The Textualization of the Greek Alphabet

This book argues that when the Greeks first began to use the alphabet, they viewed themselves as participants in a performance phenomenon.

Roger D. Woodard (Author)

9781107028111, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 March 2014

384 pages, 22 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.68 kg

'I strongly recommend this book … one of the most interesting and illuminating works about the copper plaques in particular, and about the emergence and adaptation of the Greek alphabet in general.' Alfredo Rizza, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

In this book, Roger D. Woodard argues that when the Greeks first began to use the alphabet, they viewed themselves as participants in a performance phenomenon conceptually modeled on the performances of the oral poets. Since a time older than Greek antiquity, the oral poets of Indo-European tradition had been called 'weavers of words' - their extemporaneous performance of poetry was 'word weaving'. With the arrival of the new technology of the alphabet and the onset of Greek literacy, the very act of producing written symbols was interpreted as a comparable performance activity, albeit one in which almost everyone could participate, not only the select few. It was this new conceptualization of and participation in performance activity by the masses that eventually, or perhaps quickly, resulted in the demise of oral composition in performance in Greece. In conjunction with this investigation, Woodard analyzes a set of copper plaques inscribed with repeated alphabetic series and a line of what he interprets to be text, which attests to this archaic Greek conceptualization of the performance of symbol crafting.

1. Background
2. The associative structure of the copper plaques
3. Physical and chemical examination of the copper plaques David A. Scott
4. The syntagmatic structure of the copper plaques
5. Langue et écriture
6. Of styluses and withes
7. The warp and weft of writing.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Language: history & general works [CBX]