2. Homer’s Originality: Oral Dictated Texts* In his impressive book Heroic Poetry, Sir Cecil M. Bowra places Homer “in the middle of an important change produced by the introduction of writing. ” “Behind him [Homer] lie centuries of oral performance, largely improvised, with all its wealth of formulae adapted to an exacting metre; these he knows and uses fully. But if he… Read more
5. The Mênis of Achilles and Its Iliadic Teleology This book began with an assumption that terms for emotions such as anger have meanings and resonance that are specific to their culture, so that it could be informative to reconstruct the sense of an epic word such as mênis within its own poetic context. By now it is clear that this highly specialized social term denoting the… Read more
Appendix. The Etymology of Mênis After the in-depth contextual analysis of mênis provided above, it should be possible to resolve some of the lingering questions about its etymology. In this appendix, I propose to (1) point out the existence of a word ultimately related to mênis that is attested in the oldest surviving texts from ancient Iran, the Avestan Gāthās , and from ancient India, the hymns… Read more
Bibliography Alexiou, Margaret. 1974. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge. Ameis, Carl, and Carl Hentze. 1906, repr. 1965. Iias für den Schuldebrauch. II Bd. 4 Hft. Gesang XXII-XXIV. Leipzig. Auerbach, Erich. 1953. Mimesis. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton, NJ. Austin, Norman. 1966. The Function of Digressions in the Iliad. Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies… Read more
Foreword [In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] Gregory Nagy The Singer Resumes the Tale, by Albert… Read more
Preface* This is Albert B. Lord’s book. It is not quite the same book that would have resulted had he lived to crown it with his finishing touches, but it comes as close to that book as I could help to make it. He had completed almost all the chapters, to which I have added two, “Beowulf and Oral Epic Tradition” and “Rebuttal,”… Read more
1. The Nature and Kinds of Oral Literature [In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] Epics, ballads, prose… Read more
2. Oral Traditional Lyric Poetry In this chapter we seek to understand the composition and transmission of some oral traditional nonnarrative songs, which would be classed as lyrics. They are generally short and could be easily memorized. I should like to stress that what I am using is primary material from “pure” tradition, from living tradition, untouched, or comparatively untouched, by “outside” influences. Such material is not… Read more
3. Homer and the Muses: Oral Traditional Poetics, a Mythic Episode, and Arming Scenes in the Iliad Some critics have questioned whether the work of Milman Parry leaves room for an appreciation of the aesthetics of the Homeric epics. There must, of course, always be a place in any approach to Homer for such an appreciation. But an analysis of Homer’s style and aesthetics must also be… Read more
4. Beowulf and Oral Epic Tradition* The Germanic peoples told stories in song from very ancient times. When some of these became known in the Middle Ages the tradition was already very old and in a state of transition from a purely oral to a fully written poetry. One can speak of at least three influences on the oral traditional matrix. One was… Read more
