Find three heroic epithets. Explain how you think these epithets were useful to the singer of poems in the Greek oral tradition.
The Earth-Shaker, Poseidon
2. Odysseus, master of craft and battle
3. Calypso, the bewitching nymph
Epithets were useful descriptors of the many characters throughout The Odyssey. I'm sure they served as a way for the singer and the audience to keep track of the story and easily remember the characters in it. For example, if the singer resumes the story that had stopped the day before, some of the returning listeners might've forgotten a minor character or two (I know that I did while I was reading). The singer using one of that characters' defining traits as an introduction to his or her role in that part of the story could serve as a way for the audience to remember them. Plus, it's simply a cool way to introduce the characters. I mean, some of them don't have the most noble and elegant titles, but the ones that do really do. Poseidon's epithet "The Earth-Shaker", for example, is undoubtedly an awesome title and evokes a sense of power that fits a god well.
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