III.

Literary Epics

Literary, or art, epics are the creation of known poets who consciously employ a long-established form. Like folk epics they deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation. the Iliad and the Odyssey are regarded as literary epics (see Homer). In Rome, national epic poetry reached its highest achievement in the 1st century bc in Virgil's Aeneid, one of the world's greatest literary epics. In Persia, the poet Firdawsi, drawing upon historical sources, composed the Persian national epic Shāh-Nāmah, or Book of Kings (1010). Among the great literary epics of Post-Classical Europe are The Lusiads (1572; trans. 1655), the national epic of Portugal, by Luís (Vaz) de Camões; the Italian Orlando furioso (Mad Roland, first version 1516; final version 1532) by Ludovico Ariosto, and Rinaldo (1562) and Gerusalemme liberata (1581; Jerusalem Delivered, 1600) by Torquato Tasso; as well as The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost.

The epic form, apparently more suited to eras of profound religious faith and nationalistic idealism, has been little practised since the 18th century. The Dynasts (1903-1908), a long verse-drama by the English writer Thomas Hardy, may be considered a modern example.