Divine Authority and Entangled Writing in Early Cretan Law (20 min)

Presenters

Rebecca Van Hove, University of Groningen

Abstract

From 650 B.C.E. onward, after at least a century of Greek alphabetic writing, texts begin to appear in various Greek poleis, in particular on Crete, which differ markedly from the writing that came before: laws regulating civic groups appear on a new medium, stone, with a monumental appearance, carrying out a new, public function. How can we explain the emergence of these monumental texts in archaic Greece? This paper investigates the ways in which religion was central to this new genre of inscribed writing. It does so by examining the location and display of early Cretan laws, which often were inscribed on religious buildings, as well as the use of divine invocations in the inscriptions themselves. The paper argues that the religious dimensions of these texts helped to anchor this new writing practice of community regulation to existing ideas of (divine) authority and communication, anchoring written law to oral discourses of divine justice and to the use of writing in dedicatory practices.

  AIA-7E