The largest Russian and foreign researchers of authorship (S. Averintsev, V. Vinogradov, D. Likhachev, R. Barthes) considered the figure of the author in historical retrospective. The dynamics of authorship, responding to the change of cultural and historical epochs, has become a research evidence. Nevertheless, the question of the era of the author's birth is still an extensive interdisciplinary problem that does not have a conventional solution. In this article, we have formulated two main academic views on the problem, using the term "conscious author", which establishes the criterion of the author's self-consciousness as the main measure of the author's origin. So, according to two views on the problem, 1) ancient literatures have their own conscious authors; 2) world culture has a single point of reference of conscious authorship – Ancient Greece. Starting from the second view expressed in the works of S. Averintsev, we drew attention to the birth of the ancient author. The prerequisites that confirmed the author's origin in ancient Greek culture were highlighted: the transition from myth to logos; the development of literacy, the absence of a state monopoly on writing; the public prestige of creative activity; nominal coding of scientific achievements, works of art and philosophy. It is concluded that the genesis of authorship is largely due to the same cultural and historical factors that researchers call when considering the "Greek miracle". Thus, the genetic connection of the phenomenon of author's activity with other achievements of the Hellenic spiritual culture is proved.
The largest Russian and foreign researchers of authorship (S. Averintsev, V. Vinogradov, D. Likhachev, R. Barthes) considered the figure of the author in historical retrospective. The dynamics of authorship, responding to the change of cultural and historical epochs, has become a research evidence. Nevertheless, the question of the era of the author's birth is still an extensive interdisciplinary problem that does not have a conventional solution. In this article, we have formulated two main academic views on the problem, using the term "conscious author", which establishes the criterion of the author's self-consciousness as the main measure of the author's origin. So, according to two views on the problem, 1) ancient literatures have their own conscious authors; 2) world culture has a single point of reference of conscious authorship – Ancient Greece. Starting from the second view expressed in the works of S. Averintsev, we drew attention to the birth of the ancient author. The prerequisites that confirmed the author's origin in ancient Greek culture were highlighted: the transition from myth to logos; the development of literacy, the absence of a state monopoly on writing; the public prestige of creative activity; nominal coding of scientific achievements, works of art and philosophy. It is concluded that the genesis of authorship is largely due to the same cultural and historical factors that researchers call when considering the "Greek miracle". Thus, the genetic connection of the phenomenon of author's activity with other achievements of the Hellenic spiritual culture is proved.