It is not at all clear why catspaw feels compelled to drive these things endlessly into the ground, long after all the humour in them has been pulped and kneaded and burned out of them. My current theory is that he is imitating Homer, who was fond of the epithet as a structuring device to fill out the metric structure. For example, upon every appearance of the goddess Athena, she is referred to as "Athene bouwapis" (ox-eyed Athena). This gives the poem a kind of repetitive coherence. This may be his way of making his life somewhat epical in the Homeric sense.

yours, Peter T.