Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

58 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
Pronunciation: There is much discussion about how Greek was
pronounced. A basic fact to note, however, is that all vowels can be
either long or short. Those marked with an accent in the transliteration
are long (Mên-, Pêlê-, and the ê- in Ach-il-ê-os ). Diphthongs,
vowels that are pronounced together as one sound such as ei-, are
also long.
LITERACY
For many years after the alphabet was first introduced, only a
small number of Greeks would have been literate. We do not know
whether Homer was literate, though he certainly knew about writing
because he makes reference to it in The Iliad. However, his poems
were transmitted primarily through the oral tradition by rhapsodes
(literally “song-stitchers”), professional reciters of poetry, who may
or may not have been literate.
We do not know what percentage of the population could read
and write at any period of Greek history. What is abundantly clear,
however, is that mass literacy never existed on the scale that it exists
today. William Harris, in Ancient Literacy (1989), has estimated that
no more than 30 percent of the Greek population was literate at
any one time. Levels of literacy varied from one place to another
and from one social group to another. One of the highest levels was
achieved by Classical Athens, whose democratic constitution was
based on the principle that a substantial proportion of the (male)
citizenry could read the often lengthy and extremely detailed
documents that were recorded on stone, and that the majority at
least achieved craft literacy, that is, they were able to read material
related to their sphere of work. In Sparta, by contrast, where few
written records were kept, most of the population was probably
completely illiterate.
Literacy is likely to have been practically nonexistent among
women, those who belonged to the lower social classes, and slaves.
In each group, however, there were exceptions. Evidence from vase
painting, including an Attic red-figure vase dated around 440 b.c.e.
that depicts a seated woman sometimes identified as the poetess
Sappho reading a roll, suggests, however, that some Athenian
women were literate. Informal graffiti indicates that literacy was
not exclusively limited to the elite. Lastly, the job of some slaves
was to keep accounts of financial transactions or to read aloud to
their masters and mistresses. It was slaves, too, who made multiple
copies of literary works that went on sale.