How Ancient Greeks Mastered Communication Across Land and Time

The improvement of connection among the Ancient Greeks began with words transmitted from rima to mouth, storytelling and myth-telling, inscriptions connected stone, creator depictions, and, aft the improvement of an alphabet, letters connected papyrus.

There was face-to-face oral connection and inscriptions connected chromatic during the Greek Dark Ages (1200–800 BC). The Ancient Greeks besides developed a primitive but ingenious strategy to nonstop and person long-distance messages utilizing fire.

The phryctoria: long-distance connection among the Ancient Greeks

A semaphore strategy for long-distance connection successful Ancient Greece was the phryctoriae (or fyctoriae). These were specially constructed towers connected mountaintops, wherever the archetypal transmitters lit fires to nonstop ocular signals implicit agelong distances.

The phryctoriae (plural of phryctoria) were built connected selected mountaintops truthful that each operation was disposable to the next, usually astir 20 miles apart. On apical of the tower, determination was a occurrence cookware wherever the awesome occurrence would beryllium lit. The phryctoriae were utilized to transmit a specific, prearranged message. One operation would airy its flame, and the adjacent operation would respond by lighting its own.

In Aeschylus’ calamity Agamemnon, a enslaved watchman quality learns the quality of Troy’s autumn from Mycenae by cautiously watching specified a occurrence beacon. Thucydides wrote that during the Peloponnesian War, the Peloponnesians successful Corcyra were informed by nighttime phryctoriae signals of the attack of sixty Athenian vessels from Lefkada. When Spartan fleet commandant Cnemus attacked the land of Salamis, the Salaminians informed the Athenians and asked for assistance utilizing phryctoriae fires.

In the 2nd period BC, Greeks utilized a elemental encoding strategy to encode 25 alphabets successful bid to nonstop connection with 2 groups of torches implicit mountaintops.https://t.co/Q4XCCEJpig pic.twitter.com/rwSb3KrCHi

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Oral connection among past Greeks arsenic the ascendant mode of interaction

In aboriginal Greek societies, earlier literacy became widespread, oral connection among the Ancient Greeks was the ascendant mode of interaction. Storytelling, poetry, and show were the means of preserving history, passing down taste values from 1 procreation to the next, and entertaining audiences.

The municipality criers oregon heralds, known arsenic “kerykes,” served arsenic authoritative messengers of the authorities and announcers. These individuals, including legendary figures specified arsenic Stentor, were liable for connection of nationalist notices and proclamations. In an epoch of debased literacy, they were indispensable successful disseminating quality and authoritative decrees to which the assemblage needed access.

Public oratory was different signifier of connection among the past Greeks. This progressive salient individuals sharing their views successful the agora and conveying information. Storytelling, some for children and adults, was highly valued. Communication successful the past Greek satellite was not lone oral but besides visual, symbolic, and written.

Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are masterpieces of an oral tradition, primitively composed to beryllium sung oregon recited by rhapsodes. In the Odyssey, Homer highlights the value of the spoken connection to communal beingness erstwhile Odysseus describes himself and his hardships to the Phaeacians:

“For I americium a antheral who has suffered much, and successful my bosom I deliberation thing is much noble than erstwhile a radical beryllium unneurotic astatine a feast successful the halls, listening to the singer, with the tables laden earlier them.”

Oral connection successful Ancient Greece was important successful governmental beingness arsenic well. The oratory skills of governmental figures could sway the public. In Histories, Herodotus describes however Themistocles persuaded the Greek allies to unite against the force successful the Persian Wars with a almighty speech.

Another mode of delivering and receiving messages successful Ancient Greece was done time runners. They were radical known for their moving skills and were trusted to transmit messages quickly. The astir celebrated time runner successful past was Pheidippides, who ran without stopping from Athens to Marathon and past backmost to Athens with the quality of victory. Pheidippides died of exhaustion aft delivering the celebrated message, “We person won” (Greek: Νενικήκαμεν).

Rhetoric successful past Athens

Rhetoric successful Ancient Greece’s Classical play (5th–4th centuries BC) became the good creation of communication. At the tallness of Athenian democracy, with assemblies and instrumentality courts, it was important for citizens to maestro the creation of nationalist speaking.

The large rhetorician Isocrates said that quality civilization itself depended connected speech:

“The powerfulness to talk is the origin of each our achievements. It has not lone helped america to flight the beingness of chaotic beasts, but besides to travel unneurotic and found cities, to marque laws, and to invent arts.” (Isocrates, Antidosis 253)

The Ancient Greeks believed that language, and particularly the bully usage of it successful businesslike communication, was the instauration of society. People tin lone travel unneurotic erstwhile they communicate. In Athens, rhetoric was astir a civic duty, arsenic one’s quality to articulate ideas helped signifier decisions successful the assembly, power verdicts successful court, and physique reputations successful nationalist life.

The astir celebrated code by a large rhetorician was Pericles’ Funeral Oration. It was delivered by the eminent Athenian person astatine the extremity of the archetypal twelvemonth of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) arsenic portion of the yearly nationalist ceremonial for the warfare dead.

Thucydides recorded the “Funeral Oration” successful Book Two of his celebrated History of the Peloponnesian War. He presented the code successful the archetypal idiosyncratic arsenic if it were a word-for-word relationship of what Pericles said. However, it seems apt that it was edited to convey the main ideas communicated and what the concern called for.

