Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens

by Rosalind Thomas

Overview

Scholars are becoming increasingly aware that, despite its written literature, ancient Greece was in many aspects an oral society. In the first major attempt to study the implications of this discovery, Dr. Thomas stresses the coexistence of literacy and oral tradition in Greece and examines their interaction. Concentrating on the plentiful evidence of Classical Athens, she shows how the use of writing developed only gradually and under the influence of the previous oral communications. Using insights from anthropology, the author isolates different types of Athenian oral tradition, constructing a picture of Athenian traditions and exploring why they changed and disappeared. Thomas researches not only the nature of individual traditions, but the mechanisms of oral tradition and memory in general; then the possible effect of writing on oral tradition. This study provides crucial insights into the methods and achievements of the Greek historians and therefore into the very material of Greek history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521350259
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/09/1989
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture , #18
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Literacy, written record and oral communication; 2. Family tradition; 3. Genealogy and family tradition: the intrusion of writing; 4. Official tradition? Polis tradition and the epitaphios; 5. The liberation of Athens and the 'Alcmaeonid tradition'; Epilogue; Appendix: early Greek lists; Chronological table; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"On the whole, this learned book is persuasive, both in its parts and its overall conclusions." Philosophy and Rhetoric

"Rosalind Thomas has given us a landmark book: sinewy, provocative, closely argued, widely ranging, selectively learned and discreetly imaginative." Peter Parsons, London Review of Books

From the Publisher