An etopeia is a literary figure.
An etopeia is a literary figure that is responsible for describing the personality, behavior or habits of an individual. The term comes from the Latin ethopoeia and has more remote antecedents in the Greek language.
Ethopoeia, therefore, refers to the moral and psychological characteristics of the subject, with its virtuous properties but also its vices. The way of being, feelings and attitude can also be part of this description .
For example: “Doña Cleo is an affable woman and predisposed to dialogue. Although he had a complicated childhood and youth, he never let suffering be reflected in his actions and words. That's why she always goes to her neighbors with a smile, ready to lend a hand in whatever way she can."
Characteristics of etopeia
For many specialists in the field, this aforementioned literary resource that concerns us now is considered as one more step within what is the simple description of a character or several. And it allows the possibility of imagining and developing the attitudes, words and behaviors that those may have at a given moment or situation.
Starting from this premise, it is interesting to highlight that etopeia can be established as an imitation of the character of the individual in question . Hence, the way it is expressed often requires the use in the work of both the monologue itself and also the dialogue.
And in this way what is achieved is that the character speaks for himself , directly, and without any type of intermediary. Of course, to achieve all this it is important to take into account elements such as the circumstances that surround the character at each moment, the emotions that he or she may have in an instant precisely because of those and, of course, the fundamental traits of his or her own character. and personality .
Ethopoeia consists of the description of the habits, behavior or personality of an individual.
Other types of descriptions
We said that etopeia focuses on the psycho-moral properties of the person. There are, however, other types of description that are used in literature , such as prosopography (focused on physical features), portrait (oriented to physical and moral properties) and caricature (a portrait that oversizes the most peculiar characteristics). ).
The portrait, therefore, includes elements of etopeia and prosopography, constituting the most complete description. If in the example at the beginning about Doña Cleo we added comments such as “the wrinkles on her face betrayed more than half a century of life” or “her prominent figure did not prevent her from moving quickly through the streets of the neighborhood,” the etopeia would become a portrait, since it adds comments on physical appearance (wrinkles, prominent figure).
The etopeia in literature
There are many literary works that throughout the history of this art have resorted to the use of etopeia to reflect as best as possible what a character would capture at each moment.
Among the most significant are “Progymnasmata” by Edward Pate . Nor can we ignore others that refer to when Niobe , granddaughter of Zeus , showed her pain at the death of her children.