What Is an Epic Poem? | Definition & Examples

When we think of epic poems in literature, the first thing that comes to mind is Homeric classics like the Odyssey and the Iliad. However, these are not the only epic traditions in the world of literature. First, let's define what an epic poem is:

An epic is a long poem with a clearly defined narrative arc for a hero who goes through a series of battles and adventures before achieving his (heroes of epics are typically male) goal. 

Although there are epic traditions besides Homer, it would help to focus on this specific tradition a little. You have probably heard about the Odyssey. It's frame story is the Trojan War, and it tells us the story of its titular hero, Odysseus, who spends 10 years seafaring, trying to return home to his wife in Ithaca after that legendary war. There's also a 2026 movie based on this epic. The book was written around 750-650 BC by a supposedly blind poet named Homer. I say write, and that’s not entirely accurate.

According to literary scholars, Homer was one of a series of oral poets who would have memorized and recited the poem as a song or chant, while it was set to music to a live audience. The version of the Iliad and the Odyssey that we have today is nothing more than the oral version that Homer popularized, which was eventually written down. 

We can get a clue to this by looking at the origin of the word epic. It is from the Greek epos, which means, among other things, song. This is ironic as Homer was able to inspire genres of literature that are far from oral in tradition. Epics like the Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil, and Milton’s Paradise Lost (published in 1667) are the epitome of a literate culture. No one expects Milton’s Paradise Lost to be performed as song. 

Instead, these epics, including the written versions of Homer, are usually expected in the libraries of scholars and books that you have no choice to go through because they are assigned reading in a literary course. However, the influence of works like the Odyssey have survived in the form of a number of tropes and archetypes common in popular culture today. 

Papyrus, fragment of the Odyssey (Books IX and X), 3rd century BC.

What is the Odyssey about?

The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, who it is named after, and how he made his way home back to Ithaca quite late, ten years after the end of the Trojan War to reunite with his wife Penelope. Odysseus has to make it back home, all while avoiding the wrath of the sea god Poseidon, whose son, the cyclops Polyphemus, he has blinded. On top of that, he has to deal with a crew of rowdy suitors who have occupied his house and who drink all his wine and food with their daily carousing.

As Homer puts it, they are "eating his son Telemachus out of house and home." In addition, these suitors are trying to force Penelope into choosing a husband among them so that they can officially inherit Odysseus' kingdom. So this is the gist of the story. Odysseus has to make it back home, defeat the suitors, and regain his throne.

However, the epic poem is not told straight or in chronological order. We have a number of flashbacks that tell us about all the adventures of Odysseus before he returns to Ithaca on his ten-year journey. These flashbacks include the following episodes:

—his encounter with Circe, the witch who turns men into pigs;

—his descent into Hades (or hell) to meet Teiresias, the legendary seer;

—his encounter with the inhospitable one-eyed cyclops who ate several of his men; and

—the death of most of his crew via Scylla and Carybdis.

But these are just events in the story. Interesting and well-told events, to be sure. However, it still leaves the question: What is the Odyssey all about? What is the point of the story? Odysseus starts out with a large crew of men and at the end of the tale. It would help to compare the Odyssey to another famous Homeric epic poem, namely, the Iliad.

The Iliad centers around the story of the Greek warrior Achilles. Achilles has to make a choice between living forever with no name or renown or dying at a young age as a famous hero and warrior with an immortal name. He chooses to die a hero. The Odyssey is almost a mockery of Achilles' choice. In Hades in Book 11, Odysseus encounters Achilles himself, who sounds like he regrets his choice:

"And I said, 'Achilles, son of Peleus, foremost champion of the Achaeans, I came to consult Teiresias, and see if he could advise me about my return home to Ithaca, for I have never yet been able to get near the Achaean land, nor to set foot in my own country, but have been in trouble all the time. As for you, Achilles, no one was ever yet so fortunate as you have been, nor ever will be, for you were adored by all us Argives as long as you were alive, and now that you are here you are a great prince among the dead. Do not, therefore, take it so much to heart even if you are dead.' . . ."'Say not a word,' he answered, 'in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead.'

