<P> The English word epic comes from the Latin epicus, which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός (epikos), from ἔπος (epos), "word, story, poem". </P> <P> Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances . Hence aside from writers like Dante, Camões, and Milton, Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica and Virgil in Aeneid adopted and adapted Homer's style and subject matter, but used devices available only to those who write, and in their works Nonnus' Dionysiaca and Tulsidas' Sri Ramacharit Manas also used stylistic elements typical of epics . </P> <P> The oldest epic recognized is the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2500--1300 BCE), which was recorded In ancient Sumer during the Neo-Sumerian Empire . The poem details the exploits of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk . Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure . </P> <P> The longest epic written is the ancient Indian Mahabharata, which consists of 100,000 ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at about 1.8 million words it is about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa, and roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined . </P>

The world's oldest epic tale told in poetry is called the epic of