Greek Literature Essay, Research Paper
Greek Literature
GREEK LITERATURE.
The great British philosopher-mathematician Alfred North Whitehead once
commented that all philosophy is but a footnote to Plato . A similar point can
be made regarding Greek literature as a whole.
Over a period of more than ten centuries, the ancient Greeks created a
literature of such brilliance that it has rarely been equaled and never
surpassed. In poetry, tragedy, comedy, and history, Greek writers created
masterpieces that have inspired, influenced, and challenged readers to the
present day.
To suggest that all Western literature is no more than a footnote to the
writings of classical Greece is an exaggeration, but it is nevertheless true
that the Greek world of thought was so far-ranging that there is scarcely an
idea discussed today that was not debated by the ancient writers. The only body
of literature of comparable influence is the Bible.
The language in which the ancient authors wrote was Greek. Like English,
Greek is an Indo-European language; but it is far older. Its history can be
followed from the 14th century BC to the present. Its literature, therefore,
covers a longer period of time than that of any other Indo-European language .
Scholars have determined that the Greek alphabet was derived from the
Phoenician alphabet. During the period from the 8th to the 5th century BC, local
differences caused the forms of letters to vary from one city-state to another
within Greece. From the 4th century BC on, however, the alphabet became uniform
throughout the Greek world.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
There are four major periods of Greek literature: preclassical, classical,
Hellenistic-Roman, and Byzantine. Of these the most significant works were
produced during the preclassical and classical eras.
Epic Tradition
At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer,
the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’. The figure of Homer is shrouded in mystery.
Although the works as they now stand are credited to him, it is certain that
their roots reach far back before his time (see Homeric Legend). The ‘Iliad’ is
the famous story about the Trojan War. It centers on the person of Achilles, who
embodied the Greek heroic ideal.
While the ‘Iliad’ is pure tragedy, the ‘Odyssey’ is a mixture of tragedy and
comedy. It is the story of Odysseus, one of the warriors at Troy. After ten
years fighting the war, he spends another ten years sailing back home to his
wife and family. During his ten-year voyage, he loses all of his comrades and
ships and makes his way home to Ithaca disguised as a beggar.
Both of these works were based on ancient legends. The stories are told in
language that is simple, direct, and eloquent. Both are as fascinatingly
readable today as they were in ancient Greece.
The other great poet of the preclassical period was Hesiod. He is more
definitely recorded in history than is Homer, though very little is known about
him. He was a native of Boeotia in central Greece, and he lived and worked in
about 800 BC. His two works were ‘Works and Days’ and ‘Theogony’.
The first is a faithful depiction of the dull and poverty-stricken country
life he knew so well, and it sets forth principles and rules for farmers.
‘Theogony’ is a systematic account of creation and of the gods. It vividly
describes the ages of mankind, beginning with a long-past golden age.
Together the works of Homer and Hesiod made a kind of bible for the Greeks.
Homer told the story of a heroic past, and Hesiod dealt with the practical
realities of daily life.
Lyric Poetry
The type of poetry called lyric got its name from the fact that it was
originally sung by individuals or a chorus accompanied by the instrument called
the lyre. The first of the lyric poets was probably Archilochus of Paros about
700 BC. Only fragments remain of his work, as is the case with most of the poets.
The few remnants suggest that he was an embittered adventurer who led a very
turbulent life.
The two major poets were Sappho and Pindar. Sappho, who lived in the period
from 610 to 580 BC, has always been admired for the beauty of her writing. Her
themes were personal. They dealt with her friendships with and dislikes of other
women, though her brother Charaxus was the subject of several poems.
Unfortunately, only fragments of her poems remain.
With Pindar the transition has been made from the preclassical to the
classical age. He was born about 518 BC and is considered the greatest of the
Greek lyricists. His masterpieces were the poems that celebrated athletic
victories in the games at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and the Isthmus of Corinth.
Tragedy
The Greeks invented the epic and lyric forms and used them skillfully. They
also invented drama and produced masterpieces that are still reckoned as drama’s
crowning achievement. In the age that followed the defeat of Persia (490 to 479
BC), the awakened national spirit of Athens was expressed in hundreds of superb
tragedies based on heroic and legendary themes of the past.
The tragic plays grew out of simple choral songs and dialogues performed at
festivals of the god Dionysus. Wealthy citizens were chosen to bear the expense
of costuming and training the chorus as a public and religious duty. Attendance
at the festival performances was regarded as an act of worship. Performances
were held in the great open-air theater of Dionysus in Athens. All of the
greatest poets competed for the prizes offered for the best plays.
