"Although silence is an important subject, it has not, until now, been treated as extensively as it should have been. Silvia Montiglio demonstrates why silence cannot be taken as a self-evident term and attempts to show how it is culturally and historically specific. Her analyses are interesting and provocative, and her methodology is up-to-date, of general interest, and well focused for the contemporary academy."--Simon Goldhill, King's College, Cambridge"This book is bound to make a great impression in the field, where it will be instantly fundamental for future readings of Greek poetry, especially tragedy, and also oratory--it will also interest a wider audience of social anthropologists, comparatists, and students of rhetoric, ancient and modern. In this serious work of cultural analysis, Silvia Montiglio articulates an entire economy of silence. Learned and exciting, this book will open up new vistas for research and understanding."--Richard Martin, Princeton University