From recitation to reading: Memory, writing, and composition in Greek philosophical prose

Abstract

This article posits three stages in the developing relationship between memory and writing as exemplified and portrayed in Greek philosophical works of the 6th to 4th centuries B. C. These stages provide evidence for Eric A. Havelock's “dynamic tension” between oral and written traditions. The author argues on the basis of Frances A. Yates’ two categories of memory that both the verbatim memory of words and the memory of things (arguments) interact with writing in three stages: first words and arguments are composed, preserved and published by memory alone; second, orally composed words and arguments preserved in writing are published by memory; and third, spoken words and arguments composed with the aid of memory are preserved in writing, then published by reading a written text aloud.