We can say that the Odyssey is about doing what it takes to survive, especially in terms of relying on cleverness, wit, and navigating with craft the complexities of relationships with both men and gods.

Archetypes in the Odyssey

Most epics are about heroes who embody the ideals of the culture in which the epic is set. In the case of Odysseus, these values include things such as honoring the gods, cleverness and wit, bravery, and persistence, among other things. More than that, epics often feature archetypes that we all recognize and are universal among all other cultures. 

Archetypes are universal symbols that occur across times and cultures and which can be easily recognized in stories. They include concepts, such as the hero, the mentor, the witch, the crone, and so on. In particular, one archetype that has been adopted by modern cinema is called The Hero's Journey. It describes the various stages that a hero has to go through before achieving self-realization.

One can find many of the archetypes in the Odyssey. Odysseus' 10 year adventure before he finally returns home is the very essence of the hero’s journey. Odysseus in Book 10 of the Odyssey encounters Circe, a witch who turns his men into pigs. Circe can be described as the archetype of the witch or even the femme fatale, the attractive woman who lures men to their deaths. 

The table below shows the various archetypes that feature in the Odyssey along with examples from more modern literature: 

Archetype	Definition	Example from  the Odyssey	Example from Literature
The Hero	The protagonist who embarks on a transformative journey or quest.	Odysseus in the Odyssey	Hamlet in Hamlet
The Mentor	A wise figure who guides and aids the hero in their journey.	Mentor from the Odyssey. The word mentor was named after him.	Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.
The Femme Fatale	A seductive woman whose charm leads men to danger or downfall.	Circe from the Odyssey	Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
The Trickster	A person or spirit who creates chaos and confusion	Odysseus in his attempt to escape the Cyclops	Iago in Othello

Odysseus himself occupies more than one archetype. Apart from being the hero archetype, he is also something of a trickster. We see this especially in the episode of the cyclops, a one-eyed giant, who planned to eat him and every member of his crew in Book 9. 

In between the giant ogre killing and devouring several of his friends, he befriends the monster and gives his name as No Man. After finally outwitting and maiming the cyclops, the monster cries out for help. When asked by his fellow cyclops friends who is hurting him, he screams, “No Man is hurting me,” which causes his friends to ignore him. 

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Other epic traditions

Homer's epic poems are not the only ones we have. There are several from all over the world, typically about heroes who embody the values of that specific culture. Often, these values are shared across nations, time, and space. They include bravery, honor, self-sacrifice, martial prowess, cunning, and so on.

We can categorize these epic traditions as either oral or written, with both often interweaving with each other in a single poem. In the case of Homer's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is primarily an oral poetic tradition that was eventually written down. The Roman epic of the Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil, was the exact opposite. It was inspired by the Odyssey and can be seen as part history, part literature, and part political propaganda.

The Aeneid is an epic poem that is based on the story of the legendary Aeneas, who is mentioned in the Iliad. In Virgil's epic, Aeneas is styled as a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and traveled to Italy to become the ancestor of all Romans. It is wholly the work of the poet Virgil, unlike the Odyssey and the Iliad, which can be seen as the collective voice of ancient Greek culture.

Other epic traditions include those that are even older than Homer and much closer to our times. The Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Mesopotamia for instance, was written in The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic from ancient Mesopotamia tells the legend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and was written down around 2100-1200 BC. Epics younger than Homer's include epic tales such as the Legend of Beowulf, an Old English poem about the legendary hero Beowulf, who risks and sacrifices his life to save his kingdom from monstrous threats, including a dragon.

In the case of West Africa, one of the more well-known oral epics is the Epic of Sundiata from the Western Sudan, the part of Africa defined geographically by the Southern Sahara and the Sahel. It is from the historical kingdom known as Medieval Mali and tells the story about how King Sundiata rose into power as teh first king of Mali. Its composition could be dated back to he beginning of teh thirteenth century.

