Project

Reinventing epic poetry. Creativity and tradition in late antique epyllia.

Code
3E027115
Duration
01 October 2015 → 31 July 2021
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • Language studies
    • Literary studies
Keywords
Late Antiquity meta-literarity genre studies characterization epic tradition epyllion narratology Greek Latin Comparative Iconography and analysis of images Language and text analysis Genre Africa Middle East Southern Europe Literary studies
 
Project description

The modern term “epyllion” refers to short narrative poetry in hexameters. This project proposes a first comprehensive study of late antique Greek and Latin epyllia. The project focusses on the generic self-presentation of these poems and aims to lay bare the mechanisms of tradition and innovation that allowed the poets constantly to reinvent the essentially “epic” genre of hexameter narrative.