ABSTRACT
Until the eighteenth century, the rhetorical and poetic genres were regulated by the notion of imitation, that is, the poets emulated the auctoritas (authorities) to invent their poems. It is an artistic paradigm, based on the conventions and specificity of each discursive genre, among which we will highlight the epic. Although we must consider the long duration of the Rhetorical Institution, we cannot neglect the historical aspects that underpin each poem, that is, it is not because they emulated tradition that they did not update their materials. From the 16th century, it seems that the changes were more drastic, since the idea of limit, characteristic of ancient prudentia, was overcome by the centrifugal impetus of the great navigations. The aim of this paper is to present some epics and, from the way they built the éthos / the persona of heroes, to analyze a historical movement that proposes the overcoming of Nec Plus Ultra (no further) by Plus Ultra (beyond), something that appears in the universe of epics.
KEYWORDS:
Nec Plus Ultra; Plus Ultra; epics