What is an epithet?
What is an epithet?
This is for cases wherein an epithet is used to mean a derogatory word or name for someone or something. Despite the increasing awareness of racism and the many attempts to completely destroy the concept, this social evil still continues to exist in some forms all over the world.
Is’epithet’a bad word?
Nowadays, “epithet” is usually used negatively, with the meaning “a derogatory word or phrase,” but it wasn’t always that way. “Epithet” comes to us via Latin from the Greek noun epitheton and ultimately derives from epitithenai, meaning “to put on” or “to add.”.
What is an example of a fixed epithet?
The Fixed Epithet Fixed epithets are more commonly found in poetry that involves the repetitive use of a phrase or a word for the same object. In Homer’s Odyssey, for example, the wife is described as prudent, Odysseus himself as many-minded, and heir son Telemachus as sound-minded.
Why are epic epithets considered decorative?
Epithets are considered decorative since they are neither essential to the immediate context nor modeled especially for it. Among other things, they are extremely helpful to fill out a half-verse. Take the phrase “cloud-gathering Zeus” for example.
In its oldest sense, an “epithet” is simply a descriptive word or phrase, especially one joined by fixed association to the name of someone or something (as in “Peter the Great” or the stock Homeric phrases “gray-eyed Athena” and “wine-dark sea”). Alternatively, epithets may be used in place of a name (as in “the Peacemaker” or “the Eternal”).
What is the meaning of localizing epithet?
A localizing epithet refers simply to a particular center of veneration and the cultic tradition there, as the god manifested at a particular festival, for example: Zeus Olympios, Zeus as present at Olympia, or Apollo Karneios, Apollo at the Spartan Carneian festival .
What is an epitheton necessarium?
Some epithets are known by the Latin term epitheton necessarium, as they are required to distinguish the bearers, as an alternative to numbers after a prince’s name—such as Richard the Lionheart ( Richard I of England ), or Charles the Fat alongside Charles the Bald.
What is an a transferred epithet?
A transferred epithet qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is describing. This is also known as a hypallage. This can often involves shifting a modifier from the animate to the inanimate; for example, “cheerful money” and “suicidal sky”.