Of the hundreds of dramas written and performed during the classical age,
only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides. The earliest of the three was Aeschylus, who was born
in 525 BC. He wrote between 70 and 90 plays, of which only seven remain. Many of
his dramas were arranged as trilogies, groups of three plays on a single theme.
The ‘Oresteia’ (story of Orestes) consisting of ‘Agamemnon’, ‘Choephoroi’
(Libation-bearers), and ‘Eumenides’ (Furies) is the only surviving trilogy. The
‘Persai’ is a song of triumph for the defeat of the Persians . ‘Prometheus
Bound’ is a retelling of the legend of the Titan Prometheus, a superhuman who
stole fire from heaven and gave it to mankind.
For about 16 years, between 484 and 468 BC, Aeschylus carried off prize after
prize. But in 468 his place was taken by a new favorite, Sophocles of Colonus
(496-406). Sophocles’ life covered nearly the whole period of Athens’ “golden
age.” He won more than 20 victories at the Dionysian festivals and produced more
than 100 plays, only seven of which remain. His drama ‘Antigone’ is typical of
his work: its heroine is a model of womanly self-sacrifice. He is probably
better known, though, for ‘Oedipus Rex’ and its sequel, ‘Oedipus at Colonus’.
The third of the great tragic writers was Euripides (484-406). He wrote at
least 92 plays. Sixty-seven of these are known in the 20th century some just in
part or by name only. Only 19 still exist in full. One of these is ‘Rhesus’,
which is believed by some scholars not to have been written by Euripides. His
tragedies are about real men and women instead of idealized figures.
The philosopher Aristotle called Euripides the most tragic of the poets
because his plays were the most moving. His dramas are performed on the modern
stage more often than those of any other ancient poet. His best-known work is
probably the powerful ‘Medea’, but his ‘Alcestis’, ‘Hippolytus’, ‘Trojan Women’,
‘Orestes’, and ‘Electra’ are no less brilliant
Comedy
Like tragedy, comedy arose from a ritual in honor of Dionysus, but in this
case the plays were full of frank obscenity, abuse, and insult. At Athens the
comedies became an official part of the festival celebration in 486 BC, and
prizes were offered for the best productions.
As with the tragedians, few works still remain of the great comedic writers.
Of the works of earlier writers, only some plays by Aristophanes exist. These
are a treasure trove of comic presentation. He poked fun at everyone and every
institution.
For boldness of fantasy, for merciless insult, for unqualified indecency, and
for outrageous and free political criticism, there is nothing to compare to the
comedies of Aristophanes. In ‘The Birds’ he held up Athenian democracy to
ridicule. In ‘The Clouds’ he attacked the philosopher Socrates. In ‘Lysistrata’
he denounced war. Only 11 of his plays have survived.
During the 4th century BC, there developed what was called the New Comedy.
Menander is considered the best of its writers. Nothing remains from his
competitors, however, so it is difficult to make comparisons. The plays of
Menander, of which only the ‘Dyscolus’ (Misanthrope) now exists, did not deal
with the great public themes about which Aristophanes wrote. He concentrated
instead on fictitious characters from everyday life stern fathers, young lovers,
intriguing slaves, and others. In spite of his narrower focus, the plays of
Menander influenced later generations. They were freely adapted by the Roman
poets Plautus and Terence in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The comedies of the
French playwright Moliere are reminiscent of those by Menander .
History
Two of the most excellent historians who have ever written flourished during
Greece’s classical age: Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus is commonly called
the father of history, and his ‘History’ contains the first truly literary use
of prose in Western literature.
Of the two, Thucydides was the better historian. His critical use of sources,
inclusion of documents, and laborious research made his ‘History of the
Peloponnesian War’ a significant influence on later generations of historians.
A third historian, Xenophon, began his ‘Hellenica’ where Thucydides ended his
work about 411 BC and carried his history to 362 BC. His writings were
superficial in comparison to those of Thucydides, but he wrote with authority on
military matters. He therefore is at his best in the ‘Anabasis’, an account of
his participation in a Greek mercenary army that tried to help the Persian Cyrus
expel his brother from the throne. Xenophon also wrote three works in praise of
the philosopher Socrates ‘Apology’, ‘Symposium’, and ‘Memorabilia’
(Recollections of Socrates). Although both Xenophon and Plato knew Socrates,
their accounts are very different, and it is interesting to compare the view of
the military historian to that of the poet-philosopher.
