Why Epic Poetry Matters

Forgotten Lessons

What is epic poetry? I could tell you the things that most people are already familiar with about epic poetry, that of a grandiose story following the tale of a hero or group of heroes through an adventure or trial told through an old meter of rhymes and alliteration, yet none of this would tell you why it’s important. Today’s read will center around this brief yet vital discussion.

I will begin by explaining to you what may be obvious to some and a revelation to others, but epic poetry was meant to be read aloud, not read in silence. It is meant to be sung even. As English speakers we’re removed from the original meaning, but the term epic comes from the Greek epikos, which comes from the older Greek epos meaning the spoken word, a story, or to sing. Why does this matter though? Why does it matter if I am to read something in quiet solitude or to sing something aloud.

Well, to dive into why singing an epic is important it is necessary to remember the context in which most epics were created. These were stories, mostly separate stories that were orally passed down for generations. These stories were then compiled into more complex larger stories by some men as their culture evolved and the complexity of their customs and beliefs grew. Then, at this point several of these oral traditions of song and story were put to stone and chisel or papyrus and quill where we recorded their many oddities and beauties.

The multitude of generations that passed down the spoken versions of these stories had to have either been incredibly brilliant minds to memorize entire vasts stories of locations, people, events, and all the complexities of their emotions and words, or there were mechanisms they implemented in order to help themselves remember these vast stories. I imagine that if asked to repeat an entire paragraph word for word the average reader would be unable to do so, so how did these men and women pass down stories stretching into the hundreds of thousands of words?

The reciting of epic poetry has several key components that fit nicely together and assist the reciter in remembering the next line. These components are meter, rhyme, and alliteration, all of which can be found in songs today. If I were to now ask if you could sing your favorite song word for word, chances are most readers could recite at least a single song word for word or close to it. Why is this? Why can someone recite a song but not a paragraph of plainly spoken information?

Those components of meter, rhyme, and alliteration each give a context to the story and connect the previous word to the next word. Meter, simply put, is the pattern of beats or stresses within a song. To an English reader I could point to Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter as an example. This meter consists of a foot, which you could consider the basic unit of repetition, or a single movement with two steps which I shall represent with duh DUH. A pentameter therefore is five of these foots put together, and that forms a line, which is then repeated over and over again. The iambic pentameter would thusly go as follows

duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH

Borrowing an example from Shakespeare it is thus, with the following accents for exaggeration

“shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer’s DAY?”

Enough of meter, I believe you understand the gyst of meter and its use of beats and repitition. Yet what of rhyme and alliteration? What do these provide? A rhyme has two words that end in the syllable that sounds the same. An alliteration has two words that contains the same stressed consonants, typically at the front of the word, but this can change depending on where the stress is placed. All vowels alliterate with any other vowels, regardless if they are the same vowel or not by default.

To keep the examples brief, smart and art rhyme together but smart and dumb do not rhyme, where as the words fly and flicker alliterate, but fly and ply do not alliterate.

One final component I intentionally did not mention was the use of instruments in these epic poems that were sung aloud with friends, family, and all who would listen. With the use of an instrument, the flow of the meter was maintained in sync with the beats of the instrumentalist. Then using rhyme and alliteration, words were connected to one another as to help connect words and concepts through the help of these memory assistance devices.

All of this is great, and now I’m sure most of you have a deeper appreciation for the intelligence of the poets of the past that created these beautiful living works of art, but why is this all important?

There is something missing from the current era that men once used to love and appreciate. For centuries, even millennia the works of Homer, Virgil, and the anonymous Beowulf author united various tribes of people into one cohesive identity, their ethnic identity. Epic poetry before contained many important ideas, culturally important concepts, and religious beliefs that were integral to the identity of many people. The songs kept these beliefs alive and as long as the language remained alive these ideas were passed down from generation to generation.

Achilles fighting Memnon, Volute Krater.

Every Greek could identify with at least a single quality of the heroes of the Iliad or Odyssey and dig out an important lesson from the many heroes of the wars and travels. Every Roman could learn something from the lessons of the Aeneid and its hero Aeneas. Every Englishman, German, Dane, and Germanics as a whole could identify something within Beowulf worth emmulation.

Epics give people a purpose, it gives them hope, it ties together an identity which has slowly begun to lose its meaning over the passage of time. There are no more rhapsodes singing their rhapsodies. There are no more bards singing of the great accomplishments of great men anymore. Man has fallen from his mythic beginning and lost an image of something greater to strive for and lost the foundation which the identity of many groups are tethered to by chain.

I propose this, that those of you who read this do but one thing. I desire for each of you to look into your heritage and to search for an epic tale that your people have written. Find what your ancestors found important enough to record into song and pass down to their descendants and find a piece of yourselves that has until now been missing its home. As always brothers, I am here with you in the abyss.