Literacy in the Athenian Democracy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9290271 |
|---|---|
| Authors | F D Harvey, Fiona Harvey (0000-0002-9261-5699, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1966 |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue | 376 |
| Pages | 585-635 |
| Publication date | 1966-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Revue des Études Grecques (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-2039 • E-ISSN: 2260-8079 |
| Publisher | Association of Greek Studies (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3406/reg.1966.3884 |
| OpenAlex | W2025799288 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 84 |
How many Athenians in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. could read and write ? The author discusses in detail the evidence of ostracism, the law-courts, the secretaries, inscriptions and public notices, drama, vase-painting, trade and business, private life, and individuals (§§ 3-11). Much of this evidence is inconclusive, but although many inhabitants of the country districts of Attica, and many Athenian women, were illiterate or semi-literate (§§ 12-13), it may safely be deduced that the majority of Athenian citizens could read and write. The evidence on which the author would lay the greatest stress is briefly recapitulated in § 15. In particular, the thesis of Hasebroek that Greek traders were illiterate is rejected (§ 9). By contrast, the Spartans lacked the facility in reading and writing which the Athenians possessed (§ 14). The methods by which these skills were taught at Athens are also considered (§ 16) ; and a final note discusses the evidence for libraries and the book-trade
Art · Democracy · Drama · Literacy · Literature · Ostracism · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Law
Writing and Society
Euripides and the Poetics of Nostalgia
Phoenicians and Greeks
Literacy
The Archidamian War
Sicily, 478-431 b.c.
Lyric Oblivion
Literacy in Greek and Chinese Science
Memory, the Orators, and the Public in Fourth-century bc Athens
Panhellenic Cults and Panhellenic Poets
The literature of the Empire
Monody
Economies of Memory in Greek Tragedy
Homer
Athenian Religion and Literature
Plotinus on Memory, Recollection and Discursive Thought
The Athenian revolution
The Thirty Years' Peace
Sources, chronology, method
The Place and Nature of Memory in Greek Historiography
Athenian Cults and Festivals
Hellenistic poetry
Historiography
Reflecting on Writing and Culture
Epilogue
The Greek Philosophers on How to Memorise – and Learn
Choral lyric in the fifth century
Oratory
Books and readers in the Greek world
Aristophanes and his Muses, or Memory in a Comic Key
Society and Economy
Introduction
The Delian League to 449 b. c.
Prose Performance Texts
From Letters to Literature
The Spartan Resurgence
Rebuilding in Athens and Attica
Plotinus
Comedy
Hellenistic Cultural Memory
Mainland Greece, 479–451 b. c.
Athens as a Cultural Centre
The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod
Art
Classical Cities and Sanctuaries
Archaic choral lyric
Claudius Aelianus
Greece after the Persian Wars
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition
Elegy and iambus
Writing Religion
Writing, Law, and Legal Practice in the Athenian Courts
Is Memory of the Past?
Letters of the Law
Speaking in the Wax Tablets of Memory
Plato and the Socratic work of Xenophon
Voice and Sign in Pindar
Aristotle
Writing Philosophy
Writing for Reading
Esclaves et affranchis trahis par leur nom dans les arts de l’Islam médieval
Herodot und mündliche Überlieferung
Literacy among the Pre-Columbian Maya
Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece
Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
The Cambridge Ancient History
Greek Memories
Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World
Fonctions de l'écriture dans les inscriptions religieuses de l'Anatolie romaine
Hipódamo en Turios
The Papyrus from the ‘Musician’s Tomb’ in Daphne (MΠ 7449, 8517-8523)
Once More, The Client/ Logographos Relationship
Could Greek women read and write
Pausanias' attitude to antiquities
De Thalès à Anaxagore
When is a Sale Not a Sale? The Riddle of Athenian Terminology for Real Security Revisited
History in Anthropology
The Preliteracy of the Greeks
Literate education in classical Athens
A Companion to Ancient Epigram
La morphologie humaine et la direction des écritures
The social context of literacy in Archaic Greece and Etruria
Chacun sa croix. Retour sur une énigme de l'iconographie grecque
| Unique citing works | 84 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,71 |
| Citation span | 1977 - 2022 (46) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 84 |