The Oral Dimension of Homer


The Oralist approach to Homer (initially developed by Milman Parry in the 1920's and '30's) works from the fact that numerous patronymics and other epithets and epithet phrases, along with various other patterns, are frequently repeated in the Iliad and Odyssey. Also, there are some apparent duplications - typical of orally composed poetry -, such as the terms "Achaian", "Argive", and "Danaan", all referring to the Greeks fighting at Troy.

With considerable oversimplification, Parry's explanation of these repeated phrases, etc. is that they are characteristic of orally composed poetry. In some way, they give the singer a chance to plug in a familiar phrase while he thinks ahead to how he will compose the next line or so. Accordingly, a consistently rhythmical poem can be fairly readily composed orally - and also more or less extemporaneously.

At least some Oralists have maintained that a "familiar phrase", thus used by an oral poet, means nothing more than a kind of "core idea" - i.e., that a phrase such as "Apollo who strikes from afar" means nothing more than "Apollo". This is undoubtedly what Carne-Ross, p. lxvii in our edition of Fitzgerald's translation, characterizes as "the prevailing doctrine". Also, cf. Page's summary of oralism, quoted by Carne-Ross, pp. lxvi-lxvii.


Overall, Lattimore's translation gives a reasonably good view of the way Homeric repetition works. This well-known translation is available online through the Chicago Homer .

In Lattimore's translation, the first 21 lines of Iliad, Book 1 are as follows, with examples of patronymics and epithet-phrases highlighted with underlining and italics respectively. (Some browsers, though, may handle this a bit differently):

IL.1.1 SING, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
IL.1.2 and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
IL.1.3 hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
IL.1.4 of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
IL.1.5 of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
IL.1.6 since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
IL.1.7 Atreus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
IL.1.8 What god was it then set them together in bitter collision?
IL.1.9 Zeus' son and Leto's, Apollo, who in anger at the king drove
IL.1.10 the foul pestilence along the host, and the people perished,
IL.1.11 since Atreus' son had dishonoured Chryses, priest of Apollo,
IL.1.12 when he came beside the fast ships of the Achaians to ransom
IL.1.13 back his daughter, carrying gifts beyond count and holding
IL.1.14 in his hands wound on a staff of gold the ribbons of Apollo
IL.1.15 who strikes from afar, and supplicated all the Achaians,
IL.1.16 but above all Atreus' two sons, the marshals of the people:
IL.1.17 ' Sons of Atreus and you other strong-greaved Achaians,
IL.1.18 to you may the gods grant who have their homes on Olympos
IL.1.19 Priam's city to be plundered and a fair homecoming thereafter,
IL.1.20 but may you give me back my own daughter and take the ransom,
IL.1.21 giving honour to Zeus' son who strikes from afar, Apollo.'

H&P, p. 469 presents the same passage in Fitzgerald's translation. In this translation, quite a few instances of patronymics and epithet-phrases are omitted or modified. For example, the patronymic "Peleus' son" is omitted in Fitzgerald 's lines 1-2; only the name "Akhilleus" appears. Then, in line 7, Lattimore (and Homer) has only "Atreus' son", but Fitzgerald adds "Agamemnon", presumably to make things clearer. Likewise, in line 17, the original patronymic (translated by Lattimore as "Sons of Atreus") becomes Fitzgerald's "Menelaos and Agamemnon". Another variation is that in lines 14 and 21 the original epithet (Lattimore's "who strikes from afar") is omitted by Fitzgerald. Still other examples of the way in which Fitzgerald modifies Homeric wording come at his line 11, where Lattimore's epithet phrase "fast ships" is simplified to "ships", and in line 17 where Lattimore's "strong-greaved Achaians" is Fitzgerald's "Akhaians under arms".

Another related point about Homeric composition, not illustrated in the first 20 or so lines of the Iliad,, is the use of "Argives" and "Danaans" as metrical alternatives to "Achaians".

These three designations of the Greeks are metrically distinct, as follows:

According to many Oralists, all three terms are interchangeable in oral performance - whichever term is metrically convenient is used, with no real difference in meaning.

The Oralist view may, however, oversimplify.

For example, for "Argives", see the use, in Iliad,, Book 1 of "Argos" at Fitzgerald, line 91 ( = Homer, line 79), and of "Argives" at Fitzgerald, line 141 ( = Homer, line 119), Fitzgerald, line 440 ( = Homer, line 382), and Fitzgerald, line 512 ( = Homer, line 445); these four are all of the occurrences of forms of Argeioi in Iliad, Book 1.

For "Danaans", see the use, in Iliad, Book 1 of the use of this form at Fitzgerald, line 50 ( = Homer, line 42), Fitzgerald, line 65 ( = Homer, line 56), Fitzgerald, line 112 ( = Homer, line 97), Fitzgerald, line 510 ( = Homer, line 444), and Fitzgerald, line 524 ( = Homer, line 456). Additionally, the term appears in Iliad, Book 1 at lines 87, 90, 109, 258, (roughly the equivalent of Fitzgerald, lines 100, 103, 128, 306), in passages where Fitzgerald handles the term differently.


Besides Homer, various other early poets, such as Hesiod and the authors of the "Homeric Hymns" and the "epic cycle", along with some early inscriptions, used epithets, patronymics, etc. in more or less the same way as Homer. At least to some extent, these other early works show the same indications of oral composition as do the Iliad and Odyssey.

The meter - or rhythm - used by Homer, Hesiod, and many other early poets is dactylic hexameter. A line of dactylic hexameter consists of six feet, or measures. Each of the first five feet is a dactyl (long-short-short) or spondee (long-long), and the last foot (or measure) is always two syllables, i.e. a spondee (long-long) or trochee (long-short).

The overall pattern of a dactylic hexameter line, then, is the following:

Each measure or foot (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) can be of the form given above for either line "A" or line "B"; i.e., the whole line can be more or less any mixture of dactyls and spondees. An entire line of six spondees (which line "B" might seem to illustrate) is, however, extremely unusual.

Dactylic hexameter is not very frequently used in English, but it has occasionally been tried. At one time, a fairly well known example was Longfellow, Evangeline;; however, Longfellow's poem is not very much read today. In the context of mythology, an interesting example of English dactylic hexameter is a poem by Charles Kingsley, entitled Andromeda - basically, this is the story of Perseus and Andromeda. Probably most treatments of the story place Andromeda's family (Cepheus, Cassiopeia, et al.) in Africa. This is the version presented by Apollodorus, J1-2, TSB, pp. 31-33, esp. p. 32, and it is followed by H&P, pp. 312-313. Kingsley, however, follows, at least in part, an alternative version of the story, presented by Conon, 40, TSB, p. 88, which puts Andromeda's family in the Syrian town of Joppa or Ioppa. (This alternative version is also followed in the film Clash of the Titans.) Kingsley's poem begins as follows:

Likewise, in Greek, the beginning of the Iliad is as follows:

With an attempt at an English dactylic hexameter, one could translate the whole line as follows:

Note that, in the Greek original, this contains the patronymic Pêlêiadeô "son of Peleus". According to the Oralist approach to Homer, the main reason for the appearance of this phrase is that it is a metrically convenient way of expanding the mention of Achilles.