An epic is a long poem that deals with mythical, legendary, or historical events, or a combination of the three. Homer is considered to be the first, and arguably greatest, epic poet. Although the stories that make up the Metamorphoses do not form a single narrative wholethat is, while the stories may be linked thematically, they are not connected sequentially in terms of plotthe Metamorphoses is an epic because it is long and because it takes as its main subject the origins of the created universe and the history of humankind up to the Roman era.