epyllion
Sign in to savethumb|A sleeping Ariadne's abandonment by [[Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous extant epyllion. (Roman copy of a 2nd-century BCE Greek original; Villa Corsini.)]] In classical studies the term epyllion (Ancient Greek: , plural: , ) refers to a comparatively short narrative poem (or discrete episode within a longer work) that shows formal affinities with epic, but betrays a preoccupation with themes and poetic techniques that are not generally or, at least, primarily characteristic of epic proper.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- literary genre
- Subclass of
- epic poem
- Movement
- Neoteric
Show 1 more fact
- time period
- classical antiquity
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Etymology and modern usage
- Characteristics
- Subject matter and tone
- Poetic techniques
- List of epyllia
- Hellenistic
- Latin
- Late antiquity
- Notes
- Bibliography
thumb|A sleeping Ariadne's abandonment by [[Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous extant epyllion. (Roman copy of a 2nd-century BCE Greek original; Villa Corsini.)]] In classical studies the term epyllion (Ancient Greek: , plural: , ) refers to a comparatively short narrative poem (or discrete episode within a longer work) that shows formal affinities with epic, but betrays a preoccupation with themes and poetic techniques that are not generally or, at least, primarily characteristic of epic proper.
==Etymology and modern usage==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “epyllion” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.