Hector, Breaker of Horses

In THE ILIAD the epithet, breaker of horses, is applied to the Trojan hero. Homer uses many such epithets, and scholars vary in assessing their significance: Are they simply a way for the poet to pad the line to six dactylic feet? An important key to the subject's character? A little breathing space so that improvising bards who are said to have contributed / completed The Iliad had time to think? A way of fitting large slabs of verse together or helping the reciter to keep his place? No one, of course, knows, but for me as a reader they are reminders of the character and attributes of Hector, Achilles, Athena and the others.