Herodotus is a Homer.
But it is in the ancient tragedy, above all, that the epic breaks out at every turn.

It mounts the Greek stage without losing aught, so to speak, of its immeasurable, gigantic proportions.

Its characters are still heroes, demigods, gods; its themes are visions, oracles, fatality; its scenes are battles, funeral rites, catalogues.

That which the rhapsodists formerly sang, the actors declaim--that is the whole difference.
There is something more.

When the whole plot, the whole spectacle of the epic poem have passed to the stage, the Chorus takes all that remains.