'Epithet' or 'metaphor'

Question

Upon the defeat of an army in battle, a trumpeter was taken prisoner. The soldiers were about to put him to death, when he cried, " Nay, gentlemen, why should you kill me? I do not fight," said he; "I only blow this instrument, and surely that cannot harm you. This hand of mine is guiltless of a single life." " Yes," replied the soldiers ; " but with that braying instrument of yours you incite others, and you must share the same fate as they."

"Words may be deeds."

- Aesop

1. The theme of this story deals with ________.
a. the conduct of a wartime musician
b. punishment for soldiering
c. individual responsibility in wartime
d. treatment of prisoners
e. a prisoner trumpeter

2. Calling the trumpet a braying instrument is a(n) ___.
a. simile
b. epithet
c. metaphor
d. euphemism
e. metonymy

My most curious question of the above two is 2, especially the difference between 'epithet' and 'metaphor'. In my opinion, 'metonymy' seems not to be the correct answer.
What is the difference between 'epithet' and 'metaphor'? Please, give me some explanations and examples.

P.S. What about the first question?

TrysB · Accepted Answer

Thanks for the interesting quote and questions. Aesop's fables were a favorite of mine as a kid and I still enjoy reading them.

I would say the answer to 1 is c. The trumpeter says he should not be held responsible or accountable because he does not wield a weapon, but his captors point out that his music is as much a weapon as a sword in the hands of a soldier.

Calling the trumpet a braying instrument would be a metaphor, likening it to the loud braying of a donkey although I don't really see how this would translate into a sound that would incite soldiers to battle.

An epithet is a usually unflattering descriptive word added to a name, so the word braying could be considered an epithet.

Thanks for the thought-provoking question.

TrysB

Iiluvpsycho · Answer

TrysB
Calling the trumpet a braying instrument would be a metaphor, likening it to the loud braying of a donkey although I don't really see how this would translate into a sound that would incite soldiers to battle.

An epithet is a usually unflattering descriptive word added to a name, so the word braying could be considered an epithet.

According to your explanation that braying could be considered an epithet, Why could'nt the answer to the second be "epithet"? I still wonder why "metaphor" is right, but "epithet" is wrong. Did you mean that because a braying instrument is not a word, "epithet" could't be right? I don't know yet.

TrysB · Answer

Hi,
The context of the quote determines whether the phrase 'braying instrument' should be called a metaphor or an epithet, i think. The point of the fable is to point out the fallacy of saying that you are not responsible just because you didn't pull the trigger. The trumpeter is an accessory to the 'crime' so the focus is on him, not on whether the soldiers dislike the 'braying' sound of a trumpet. Maybe Aesop was waked up every morning by his neighbor practising trumpet and that is why he called it a 'braying instrument'. He could have called it a 'blaring' instrument or a 'martial' instrument.

An epithet, to me, is used to disparage or ridicule the thing or person to which it is attached--in this case, a trumpet. But that is not what the fable is about, so I would say that in this usage, metaphor is the correct interpretation.

What do you think?

Best wishes,
TrysB

Andriy Lapin · Answer

Dear friends,

the discussion currently evolves around the difficulty of classifying the word combination braying instrument either as a metaphor or as an epithet, so I wish to deal with this issue specifically. The uneasiness largely lies in the definitions of these terms that sometimes overlap, which often bewilders scholars and pupils alike. Overall, the term epithet has six interpretations, one of which implies a word or phrase used to abuse or dismiss: *******, The silly old cow!, etc. Considered in this light, braying is doubtlessly an epithet. What other definitions could come in handy, you might ask? I'll give you another one: an epithet is a word or phrase that substitutes for another: 'a braying instrument' unambiguously points to the trumpet, and this is another agrument in favour of the epithetical interpretation. To cut a long story short, five of the definitions of epithet (but for Homeric epithet) coincide with the word in question.

