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Nov 21, 2016Article Details
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Main Article Content
Living voice and lifeless letters: Reserve towards writing in the Graeco-Roman world
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.
