Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Malcolm M. Willcock. "Mythological Paradeigma in the Iliad." Classical Quarterly, n.s. 14:141-54.

Finds Homer's use of mythological parallels to be much like Lord's oral-formulaic themes in their deployment. They characteristically (1) are found in speeches in the Iliad wherein one character wishes to influence another's actions, (2) take the form of ring-composition, (3) owe their parallelism to the main story to the individual poet rather than to the poetic tradition, (4) include an "irrational" phrase (i.e., narrative inconsistency) resulting from their integrity as units rather than subordinate parts of the main story, and (5) use stock motifs.
Area: AG