Foley Homer Through Oral Trad

"Reading" Homer through Oral Tradition Author(s): John Miles Foley Source: College Literature, Vol. 34, No.
2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century (Spring, 2007), pp. 1-28 Published by: College Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115419 . Accessed: 09/07/2013 15:56
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Homer Oral "Reading" through Tradition

John Miles Foley
For have
beyond a share and
all mortal
men
the
singers
WH. John Miles Foley is Endowed Chair in the
Byler
of honor has the taught
reverence,
since
the Muse Humanities and Curators'
them for she loves the singers'
pathways,
Professor of Classical Studies and English at theUniversity of

Missouri-Columbia, where he
tribe. (Odyssey 8.479-81) Reading Homer today, nearly three mil lennia after the fact, presents us with some fresh and exciting opportunities some persistent challenges. Not alongside is the least among the newer developments our recent behind that discovery relatively a lurks longstanding, surviving manuscripts textless oral tradition. the Iliad or Odyssey written form?never modern existed editions In other words, assumed mind and before any kind of our convenient
also directs theCenter for Studies inOral Tradition.

Among Homer's his major Traditional books Art are and
How
toRead an Oral Poem.
translations?there
an ancient Greek
dition, an unwritten surround the Trojan War

Words were, as Homer
tra oral storytelling vehicle for the tales that and its aftermath.
often charac himself
terizes
them, "winged"
rather than inscribed,
Literature 34.2 2007] [Spring College

songs (aoidat) from their repertoires (aoidot) performed In the beginning, before audiences of listeners. then, the epics we cherish as books took shape not as silent texts but rather as audible story-performances. of oral tradition was chiefly the accom If the modern (re-) discovery of the previous century, then its consequences provide a formida plishment bards ble century. In short, we have come to agenda for the twenty-first in oral tradition for a substantial that Homer's epics circulated recognize period before they were recorded, and so now we have before us the excit critical to our pres prospect of applying that new understanding ing and demanding an Iliad stemmed That the and from oral tradition Odyssey ent-day reading. our is beyond doubt, but how does that complex affect grasp of the reality because of their unwritten epics differently poems? Do we read Homer's heritage?
variations
and non-literate
If so, how? As
on an ancient
it turns out,
theme.
these contemporary
concerns
represent
The HomericQuestion:Yesterdayand Today The Homeric prominent a few centuries been Question?the puzzle of "Who was Homer?"?has in one form or another from the ancient world onward.1 Within of the time
that many have supposed he lived and practiced or his trade, the seventh eighth century BCE, four or five different city-states over the as a native son.Wide were already claiming Homer disagreement even his and the of and his father era, mother, poems that he specific identity two to survive to the the Iliad and addition (in Odyssey, only composed over sub waters. heroic muddied efforts further the Notwithstanding whole) a to construct much remains lost believable biography, today sequent periods in the past,
Homer."2
the result of fragmentary and
evidence
and contradictory
"lives of
The Question Analysts redactors; accounted
centuries early twentieth sought to answer the a of so-called theory binary authorship. The by formulating were that for composite, layered epics together by pieced argued nineteenth
to multiple the Iliad and Odyssey individuals, they by ascribing inconsistencies seemed to defy expla that otherwise for perceived nation. At the opposite end of the spectrum lay the Unitarians, who believed
for creating both massive poems. in a single master-poet solely responsible this period, then, scholars and students had first to select between During or many Homers?and then to interpret two irreconcilable theories?one the epics from that chosen perspective. two decades into the twentieth About century another solution arose neither a sin reframed the Homeric that effectively Question, highlighting a continuous, on instead contributors but focusing gle person nor multiple the Iliad and Instead of construing oral tradition behind the poems. ongoing
Miles Foley 3 John authored works or pieced-together editions, as products of a generations-long process of in performance. Think of the Homeric oral tradition as a living composition one to from another and refashioned down inheritance, by epoch passed each performer, and you have the general idea of what he was advocating. in three basic steps?textual analysis, Parry's explanation proceeded as either conventionally them Parry portrayed
Odyssey Milman
and fieldwork.3 Texts came first, as he demon anthropology, comparative strated the traditional nature of the epics by showing how the famous noun Achilles," "grey-eyed Athena," "swift-footed epithet names ("wily Odysseus," hexa and the rest) were part of an elaborate, flexible system for constructing meter illustrated, used a spe poets, he claimed and painstakingly Homeric that provided cialized verses, a language language for making to all solutions challenges. Parry reasoned ready-made possible compositional to a symptom of that such formulaic phrases or "atoms" of diction amounted lines.4 The
poetry made and re-made over centuries within a coherent tradition.
to comparative accounts of living and as a result of his exposure Next, a Slavicist who oral poetries, especially through the agency of Matija Murko, that the leap to recognizing attended his thesis defense,5 Parry soon made must also originally have been oral. In this kind of traditional composition in 1930 and 1932, he made the case for published in performance, Homeric of a long diction as the product of composition tradition of oral bards who must have sung (not written) ancient Greek epics. our surviving manuscripts to this hypothesis, stand at the end of According in some way serving as fixed epitomes ofthat centuries of oral performances, two famous articles process. Parry's third step consisted oral tradition about Homeric chiefly in what we Yugoslavia, ongoing company of Albert Lord of on-site in the fieldwork: testing his hypothesis the Former
living laboratory In 1933-35, and in the today call Bosnia.6 and their native translator and colleague, Nikola
of
to six geographical he journeyed Vujnovic, regions in order to experience and record hundreds of oral epic performances by preliterate bards, or guslari. as The result of that expedition was first and foremost what Lord described recorded and dictated perform of epic": scores of acoustically at in Milman the Collection of Oral Literature Parry deposited as Harvard University7 after in death 1935 Just Parry's untimely crucially, to complete Lord used their collected material the analytical experiment ances It soon became apparent that they had traveled to the Balkans to conduct.8 the very same kinds of structures and patterns that Parry had found in the texts of Homer Slavic out, oral epic employed were in the South also highly prominent and functional of epske pjesme, it turned songs. The preliterate performers a similarly formulas, specialized language (noun-epithet a "half-ton
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature their scenes, and so forth); in other words, these guslari composed an The of oral ancient Greek tradition epic poetry Homerically. hypothesis appeared to be proven by analogy. stereotyped enor In subsequent years the so-called "Oral Theory" has expanded of Homer and the South Slavic epics to mously from the initial comparison include more than 150 different oral traditions from six of the seven conti nents and from ancient examined have been the areas that times through the modern day.9 Among are dozens of African, Arabic, and this perspective as well as Native African American, American, traditions, from
central Asian Chinese,
In the and many Germanic tongues. Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, we more more to have learned and about unwritten past thirty fifty years dwarf all of written forms of verbal art that collectively Hterature in both size for our present purposes, the Homeric and variety. Most importantly textless belong to that international and ages-old inventory of originally much discussion since Lord has ensued and made Naturally, Parry various epics story. their
initial claims, and many have called for rethinking of their hypotheses along lines. One early and crucial intervention was the dissolution of the two that oral tradition and literacy were so-called Great Divide, the notion
exclusive categories that never mixed in the same person or even
mutually
fieldwork from various parts of the world has the same culture. Subsequent shown us that this simply isn't the case, and we have begun to learn about the worlds of orality and literacy combine and the fascinating ways in which same not the very individual.10 societies but also within interact only within between oral per attention was the relationship needing and the versions of the Iliad and Odyssey that have survived in tex the poems tual form. Since we can never recover the exact situation in which to were in wiser it has allow for recorded, proven possibilities multiple Another matter formance recording and transmission, as well as for editorial and other kinds of textu their possible fix between al evolution over the one and one-half millennia ation which in the sixth century BCE and the first whole stems from the tenth century CE.11 Uiad that has reached us,
ofthat lost history, however, the epics aswe have them remain Regardless at least oral-derived and traditional, and as we shall see they cannot be fully into account. It's simply amatter of taking this heritage appreciated without what we on its own any form of verbal art: to read or interpret the work has In the twenty-first century Homeric scholarship to assess the deep implications the Iliad of oral traditional origins for aim to do with terms. fascinating results, and that process will
as it may seem in
begun and Odyssey, with

