Epiplocele

[Gr. epiplokēle.] ( Med.) A hernia or rupture caused by a protrusion of the omentum. Iliad, and the description of the war in heaven is considered an E. in Paradise Lost . Episodes should grow naturally out of the subject, and should either point out important consequences or develop hidden causes. The E. describing the destruction of Troy, in Virgil's Æneid , is one of this kind. In the best poets, episodes are generally finished in the most careful and elaborate manner. The Faerie Queene of Spenser, and the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, contain so many long episodes, that the poems present all the appearance of an inartistic compilation of unconnected legends.