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Knowledge in the ancient world was mostly verbal; little was written down. Most people were illiterate, even the leaders. It took a lot of time to develop a language and more time to construct a way to record it. Today, it's difficult to imagine language without a written form, but it happened all the time. Language and writing didn't always co-exist. Why? Literacy required time, effort, and resource security. Who had all three? Scribes. They were employed by the leadership to document things he/she believed was important. What did the earliest writings contain? I'll sum it up: "This is the law." / "The king is great." / "Our gods are better than your gods." Here's an example of "the king is great" via the Egyptian Ramses III at Medinet Habu.
Ancient writing was also economic. Early Greek script was called Linear B. It was used by the Mycenaeans to record the collection of resources. For example: "Nikolas offered 2 goats and 4 olive jars to the palace." Spreadsheets rarely make the bestseller lists, but they do give archaeologists insight on what they deemed important. As a bonus, they also contain the earliest mentions of the Greek gods: "Nikolas offered 3 sheep to honor Poseidon." One characteristic of a culture is continuity. The same gods are a good beginning to that.
The journey to literacy was not an easy one. Past writing was lost during the Dark Ages, after about 1200 BCE. During that time, information was transmitted orally. It took several hundred years to develop an alphabet, influenced by the Phoenicians. There were many concepts the Greeks could have preserved like the traditional "law/kings/gods." However, the emphasis was on stories like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. These were about people, fully rounded with very human flaws. They were among the first exciting, readable novels. Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days also told foundation stories that explained much of Greek culture.
A modern artist's depiction of Homer is below.
Not everyone was in favor of this new technology. In the Phaedrus, Socrates says: "If men learn writing, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks."
He was right. How many of us could remember 15,000+ lines of an epic poem? Incredibly, ancient scholars did just that. Once writing was developed, our memories collectively weakened. However, I'm going to politely argue with Socrates (something that usually does not go well for his interlocutors). The human mind, no matter how powerful, is a finite resource. New knowledge is introduced each day. Writing allows us to capture it. Also, it's impossible to be an expert in everything. Writing means we can benefit from the wisdom of others, no matter how distant in time or place. For the coup de grâce, I'll use Socrates himself. The only reason we know of him is due to Plato, who wrote down his dialogues. To put it in a modern vernacular: “pics or it didn't exist.”
The image below was generated via artificial intelligence, which is another result of writing.
I feel blasphemous saying this, but Socrates was wrong. Much of the ancient world agreed with me. Writing spread throughout the Mediterranean with correspondence, inscriptions, legal decrees, drama, poetry, and more. The Greeks recognized recorded knowledge was not only powerful, but ephemeral unless it was protected.
Today, I visited Ephesus in Turkey. Yes, Turkey. The Greeks colonized many areas throughout the Mediterranean and western Anatolia was one of them. The city grew to become one the largest in the region. You can see the theater above that could seat 25,000. It also contained the Temple of Artemis, a wonder of the ancient world. The apostle Paul lived there for two years, established a church, and composed 1 Corinthians. While imprisoned in Rome, he wrote Epistle to the Ephesians around 62 CE. Some also believe this was Mary's home after the death of Jesus (not Bibically accounted for).
Why did we trek through all of that backstory? It's because we need to appreciate another Greek contribution: libraries. Yeah, I know. Scholars will point to other ancient collections such as the Bogazköy Archive, the Amarna letters and the Library of Ashurbanipal. These were gathered by kings and reserved for royal use. Control of information keeps the powerful in charge. In contrast, the Greeks strove to collect the world's information and make it available to everyone: the democratization of knowledge. Today, think of the mission statement of Google: "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible." It's a direct reflection of the Greeks.
The best known was the Library of Alexandria in northern Egypt. It was established during the Hellenistic period and contained thousands of scrolls. Sadly, most of the volumes were lost during Roman times.
The good news is that Alexandria inspired many cities to begin their own libraries. That's the primary reason I went there today. The Library of Celsus started about the same time Alexandria declined. It is one of the very few that still standing (with some archaeological reconstruction).
The interior held over 12,000 scrolls of the world's knowledge.
Sadly, everything was lost in 262 CE during an invasion. (They should have backed it up to the cloud!)
The marble pieces below were found at the site and are awaiting reassembly. It's like the world's oldest jigsaw puzzle, without the photo on the box.
After Ephesus, I visited the small island of Patmos. It's where the Book of Revelation was written. I didn't run into the apocalyptic seven-headed dragon, but I did find beauty and plenty of tavernas waiting for the late crowd.
Maybe I should bring a nice Greek scarf back to Ohio. With all these options, where's a husband to begin?
Finally, it was time to head back to the ship for dinner, then a welcoming bed.
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