Homer in our
continue. Reading
ways?offers
time?as
problematic
so many
us this new
and exciting
challenge.
Miles Foley 5 John Authoror Legend? Homer: Before exploring what impact the ancient Greek oral epic tradition has on how we read the Iliad and Odyssey in the twenty-first century, let's spend a moment us what tells that about the figure we call considering heritage Homer. As noted above, uncertainty and contradiction about his identity theories about his era, repertoire, and modern began in the ancient world, and even the meaning of his name abound.12 But if comparative studies in oral epic tradition reveal anything, itmust be that individual authorship?in in post-medieval the sense that we have come to apply that notion literary to be pursuing. traditions?is the wrong concept An example drawn from South Slavic epic tradition will illustrate the century the scholar-fieldworker categorical disparity. Early in the twentieth in situ investigations Alois Schmaus was conducting of the epske pjesme in same as a couple of region of Bosnia Parry and Lord worked roughly the decades later. He singer who their best Schmaus times by many guslari about an epic in them all outstripped ability, and who was the source of all of to rank as such). So poems songs (whatever they happened any responsible fieldworker to locate this paragon, named so that he could do: he spared no effort Cor Huso Husovic (literally, interview and record him. But try would was told numerous
did what
in attempting Cor means "one-eyed"),
as he might, the fieldworker could neither locate the actual person nor assemble any internally consistent biography. One can hear the frustration in Schmaus's own account of trying to establish an authoritative version of the effort, it was impossible great singer's repertoire: "Even with all conceivable for me to learn anything more detailed about the actual songs that Cor Huso typically sang. Everything remembered on that score was generalities" (1938, 134; my translation). Later on, a guslar named similarly grand but decidedly were
for Parry, Lord, and Vujnovic. able to gather about this most like the following: something Born in the Kolasin
Huso tury, Cor Husovic was later
Salih Ugljanin would in describe Cor Huso indistinct and sometimes terms contradictory Ifwe combine what the two fieldwork teams celebrated of epic bards, we arrive at
region sometime
in the first half of the nineteenth

the most famous guslar
cen
in all
to become
ofMontenegro
and the reputation of and edly their severity as an best he
and Serbia. Notwithstanding

of his itinerant handicap, he was who guslar In addition 19 years never-realized
the obscurity of his early years

enormous the source
an to eventually enjoy was all others and surpassed
songs. spent in the
Serbia, traveled
to his wanderings in various parts hope
throughout Montenegro of Bosnia, he report where vision would be restored.
that his
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature

The fully have sources armed been Cor Huso on horseback, everywhere His would appearance guide. sleeves a fez, embroidered and a great in the turban,
agree and arresting:
that
accompanied he wore trousers,
by a red silk black
journeyed a young
coat with boots,
Croatian
style,
green
leather
a long knife hanging from his belt along with two sterling silver pistols.Very tall and stocky, atminimum 120 kg. (more than 260 lb.), with "brimming handfuls" of mustaches, Cor Huso was literally larger than not to mention
life, a challenging this vivid burden for even the strongest mount, more used only too we are heroic told. than Curiously, representation?strictly own lacked his and prospective speaking, gush', he
bardic?conspicuously was instrument
available,
audiences
simply were
whatever ready to
provide whatever was needed

Several aspects of this account
to induce him to perform.

are unusual or
(Foley 1998,162)
in a real
unprecedented
local rather than itinerant per First, guslari were conventionally a to male relative or neighbor and formers, compose epic from learning remaining most of their lives in their natal villages. Even if they did travel, across diverse ethnic regions. not easily be recognized their talents would life context. there was no reason for singers of tales to dress heroically, Furthermore, worn armed to the teeth with the very weapons by the larger-than-life no and certainly evidence that they ever heroes in the songs they performed, or butchers with did. In fact, most guslari were poor farmers or woodcutters minimal one adds anecdotes about Cor Huso performing possessions.When 100 gold napoleons and Franz Jozef and being rewarded with for Emperor 100 sheep, as well as singing for five or six hours straight (a physical impossi
we bility given the strain that epic performance places on the vocal cords13), can start to understand that this "best of all guslari" was more legend than fact. heard a great deal about this master-singer, and Lord, Parry, Vujnovic and in some regions called Isak or Hasan Coso rather who was sometimes than Cor Homer was Huso. on the individual singers Depending or more 120 years old, could jump 12 paces to mix that males and females were permitted the certain victor in whatever he boasted story, this Balkan at the age of 101, at aMoslem wed
sang so well ding, and was entered. But
contest of epic singing he a times larger of songs many repertoire although and although he was credited as the than any ever observed during fieldwork, source of all the finest ones, none of the guslari who sang his praises ever on the informant, the explanation given actually met him. Again depending that he lived in another village, or was always traveling, or plied his trade or two earlier ("he was not even my father's father," said Stolac a generation ever encoun singer Ibro Basic14). Indeed, none of the Parry-Lord guslari had
tered him face-to-face.
was
Ifwe a composite
aggregate portrait
all of his often
"tall-tale" bio-data, we gain unverifiable, or Guslar not as a historical person of the master-singer
Miles Foley 7 John to fit it is a portrait that, like all legends, morphs but as a legend. Moreover, to real-life singers used the Guslar establish their own the local circumstances: as well as to stamp certain of their songs as bardic lineage and prominence, even name?the fact that they describe?and Guslar in mutu a a is function of the role such inconsistent ways figure plays for ally simply them. In other words, this paragon and forefather amounts most essentially to an anthropomorphization of the poetic tradition itself, a story-based way to talk about the inheritance of oral epic. Call him C or Huso, Isak, or Hasan the best. The Coso?he stands for the body of story that each of his real-life descendants is performing.15 By tracing their practice to the foundational legend of the are in the themselves with effect best Guslar, they providing possible curricu as lum vitae to establish their own credentials epic singers.16 sources that If we look at the multiple among the ancient disparities emerges as a represent his proposed biography, Homer parochially one For varies his kind of legendary parentage thing, figure.17 is cited as one possible father, with Apollo Telemachos and Orpheus tioned as earlier ancestors, while the roll of mothers includes Nestor's ter Epikaste. While Smyrna appears to be one of the most popular for Homer's cognate wildly: men daugh choices
los, Argos, and Athens. birthplace, we also hear of Chios, Cyme, as relative dating, In regard to actual chronology, which is always construed or as a contemporary various Lives of Homer of place him before Hesiod as for example. While is consistently the name "Homer" Midas, interpreted noun horneros), the first of these attribu "blind" or "captive" (the common to do with a parallel to Phemios, tions probably has more the blind bard of the Odyssey, than with the sightlessness of any real-life figure.18 And as for add to the canonical Iliad and Odyssey repertoire, the sources inconsistently of the following lost or fragmentary poems from the Epic Cycle the Thebais, the Epigoni, the Cypria, the Little Iliad, the Aethiopis, to set aside In summary, ifwe are willing the Nostoi, and the Homeric Hymns. our default notions about individual authorship that are after all inapposite in oral tradition, Homer looks much more like a legend?a way to anthro or elsewhere: a historical the ancient Greek epic tradition?than pomorphize figure. If scholars have been unable to establish a standard biography and trace the Iliad and Odyssey he to a flesh-and-blood never existed simply ongoing whole.19 this conception With cations of oral tradition will individual, it is,we can conclude, because as such. "Homer" names the epic tradition as an one or more
poems. We
poetry.
in mind, of Homer let us now turn to the impli for the structure and artistic achievement of "his" start with a short overview of the unique linguistics of oral
8 College Literature 34.2[Spring 2007]

