"NOMEN EST OMEN" OR THE INTERNAL DIMENSION OFTHE EPIC HERO Cover Image

"NOMEN EST OMEN" ILI UNUTARNJA DIMENZIJA EPSKOG JUNAKA
"NOMEN EST OMEN" OR THE INTERNAL DIMENSION OFTHE EPIC HERO

Author(s): Sead Šemsović
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Sarajevu
Keywords: epic heroes’ names; epic world; epic-mythological world; level of revelation;

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the relationship between remembering the names of epic heroes without their appearance and the characteristics of their internal dimensions, of which we learn from those poems in which the heroes appear as participants of events. Since the introduction of the epic hero by the epic poet is based on the poet’s own experience or knowledge of the hero’s features and characteristics the presented knowledge and narrated experiences not only constitute one epic biography, but also reflect the internal dimension of the hero. Moving from particular examples towards the very source of this reflection, one can identify certain aspects of differentiation of the epic hero in relation to other heroes as well as to his own self as experienced and perceived by different poets. In that way,this approach to the epic world promotes a top-down view of the hero,which has been completely denied in some traditional approaches. The very name is mentioned in several possible varieties and determined by whom, how, where and when it is mentioned. Furthermore, the variety depends on whether the name is mentioned in poems from the hero’s cultural sphere or a different one. Finally, the reasons for the appearance of the names without their bearers are indicative of the ways in which individual stratifications within complexly constructed epic worlds maybe decoded.

  • Issue Year: 19/2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 21-38
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Bosnian