Epithets and Epic Similes

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Epithets and Epic Similes

• The Odyssey by Homer
• PowerPoint by Erin Salona

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Epithets

• brief descriptive phrases
• characterize a person or thing
• sometimes set off by commas

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Epithets

• Examples of Epithets
• Odysseus, master mariner
• Grey-eyed Athena
• Muse, daughter of Zeus
• the ocean, the winedark sea

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Epithets

• QUESTION Can you find the epithet for Poseidon
  in Book 3 in italics on page 727?
• Answer Poseidon, the blue-maned god who makes
  the islands tremble

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Epithets

• TASK Create an epithet for your own name.
  Consider what you like to do, who your parents
  are, and what you are best known for.

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Epic Similes

• also known as the Homeric Simile
• uses like or as
• comparison between two things
• an elaborate version of a regular simile

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Epic Similes

• Homer uses these similes for emphasis
• Example She brushed it away from his skin as
  lightly as when a mother
• Brushes a fly away from her child who is lying
  in sweet sleep.
• What is being compared?

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Epic Similes

• Example And Odysseus
• let the bright molten tears run down his cheeks,
  weeping the way a wife mourns for her lord on the
  lost field where he has gone down fighting
  - Book 8
• What is being compared?