epithets

Program Note

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase that characterizes the person or thing it describes. They are particularly common in epic poetry, where we find some lovely, familiar images (“rose-fingered dawn,” “wine-dark sea”) alongside some odd ones (“of the shapely shinguards”). Those examples are from Homer’s Odyssey, in which the epithets are so thickly strewn that their function becomes muddled. Do they carry an eternal truth about what they describe, or are they simply there to fill out the syllables of a line of poetry, or as a memory aid, or to help a listener keep track of the characters? By lifting them from the storyline, perhaps we can ponder whether or not mere words can convey the authentic nature of a person or a thing — and how music might aid in or complicate this endeavor.

Movements I, III, V, VII, IX, and XI present every appearance of Dawn in the Odyssey in chronological order, tracing a story-within-the-story of survival, trauma, the circularity of time, and the endurance of love.

Movements II, VI, and X are taken from an ancient Orphic hymn and feature the much-epitheted goddess Athena, whose extraordinary nature contains extremes of capriciousness, wisdom, and savage delight.

Movement IV consists of most of the epithets in the Odyssey, characterized by what kind of object they are attached to.

Movement VIII is made from the particular epithets of Odysseus, whose epithet-like name (“the hated one”) is given to him by his cranky grandfather, subjected to much contradictory description, and spoken with loving reverence by his loyal swineherd.