Words Versus "Words" As primarily people of the book and page (at least for the present cul tural moment in theWestern world), we approach the act of reading with a number of built-in and usually unexamined the assumptions.20 Arguably most matter fundamental of these hidden is the of what constitutes agendas
a word.This very far in may seem only too any obvious text?such a concern: as the one after all, we couldn't now? get understanding you're reading
without
to the signal of white space between subscribing letter-sequences as a dependable indicator of word-boundaries. Should any doubt arise, we can always consult a dictionary or lexicon, an Bible of words, agreed-upon to back up our visual discriminations. But what if this visual, lexical defi nition just didn't get to the bottom of what we were trying to read and understand? What if in certain cases the indivisible atom of communication didn't consist of printed letters circumscribed as an entry in a dictionary? Our gold-standard by white
space or enshrined currency for what we mean than we prove less negotiable by reading?the typographical word?might assume. at a uses Homer hints such when he the customarily just possibility terms epos and muthos, both conven singular forms of the ancient Greek speech or a story.21 Or the poet of Beowulf, an oral terminology employed by traditional medieval from oral derived, poem early England.22 Mongolian same a and thought-increment "mouth epic singers call the speechtionally consider translated the similar
word."23
as "word,"
to describe
a whole
the same phenomenon?only this time in a living oral to South Not the Slavic tradition?by listening guslari. only do these poets conceive of a "word" (ret) as a larger unit of utterance within their epic per as a or sound-byte also its unit describe formances;24 they identity composite conversations with Parry and Lord's native assistant Nikola during informal is an excerpt from the interview with Mujo Kukuruzovic, Vujnovic25 Here We recorded definition in 1935 of a ret. ret in a song, what
Well, say, or here, this?"Ograscic it's
can observe
in the region
of Stolac, which is it?
focuses
on the non-textual
NikolaVujnoviciThis
Mujo Kukuruzovic: as they
this?"miserable Alija" [a hero's
captive" proper
(suzanj name], or,
nevoljnice),
as they say, "He was

zindanu).
lamenting
in the ice-cold prison"
(Pocmilijo u lednu
NV:
MK:This
Is this a ret?
is a ret. . ..
NV: Let's consider this: "Mustajbey of the Lika was drinking wine" Is this a single ret? pije lickiMustajbeze).
(Vino
Miles John Foley 9

MK:Yes. NV: MK: But how? be It can't one be one: "Mustajbey-of-the-Lika-was-drinking-wine." But here, let's say we're at my house and I
It can't
in writing. a
pick up the gusle [the accompanying

was drinking wine." That's single
instrument]?"Mustajbey
reton the gusle for me.
of the Lika
NV: And MK: And

u pjanoj
the second reP. the second rel?"At Ribnik

mehani)?there.
in a drinking
tavern" (Na Ribniku
NVAnd MK:
beamed jarana).
the third reel it is?"Around

another" (Oko
Eh, here
at one
him
njega
thirty chieftains,
trides' agalara,
/ All
/ Sve je
the comrades
sijo jaran do
NV: Aha, good! a larger, composite unit consisting of not a single but rather multiple written words. In the conversation above we learn that in South Slavic oral epic tradition a "word" can be a phrase, a poet ic line, or even multiple lines. In other such exchanges it becomes poetic a speech, a scene, a narrative apparent that the term ret can also designate and even an entire story-performance. this taxonomy increment, Although may at first seem strange, once we consider things from the bards' point of a log view itmakes perfect sense: a re? is a unit of utterance, a thought-byte, a our constitutive unit. than ical smaller "word"?one of typo Anything doesn't register as a cognitive chunk. As we graphical words, for example?just how we shall see below, this structural reality has crucially important implications for awork composed are to understand to words. in "words" as opposed
Homer's "Words"
For Kukuruzovic, our typographically
and for other guslari defined item; itwas
as well,
a "word" had no
relation
to
does the guslar's lesson in the linguistics of oral epic significance can the South have for performance reading the Iliad and Odyssey? What use of epos and Slavic singer's ret tell us about Homer's characteristic muthos?26 The short answer is clear: scholarship has shown that Homer (and a similar array of large "words," or to his tradition) employed thought-bytes, the ancient Greek epics. In what follows below we will consider compose the structure and then the idiomatic meaning of these units of expression three levels: the phrase, the scene, and the story-pattern. first the smallest level of Homer's Consider traditional "word"-vocabu Une.27We have lary: the single hexameter thet names, like "swift-footed Achilles," occurrence. We may even have wondered at
What
long been struck by the noun-epi if only because of their frequent are why they repeated so often;
10
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature to avoid indeed, some translators have seen fit to vary the English rendering as droning we what they hear merely add to their sheer repetition. But when the fact that these and many other phrases constitute frequency significant metrical hexameter Une, their identity and utility as portions of the Homeric a come blocks within into focus. Such ready-made "words" system building to combine with other "words" lines of seamlessly ready-made yield whole verse that collectively serve a wide variety of purposes. For example,
one of Odysseus's standard names?"long-suffering divine numerous to with different Odysseus"?combines portray many predicates different actions throughout the Iliad and Odyssey. Here are four actual com binations:
Multiple actions Single noun-epithet name
But pondered But went
(1 occurrence)
+long-suffering
divine Odysseus divine Odysseus divine Odysseus divineOdysseus

as it were, with numerous dif
through the house (1 occurrence) spoke (8 occurrences) sat there (1 occurrence)

substitution can work
+long-suffering +long-suffering +long-suffering

both ways,
Again Then
Moreover,
a single action. Here ferent figures metrically are eligible to be paired with six examples of how this process works with a cast of characters and a unique predicate:
Single action Multiple noun-epithet names
And
then spoke to him/her then spoke to him/her then spoke to him/her then spoke to him/her then spoke to him/her
then spoke to him/her
+long-suffering +swift-footed +ox-eyed +Gerenian +goddess

+Diomedes
divine Odysseus
(3)
And And And And
And
Achilles
(2) (4) (8) (7)
mistress Hera
horseman Nestor grey-eyed Athena

of the great
war-cry
(1)
Ifwe "do the math" tems, we can begin ditional method At the level of the line, Homer of composition. work of "words," which scholars have caUed formulas, to support and re-making of the Iliad and Odyssey.2** But his the possibilities sys generated by such substitution to understand the power and productivity of this oral tra uses a net the making on
includes other kinds of "words" as well, specialized language scenes and story-patterns. The Feast provides a familiar namely stereotyped of so-called the that recurs with example typical scene, a unit of expression
Miles Foley il John to its also allows room for variation but which according consistency stories.29 In that in the overall story and in different individual placement scene can serve as amalleable traditional pat way the flexible yet stereotyped to tern to portray awide variety of feasts, all of them unique their role in the same "word." The key instances of the all still but generic plot(s) developing some features of the Feast include a host several core actions associated with and guest(s), the seating of the guest(s), feasting, the satisfaction of the guest(s), of a pre-existing mediation problem. The most of the core actions six times
and some kind of consequent form stable and recognizable increment, which A maidservant
is the following five-line in the Odyssey:^0 brought water for them and poured it from a splendid appears verbatim it above a silver basin table before them.
and golden pitcher, holding
for them to wash, and she pulled a polished A grave housekeeper

