Epic Poetry: Difference between revisions

The narrative starts ''in medias res'', i.e., "in the midst of things," at a critical point in the action. ''Paradise Lost'' opens with the fallen angels in hell gathering their forces and planning their revenge. Not until Books V-VII does the angel Raphael relate to Adam the events in heaven which led to his situation; while in Books XI-XII, after the fall, Michael foretells to Adam future events up until Christ’s second coming. Thus Milton’s epic, although its action focuses on the temptation and the fall of man, encompasses all time from the creation to the end of the world. In the ''Iliad'', Homer begins with the contention between the Greek champion Achilles and his leader Agamemnon: it is this formal challenge of Agamemnon’s right that precipitates the critical actions in Homer’s epic of war.

There are catalogs of some of the principle characters, introduced in formal detail, as in Milton’s description of the procession of fallen angels in Book I of Paradise Lost. These characters are often given set speeches which reveal their diverse temperaments; an example is the debate in Pandemonium, Book II, and the formal debate among the ''aristoi'' in book one of the ''Iliad''.