In examining the nature of literacy in ancient Athens, this paper reviews the work of key modern scholars and their positions in the debates concerning the development of literacy in Greece, the oral culture preceeding this, and the technology that enabled it to occur. Following an introduction surveying the viewpoints of Rhys Carpenter, L. H. Jeffrey, David Diringer, and Eric Havelock, among others, regarding the date the alphabet was introduced, the first section of the paper summarizes Havelock's reevaluation of Greek preliterate society in terms of mnemonics and poetry. The second section reviews F. G. Kenyon's and F. D. Harvey's arguments in dating the appearance of an extensive reading public in ancient Greece by literary and archeological evidence, and the third section reviews Kenyon's and E. G. Turner's work on the use of papyrus as book material, and summarizes Havelock's arguments that date widespread literacy back to 405 B.C., the year of the first production of Aristophanes'"Frogs." (CRH)