adding many good
brought
things to
in the bread and served it to them,

it, generous with her provisions.
Most
the exception of the other key elements are more flexible, with a standard form: takes almost always "satisfaction" feature, which
of the
[The guests] put their hands to the good things that lay ready before them,
But when they had cast off their desire for eating and drinking, . . .
This
constitutes the overall paradigm?or of actions sequence to in the fit the individual Homer feast, primarily shapes the suitors' in Book it Telemachos abuse whether be 1, suffering Odyssey, in Book the captive Odysseus Circe entertaining 10, or even Polyphemos in Book 9. As we shall see below, it also cannibalism practicing perversely five-part "word"?that in Book 23. and Odysseus plays a part in the reuniting of Penelope scene one exclusively in in this of the Another Homer, typical example a woman or a to in which somehow related close the Iliad, is the Lament, fallen hero mourns his demise.31 A series of three actions constitutes this "word": an address to the slain hero of indicating "you have fallen"; a narrative and the future consequences for the mourn the hero that includes a final
of their shared personal history er and others; and a readdress the Feast, the Lament Unlike enough Its four principal perspectives. Patroklos as intoned by Briseis remains flexible
intimacy. is not tied to particular lines, but pattern a broad variety of mourners to accommodate and occurrences are
the mourning-songs for as and for Hektor sung (Book 19.287-300), his mother Hekabe and (24.725-45), (24.748-59), by his wife Andromache his sister-in-law Helen (and central figure in the Trojan War (24.762 saga) 75). It is also the vehicle for Andromache's highly traditional and yet highly unusual "lament" for the living Hektor in Iliad 6, as we shall see later on.
12
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature the four principal in the instances, Andromache's mourning-song of the Iliad is the longest and most complex, too it fol although lows the three-part sequence. After acknowledging Hektor's fall, the signal that cues the onset of the typical scene, she continues with the long and sad and the rest of the litany of what will become of her, their little son Astyanax, Of that their guardian is gone. Among itsmost poignant features is of the as she second in the pattern, element rendering a Greek slave or be cast the young boy's fate: he will either become to his death contrast
son?the
final book
Trojans now Andromache's describes from
a tower
in battle. The
as Hektor's
kin Hektor slew by some vengeful Greek whose between these outcomes and his earlier expectations
Astyanax means "city-prince"?is couched in
name
by the familiar narrative frame of the Lament scene. The scene closes with the wife bemoaning the fact that her husband's death out on the battlefield precluded them, a reflex of the third any final intimacy between element words Andromache's we can Overall, pattern. sorrow by traditional convention, but via a highly idiomatic "word." the in see not that Homer simply conveys in well-chosen
and informed
The largest species of "word" in Homer's specialized epic language is the traditional tale-type of Return that underlies the Odyssey, a story-pattern we can deduce from three sources.32 First, the evidence: the gener comparative ic story realized in Odysseus's of his voyage back to Ithaca and reclaiming one of the oldest and most common stories we have. identity and family is It exists in numerous branches of the Indo-European language family and into it modern when has been in collected dozens of different times, persists traditions inmany hundreds of versions.33 Most basically, the pattern presents the saga of a hero called off to war who is absent and held captive for an on numerous then overcomes difficulties period of time, and who his way back home, where?always in impenetrable and cleverly disguise relatives' his and allies' the suitors conquers testing loyalty?he eventually or his wife fianc?e in contests them athletic pursuing by initially defeating and then (if necessary) an them. The follow story may, however, slaughtering extended as the Agamemnon-Clytaemnestra that we might understand to this second option the wife or fianc?e proves unfaith option: according ful, having taken a substitute mate, and the tale tracks off in another direc alternate tion.Worldwide,
option are about
route
the Hollywood
equally common.
ending
and the Agamemnon-Clytaemnestra the Return his "word" after he comes listens from
Our Agamemnon
second
Amphimedon's and a small company

"O fortunate son
piece himself, account
of or
evidence rather
for from
to ghost, of the slaying of the suitors by his comrade Odysseus of confederates:

Odysseus of many devices,
of Laertes,
Miles Foley John

won a wife endowed with virtue.
13
surely
you
yourself
great
How
Ikarios'
good was proved the heart that is in blameless Penelope,

daughter, and how well she remembered Odysseus,
her wedded
husband. Thereby
the fame of her virtue for the people
shall never
die away, but the immortals will make

of earth a pleasing song for prudent
Penelope.
Not
so did the daughter of Tyndareos she killed her wedded

among men, even for to make one
deeds, when
will of be hers
(Clytaemnestra) fashion her evil lord, and a song of loathing

the reputation are virtuous." (Odyssey 24.
evil whose
womankind,
acts
192-202) Within of the very fabric of the poem, amajor hero is providing us an overview the Return that the pleasing song about story-pattern, acknowledging stands at odds with the song of loathing (the Hollywood Penelope ending) (the daughter Clytaemnestra negative option). structure of the Return of the plus-minus explanation of this Song squares precisely with what we observe about the occurrences international the long-lost hero's tale-type of Indo-European lineage: with we add the path forks and can lead in either direction. When homecoming Tyndareos' own the third piece of evidence?an (Returns) that was part epic called the Nostoi of the now-lost the War and its aftermath34?we about Trojan Epic Cycle can understand that the overall pattern behind the Odyssey is another kind of
"word" in Homer's epic vocabulary.
about
Agamemnon's
The Idiomatic Value of Homer's"Words" that Homeric "words" are structurally as and different well from those textual words, are discrete items that populate dictionaries and defined by linguists as root ly are most fundamentally "Words" in the Iliad and Odyssey units morphemes. of utterance, logical chunks of expression, and they run the gamut from met Up different learned lines ("formulas") rically defined parts of lines and whole through "typical scenes" and "story-patterns."These then are the thought-bytes that constitute we are to Homer's traditional language, and if read the ancient Greek epics we on own terms?by must to read them their be fluently willing resetting our default cognitive unit from word to "word." So far, so good; we've located from oral tradition and adduced signature in poetry that derives examples of how it plays out in the Iliad and Odyssey at each level. But now comes the crucial question: just what difference does that structural signature make to reading Homer in the twen some a structural to this point we've from typographical
14 College Literature 34.2 2007] [Spring

ty-first century? To put the same question ic value of these oral traditional "words"? the units another way, what In what follows, is the idiomat Iwill re-examine
identified above?formulaic lines and line-parts, typical scenes, and a story-pattern?in order to demonstrate the traditional connotations of each level of "word." In all cases the idiomatic meanings have been derived in the same way as lexicographers derive definitions for their dictionary entries: by examining all available instances of each "word" in context and then comparing them to determine what each bears across special meaning its actual field of usage. For this purpose I considered every instance of two formulas and Achilles" ("swift-footed noun-epithet "green fear"), including those in which the epithets (here "swift-footed" and "green") didn't seem to fit the story situation, as well as each occurrence of the Feast and Lament scenes. Since the story-pattern of Return survives in only a single instance in Homeric I have enlisted the aid of cognate Return epic, epics in other "sister" these with Indo-European languages35; epics help, along shards, to establish the lost mor Agamemnon's ghost and the Epic Cycle was of the Return the method used to define Homer's phology Song. This "words"?a kind of oral traditional lexicography. At the simplest level, then, we encounter formulas such as the famous of readers with combinations, which have troubled generations noun-epithet their unrelenting and occasional awkwardness. Such sound repetitiveness like bytes may be useful, many scholars have observed, but they behave more can than elevated fillers how times many poetic expression. Just lock-step Homer descend Achilles" or "green fear" before these combinations say "swift-footed into clich?s? Milman Parry's research showed that the ancient Greek oral tradition usually had only a single solution for each metrical challenge,36
so Homer's palette of characterization and description would seem extreme
to tectonics, the tradition appears to have we add the prob the poet's creativity. When lem of the frequent inapplicability of the epithet or adjective to the situation at hand?Achilles is called "swift-footed" when running, standing, or lying ly limited; in its commitment restricted rather than promoted down, for example?we level of the line certainly guage tion must
Or
can begin promoted narrative

