From Greek to English - some literary terms

Many of the words used by the ancient Greeks in the discussion of literature have descendants in contemporary English. In some cases the English word has precisely the same meaning as its Greek ancestor, in other cases there has been a (sometimes quite significant) change of meaning.

Some of these words have pages elsewhere in AWE – see, e.g., Eulogy - encomium - panegyric - paean, Palinode, Parody, Epigram, Epigraph, Epitome and Idyll. This page lists some more examples.

• Episode

The Greek word ἐπεισόδιον (epeisodion), the origin of the English episode, was used in the discussion of literature with the general meaning of an interlude, such as a subplot within the main plot or any passage which forms a unity in itself within the unity of the entire work. This was the way the word was used in the discussion of most forms of drama and of poetry generally, but the word had a different meaning in the context of tragedy, where it is applied to the passages of dialogue (in iambic pentameters) which come between two choric songs (see, e.g., Aristotle, Poetics 1452b20-21). Aristotle also (Poetics 1151b33-37) has the derived adjective ἐπεισοδιώδης (epeisodiōdes), which is used, as we use ‘episodic’, to criticise a literary work which lacks unity because made up of unrelated episodes.

The uses of the English word episode resemble to some extent, but are not identical with, those of ἐπεισόδιον (epeisodion). The most significant difference is that an episode may be an event or incident in the world, especially one which is seen as an element within a broader pattern of events or incidents: for example, epileptic seizures are sometimes referred to as episodes and, speaking of, e.g., a young child’s temper tantrums, one might say ‘We had another of his little episodes last night’. However, other uses of episode resemble the use of ἐπεισόδιον (epeisodion) in presupposing a literary or artistic context. Apart from its use as a technical term, when it is used in exactly the same way as ἐπεισόδιον (epeisodion), episode has come to mean simply a part or section of a literary or artistic creation, especially perhaps the different parts into which a serialised radio or television drama is divided (as in ‘Did you see last night’s episode of Coronation Street?’). Finally, episode is also used as a technical term in the discussion of music: in a fugue or rondo an episode is a passage which comes between and contrasts with two statements of the subject.

• Rhapsody

The Greek word ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōdia), of which the English rhapsody is almost a transliteration, was used of the recitation of epic poetry. (There is the related verb ῥαψῳδεῖν (rhapsodein), ‘to recite epic poetry’.) The noun ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōdia) was also used to refer to the epic poem itself or to a portion of it of a length suitable for recitation on a single occasion (e.g., a book of Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey).

The English rhapsody appears to preserve little or nothing of the meaning of its Greek ancestor. The word is used of a piece of music which has a loose structure and is highly emotional in character – Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies and Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Rhapsodies are well-known examples – and, analogously, of a literary work composed in an intense or elevated style. The word is also sometimes used of an expression of ecstatic enthusiasm.

A connection between the use of the Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōdia) and the use of the English rhapsody is supplied by the etymology of the first part of ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōdia), which comes from the verb ῥάπτειν (rhaptein), ‘to stitch or sew together’. The Iliad and the Odyssey, like other Greek epics, were part of an oral tradition – they did not exist in written form until the 8th century BCE – and the rhapsodist, i.e., the reciter of epic poetry, would select and ‘stitch together’ different passages to suit the circumstances of a particular recital. Thus calling a musical composition a rhapsody would seem to draw attention to its loose structure, emphasising that it is made up of different sections ‘stitched together.

-