_____________________________________________________________ Volume 8 March 1993 Number 1 _____________________________________________________________ Editor Editorial Assistants John Miles Foley Dave Henderson Elizabeth P. McNulty Catherine S. Quick Slavica Publishers, Inc. For a complete catalog of books from Slavica, with prices and ordering information, write to: Slavica Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 14388 Columbus, Ohio 43214 ISSN: 0883-5365 Each contribution copyright (c) 1993 by its author. All rights reserved. The editor and the publisher assume no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by the authors. Oral Tradition seeks to provide a comparative and interdisciplinary focus for studies in oral literature and related fields by publishing research and scholarship on the creation, transmission, and interpretation of all forms of oral traditional expression. As well as essays treating certifiably oral traditions, OT presents investigations of the relationships between oral and written traditions, as well as brief accounts of important fieldwork, a Symposium section (in which scholars may reply at some length to prior essays), review articles, occasional transcriptions and translations of oral texts, a digest of work in progress, and a regular column for notices of conferences and other matters of interest. In addition, occasional issues will include an ongoing annotated bibliography of relevant research and the annual Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lectures on Oral Tradition. OT welcomes contributions on all oral literatures, on all literatures directly influenced by oral traditions, and on non-literary oral traditions. Submissions must follow the list-of reference format (style sheet available on request) and must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return or for mailing of proofs; all quotations of primary materials must be made in the original language(s) with following English translations. Authors should submit two copies of all manuscripts. Most contributions will be reviewed by at least one specialist reader and one member of the editorial board before a final decision is reached. Review essays, announcements, and contributions to the Symposium section will be evaluated by the editor in consultation with the board. Oral Tradition appears twice per year, in March and October. Annual subscription charges are $18 for individuals and $35 for libraries and other institutions. All manuscripts, books for review, items for the bibliography updates, and editorial correspondence, as well as subscriptions and related inquiries should be addressed to the editor, John Miles Foley, Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, 301 Read Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Printed in the United States of America. EDITORIAL BOARD Patricia Arant Joseph J. Duggan Brown University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Russian French, Spanish, comparative Samuel Armistead Alan Dundes University of California/Davis Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Hispanic, comparative Folklore Ilhan Bașgöz Mark W. Edwards Indiana University Stanford University Turkish Ancient Greek Richard Bauman Ruth Finnegan Indiana University Open University Folklore African, South Pacific Franz H. Bäuml Donald K. Fry Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles Poynter Institute Middle High German Old English Roderick Beaton Lee Haring King’s College, London Brooklyn College, CUNY Modern Greek African Dan Ben-Amos Joseph Harris University of Pennsylvania Harvard University Folklore Old Norse Daniel Biebuyck Melissa Heckler University of Delaware New York Storytelling Center African Storytelling Issa J. Boullata Dell Hymes McGill University University of Virginia Arabic Native American, Linguistics David E. Bynum Elizabeth Jeffreys Cleveland State University University of Sydney East European, comparative Byzantine Greek Robert P. Creed Michael Jeffreys Univ. of Mass./Amherst University of Sydney Old English, comparative Byzantine Greek Robert Culley Minna Skafte Jensen McGill University University of Copenhagen Biblical Studies Ancient Greek, Latin EDITORIAL BOARD Werner Kelber Felix J. Oinas Rice University Indiana University Biblical Studies Finnish, Russian Robert Kellogg Isidore Okpewho University of Virginia University of Ibadan Old Germanic, comparative African, Ancient Greek Victor Mair Walter J. Ong University of Pennsylvania St. Louis University (Emeritus) Chinese Hermeneutics of orality and literacy John S. Miletich Jeff Opland Las Vegas, Nevada Vassar College Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, African, Old English comparative D. Gary Miller Svetozar Petrović University of Florida University of Novi Sad Linguistics, Ancient Greek Serbo-Croatian, Critical theory Nada Milošević-Djordjević Burton Raffel University of Belgrade Univ. of Southwestern Serbo-Croatian Louisiana Translation Stephen Mitchell Alain Renoir Harvard University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Scandinavian (Emeritus) Old Germanic, Old French, comparative Michael Nagler Bruce A. Rosenberg Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Brown University Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Folk narrative, Medieval comparative literature Gregory Nagy Joel Sherzer Harvard University University of Texas/Austin Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Native American, Anthropology comparative Joseph Falaky Nagy Dennis Tedlock Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles SUNY/Buffalo Old Irish Native American Jacob Neusner Jeff Todd Titon Brown University Brown University Hebrew, Biblical StudiesFelix Music EDITORIAL BOARD J. Barre Toelken Ruth Webber Utah State University University of Chicago Folklore, Native American (Emerita) Spanish, comparative Leo Treitler Michael Zwettler SUNY/Stony Brook Ohio State University Music Arabic Ronald J. Turner Univ. of Missouri/Columbia Storytelling Contents Editor’s Column.......................................................................................... 1 Cluster on Ancient Greek Oral Traditions Egbert J. Bakker Activation and Preservation: The Interdependence of Text and Performance in an Oral Tradition .....................................5 Keith M. Dickson Nestor Among the Sirens ................................................................21 James B. Pearce Theocritus and Oral Tradition .......................................................59 William Merritt Sale Homer and Roland: The Shared Formular Technique, Part I.............................................................. ..............87 Raymond F. Person, Jr. The Interrelationship Between the Oral and the Written in the Works of Alexander Campbell........................................... 143 Eric L. Montenyohl Strategies for the Presentation of Oral Traditions in Print .........159 Ursula Schaefer Alterities: On Methodology in Medieval Literary Studies (The Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lecture for 1991-1992)...... 187 About the Authors ...................................................................................215 Books Received .......................................................................................217 Editor’s Column This first issue of 1993 marks the beginning of the eighth year of publication for Oral Tradition, and with the new year comes a resolution and a change in policy. Readers will notice that this issue contains an extensive Books Received listing in its final pages. This digest, and those to follow at regular intervals, will constitute an invitation for specialists in various fields to contribute a brief review of approximately 500-1000 words on any of the volumes listed. OT’s editorial charter unfortunately does not permit redistribution of the books themselves to reviewers, and so we feel that the profession would be better served by opening up the journal to short reviews—more expeditiously done by a variety of scholars— than to continue strictly with occasional review-essays. This does not mean that the longer genre, complete with discussion of other relevant works, is no longer welcome; on the contrary, we heartily encourage such submissions. But the time seems right to offer another level of review as well, in order to more appropriately and fully serve the needs of an interdisciplinary readership. Let’s keep the rules for brief reviews as simple as possible. Please contact OT (via letter, telephone, or e-mail; addresses below) to arrange to have one or more titles reserved for you and to inform us when to expect your manuscript, and therefore when to schedule publication. Since the evaluations will be brief, please be sure to provide your audience with a concrete overview of the work under consideration, as well as with your judgments about the worth of its contribution. We look forward to working with you on this new project. With this issue we also present another cluster of essays, this one on ancient Greek poetry. It was of course this area in which Milman Parry began his epoch- making research, and, as Mark Edwards’ survey essays on Homer and Oral Tradition have shown (OT, 1[1986]:171-230; 3[1988]:11-60; 7[1992]:284-330), ancient Greek has been the most active field in the scores of language areas affected by his and Albert Lord’s Oral-Formulaic Theory. This cluster illustrates some of the major directions that scholarship on Homer and his colleagues have taken since Parry’s original work. Egbert Bakker begins the symposium with a fundamental critique of the model of communication that underlies Western thinking about language and texts; what he has to say about the Greek situation will certainly apply much more widely. The same is true for Keith Dickson, who follows an earlier