Epic Poetry

[Anonymous No.10784825]

What epic poems have you read? Rank them from favorite to least, discuss, talk trash, etc.

1. Aeneid
2. Paradise Lost
3. Iliad
4. Odyssey
5. Divine Comedy

[Anonymous No.10784832]

I own the Iliad and the Odyssey, but I haven't read them yet.

[Anonymous No.10784839]

>>10784825
your list is literally exactly backwards

[Anonymous No.10784857]

>>10784825
1. Paradise Lost
2. Divine Comedy
3. Iliad
4. Aeneid
5. Odyssey
6. Faerie Queen

If Howl by Ginsberg, TWL by Eliot or Rape of the Lock by Pope count, they go like this:
Howl @ 4th
TWL @ 2nd
TRL @ 6th

Paradise Lost is seriously good.

[Anonymous No.10784905]

>>10784839
I don't know, I just couldn't fully get into Divine Comedy.
There were great parts, that's for sure, but it seemed like so much of it was Dante just complaining about random Italians who wronged him.

[Anonymous No.10784941]

>>10784857
Seriously. Didn't realize how protestant it was until I read it

[Anonymous No.10784965]

>>10784825
1.divine comedy
2.the odyssey
3.iliad
4.paradise lost
5.aeneid

[Anonymous No.10784969]

>>10784941
Do you mean that as a criticism?

[Anonymous No.10785168]

>>10784825
Did you read a translation of the aeneid? Not trying to be a snob, just curious since its your number 1.
I have trouble saying I love something if the author couldn't look at it and recognise his own work. I mean i really enjoyed the Iliad, Odyssey, the aeneid and Beowulf, but I can't enjoy them as they were composed so I dunno if I can rank them.
As for stuff I can read as they were composed:
1. Paradise lost
2. The faerie queene
3. Ser Gawain and the greene knyght
4. Troilus and cresidye
5. The song of Hiawatha (I read it as a kid and just have a whole lot of nostalgia for it)

[Anonymous No.10785201]

>>10785168
>I have trouble saying I love something if the author couldn't look at it and recognise his own work
This is an odd way of seeing it. Why can't you view it as a collaboration between an original writer and a translator?

[Anonymous No.10785221]

>>10784825
Gilgamesh
Odyssey
Iliad

that's it

[Anonymous No.10785237]

>>10785201
I do, but it's a transformative process that will always create something new, especially when the end product is a poem rather than a word for word prose translation. As corny as some people think it is, for example, I really like the Dryden translation of the aeneid, but I also consider it an adaptation of the original work, so I have trouble ranking "The aeneid" as Virgil composed it based on dryden's transformation of it, if that makes sense. I've enjoyed prose translations of the iliad for the narrative, themes and imagery but I can't enjoy the metre like that, so I don't feel qualified to rank it as a complete work.

[Anonymous No.10785452]

>>10784969
Not at all, if anything it made me enjoy it more.

>>10785168
Yeah, I read Aeneid translated by Cranch.

>>10785221
Why did you like Gilgamesh more than Iliad?

[Anonymous No.10785476]

>Divine Comedy
>Epic poem

[Anonymous No.10785488]

>>10785452
>Why did you like Gilgamesh more than Iliad?
The themes of mortality and humanity and friendship are less muddled than in the Iliad, which concerns itself also with honour and fairness and such things (not to say this doesn't also have its merits). The characters are stronger, and their fates are more deftly carved. The imagery, too, is better: I prefer "there is a wild bull" to "as when a shepherd sees literally anything". I also enjoy the lacunas, which create a sense of mystery which prevents the mythological elements from being stifled.

Plus, I'm a tremendous homo, so I prefer the fantastic Gilgamesh with its forests full of crooning beasts and ogres and scorpion men to the constant warfare of men in the Iliad.

This isn't to say the Iliad isn't absolutely stunning in its own right.

[Anonymous No.10785514]

>>10785476

[Anonymous No.10785585]

>>10785488
Those are some good points. I hadn't though too much about reading it, but you've certainly piqued my interest

[Anonymous No.10785595]

>>10784832
the silent majority of /lit/ makes an FPBP

[Anonymous No.10785605]

>>10784825
I read the memes too, OP.

1. Paradise Lost
2. Odyssey
3. Aeneid
4. Iliad
5. Gilgamesh
6. Beowulf

Divine Comedy doesn't even rate top 6.

[Anonymous No.10785634]

left to read:
Idylls of the King
Troilus and Criseyde
the Tristan stories

really can't be arsed to give a shit about european romances and courtly love though. the idea of an undying love that motivates heroic deeds has been absolutely crushed out of me by living in the 21st century first world.

[Anonymous No.10785710]

>>10785476
embarrassing

[Anonymous No.10785824]

Some basic fucking epics in this thread, but I blame that on the complete dominance of some like 5 poems on the entire medium. Epics are hard to become educated on.

[Anonymous No.10785837]

>>10785824
what is this pic

[Anonymous No.10785842]

>>10785824
And you say this without giving recommendations?

[Anonymous No.10785898]

>>10785634
What of an undying love for something other than a woman?

