Homer's Living Language

What if formularity meter and Kunstsprache in Homer weren''t abstract mechanical systems that constrained the poet''s freedom but rather adaptive technologies that helped poets to sustain feats of great creativity? This book explores this hypothesis by reassessing the key formal features of Homer''s poetic technique through the lenses of contemporary linguistics and the cognitive sciences as well as by drawing some unexpected parallels from the contemporary world (from the dialects of English used in popular music to the prosodic strategies employed in live sports commentary to the neuroscience of jazz improvisation). Aimed at Classics students and specialists alike this book provides thorough and accessible introductions to the main debates in Homeric poetics along with new and thought-provoking ways of understanding Homeric creativity.