11 Facts About Milman Parry

Milman Parry was an American Classicist whose theories on the origin of Homer's works have revolutionized Homeric studies to such a fundamental degree that he has been described as the "Darwin of Homeric studies".

Milman Parry grew up in a house full of books, with a father who was self-taught and widely read.

Milman Parry then studied for a PhD at the Sorbonne in Paris and was a student of the linguist Antoine Meillet.

One of the songs, running to some 13,000 lines and performed over five days, was the closest analogue to Homer in quality and quantity; Milman Parry said one "has the overwhelming sense that, in some way, he is hearing Homer".

When Milman Parry returned to the United States in 1935, he learned that his wealthy mother-in-law had fallen in with some people who were exploiting her without her knowledge.

Accounts differ, but she either heard a muffled shot or Milman Parry groaning, and found him shot in the heart.

Detailed examination of the evidence by classicist Steve Reece concurs with the contemporary official conclusion that Milman Parry's death was accidental.

Parry's collected papers were published posthumously in The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry, edited by his son Adam Parry.

Milman Parry's influence is evident in the work of later scholars who have argued that there was a fundamental break in institutional structure between Homeric Greece and Platonic Greece, a break characterized by the transition from an oral culture to a written culture.

Havelock argues that the fixed expressions that Milman Parry identified can be understood as mnemonic aids, which were vital to the well-being of society, given the importance of the information carried by the poetry.

Milman Parry was married to Marian Thanhouser, who came from a German Jewish family, and endured antisemitic comments from some of her husband's colleagues.