The international meeting from which this volume has emerged was the twelfth edition of a biennial series of conferences that gather scholars from all over the world whose interests are directed towards the interconnection between orality and literacy in ancient texts, from a range of different perspectives. The first of these conferences—“Voice into Text: Orality and Literacy in Ancient Greece”—was held at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, in summer 1994. The proceedings were published in the homonymous volume that initiated the present series (Leiden–New York–Cologne 1996). Initially devoted to Ancient Greece, the following conferences and subsequent volumes progressively embraced a broader field of research, from the Roman world (“Orality and Literacy in the Ancient Greek and Roman World”) to the Ancient Near East and Late Antiquity (“Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World”).
The Swiss Universities of Basel and Lausanne joined the Orality and Literacy network in 2014 on the occasion of the eleventh conference organized by Niall Slater and hosted at the University of Atlanta: “Voice and Voices in Antiquity.” Thrilled about the richness of that meeting, the editors of the present volume undertook to organize the following conference in September 2016 at the University of Lausanne. The theme chosen was “Orality and Narration. Performance and Mythic-Ritual Poetics.” The three-day conference took place at the Crêt Bérard Foundation, in Puidoux, and was funded by the Faculté des Lettres and by the Département interdisciplinaire en histoire et sciences des religions of the University of Lausanne. However, the articles included in this volume, published several years after the conference, represent a rather tiny part of the contributions presented on the occasion of the 2016 meeting in Puidoux. This choice aimed at ensuring unity in a volume that revolves around an extremely broad theme.
We wish to express our gratitude to the external readers who generously agreed to read and report on the manuscript submissions. A particular acknowledgment goes to Elizabeth Minchin, who graciously helped us to revise the contributions of non-native English speakers, including those of the editors. For help with proofreading and the preparation of the index locorum we thank Nicolas Lonfat and Carla Amaya (UNIL), as well as Marlene Thurm and Linda Wohlmuth (UNIBA) for compiling the index of subjects.
As far as style and formatting are concerned, authors have been given the freedom to mention Greek terms either using Greek characters or transliteration. Abbreviations for ancient authors and works follow the Oxford Classical Dictionary and the Corpus Christianorum.