ABSTRACT
This epilogue uses the Stoic notion of first movements, or pre-rational reactions of the soul to events in its environment, to describe what late ancient readers may have experienced as the shock, or force, of texts. Drawing examples from the range of ancient texts that are discussed throughout the volume, the epilogue suggests that this preliminary, non-rational force of encounter between texts and people, and sometimes between texts and animals, has left traces in records of magical, emotional, ethical, and aesthetic responses to written or spoken words. It further suggests that analysis of these kinds of responses can lead us to understand some of the broadly affective impulses that governed ancient text transmission, as well as allowing us to consider some of the non-rational dimensions of the ancient experience of reading and consuming texts.
