4
Reading, Hearing, and Looking at Ephesos
Barbara Burrell
This chapter takes the title of the conference at which it was presented^1
literally, by trying to ‘‘construct literacy.’’ It examines a series of buildings
in a particular locale, each with its own inscriptions, structure, and decor.
This gives an advantage rare in reconstructing ancient ‘‘reading experi-
ences’’: whereas most Greek and Latin texts, literary and even epigraphic,
are not in their original condition or context, many monumental inscrip-
tions and the buildings they stood on can be reconstructed in something
close to their original form, as they can in this case, at Ephesos.
Further, I want to apply reception theory to the buildings as well as to
their texts.
2
I hope to show how each structure’s combination of archi-
tecture, sculpture, and inscriptions had particular purposes, and how the
reading of each by a series of elite viewers led to new dedications, again
with new perceptions and receptions, and thus new concepts of the space
they stood in, over a period of centuries. Following this process will show
how a combination of text, architecture, and decor made one particular
spot a focus and intersection of Hellenic and Roman culture.
Thesceneisthecity ofEphesos during theRomanempire. This isnotjust
because Ephesos has been well-excavated and published for the past hun-
dred years, though that is reason enough. It is also a particularly good place
to study bilingualism in Greek and Latin. To the Greeks, the city had an
impeccable Hellenic background as one of the first settlements of the Ionian
migration, founded by Androklos, son of Kodros the king of Athens. It was
the home of Herakleitos, Hipponax, and of Zenodotos, the first head
of the Library at Alexandria.^3 In the Roman period, it was an important
1.Constructing Ancient ‘‘Literacy’’ among the Greeks and Romans, a Semple Symposium
held at the University of Cincinnati on April 28 9, 2006.
- Elsner 1996 and Corbier 2006 for relationships between written text and monuments
in Roman culture; thanks to Fergus Millar for pointing me toward the latter. For the power of
inscriptions, Woolf 1996 and Alfo ̈ldy 2003, and for the power of decor, von Hesberg 2003,
all mainly on Italy and the West. A useful collection on the aesthetics of reception is Jauss - Holtorf 2007 applies reception theory to monuments and archaeology.
- For a general introduction, Knibbe 1998.