The Greek Philosophers on How to Memorise – and Learn

Half a century ago, at the beginning of his memorable essay on the mythic aspects of memory in ancient Greece, Jean-Pierre Vernant noted that there are close links in different times and cultures between the ways in which memory is practised and the ideas men have on the organisation of this mental function and its place in the ‘system of the ego’.1 Taking this remark as a starting point, I will focus in this paper on the reflections of Greek philosophers on the good reasons for memorising, and for memorising what, and how. In particular, by surveying a number of texts from the Pre- Socratic age to late antiquity, I will try to trace, and stress the theoretical interest of, a trend of thought that insisted on memorisation as a natural process, more or less explicitly refusing the artificial devices adopted by the practitioners of various kinds of mnemotechnics.