[L. epos, a. Gr. ἔπος word, song, f. ἐπ- stem of εἰπεῖν to say.]
1. a. A collective term for early unwritten narrative poems celebrating incidents of heroic tradition; the rudimentary form of epic poetry. b. An epic poem; = EPIC B., EPOPEE. c. Epic poetry.
a. 1839. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xii. 124. The epos … in this respect appears to have adhered to the model of the ancient hymnody.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. 234. The age of the epos is followed by that of the epopee.
1883. H. M. Kennedy, trans. Ten Brink’s E. E. Lit., 148. The ancient Epos hardly survived.
b. 1855. Browning, Men & Wom., II. Cleon, 173–4. That epos on thy hundred plates of gold Is mine.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, V. 155. Every age … expects a morn And claims an epos.
1858. Trench, Parables, 45. The action, gradually unfolding itself of an Epos.
c. 1835. J. B. Robertson, trans. von Schlegel’s Philos. Hist. (1846), 6. The author next passes in review the Hesiodic epos, the middle epos, or the works of the Cyclic poets.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., viii. (1872), 285. Almost rises into epos and prophecy.
2. transf. A series of striking events worthy of epic treatment.
1844. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., I. 227. All these episodes of the great epos [the insurrection of Paris] were similar in character, and imbodied the same lessons.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem. (1878), Prel. 2. She found her epos in the reform of a religious order.
