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.
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Editorial Reviews
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"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
"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
Book Description
Despite its written literature, ancient Greece was in many ways an oral society. The first significant attempt to study the implications of this view stresses the coexistence of literacy and oral tradition and examines their character and interaction.
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First Sentence:
A discussion of oral tradition, and still more of its interaction with written record, seems to raise questions about the extent of literacy. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
prose genealogists, public stelai, epitaphic tradition, mortgage horoi, legendary ancestry, polis tradition, continuous exile, family defence, literate methods, legendary genealogy, stone stelai, other family traditions, archon list, oral family tradition, official tradition, military expulsion, linear genealogy, full genealogies, general polis, legendary period, legendary genealogies, full genealogy, written genealogy, other oral traditions, oral methods Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Persian Wars, Four Hundred, Peloponnesian War, Trojan War, Peace of Callias, Five Thousand, Middle Ages, Thirty Years Peace, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Cleisthenes of Sicyon, Mother of the Gods, Alcmaeonid Megacles, Corinthian War, Delian League, Near East, Plato's Laches New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
A discussion of oral tradition, and still more of its interaction with written record, seems to raise questions about the extent of literacy. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
prose genealogists, public stelai, epitaphic tradition, mortgage horoi, legendary ancestry, polis tradition, continuous exile, family defence, literate methods, legendary genealogy, stone stelai, other family traditions, archon list, oral family tradition, official tradition, military expulsion, linear genealogy, full genealogies, general polis, legendary period, legendary genealogies, full genealogy, written genealogy, other oral traditions, oral methods Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Persian Wars, Four Hundred, Peloponnesian War, Trojan War, Peace of Callias, Five Thousand, Middle Ages, Thirty Years Peace, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Cleisthenes of Sicyon, Mother of the Gods, Alcmaeonid Megacles, Corinthian War, Delian League, Near East, Plato's Laches New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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This book cites 100
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- The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides on 4 pages
- Literacy in Theory and Practice (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture) by Brian V. Street in Front Matter, page 24, and Back Matter
- Oral Tradition as History by Jan M. Vansina in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Reading and Writing: Literacy in France from Calvin to Jules Ferry (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture) by Francois Furet in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History by Joseph Calder Miller in Front Matter, and Back Matter
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- The Greek World (Routledge Worlds) by Anton Powell on 4 pages
- Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology by Alan L. Boegehold on page 100, page 198, and page 216
- Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium by Albert Borgmann in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myth and Feminist Thought (Classical Presences) by Vanda Zajko on page 311, and Back Matter
- Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature (Library of Ancient Israel) by Susan Niditch in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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