Where it sits
A decision about chronology, not about excitement.
Tell it apart
| Aspect | In medias res | Ab ovo |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | The middle | The origin |
| Prior events | Withheld | Narrated |
| Horace's verdict | Praised | Mocked |
| Requires | Later back-fill | Patience |
Ab ovo starts at the causal origin — literally 'from the egg', since Horace's example is beginning the Trojan War at Leda's eggs. In medias res skips all that and back-fills. Opposites, both named in the same Horatian passage.
What it doesn't mean
It means opening mid-CHRONOLOGY. The scene can be entirely quiet — two people talking in a kitchen — provided prior events are withheld and delivered later. What matters is the timeline, not the pace.
He named and recommended it, citing Homer — who predates him by centuries. Horace was describing something that already worked, not proposing something new.
What it really means
In medias res is usually explained as open with a bang — start on a chase, an explosion, a body. That's a claim about pace, and the term is a claim about chronology.
Horace's phrase means into the middle of things, and the grammar is precise: rēs is plural, and mediās agrees with it. Into the middle of events — a position on a timeline, not a level of excitement. A story that opens with two people quietly making tea is in medias res if the reader doesn't yet know why one of them isn't speaking.
He named it in the Ars Poetica, whose date is disputed somewhere between 19 and 10 BC, praising Homer — so the technique predates its name by centuries, and Horace was describing something that already worked rather than proposing something new. The Iliad opens nine years into the Trojan War. The Odyssey opens with Odysseus already stranded, long after everything that stranded him.
What makes the term useful is its opposite, which Horace names in the same passage: ab ovo — from the egg. His example is a poet who, asked to tell the story of the Trojan War, would begin with the eggs of Leda, from which Helen was born. Technically the causal origin. Also a catastrophic decision about where to start.
One requirement follows from the definition and gets forgotten. If you withhold the beginning, you have to deliver it later — flashback, dialogue, a document, something. Otherwise you haven't structured a story. You've just started late.
Where it comes from
Latin — into
Latin — middle (accusative plural feminine)
Latin — things
Rēs is plural — 'into the middle of things', not 'the thing'. The grammar is doing work most translations skip.
- c. 19-10 BC
Horace, in Ars Poetica, praises Homer for hurrying the listener 'into the midst of things'. The poem's date is disputed across this range.
- c. 19-10 BC
In the same passage he contrasts it with ab ovo — beginning the Trojan War 'from Leda's eggs'.
In real life
- Homer's Odyssey opens with Odysseus stuck on Calypso's island, years after the fall of Troy. Most of his journey home only comes out later, when he tells it himself in Books 9 to 12.
- Homer's Iliad starts nine years into the Trojan War, with a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. The causes of the war are never told from the beginning.
- A novel opens with two people at a kitchen table, one of them saying So you've told him. Nothing is exploding, but we are already in the middle, and the earlier events will arrive later.
Questions
Q01Which works are the classic examples?
The Iliad opens nine years into the Trojan War; the Odyssey opens with Odysseus already held on Calypso's island, years after the events that got him there. Both are Horace's evidence.
Q02Do you need flashbacks?
You need some retrospective delivery — flashback, dialogue, a report, a document. Otherwise the withheld material never lands and the reader is simply confused rather than intrigued.
Q03Is a prologue in medias res?
No — the opposite. A prologue restores chronology by telling you what happened first. In medias res withholds it deliberately.
Sources
- In medias res — Wikipedia.
- Horace, Ars Poetica, lines 136-152 in the Smart & Buckley English translation ('The Art of Poetry: To the Pisos') — Perseus Digital Library; the Latin text is at Perseus 1999.02.0064.
- in medias res (etymology) — Wiktionary.