Homer, a Poet of an Individual Style

Abstract

According to Milman Parry, if a traditional poet abandons formulae to make up expressions of his own, he should be identified as ‘a poet of an individual style’. Since Parry regarded the emergence of such a style in traditional poetry as a symptom of decline, he did not consider Homer to belong to this category. Yet, the formulaic analysis of  Od.  8.77-78 and Od.  1.347-48 shows that,  by Parry’s own criteria, both passages should belong to ‘a poet of an individual style’. Moreover, the characteristic features found in the two passages under discussion can hardly be seen as unique in Homer. Thus, if we are indeed dealing here with the features of an individual style, such a style must have played a considerable role in Homeric diction.