Read this excerpt from national epics, by kate milner rabb.

though the beauty of the original is of necessity lost in a condensation of this kind, an endeavor has been made to preserve the characteristic epithets, and to retain what mr. arnold called 'the simple truth about the matter of the poem.'

based on its use in this context, the word "epithet" most likely means which of these?

a. descriptive word or phrase
b. punctuation
c. rhyme scheme
d. word count