The Reality-Based Community: Epithets: Every Homeric hero comes with an epithet: a phrase tacked on to the name identifying or describing the character. (Most come with more than one, to accommodate different placements in the rhythm of a line of verse.) Sometimes it's just a patronymic, as in "Penelope, daughter of Icarius." But often the epithet gives a key fact about the person it refers to. So we have "Zeus, who gathers the clouds," and "wide-ruling Agamemnon" and "Menelaus of the loud war-cry" and "Achilles fleet of foot" and "wily Odysseus."
So let me introduce you to "Ron Fournier, who negotiated for a job on the McCain campaign before taking over as chief of the AP Washington bureau." He's also referred to as "Fournier the sycophant of Rove." Here, as often in Homer, the epithets are essential to the understanding of the character's actions.
Update A reader points me to this list of the board of AP...
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