The Efficacy of Epithets: Anthropophoric Onomastic Attributes in Pausanias’s Description of Greece
Names are of fundamental importance in communication. We use them to attract the attention of people we wish to interact with, to establish relationships, and to show the relationship we have with a particular person. People living in the polytheistic society of ancient Greece undoubtedly felt the n...
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| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Français |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Riassunto: | Names are of fundamental importance in communication. We use them to attract the attention of people we wish to interact with, to establish relationships, and to show the relationship we have with a particular person. People living in the polytheistic society of ancient Greece undoubtedly felt the need to use names in the same way, not only in interactions with their fellow humans, but also in trying to establish effective (or “efficacious”) communication with one of their innumerable deities. The present study explores a particular strategy for initiating and conducting effective dialogue with the divine through a certain group of epithets. I discuss the entanglement created when men are named after gods, and gods after men, with special attention to the anthropophoric onomastic attributes present in the narrative of the traveller Pausanias. |
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