As a term in criticism, epithet denotes a distinctive quality of a person or thing.
Example is John Keats, "silver snarling trumpets" In the Eve of St. Agnes.
The term is also applied to an identifying phrase that stands in place of a noun.
Alexander Pope's "the glittering forfex" is an ironically inflated epithet for the scissors with which the Baron performs his heinous act in The Rape of the Lock (1714).
The frequent use of derogatory adjectives and phrases in invective has led to the mistaken notion that an "epithet" is always uncomplimentary.
Homeric epithets are adjectival terms—usually a compound of two words— "fleet-footed Achilles," "bolt-hurling Zeus," "the wine-dark sea."
Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's Ulysses parodied the formula in his reference to "the snot-green sea."
We often use "conventional epithets" in identifying historical or legendary
figures, as in Charles the Great, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Patient Griselda.
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