Philosophy
The greatest prose achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy. There
were many Greek philosophers, but three names tower above the rest: Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle. It is impossible to calculate the enormous influence these
thinkers have had on Western society . Socrates himself wrote nothing, but his
thought (or a reasonable presentation of it) has been preserved in the
‘Dialogues’ of Plato. Even in translation, Plato’s style is one of matchless
beauty. All human experience is within its range. Best known of the ‘Dialogues’
is the ‘Republic’, a fairly long work. There are also many shorter books such as
the ‘Apology’, ‘Protagoras’, and ‘Gorgias’ that contain the penetratingly
insightful conversations of Socrates and his friends on every matter relating to
human behavior.
In the history of human thought, Aristotle is virtually without rivals. The
first sentence of his ‘Metaphysics’ reads: “All men by nature desire to know.”
He has, therefore, been called the “Father of those who know.” His medieval
disciple Thomas Aquinas referred to him simply as “the Philosopher.”
Aristotle was a student at Plato’s Academy, and it is known that like his
teacher he wrote dialogues, or conversations. None of these exists today. The
body of writings that has come down to the present probably represents lectures
that he delivered at his own school in Athens, the Lyceum. Even from these books
the enormous range of his interests is evident. He explored matters other than
those that are today considered philosophical. The treatises that exist cover
logic, the physical and biological sciences, ethics, politics, and
constitutional government. There are also treatises on ‘The Soul’ and ‘Rhetoric’.
His ‘Poetics’ has had an enormous influence on literary theory and served as an
interpretation of tragedy for more than 2,000 years.
With the death of Aristotle in 322 BC, the classical era of Greek literature
drew to a close. In the successive centuries of Greek writing there was never
again such a brilliant flowering of genius as appeared in the 5th and 4th
centuries BC.
For today’s readers there are excellent modern translations of classical
Greek literature. Most are available in paperback editions.
HELLENISTIC-ROMAN PERIOD
By 338 BC all of the Greek city-states except Sparta had been conquered by
Philip II of Macedon. Greece was not independent again until the early 19th
century, a period of more than 2,000 years. Philip’s son Alexander the Great
extended his father’s conquests greatly. In so doing he inaugurated what is
called the Age of Hellenism.
The Greek word for Greece was Hellas. Hellenism, therefore, signifies the
spread of Greek language, literature, and culture throughout the Mediterranean
world. Alexander’s conquests were in the East, and Greek culture shifted first
in that direction. Athens lost its preeminent status as the leader of Greek
culture, and it was replaced temporarily by Alexandria, Egypt. After the rise of
Rome, all the Mediterranean area was brought within one far-flung empire. Greek
civilization then spread westward as well. Educated Romans learned to speak and
write Greek, and they looked to Greece’s golden age for inspiration in
philosophy, poetry, and drama. So dependent did Roman writers become, in fact,
that they produced very little that was not based upon Greek works, especially
in drama and philosophy.
Library of Alexandria
The city of Alexandria in northern Egypt became, from the 3rd century BC, the
outstanding center of Greek culture. It also soon attracted a large Jewish
population, making it the largest center for Jewish scholarship in the ancient
world. In addition, it later became a major focal point for the development of
Christian thought.
The Museum, or Shrine to the Muses, which included the library and school,
was founded by Ptolemy I. The institution was from the beginning intended as a
great international school and library. The library, eventually containing more
than a half million volumes, was mostly in Greek. It served as a repository for
every Greek work of the classical period that could be found. Had the library
lasted, it would have presented to modern scholars nearly every ancient book for
study. The library lasted for several centuries but was destroyed during the
reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian late in the 3rd century AD. A smaller
library was destroyed by the Christians in 391 because it harbored so many non-
Christian works.
Hellenistic Poetry
Later Greek poetry flourished primarily in the 3rd century BC. The chief
poets were Theocritus, Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes.
Theocritus, who lived from about 310 to 250 BC, was the creator of pastoral
poetry, a type that the Roman Virgil mastered in his ‘Eclogues’. Of his rural-
farm poetry, ‘Harvest Home’ is considered the best work. He also wrote mimes
poetic plays set in the country as well as minor epics and lyric poetry.
Callimachus, who lived at the same time as Theocritus, worked his entire
adult life at Alexandria, where he was cataloger of the library. Only fragments
of his poetry survive. The most famous work was ‘Aetia’ (Causes). It is a kind
of poem called an elegy and in four books explains the legendary origin of
obscure customs, festivals, and names. Its structure became a model for the work
of the Roman poet Ovid. Of his elegies for special occasions, the best known is
the ‘Lock of Berenice’, a piece of court poetry that was later adapted by the
Roman Catullus. Callimachus also wrote short poems for special occasions and at
least one short epic, the ‘Ibis’, which was directed against his former pupil
Apollonius.
Apollonius of Rhodes was born about 295 BC. He is best remembered for his