The book is the second volume of a series of studies dealing with the Submerged literature in ancient Greek culture (s. vol. 1: G. Colesanti, M. Giordano, eds., Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture. An Introduction, Berlin-Boston, de Gruyter, 2014). It is a peculiar starting point of the research in the field of Greek culture, since it casts a light on many case studies so far not yet analyzed as literary products subjected to the process of submersion: e.g. oracles, philosophy, phlyax play, epigrams, Aesopic fables, periplus, sacred texts, mysteries, medical treatises, dance, music. Therefore the book investigates the complex and manifold dynamics of 'emergence' and 'submersion' in ancient Greek literary culture, dealing especially with matters as the interaction between orality and literacy, the authorship, the cultural transmission, the folklore. Moreover, the book offers the reader new stimulating approaches in order to reconstruct the wide frame which contained the overall cultural processes, including the literary products subjected to the submersion, in a chronological span going from Greek archaic age to the Imperial age.

This volume deals with the submerged literature of ancient Greece; that is, all the texts produced for socially relevant events that have contributed to the configuration and articulation of ancient Greek culture as we know it. In particular, the hermeneutic tool of submerged literature may shed new light on the dynamics behind the 'emersion' or 'submersion' of certain texts during different periods. The category of submerged literature is extended here to include preserved and lost texts as well as those texts that can be reconstructed through investigation. The volume investigates the manifold speech acts that we know of through various sources and that, either from the outset or over the course of time, have been placed at the edge of diffusion, conservation and transmission. The essays contained in the volume deal with questions of hermeneutics, philology and methodology, as well as with epic cycles, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, satyr drama, and mime. By approaching these genres from the perspective of submerged literature, the book tries to provide a more precise contextualization of the texts within the communication system of ancient Greece. The book thus presents a new line of research and a series of studies that take a fresh look at the texts and all archaeological and iconographic sources relating to Greek culture, taking into account the results of ethnographic and anthropological research. This extensive investigation examines unique ancient Greek orality and literacy dynamics using a new hermeneutic frame that will hopefully reshape our understanding of ancient Greek culture.