He continued with a plea for a better kind of word or speech and one having far greater power. ‘I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner which can defend itself, and knows when to speak and when to be silent.’
The character of Socrates worked through the spoken word. He knew that ‘the letter is destined to kill much (though not all) of the life that the spirit has given’.[85] He was the last great product and exponent of the oral tradition. Plato attempted to adapt the new medium of prose to an elaboration of the conversation of Socrates by the dialogue with its question and answer, freedom of arrangement and inclusiveness. A well-planned conversation was aimed at discovering truth and awakening the interest and sympathy of the reader. The dialogues were developed as a most effective instrument for preserving power of the spoken word on the written page and Plato's success was written in the inconclusiveness and immortality of his work. His style was regarded by Aristotle as half-way between poetry and prose. The power of the oral tradition persisted in his prose in the absence of a closely ordered system. Continuous philosophical discussion aimed at truth. The life and movement of dialectic opposed the establishment of a finished system of dogma. He would not surrender his freedom to his own books and refused to be bound by what he had written. ‘The Platonic dialogue was as it were the boat in which the shipwrecked ancient poetry saved herself together with all her children’ (Nietzsche). Plato attacked the pedagogical value of poetry and of Homer by pointing to the contrast between philosophy and poetry, truth and sham, and expelled poets from the state. The medium of prose was developed in defence of a new culture. In opposition to the highest authority of the gods and the poets and with no examples to which he could appeal he worked out a new position through the use of dialogues, allegories, and illustrations. His later work reflected the growing power of the written word and of prose.
In Aristotle the power of the spoken word declined sharply and became a source of confusion. The dialogue form was used but with an important change in which he made himself the interlocutor. In the main, literary activity was practically abandoned and the Politics appears to have been made up from notes of his lectures. Carefully integrated work written in more popular style and probably intended for publication was followed by treatises which became a basis for teaching and lecturing. ‘The scientific spirit no longer feels itself bound to put itself under the protection of its elder sister the literary spirit.’[86] Extension of the written tradition under the influence of Aristotle was evident in a movement to collect and preserve books which corresponded roughly with the founding of his school in 335 B.C. But neither Aristotle nor Plato appears to have regarded a library among the requirements of an ideal state.
The conquest of prose over poetry assumed a fundamental change in Greek civilization. The spread of writing destroyed a civilization based on the oral tradition, but the power of the oral tradition as reflected in the culture of Greece has continued throughout the history of the West, particularly at periods when the dead hand of the written tradition threatened to destroy the spirit of Western man.
Plato and Aristotle wrote in a period after the great tragedy of the oral tradition had been witnessed in the fall of Athens and the execution of Socrates. These were symptoms of the collapse of a culture and of the necessity of starting from a new base which emphasized a medium other than poetry. ‘The earlier the language the richer it is—masterpieces only make their appearance when it is already in its decline’ (Burckhardt). Plato and Aristotle had no alternative but to search for the basis of another culture in the written tradition. After Aristotle ‘the Greek world passed from oral instruction to the habit of reading’.
In contrast with the Aryans in Asia Minor the Greeks were less exposed to the influence of those whom they had conquered. Minoan civilization with its maritime empire had escaped the full impact of continental civilizations and in turn was less able to impose its culture on the immigrants of the northern mainland. The complexity of the script of Minoan civilization and its relative restriction to Crete left the Greeks free to develop their own traditions. Successive waves of Greek immigrants checked the possibility of conservative adaptation of cultural traits. The existence of a powerful court and later of a number of feudal courts favoured the growth of an oral tradition and resistance to complete acceptance of other cultures. The Greeks took over the conventional Phoenician Semitic consonantal alphabet and the Cypriote syllabary and adapted them to the demands of a rich oral tradition possibly as late as the beginning of the seventh century.[87] The Greek archaic alphabet was not cursive in form but of the type used by Phoenicians about the middle of the ninth century. The earliest Greek inscriptions dated from about the middle of the eighth century and writing was used for public inscriptions from about the seventh century. An alphabet of twenty-four letters which represented consonants to Semitic peoples proved exportable and adaptable to Greek demands. A different language structure and systems of sounds led the Greeks to use Semitic consonantal characters, which were useless to their language, as vowels which were indispensable to them. Since vowels were of equal value with consonants, they had to be represented in each written word. They permitted the expression of fine distinctions and light shades of meaning. The Greek language ‘responds with happy elasticity to every demand of the Greek intellect ... the earliest work of art created by the spontaneous working of the Greek mind.’[88] Woolner described the change as one of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect.
