The epipólesis in literary Renaissance epic: Tasso, Mesa’s model; Tasso, successor of Greco-Roman epic and historiography

Abstract

In this paper we start with a comparative analysis of the descriptions of the preliminaries to the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa reported in Cristóbal de Mesa’s homonymous poem and to the Battle of Jerusalem in Torcuato Tasso’s heroic Jerusalem Delivered. The cores of these preliminaries are the pre-battle speeches pronounced by the generals of both sides. This analysis shows how the Extremadurian poet faithfully follows the model of Tasso’s episode. Secondly, we inquire into the original proceeding used by the Italian poet: he does not imitate any particular episode, but displays a profound rhetoric knowledge of the structural and functional features of the epipólesis (a type- scene shared by the classical epic and historiography in which the general harangues his men while going along the ranks), he leaves his own mark on the scene and creates as such a new valid model in the literary tradition.