Literacy in Ancient Greece

Direct observation of contemporary societies at the threshold of widespread literacy has not assisted our understanding of how such literacy altered ancient Greek society, in particular its political culture. The discovery of what Goody has called the “enabling effects” of literacy in contemporary societies tends to seduce the observer into confusing often Goody writes, “alphabetic reading and writing was important for the development of political democracy.”

An examination of the ancient Greek city Athens exemplifies how this sort of confusion is detrimental to understanding ancient politics. In Athens, the early development of a written law code was retrospectively mythologized as the critical factor in breaking the power monopoly of the old aristocracy: hence the Greek tradition of the unless the right of interpretation is “democratized,” the mere existence of written laws changes little.

In fact, never in antiquity did any but the elite consult documents and books. Even in Greek courts the juries heard only the relevant statutes read out during the proceedings, as they heard verbal testimony, and they then rendered their verdict on the spot, without the benefit of any discussion among themselves. within the speeches, rather than by their own access to any kind of document or book

Granted, people today also rely heavily on a truly knowledgeable minority for information and its interpretation, often transmitted orally. Yet this is still fundamentally different from an ancient society in which there was no “popular literature,” i.e., no newspapers, magazines, or other media that dealt with sociopolitical issues. An ancient law code so not because of widespread literacy, but because the elite had chosen to accept democratic institutions.