epic: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo showing crowds pulling the large wooden Trojan Horse into the city of Troy, with excited figures and ancient buildings in the background.

Neo-Assyrian clay tablet from the 7th century BC inscribed with dense cuneiform writing, known as the Flood Tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh, displayed in the British Museum.

Engraved bust of Homer, a bearded man in a conical cap, overlaid on a painting of a galley with rowers and winged figures.

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

Geste du Roi Geste de Doon de Mayence Chanson de Guillaume Geste de Guillaume D’Orange Homeric epics Homer’s Odyssey vs. Christopher Nolan’s Film: Changes from Poem to Screen chanson de geste mock-epic epic formula columbiad Novel children’s literature tragedy dramatic literature comedy biography folk literature Modernist literature short story Poetry

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Engraved portrait of John Milton by Jacob Houbraken, showing Milton with shoulder-length hair, a lace collar, and period clothing, facing forward in an oval frame.

John Milton

English poet, pamphleteer, and historian

Homer

Homer

Greek poet

Ancient Roman mosaic showing the poet Virgil seated and writing, flanked by the muses Clio and Melpomene, displayed in a decorative border.

Virgil

Roman poet

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Italian poet and scholar

Valmiki teaches the Ramayana to Rama's sons

Valmiki

Hindu sage

Italian poet Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso

Italian poet

Hesiod

Hesiod

Greek poet

Ferdowsī (lower left corner) with three poets in a garden, miniature from a Persian manuscript, 17th century; in the British Library

Ferdowsī

Persian poet

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson.

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson

Norwegian author

default image

Quintus Ennius

Roman author

Rustaveli, Shota

Shota Rustaveli

Georgian poet

default image

Lucan

Roman author

default image

Statius

Roman poet

default image

Peretz Markish

Russian writer

default image

Apollonius of Rhodes

Greek poet

default image

Silius Italicus

Roman poet

default image

Lucius Livius Andronicus

Roman author

default image

Gaius Valerius Flaccus

Roman poet

default image

Claudian

Roman author

default image

Robert McAlmon

American author

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

The Literary World

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry