Epithet

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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Poetic/ rhetorical term

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From Latin

epitheton,

from Greek, from

epitithenai

meaning “to add”, an adjective or adjectival cluster that is associated with a particular person or thing and that usually seems to capture their prominent characteristics. For example, “Ethelred the unready”, or “fleet-footed Achilles” in Pope's version of

The Iliad

. The “transferred epithet” is a special category where the adjective cannot normally be applied to the noun but where its use becomes justified by the added effect thus achieved. For example, in his “Ode to a Nightingale” Keats brilliantly transfers the sense of embalming to darkness:

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith the seasonable

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162 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Epithet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=353, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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