Strategic Purpose:
Authors use epithets to tie defining adjectives or phrases with a respective object. It can give a dramatic or meaningful effect while a reader encounters the phrase describing the character. In historical fiction, such as The Odyssey, by Homer, epithets are an essential part of formatting, being used to conform with dactylic hexameter, an ancient Greek poetic meter. Epithets can be used as a lyrical aid to provide a stable pace while reading. While no longer being essential to modern day literature, they were a key element in Homer's literature. Nowadays, epithets are useful for highlighting a defining characteristic of a person or thing in a few amount of words.
However, epithets may overgeneralize characteristics of an object. Without further descriptions, the object of the epithet may be under described, which can lead to confusion. But overall, epithets are a simple way for authors to mention a defining characteristic about a person or thing with few words.
Steps for Analysis:
First, begin by identifying the character or thing that is being described by a phrase.
Usually this is separated by a comma, with the character or thing being first, with the phrase coming after.
The phrase usually is some overall defining characteristic of the object in question.
Think about why such an epithet would be used for the object, and what the reader can conclude from it.
Questions to consider:
Is the epithet objective or subjective? (Depends on the reliability of the author)
Does the epithet do a good job of summarizing the key characteristics of an object?
Nonfiction Prose Example & Analysis:
"Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness" - Mary Wollstonecraft
This quote comes from The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, in which Wollstonecraft states that an epithet given on children is that they are innocent and need to be taken care of. The object being identified is children, which she gives them the epithet of being innocent and weak. Wollstonecraft believes that when this epithet is applied to adult males and females, it is implied that women are weaker than men, which she argues that all souls are equal.
She uses the epithet to bolster her claim that men and women are equal, by saying it is unfair to place such an epithet on a group of people.
Warman, Caroline, editor. “Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793), Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 1791.” Tolerance: The Beacon of the Enlightenment, 1st ed., vol. 3, Open Book Publishers, 2016, pp. 49–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt19b9jvh.24. Accessed 7 Sep. 2022.