Concept in Definition ABC

This term comes from the Greek word epitome, which literally means clipping. This word is used to refer to the summary of a large work. Therefore, it is a work that summarizes or briefly outlines a much broader one. Synonymous terms abound in Spanish, such as synopsis, compendium, extract, synthesis or summary. Whoever writes these types of creations is an epitomator.

The fundamental idea of ​​the concept consists in describing the most important and significant of an especially wide creation, be it a literary work, a test, a speech or a body of knowledge. Many works from the classical world are known thanks to their corresponding compendia.

An illustrative example of this type of synopsis is the "Epitome of the philippic stories of Pompey Trogo" by Marco Juniano Justino. The original work written by Pompey Trogo has not been preserved, but its content is known thanks to the corresponding summary.

The same has happened with other great works that, having disappeared, have been known by the synopses that have been made about them, such as "On the

building of spheres "of Archimedes, the poem" Margites "of Homer or the lost books of the Bible. In this regard, it is worth remembering that library of Alexandria that was destroyed after the sacking of the city in the III century AD. C did not disappear completely, since his manuscripts had been copied and summarized and eventually ended up in other cultural centers.

A figure of speech that works as a recap

A Figure of speech or linguistics is a resource used in the language literary to beautify a text and convey greater expressiveness. One of these figures is the epitome and consists of repeating words that have already been used previously.

The purpose of this resource is to achieve greater clarity in the message. It is a literary figure integrated into the figures of repetition, such as anaphora, concatenation, pun or alliteration.

Its use in a figurative sense

In the sentences "Eva, the epitome of elegance" or "the new team striker is the epitome of footballer of the XXl century "this word indicates that someone personifies in a concrete way an idea or a concept. It is about identifying a person with something in order to enhance their qualities.

It could be said that the individual referred to becomes the synthesis of an ideal.

Themes in Epitome