The Talking Greeks Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato

Explores how the ancient Greeks regarded the capacity of speech as the defining human characteristic.

When considering the question of what makes us human, the ancient Greeks provided numerous suggestions. This book argues that the defining criterion in the Hellenic world, however, was the most obvious one: speech. It explores how it was the capacity for authoritative speech which was held to separate humans from other animals, gods from humans, men from women, Greeks from non-Greeks, citizens from slaves, and the mundane from the heroic. John Heath illustrates how Homer's epics trace the development of immature young men into adults managing speech in entirely human ways and how in Aeschylus' Oresteia only human speech can disentangle man, beast, and god. Plato's Dialogues are shown to reveal the consequences of Socratically imposed silence. With its examination of the Greek focus on speech, animalization, and status, this book offers new readings of key texts and provides significant insights into the Greek approach to understanding our world.

Introduction; Part I. Speech, Animals, and Human Status in Homer: 1. Bellowing like a bull: humans and other animals in Homer; 2. Controlling language: Telemachus learns to speak; 3. Talking through the heroic code: Achilles learns to tell tales; Part II. Listening for the Other in Classical Greece: 4. Making a difference: the silence of otherness; Part III. Speech, Animals, and Human Status in Classical Athens: 5. Disentangling the beast: humans and other animals in the Oresteia; 6. Socratic silence: the shame of the Athenians; Epilogue.

This book explores the link between speech, humanity, and status in ancient Greek thought. It offers new readings of the Iliad, Odyssey, Oresteia and Plato's Dialogues to argue that speech and the ability to speak were instrumental in the ancient Greeks' approach to understanding our world.

John Heath is Professor of Classics at Santa Clara University. He is the author of numerous articles on Latin and Greek literature, myth and culture. His previous publications include Actaeon, the Unmannerly Intruder (1992), Who Killed Homer? (with Victor Davis Hanson) (1998, revised edition, 2001) and Bonfire of the Humanities (with Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton) (2001).