5. Style

The Epic

Overview

In literature, the epic takes a variety of forms. Usually, it is a long poem which is elevated in tone and provides a vision of life that is complex, detailed, and coherent. The epic covers a wide scope of action, depicts a wide canvas of meanings, and treats themes that are crucial to culture and civilization: honour, love, friendship, family, freedom, fate, war, death, religion, the afterlife, etc.

The major Western epics usually follow the literary conventions of invoking a muse (traditionally Calliope, the Greek muse of epic poetry) and starting in the middle of the action (in medias res, “in the middle of things”). They often include a battle, a sea journey, and a journey to the afterlife.

The journey is a key element in the epic tradition. Not all important journeys are considered epic in a literary sense, however. Take, for instance, the journeys of the Egyptian gods Ra and Osiris, the Greek musician Orpheus, the Hebrew prophets Abraham and Moses, or the travels of Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Batutta, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Darwin, etc. All of these are very important journeys, yet their religious or historical aspects are more crucial than their literary aspects.

The epic is a particular type of literary work, containing:

—> A unified combination of elements; the epic has the unity characteristic of literary art

—> An elevated tone, striking images, strategic repetitions, metaphors, conceits, symbols, references, allusions and other literary qualities

—> Characters that are noble, heroic, mythic, and legendary

—> A vision of the scope and meaning of life, often including the afterlife and a journey (these two are often combined, as in Gilgamesh and the Odyssey)

The epic is generally a poetic form, yet one can also talk more loosely of the epic novel, as in Sun Wutong’s Journey to the West (16th C.), which follows the adventures of a monkey and a monk who travel from China to India in quest of sacred texts, or as in Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869), which is set in Russia at the time of the Napoleonic invasion.

There are also mock epics and subversive epics, which deflate, invert, or distort the epic. The mock epic developed in Italy in the 17th C. and was popular in 18th C. England. Here the styles and pretensions of the epic are applied to ridiculous people or situations—for example to the cutting of a lock of hair in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1712-14).

Byron also turns the epic on its head in Don Juan (1824), by mocking epic conventions and by narrating a journey that has no destination. Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is structured on the journey in Homer’s Odyssey, yet it follows a day in the life of an Irish anti-hero wandering around Dublin, and it subverts and plays with many of the situations found in Homer.

Even if we assume that the traditional epic is less viable in the present age — because of the Modern crisis of meaning, evolutionary theory, existentialism, etc. — this doesn’t mean that the traditional epic, or the epic in general, is dead. People who still believe in the universe presented by the traditional epic will find it very much alive and will no doubt create their own epic takes on that view of the universe.

In addition, recent fantasy and sci-fi stories share much in common with the traditional epic. For instance, they create an expansive view of the world, from the cosy Shire to the wastelands of Mordor in Lord of the Rings, from the sturdy towers of King’s Landing to the frozen wastelands of the White Walkers and the desert wastelands of the Dothraki in Game of Thrones, and from the planet Earth to the far off reaches of the galaxy in Star Wars and Star Trek. They also explore the complexity of relationships, politics, and culture, and they emphasize battles, journeys, heroes, and grand exploits. Finally, they contain a vision of the universe which makes its own self-referential sense, often including mythic, supernatural, or alien forces of good and evil. For instance, Tolkien’s world is threatened by the rising of the Dark Lord and its army of Orcs and Nazguls.

Contemporary fantasy and sci-fi epics differ from the traditional epic because they depict worlds that are explicitly make-believe. For instance, no one believes in Orcs, dragons, Vulcans, White Walkers, or wizards in the way that many people believed, and continue to believe, in demons, gods, angels, and saints.

