Dechiffrements / Decipherments

Did the men and women of antiquity hear as we do? Which sonorities were particularly significant to them? These simple questions remind us that sounds as well as their possible interpretations are embedded in cultural constructions, so that the definitions of cacophony and music, of noise and silence, vary both over time and from one context to another. The historicity of such ideas is at the heart of this book, which explores the ways in which sounds or their absence became meaningful in the ancient Eastern, Egyptian, Greek and Roman worlds. Behind the sweeping chronological arc lies a common objective, the study of terms and expressions related to sounds. This book analyzes this verbal corpus with an historical approach influenced by the anthropology of sound. The papers collected here invite the reader to listen carefully to ancient words and, by focusing on ancient discourses, grasp the complexity of social, political and religious values carried by sounds in particular settings.