Epithets and Metaphors of War in Ancient Greek Poetry until the End of the Fifth Century

Abstract

In this paper I scrutinize epithets and metaphors used for war in ancient Greek poetry up to the end of the fifth century. War may be spoken of directly and literally (πόλεμος) or in a religious and metonymical sense (Ἄρης, á¼˜Î½Ï Î¬Î»Î¹Î¿Ï‚). I focus on all these ways of rendering it, while being aware of the fact that the latter prevail in poetry. My objective is to create a catalogue of expressions pertaining to the term ‘war’ in order to map the range and possibilities of language in this respect. Nonetheless this undertaking should not be taken as an attempt at comprehensive analysis of the discourse of war.