Alphabet and writing

Most scholars hold that the Ancient Greeks adopted and modified the Phoenician publication astir the 8th period BC, creating the first existent alphabet with chiseled symbols for vowels and consonants. This innovation promoted literacy, making penning acold much accessible compared to earlier scripts, specified arsenic Linear B.

The writer Hesiod, who lived adjacent the clip of Homer and wrote successful dactylic meter, illustrates the transitional infinitesimal betwixt oral and written communication. In Works and Days (lines 27–41), helium presents his didactic poesy arsenic proposal to his member Perses, an evident written (but orally transmitted) motivation instruction: “Fools, they cognize not however overmuch much the fractional is than the whole, nor what large wealthiness is successful mallow and asphodel.” Hesiod’s gnomic wisdom shows that penning would hole proverbial truths successful imperishable form, specified arsenic stone, a invaluable hold of oral culture.

From past on, inscriptions became cardinal to the connection of past Greeks. Public decrees, treaties, and laws were carved successful stone—an look we inactive usage today—and displayed in Ancient Greek agoras. The Gortyn Code from Crete, dating to the 5th period BC, is an aboriginal surviving ineligible inscription that reveals however laws were communicated to the public.

Writing tools

There was an availability of respective tools for written connection among the past Greeks since the invention of the alphabet. The archetypal and astir primitive method was carving connected chromatic oregon clay tablets. Later, woody boards became common, sometimes covered with achromatic paint. They were utilized for a myriad of purposes successful assorted places. In Athens, specifically, they were utilized for the work of authoritative texts.

A much blase mentation of the woody committee was the wax tablet. These were pieces of wood hollowed retired and filled with beeswax. They were written connected with a stylus constructed of wood, bone, oregon bronze. One extremity was pointed, portion the different was level for smoothing retired mistakes. Tablets could besides beryllium strung unneurotic to signifier codices. They were mostly utilized for mundane signaling tasks, specified arsenic bookkeeping.

Writing connected parchment was besides popular. To nutrient parchment, the Greeks utilized the skins of calves, sheep, and goats. They cleaned them, scraped disconnected the hair, stretched them to dry, and past treated them with chalk and alum.

Papyrus was the astir communal penning worldly successful Ancient Greece and the wider world. It was made by cutting the stalk of the papyrus works into bladed strips, and these were laid successful 2 perpendicular sheets: 1 with fibers moving horizontally (the beforehand side) and the different vertically (the back). The plant’s earthy juices bound the sheets together. Sheets could beryllium joined to signifier rolls oregon stacked to signifier a codex, a “proto-form” of the book.

Private connection among past Greeks

The Ancient Greeks exchanged backstage written letters, from chromatic tablets to papyrus successful aboriginal periods. While archaeological grounds from aboriginal periods is scarce, literate sources corroborate their importance. In Euripides’ Hippolytus 856–857 (428 BC), Phaedra’s termination enactment is an important document, demonstrating the enduring quality of written connection compared with the fleeting spoken word: “I constitute to you this tablet, for the manus tin archer the soundless communicative of the heart.”

In aboriginal years, philosophers similar Epicurus (4th–3rd period BC) often utilized letters to pass their teachings to distant followers. His Letters to Herodotus and Letters to Menoeceus are notable examples, precursors to the correspondence courses of caller decades.

Ancient Greeks besides communicated done encrypted messages, symbols, ocular arts, and assemblage language. Theater, for instance, was utilized arsenic a mean to contiguous didactic stories portion entertaining audiences. It combined speech, gestures, and masks to convey meaning. Dramatists specified arsenic Aeschylus and Sophocles employed ocular symbolism to complement dialogue.

The Spartans utilized a method of encryption during wartime. The skytale (Greek: σκυτάλη) consisted of a woody rod and a leather strip. Any communicating enactment needed a woody instrumentality of the aforesaid size. The concealed connection was written connected the leather strip, coiled astir the rod, past unwound and sent to the recipient by a messenger. The recipient would rewind the leather connected a rod of the aforesaid size to decipher the message.

Plaque with dedication of Alexander the Great to Athena Polias astatine Priene, exhibited astatine the British Museum. Credit: Gre regiment Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

Oracles and rituals

Oracles were different signifier of communication: predicting the future. The oracle astatine Delphi, delivered by the Pythia, was considered sacred, careless of however ambiguous and enigmatic it was. There is simply a celebrated occurrence of non-verbal connection betwixt Croesus and the Delphic oracle successful Herodotus’ Histories 1.47–56, wherever the riddle meant the nonstop other of what Croesus believed. As a result, the affluent king of Lydia mislaid his kingdom to the Persians.

In Ancient Greece, determination was a unsocial signifier of connection betwixt gods and mortals. The Greeks believed that the Delphic Oracle astatine the sanctuary of Apollo mediated divine code done the cryptic utterances of the Pythia.

Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic philosopher, commented connected the speech betwixt the oracle and the mortal: “The Lord whose oracle is astatine Delphi neither speaks nor conceals but gives a sign.” The philosopher emphasizes that the divine connection delivered astatine Delphi is ambiguous and indispensable beryllium interpreted, alternatively than taken astatine look value.

Another signifier of past Greek connection with the gods was done spiritual rituals, specified arsenic carnal sacrifices, offerings of fruits and herbs, libations, and processions. These acts served arsenic communicative gestures and requests for the gods’ favor. The faithful performed the rituals believing that the gods would admit their devotion and reciprocate by granting their wishes.