What about metaphor, then? We know that it stands for a figure of speech which
concisely compares two things by saying that one is the other. A warrior compared to a lion becomes a lion: Achilles was a lion in the fight. Aristotle provided a formula for creating metaphors which pointed to something inherent in all kinds of comparison. He proposed a ratio (anâlogon) of the type A is to B, as X is to Y, exemplified as Life is to old age, as day is to evening. This ratio demonstrated that life and day can come together because of a third shared factor, time. He then switched the second terms to get A is to Y, as X is to B, producing: Life is to evening, as day is to old age. Such a cross-over creates such phrases as the evening of life and day's old age. Here, terms from distinct contexts are first aligned, then spliced, demonstrating metaphor and analogy. In 1936, the English critic I. A. Richards provided labels for the three aspects of metaphor implied by Aristotle: the original context or idea is the tenor of the metaphor, the borrowed idea is the vehicle, and the shared element the ground. In Aristotle's example, life is the tenor, day the vehicle, time the ground. Commentators, however, are not usually precise about where the metaphor proper resides: it is sometimes defined as the vehicle alone, sometimes as the combination of tenor and vehicle, and sometimes as tenor, vehicle, and ground together.

In my view, therefore, the metaphorical interpretation of braying doesn't have a leg to stand on the basis of the above criteria. In summa: braying is an epithet.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

A minor comment on the word 'epithet'.

My dictionary notes two meanings.

1. An adjective. This is the meaning that I learned and have always been familiar with.

2. An adjective used as a term of abuse.

I wasn't aware that this meaning had actually made it into the dictionary. Here's my personal understanding of how it came about.

Years ago in Britain, the tabloid newpapers did not publish so-called obscene words.

Scenarios like this happened.

Tom got drunk, and the police came. Tom called the police officer a ******* (sounds a bit like 'ducking') idiot.

The local tabloid would just report that Tom "used an epithet".

Soon, people who did not know this word started to think it always meant a term of abuse.

Ill-educated people also liked it because it sounded like an important and educated kind of word.

With great dignity, they'd say things like 'How dare you call me an epithet!'

I guess this is how language evolves.

Best wishes, Clive

Andriy Lapin · Answer

Hello, Clive,

your comment is not in the least minor. Thanks for sharing your views.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

Clive · Answer

CalifJim · Answer

Here is the beginning of the Wikipedia article on "epithet".

"In linguistics, an epithet can only be a metaphor, essentially a reduced or condensed appositive. Epithets are sometimes attached to a person's name or appear in place of their name, as what might be described as a glorified nickname. An epithet is linked to its noun by long-established usage and some are not otherwise employed."

Examples like Alexander the Great are given.

It seems according to this that if it's an epithet, it's a metaphor. So maybe both answers are correct.

And yet --

I don't see how braying can be a nickname for instrument, and I don't believe that braying is linked by long-established usage to the word instrument.

My bet is that the test designers want the answer 'metaphor'. The instrument doesn't literally bray as a donkey does. It brays metaphorically. Its sound is as annoying as the braying of a donkey, for example. In a metaphor, speaker meaning differs from word meaning. That's what's happening here.

CJ

Iiluvpsycho · Answer

CalifJim
"In linguistics, an epithet can only be a metaphor, essentially a reduced or condensed appositive. Epithets are sometimes attached to a person's name or appear in place of their name, as what might be described as a glorified nickname. An epithet is linked to its noun by long-established usage and some are not otherwise employed."

Examples like Alexander the Great are given.

It seems according to this that if it's an epithet, it's a metaphor. So maybe both answers are correct.

You said that if it's an epithet, it's a metaphor, according to the wikidepia's explanation. However, the explanation says that an epithet can only be a metaphor, while that are not saying that a metaphor can also be an epithet. right?

In my opinion, in linguistics a metaphor may be a concept including several metaphoric concepts like an epithet, you know. Accordingly, an epithet may be under the category "metaphor". In short, something that can be a metaphor could'nt be an epithet, but something that can be an epithet should be a metaphor.

CalifJim
And yet --

I don't see how braying can be a nickname for instrument, and I don't believe that braying is linked by long-established usage to the word instrument.

My bet is that the test designers want the answer 'metaphor'. The instrument doesn't literally bray as a donkey does. It brays metaphorically. Its sound is as annoying as the braying of a donkey, for example. In a metaphor, speaker meaning differs from word meaning. That's what's happening here.

You compared braying with instrument, but I think braying should be compared with the trumpet. As a result, as we have seen the above, braying could be a nickname adjectively for the trumpet.

What do you think? As I heard all your opinions, I am falling into chaos more and more.

Iiluvpsycho · Answer

I agree with you, and please look at : http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/figures-metaphor.htm

That's why I agree with CJ: the adjective use of a metaphor.

However, I would like to express gratitude to all of you replying my question.

'Epithet' or 'metaphor'

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