at any
to glimpse
the problem.
"Words"
at the
for all conceivable
lan composition, providing ready-made and his epic tradi situations, but Homer to mechanism. have paid a heavy price?the sacrifice of originality
the argument, rate.
so goes
and why how such formulas work they serve as more we as to structure need recall their whole "words" and fillers, simply as as into indi their that is, inquire meaning composite phrases, functionally as Homer visible units of expression. When such "swift employs expressions To understand than footed Achilles" or "grey-eyed Athena" or "Argos-slaying Hermes," he is
Miles Foley 15 John quality, a tell-tale detail, that naming a character by citing a single memorable refers primarily not to that character's immediate situational identity at any or to in his the but her story particular point larger identity across the epic serves as an agreed-upon idiomatic cue for the char a like acter's mythic trademark musical theme associated history, somewhat film or a costume that identifies a re-entering with a character in amodern tradition. The formula actor in a drama even before the "word" assume) is the entire phrase, he or she speaks or is spoken to.Moreover, since and not (aswe readers of texts customarily
a two-part designation of a noun plus an epithet, the consisting and "Argos-slaying" aren't "swift-footed," "grey-eyed," adjectives simply matters is not the adjective alone but semantically active by themselves.What the noun-adjective and we dismember that unit at our peril. combination, Consider divide one of our words into parallel. We wouldn't + + + s w to i its component m, for example?and parts?swim expect each com of those parts to make sense, would we? Accordingly, the noun-epithet binations for people and gods should be understood for what they are: the following the named characters to center-stage in code for summoning no it the epic proceedings. That's why makes difference whether Achilles or to down when be he's called "swift-foot running, standing, lying happens ed." What may seem to be a redundant and occasionally awkward filler is in reality an idiomatic identity.37 occurs ten the formula "green fear," or Moron deos, which Just so with times in the Homeric epics and hymns.38 In the Odyssey, for example, green fear paralyzes the hero as he watches the shades gather to drink sheep's blood in the underworld and his the same emotion comrades (11.43), experience as they confront the looming whirlpool have (12.243).Translators Charybdis ren often struggled with how to turn this phrase into English, sometimes the color dering "green" as "pallid" or "raw" in an attempt to harmonize value and the emotion within English usage. But ifwe interpret Homer's lan on own we our terms its rather than will understand own, guage impose fear" as a single "word" and inquire what the ten instances taken can us tell its about idiomatic when we collate the And together meaning. occurrences we that evaluation, and make find that the phrase traditionally "green no lexicon provides any clue to supernaturally inducedfear. Although sense in the literal meaning this corporate of either of the parts (chloron = = green and deos fear), the "word" as awhole implicitly conveys the involve ment of a deity. Once again, then, the force of the adjective ismuted by its connotes role as a "syllable" in the larger "word." "Green" remains inactive by itself it lies below the threshold of the overall expressive unit, which cues because a type of fear with a particular genesis and set of implications. Homeric audi signal that cues (and re-cues) the character's entrance and
whole-"word"
16
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature in the traditional language of ancient Greek epic, understood sense of the phrase and enriched their reception of the story readers would century accordingly. Twenty-first profit by doing the same.39 and his tradi Similarly, "words" at the level of typical scenes offer Homer enees, fluent the idiomatic a structural blueprint tion not merely to situate individualized opportunity for constructing epic narrative, but an events and moments a tradi within
tionally reverberative frame. An audience familiar with the three-part Lament structure, for example, will already have a roadmap in place to guide them through any instance of the pattern, no matter how singular or unusual.40 a unit of language and expression, a "word" ismost Because fundamentally its it will traditional the specific by convey idiomatically meaning, glossing the timeless. the generic, explaining the time-bound adducing by evoking the fluent listener must have Thus, when Bris?is begins her mourning-song, some on the consequences the entire framework: reflection of expected would as some form of final intimacy. The same his laments for Hektor, whether wife by or his sister-in-law Helen, whose widely his mother Hekabe, Andromache, are well accommodated and focused by the typical divergent viewpoints scene. Exactly how the pattern played out in each case?how potential of course on the local, specific needs of the story. became reality?depended Patroklos' death for her have been true of the Indeed,
variation formance
as well
in well-collected
even to among another. But
traditions
instances the of
like the South

the very same point
Slavic we
event present
can observe
from one concerns per is
important
plot for our
that the Lament
"word" presented
tional and situation-specific is this more Nowhere Lament
an opportunity to mesh for Homer tradi to blend idiom with present usage. meanings, of the apparent than in the brilliant application
and (the liv pattern to the strained encounter between Andromache a one. Hektor in Book 6 of the Mad.The moment is memorable ing) Hektor still armed and stained with gore, has briefly returned from the battlefield, one of the cen and he and his wife engage in a conversation that epitomizes tral contradictions of the poem: his kleos-winning (striving after glory in bat with Andromache's for the oikos tle) clashes diametrically responsibilities the family unit). Because Hektor defends Troy, (home and hearth, including in the fight it survives, at least for a while. But because he will go down
he will by those very same actions leave his wife and child against Achilles, in Book their conversation defenseless before the Greek conquerors. During concerns emerge with special 6 these mutually exclusive and yet intertwined their history together and their clarity, as neither figure?notwithstanding to Troy?is the other is saying; they able to hear what shared commitment at cross purposes. Andromache communicate pleads with her husband to stay
John Miles Foley the walls of Troy, for her and their son's sake, while for the community's his sake. duty to battle heroically explains To frame this intense exchange Homer utilizes the highly idiomatic scene. The opening at lines frame of the Lament "You have fallen" element, her, safe within his demise, the cer underlining res the connotations
17
with
Hektor
VI.407-10, predicts rather than chronicles of his death even more emphatically tainty ident
by enlisting in the typical scene. The second element (VI.410-28), which by con traces the implications of the hero's death for his loved ones, recounts vention better transpire for Andromache: / to sink into the earth when
what will
as she observes, "for me itwould be far I have lost you" (VI.410-11). It would has the kill the
to gainsay her opinion on this point, since, as she explains, she no father or mother or brothers to support her after Hektor is gone. And reason for her lack of family? Achilles, the enemy Greek hero who will in all of their deaths. Poignantly Hektor, was directly implicated fulfilling be difficult
third part of the pattern, the final intimacy, Andromache then emphasizes her as and future losses her her husband substitute father, past by addressing an unforgettable to and his vital in her mother, brother, stressing importance fashion that recalls what has transpired and resonates with what is to come. As Hektor him?following ing episode into awaits inevitably Hektor's actual
they cannot
stands before
her
the traditional
alive, she framework
an absorbing and them. It is the Lament that provides
is already effectively mourning that transforms an already mov of the fate that compelling preview "word," here intoned long before this powerful into a future glimpse
demise,
escape.
well
use of the typical scene of the Feast also has predictive value its structural usefulness and general contextualization.41 If we beyond follow the methodology above of collating instances and drawing described Homer's conclusions about the idiomatic meaning of "words," we comparative cover that this scene "betokens a ritualistic event leading from an obvious dis and
problem is to say, in addition to serving 174).That this "word" contextualizes the existing ports narrative composition, lematic situation?whatever it may be?and points toward a possible lioration?whatever tribution that may as a variable
pre-existing
to an effort atmediation
ofthat problem" (Foley 1999, as a convention that sup simply prob ame
future, the next That is a significant dimension of its traditional meaning. Two examples of this predictive function must suffice. In Book 1 the feast at Odysseus' home includes all of the features listed above: a host and guest(s), the seating of the guest(s), several core actions associated with feasting, and the satisfac tion of the guest(s), as well as both the five-line core involving the maidser
con be. Along with its recognizable generic then, the Feast also hints at what lies in the framework, chapter in the story.

