Epistolary writing in ancient Greece: the formation, the evolution and the ideological connotations of a genre
Lead Research Organisation:
Durham University
Department Name: Classics and Ancient History
Abstract
During my leave I plan to complete a critical history of letter writing in ancient Greece, from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period, including a comparison with the Near East. The study of epistolography inevitably involves larger questions about media and communicative strategies, and their respective ideological connotations. (In fifth-century Athens, for instance, the writing of letters could be considered a secretive and (hence) feminine means of communication.) Ancient letters have been preserved in a variety of source materials, which require different analytic skills and perspectives. Some are inscribed on lead or stone, others are mentioned or quoted in full in literary texts (such as historiography, oratory, or comedy). Inscribed and publicly displayed, letters often formed part of the self-promotion of an ancient city-state, and their analysis thus requires archaeological perspectives as well. Overall, my study is concerned with the relation between choice of medium and ideology. It is therefore positioned at various interfaces: between Greece and the Near East; between literature, history, and archaeology; and between orality and literacy.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Paola Ceccarelli (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ceccarelli
(2013)
Ancient Greek Letter Writing: A Cultural History (600 BC- 150 BC)
Paola Ceccarelli
(2013)
The Use (and Abuse) of Letters in the Speeches of the Greek Orators
| Description | During my leave I completed a critical history of letter writing in ancient Greece, from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. Ancient letters have been preserved in a variety of source materials: some are inscribed on lead or stone (I provide texts and lists in two documentary appendices); inscribed and publicly displayed, letters formed part of the self-promotion of an ancient city-state, and their analysis thus requires archaeological perspectives as well. Other letters are mentioned or quoted in full within literary texts (such as historiography, oratory, or comedy); I have given an enunciative analysis of such embedded letters, as well as a narratological interpretation of their function in the genres in which they are embedded. Thus, my research has been conducted at various interfaces: between literature, history, and archaeology, and between orality and literacy, and with methodologies that drew from historical and archaeological analysis, but also linguistics. This is the first achievement: using different methodologies to tackle a very diverse ensemble of materials, that are usually kept discrete, in order to provide new knowledge. in terms of advance of knowledge, I could show that initially, a letter is but the transcription of an oral message (this remains true, even from the formal viewpoint, until the mid-fourth century), and as such, is not viewed differently from an oral message: both can be truthful or deceitful. But letters acquire negative connotations when use of them is made for transactions concerning not the private but the public sphere. These negative connotations are observable especially in Athens, the polis which, already in the third quarter of the fifth century, had advanced most towards a differentiation of private and public sphere: comedy and tragedy testify to an underlying worry concerning epistolary communication. In areas of the Greek world where this differentiation was less marked, such as Sparta or Crete, the letter may have been felt as an unproblematic instrument for managing public policies. The end of the fifth-beginning of the fourth century marks a turning-point: this is when an epistolary language appropriate to, and standard for, private communication takes shape; slightly later, the chanceries of the Macedonian kings and of their successors adapt this private form of communication to communicate with the Greek poleis. The fact that a letter is a personal message, marked by the presence of an 'I' addressing a 'You', and sealed, i.e. excluding others from the exchange, made its use at the interstate level problematic. I show this through a comparison with the city decree: a decree is formulated in the third person and has no addressee; it suits the ideological tendency to autarchy typical of Greek poleis. But a letter must have an addressee; the acceptance of a letter implies entering into an exchange, i.e., accepting the discourse initiated by the other. This goes a long way towards explaining the strange conversation that cities and kings entertained, in the Hellenistic period, with kings writing letters, and cities sending back decrees. A further objective was to show, through a specific example, letter-writing, that 'writing' in itself can be used in a variety of ways, and that it is necessary to look at the concrete, specific ways in which writing is used to make sense of its use 9and appreciation) within a society. This has an impact on wider questions of literacy and its diffusion. |
| Exploitation Route | Attention to media and forms of communication is very alive (one recent instance is the exhibition, with very detailed catalogue, "Der Brief - Ereignis", which took place from September to November 2008 in Frankfurt). The question of the kind of use a society makes of the media at its disposal is a burning one, and people interested in this will find food for thought in my study. After all, Goody's work was grounded on the analysis of ancient Greek material (as well as contemporary African and Asian practices): the same anthropological understanding may derive from study of 'dead' or contemporary societies (see e.g. Assmann on the formation of a canon). My monograph is closely focused on a longer existing society, Ancient Greece, whose relevance to people outside academia is not immediately evident. Yet 1. arguably the legacy of Greek culture still informs our way of viewing things. 2. my argument addresses questions that are of universal interest, such as how does a technical language such as the epistolary one impose itself in a society, how is conformity reached, what are the differentiating processes, how does the medium influence the content, and above all, what kind of relationship a society has with the text-forms it uses. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education |
| Description | The book was published in 2013, thus evidence for its impact is yet limited; I am basing myself on comments by reviewers in the public domain, which imply that the book has opened avenues for further research. A. Bencivenni opens her review (freely available at http://www.sehepunkte.de/2014/05/24454.html) by stressing the 'innovative character' of my book; she further points out that the appendices 1 and 3 are 'indispensabili', as there is no other collection offering this material at the moment. And she points out that my discussion might allow us to rethink the role played by Philip II of Macedon in using letter-writing for administrative purposes. K. Vlassopoulos, in his 'Greece and Rome review' journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0017383515000108 (addressed to a wider public, and particularly teachers) considers that my book will have 'major consequences for the study of the workings of ancient state systems', and that it opens 'new avenues into the study of the interrelationship between written documents and literature'. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | British academy research development award (BARDA) |
| Amount | £48,064 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BR100074 |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2010 |
| End | 06/2012 |
| Description | Series of four papers given at the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited as directeur associé at the EHESS for a period of two months; my role included giving a series of four different talks to students (2 hour long sessions, with c. 1 hour presentation and then debate), in the context of different seminar series (first, Claude Calame's seminar series on 'Literature and society in the ancient world', then François Hartog's on the Near East and Greece, Marcello Carastro's on Magic in ancient Greece, and Pauline Schmitt Pantel's), and also meeting with any interested students, outside the context of the various seminars. The purpose was to present my own research, but also to raise awareness in French students of research done in the UK, and to stimulate cross-cultural comparison. Audiences at seminars were different, but they always comprised a majority of postgraduate students. Concerning the URL: I can enter only one, so I entered Carastro's report; here is Calame's report: http://annuaire-ehess.revues.org/20015?lang=en |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| URL | http://enseignements.ehess.fr/2008/ue/2252/ |
| Description | invited paper, in the context of an advanced seminar in Paris (part of the series organised in the context of ANHIMA: Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Antiques) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk aimed at presenting the results of my research on Hellenistic letters; it was followed by an animated discussion, in which both colleagues and students joined. I would hope that it opened new ways of looking at material in part already known, providing the main audience (PhD students) with some food for thought. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://anhima.fr/spip.php?article1153&lang=fr |