The Rise and Fall of Literacy in Greece

By the early 5th century BC literacy was spreading throughout Greece. In Athens undesirable or dangerous persons could be expelled from the city by a vote at a special meeting of adult male citizens. And their votes were cast on broken bits of pottery called astraka which is the source of the modern English word ostracize. The spread of writing also allowed for the adoption of written laws so legal codes began to develop. We're now at the cusp of the Classical Greek period which we all learned about in school. So next time I'm going to do a brief overview of this period and look at the large number of words that have made their way into English.