Literary notes about Homage (AI summary)
In literature, the term homage is employed in diverse ways to denote acts of deep respect, reverence, or tribute—whether personal, political, or artistic. Authors use it both literally, as in scenes of physical deference and ceremonial rites (e.g., when nobles kneel or offer gifts to their lords [1], [2], [3]), and metaphorically, to capture emotional responses or even ironic acknowledgments of power (as seen when anger becomes a form of homage [4] or when an artist’s admiration is quietly manifested [5]). Homage may also imply a ritualistic recognition of superiority, where both fame and authority must be acknowledged (for instance, in historical and epic narratives where subjects are bound to pay their dues [6], [7]). Thus, across genres and eras, homage serves as a multifaceted device symbolizing both heartfelt tribute and societal obligation.
- He paid homage, an annual quit-rent, was bound to attend him personally to court, and to furnish thirty-five horse in case of an invasion.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 by James Tod - Visitors who came to do him homage saw him sometimes kneeling all day long at
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The King of Ireland also he took prisoner, and forced all earls and barons to pay him homage.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles and Sir Thomas Malory - And yet he felt that, however he might revile and mock her image, his anger was also a form of homage.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - If my heart and my actions continually give her the homage she deserves, what harm can I do her?”
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - All the kings of the earth, then, like Vaisyas, will, without delay, pay homage unto us.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
