(F) THE EPIC ~ Literary Hunt

(F) The Epic

It is a long narrative poem that celebrates the life, heroic deeds and achievements of a great hero. The Epic has a great hero for its central figure along with many other famous heroes for its principal characters, and it weaves together in an artistic form the many legends of their exploits handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth in the form of songs or stories. The Epics are shaped by the greatest of poets from historical or legendary materials that had developed through oral traditions of his nation in the course of centuries. It was ranked by the Renaissance critics as the highest genre of poetry: It makes immense demands on a poet's genius, imagination, invention, and skill to sustain the scope, grandeur, and variety of a poem that tends to encompass the whole world of its day and a large portion of it's learning.

The hero of the Epic is always a great national figure, sometimes of even cosmic importance. The action in the Epic is of a very high magnitude. It involves superhuman deeds in battles, such as Achille's heroic feats in the Trojan war.

SOME GREAT EPICS

sn no'	Poet's name	Epic's Title	Country or Language to which the Poet belonged
1	Homer	Illiad, Odyssey	Greece
2	Virgil	Aeneid	Roman (Latin)
3	Dante	Divine Comedy	Latin
4	Tasso	Jerusalem Delivered	Roman (Latin)
5	Camoens	Lusiad	Portuguese
6	John Milton	Paradise Lost	English
7	Spencer	Faerie Queene	English
8	Tennyson	Morte D.Arthur	English
9	Maharshi Valmiki	Ramayan	Indian(Sanskrit)
10	Tulsidas	Ram Charit Manas	Indian (Hindi)

OBJECTIVE TYPE OF QUESTIONS

1. The Hero of Homer's Illiad is:
(a)Achilles
(b) Hercules
(c) Atlas
(d) Odysseus

2. "What in me is dark- Illumine, what is low raise and support." In which Book of Paradise Lost do these lines appear ?
(a) In Book III
(b) In Book I
(c) Jn Book IV
(d) None of these

3. Which, according to you, is the first great Epic?
(a) Morte D' Arthur
(b) Paradise Lost
(c) Aeneid
(d) Illiad

4. ..........is next in command after Satan in the Paradise Lost.
(a) Ballin
(b) Moloch
(c)Beelzebub
(d) Mammon

5. The central theme of the Lusiad is :
(a) The ancient glory of Portugal
(b) Battles between Portugal and England
(c) The voyages of Odysseus
(d) Vasco-da-Gama's voyage to India

6. Which of the following epics has twenty-four books ?
(a) Odyssey
(b) Illiad
(c) Faerie Queene
(d) Divine Comedy

7. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus wanders over the ........... basin :
(a) Red Sea
(b) Siena
(c)Mediterranean
(d) Tiber

8. How many books are there in Milton's 'Paradise Lost' ?
(a) Twelve
(b) Ten
(c) Eighteen
(d) six

9.The Central theme of Homer's Illiad is :
(a) The fall of constant pole
(b) The Trojan War
(c) The journey of Achilles to Turkey
(d) The deeds of the Roman Empire

10. ...........is the hero of Spenser's Faerie Queene ?
(a) King George
(b) King Charles
(c) King Richard
(d) King Arthur

11. In Virgil's Aeneid Anneas is the son of goddess :
(a) Aphrodite
(b) Thetis.
(c) Zaria
(d) Nereid

12. Which language is 'Divine Comedy written in ?
(a) Portuguese
(b) Latin
(c) Greek
(d) French

13. Whom does Spenser dedicate his Faerie Queene ?
(a) King Arthur
(b) Sir Walter Raleigh
(c) Queen Elizabeth
(d) Sir Philip Sidney

14. Spenser's Faerie Queen was planned to be completed in twelve Books. But he was able to complete only :
(a) Six Books
(b) Two Books
(c) Eleven Book
(d) Four Books

15. The action in an epic involves ............ deeds in battles:
(a) Supernatural
(b)Superhuman
(c) Arduous
(d) Hazardous

16. Who represents the entire human race in the Paradise Last ?
(a) Abel
(b) Serpent
(c) Cain
(d) Adam

17. The author of Odyssey is :
(a) Sophocles
(b) Dante
(c) Homer

(d) Virgil

(F) THE EPIC

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