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Formulas
The utility of formulas in an oral tradition is obvious, and published
analyses of portions of the Homeric poems show high densities. 17 Early
investigators, we can now see, tended to identify the inventory of formulas
as the singer's primary resource and to exaggerate the control they exercised
over his thought. 'He must have for his use word groups all made to fit his
verse and tell what he has to tell' (Parry, MHV 270). Further research
established the equal importance of having for his use the factors adduced
in §§ii-vii and has questioned the controlling role of formulas. The key
words, the nucleus of the sentence, have priority in localization; formulas
accommodate to the length and shape of the hexameter what the poet
wishes to say, and may be peripheral to the central thought. 18 Formulas
thus often embody redundant elements and may themselves be dispensable
complements to the nucleus of the sentence, like d£ei 8oupi in such a sentence
as 'A slew B with his sharp spear': 5e6aiyuevos 6§£i XOCAKCO, 19.211 in the
second half, but 6e5aiy|jevos tout court in the same position, 19.203 and
19.319. The effect of the break between the cola is evident (cf. §ii ad Jin.).
Very frequent formulas, those occurring, say, more than ten times, are
not numerous and often owe their frequency to special circumstances, e.g.
name-epithet formulas in the introductions to direct speech. Many occur
only two or three times. That may be due to chance, or to the fact that the
expression is still in the process of becoming a formula. But low frequencies
raise the possibility that some genuine formulas appear in our texts only
once. The ground is firm enough when an expression that occurs once in
the Iliad recurs elsewhere in the early hexameter corpus. Such an expression
either was not needed by the poet of the Iliad or was not near the surface of
his mind: cci|jiaTi KCC! AOOpco TreTraAayiaevov (6.268, 2X Od.); 8i' alOepos
drrpuyEToio (17.425, ix HyDem, ix Hesiod); ^OCVOT) Ar|uf|Tr|p (5.500,
HyDem. 302); TeAea^opov ds SVICCVTOV (19.32, 4X Od., 1 x Hesiod); fjyfjTopa
Aacbv (20.383, ix HyDem, 3X Hesiod); Ool(3os