The common voice of the people : the importance of proclamation in Archaic and Classical Greece with special respect to Athens
The Common Voice of the People is a study of the importance of heralds and their proclamations to the communal life of the ancient Athenian polis in the Archaic and Classical periods. This dissertation aims to contribute to the growing body of modern scholarship on issues of public communication, the tension between literacy and orality, the importance of ritual in the ancient polis, and the varied roles and identities of Greek heralds. While there has been a great focus in recent scholarship on literacy and the written record, the official place of orality within the Classical polis has been neglected, and until now there has never been a full scale study of heralds and their place within the community. Building upon the recent scholarship on news dispersal within the polis I have explored the positions and roles of the ancient Athenian heralds within their community, and the historical progression of the heraldâs position from Geometric Greece to the end of the Classical world. I have sought to determine what their importance and the importance of their proclamations was to the proper functioning of the Athenian community. Marshalling evidence from both literary and epigraphic evidence I employed these
Brown, Andrew
History of the ancient world ; Greek history ; communication ; orality ; writing ; heralds
The common voice of the people : the importance of proclamation in Archaic and Classical Greece with special respect to Athens. The Common Voice of the People is a study of the importance of heralds and their proclamations to the communal life of the ancient Athenian polis in the Archaic and Classical periods. This dissertation aims to contribute to the growing body of modern scholarship on issues of public communication, the tension between literacy and orality, the importance of ritual in the ancient polis, and the varied roles and identities of Greek heralds. While there has been a great focus in recent scholarship on literacy and the written record, the official place of orality within the Classical polis has been neglected, and until now there has never been a full scale study of heralds and their place within the community. Building upon the recent scholarship on news dispersal within the polis I have explored the positions and roles of the ancient Athenian heralds within their community, and the historical progression of the heraldâs position from Geometric Greece to the end of the Classical world. I have sought to determine what their importance and the importance of their proclamations was to the proper functioning of the Athenian community. Marshalling evidence from both literary and epigraphic evidence I employed these
common voice people importance proclamation archaic_classical greece special respect athens common voice people study importance communal life ancient athenian polis archaic_classical period aim_contribute grow_body modern_scholarship issue public communication tension literacy orality importance ritual ancient polis vary role identity greek herald great focus recent_scholarship literacy write_record official place orality within classical polis neglect never full scale study herald place_within community building_upon recent_scholarship news dispersal within polis explore position role ancient athenian herald within_community historical progression herald position geometric greece end classical_world seek_determine importance importance proclamation proper function athenian community evidence literary_epigraphic evidence employ