Neo-Latin Epic

Abstract

While vernacular epic poetry is a comparatively well-studied field, the following entry will focus on Neo-Latin epic poetry from the early modern period. In general, epic poetry was a thriving literary genre throughout the early modern period, understood here as the period from the fourteenth to eighteenth century, and this was the case not only in terms of quantity: In contemporary poetical treatises epic maintained supremacy over all other poetic genres. It was used regularly to praise rulers and noble families, cities, or institutions. The main function of these panegyric poems was to legitimize and ennoble their hero and to develop a universally valid narrative for them. The authors of these texts often also used them as a means to seek patronage. While at the outset of the Renaissance, epic poems were written in Latin, from the later fifteenth century onwards heroic poetry was also composed in different vernacular languages, and formed the basis for a rich vernacular tradition. The subjects of these poems were historical, mythical, and religious. Formally there exists a wide variety within the genre ranging from extensive poems consisting of several books to short epics and from supplements to centos. By using the special features of epic (e.g., similes, speeches, catalogues), the poets made themselves part of the epic tradition. This tradition in itself had a considerable impact on the way in which a specific depiction was realized: Many heroic figures are constructed on the model of Aeneas, heroines after Dido and formidable opponents exhibit features of Turnus – just to stress the comparison with Virgil’s Aeneid. After the eighteenth century, other literary forms took over the function of epic poetry, which became obsolete because of social and political changes.