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Gilgamesh

While we generally see the Western epic as beginning with the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greece in the 8th C. BC, some elements go back to Gilgamesh in pre-Classical times. Gilgamesh dates from the 3rd M. BC and comes from the early Sumerian culture in the region known as Mesopotamia (from Greek, meso or middle, and potamia or rivers; in this case the two rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates, in today’s Iraq). The story of Gilgamesh developed in the succeeding Akkadian and Babylonian civilizations. The historical figure of Gilgamesh reigned around 2700 BC, and the best-known version of his story is attributed to the Akkadian priest Sîn-leqi-unninni around 1300 BC.

Gilgamesh has three major journeys in it: 1. The story begins with Enkidu’s journey from the wilderness to civilization (the city of Uruk). Enkidu is created by the gods so that he will check Gilgamesh’s abuse of power, and he is seduced away from the wilderness (and the Neolithic way of life) by a ‘harlot’ or prostitute. Once in Uruk, Enkidu challenges Gilgamesh and then becomes his close friend. 2. Enkidu and Gilgamesh journey to the Cedar Forest in order to gain fame by defeating the monster Humbaba. After insulting the goddess Ishtar, Enkidu dies. 3. Gilgamesh, distraught by Enkidu’s death, journeys to faraway Dilmun to consult Utnapishtim, who, together with his wife, are the only two humans to have ever attained immortality.

While it is not easy to trace Gilgamesh’s influence on later writing, the story of the great flood in Gilgamesh is most probably the source of the Noah’s Ark episode in the Bible. Gilgamesh’s journey to the afterlife is also similar to later journeys in European literature, where the hero journeys to the ends of the known earth and meets a character who tells him about what happens after death (Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, Odysseus meets Tiresias). Finally, Gilgamesh is taken to the realm of the afterlife in Urshanabi’s boat; likewise, in the Greek and Italian versions of the afterlife, the dead begin their journey by riding in a boat guided by Charon.

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Homer and Virgil

The links between Sumerian and Greek epics are not easy to see. On the other hand, the links between Greek and other European epics are easy to see:

Homer’s Iliad has one major journey behind it (the Greek fleet travels to Troy) yet unlike in the recent film version of Troy, this journey is not described in detail in the poem. The poem starts in medias res (toward the end of the battle) and takes place in one location: Troy and the beachhead beneath it.

Homer’s Odyssey, on the other hand, focuses on two main journeys. First and foremost is the ten-year journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca. The second journey is that of Odysseus’ son Telemachus, who searches for news of his father (Books 1-4). There are also numerous accounts of Greeks journeying back from Troy, and also there is the important journey of Odysseus to the land of the afterlife.

One important journey home involves the leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon, who comes back only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegithus. This murder reminds the reader of the danger Odysseus faces if he stays away from home too long. Throughout the poem we are reminded that about a hundred suitors are living it up in Odysseus’ home, circling like vultures to marry his wife Penelope, who is presumed to be a widow. The situation surrounding the killing of Agamemnon and the revenge of his son Orestes was turned by Aeschylus into a famous trilogy of plays called the Oresteia, first performed in 458 BC in Athens.

Virgil’s Aeneid focuses on the journey of the Trojan warrior Aeneas from Troy to Rome (Books 1-6) and on the battle in which the Trojans take control of Rome (Books 7-12). It thus echoes Odysseus’ journey to Ithaca (and his battle with Penelope’s suitors) in the Odyssey, as well as the battle for Troy in the Iliad. Virgil’s Aeneid is often seen as a poem that links Greek and Roman traditions. The journey of Aeneas is similar to that of Odysseus:

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Jason & the Quest

The ancient story of Jason and the Argonauts (put into its most famous form by the 3rd C. BC Apollonius) integrates many Greek stories and references (especially to The Odyssey) and provides the background for Euripides’ play Medea. Here is Jason’s trajectory, as well as Mucha’s poster for a production of Médée with Sarah Bernhardt (1898):

During his search for The Golden Fleece, Jason is helped by Athena, has a fling with the leader of a town in which the women have murdered all the men, and eventually marries Medea. The Argonauts make their way through perils similar to the sirens and to Charybdis and Scylla, and see many strange things, such as a land of six-armed men and a land in which people make love in public. The epic differs from other epics in that the hero is relatively weak and fallible. Yet like The Odyssey and The Aeneid, Jason and the Argonauts is structured along a sea journey. In this case, the main destination is Colchis, in Georgia, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

