Milman Parry

Milman Parry ( * 1902 in Oakland, California, USA, † December 3, 1935 in Los Angeles ) was an American classical scholar and Homer researchers. He is considered one of the most important researchers of oral tradition.

Life and work

Parry studied at the University of California (Berkeley ) and as a student of Antoine Meillet at the Sorbonne in Paris. His doctoral thesis published in 1928 entitled L' epithets traditional dans Homère in Paris.

Parry is best known for his work on Homer's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey and the investigation of their tradition. Parry's publications changed the understanding of Homer and helped in answering the Homeric question. He put forward the theory that the epithets repeatedly linguistic forms are used, the optimum formulations are for the poet, which made it possible to improvise in compliance with the rules of the hexameter also long and complex stories. Through practice, the poet could improve their language skills further. Such formulations may be " inherited singer to singer " of and improve continuously. This was a significant proof of the classical scholars under long controversial theory that the Homeric epics were based on a long oral tradition.

Together with his student Albert Lord he collected between June 1934 and September 1935 12,500 texts in the Balkans. Parry died on December 5, 1935 by a gun, ostensibly in an accident .. There is also a suicide, however, was adopted. Lord led in subsequent years continued Parry's work.

Writings

  • The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry, Oxford University Press, 1987
  • John F. García: " Milman Parry and AL Kroeber: Americanist Anthropology and the Oral Homer". Oral Tradition 16/1, 2001, pp. 58-84.
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