a. [f. Gr. ἐπώυυμ-ος (see prec.) + -OUS.]
1. That gives (his) name to anything; said esp. of the mythical personages from whose names the names of places or peoples are reputed to be derived.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. iv. I. 111. The eponymous personage from whom the community derive their name.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., ix. 359. Eponymous heroes.
1889. Swinburne, B. Jonson, 27. The eponymous hero or protagonist of the play.
2. Giving his name to the year, as did the chief archon at Athens.
1857. Birch, Anc. Pottery (1858), I. 195. Inscribed with the name of the eponymous magistrate.
