¿Qué es la Literatura Épica?

Today I want to expressly teach you what epic literature is and what it has to do with our present. So if you are studying at the upper middle level, you are preparing to enter the university or this topic interests you, let's start.

In the West, even before the arrival of the contemporary age, literature was divided into three great genres: Lyric, Drama and Epic. Epic comes from the Greek adjective "epikos" and is translated as word, story or poem. But not any word, but one worthy of being told, one that sang the feats of figures such as Achilles, Odysseus, Heracles and a long etc.

In a nutshell, epic is the record that humanity has made for its heroes. After all, from Gilgamesh to Tony Stark, going through King Arthur or Menelaus, people have always needed heroes.

because in them are reflected the virtues, principles and ideals of a specific people or society. That is why epic heroes such as Aeneas, Achilles or Mucet are so different from each other, because by changing the times, values ​​also change. Heroes in the epic are warriors, gods, semi-gods, kings or knights, and since their abilities are superhuman, their obstacles are also: Titans, sorcerers, mythical creatures or the same gods.

Before these heroes can be universally known, they must first be a legend in their culture. Their feats, real, fictitious or a combination of both are known through orality thanks to the Rhapsods, the Aedos or the Juglares and later they are written to remain for decades, centuries and even millennia in the collective imaginary. The texts of this genre are called epopeyas as well as epic poems. Sometimes the nomenclature can be confusing,

because the singing of gesta or romance are considered subcategories of the epopeya. Now, it was called poetry because these works were written in verse, poetry as we know it today has more similarities with the lyric than with the epic or drama. On the other hand, although the word epic is Greek, this does not mean that the first epic poem was born there.

Rather, it was there where the three ancient genres consolidated, were named and reinforced the characteristics that would define them. But then, what would be the oldest epic poem in the West? The answer is Gilgamesh's poem. Sumerian work written in cuneiform system between 2500 and 2000 BC, in 12 clay tablets and by anonymous author.

It should be noted that many epic works contain the name of their hero in the title: Rama in the Ramayana, Odyssey in the Odyssey, Aeneas in the Aeneid, Sid in the singing of the Miocid or Gilgamesh in the poem of Gilgamesh. This last one is the despot king of Uruk, what today is Iraq.

Gilgamesh's greed and his unbridled lust lead him to forcefully have the women of the city and that makes his subjects raise a complaint before the gods. But wait, something doesn't fit, didn't we say that the epic hero represented the values ​​and virtues of his time?

And this Gilgamesh doesn't sound heroic at all. Okay, but here's the interesting part. Gilgamesh's epic is the story of the man who becomes a hero. The story of the physical and spiritual journey towards virtue. This after meeting the one who would become his best friend, Enkidu. With him he lives the greatest adventures in search of glory and knows fraternal love. Until he sees him die, finished by a disease.

and in loneliness, depression and fear, I will go in search of immortality, but immortality will be a jewel that the gods have reserved for themselves.

Let's go back to Greece and go back to the 8th century BC to witness the birth of what will undoubtedly be the two most important epic poems in Western history. The ones that would become a perfect symbol for authors like García Márquez, Borges, Faulkner, Moyán and a long, long etc. To which they will compose operas, those that will inspire paintings and films, those that will be studied in universities and of which hundreds of critical studies will be published.

Yes, we refer to the Iliad and the Odyssey, both composed by Homer, the blind poet. The Iliad deals with the siege of the city of Troy by the Achaeans to rescue Helena, wife of King Menelaus, who was kidnapped by Paris, a Trojan prince.

After this fact, a war is born between Achaeans and Trojans where Achilles is the great hero. The Odyssey, for its part, sings the peripeteias of Odysseus, also known as Ulysses, on his journey back to his homeland, Ithaca, from the moment the Trojan War ends, narrated in the Iliad, until the moment he finally returns home, many years later.

Sister to these two works is the Eneida of the Roman poet Virgil, because it places its action in the same mythical fact. Aeneas and his Trojan companions flee from their hometown of Troy, which has been destroyed by the Greeks. They sail to Italy, where Aeneas is destined to found Rome. Already near his destination, a fierce storm deviates them from the course and takes them to Carthage. It should be noted that of the three genres, the epic is usually the most extensive and the lyrical the shortest.

Let's travel to India to give you an example of the first. There, in the 3rd century BC, the Mahabharata is written, which could be translated as the great story of Bharata. It is a Sanskrit epic attributed to the poet Vyasa and divided into 18 books or parvan. The complete version of the Mahabharata contains about 100,000 slokas or 200,000 verses. It is a poem four times longer than the Bible and eight times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey together.

is considered the longest epic poem ever composed. Also from India is the Ramayana, which contains part of the Hindu teachings, so it is considered a sacred text. Some other famous epic poems are Beowulf or the singing of the Myosit.

Remember that each culture has its hero and each hero is the memory of its people. They had to spend many centuries and many minds, many pen and epopeya, for a writer to appear who changed the rules of the game, who raised a hero against all conventionalism, a hero who knows that it is not real and who knows that it is being written and read, who revolutionized literature to give way to a new genre.

And yes, we refer to the ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, of the great Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. But that is another topic. Anyway, so far today's class. Have you read any of the texts that I have mentioned in this video? What do you think? Leave it in the comments section. If this content was useful to you, it would help me a lot if you leave your like. Subscribe for more. I wish you a happy day and I leave you two other videos that could interest you. Bye.