the housekeeper's vant's provision of water for washing distri together with of bread and the two-line coda marking the satisfaction of the guests. The pre-existing problem consists, of course, of the arrogant and destructive behavior of the suitors, who have for years abused the absent Odysseus's hos bution by consuming Penelope. Telemachos pitality behavior, friend Mentes, as part of their quest to wed is himself helpless to put a stop to their presumptuous in disguise as his father's guest but after the feast concludes Athena, the Ithacan household
instills courage into the young man, just as she had promised to do during the prior council of the gods in Book 1. Her advice triggers s voyage of discovery, and her encouragement Telemachos helps prompt his to the man who left behind transformation from the boy whom Odysseus will one day assist his father in taking revenge on the suitors. On a much more modest and his level, the final feast in the Odyssey, wherein Odysseus father Laertes share a humble meal (24.385ff.), signals the climactic media In fact, tion that eventually arrives in the form of the Peace of Athena. Homer how uses two of his traditional "words" in conjunction to tell the story of the uprising by the slain suitors' families was quelled: at the level of the at the level of the to follow, while typical scene the Feast cues a mediation causes "green fear" to seize Eupeithes, father of the head formula Athena feast suitor Antinous, and the larger company. Both the Telemachos-Athena in Book 1 and the Odysseus-Laertes feast in Book 24 can be read literally by first lament reference to our default notion of words, but like Andromache's
they reveal their full resonance only after we re-read them from an oral tra
ditional
perspective,
in terms of their constitutive
and reverberative
"words."
to the largest traditional attention Finally, by reading the Odyssey with the entire epic, we can hear the of Return that underlies "word," story-pattern more resonance. Most the background of that oral traditional globally, an this would familiar audience with that story bring to the knowledge of this particular their general understanding Odyssey must have informed to return tale. They would hero the leave island, Kalypso's actively expect to Ithaca notwithstanding serious his way back home succeed in winning test his family's challenges, defeat the suitors in athletic discover his wife's a secret shared only the generic and allies' contests or loyalty while and if necessary remaining in mortal in disguise, combat, and
faithfulness
through be able to follow familiar
sequence manifests formance could not be foreseen; details remain the province of the singular as the pattern takes shape via the individual poet's negotiation realization, and (in the original situation) with an audi with the traditional inheritance ence that is part of the process. The Return "word" generates an outline for
revealing his identity treachery while two A them. fluent audience would the of by outlines of the roadmap. But exactly how that itself in this particular tale and this particular per
Miles Foley 19 John not from deriving from how but starkly divergent development the story will turn out on this occasion. suspense That
present,
the plot, with
an unimaginable surprise or a each of the expectable stages of listener

the
idiomatic
emergent
context,
tale against
in which
an
a fluent
of
or reader weighs
implications
the
of
awareness
traditional
stubborn dilemmas the Return "word," also helps to solve three of the most in the twenty in Homeric studies. In closing this essay on reading Homer the Odyssey as an oral-derived first century, let me explain how interpreting can productively and still active context in its originative traditional poem address each of these quandaries. First on our agenda is the question subscribed in medias of plot sequence. Scholars have long start to the theory that the Odyssey and other epics conventionally of things," rather than from the chronological res, "in the middle not as he is called away to the Trojan Thus we meet Odysseus
beginning.42 island and yearning War or during battle, but rather imprisoned on Kalypso's for his homeland. To account for prior events, so goes the "middle" theory, the poem contains a flashback: Books 9-12 fill in the particulars of how he
came to the situation with which the epic opens. But by reading the Odyssey return story that it is,we can understand as the Indo-European that it starts in not in the middle but at the logical beginning. This tale-type, whether assumes a or other traditions, conventionally South Slavic, Russian, Albanian, well-defined a hero is summoned away from his wife or fianc?e back-story: to a joint martial expedition absence and cap that leads to a decades-long starts it should, with the hero precisely where tivity. Idiomatically, the Odyssey it to in captivity and dependent upon a powerful female for his release.Were
start be anywhere else?at Moreover, the chronological within the Return beginning, "word" for instance?it isn't would com unidiomatic. a flashback
for lost narrative, but rather a built-in part of the story-pattern. A pensation thus expect the non-chronological fluent audience or reader will shape of a as in whole the story and, (with its assumed particular, the starting-point "word" is implicit in the Return and the flashback. That much back-story) thought-byte. is the matter of Penelope's actions, especially her attitude toward she him? Along with does the disguised When stranger. really recognize her hus don't we wonder why doesn't she overtly acknowledge Telemachos, for centuries, each of band earlier? Critics have argued over this problem a specific moment and pinpoint of them trying to probe her psychology veiled recognition, but no consensus has emerged. If, however, we adduce the evidence of how the wife/fianc?e Song, conventionally behaves in the Return behaves as she these disagreements fall away.To put itmost basically, Penelope avoid does because ability to actively and persistently indeterminacy?the Second as a traditional
20 College Literature 34.2[Spring 2007]

resolving
ter. As we
ambiguities?is
look across the
at the very heart

comparative
of the Return
we notice
heroine's
again and
charac
again
spectrum,
centrality of this figure: as the fulcrum in the plot, it is not her mate) who determines how the end-game plays out. Only to refuse closure and keep her options open, is able to persevere, to participate in the final test of identity and faithfulness position the ultimate view
she (and if she is she in a that we
in Penelope's posing the riddle of the olive-tree bed, in turn made pos and covertly unweaving sible by her strategy of weaving Laertes's shroud all is a heroism of intelli those years in order to keep the suitors at bay. Hers that gently delaying decisions, and like her Return Song sisters she maintains ambivalence
to the end, against all odds. Instead of joining Telemachos in to his for her refusal the of mother accept criticizing certainty Odysseus's return, then, we should be applauding her particular brand of heroic achieve be no Ithacan homeland there would which the ment, without awaiting via the Return "word" helps us to recog Odysseus. Reading long-suffering nize and appreciate her major role in the overall saga.43 the Odyssey actually ends. Does the Third, there is the question of where the last Une of Book 24, or does the poem effec curtain simply drop with as its telos or "goal" tively culminate with what the ancient critics designated at Book 23, lines 295-96 when Penelope and Odysseus go to their olive-tree Return bed? Again the broader context of the Indo-European Song helps to an both have merit idiomatic stated, perspective. opinions Briefly provide
and vention can be meshed this story-pattern to create a coherent its telos response as a result to of the the question. test that By proves con the reaches
wife's
is, the traditional roadmap fidelity?for good to revelation leads unerringly, no matter what particular tale it is informing, its via the that test of the woman's shared whether heroism secret, (or lack) or some involves an olive-tree bed, the playing of amusical other instrument, or talent. But while the Return of the trek effec trademark path knowledge
or fiancee's
or ill. That
section tively ends at that juncture, these epics always include a "post-ie/os" role it is to resolve the loose ends of the particular tale. Telegraphically, whose we can say that the main generic action of the Return the Song ends with in the reunited bed fashioned from Athena's tree, long-separated couple the Peace of Athena.44 while the Odyssey as a return epic closes only with expansive of "words" thus provides both a generic pathway for the section that con traditional plot and a more multiform, specific postlude of and cludes the singular Return story Odysseus. Penelope This most Coda in the twenty-first Homer Reading modern students and scholars, separated to century presents a real challenge as we are by almost three millennia
John Miles Foley 21 the versions of the Iliad and Odyssey that have survived from the time when to us were probably put down in writing in ancient Greece. But notwith enormous in time and cultural space, the newly that standing displacement in studies oral traditions can tools associated with comparative developed of the Homeric open up dimensions epics that have effectively been lost or silenced for many centuries?by helping us to construe the poems on their own terms. During this essay we have briefly surveyed the history of the Homeric the legendary status of Homer, and, perhaps most impor Question, tantly, the nature of the very "words" that he and his poetic tradition employ to express themselves. Those "words," like the reti used by the South Slavic the thought-bytes of ancient guslari, are not at all the same as our words: Greek form seen that take the epic are larger, composite units of utterance and meaning of recurrent phrases, scenes, and story-patterns. And we have further is but one function of these "words"; their that structural usefulness lan implications?the special meaning they bear as traditional a crucial feature of Homeric art.As efforts at recovering the rich
idiomatic guage?are ness ofthat
art continue, it iswell to remain mindful of the roots of the Iliad and Odyssey in their original medium of oral tradition.45 Notes 1 For a history of the Homeric Question,
poems and
seeTurner
to ancient
(1997) and Fowler

