Greek Literary Letters

Abstract

What do we mean by Greek literary letters. Letters in literature? Literature in letter form? Do we include “private” letters (e.g., Plutarch to his wife) if they are later published? The earliest reference to a (proto-) letter in Greek occurs in an epic that otherwise betrays no knowledge of writing (Homer Iliad 6: Bellerophon’s tablet). Yet fictive epistolography as an independent genre flourished only later, in the imperial period (second through third centuries ce). Hundreds of literary letters are printed in Hercher 1873 (cited in Texts and Commentaries): letters from dramas, letters from historians, letters from novels, epistolary novels, collections of love letters, and pseudohistorical or philosophical letters, among others. Yet many remain without modern editions or translations. Studies of epistolography generally explore one of three topics: Authenticity and Classification, sources and receptions, and narrative. The concern with authenticity emerged in Bentley 1697 (cited in Authenticity), and its influential declaration that most letters attributed to classical authors were actually later “forgeries.” This term was then wisely replaced by “fictive” or “pseudepigraphical,” since the letters displayed no evidence of intentional deceit, and some collections included what were accepted as authentic (e.g., Plato Letter 7) as well as spurious texts. As readers became more sensitive to issues of voice and authority, the question of authenticity was replaced by that of classification: were these letters private or public, real or imaginary? Did it matter if they were free-standing or embedded? Classical scholars in the early twentieth century, in particular Deissmann 1927 (cited in Classification), engaged with their Biblical colleagues, seeking ways to identify both letters and epistles, the latter being considered more self-consciously constructed. Two other main paths of study slowly emerged. Some scholars focused on origins and influences, looking to pseudonymous letters as nontraditional sources for information on authors’ lives and teachings. Others connected Greek epistolography to the rise of the European epistolary novel. Yet others located the impulse for pseudepigraphy in rhetorical exercises. The early twenty-first century has turned out to be a golden era for Greek literary letters, as numerous monographs, conference proceedings, translations, and articles tapped into contemporary critical theory and became ever more sophisticated in their approaches to the field. How do literary letters work within or as part of a larger narrative context? What was so appealing to ancient authors about epistolarity as a narrative strategy? Greek literary letters have finally become (again) a legitimate and fruitful object of study.