(ἐπίκοινος), from ἐπίκοινος a song or verse), narrative; containing narration; rehearsing. An epic poem, otherwise termed heroic, has been well defined to be the poetical development, in narrative, of some great and interesting event, or series of events, sufficiently separate from what goes before or follows, to possess the character of a whole; having therefore a clear and distinct beginning, middle, and end; an action simple at first, leading into a complication of plot, and terminating in a natural and soothing solution. Among its accessories are—the employment of supernatural agency, the introduction of episodes, formal addresses, invocations, and similes. None of these latter have any essential connection with epic poetry; and their introduction varies with the theme, the age, and the national associations of the poet.

The four greatest of epic poems are the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Jerusalem Delivered, and the Paradise Lost. EPICEDION (from ἐπίκαιρος, funeral), in Greek and Latin poetry, a funeral poem or dirge. At the obsequies of persons of distinction there were usually three similar marks of honour: the eulogy rehearsed at the lustrum or funeral pile, and called nenia; the inscription on the tomb, epitaphion; and the poem delivered in the funeral ceremony, and called epicedion. There are two beautiful specimens of the latter in Virgil; that of Eurylus, and that of Pallas.