The following terms or concepts help characterize epic poetry. Try to find each of them when you read the Iliad, Odyssey, or Aeneid.
More Ancient / Classical History Quick Tips
- Aidos: shame, can range from a sense of respect to disgrace
- Anthromorphism: Literally, turning into a human being. Gods and goddesses are anthropomorphized when they take on human qualities
- Arete: virtue, excellence
- Aristeia: a warrior's prowess or excellence; a scene in battle where the warrior finds his (or her) finest moment
- Ate: blindness, madness, or folly that the gods may impose with or without the fault of the human.
- Dactylic Hexameter: the meter of epic has 6 dactylic feet in a line. A dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short. In English this meter winds up sounding sing-songy.
- In medias res into the middle of things, the epic story begins in the middle of things and reveals the past with narratives and flashbacks
- Invocation: at the start of epic, the poet calls upon the Goddess or Muse. The poet either believes or adopts the stance that the poem couldn't be composed without divine inspiration.
- Kleos: fame for a deed
- Moira: portion, share, lot in life, destiny
- Nemesis: righteous indignation
- Timē: honor, should be proportionate to arete
- Xenia: bond of guest-friendship
- Personification: treating an abstract or inanimate object as if it were living
