How did The Rape of the Lock compare a private social quarrel to the Trojan War?

In his mock-epic poem The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope employs the elevated style of classical epics to satirize a trivial social incident: the theft of a lock of hair from a young woman by an ardent suitor.12

Pope elevates this private quarrel to the scale of the Trojan War by utilizing traditional epic conventions. By framing the dispute with the gravity usually reserved for world-altering historical events, he highlights the absurdity of the conflict while simultaneously offering an ironic commentary on contemporary society. The poem incorporates classic epic devices—such as invocations to the muse, supernatural interventions, and formal set speeches—to treat the minor theft as if it were a monumental clash of heroes. This juxtaposition serves as a satirical tool, contrasting the "unheroic" nature of the modern age with the grand, legendary stature of classical antiquity.12