An introduction to epic poetry and to several of the most significant works in the genre: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Wordsworth's The Prelude. The course examines epic poems in relation to their own historical contexts as well as the interplay between texts in the epic tradition, the shift from epic to novel, and the manifestations of epic narrative in the modern world especially in film.