Latin Epic Poetry and its Evolution as a Factor of Cultural Identity in Central and Eastern Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of Latin-language poem in European literature from Antiquity to Baroque as well as in literature of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It shows formal connection between heroic poem and The Aeneid by Virgil in terms of constant evolution of genre structure of carmen heroicum with respect to hagiographic, historical and dynastic or etiological epos. The article also provides a short description of Latin-language carmina majora of other genres (hodoeporicon, panegyric or lyric and epic poem) in multilingual literature of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XVI-XVII centuries. In the poetry of many countries of Central and Eastern Europe of the 16-17th centuries appeared epic elements