The story of Jason’s adventures gives rise to several later pieces of literature focusing on the love between Jason and Medea, the most famous being Euripides’ tragedy Medea (5th C. BC). Euripides’ version takes place after the quest for the Golden Fleece. Putting Medea and their children on the side-burner, Jason intends to marry a well-connected woman. Medea poisons that woman and then kills her own children in order to wreck Jason’s life. The quest in Jason and the Argonauts has some similarities with the later Christian quest for the Holy Grail. In both cases, the object quested after has a divine link: in Jason, the Fleece has links to a golden ram dear to Poseidon and Helios (the gods of sea and sky); the Grail is linked to the Last Supper (hence the cup) and the Crucifixion (hence the blood in the cup).

Given the status of both Greek and Roman culture, writers in northern Europe were keen to link their cultures and heroes to Greece and Rome. For instance, both Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth link the heroes of the Greek and Roman epics to a (mythical) ancestor of the Britons, Brutus of Troy. The anonymous author of the 14th Century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight links the journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas (who founds Rome) to Brutus (who supposedly founds Britain). The following is a modern prose translation of the opening of Sir Gawain:

After the siege of Troy, after the city was destroyed and burnt to ashes, the noble Aeneas and his kin sailed off to become princes of the Western Isles. Romulus built Rome, and gave to the city his own name, and Ticius sailed to Tuscany, and Brutus sailed past France to found the kingdom of Britain, where there has been war and waste and wonder ever since. // In Britain there has been more gallant deeds than in any other kingdom, but of all British kings Arthur was the most valiant [...] King Arthur lay at Camelot at Christmas-time, with many gallant lords and lovely ladies, all of the noble brotherhood of the Round Table [...]

There are many famous stories about the knights of the Round Table, one of the most famous being Sir Galahad’s quest for the Holy Grail. Edmund Spenser also wrote the beginning of an epic quest, The Fairie Queene, in which knights represent various Christian virtues. It contains many quests, one by a female knight Britomart, who journeys all over the world.

The anonymous 14th-Century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  also contains an epic quest. Gawain must travel from Camelot in order to fulfill a promise he made to the Green Knight. This knight came to Camelot at Christmas, scoffed at the prestige of the Knights of the Round Table, and challenged them to a strange duel: the Green Knight would allow one of them to cut off his head and then one year later he would cut off one of their heads. Gawain accepts the challenge, chops off the Green Knight’s head, and one year later goes on a quest to find the Green Knight. Gawain ends up in the castle of a mysterious lord — yet this castle is another magical illusion created by the sorceress Morgan le Faye.

Gawain’s journey turns into a test of his integrity: will he allow himself to be seduced by the lord’s wife while the lord is out hunting? In the following excerpt (which is a modernized version of the Middle English poem), it is morning, the lord is off hunting, and the lord’s wife has just slipped into Gawain’s bed. The following is from the 49th stanza of Part Three. Note the alliteration—repetition of consonants—in each line (this is why it is called alliterative verse).

“Good morning, Sir Gawain!” she gaily exclaimed. / “You’re such a sound sleeper! I slipped in unnoticed / and you are quite my captive! Unless we come to terms / I shall bind you in your bed -- of that be quite certain.” / Delighted the lady laughed as she teased him. / “Good morning, gay lady!” answered Gawain blithely. / “Just decide on my sentence; it will suit me nicely. / I’m your prisoner completely, and plead for your mercy. / It’s my best bet, so I had better take it!” / (So he teased her in turn, returning her laughter.) / But at least, lovely lady, allow me one wish: / pardon your prisoner, please let him rise; / let me be out of bed, in better apparel, / and we’ll finish chatting in far greater comfort.” / “Certainly not, good sir,” that sweet lady said. / “You’ll not budge from your bed: I have better plans. / I shall hold you here -- and that other half also -- / and get to know the knight I’ve so neatly trapped. / I know enough after all, to know of Sir Gawain / whom all the world worships; every way you ride / your courteous character is acclaimed most nobly / by lords and by ladies and all living people. / And now you are here, and here we’re alone -- / my lord and his men will be long afield; / the servants are sleeping; so are my maidens; / I have closed the door, it’s securely locked; / and since I have in this house he whom all admire, / I shall spend my time in speech I am sure to treasure. / My person’s yours, of course, to see you take your pleasure; / I am obliged, perforce, to serve you at your leisure.”

