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2. The Iliad as heroic poetry
Comparison between Greek and other epic poetry has produced some of the
most fruitful, though not necessarily correct, approaches to the Homeric
poems. It is enough to mention Lachmann, Murray, and Parry in this
connexion. Comparison is suggestive but can prove nothing, for the basic
rule of all analogical reasoning has to be that like is compared with like.
Yet the striking thing about the material discussed by H. M. and N. K.
Chadwick (1932-40) and Bowra (1952) was how different all these poems
and stories were. Bowra used nothing from Africa south of the Sahara or
from modern India or Thailand, and tacitly assumed there was no heroic
poetry from the New World. Since then the range of material cited by
Finnegan (1977) and Hatto (1980-9) suggests that narrative verse is, or has
been, universal; the mass of material has also become unwieldy, far more
than it is reasonable to expect a single mind to know with the degree of
intimacy that validates comparative study. On the broad front co-operative
studies such as that directed by Hatto are necessary, while even the investigation
of a narrowly defined topic, such as Foley's study (Traditional Oral
Epic, 1990) of formulas in Greek, Slavic, and Old English epic (which led to
the recognition of what is really fundamental in the composition of the
verses) requires a profound knowledge of all three traditions. Consequently,
unless students of Homer are exceptional polymaths they must rely on a
selection of secondary sources; these, fortunately, are of high quality:
H. M. and N. K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature i-m (Cambridge
1932-40)
CM. Bowra, Heroic Poetry (London 1952)
J. de Vries, Heroic Song and Heroic Legend trans. B. J. Timmer (Oxford
1963), a popular account
N. K. Chadwick and V. M. Zhirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia (Cambridge
1969), a revision of The Growth of Literature m 3-226
R. Finnegan, Oral Poetry. Its Nature, Significance and Social Context (Cambridge
1977)
F. J. Oinas, ed., Heroic Epic and Saga: an Introduction to the World's Great Folk
Epics (Bloomington 1978)
A. T. Hatto, ed., Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry 1-11 (London 1980-9)
The journal Oral Tradition (Columbus 1986- )
The Chadwicks (in 697-903) and Hatto (11 145-306) provide digests of
the material surveyed.
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