[Anonymous No.10785906]

>>10785842
Well,no one even mentions the modernists, and those aren't even unpopular. Song of Myself/Leaves of Grass, The Cantos, The Bridge, Ash Wednesday, The Wasteland, "A", Paterson, The Maximus Poems.

[Anonymous No.10785963]

Has no one here read La Chanson de Roland, or did nobody here like it and/or consider it an epic poem?

[Anonymous No.10786052]

>>10785963
I thought the mainstream opinion was that it is an epic. I think among anglophones its just better known among medievalists than poetry enthusiasts. Have it on my desk, was planning on starting it this weekend, what did you think of it?

On another note, do people just not consider The Canterbury Tales an epic? It never seems to come up in discussions of epics, and its not like its an unpopular piece of literature. Does the frame narrative structure just disqualify it by academic standards or some thing?

>>10785824
Its not unreasonable for people to have started with the best known ones, but calling them "basic" is a bit silly. Taste isn't a competition.
I also think there's some level of reluctance to classify newer works as epics even if they clearly qualify, although I could be imagining that.

[Anonymous No.10786071]

>>10784825
1. Aeneid
2. Odyssey
3. Paradise Lost
4. Leaves of Grass
5. Cantos
6. Waste Land
7. Howl
8. Paradise Lost
4-7 are epic in scope, not necessarily in plot. I've always wanted to write something to rival Pound's Cantos.

[Anonymous No.10786161]

>>10785906
I am
>>10785605
>>10785634
and tbhwyfamalam I never thought of Leaves of Grass as an epic. I suppose it does count though. I enjoyed it when I read it like 10 years ago. I've since grown to appreciate much more the American spirit of independence, self-sufficiency, rough-handed buggery, and the base commerce that drives men in this country. About time to read it again. The Wasteland was good as well, but is it an epic? I don't think it deals with epic themes sufficiently, or at sufficient length.

and:
>>10786052
>calling them "basic" is a bit silly. Taste isn't a competition.
this.

>>10785898
Pure degeneracy. 2d women are not real, and a poor canvas for man's idealized projections of himself.

[Anonymous No.10786174]

>>10786052
Even older works, its always the same five or seven brought up. It just shows a lack of familiarity with the form. You can't talk about the Last Christian or the Fall of Ninevah withsome who's top 5 favorite epics are virgil, homer, milton

[Anonymous No.10786190]

>>10786174
But can you talk about ancient history with someone who calls Nineveh "Ninevah" ?

Don't be so conceited, someone can have read a hundred epic poems and still call Paradise Lost the best, it's not a classic for no reason.

[Anonymous No.10786196]

*Ahem*, reading a translation doesn't count.

[Anonymous No.10786244]

Trying to settle a debate about what set the world ablaze when Phaethon fell to the earth in Helios' chariot.

Someone said to me that Helios' chariot is the Sun. Of course, we both know that Helios is the personification of the Sun but as far what actually emits the light is the point of contention. I say it's the crown upon Helios' head whereas he says it's the chariot which is also why, when Phaethon loses control of the reigns, the world is set ablaze.

Since I believe Helios' crown to be the source of light, I also assert that the reason the world was set on fire was due to the fact that the horses themselves were blazing.

So who's right?

[Anonymous No.10786256]

>>10786190
My lack of cohesion doesn't make me any less right, guy. You see 30 posts that are all variations of the exact same poems, you can't expect much out of the thread. Im not trying to say any of the classic mainstays are trashbags, don't worry. What I am saying is that epics are an underexposed form. And that youre shit and I hate you

[Anonymous No.10786276]

>>10786174
Maybe you can suggest that people expand their epic reading list in a way that doesn't risk coming across as derisive.
I get it though, even having finding someone to have a discussion on something moderately well known like The Faerie Queene with can be hard.
I guess I just assumed you were trying to pick a fight because that's how 90% of threads on /lit/ go, so fuck it, I apologise.

>>10786196
Doesn't count as what? This has already been discussed a little bit this thread, but thank you for your opinion.

>>10786244
I had always assumed that the depiction of helios with the aureole indicated that he was himself the source of light/the sun itself, but the phaethon myth kinds goes against that. I suppose its possible that there is no definitively correct answer, but since I can't read any primary sources myself I can't give you a proper answer.

[Anonymous No.10786277]

I think if people take Divine Comedy as one body of work, Illiad and Odyssey should count as one body of work also.

[Anonymous No.10786293]

what is the stance on Les Chants de Maldoror being an epic? Sorry if it's a dumb question.

[Anonymous No.10786393]

>>10786161
I'm talking about love of God or country ya dingaling

[Anonymous No.10786461]

>>10784825
I've read:
Iliad
Odyssey
Aeneid
Beowulf
Divine Comedy
Alliterative Morte D'Arthur
In Parenthesis
Tolkien's alliterative Turin and coupleted Beren & Luthien

The only ones I've read recently enough to rank well (planning on rereading rest of above list soon)
Divine Comedy
Iliad
Alliterative Morte
Beowulf
Tolkien's (Beren and Lithien above Turin)

[Anonymous No.10787224]

I loved pic related

[Anonymous No.10787936]

>>10784839
>guess which country i'm from!