The Epic and the Epic Hero
An epic is a long narrative poem that traces the adventures of a hero. A narrative poem
tells a story. The epic hero is a legendary figure who usually represents the goals and values of
an entire nation or culture. In an epic, the gods and goddesses often interfere in the hero’s
affairs, sometimes to help and protect, sometimes to hurt and punish. The adventures of the
hero are in the form of separate episodes, each of which is a brief story on its own.
The epic usually opens with the poet making an invocation, or prayer, asking for
inspiration from the muse, the goddess of poetry. In the invocation, the poet asks the muse to
give him the talent he needs to tell the story.
The Oral Tradition
Two of the best known epic poems are the Iliad and its sequel the Odyssey. A sequel is a
story that begins where another story ends and continues the story. Originally, the Iliad and the
Odyssey were not written down but were memorized and recited for an audience. They were
passed down from generation to generation and place to place through oral tradition.
Centuries ago, Greek minstrels, or traveling poets and singers, wandered from one town
to another entertaining crowds with their tales of warriors and sea-faring adventures. These
minstrels would sometimes change the stories to suit a particular audience. They might suggest
that the hero was an ancestor of the people in the audience and describe the hero as having
the cares and beliefs of the people listening to the tale.
The oral tradition influenced the style of the epics. The storytellers used frequent
repetition and a highly musical sound to make their poems easier to memorize. This same
technique is used today in nursery rhymes.
Homer
Little is known about Homer, the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The style and
language of his writing suggests that he probably lived in the 8 th or 9th century B.C.E. There are
those who say that Homer was blind, but there is no real evidence of this. Some historians
claim that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a single person, but are the collective
works of a group of poets. Homer’s true identity will probably never be known, but the impact
of the poems is clear. The Homeric poems were the basis for Greek education and culture.
Every Greek who learned to read would read Homer. The epics were classics as early as 400 B.
C. E. Homer’s influence spread throughout the Western world and many great authors have
imitated these epics and have referred to the heroes, settings, images, and themes of the Iliad
and the Odyssey in their own works.