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Kinds of Epithets

by Spencer Scorcelletti

Commentary #5 ()

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These terms are referenced heavily by other commentary, e.g. Commentary #6: Table of Epithets in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”.

Kind Definition Example
Name A proper name, including alternative, shortened or foreign forms of the same name. Jove and Jupiter for one god; Boreas and Aquilo for one wind.
Patronymic Names someone by their father. Saturn's son (Jupiter); Prometheus' son (Deucalion).
Matronymic Names someone by their mother. Venus' son (Cupid); Bright Pleiad's child (Mercury, son of Maia).
Genealogy Names someone by a more distant ancestor, or by a sibling. Atlas' grandson (Mercury); Phoronis (Io, sister of Phoroneus).
Relationship Names someone by their standing to another person in the scene, and so only works inside it. his [Jupiter's] sister-wife (Juno); her [Juno's] Greek rival (Io).
Cult title A title under which the god was actually worshipped. the Thunderer (Jupiter, Latin Tonans); Paean (Apollo as healer).
Cult site Names a god by a place sacred to them — a birthplace, a shrine, an oracle. the Delian lord (Apollo, born on Delos); Cyllenius (Mercury).
Function Names someone by what they do or what they govern. the archer-god (Apollo); the king of gods (Jupiter).
Attribute Names someone by a physical trait, a possession, or a stock adjective. the ivory-sceptered one (Jupiter); eye-bespangled (Argus).
Periphrasis A whole descriptive phrase standing in place of a name. that Arcadian king (Lycaön); worshiped by a linened throng (Io, as Isis).
Metonym A name used for the thing it governs, or a thing used for the person. Ceres' seeds for grain; Nereus for the sea; Love for Cupid.
Generic A bare common noun, with the context left to supply the referent. the goddess (Themis, later Juno); the nymph (Daphne, later Io).

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