scene’13 or ‘narrative pattern’14 or ‘theme’ in the sense used by Parry and Lord in their studies of Southslavic epic15 and adopted by other students of techniques of oral composition. It relates to larger units than do these other terms. I am concerned with theme in the sense of the theme of the whole work; one could not speak of the motif or the typical scene of a work. Even a recurrent motif16 does not necessarily constitute a theme. Theme and motif are entities ‘of the same substance’, however,