Memory, preaching and the literature of a society in transition

It is related in Plato’s Phaedrus how the Egyptian god Theuth invented writing, and when he brought it to the ruler of all Egypt, the god Thamus, he was told that his invention was calamitous as it would cause those who used it to lose the learning in their minds by neglecting their memories. Through the reliance on letters, which are external to the mind, men will lose the ability to recall things that are within themselves. ‘You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding.’ Thamus warns him that henceforth his students will be purveyors of false wisdom and that they will appear to know much of what they are, in fact, ignorant. They will become public nuisances, these men who look wise but lack wisdom. 1