Until now, the emphasis in studies of oral traditional works has been placed on addressing the correspondences among traditions--shared structures of "formula,"

Albert Bates Lord here offers an unparalleled overview of the nature of oral-traditional epic songs and the practices of the singers who composed them. Shaped b

John Miles Foley offers an innovative and straightforward approach to the structural analysis of oral and oral-derived traditional texts. Professor Foley argues

Examines the aesthetics of traditional oral epic. Foley believes that epics share meanings that are inherent in the traditional structures of the idiom employed

In recent decades, the evidence for an oral epic tradition in ancient Greece has grown enormously along with our ever-increasing awareness of worldwide oral tra