WRITTEN TEXTS ON PAPYRI or other media, which for us constitute a fundamental body of evidence in recreating ancient Greek history and culture, were of far less importance in the lives of the ordinary citizens of the Greek states, and writing would have been encountered more frequently on objects such as statues and statue-bases, funerary stêlai, public notice-boards and pottery shapes. In ancient Greek society communication was largely oral and visual. The epic poets and rhapsodes sang and recited the legends that served the Greeks as their historical past; lyric and elegiac poets sang, to the accompaniment of the lyre and the pipes, both solo songs of love and death and public celebrations of success in war and games; choirs chanted religious hymns and celebratory measures; in tragedies and comedies actors spoke and choruses sang to audiences of thousands; orators declaimed their speeches in the political arena and in the law courts; and philosophers debated the meaning of life at aristocratic drinking parties. What was of equal importance to the spoken word for the general public was the visual imagery they saw all around them. Religious processions, parades and theatrical performances were regular features at various times of the year, and they involved the majority of citizens, either as participants or as spectators. On civic display there were monuments (free-standing statues, relief carvings, architectural decoration, painted walls) erected in market places, sanctuaries, cemeteries and theatres, and in private contexts people handled metal and ceramic vases that were decorated with scenes of myth, fantasy and everyday life.

In recent years there has been a growth of scholarly interest in the power and centrality of the spoken word in Greek society and in the equally powerful effect of visual display and performance. This volume, arising from the First Leventis Conference, addresses itself to various aspects of the relationship between words and images, in both specific and general terms. The scholars who were invited to participate were deliberately chosen to represent a wide spectrum of disciplines: philosophy, aesthetics, literature, archaeology, art, etc., and were given a free rein to choose their topic under the general heading of ‘Word and Image’.