#epic poem

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Dante's Inferno - art by Gustave Doré (1861)

[flowerytale]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Aurora Leigh

[midsummernightsmemes]

ᴬʰ, ᵗʰᵉ ᴼᵈʸˢˢᵉʸ ... ᴵᵗ ʷᵃˢ ᶠᵘⁿ ᵗᵒ ʷᵃᵗᶜʰ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵘⁱᵗᵒʳˢ, ᵃˢ ᵒⁿᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵐʸ ᶠᵃᵛᵒʳⁱᵗᵉ ʸᵒᵘᵀᵘᵇᵉʳˢ ˢᵃʸˢ, ᵍᵉᵗ ᵘⁿˢᵘᵇˢᶜʳⁱᵇᵉᵈ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ˡⁱᶠᵉ. ᴮᵘᵗ ʷʰᵉⁿ ᵉˣᵃᶜᵗˡʸ ᵈⁱᵈ ᴼᵈʸˢˢᵉᵘˢ ' ᵈⁱˢᵍᵘⁱˢᵉ ʷᵉᵃʳ ᵒᶠᶠ?

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[ezekiel13]

Guys please stop shipping Odysseus my man just made it back to Ithaca

[wronghands1]

[russianfolklore]

Nikolai Vorobyov's illustration for russian epic poem (bylina) about Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmeyevich.

Alyosha Popovich is a bogatyr (a medieval knight-errant) and the youngest of the three main bogatyrs, the other two being Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets.

In byliny (ballads), he is described as a clever-minded priest's son who wins by tricking and outsmarting his foes. He defeated the dragon Tugarin Zmeyevich by trickery.

[marieisnothere12]

Odysseus disaster girl

this took like what 4 hrs??? Im slow asf lmao

[the-evil-clergyman]

Illustrations from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso by Gustave Doré (1879)

[naturallyteal]

The Wrestlers

An Epic Poem for a “chosen hero”* for GOetry Monday

prompt by @isiaiowin

Settle in, this one is long…

Canto I

A Dame of Grace and sunlight was the Queen

A mighty sovereign of all her realm

And all her court she gathered on the plain

To play a game she had herself devised.

It was a joust with very simple rules,

The oldest game in every universe:

The High Queen drew a line into the sand

And said: let there be sides, one Black, one White.

Now let those sides be diff’rent from each other,

And that may make them hate and go to war,

And as a symbol of that war both sides

Are to appoint one special champion each.

A hubbub went through both sets, Black and White,

As they stood, anxious, on their playing field,

And as they didn’t know what fight would come

And weren’t allowed to talk, now, with their foe,

They issued forth as their ambassador

Two very different champions, such as this:

Canto II

The Black side chose a snake of mighty cunning,

So fluid and graceful in his moves, so sly,

Like quicksilver and swift in his defence,

As well as his attack. They thought he’d win

Each kind of challenge She could throw at him.

Masterful his scheming and so wily,

A serpent well-skilled in imagination,

Brink-full of optimism, more than any.

The White side chose the best of their sword-fighters,

So strong and solid, principled and upright,

Like a tall mountain, unchanged and unchanging,

Soldier incarnate, Guardian, and the Queen’s Knight.

They reckoned nothing, aye, could overcome him,

No bird’s beak grind down any of his substance,

And that his wide intelligence would shield him

Against all onslaughts of a tempting rival.

Behold the moment both chosen opponents

Face off each other, commencing the battle!

Canto III

An arena has aptly been created

The Queen and all the courtiers are well watching,

The contestants have been prepared and readied,

And all the world forgets to breathe with tension:

They take each other’s measure, careful, cautious,

And each thinks: why me? What the deuce I do now?

And as they start amiably to chatter,

And find they think each other quite enticing,

The Queen gets bored and orders them to wrestle!

A cheer runs through the crowds of bichrome colours,

And all the hate the teams accumulated,

Is channeled into our two beloved champions.

They bow to pressure from the folks around them

Both Queen and peers appear too much to gainsay,

And they undress as is for wrestling custom

And oil their skins and stretch and warm their muscles.

Canto IV

Our heroes Black and White, the best of each side

Have took the measure of their situation

And of each other and begin to wrestle.

They quickly thus develop an Arrangement:

They both do what they have to do to uphold

An image of two adversaries wrestling,

But careful not to really hurt each other…

Because what happens when one of them wins this?

And as the wrestling match goes on for aeons,

They keep refining tricks and grips and touches,

Making a home in this their magic show act;

They keep pretending, prestidigitating,

And actually they get quite comfortable

With little bits they’re carving out for themselves

And for each other, until someone calls out:

“Are you certain that they’re really wrestling?”

Final Canto

How Higher Powers play with us below,

And we are only pawns upon their board,

This tale has shown thee, listener agape:

God doesn’t give a damn, make your own story!

~Fine~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* my chosen hero is Azicrow

notes and credits:

The pictures above with wings, and the background story my poem refers to, are from this tumblr post . The picture without wings is from this tumblr post . Both posts are by @fuckyeahgoodomens . Thanks and kudos!

And as a treat for everyone who made it so far into this long post 🤭, I warmly recommend this amazing comic about the wrestling statue and our heroes on AO3, “Man to Man” by Fledglinger @fledglingdoodles . Warning: explicit, very NSFW! They are also my source of this link to a 3D model of the original (wingless) statue for all you fanartists who might want to draw it!

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Paradise Lost - art by Gustave Doré (1866)

[elixs-mythology-corner]

Me tryna read the Iliad be like

[scrivnomancer]

Cleaning out the garage and finding the old sign from when I received the Outstanding Masters Thesis of the Year award in grad school… and discovering water damage made it more badass.

[greekmythcomix]

I was today years old when I realised that Alkinoos (‘mighty mind’) and Antinoos (‘contrary mind’) are Xenia opposites in the Odyssey 😳😳😳

[crown-eats-rocks]

hear me out guys but aot would make such a good epic poem. greek mythology style? that shit would go so hard styled as a classic tragedy. cmon. the fixed narrative with eren? the "standing atop my mountain of corpses" with erwin? the doomed lover in mikasa? the miserable survivor in levi and reiner??? the fulfilling a cycle in armin??? the born and bred into hate in literally every marley warrior (most notably, gabi)?????