The Grain of Greek Voices

Abstract

Oral tradition in Greece before the mid-fifth century BCE? Law, ritual, myth, education-through-dance (khoreia), invective, games, wisdom, praise, lament—almost every verbal institution imaginable employed stylized language, formulaic diction, characteristic rhythms, or time-honored performance habits. They were transmitted wholly, or partly, without writing. At the same time, such institutions—some reaching back millennia—were open to new interpretations and refashionings. As in many oral cultures, to innovate was in fact “traditional.” My working assumption is that all facets of early Greek social life need to be evaluated when one investigates!a given “oral tradition.” But we have to avoid lumping all such institutions together, as if their shared “orality” were the primary point of interest. Affiliations and nuances of social context and contestation surrounded each and demand respect. When the creative analyses of Milman Parry and Albert Lord turned attention first to the traditional nature—and by extrapolation to the “orality”—of Homeric poetry, they also opened new perspectives on the many other forms of Greek verbal culture. Reimagining not just the technical conventions but the social conditions under which Homeric poetry arose brought about a total re-examination of Greek culture. In this reappraisal, comparative evidence came to play a major role as a suggestive analogy and a useful heuristic device. Interesting new directions? First, the expansion and refining of comparative studies. John Foley has led the way both by his writings (e.g., 2002) and by his establishment of effective clearinghouses for sharing work. Increasingly sophisticated folkloristics (see, e.g., Reynolds 1995, Honko 1998) open up new questions about performance in context. Second, an urge to explore the varied mutual relations of “performance” genres within the seventh-fifth centuries BCE. W. Robert Connor inspired a social-historical approach that took account of the poetics of specific social “genres.” His influence has been great on many younger scholars whose works incorporate “oralist” perspectives whether the subject is Greek lyric, proverb use,