Deck 3 Flashcards
(19 cards)
golden mean
the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency
hero
a being endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for bold exploits and favored by the gods; often a DEMIGOD
hyperbole
deliberate exaggeration or overstatement that is not meant to be taken literally
idiom
a common phrase which means something different from its literal meaning but can be understood because of its popular use (“barking up the wrong tree;” “under the weather;” “adding fuel to the fire”)
imagery
sensory details that provide vividness in a literary work and tend to arouse emotions
irony
a contrast between what is expected or appears to be and what really is
lyric
a poem more concerned with feelings or images than with a story
metaphor
imaginative comparison between two essentially unlike things without the use of like or as
meter
regular, repeating rhythm
mood
the prevailing feeling or atmosphere created in a story
motif
a particular element in a literary work that is found in many other stories
odyssey
a journey/quest in search of home and self
onomatopoeia
the use of words that imitate sounds
oracle
a person who transmits a prophecy from a deity
oral tradition
the means of transmitting the story and culture of a people through the spoken word
oxymoron
a paradox in which two successive words apparently contradict each other
paradox
a statement that seems contradictory but contains an element of truth
personification
the giving of human qualities to animals, objects of concepts
pleonasm
a redundant use of words (“In this day and age” instead of “now”)
