Ch. 6. Remembering, Forgetting, and Rewriting the Past: Athenian Inscriptions and Collective Memory

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which the Athenians responded to inscriptions after their creation, and in particular their approaches to the emendation, destruction, and recreation of inscribed public texts. It argues that these approaches reveal an ongoing interaction between individual initiative and collective authority in the treatment of inscribed monuments; and it suggests that this interaction, in turn, offers an important insight into the role played by inscribed texts in the shaping and reshaping of Athenian collective memory. Published in C. Constantakopoulou and M. Fragoulaki, ed., Shaping Memory in Ancient Greece (HISTOS Supplement 11), p. 235-68.