Greek Sources In Renaissance Epic

An overview of European history reveals that the origin of epic lies in ancient Greece. The aim of this thesis is to study the influence of Greek culture to Renaissance epic through the analysis of its genre, theme, structure, content, writing skills, etc., also expecting to grasp the Greek sources from certain ideas of Renaissance time spirit. This thesis consists of six parts. Part I is the preface, which explains why the author chooses this topic and its significance. Part II lays out a brief developing process of epic from ancient Greece to Renaissance, generally demonstrating the influence of Greek tradition on Renaissance epic poems. Part III stands as the main body of the thesis, dealing with Renaissance epic from different perspectives in terms of literary analysis practice to discuss the Greek legacies in Renaissance epic and its own advancement. Part IV selects certain ideas to trace their Greek origin as well as what's more important, their new spirits in Renaissance time. Part V focuses on Renaissance epic's assimilation and development from ancient Greek poetic ideas and theories. The last part comes to a conclusion that Renaissance epic is not a simple imitation of Greek epic, and Renaissance culture is not a simple duplication of classical time but a cultural innovation of the combined foreign cultures and time spirits.