Based on the research of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, the Homeric poems are the product of a performance tradition that stretches back to the period of Indo-European community, the …
Based on the research of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, the Homeric poems are the product of a performance tradition that stretches back to the period of Indo-European community, the 3rd Millennium BCE. Our approach to Homeric diction is profoundly anthropological and, if we can help it, never judgmental.
In this commentary we apply to the formulaic system of Homeric poetry a special methodology of linguistics that stems primarily from the research of Antoine Meillet and of his teacher, Ferdinand de Saussure. Our application of this methodology (as exemplified by Meillet 1925 and Saussure 1916) had been pioneered by Parry himself, who was a student of Meillet during his years as a doctoral candidate at the Sorbonne. The intellectual legacy of Meillet is continued to this day at the Sorbonne by researchers like Charles de Lamberterie, who is a partner in our project (for more on the influence of Meillet on Parry, we refer to de Lamberterie 1997). It is also continued by the editors of this project.- Leonard Muellner