The power of the oral tradition implied the creation of a structure suited to its needs. Minstrels developed epic poems in hexameter which involved rigidities but permitted elasticities facilitating adaptation to the demands of vernacular speech. Epic technique involved the use of a particular language with forms, words, and stock expressions bound up with the metre. Epic poetry apparently began before the Dorian invasion and after the break up of the Achaeans was preserved by their northern branch, the Aeolians, and carried by them to the Ionians in Asia Minor. A traditional epic language was built up first in the Aeolian dialect and secondly in the Ionic dialect. Ionian minstrels took over the Aeolian epic and developed their own epic language. The Homeric poems appeared in the Ionian language with a substantial mixture of archaic forms appropriate to epic style in Aeolic which were retained particularly because of their adaptability to versification. The fixed epithet was used repeatedly because of its metrical convenience. A noun epithet of a certain metrical value was used as a convenient expression to the exclusion of all other formulas by generations of singers. Stock expressions and phrases persisted as aids. Audiences regarded the ornamental gloss as an element of heroic style.[89]
Nilsson describes the epic style as a conventionalized outcome of a long evolution extending from the thirteenth and twelfth to the ninth and eighth centuries. The great epics were probably developed out of lays constantly retold and amplified. Old ballads were replaced by combinations of a number of episodes into a unity of action. The epic was characterized by extreme complexity and unity. In the early stages epic songs accompanied the dance. Singing was accompanied by the lyre and the melody helped to fix the metre which was always the same. A highly specialized skill meant that epic poetry was in the hands of those with excellent memories and poetical and linguistic abilities. The art of singing was attached to certain families, members of which learned the poetical art. The singer improvised to meet the demands of epic technique and while language became archaic it was rejuvenated by poets using the language of the age. In the Odyssey court minstrels were more conspicuous than in the Iliad and a profession probably developed with an interest in fixed chants. Professional story-tellers probably built up a system of signs which were privately owned and carefully guarded for purposes of recitation. The disciple was required to show a capacity to handle and to use his master's book. Nilsson suggests that a great poet probably formed a school which brought the Greek epics to a point excelling all others.[90]
The Homeridae became a profession
of minstrels who, to please an audience, were required constantly to reshape the Homeric poems to suit the needs of new generations. Restrictions incidental to the adaptability of archaic language to versification and the concern of a profession with limited changes made the poems less responsive to the demands of ordinary speech.[91] Generations of poets intensified the imagination of the Iliad[92] and had a profound influence on the literature of Greece and Europe. Under the influence of a profession the Odyssey reflected a changed, decentralized society with restrictions on royal prerogatives.
The Homeric poems of the Heroic age were produced in a society in which the ties of kindred were weakening and the bond of allegiance was growing. An irresponsible kingship resting on military prestige held together kingdoms with no national basis. Tribal cults were subordinated to the worship of a number of universally recognized and anthropomorphic deities. Society was largely free of restraint. Tribal law had ceased to maintain its force and the individual was free from obligations to kindred and community. Over a long period the courts had appropriated the culture, wealth, and luxury of earlier civilizations and the influence of a civilized people was stamped on a semi-civilized people.[93] An aristocratic civilization assumed a fixed residence, ownership of land, respect for ‘good breeding’, and a high social position for women. Justice and right dealing were the all-important principles by which prince and peasant were equally bound.[94]
The epic had grown and declined with monarchy. The place of the epic in an aristocratic society assumed that mastery of words meant intellectual sovereignty. But the limited size of the epics, determined by the demands of an oral tradition, while permitting constant adaptation and improvement, assumed relative inflexibility and compelled the emergence of completely new content to describe conditions of marked change. In contrast with Hebrew books in which old and new elements were pieced together by scribes and in which the large size of the scriptures and their sacred and holy character checked the possibility of new developments, the oral tradition under the control of minstrels necessitated new developments. Popular poetry appeared in the form and style of language of the Homeric poems. Before the end of the eighth century Hesiod produced poetry in the heroic hexameter which in content was in sharp contrast with the Homeric poems. The adaptability of the oral tradition was shown in a production by an individual who made no attempt to conceal his personality and in which no interest was shown in court life or in the avoidance of indelicate subjects. In contrast with the place of woman in the chivalry of Homer, she had become the root of all evil.
Following the break of the individual from the minstrel tradition evident in Hesiod, the oral tradition became more flexible, poems were shorter and responses to new demands more effective. The change from kingdoms to republics in the eighth and seventh centuries was reflected in the development of an original style of poetry in the elegaic and the iambic. The iambic poetry of Archilochos (about 740-670 B.C.) responded to the demands of a more important public opinion and contributed powerfully to the breaking down of the heroic code in the latter half of the seventh century. He used a literary language slightly different from the Asiatic Ionic and his influence was reflected in its acceptance in Athens in the seventh century.
Music was an integral part of the oral tradition and accentuated its flexibility. The lyre was used to accompany epic poetry and was the chief instrument of the Apollonian cult. Song was united to poetry. The Aeolians centring at Lesbos made important contributions in its improvement and gave it a prominent place in the development of lyric poetry. In lyrics the oral tradition was extended to express the feelings of women. Sappho, in the words of Jaeger, explored the last recesses of personal emotion.
