The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in Story

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Guerber Hélène Adeline. The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in Story

INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD

THE BOOK OF THE EPIC. GREEK EPICS

THE ILIAD

THE ODYSSEY

LATIN EPICS

THE AENEID

FRENCH EPICS

THE SONG OF ROLAND8

AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE

SPANISH EPICS

THE CID

PORTUGUESE EPICS

THE LUSIAD

ITALIAN EPICS

DIVINE COMEDY

PURGATORY

PARADISE

THE ORLANDOS

GERUSALEMME LIBERATA, OR JERUSALEM DELIVERED

EPICS OF THE BRITISH ISLES

BEOWULF21

THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE

ROBIN HOOD

THE FAERIE QUEENE

PARADISE LOST

PARADISE REGAINED

GERMAN EPICS

THE NIBELUNGENLIED29

STORY OF THE HOLY GRAIL

EPICS OF THE NETHERLANDS

SCANDINAVIAN EPICS

THE VOLSUNGA SAGA34

RUSSIAN AND FINNISH EPICS

THE KALEVALA, OR THE LAND OF HEROES

THE EPICS OF CENTRAL EUROPE AND OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA

HEBREW AND EARLY CHRISTIAN EPICS

ARABIAN AND PERSIAN EPICS

THE SHAH-NAMEH, OR EPIC OF KINGS

INDIAN EPICS

THE RAMAYANA

THE MAHABHARATA

THE STORY OF THE DELUGE

THE STORY OF NALA AND DAMAYANTI

THE STORY OF SAVITRI AND SATYAVAN

CHINESE AND JAPANESE POETRY

AMERICAN EPICS

INDEX OF NAMES

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"It is in this vast, dim region of myth and legend the sources of the literature of modern times are hidden; and it is only by returning to them, by constant remembrance that they drain a vast region of vital human experience, that the origin and early direction of that literature can be recalled."—Hamilton Wright Mabie.

"Mythology, which was the interpretation of nature, and legend, which is the idealization of history," are the main elements of the epic. Being the "living history of the people," an epic should have "the breadth and volume of a river." All epics have therefore generally been "the first-fruits of the earliest experience of nature and life on the part of imaginative races"; and the real poet has been, as a rule, the race itself.

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Seeing the peril of the Greeks, Juno urges Agamemnon to visit Ulysses' tent, and there proclaim, in such loud tones that Achilles cannot fail to overhear him, that their vessels will soon be in flames. Then, fearing for his companions, Agamemnon prays so fervently for aid that an eagle flies over the camp and drops a lamb upon the Greek altar. This omen of good fortune renews the courage of the Greeks, and stimulates the archer Teucer to cause new havoc in the Trojan ranks with his unfailing arrows, until Hector hurls a rock, which lays him low, and rushes into the Greek camp.

Full of anxiety for their protégés, Juno and Minerva forget Jupiter's injunctions, and are about to hurry off to their rescue, when the king of the gods bids them stop, assuring them the Greeks will suffer defeat, until, Patroclus having fallen, Achilles arises to avenge him. When the setting sun signals the close of the day's fight, although the Greeks are still in possession of their tents, the Trojans bivouac in the plain, just outside the trench, to prevent their escape.

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