SOURCE: "The Odyssey," in The Singer of Tales, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960, pp. 158-85.

A specialist in Slavic studies and contemporary literature, Lord has written extensively on folklore and folk epics. In this essay, he analyzes the structure of the Odyssey as oral epic, emphasizing its place within the context of other narrative oral poetry.

In reading the Odyssey or the Iliad we are at a distinct disadvantage because we are reading isolated texts in a tradition. The comparison with other traditions shows us very clearly that songs are not isolated entities, but that they must be understood in terms of other songs that are current. Had we an adequate collection of ancient Greek epic songs, we could view the Homeric poems from a truer perspective. Much of the difficulty in interpretation in the past has arisen from this lack. Yet the situation would be even worse...