THE GREEK PERIOD
including the many references to recorders, etc., which imply them.
How far these "Collections of Public writings" may have contained literary works, apart from the explicit references to the dramatists in the Metroon (which is in fact however a very large and pointed exception), is a matter of analogy—but the prime object of these public collections was certainly archival or registerial in the later times and deposits of literary works may have been merely for copyright or censorship purposes.
The direct clues to temple libraries in Athens in earliest times are surprisingly few considering the fact that Athena appears later as the patroness of and evidence for libraries, while Apollo, Hermes, Esculapius and Demeter all suggest possibilities. The public archive was to be sure in the temple of Demeter and reference to temple treasuries doubtless imply more or less religious collections, but
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