An "Epic", a majestic tale of a hero going through a series of events to achieve great rewards. It is a Greek poem that centers around a hero explaining about his or her adventures while facing hardships with or without the assistance of a God and/or lesser deity.
An epic is a poem, and with that has a theme. (Poem begins with a statement of the theme ("Arms and the man I sing")) Each epic starts off powerful, with a strong lead to bring the people in. On lines 1.1-10, it sings the tale of rage. It tells about the dark, and the hatred that has been evoked between Agamemnon and Achilles.
A characteristic of an epic is that sometimes gods will interfere with the will of men. (The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions) In the Iliad, an example would be when Pallas Athena stops Achilles from killing Agamemnon (1.203-24)
Each character or great object has a title, or is praised by a given status (IE Chris the Wise). There is a Frequent use of epithets ("Aeneas the true"; "rosy-fingered Dawn"; "tall-masted ship"). Like "Lord Apollo, the Arch-Destroyer"(1.83), "Achilles, the great runner" (1.91), or "Calchas, the perfect prophet" (1.98).
This picture is the battle of Troy, appropriate, huh? The person standing there is Achilles, backed onto a rock surrounded by enemy forces. This has a great representation for the epic because it shows a hero facing an army. It shows courage, strength, and duty. This can also be represented by the "war" fought between Achilles and Agamemnon, where Achilles stood his ground while taking various attacks from Agamemnon.
2 comments:
Fantastic photo. Who's the artist? I like your connection between the war itself and 'epic' struggle between Agamemnon and Achilles. They were both battling their own hubristic demons, no?
The artist, ironically, is Homer. This picture was part of an expedition about Greek culture. At the part where they were explaining Troy, this picture was shown on the cover of the Iliad (must have been a different version from the book you have in the class).
It's a good thing I remember the exhibit, or I'd be pondering the net searching for a picture that represents Iliad :P
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