia) [2] [3] is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is divided into 24 books.
A characteristic of Homer's style is the use of epithets, as in "rosy-fingered" Dawn or "swift-footed" Achilles.Epithets are used because of the constraints of the dactylic hexameter (i.e., it is convenient to have a stockpile of metrically fitting phrases to add to a name) and because of the oral transmission of the poems; they are mnemonic aids to the singer and the audience alike.