CLA/WLIT 196
Ancient Lyric Poetry


POETIC DEVICES: ZEUGMA

1. Song of Telepinu:

Mist seized the windows. Smoke seized the house. In the fireplace logs were stifled. At the altars the gods were stifled. In the sheep pen the sheep were stifled. In the cattle barn the cattle were stifled.

Here 'stifled' (another translation has 'smouldering'), properly appropriate for the fireplace logs, is extended to gods, sheep and cattle.


2. Old Akkadian Love Charm (Foster 66)

I have seized your mouth full of saliva,
I have seized your lustrous eyes,
I have seized your vagina full of wetness.

"Seizing" is literally done with the hands; it is appropriate to grabbing someone's mouth, but not a stretch with the following two actions.
This is also an example of anaphora.