epic in general,
(2004b).
For
introductions
to the Homeric
see, respec
tively, Fowler
2 raphies ent, with the As of other
(2004a) and Foley

Graziosi poets and observes famous
(2005).
of the ancient Lives of Homer. "Unlike the lack of personalities, they emphasise version of Homer's Ufe. Rather tend of to focus contradictory on relatively opinions few about the biog a coher us of
Barbara
unified,
and
self-consistent narrative, and list
than
presenting aspects opinions
a continuous life of Homer,
they a series
specific them,
which
typically span several centuries"

3 For 4 On the early history and application
(2002, 9).
of this approach in both Homeric stud
ies and elsewhere, see Foley

the first stage of
(1988).
textual analysis, see espec. Parry (1928).
5On Murko's influence, seeMurko (1990) and Foley (1988, 15-18). 6 On the of the history expedition, see Parry (1933-35), Lord (1954), Foley and Mitchell and (1988, 31-35), Nagy (2000).
7 For an online overview of the Parry Collection, visit www.chs.harvard.
edu/mpc, whose official publication series is SCHS. See further the performance of The Wedding ofMustajbeys Son Becirbey by the guslar Halil Bajgoric, available in Foley
(2004) and in electronic,
landmark book, The Singer ofTales (2000) illustrates the method by com the the Anglo-Saxon paring living South Slavic oral epic tradition to Homer, French de and the Old Chanson Greek Roland, Beowulf, Byzantine epic. See further Lord (1991,1995).
8His
hypertext
format
at
www.oraltradition.org/zbm.
22
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature 9

broad with From
Through
reach of
the mid-1980s
the so-called version
more
than 2000 books

for
and articles document

references, see
the
Oral-Formulaic
an electronic the
awareness
1990s early of adjacent methods,
including with onward,
(1985), Theory; Foley 1992 at www.oraltradition.org. updates through as well as more the advent of new perspectives accurate to speak more broadly of studies
it is more
in oral tradition than strictly the Parry-Lord 2002).

10 South African praise poetry, composed
approach; see further Foley (1995,1999,

in performance by literate as well as
preliterate poets, offers one illustration of this kind of bridging; see further Kaschula (1995,2000) and Opland (1983,1998). Other examples include the oral roots of the Old and New Testaments (see Niditch [1996] and Kelber [1997], respectively) and of many African novels (see Obiechina [1995, 1997]). For [1992] and Balogun
description them of an by ecosystem literate of various individuals, oral see genres the within of a oral single poetic society, species some from of a practiced 11 Throughout of the array
Serbian village as described

this essay
and exemplified
I advocate texts know of an our
in Foley (2002,188-218).
position epics and on the precise tradition details that the oral
between relationship cannot Since we them. informs it seems
agnostic the Homeric
By
the
Homeric medium epics vention are
written how the poems reached form, exactly to any to cling about that process. and particular theory illogical unhelpful cannot nature same the oral-derived, traditional of the token, we ignore more we can to most fundamental than afford the any ignore language means on the universal oral of art. For views of any work nearly by which collected and in writing and preserved to the culture and tradition), then print see Honko (namely, (2000). by the inter
of
an outsider
12 In my
explanation plus ar-)" 13 As drive a of gloss
opinion
the
Gregory Nagy
of Homer's to the
(1996, 90) has offered

name, nature as "he who of the oral
the most
together craft.
attractive
(homo
imaged out,
etymology that speaks in a verb
joins poet's
tectonic used of singing
commonly activity to rest. Cf.
to describe was so
"to
paused mately tradition
every the
impel"?the minutes 30-40 meaning, line
same
which l:"Maeg
also
(e.g.,
Seafarer,
the Anglo-Saxon the act of designates ic be me so?gied sylfum
epic performance?turati, strenuous that guslari usually verb wrecan, with approxi oral performance wrecan' ("I can in drive that out
a true tale about myself," quoted from Gordon [1966, 33]). 14 Parry-Lord no. 6598 (unpublished); see Kay (1995, 221).
15 didn't basis of This ever this is not exist; legend. to say that well actual have guslari been named one details, Cor or more as well Huso, real-life as the Isak, or Hasan individuals contradictory Coso at the there may But the
larger-than-life
nature
of the different accounts, show thatwhat may once have been based in fact had (very into legend. productively) morphed 16 For a may also Mongolian parallel to the Guslar, see Foley (1998,173-75).We
adduce means to visit the Anglo-Saxon "wide the journey" courts he legendary would and who is said to have singer Widsith, have entertained. had to whose live multiple name etymologically centuries in order
Miles Foley 23 John

17 For (1963),Turner espec. the chart 18 See note
summaries (1997). between
of For
the a 32
ancient
sources, of
see Lamberton texts,
comparison and 33).
the various
(1997); see Allen
also Davison (1969,11-41,
12 above.
19This
Homer whose
is not to deny the possibility

actual life was mythologized
that there was a historical figure named

to serve this legendary purpose, much as
a historical Arthur
model
lies at the root of the King Arthur

(1990, activities 79, e. g.), and see as further understood reading
legend and stories. Cp. Nagy's

note 2 above. see espec. Boyarin worldwide,
of "retrojection" 20 On the various
(1993) and Foley

21 For epos, see
(2002, 65-77).
espec. the formulaic line "O my child, what word has escaped the
barrier of your teeth?" which occurs four times in the Odyssey (said by Zeus to Athena at 1.64 and 5.22, by Eurykleia to the disguised Odysseus at 19.492, and by
Eurykleia known to better" at 23.70); Penelope each and frames it carries instance as the idiomatic by sense a senior of "You For should muthos, have see chiding figure.
the formulaic
which functions 6.21,
line "He/she
as a and speech 23.4). 20.32,
stood above his/her head and spoke a word to him/her,"

introduction and occurs four times in the Odyssey
(4.803, 22 Cf.
the Anglo-Saxon
formulaic
phrase
"and
speaks
that
word"
at
Beowulf
2046b, which
tense adjustment,
acts as a speech introduction;

e.g.) throughout
it recurs in slightly altered form

oral-derived poetic corpus.
(with
23As explained by Dr. Chao Gejin of the Chinese Academy

during conversation.
the Anglo-Saxon
of Social Sciences
example, the great singer Avdo Medjedovic begins his 1935 performance of The Wedding of Smailagic Meho with the following line: "The first word: "God, help
us!" (SCHS, 25 For 26 On vol. a full 4, 55, translation of what mine). Vujnovic and other singers say about the ret, see discussion
24 For
Foley (2002, 11-21).