Gawain’s testing is another take on infidelity, an important topic in both Christianity and the myth of Camelot. Ultimately it is infidelity that divides Arthur from his knight Lancelot when the latter sleeps with his wife Guinevere. As a result, the perfect circle of trust between the Knights of the Round Table is broken, and the kingdom of Avalon falls to Germanic invaders ...

Guinevere is in a long line of female figures who play major roles in the epic — the haughty and destructive Ishtar, the devastatingly beautiful Helen, the wise and powerful Athena, the crafty and faithful Penelope, the tragic, lovelorn Dido, the vengeful Medea, and finally the courtly and archetypal figure of Beatrice, Dante’s guide to the heavenly realms.

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Dante

Dante’s Divine Comedy (1305) is about a journey to the afterlife, and it borrows heavily from Classical, Biblical, and courtly traditions: Dante’s initial guide is a fictional version of the Classical poet Virgil; the afterlife is a fusion of Classical and Christian tradition; his eventual guide is Beatrice, who is perhaps the ultimate expression of the courtly ideal of the divine female.

The history of the epic from Dante onward is complex and problematic. The epic suffers a collapse of sorts due to the effects of humanism, science, secularism, and democracy. The journey of Chaucer’s pilgrims is already very different from the journey of Dante’s pilgrim: while Dante focuses on religion and otherworldly ideas, Chaucer and subsequent writers focus more on the world as we commonly experience it (I return to the contrast between Dante and Chaucer in the next section). With the rise of science, universal education, secularism, globalism, and all sorts of doubt, it becomes increasingly difficult for writers to provide the all-encompassing vision that is one of the hallmarks of the epic. Few Modern writers presume to tell their readers all about the meaning of life, let alone the afterlife.

Dante’s epic fuses key aspects of Classical and Christian traditions: it borrows many of its characters and much of its subterranean geography from Greek and Roman mythology, yet it Christianizes the places and figures as well as the overall meanings. In Inferno a fictionalized version of the Roman poet Virgil guides Dante down into Hell, and in Purgatorio he guides Dante part way up the Mountain of Purgatory. Since Virgil is not a Christian, he cannot lead Dante to the Christian Heaven. Dante’s final guide is Beatrice, who in Paradiso leads him up to a vision of the Blessed Rose, which is a gigantic visual metaphor for Heaven. Beatrice is perhaps the most famous instance of a historical woman who comes to represent guidance to a ‘higher’ spiritual level.

An epic tends to celebrate the ideals of a culture, and in Medieval Europe the ideal was chastity and spirituality, not sex. Popular tales, like those of Boccaccio in Italy or Chaucer in England, are full of sexuality, but these are not in the style of the epic. Dante’s journey is toward the unity of Heaven, whereas Chaucer’s pilgrimage is toward the diversity of Earth.

The Divine Comedy is about the spiritual world and how it correlates with the material world. Unlike previous epics, it contains little in the way of sexuality and romance. Dante shows compassion however, for lovers whose passion got the best of them, as we see in Inferno Book 6, where Dante laments the fate of famous lovers and then tells the story of Paolo and Francesca, whose passion was more powerful than the taboo of incest.

