Rethinking Orality IV: Greek Epic Poetry and Some Storytelling Traditions

These studies stem from the need to open a dialogue between anthropologists, ethnographers, historians of religions and classical philologists. They therefore investigate the forms, modes and functions of traditional narratives from a comparative perspective. The scholars' gaze focus widens to expands to include non-European storytelling traditions, providing, in Weberian terms, models to be applied to historical reconstruction, in full awareness of the sterility of sectorial closures and the need to broaden the interpretative tools of a 'total social fact' such as the Archaic Greek epic.