Meaning of "epic simile" in the English dictionary

PRONUNCIATION OF EPIC SIMILE

epic simile

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF EPIC SIMILE

Epic simile is a noun.

A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES EPIC SIMILE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Homeric simile

Homeric simile, also called an epic simile is a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that is many lines in length. The word "Homeric" is based on the Greek author, Homer, who composed the two famous Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many authors continue to use this type of simile in their writings. The typical Homeric simile makes a comparison to some kind of event, in the form "like a ____ when it ______." The object of the comparison is usually something strange or unfamiliar to something ordinary and familiar. The Iliad, for instance, contains many such similes comparing fighting warriors to lions attacking wild boars or other prey. These similes serve to take the reader away from the battlefield for a brief while, into the world of pre-war peace and plenty. Often, they occur at a moment of high action or emotion, especially during a battle. In the words of Peter Jones, Homeric similes "are miraculous, redirecting the reader's attention in the most unexpected ways and suffusing the poem with vividness, pathos and humor". They are also important, as it is through these similes that the narrator directly talks to the audience.

Definition of epic simile in the English dictionary

The definition of epic simile in the dictionary is an extended simile, as used in the epic poetry of Homer and other writers.

TRANSLATION OF EPIC SIMILE

Find out the translation of epic simile to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

The translations of epic simile from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «epic simile» in English.

• Translator English - Chinese: 史诗比喻
• Translator English - Spanish: símil épico
• English: epic simile
• Translator English - Hindi: महाकाव्य उपमा
• Translator English - Arabic: التشبيه الملحمي
• Translator English - Russian: эпическое сравнение
• Translator English - Portuguese: simile épico
• Translator English - Bengali: মহাকাব্য simile
• Translator English - French: comparaison épique
• Translator English - Malay: Simile epik
• Translator English - German: epischen Gleichnis
• Translator English - Japanese: 叙事詩直喩
• Translator English - Korean: 서사시 비유
• Translator English - Javanese: Epic simile
• Translator English - Vietnamese: tỉ dụ sử thi
• Translator English - Tamil: காவிய சூத்திரம்
• Translator English - Marathi: महाकाव्य उदाहरण
• Translator English - Turkish: Destansı simile
• Translator English - Italian: epica similitudine
• Translator English - Polish: epicka simile
• Translator English - Ukrainian: епічне порівняння
• Translator English - Romanian: simile epic
• Translator English - Greek: επική παρομοίωση
• Translator English - Afrikaans: epiese vergelyking
• Translator English - Swedish: episk liknelse
• Translator English - Norwegian: episke simile

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «EPIC SIMILE»

Discover the use of epic simile in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to epic simile and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

John Milton's Paradise Lost: A Sourcebook

Other critics would argue that the reader is not on that boat but has been offered the simile as a warning and an active exercise in avoiding such error because in order to read the complex. 90 KEY PASSAGES 192-208: the epic simile of the ...

Margaret Kean, 2005

Simile and Identity in Ovid's Metamorphoses

What makes a simile an epic simile? Brunner, in his work on similes in the Metamorphoses, found two obvious criteria to answer this question, length and subject matter. Similes of two to seven lines in length occur only 42 times in Ovid's ...

Marie Louise von Glinski, 2012

A New Handbook of Literary Terms

EPIC SIMILE 105 Joyce's Ulysses () draws on Homeric situations while giving a many-sided version of a quest that involves vast, diverting fields of knowledge, from as- tronomy to politics to religion. Joyce's novelistic attention raises the ...

David Mikics, 2010

Paradise Lost: Introduction

But Milton is master of the most important minor convention of epic, the epic simile. An epic simile is one in which the image or 'ikon' is not just referred to, but elaborated, perhaps forming a complete scene or incident itself. (I shall refer to the ...

John Broadbent, 1972

Milton

850 B.C.), Virgil (70-19 B.C.) and Dante (1265-1321). The epic simile is a great component of the grand style that comprises sublimity, grandeur, broad descriptions, high sonority, classical allusions, latinised expressions, archaism, etc. as well ...

Sunil Kumar Sarker, 1999

Roman Epic: An Interpretative Introduction

In this form, the antithesis of fear and hope seems to be an innovation in the epic simile.1 Ovid has oriented this passage around the expression of two emotions promoting the action. At which point in the narrative is the simile placed?

Michael Von Albrecht, 1999

How to Prepare for SAT II.: Literature

The epic simile is a very formal simile in which the vehicle is developed so extensively that the reader loses sight of the original relationship between it and its tenor. The TONE of the epic simile is ceremonial; the style copies that of Homer ...

Christina Myers-Shaffer, 2000

The Narrative Voice In The Theogony Of Hesiod

34 For the nature and function of the epic simile, see Fränkel 1921; Bassett 1921: 132-47; Krischer 1971: Scott 1974; Moulton 1977; Bonnafé 1983; Baltes, 1983; Edwards 1987: 102-110; Bakker 2002: 75-81. For recent work on the Homeric ...

Kathryn Stoddard, 2004

Poetic Designs: An Introduction to Meters, Verse Forms, and ...

Simile has its special place in epic as the epic simile. Like all such conventions, the epic simile is a feature of Homer's oral style that has been consciously imitated by epic poets ever since. In Homer, warlike characters are likened unto lions ...

Stephen Adams, 1997

Wordsworth's Revisionary Aesthetics

21 The third is Milton's epic simile comparing Satan on his way to earth to a distant "fleet" which "hangs in the clouds." Simple insofar as it is unextended, Virgil's simile is the closest to the literal meaning of the verb. Had Meliboeus said instead ...

Theresa M. Kelley, 1988

4 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «EPIC SIMILE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term epic simile is used in the context of the following news items.

From the Stacks: Crediting Poetry

His epic simile continues (in Robert Fitzgerald's translation): At the sight of the man panting and dying there, she slips down to enfold him, ... «The New Republic, Aug 13»

Police: Newark woman arrested for heroin, crack-cocaine possession

Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live. Epic Simile · Top Commenter · William Penn High School (Delaware). Thank. You NCCPD. Reply · Like. «Newark Post, Aug 12»

Academics Anonymous

... a swarm of Humvees will descend from out of the woods like an epic simile of your choice in a matter of seconds to stop and search your car. «Yale Daily News, Jan 12»

Book review: 'Salvage the Bones,' by Jesmyn Ward

Ward uses techniques from ancient Greek poetry such as kenning (fusing of two words) and the epic simile (a comparison that employs ... «Dallas Morning News, Sep 11»