Homer's Winged Words: The Evolution of Early Greek Epic Diction in the Light of Oral Theory (review)

Despite its title, this book is a detailed study not of the evolution of early Greek epic diction, but of a single phenomenon—what Reece calls, following Louis Marck's 1960 coinage, "junctural metanalysis" (JM), i.e., the resegmentation occurring at the juncture of word boundaries. Reece's choice to focus on a single, albeit insufficiently studied, aspect of the shaping of early Greek epic diction is a wise one, since with the exception of Leumann no systematic treatment of resegmentation in Homeric Greek has appeared in more than a hundred years. Despite some deficiencies, the author has clearly succeeded in producing a fine piece of scholarship with respect to both its comprehensiveness and its ability to interpret JM within the evolutionary process of what we call Homeric epic.

The book is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the different categories of JM, the second with individual cases. In the first part, the author, after delineating the general framework within which his research will be conducted, embarks on exploring five distinct cases of JM: (i) JM owing to nu-ephelkystikon and final nu; (ii) JM owing to movable and final sigma; (iii) JM owing to movable and final kappa; (iv) JM owing to vocal elision; (v) JM of Homeric toponyms.

In the second part, Reece studies individual cases of JM like Ἄβιοι and Γάβιοι, Σελλοί and Ἑλλοί; the particles ταρ and ἄρ’; the epithets φολκός and (ἐφ)ὁλκός; the stems γνυ- and ἰγνυ-; the prepositional phrases κατὰ κρῆθεν and κατ’ ἄκρης; the epithets ἀσφοδελός and σφοδελός; the nouns ἀσάμινθος and νασάμινθος; the epithets σῶκος and ὠκύς; the expressions πτολέμοιο γέφυραι and πτολέμοιό γ’ ἔφυραι; the epithets πτερόεις and ἄπτερος. The book also includes illustrations and maps, three appendices, bibliography, and three indexes (locorum, nominum, and verborum).

In my limited space, I can comment on only one main issue. In his examination of ὀκρυόεις / κρυόεις as a case of vocal elision (81-88), Reece meticulously discusses the thorny issue of whether we are dealing with an oral/aural metanalysis or a case of scribal mistake, i.e., a metacharacterismos. He quite rightly takes into consideration multiple factors (metrical, semantical as by-product of folk etymologizing, formulaic) that may have caused what he regards as a remarkable epic form, but I think he overstresses the fact that no extant manuscript records the reconstructed form κρυόεντος (and in another case κρυοέσσης). Given that according to his argument this JM had entered the Iliad at an early, pre-Homeric stage, it is quite reasonable that no scribe, when the text started being copied, had the knowledge to locate it and correct it.

Two general remarks follow. First, it seems to me that more stress should have been given to the role of other factors within which JM is operating: dialectic loans; alliterative effects; interaction between the Iliadic and Odyssean tradition concerning certain formulas (e.g., τανηλεγέος θανάτοιο may have been the result of alliteration in the Iliad and then the formula may have been picked up by Odyssean bards); sound symbolism; influence of the vernacular that we hardly know, etc. Secondly, I am generally quite convinced by Reece's analysis of JM as a phenomenon that occurred at a pre-Homeric state, but aren't there any cases where scribal errors have produced such effects? A general discussion of this issue would have helped.

The questions and criticism presented above do not diminish the importance of Reece's work. The author has produced the most up-to-date monograph on JM and I am confident that his work will be on the shelf of all those seriously interested in the study of epic diction. The present reviewer has learned a lot from this book, some of whose advantages it is my pleasure to acknowledge: Reece writes in plain English and avoids unnecessary jargon; he makes ample use of ancient sources, such as lexica and scholiasts; he is quite systematic in his presentation of the relevant material; he covers more cases of JM than anyone else I...