ethopoeia

Noun

ethopoeia (countable and uncountable, plural ethopoeiae or ethopoeias)

1. (rhetoric, uncountable) A rhetorical technique in which the speaker or author presents an imaginary speech by a real person, portraying that person's known characteristics and propensities.
   • The situation envisioned is the contest for a prize described in Herodotus 8.123 and cast in the form of ethopoeia.2003, George Alexander Kennedy, Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric, →ISBN, page 165
   • In ancient narrative literature, ethopoeia is a frequently used literary tool.2014, Koen De Temmerman, Crafting Characters: Heroes and Heroines in the Ancient Greek Novel, →ISBN
2. (countable, rhetoric) An instance of this technique.
   • In their ethopoeias of the ideal lover, de la Torre, Ribera, and Luduefia emphasize, as we have seen, eloquence, good physical proportions, youth, elegance, discretion and honesty.1976, E. Michael Gerli, Alfonso Martínez de Toledo, →ISBN, page 115
   • The speeches in the De Gelesuintha all can be described as ethopoeiae, that is speeches intended to communicate the emotional condition of their speakers.2001, Ralph W. Mathisen, Danuta Shanzer, Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul, page 302