History / Writing / Recording

• Greeks were the first to take a formal interest in 'history'.
• The word history comes from the Greek historia, meaning knowledge gained from enquiry (as meaning remains in contemporary, Natural History.)
• History developed into a science - meant to be non-mythical.
• History came to mean the narrative of the past.

• Hecateus - 6th / 5th C. BC
  First historian of any significance. Wrote 'History' and 'Tour Around the World', fragments survive.
• Theoponus of Chios
  The historical knowledge and record-keeping of the Egyptian priests impressed him.
• Herodotus
  (c.484 - 425 BC) Known as the 'Father of History.'
• Thucydides
  (c.460 - 400 BC) Herodotus' immediate successor and rival.
• Xenophone
  Less rigorous 'historian' - but wrote in lovely Athenian prose!

HERODOTUS(c.484 - 425 BC)	shared views / approaches	THUCYDIDES(c.460 - 400 BC)
	History should be scientific - not mythical.
	History should be critical of sources & evidence.
	History should attempt to separate the true from the false.
A critical attitude to evidence.	Summarizes the dramatic change in intellectual culture at this time, especially in Athens.	VERY critical & selective attitude to evidence. Raised issues of a) fallibility of human memory, and b) prejudice.
Wrote about the Persian Wars in his Histories - events in the relatively near past.		Wrote about the Peloponnesian War because he had lived through it.
Written to be read aloud, for hearing.		Written for re-reading and studying
Homeric style - still essentially part of the oral tradition		Forensic in style.
Written to retell and record stories and traditions.		Written to be a possession for all time, to be appreciated fully only outside the context of a live recitation.
	However, BOTH were dependent on the oral as their primary source of evidence…
H. covered broad bands of time space, Greek and non-Greek affairs.		…therefore, T. limited himself to contemporary history, that which he'd seen/heard for himself - or at most, first hand interviews with reliable witnesses.

• "...Our modern notion of history as a critical, disinterested enquiry into the significant facts of the past and a rational, objective exploration of them, is thus a legacy of Herodotus and Thucydides"

• The main point to remember about the Greeks, was that theirs was an ORAL culture.
• The Greek for 'to read' means literally, 'to recognize again'. Things were written down secondarily - the emphasis was on their being heard and familiar through hearing, first of all.
• The Greek alphabet is the direct or indirect ancestor of all European alphabets.
• The early Greek alphabet was written from right to left, but by 500 BC, all strains were written from left to right - the alphabet became uniform throughout the Greek world.
• Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters (capitals) including 7 vowels.
• Written Greek in its oldest form is known as Linear B, and dates from around 1400 to 1200 BC. This was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952.
• Linear B derives from Linear A - an ancient language from Crete and some Aegean islands, from approx. 1850 BC to 1400 BC.
• Linear B texts are very important to Greek linguists - elements of the Ancient Greek dialect have survived in Homer's language, as a result of the long oral tradition of epic poetry.

• ENORMOUS influence of Greek writing on the West.
• 4 major periods of Greek literature: a) preclassical, b) classical, c) Hellenistic-Roman, and d) Byzantine. Of these, the most significant works were produced during the preclassical and classical eras.
  1. Epic Tradition: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Based on ancient legends.
  2. Lyric Poetry: From as early as 700 BC - a type of poetry sung to the accompaniment of a lyre. [See Sappho (610 - 580 BC), Pindar (b.510 BC)]
  3. Tragedy: Greeks invented drama. Hundreds of dramas written and performed during the classical age. [Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.]
  4. Comedy:
  5. History: (see above).
  6. Philosophy:[Socrates, Plato, Aristotle]. With the death of Aristotle in 322 BC, the classical era of Greek literature drew to a close.

• There is ample documentation of business, financial and legal transactions.
• Formal documents recording religious administration and ritual and liturgical instructions.
• Epitaphs and tomb inscriptions.