Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

G.P. Goold. "Homer and the Alphabet." Transactions of the American Philological Association, 91:272-91.

Argues that the first text of the Homeric poems was in the Ionic alphabet and that the influence of this text caused the Ionic system to become the standard script of the Greeks. Suggests that "Homer was a collector and stitcher of lays who effected the first great literary exploitation of the alphabet by compiling and preserving in two designedly comprehensive epics the vast treasures of oral literature" (290).
Area: AG