Dante’s Comedy supplies a cosmic view of the universe as it was seen by many in 1300 (Hell was in the Earth, while the Heavens circled Earth). All along the journey, Dante meets historical and mythic figures, from Julius Cesar to Odysseus, and this gives Dante a chance to comment on the way these figures lived their lives, and where they ended up as a result.

Dante and the Divine Comedy, by Domenico di Michelino, in the Florence Cathedral (fresco, 1465, photo by Jastrow, from Wikimedia Commons). Hell is on bottom left, the Mountain of Purgatory is in the centre, and Heaven is above.]

Inferno, Canto 1

At the beginning of his epic, Dante has lost his way in a dark wood:

Dante becomes fearful, for he sees three beasts blocking his way. He is then rescued by Virgil, the author of the Aeneid.

Purgatorio, Canto 1

Having come up from Hell, Dante and Virgil then travel to the island mountain of Purgatory, which for Dante is on the opposite side of the earth. Notice the nautical references, and keep in mind that Dante is writing ‘in the wake’ of Homer and Virgil. 

The little boat of my intellect now sets sail, to course through gentler waters, leaving behind her a sea so cruel. And I will speak of that second region, where the human spirit is purged, and becomes fit to climb to Heaven. But, since I am yours, O sacred Muses, here let dead Poetry rise again […]

Paradiso, Canto 1

The glory of Him, who moves all things, penetrates the universe, and glows in one region more, in another less. I have been in that Heaven that knows his light most, and have seen things, which whoever descends from there has neither power, nor knowledge, to relate: because as our intellect draws near to its desire, it reaches such depths that memory cannot go back along the track.

Paradiso, Canto 2

In the following passage Dante is about to be lead by Beatrice toward Heaven. Notice that although Dante is no longer crossing an ocean (as he did to get to Purgatory), the epic metaphors of the ocean journey are so strong that he uses them to describe his upward trajectory. Also note that while Dante is a Christian and has left Virgil behind because he is a polytheist, he nevertheless invokes Apollo, the god of poetry, as well as the nine Muses.

O you, in your little boat, who, longing to hear, have followed my keel, singing on its way, turn to regain your own shores: do not commit to the open sea, since, losing me, perhaps, you would be left adrift.

The water I cut was never sailed before: Minerva breathes, Apollo guides, and the nine Muses [lead] me toward the Bears.

You other few, who have lifted your mouths, in time, towards the bread of Angels, by which life up here is nourished, and from which none of them come away sated, you may truly set your ship to the deep saltwater, following my furrow, in front of the water falling back to its level. The glorious Argonauts who sailed to Colchis, who marvelled when they saw Jason turned ploughman, did not marvel as much as you will.

The inborn, perpetual thirst for the divine regions lifted us, almost as swiftly as you see the Heavens move. Beatrice was gazing upwards, and I at her: and I saw myself arriving, in the space of time perhaps it takes an arrow to be drawn, released, and leave the notch, there, where a marvellous thing engaged my sight: and therefore She, from whom nothing I did was hidden, turning towards me, as joyful as she was lovely, said: ‘Turn your mind towards God in gratitude, […]

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From Dante to Chaucer

Dante and Chaucer both live in Medieval Europe, yet they have very different aims and sensibilities.  In depicting the journey from Hell to Paradise, Dante highlights spirituality and idealism. He also presents one of the most unified visions of the universe in all of literature. In depicting the pilgrimage to Canterbury, on the other hand, Chaucer highlights human experience and realism. Unlike Dante, he highlights diversity and emphasizes fallible human designs rather than a grand cosmic Design.

All of this is relevant to the epic journey. If the universe can be seen as a coherent whole, then a writer can present a complete view of human experience, knitting together the various aspects of life, even telling us what to expect in the afterlife. Yet if humanism and science bring up new knowledge and question this coherent, unified vision, then the writer cannot be sure about what it all means. The writer can no longer guide us, like Dante does, through this world and into the next. Human concerns start to play a more dominant role, as they do in the lives of Chaucer’s pilgrims. Eventually, strict formulations of the meaning of life fade away, and more flexible and tentative patterns start to take shape.  

