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Title:

Mythological Innovation between Orality and Literacy in Ancient Culture  
Innowacje mitograficzne w kulturze antycznej między oralnością a piśmiennością.

Creator:

Mojsik, Tomasz

Subject and Keywords:

oralność   piśmienność   mitografia   Pauzaniasz

Abstract:

This article aims to investigate the circumstances of the function of the ‘discrepancy’ in mythical stories between orality and literacy as well as the practical considerations of composition in the oral era.My analysis is based on the assumption that in response to a change in the methods of the modification and perception of myths one can posit that there was a change in the method of communication –a transition from orality to (the superior) literacy. For we see in the sources a movement from what was typical of the archaic period and of part of the classical era – the liberal creation of new versions ofmyth – to their compilation, sorting and explanation, and also to the search for rarer (but attested) modifications of known stories in the form of texts, rather than in their oral form. Along with the emergenceof book collections and the possibility of comparing the texts as extracted from their contexts, there was also an evident change in the evaluation of the stories and their constituent elements. Callimachus’words – ‚mˆrturon oÎdàn ‚eÐdw – are here an emphatic expression of this tendency in the Hellenistic era. The use in relation to earlier eras of the terms ‘change’ or ‘discrepancy’ in the context of mythical storiesis, however, rather a shorthand for historiography. We cannot speak of change in a world in which the actual and accepted (by a group of listeners) version of a myth displaces and replaces other versions.There is no space here for contradictions or discrepancies; it is at most a question of upgrading. Discrepancies are, however, the creation of the era of writing, which come from the explanations of theGreeks themselves, for instance those of the Hellenistic period, and which end in the discursive explanations of contemporary scholars.

Publisher:

Pracownia Badań nad Tradycją Oralną

Contributor:

Zieliński, Karol. Red.   Torbus, Sławomir. Red.

Date:

2015

Date issued:

2015-

Resource Type:

text

Detailed Type:

journal  
czasopisma online

Format:

pdf   application/pdf

Identifier:

oai:repozytorium.uni.wroc.pl:79951   ISSN 2449–8181

DOI:

10.23734/QO.2015.1.1.51.76

Language:

pol   eng

Rights holder:

Copyright by Instytut Studiów Klasycznych, Sródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych, Pracowania Badan nad Tradycja Oralna, 2016   Copyright by Tomasz Mojsik