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The Language of Homer

from Part I - Homeric Song and Text

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

Edited by
Corinne Ondine Pache
Edited in association with
Casey Dué ,
Susan Lupack  and
Robert Lamberton
Corinne Ondine Pache
Affiliation:
Trinity University, San Antonio
Casey Dué
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Susan Lupack
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Sydney
Robert Lamberton
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

This chapter is an overview of the typical features of the language of the Homeric poems, prosodic, dialectal, syntactic, and semantic. It argues that the archaic and dialectal elements in Homeric diction are due to deliberate choice on the part of the poets in the tradition to a greater extent than is commonly supposed in the wake of Milman Parry’s theory of oral-formulaic composition.

Keywords

epic dictionarchaismdialectsoral composition
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Guide to Homer , pp. 70 - 79
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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