> [[nagy-g]]. "Song 44 of Sappho revisited: what is ‘oral’ about the text of this song?". Article in [[journal-classical-inquiries]]. > [chs](https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/song-44-of-sappho-revisited-what-is-oral-about-the-text-of-this-song/) > [pdf](a/nagy-g2016-08-31.pdf) ## Excerpts > Part 5. On the basis of comparable meters that are found in Indo-European languages other than Greek, especially in Indic (Vedic Sanskrit), it can be argued that the meters of both Song 44 and Homeric poetry are Indo-European in origin. That is yet another one of the main points I made in {[[nagy-g1974]]:[ch5](https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/5-the-wedding-of-hektor-and-andromache-epic-contacts-in-sappho-44lp/)}. > Part 6. Others too have argued that the meters found in the songs or lyric poetry of Sappho—as also of Alcaeus, and in other Greek lyric poetry—are cognate with the meter of Homeric poetry. Examples include the works of {[[west1973-greek]]}, {[[west1973-metre]]}, {[[berg-n1978]]}, {[[tichy1981]]}, {[[haug-welo2001]]}. What all these works have in common, despite many incompatibilities in methodology, is a general agreement that the multiple meters of Greek lyric and the single meter of epic are Indo-European in origin. But none of these works addresses this question: does lyric, like epic, have a formulaic structure? > Comment 3 via {[[nagy-g1974]]:[145](https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/6-formula-and-meter-a-summary/)}. In the case of the correspondence between lyric …κλέοc ἄφθιτον # (xx)… in Song 44.4 and epic …κλέοc ἄφθιτον || ἔcται # in {[[iliad]]:[9.413–414](https://ahcip.chs.harvard.edu/commentary/?works=iliad&subworks=9&lineFrom=413&lineTo=414)}, the further correspondence of these phrases with Sanskrit _śráva(s)_ … _ákşitam_ in {[[rv]]:[1.9.7](https://vedaweb.uni-koeln.de/rigveda/view/id/1.9.7)} points to an Indo-European heritage for the formulas and meters of ancient Greek verbal art. On the syntax of κλέοc ἄφθιτον | ἔcται # in {[[iliad]]:[9.413–414](https://ahcip.chs.harvard.edu/commentary/?works=iliad&subworks=9&lineFrom=413&lineTo=414)} and of _śráva(s) … ákşitam_ in {[[rv]]:[1.9.7](https://vedaweb.uni-koeln.de/rigveda/view/id/1.9.7)}, I offer both comparative and internal analysis in {[[nagy-g1990-pindar]]:[244–245n126](https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/8-the-authoritative-speech-of-prose-poetry-and-song-pindar-and-herodotus-i/#n.126)} and {[[nagy-g1990-greek]]:[122–127](https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/chapter-5-the-death-of-sarpedon-and-the-question-of-homeric-uniqueness-pp-122-142/)}. > Edited