Epic Conventions Essay

1. The drool universes in medias res. In Medias Res is Latin for it fixs in the middle of things and then has flashbacks to explain action leading up to that point. In Paradise garbled, for precedent, the story begins after match and his send packingow seditious angels micturate been cast from heaven, by God, into Hell. The war in heaven has taken place and Satan is making plans for the ruination of the coming realm of men, Earth, curiously Eden and Gods new animate beings, Adam and Eve. 2. The story begins with an legerdemain (prayer) to a god or gods.The poet, Milton, attempts to recapture the Homeric tradition of reciting an heroic numbers poem to an audience, tell at a feast. To that end he begins by c completelying for a blessing for the Christian god whom he refers to in pagan terms as the Heavnly Muse, Milton invokes the pagan ideology that the called upon god or muse came into the man thitherfore it was non the poet who recited, but the god in the poets body . Poets, then, were considered very sacred, for they could call down a god and have the god in them, at least temporarily. We continue to have the remnants of this belief, of course.We practically think of poets or of any true artist as being different or touched by a special hand. In the case of the beginning of Paradise Lost, the poet says something like Sing Heavnly Muse say first what cause moved our grand pargonnts in that happy state to fall off from their creator 3. The story begins with a statement of theme. Always, because these poems atomic number 18 so long and so complex, although the basic stories would have been familiar to the audiences, the poet would begin with announcing what the recitation was to be about.That way, every star could focus on and appreciate, not so a great deal WHAT was being said, but the WAY THAT IT WAS PRESENTED. In essence, Miltons Paradise Lost retells the story of Genesis but presents it as an heroical poem. We ar no stranger to that co ncept we go to concerts where we may already know all of the song. So, we go to hear the presentation of the songs, which add to our concepts of the meaning and significance of those songs. 4. The story has many epithets. These epithets are re-naming of the characters, gods, or things by stock phrases.An drill is the renaming of Satan as th Arch-Enemy, th apostate angel, O Prince or O Chief of many throned Powers and even falln Cherub. It is grievous for us to notice these epithets, first, because they add description, and second, because we get confused about who is doing what if we do not recognize the epithets as well as the names. 5. The story uses catalogues of things and characters there are many lists, both long and short. Just as the senile Testament has catalogues of genealogies you believe all those begets just so do antiquated epics keep track of the lists of history.In both leger One and Book Two of Paradise Lost, for example, there is a list of the principal ang els who fell from grace as Satans compatriots. Also listed are their conglomerate names and places where they will be worshipped as gods of pagan faiths. 6. at that place are long musket ball speeches by many characters. You will not have any trouble spotting these. Sometimes they happen in the heat of battle and other seemingly inappropriate times, but more than often they occur at various kinds of meetings, as in an forum of chieftains.Book One of Paradise Lost is filled with such formal speeches, key among them Satans with his famous line better to run in Hell, than serve in Heavn. 7. Gods intervene in the affairs of gay beings in these stories. For example, in Book Seven of Paradise Lost, Cherubim, Ithuriel and Zephon, sent by God to Eden, find Satan, squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve. They confront him before more damage is done in terms of corrupting Eve. 8. Epics frequently have epic digressions.These are passages that do not further the action of the story because they are asides or because they are repetitions. Remember that these recitations did not have TV replay shots. The audience had to remember a vast amount of material, so redundancy or reminding them of background signal material would have been helpful to them. For example, In Book Seven of promised land Lost, Adams conversation with the angel Raphael becomes, in some instances, a recounting of Genesis and even digresses into the topic of angels pair habits.Yet another use for the digression is to provide a prologue of sorts, as an introduction seems overlooked due to the epic convention of beginning the poem in medias res. Also this aside more firmly orients the poems audience, given its vast setting, the cosmos. 9. The settings of these stories are vast. Paradise Lost is concerned with the soulfulness geocentric universe, from Hell to Chaos to the Earthly and Heavenly planes. The stories use the epic simile. An epic simile is a long comparison of two things that are in different classes. They make vivid an image and describes or clarifies.An example can be found in the extensive comparison of Satan, a go angel formerly the epitome of celestial light and beauty, to one of the Titans Briareos, whom led the revolt of the Titans against Zeus. Like Briareos, Satan is a vast creature covered in darkness. He is likened to Leviathan, a sea-beast, concealed in the oceanics dark depths, or an illusory island hidden in the dark. save the great Leviathan, possibly the whale in Jonahs black encounter, can rise from the imprisoning dark or return to it after befitting beached upon shore.Satan rose from the depths of Hell to enter Eden, though he could not of course remain. 10. The heroes embody the values of their civilization. In Miltons time the chivalrous practice of physiognomy was still much employed. After Chaucers example in the Canterbury Tales, physical facades, particularly the face, are believed expressions of a psyches immanent moral state. For example, much is made of Satans former beauty, an expression of the former purity of his ethical and moral internal being.His former beauty and grace, expressed in terms of light and sparkle become dim in his confrontation with Ithuriel and Zephon, Cherubim, formerly of a lesser angelic order than Satan, who still in the service of God observe that luminosity of his grace. Paradoxically, the description of Satan as a monstrous, leviathan-like figure is put in the poem with his nearly angelic appearance. Fittingly, since Miltons time, physiognomy has fallen out of usage, as many accept evil and malicious bearing often has a comely facade.