1. Epithets and Epic Similes
The Odyssey by Homer
PowerPoint by Erin Salona

2. Epithets brief descriptive phrases characterize a person or thing
sometimes set off by commas
used to help the rhapsode & listener better remember details

3. Epithets Examples of Epithets: Odysseus, master mariner
Grey-eyed Athena
Muse, daughter of Zeus
the ocean, the winedark sea
Rosy-fingered dawn

4. 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.

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

6. 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.”

7. 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?