Few modern people who are not connected with the world of art are familiar with such a literary term as permanent epithets, examples of such expressions are rarely found in people's colloquial speech.
However, such special epithets exist, and this gives us the opportunity to talk about them. Consider the issues of the emergence of these expressions, their existence and scientific study.
Defining a phenomenon
First, let's define this literary phenomenon. If we ask ourselves the question of what epithets are, the definition and examples of this term, we will find out that the epithet is one of the means of creating the imagery of a literary text. Therefore, it is called figurative comparison.
The constant epithet is stable and manifests itself in traditional figurativeness.
Therefore, this group finds its vivid embodiment primarily in the folklore texts of various peoples living on earth.
Scientific understanding of the problem
It has been proved that constant epithets are most characteristic of oral folk art. Their main difference from other types of epithets issustainable character.
This tradition is continued in literary creativity, which is closely connected with folklore material, such as, for example, the experience of folk literature. Initially, the culture did not have a wide variety of colors. The understanding of the world and man among the people was based on two colors - white and black. The constant epithets "white" and "black" used by prose writers reflected the symbolic component of the people's worldview. In the mythological representation of traditional peoples, white refers to the deities of the Upper World, and black refers to the deities of the Lower World. According to mythology, good creatures live in the Upper World, and evil ones live in the Lower World. Therefore, each of them needs a different color.
From here are born constant epithets, examples of which we will give below.
Thus, white means kind, divine, and therefore protective. In the literature, images with the epithet "black" are most often associated with dynamics - eventful or descriptive. A similar meaning of the epithet "black" is observed in the Russian classics. "Black faces" - the archetype of grief, grief. "Bright face" - an image of joy.
Constant epithet: examples, types, definition, use in literature
Epithets have different specific content. However, in relation to each other, they are in an antonymous relationship, like the adjectives "white" and "black".
Let's consider other meanings of the epithet "white", not related to the idea of a pagan pantheon. In E. Aipin’s story “At the Fading Hearth”, the image of the White Tsar is given: “I am aliveimagined the White Tsar. He has a white-golden, like the Sun before winter weather, a crown-cap on his head. White, probably from gray hair. White beard. A white fur coat as if from the skins of a white deer. White mittens made of white skins. White high fur boots are also made of white skins. The white king in all white. That's why he's White. And white is the color of life.”
How do the constant epithets, examples of which we just saw in the text, manifest themselves in this text?
In this case, the white color is the embodiment of life, natural energy, life-giving forces. It is in this sense that red is opposed to white in E. Aipin's story "God's Message", which deals with Lipetsk, who fought on the side of the whites. He does not admit his guilt and says: “No, people will remain. But not red ones, but just people with faith, people with God…”
Epithets with negative and positive semantic meanings
Permanent epithets, examples of which we see in this work, often include color characteristics as the most archetypal way of knowing the world.
Red color for works of folklore of the peoples of the north (for example, the Khanty) cannot bring life, the beginning of any positive movement, it is always the beginning of the end. In this context, the question that Iosif Sardakov asks in E. Aipin's story "The Russian Doctor" is understandable: "If a red man with a rifle, with a machine gun, with a cannon comes to my land, to my house, what should I do?"
As you can see, the epithet "red" has a negative connotation, and it is usedin relation to unkind, evil people.
On the contrary, in the works of Russian folklore "red" is a constant epithet with a positive semantic meaning.
Results of the study of epithets with a constant meaning
What conclusion can be drawn from studying such a phenomenon as a constant epithet, examples of which are easy to find in the works of oral folk art?
The conclusion is as follows: archetypal constant epithets (“black”, “red”, “white”, etc.) in folklore do not reflect social belonging at all, but actions and intentions towards others. So, constant epithets in literature, as well as in folklore, carry the qualitative features that endow the people with certain objects and objects, they become generally recognized archetypes.
This is how a permanent epithet is born, examples of which we have considered in this article.
