Theuth and Thamus

Socrates uses a story about an Egyptian god called Theuth and an Egyptian king named Thamus. Theuth comes to Thamus bringing gifts and a gift he brought was letters. Now all the other gifts he had brought, Thamus had said what was right and wrong with each. When Theuth presented the letters, he said that they would make Egyptians “wiser and would improve their memory.” Thamus stated that Theuth was wrong and the letters would actually produce forgetfulness rather than memory. He said that Egyptians would write down things rather than simply remembering them and would refer back to their writing to remind themselves what they are forgetting. He uses this story to say that oral communication takes practice and wisdom where as written communication is just a reminder and is useful to the less wise person.