The table below provides a list of various epics from different cultures all over the world:

Name of Epic	Country/Nation of Origin	Date of Creation	Summary of Poem
The Epic of Gilgamesh	Mesopotamia (Sumer/Akkad)	c. 2100–1200 BCE	One of the oldest epics (~3,000 lines); follows King Gilgamesh and wild man Enkidu on quests facing gods and death. Explores mortality and friendship.
The Aeneid	Rome	c. 29–19 BCE	Composed by Virgil (~9,896 lines in Latin); tells of Aeneas's journey from fallen Troy to Italy, founding the Roman race.
The Mahabharata	India	c. 400 BCE – 400 CE	At over 200,000 lines, it is the world’s longest epic; centers on the war between Pandavas and Kauravas, and includes the Bhagavad Gita.
The Ramayana	India	c. 500 BCE – 100 BCE	Written by Valmiki (~24,000 lines in Sanskrit); recounts Prince Rama’s quest to rescue Sita from the demon Ravana.
Beowulf	Anglo-Saxon England	c. 700–1000 CE	An Old English epic (~3,182 lines); recounts hero Beowulf’s battles against Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon.
The Epic of Sundiata	Mali (Mandé people)	13th century (oral); recorded 20th c.	Oral epic (~4,000–5,000 lines when transcribed); tells of Sundiata Keita’s rise from crippled exile to founding the Mali Empire.
The Song of Roland	France	c. 11th century	Old French epic (~4,002 lines); narrates the heroic last stand of Charlemagne’s knight Roland against Saracen forces.
Popol Vuh	Kʼicheʼ Maya (Guatemala)	16th century (oral origins older)	Mytho-historical epic (~7,000 lines in translation); includes Maya creation myths, heroic twin gods, and ancestral lore.
The Kalevala	Finland	Compiled 1835 (oral roots older)	Finnish national epic (~22,795 lines); drawn from folk songs, it features magic, creation myths, and the hero Väinämöinen.
Manas	Kyrgyzstan	c. 9th–10th century (oral)	Oral epic (over 500,000 lines, making it the longest orally composed epic); details the life of Manas, a unifying warrior and protector of the Kyrgyz people.

Modern takes on the epic

The modernist literature that developed in the early twenties just after World War I, in one sense was obsessed with the Homeric epics. This obsession was based both on inspiration and the need to deconstruct it. A good example of this is James Joyce’s famous Ulysses (published in 1922). 

It is more or less a highly experimental prose poem written about a day in the life of three Dubliners. Even the name of the work is homage to Homer. Ulysses is nothing more than the Romanized version of Odyssseus. Modernist literature quickly defined itself as experimental literature that deliberately avoided traditional narratives and structure.

The Odyssey is a well-defined narrative with a clear plot, goal, protagonist, antagonists, and climax. While modernist works like Ulysses were inspired by the symbolism and archetypes included in the Homeric epic, they disdained the idea of traditional and coherent structure in their story. 

Modernist works are also notorious for promoting a sense of meaninglessness. To a certain extent, they were a reaction against the optimism of the Victorian novel. In the case of the Odyssey, the ending is happy with Odysseus finally reuniting with his loyal and faithful wife. 

Ulysses ends in a chapter named “Penelope” after Odyseeus’s wife. It presents us with a stream of consciousness monologue by Molly Bloom, the wife of the main character — Leopold Bloom — who is cheating on him. At first glance, this seems like a negative and pessimist take on the Odyssey. 

However, we learn that Molly is cheating on Bloom because she wants him to fight for her love as Odysseus has to fight against suitors to reunite with Penelope. The novel ends with a paragraph showing us that the happiest moment in Molly’s life was when Bloom asked her to be his wife: 

yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower

The passage is highly experimental with no traditional punctuation. The word “yes” is used in a looped repetition to show how happy and excited she was on that day. So, in a sense, we can say that even if James Joyce avoids the traditional structure of the epic in the Odyssey, he manages to preserve the optimistic spirit of the ending. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, July 17). What Is an Epic Poem? | Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/_epic