The appearance of a large number of short personal lyrics in the late seventh and sixth centuries has been held to coincide with the spread of writing and an increase in the use of papyrus. The position of professional minstrels was weakened as literature was propagated and perpetuated by the increase in writing. Decline of Phoenicia had been followed by expansion of Greece. An increase in foreign and domestic trade, particularly after the introduction of coined money from Lydia, accompanied the decline of an aristocratic society. Changes in social, economic, and political conditions demanded fresh response in literature and provided material by which the response could be made. In 670 B.C. Egyptian ports were opened to Greek trade and after 660 B.C. Greeks were given permission to go anywhere in Egypt in recognition of their services as mercenaries in the war against Assyria. In about 650 B.C. a Greek settlement was founded at Naucratis. Greek expansion continued after the capture of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar in 574 B.C. but was checked by the arrival of the Persians in Egypt in 525 B.C. The availability of papyrus favoured the spread of writing but difficulties in obtaining it delayed encroachment on the oral tradition.
New types of literature reflected the efficiency of the oral tradition in expressing the needs of social change. It permitted a changing perspective as to the place of older types of literature. In the Homeric poems the sacred myths were taken over from earlier civilizations, humanized and incorporated in heroic mythology. The gods became anthropomorphic deities. Magical rites were adopted into a worship of gods but their magical character with belief in power or mana which pervaded everything was pushed into the background. Migratory people had left their local gods behind or subordinated them to the place of retainers and followers in a hierarchical structure of great deities in which Zeus held the first place. The old nature gods were unable to meet new demands. Deities of universal significance were built up to express the higher functions of life and myths were transformed to influence the conduct of men. Anthropomorphism and the absence of magic and limitations on the power of the gods assumed rationalism and the necessity of finding order and coherence in the world. ‘The Greek view of the relation of men to the gods was mechanical.’ Decline of belief in the supernatural led to the explanation of nature in terms of natural causes. With the independent search for truth science was separated from myth. ‘By his religion man has been made at home in the world.’ The minstrels were followed by the rhapsodists and in turn by the Ionian philosopher. The latter built up where the former pulled down.[95] In contrast with the Hebrew phrase[96] ‘and God said’ repeated at every new creative act of Jahweh and implying the creative word or Logos standing at the head of a series of creative acts, the Greeks placed Eros at the head of the procreative series.
‘The Logos is a substantialization of an intellectual property or power of God, the creator, who is stationed outside the world and brings the world into existence by his own personal fiat. The Greek gods are stationed inside the world; they are descended from Heaven and Earth, the two greatest and most exalted parts of the universe; and they are generated acts by the mighty power of Eros, who likewise belongs within the world as an all-engendering primitive force.’[97]
In the expansion of maritime trade Ionian cities, notably Miletus, occupied an important place. A common language emerged to meet the demands of merchants and navigators. The Ionians were the first to create a literary language not peculiar to the city. The epic poems as creations of the Panhellenic spirit gave a consciousness of nationality and the epic language became a common bond overriding numerous dialects and preparing the way for the acceptance of the Ionic alphabet and the Attic dialect. With a written language differences in dialects were further weakened.
Navigation implied an intensive concern with nature in sea, air, and land. Thales of Miletus (640-546 B.C.) as a merchant and probably interested in architecture and agriculture seized on the possibilities of mathematics. He is said to have discovered trigonometry by measuring the distances of ships at sea from land. An interest in geometry followed acquaintance with land measurement in Egypt. Study of astronomy with its importance to navigation enabled him to master Babylonian contributions and to predict an eclipse of 28 May, 585 B.C. But whereas in Egypt mathematics like ethics and medicine had been developed empirically and stopped short of philosophy, it b
ecame to Thales a means of discarding allegory and myth and advancing universal generalizations. He concluded that the nature of things is water, and that the all is alive and full of daemons or gods. Opposition was evoked in Anaximander (about 611-547 B.C.), a cartographer, who sought for a more general conception unlimited by qualities. Geometry was used to develop a conception of the earth and of the universe. An idea of the cosmos implied a break with current religious beliefs and a revelation that Being was divine. Only in eternal Being could eternal Becoming have its origin. By abstraction Anaximander drew a line of distinction between super-sensible soul substance and sensible embodiments. Primary physis was distinguished from visible elements. It is significant that he was the first to write down his thoughts in prose[98] and to publish them, thus definitely addressing the public and giving up the privacy of his thought. The use of prose reflected a revolutionary break, an appeal to rational authority and the influence of the logic of writing.
Milesian philosophers began by clearing away the over-growth to discover a fundamental conceptual framework. They attacked problems which had been emphasized in religious and popular representation. Social custom, structure, and institutions lay behind religion and religion behind philosophy. The Olympian tradition drew a fast line between men and gods, and human society and the rest of nature. The notion of a system of moriai each filled by a specific living force, shaping itself into spirits, gods, and human souls with clearness of conception and imagery left its stamp on philosophy. In philosophy influenced by moria the world was pluralistic, rationalistic, fatalistic, opposed to other-worldliness,[99] and distributed into spatial provinces. Nature was a substance which was also soul and god and the living stuff from which daemons, gods, and souls took shape. Philosophers speculated about the nature of things or physis, an animate and divine substance, and emphasized likeness, kinship, material continuity with the result that their notion of causality was static, simultaneous, and spatial. Under the shadow of moria and geometry the science of nature became concerned with the thing in itself and its internal properties rather than its behaviour towards other things. Science found its ideal in geometry, the science of space measurement, and was concerned with the static aspect of structure, arrangement, and order.
Empire and Communications Page 8