Literacy and Paideia in Ancient Greece (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews K. Robb, Literacy and Paideia in Ancient Greece. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Pp. x + 13o. Cloth, $45.oo. Robb's book can perhaps best be viewed in the context of previous studies of orality and literacy in the ancient Greek world, especially those of E. A. Havelock: Preface to Plato (1963), The Literate Revolution and Its Cultural Consequences (1982), and The Muse Learns to Write (1986). Havelock's work has stimulated much discussion, some of it still very polemical (e.g., J. Halverson, "Havelock on Greek Orality and Literacy," JHI 53 [1992]: 146-63), and insofar as Robb shares some of Havelock's beliefs about the influence of alphabetic literacy on Plato and other representatives of the so-called "Literate Revolution," he is vulnerable to similar criticisms. And yet Robb claims not only Havelock among "oralist pioneers" (258), but also such diverse scholars as P. Friedl/inder, J. M. Headlam, F. Jacoby, F. B. Jevons, M. Parry, and R. Shute, several of whom belong to the nineteenth century. Indeed, Robb's book has a number of interesting glimpses into the history of classical scholarship. But he also knows the recent (and burgeoning) bibliography on ancient Greek orality and literacy quite well, and has produced a study that is original and stimulating in its own right. Literacy and Paideia in the Ancient Greek World is divided into three somewhat unequal parts, and although they form a coherent and consistent whole, each part may perhaps appeal to a different group of readers and scholars. Part I, for example, on "The Origins of Greek Literacy," treats the often meager evidence for the alphabet's origin in ancient Greece (possibly a conversion of the Phoenician script into the first complete alphabet to record hexametric verse), a topic of special interest to students of the alphabet's history, Greek epigraphy, and the Homeric epics. Part II, "The Alliance between Literacy and the Law," has perhaps more interest for students of early law, especially the "Great Code" of Gortyn (in Crete), and the increasing influence of literacy on Athenian law. Part III, "The Alliance between Literacy and Paideia," probably has greatest attraction for students of Plato and ancient philosophy, for in this third part Robb discusses the influence of Homeric epics and early orality on the Ion and Euthyphro and the concept of mim#sis ("imitation") in the Republic. This latter term is never quite defined or explained by Robb, but according to him, mimesis can "occur only when verses are being heard or performed" (22o), a doubtful assertion since one can also imitate what is read, e.g., the description of a character's behavior in an epic. In any case, according to Robb, Plato's banishment of mimesis occurs in the Laws when written dialogue is finally put to use, an observation with which Plato scholars may disagree (see 236-39 ). Even before the Laws, emphasis had been "placed on a prose [451 ] 45~ JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 34:3 JULY 1996 text" (238), and an element of "oralism" (conversation, dialogue?) remains in all of Plato's written works. Nonetheless, Robb's "speculations" on the Platonic dialogues (233-39) are certainly worth reading. Robb is quite aware that his book stirs up controversial issues, and some of these are briefly stated and discussed in his concluding chapter, "Homer, the Alphabet, and the Progress of Greek Literacy and Paideia." And yet in the very notions of "literacy" and "progress," some weaknesses in Robb's work can be found. For example, as W. V. Harris observed in his Ancient Literacy (1989) , 3ft., there is no single definition of literacy or orality, and although Robb cites Harris's book (4 et passim), he takes no special account of it in attempting to define or characterize what he means by "orality" and "literacy." And in his zeal to provide a survey of the influence of alphabetic literacy on Plato, Robb perhaps oversimplifies the tension that existed between the spoken and written work in the ancient world. Much of Greek (and Roman) "literature" remains the product of literate, slaveowning , and well-educated authors, written for their peers. Robb suggests as much in his...