Editing Oral tradition (section)

===Poetry of Homer===
{{Further|Oral-formulaic composition}}
Research by [[Milman Parry]] and [[Albert Lord]] indicates that the verse of the Greek poet [[Homer]] has been passed down not by rote memorization but by "[[oral-formulaic composition]]". In this process, extempore composition is aided by use of stock phrases or "formulas" (expressions that are used regularly "under the same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea").<ref>Milman Parry, ''L’epithèt traditionnelle dans Homère'' (Paris, 1928), p. 16; cf. Albert B. Lord, ''The singer of tales'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 4</ref> In the case of the work of Homer, formulas included ''eos rhododaktylos'' ("rosy fingered dawn") and ''oinops pontos'' ("winedark sea") which fit in a modular fashion into the poetic form (in this case six-colon Greek hexameter). Since the development of this theory, of oral-formulaic composition has been "found in many different time periods and many different cultures",<ref name=ADFotA2003:17>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.17</ref> and according to another source (John Miles Foley) "touch[ed] on" over 100 "ancient, medieval and modern traditions."<ref>Foley, John Miles. ''The Theory of Oral Composition''. Bloomington: IUP, 1991, p 36.</ref><ref>Catherine S. Quick, ‘Annotated Bibliography 1986-1990’, ''Oral Tradition'' 12.2 (1997) 366-484</ref><ref>Bannister, Oral-Formulaic Study, 65-106.</ref>