Abstract
This study contributes to the understanding of communication in antiquity by analysing a few specific references to oral and literate traditions in Hellenistic and Christian texts. In the Graeco-Roman world we find a surprising widespread reticence towards writing, varying from mere indifference to active scepticism. The scribal culture of antiquity exhibits a strong bias towards orality, with even literates expressing little confidence in writing. There was a prevailing preference for the ‘living voice’ in education, and a strong belief that corpora of teaching which were never written down, and could not be written down, distinguished the insiders from the outsiders.
Highlights
The Greeks of classical times considered writing to have been a factor in the deve lopment of their civilization
PJJBoOia long lives....They managed all without purpose until I revealed to them the patterns, hard to detect, of the rising and setting of the stars
The use of numbers, best of all knowledge, I invented for them and the composition of letters, how to make them work as memory and mother of the arts....Such were the devices I invented for mankind
Summary
The Greeks of classical times considered writing to have been a factor in the deve lopment of their civilization. The Hellenistic age should be characterized by, among many other things, the rise of a particular world-view, a widespread admi ration for things Greek and, pertinent to our discussion, a distinctive attitude towards writing and literacy In his famous study of oral tradition and transmission, Gerhardsson (1961:196197) remarks that the writing-down of the Gospels was really an emergency measure which, among other reasons, was due to ‘a commonplace which we recognize from elsewhere in antiquity: an attitude of scepticism towards the written word’. He refers to ‘the opposition to letters and writing which manifested itself in many cultu res at the time when the art of writing was introduced and which lived on, in various ways and in various forms, long afterwards’ (Gerhardsson 1961:157). These remarks call for a more detailed examination of Hellenistic attitudes towards oral and written communication (cf Botha 1990)
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