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Homeric Epithets in Greek Lyric Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Extract

One of the ways in which a poet may show his quality is by discrimination and originality in his choice of adjectives. Poetry likes to adorn the bare noun; a noun such as ‘the sky’ calls out for an attribute. But in practice the poet has to take care to avoid the cliche. He can seldom write ‘the blue sky’; even ‘the azure sky’ has become trite. He has to search for the epithet which will be both apt and original.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1957

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