Epic, a poem of length and completeness, of dignity in style and form, recounting the achievements of some hero. The name epic is from a Greek word signifying speech or discourse, but has come to be used to designate narrative poems of heroic character, as distinguished from those which are dramatic or lyrical. Epic poetry seems to fall naturally into two classes: 1. The popular, or national epic, called also the epic of growth and the folk-epic. 2. The literary, or artificial epic, called also the individual epic and the art epic. It will be seen that among primitive people many ballads, gests, or sagas would arise about some one hero, or concerning some one great event of common interest. A poet or a school of poets collects these songs and legends, and forms them into a complete whole, with more or less individual polishing, reshaping, and addition of passages. The folk-epic--the Iliad, for example--is the result. In all truly national epics, and in the greater of the art epics, the events described are represented as occurring under supernatural guidance. The literary or art epic is the entire production of an individual, but is of the character of the popular epic, that is, it is an heroic narrative of elevated and finished style. To deserve the name epic, it must be built up about some great structural theme or thought which is of universal, or at least of national import. The great national epics of literature are: Greek . . . . . Iliad. German . . . . . Nibelungenlied. Anglo-Saxon . . . . . Beowulf. Spanish . . . . . Poem of the Cid. Persian . . . . . Shah Nameh. Sanskrit . . . . . Ramayana, and Mahabharata. Finnish . . . . . Kalevala. French . . . . . Roland or Chanson de Roland. Among art epics the following may be mentioned: Greek . . . . . Odyssey. Homer. Roman . . . . . Aeneid. Virgil. Italian . . . . . Jerusalem Delivered. Tasso. English . . . . . Paradise Lost. Milton. Portuguese . . . . . Lusiad. Camoens. German . . . . . Messias. Klopstock. Italian . . . . . Divine Comedy. Dante. American . . . . . Hiawatha. Longfellow. Scholars have found difficulty in placing certain of these epics. The Iliad and the Shah Nameh seem to belong in both classes. Some authorities place the Odyssey with the epics of growth. Epics are classified often according to their subject matter, as historical, sacred, heroic, etc., and poems which can hardly claim the name epic in its larger meaning are classed as some specific form of epic. For instance, Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea is called a domestic epic. Pope's Rape of the Lock and Butler's Hudibras are called mock-epics. See ILIAD; ODYSSEY; BEOWULF; NIBELUNGEN LIED; CID; LITERATURE; POETRY; CAMOENS; TASSO; CHANSON DE ROLAND; MILTON; KLOPSTOCK.