This chapter focuses on one of the most striking and momentous transformations in the whole history of art, which saw the birth of mimetic realism: the shift from Archaic to Classical Greek art. This change in artistic style and cultural aesthetics was so sudden and profound that it has come to be referred to as ‘The Greek Revolution’. It was also right around this time, following the period known as the Greek Dark Ages, that another revolution was taking place, in terms of the emergence of a phonetic, alphabetic system of writing. Theorists of orality and literacy repeatedly emphasise the revolutionary nature of the Greek alphabet as a critically ‘democratising’ form of literacy which enabled, for the first time, writing to be utilised by not just an elite minority, but by a significant number of the wider populace. Considering the contrasts in cultural aesthetics before and after the advent of alphabetic, phonetic literacy, a clear demarcation can be seen: as alphabetic, phonetic writing emerges, art becomes much more representational, mimetic, and realistic. This chapter considers the Greek Revolution in art alongside the profound developments in language and writing systems in ancient Greece.