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Formulas
TTOVTCO, £UpccA£/£|iTrE(TE Ovuco; the middle voice E|i(3dAETO cannot
be substituted, hence EVOETO/IVOEO Oupico.
Some uses of the generic epithet (§xii) may be classed as substitutions.
(viii) Formulas proper
Sections ii-vii sought to exemplify some aspects of the traditional poetic
grammar that informs the language of the Iliad. At that level, the basic
level, the tradition of doi8r| was a tradition of habits, techniques, minuscule
themes, and associations of words and thoughts rather than fixed phrases.
doi5oi were masters of a special form of language, not jugglers of formulas. 16
Nevertheless the Iliad is stuffed with expressions that occur so frequently as
to leave no doubt that they were formulas (cf. vol. i 29-30), that is, groups
of words that existed as groups before their utterance in the same way as a
single word exists. Almost all reflect the linguistic habits that underlie the
diction generally and became formulas as a result of repeated re-creation in
accordance with those habits. In so far as this process is still going on in the
Iliad 'formulicity' (A. B. Lord's term) is a matter of degree; the group of
words that comes together each time they are used progressively coalesces
into the word group that exists prior to its use. At that stage the formula has
become a device for verbalizing a given thought in metrical form, a part of
the singer's vocabulary \ and just as words - most words - enter all manner of
sentences and are grammatically modified accordingly, so formulas once
formed are potentially subject to the same accidents (see §xv).
In a well developed tradition of heroic poetry many formulas, perhaps
the majority, were acquired as formulas by each generation of singers. In
some classes of formulas, nouns or personal names with decorative epithet,
that is virtually certain (see §xiv). At 24.794, however, occurs (KOCTEI|3ETO)
8&Kpu irapEicov, at Od. 4.198 and 223 ((3CCAEEIV, etc.) 8&Kpu irapEicov. It may
be that Od. 4.223 echoes 198, but the structure of the clauses, the location
of the words, and the absence of any related expressions suggest that the
appearance of the word-group in both epics is the result of the ubiquity of
tears.
It is different with the expression ayxi Trapaords (4X //., 3X Od.).
The greater frequency is encouraging but not conclusive, for 'standing
nearby' is typical behaviour of comrades. However, the coherence of dyxi
and TTOtpiorauai persists in other parts of the verb: ocyx 1 "irapferrn, ocyx 1
TrapiaTOCTo, ayxi TrapioTauEVn; and lastly there is a variant ayxi 5' apa
ends, modified to take the connective, which seems to imply the prior
existence of ayxi Trocpaords.
16 J. M. Foley, Traditional Oral Epic 155-7. Cf. Cicero, Orator 200.
16