OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation · J199
Paper 1, Paper 3, Paper 5
A descriptive title or phrase attached to a person or deity, often highlighting status or characteristics, such as Hades’s title ‘Ruler of Many’.
Revise: GreeceHades’s epithets, ‘Ruler of Many’ and ‘Host of Many’, emphasise the great number of dead under his authority. He is a powerful ruler with an allotted domain, not simply a monster. Nevertheless, his status does not remove the violence of his actions.
- Revise: Homeric Hymns: Demeter and Heracles the Lion Hearted
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a name, such as ‘loud-thundering Zeus’, which can identify a characteristic and form part of traditional poetic language.
- Revise: Narrative and descriptive techniques
8 more notes
- Revise: The character of Odysseus
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a character’s name, such as ‘resourceful Odysseus’, which highlights an aspect of their presentation.
- Revise: The Role and Portrayal of the Gods
A descriptive name or phrase attached to a character, such as Poseidon’s title ‘Earth-Shaker’, which can emphasise identity or power.
- Revise: Penelope and Telemachus
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a character’s name, such as ‘wise Penelope’, which helps shape their portrayal.
- Revise: The Suitors, the Crew and the Slaves
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a character’s name, such as ‘godlike Eurymachus’. An epithet is not necessarily a judgement that every action of that character is good.
- Revise: Narrative and Literary Techniques in the Odyssey
A descriptive word or phrase regularly attached to a person or thing, such as ‘rosy-fingered Dawn’.
- Revise: Narrative Techniques, Style and the Divine in War Literature
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a person or thing, often repeated in epic poetry.
- Revise: Glory, Honour and Comradeship
A descriptive word or phrase attached to a person’s name, such as ‘Hector of the gleaming helm’, which emphasises a characteristic or status.
- Revise: Greek Literary Sources on Warfare: Homer and Tyrtaeus
A recurring descriptive phrase attached to a person or thing, such as Hector ‘of the gleaming helm’.