The Idea of Epic

The Idea of Epic by J. B. Hainsworth is a sweeping exploration of one of literature’s most enduring and contested forms. Moving from Homer and Virgil to Lucan, Milton, and beyond, Hainsworth examines how the epic has been defined, reshaped, and reimagined across centuries. He demonstrates that epic is never merely long narrative verse but always a conscious engagement with cultural memory, heroism, and form. With clarity and breadth, he shows how ancient epics both shaped and were shaped by their societies, and how later poets—whether in antiquity or the Renaissance—revived and reconfigured the genre for new purposes.

This study situates the epic at the center of literary history, highlighting its ability to reflect collective ideals and probe the costs of heroism and empire. Hainsworth traces its transformations from oral heroic poetry through Hellenistic and Roman adaptations, into medieval and modern reworkings, emphasizing the epic’s simultaneous continuity and reinvention. By balancing close readings with wide cultural context, The Idea of Epic offers scholars and students alike a guide to how the genre has evolved, why it has mattered so profoundly, and what it continues to mean for literature’s most ambitious attempts to tell the story of humanity.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.