Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

P. Walcot, P. "The Composition of the Works and Days." Revue des études grecques, 74:1-19.

Conceiving of oral epic style as a group of patterns (most significantly, ring-composition), he judges the Works and Days a written composition because it does not strictly adhere to the oral techniques. Feels that "though Homer may well have been responsible for the reduction to a written form of what before had been an entirely oral tradition of poetry, it is with Hesiod that we are left with a feeling that the adoption of writing among the Greeks not only permitted a more ambitious scheme of composition, but also had a profound influence on the shape of individual verses" (16).
Area: AG