Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

William C. Greene. "The Spoken and the Written Word." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 60:23-59.

Feels (after Parry) that an unwritten heroic tradition could have preceded the songs of Homer, but that the master poet must have had at least some "notes" (hypomnemata) to help him remember the complex epics in performance. Supposed traces of planning and revision mandate the use of writing at some stage in the composition of the poems as well as in their recording.
Area: AG