The gods play an active and important role in the stories, often intervening in the affairs of men to change the course of events. The speaker often refers to events, places, and characters outside the main narrative, giving the poems a feeling of great scope and comprehensiveness. All epic heroes are great warriors.
Epic heroes are also national heroes.
The ultimate effect is not of likeness, but contrast. Each journey is marked by adventure and danger. Check the meanings of any words I have used that you are not familiar with in your dictionary of literary terms. More modern epics, such as The Song of Roland , Beowulf , The Fairie Queene , or Paradise Lost , may be indebted to the classical epics in various ways. It is up to you, the reader, to measure them against those older epics and decide how much their authors owe to Homer and Virgil.