Homeric epos espec. as "tale, 1-42). story" and muthos as a performance by a speaker, see Martin (1989, 27 Without ter also line
we can observe in undue that the hexame indulging complexities, is composed of regular metrical defined word-divisions that parts by regular turn out to be "word"-divisions. A consists of line, then, single rule-governed and recurrent on phrases the metrical exist within substructure the of tradition poetic the Homeric to fit line, see those Foley sections. (1990,
sections, For more
detail
52-84). 28 For further background on formulaic language inHomer, see Edwards 1988,1997), Foley (1990,121-57), Russo (1997), and Clark (2004).
29 On the traditional variation among instances of the Homeric feasting
(1986,
scene,
see Foley (1999, 171-87) Edwards (1992).

30 Books 1.136-40,
and Reece
4.52-56,
(1993).
On
typical scenes in Homer,

15.135-39, and 17.91-95.
see
7.172-76,
10.368-72,
See further Foley
(1999, 305, n. 8).
24
34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature

31 For
thorough
studies
of
the Lament
as a
typical
scene,
see
Foley
(1991,
168
74; 1999, 187-99); Fishman (2006).

32 For
also Due
of
(2002). Related
the Return
studies include Alexiou

in the Odyssey
(1974) and
and compar
a full discussion
story-pattern
ative oral epic, see Foley

33 For example, the
(1999,115-67).
ancient Greek, South Slavic, Russian, Bulgarian, Albanian,
Anglo-Saxon,
South a small Kay Slavic
Middle
epic
English, Turkic
alone have accounts yet
(central Asian),
for hundreds seen formal with
and Balochi
of collected see or
traditions. The
instances, espec. SCHS depend only and
tradition of which
percentage 83 e.g.,
publication; Ropstvo,
(1995,
the
song-titles
beginning
"Captivity,"
ably identify aReturn epic). 34On the Epic Cycle, see espec. Burgess
35 parative I make instances no assumption is the result about of whether historical
(2004) and Davies

relationship or diffusion the
(1989).
various com genetics,
among Indo-European
although given
been operative. documented Odyssey-story. genre from
the geographical
The international
and temporal distances both dynamics must

story-type is of course one of many that have
have
been
no others so as the in multiple and eras, but perhaps cultures broadly a For another Return in the of different story-pattern deployment see the toDemeter of the Homeric ancient in Foley Greece, Hymn analysis
(1995,136-80).
36 In of formulaic observed that "the thrift of systems discussing Parry phrases, a system to which same met it is free of phrases which, lies in the degree the having one rical value and expressing the same It another" idea, could (1971, 276). replace is a characteristic be noted of some Homeric should that thrift formulaic language not but of the noun-epithet the majority of the epic diction. names) (chiefly Likewise, it proves not to be a feature of either South Slavic oral epic or Anglo-Saxon
oral-derived poetry (Foley 1990, 163-64 and 354, respectively). " 37The epithet Argos-slaying" (Argeiphont?s) provides a classic case of this phe
nomenon. infant ics But to Hermes see the It is used long in before of the Homeric he Hymn to Hermes the deed (Une 84) to characterize some the crit accomplishes the noun-epithet traditionally "syllables"?that it celebrates, leading
the application names formula not
Hermes
as clumsily phrase non-chronological. as a it is the whole character; mythic matters.
"word"?and
38 For a full account and discussion of this phrase, see Foley

39 Of able digitized course, no matter how versions of Homer, assiduously etc.), we we can use never the tools aspire to
its composite
(1999, 216-18).
to us fluency (search of the the
available
ancient audience. But by practicing

here?effectively by trying to
the kind of traditional lexicography

"words" on their own
advocated
can
read Homer's
terms?we
certainly do better than default to text-centered

artistry. right A partial surrender. the in learning victory For numerous additional traditional examples
dilution of his (and his tradition's)

to out is far preferable language see of reading Homer's "words,"
Foley
(1999). 40 On the implications 187-98).
of the Lament
scenes in the Odyssey, see Foley
(1999,
John Miles Foley 25 41On

42 The Aristotle's
the Feast scene in the Odyssey, see Foley

phrase comments in medias on plot res is taken sequence from Horace's Poetics. in his
(1999,171-87).
Ars See Po?tica, further with reference to and Preminger
Brogan (1993, 580-81). 43 This view from the perspective

European Return Song harmonizes
of oral tradition and specifically

with feminist work on the central
the Indo
role of
Penelope
44 Note
in the Odyssey, see especially Katz

that the reunion of Penelope
(1991) and Felson-Rubin

is the mediation
(1994).
forecasted
and Odysseus
by the Feast scene at 23.153ff.

as mentioned Laertes. above,
(see Foley [1999,185-86]),

cued by the
while
the Peace of Athena,

Odysseus and
is the mediation
shared meal
between
45 For amodern
studies, see the eEdition
hypertext
of
tool that may be useful for application

Slavic oral epic at www.oraltradition.org/zbm.
to Homeric
a South
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Felson-Rubin, Princeton Nancy. University 1994. Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics. Princeton:
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Robert
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Century Crofts.
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"Reading" Homer through Oral Tradition Author(s): John Miles Foley Source: College Literature, Vol. 34, No.

Homer Oral "Reading" through Tradition

beyond a share and

WH. John Miles Foley is Endowed Chair in the

of honor has the taught

the Muse Humanities and Curators'

them for she loves the singers'

Professor of Classical Studies and English at theUniversity of

also directs theCenter for Studies inOral Tradition.

toRead an Oral Poem.

dition, an unwritten surround the Trojan War

rather than inscribed,

Literature 34.2 2007] [Spring College

the result of fragmentary and

The Question Analysts redactors; accounted

central Asian Chinese,

begun and Odyssey, with

in attempting Cor means "one-eyed"),

in the first half of the nineteenth

and Serbia. Notwithstanding

the obscurity of his early years

an to eventually enjoy was all others and surpassed

songs. spent in the

to his wanderings in various parts hope

throughout Montenegro of Bosnia, he report where vision would be restored.

34.2 [Spring 2007] CollegeLiterature

agree and arresting:

accompanied he wore trousers,

by a red silk black

coat with boots,

bardic?conspicuously was instrument

provide whatever was needed

to induce him to perform.

sang so well ding, and was entered. But

all of his often

8 College Literature 34.2[Spring 2007]

of Stolac, which is it?

this?"miserable Alija" [a hero's

(suzanj name], or,

as they say, "He was

in the ice-cold prison"

Miles John Foley 9

pick up the gusle [the accompanying

NV: And MK: And

the second reP. the second rel?"At Ribnik

tavern" (Na Ribniku

the third reel it is?"Around

For Kukuruzovic, our typographically

and for other guslari defined item; itwas

But pondered But went

divine Odysseus divine Odysseus divine Odysseus divineOdysseus

through the house (1 occurrence) spoke (8 occurrences) sat there (1 occurrence)

+long-suffering +long-suffering +long-suffering

+long-suffering +swift-footed +ox-eyed +Gerenian +goddess

(2) (4) (8) (7)

horseman Nestor grey-eyed Athena

and golden pitcher, holding

for them to wash, and she pulled a polished A grave housekeeper

in the bread and served it to them,

Trojans now Andromache's describes from

Amphimedon's and a small company

piece himself, account

to ghost, of the slaying of the suitors by his comrade Odysseus of confederates:

Miles Foley John