This is not to say that Chaucer himself directly questions the Grand Scheme of Things articulated by the Church. What I am suggesting, however, is that Chaucer’s type of emphasis — on real people rather than on metaphysical Truth — combines with the rise of humanism (an emphasis on the human rather than on the metaphysical), and eventually takes the West toward a culture that is secular and liberal. 

In the “Miller’s Prologue” (c. 1387), we can see the operation of a fundamental principle (freedom of expression) that I would argue partly contributes to the breakdown of the traditional epic.  If people are free to dissent in their views, as the Miller does, then the established order (of gods or God) can also be questioned. Note that Chaucer’s host (the narrator) asks the monk to tell a noble tale, yet the Miller interrupts this order with his disorderly tale of sex and licentiousness (which becomes “The Miller’s Tale,” following the “Prologue”). The miller’s tale is not noble or refined, yet the host insists that the miller has the right to tell it anyway. If the host did not let him, he would be ‘false to his design,’ which is to let people speak for themselves. 

One can see in this scenario the shift from accepted ways of thinking, condoned by social hierarchy and religious authority, toward a more democratic society, where people are free to question and have their say.

“Now shall you tell, sir monk, if it can be done,
Something with which to pay for the knight’s tale.”
The miller, who with drinking was all pale,
So that unsteadily on his horse he sat,
He would not take off either hood or hat,
Nor wait for any man, in courtesy,
But all in Pilate’s voice began to cry,
And by the Arms and Blood and Bones he swore,
“I have a noble story in my store,
With which I will requite the good knight’s tale.”
Our host saw, then, that he was drunk with ale,
And said to him: “Wait, Robin, my dear brother,
Some better man shall tell us first another:
Submit and let us work on profitably.”
“Now by God’s soul,” cried he, “that will not I!
For I will speak, or else I’ll go my way.”
Our host replied: “Tell on, then, till doomsday!
You are a fool, your wit is overcome.”
“Now hear me,” said the miller, “all and some!
But first I make a protestation round
That I’m quite drunk, I know it by my sound:
And therefore, if I slander or mis-say,
Blame it on ale of Southwark, so I pray;
For I will tell a legend and a life
Both of a carpenter and of his wife,
And how a scholar set the good wright’s cap.”
The reeve replied and said: “Oh, shut your trap,
Let be your ignorant drunken ribaldry!
It is a sin, and further, great folly
To asperse any man, or him defame,
And, too, to bring upon a man’s wife shame.
There are enough of other things to say.”
…
What should I say, except this miller rare
He would forgo his talk for no man there,
But told his churlish tale in his own way:
I think I’ll here re-tell it, if I may.
And therefore, every gentle soul, I pray
That for God’s love you’ll hold not what I say
Evilly meant, but that I must rehearse,
All of their tales, the better and the worse,
Or else prove false to some of my design.
Therefore, who likes not this, let him, in fine,
Turn over page and choose another tale:
For he shall find enough, both great and small,
Of stories touching on gentility,
And holiness, and on morality;
And blame not me if you do choose amiss.
The miller was a churl, you well know this;
So was the reeve, and many another more,

And ribaldry they told from plenteous store.
Be then advised, and hold me free from blame;
Men should not be too serious at a game.

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Epic Parallels: Greece and India

While China remained distant from the Middle East and Europe, the Silk Route allowed some contact (especially under the Mongol Empire, which linked China to Europe) and many Chinese inventions made it eventually to Europe (gun powder, printing, paper, etc.). Given the distance, it isn’t surprising that the Chinese literary tradition differs greatly from that of the West. One of the big differences is that the epic doesn’t begin or dominate Chinese literature. Classical Chinese literary expression favoured shorter poems, although something similar to the epic might be seen in the Chinese novel, especially the 16th C. Journey to the West, which tells the story of a monk who journeys to India to find sacred scriptures.

