Recently developed forced torsional oscillation techniques provide new opportunities for the quantitative study at high temperature and pressure, and low frequency, of the shear mode viscoelasticity responsible for seismic wave dispersion and attenuation. Creep tests, in which the response is measured both during the period of application of a steady torque and following its removal, allow recoverable anelastic strains to be distinguished from the permanent strains of genuinely viscous deformation. The relative merits of these complementary approaches are highlighted through the conduct and analysis of some low-strain high-temperature experiments. Evidence of the linearity of the stress-strain relationship is provided by the close consistency between the dynamic torsional compliance of an alumina-iron test assembly computed by Fourier transformation of the creep function and that derived more directly from the forced oscillation experiments. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993