Epic Hero The epic hero has larger-than-life powers, but is not perfect due to a flaw. This hero has to complete a long journey and is faced with many trials and tribulations along the way.

 

Epithet A description that often accompanies someone’s name.

 

Literary Term

Definition Example

Odysseus is the epic hero in the Greek epic called The Odyssey. Achilles is the epic hero in the Greek epic called The Illiad.

Andre the Giant

Odysseus, the man of twists and turns

The bewitching nymph, Calypso

Cool-headed Telemachus

Zeus, son of Cronos

Homeric SimileHomer loves similes and they can be found everywhere in the Odyssey. Homer often expands upon a simile, putting it into motion so to speak; and these expanded similes are called Homeric or epic similes. 

“Weak as the doe that beds down her fawns in a mighty lion's den . . . but back the lion comes to his own lair and the master deals both fawns a ghastly, bloody death, just what Odysseus will deal that mob - ghastly death.” 

How do we know it’s a simile?What is Homer comparing?

Literary Term

Description Example

The doe putting her fawn in danger is like Odysseus putting his men in danger.

Extended Metaphor

a metaphor that continues over several lines of poetry

 

 

Will Ferrell's Extended Metaphor: The University of Life"I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?"(Will Ferrell, Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2003)

 

Literary Term

Description Example

Personification animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given character, traits, abilities, or reactions

“Dawn spread on the eastern sky/ her fingers of pink light”

"East and South Winds clashed, and the raging West and North/sprung from the heavens, roiled heaving breakers up."

Hyperbole

Literary Term

Description Example

human

exaggerated language that distorts facts by making them much bigger than they are. Think of “Your Mama” jokes

Odysseus states: “My son, my son, the unluckiest man alive!'"

Foreshadowingprovides early ________ about where the plot is headed. It is a storytelling technique that gets viewers involved and thinking about the plot unfolding before them because they are picking up hints about what may soon happen.

The foreboding that Odysseus feels as he heads toward the Cyclops's cave, which seems to prompt him to take the wine along, foreshadows his upcoming encounter with Polyphemus and the need for trickery to prevail.

Literary Term

Description Example

clues

“Of this wine I filled a great wineskin full . . . for my proud heart had an idea that presently I would encounter a man who was endowed with great strength, and wild . . .

In Media Res To begin in the ___________ of a story; tells how the character got to where he/she is 

Iron Man – the movie showed what happened the 36 hours prior

Odysseus tells King Alcinous about all the islands that he encountered before he can go home to Penelope

Theme What the author wants to say about the human experience.

The Odyssey emphasizes the themes of adventure, brains over brawn, loyalty, familial love, perseverance, etc.

Flashback interrupting the chronological order of a story and telling something that occurred earlier in time

This occurs when Odysseus tells his stories of adventure to King Alcinous of the Phaeacians at the beginning of the poem.

Literary Term

Description Example

middle

NarrativeDescriptiveExpositoryPersuasive

Tells a storyUses characters, dialogueHas a plot with a climax and

resolution Beginning Middle End

Describes in great detailUses the five senses

Taste Smell Touch Sight Hearing

Explains something to the readerMay include directions or “how to”

informationMay explain why or how

something was doneHistory books and science books and

math books contain expository writing

Convinces the reader to do something or believe a certain way

Commercials are persuasive writingPoliticians’ speeches are persuasive

writingLetters to government officials or

businesses may be persuasive writing

a. narrativeb. descriptivec. expositoryd. persuasive

a. narrativeb. descriptivec. expositoryd. persuasive

a. narrativeb. descriptivec. expositoryd. persuasive

a. narrativeb. descriptivec. expositoryd. persuasive

Loyal son of Odysseus

Was a baby when Odysseus left for Troy Helps his father fight against the suitors

One of Penelope’s suitorsVery arrogantFirst to be killed

King of Ithaca and hero of the Trojan War

Is away from home for 20 years

In order to enter his home undetected, Athena turns him into a begger

Messenger of the gods

Protects Odysseus from Circe’s honey wine

Faithful wife of Odysseua

Holds off the suitors by weaving a shroud

Odysseus sought him out in Hades for a prophecy

Blind prophet

Cyclopes that Odysseus and his men blind

Goddess who turns crewmen of Odysseus into animals

Tells Odysseus where to find the blind prophet Tiresias.