proto-epic en · NOUN
Etymology
From proto- + epic.
Meanings
-
An underlying or root epic upon which many later epics are variants.
Just so, two IE-speaking cultures sang of an epoch-marking war, brought on by the chief god to relieve the earth of mortals. Do these then descend from a proto-epic, sung by people who spoke the language ancestral to Greek and Sanskrit?
2025 December 12, Tom Hercules Davies, “Horses, Wheels, Languages: Greek, Mesopotamian and Indic Epic on the Eurasian Steppe”, in The Classical Quarterly, volume 75, number 1, page 8:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| proto-epics | Number=Plur | lexicographic |