Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece

Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece

Language: English

Pages: 276

ISBN: 0521039150

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The landmark developments of Greek culture and the critical works of Greek thought and literature were accompanied by an explosive growth in the use of written texts from the sixth through the fourth centuries B.C.E. The creation of the "classical" and the perennial use of Greece by later European civilizations as a source of knowledge and inspiration would not have taken place without the textual innovations of the classical period. This book considers how writing, reading, and disseminating texts led to new ways of thinking and new forms of expression and behavior.

The Iliad (Penguin Classics)

Libanius's Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric

Cognition of Value in Aristotle's Ethics: Promise of Enrichment, Threat of Destruction (SUNY Series in Ancient Greek Philosophy)

The Story of Greece

Ten Plays

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

perception of Greek religion be if we did not have the Homeric scenes of sacrifice, the rich ritual repertoires of the tragedians, the prayers and hymns of Aristophanes, or the comparisons of Greek and non-Greek religions that we find in Herodotus?82 Greek poets and prose authors wrote religion with their own agendas in mind, but exploring all those would require another essay.83 80 81 82 83 ¾ t”cnhn poioÅmenov t‡ ¬er†. See Burkert 1992: 41–6 on ritual “craftsmen.” On the Derveni papyrus, see

rested with them in their role as jurors or members of the assembly. It is not at all surprising that no Chinese philosophical or medical debate follows that pattern, since there is simply no Chinese parallel for the Greek experience of a citizen acting as both judge and juror in lawsuits, or of citizens gathering to make decisions in an assembly that was plenipotentiary.23 I shall have more to say about the influence of this model elsewhere on Greek intellectual life when I come to mathematics.

ways that cannot be paralleled in our Chinese evidence whether from the Warring States or from the Han periods.36 In both ancient societies, the literate formed a privileged elite, and in both the importance of written texts for many different purposes grew over time. But the nature of that importance and the trajectory of that growth were not the same. Yet the features that make for the differences, as described here, are not those that relate to the specific technology of the written word. None

geographical description of the world, ascribed to Hesiod, that would be the precedent for Hecataeus’ work of that genre. 20 21 22 23 Puqag»rhv Mnhs†rcou ¬stor©hn ¢skhsen ˆnqrÛpwn m†lista p†ntwn kaª –klex†menov taÅtav t‡v suggraf‡v –poižsato —auto u sof©hn, polumaq©hn, kakotecn©hn. For the restriction of syngraph¯e to works in prose, see Dover 1997: 183–4. Herodotus uses the term only once (1.93.1) for his own activity of recording things worthy of wonder (qÛmata). The authenticity of

reasons. We must bear in mind that Plato’s primary contact with philosophy in the person of Socrates was exclusively oral. Of course, Socrates and Plato were also acquainted with the work of the Presocratics in the written mode. But Socrates, Plato’s paradigm philosopher, did not write. His practice of philosophy was entirely conversational, “dialectical,” as Plato will say. The existence of the Socratic dialogue genre permitted Plato to make use of his extraordinary dramatic talent without

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