India’s proximity to the Middle East and Europe on the other hand gives rise to some fascinating similarities, especially between epics in Classical Greece and India. This is perhaps not surprising, given that 1) the epic tends to reflect the wider parameters of culture, and 2) the two cultural realms have a common linguistic ancestor (Indo-European), a common place or origin (perhaps somewhere near the Ukraine), and a similar male-dominated polytheistic religion with elements of goddess worship (possibly influenced by Ancient Crete in Greece and Ancient Harappa in the Indian subcontinent).

The battle and the journey are central themes in both epic traditions:

— The Iliad and the Mahabharata focus on semi-historical battles that may have taken place around 1000 BC, between the Trojans and the Greeks in The Iliad, and between the Kauravas and Pandavas in the Mahabharata.

— The Odyssey and the Ramayana deal with exiles, captivities, journeys, and the bond between husband and wife. The Odyssey is largely about Odysseus’ journey from Troy to Ithaca. His ten-year journey comes to an end when he returns to Ithaca and kills the suitors who have been harassing his wife. The Ramayana contains two key journeys: Rama’s fourteen-year exile to the forest and Rama’s journey to Lanka to rescue his wife, who was kidnapped by a powerful demon. The Odyssey has given us our word for a long journey full of adventure. Ramayana translates literally as “Rama going” or “Rama advancing,” and idiomatically as “Rama’s Journey.”

Both sets of epics are linked by a hero — Odysseus in the Greek epics and Vishnu in the Indian epics (Vishnu has ten major avatars or incarnations, including Krishna and Rama). In each case, the hero plays a key role in the first epic and then the major role in the second epic:

— In the ten-year Trojan War Odysseus is a key advisor and warrior, and he devises the scheme of the wooden horse (often referred to as ‘the Trojan horse’), which secures victory for the Greeks (this is not recounted in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey); the Odyssey recounts his return journey back to his wife on the island of Ithaca.

— In the Mahabharata the god Krishna gives advice to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield (this part is so important that it is the core-story for one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts, the Bhagavad-Gita); the Ramayana recounts Rama’s exile from, and his return to, his home in Ayodhya.

— The heroes play such central roles that the epics are named after them—The Odyssey after Odysseus and the Ramayana after Rama.

The Greek and Indian epics come from polytheistic cultures in which gods play major roles. For instance, at two key moments in the Odyssey (at the beginnings of Book One and Book Four) the goddess Athena urges the highest god Zeus to save Odysseus from the clutches of Calypso. In the Mahabharata Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) intervenes to save Draupati when the Kauravas win her in a game of dice. The Kauravas try to unravel her clothing, but Krishna keeps adding bolts of cloth!

In both sets of epics humans are encouraged to follow a ‘higher order,’ both in terms of a belief in godlike forces and in terms of values such as duty, honour, hospitality, etc.

The epics come from oral traditions, and are ascribed to authors who are not historically clear: Homer for the Iliad and the Odyssey; Vyasa for the Mahabharata, and Valmiki for the Ramayana.

The authorship of the epics goes back to around the 8th C. BC, and the texts seem to have coalesced into a solid form by around the 4th C. BC. (Panini refers to the core structures of Mahabharata in the 4th C. BC; Homer’s texts were edited in the 6th C. BC, and the first papyrus fragment of the Odyssey is from the 3rd C. BC).

The epics had extremely powerful influences on the extensive literary traditions that followed the, both in their own regions and further afield. The Greek epics had a huge influence on Roman and other European literary traditions. The Indian epics are still crucial to Hindu religion and Indian culture, and also influenced a wider Indianized world for about a thousand years. Even today, in the largely Muslim country of Indonesia, the popular shadow theatre (wayang kulit) is composed chiefly of figures from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. In India, Ramanand Sagar’s 78-episode Ramayan was the most popular Indian TV series ever, matched only by B.R. and Ravi Chopra’s 94-episode Mahabharat of 1988).

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