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Formulas
(ii) many words and word-types, especially longer words, have a preferred
location in the verse.
(iii) a majority of phrases, e.g. verb + object or noun + epithet, conform
to the basic cola of the verse (see Introduction to vol. i, 26-30);
(iv) many sentences conform, at least partially, to certain patterns: they
begin and end at certain points in the verse, they locate subject and
predicate at certain points, they overrun the verse-end and are
extended by participial, relative or other clauses;
(v) much diction represents the use of minimal statements, i.e. oft
repeated but very simple thoughts of the type 'strike with the spear',
'his limbs collapsed', or 'he seized the armour', which do not have
a fixed verbal expression;
(vi) the expression of such minimal statements makes frequent use of
synonymous or quasi-synonymous words;
(vii) many phrases relate to each other in that they share besides a
common structure common elements of vocabulary;
(viii) within the verse and sentence many phrases recur many times and
appear to exist as units (formulas);
(ix) many formulas, as it were as lexical units, may enter into phrase
and sentence patterns;
(x) many lines (constructed according to (ii), (iii), and (iv)), couplets,
and groups of lines appear to exist as autonomous units of
expression;
(xi) many formulas, especially noun + epithet formulas, incorporate a
contextually redundant element, e.g. a so-called epitheton ornans;
(xii) 'ornamental' epithets may be confined to certain heroes, objects, or
ideas, or may be applied to a range of nouns ('generic' epithets);
(xiii) some effort is expended to ensure that such sets of formulas are
extensive enough to fill the cola most frequently required;
(xiv) formulas for a given idea, where their attestation in the poem is
sufficient to reveal it, usually occur in such a way that enough and
only enough exist to fill certain popular cola and combinations of cola
in the verse;
(xv) some expressions appear to be derivative from formulas;
(xvi) formulas agglomerate over limited areas of text;
(xvii) formulas become obsolete and are reinterpreted or replaced.
These aspects of Homeric diction are briefly discussed in the numbered
sections below.
How the apprentice doi86s learned his diction, what he learned, and in
which order can only be guessed at. No doubt it was unsystematic. Logically
priority goes to the bringing together of verse-cola, sentence patterns,