The Scepter and the Spear

The Scepter and the Spear is a wide-ranging reassessment of the study of Homer as literature in the wake of Milman Parry and Albert Lord's discoveries about the nature of oral poetry. Lowenstam's insights into such problems as the functional reality of formulae in general and epithets in particular will be of value not only to Classicists but also to all scholars and students interested in oral poetics.