Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

T.B.L. Webster. From Mycenae to Homer. London: Methuen. 2nd ed. with corrs., 1964.

Within a study that seeks to illustrate how "Homer looks forward to classical Greece and backwards to the Mycenaean world" (p. 284), he considers formulas in Eastern poetry and (hypothetically) in Mycenaean to have been in three categories: "correspondence formulae, operation orders, and refrains" (p. 240; see further pp. 70-76). Feels that these techniques survive in Homer. Also treats typical scenes (pp. 239-58), seeing each as a sequence of actions inherited by Homer together with its expression in formulaic language and attempting to date certain aspects of exemplary scenes. Reconciles oral composition and the size of the Iliad and Odyssey by distinguishing "static" and "dynamic" elements of composition and making analogies to Geometric vase-painting. Offers hypotheses (pp. 267-75) on performance, suggesting a festival context (the Panathenaea) and a team of reciters for public performance. Assumes that writing was developed just before Homer and first used to advantage by the Iliad poet. Feels that the Iliad and Odyssey were composed for two different festivals and nearly contemporaneously.
Area: AG