1) epic. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
Edition. 2000.
...narrative poem celebrating heroic feats. 3. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic: the epic of the Old West. 1. Of, constituting, having to do with,...
2) epic. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001
...epic, long, exalted narrative poem, usually on a serious subject, centered on a heroic figure. The earliest epics, known as primary, or original, epics, were shaped...
3) epic. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002
...epic A long narrative poem written in elevated style, in which heroes of great historical or legendary importance perform valorous deeds. The setting is vast in scope,...
4) Epic. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898
...Father of epic poetry. Homer (about 950 B.C.), author of the Iliad and Odyssey. 1 Celebrated epics are the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Paradise Lost.The great Puritan...
5) §2. Teutonic Epic Poetry. III. Early National Poetry. Vol. 1. From the
Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance. The Cambridge History of English and
American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21
...The history of our national epic poetry is rendered obscure by the fact that there is little elsewhere with which it may be compared. We need not doubt that it is...
6) epic. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
...however defined. Then by functional shift we create the corresponding adjective, epic. Most use of epic is cliché nowadays—and so hyperbolic as to be nearly meaningless—but...
7) beast epic. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001
...beast epic, see bestiary....
8) epic theater. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001
...epic theater, see Brecht, Bertolt; Piscator, Erwin....
9) beast epic. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
Fourth Edition. 2000.
...A long, usually allegorical verse narrative in which the characters are animals with human feelings and motives....
10) §11. The Epic Tendency. XVII. Ballads. Vol. 2. The End of the Middle Ages.
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia
in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21
...The epic tendency, always working out of situation into narrative, now takes us to a very large group of ballads, which seldom content themselves with the dramatic...
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