epyllion

▪ poetry

      brief narrative poem in dactylic hexameter of ancient Greece, usually dealing with mythological and romantic themes. It is characterized by lively description, miniaturistic attitude, scholarly allusion, and an elevated tone similar to that of the elegy. Such poems were especially popular during the Greek Alexandrian period (c. 3rd–2nd century BC), as seen in the works of Callimachus and Theocritus, although the term epyllion was not applied to them until the 19th century. Late Republican and early Augustan Latin poetry, such as Catullus's poem on the marriage of Peleus and Thetis and Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. AD 1–8), reflect the influence of the epyllion, as do the troubadour songs of the Middle Ages and the modern Greek Klephtic ballads. William Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece (1594) and Matthew Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum" (1853) are examples of epyllions in English.

Additional Reading

M. Marjorie Crump, The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid (1931, reprinted 1978); Kathryn J. Gutzwiller, Studies in the Hellenistic Epyllion (1981).

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