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Ancient Greek Literature

Ancient Greek literature because of its originality, spontaneity and intrinsic value and interest, deserves the closest study. In spite of the very severe losses which it has unfortunately sustained there is extant a very considerable body of the literature representing the various fields of literary activity. The influence of Greek literature on Latin literature was enormous, while the indebtedness of English literature, especially poetry, to the Greek is profound.

Ancient Greek literature may be divided into five great ages or periods: (1) The Age of Epic Poetry (from the beginning to the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century BC). (II) The Age of Lyric Poetry (the 7th, 6th and part of the 5th centuries BC). (III) The Attic Period (c. 475-300 BC). (IV) The Alexandrian Age (from c. 300 BC until the Roman Conquest, 146 BC). (V) The Graeco-Roman Age (from 146 BC to Justinian, 527 AD). To these may be added the Byzantine Period (from 527 AD to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD).

The Age of Epic Poetry

Greek literature, and European as well, begins with the Homeric poems, the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey*. The origin, date and authorship of these two eternally famous epic poems were vexed questions in the Alexandrian Age and are still subjects of vigorous contention at the present time. It may be said that the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey* were in their perfected form by the end of the 8th century BC; that they probably originated in Asia Minor, in Ionia, although subjected to some AEolic influences; that they may have been the products of the same poetic school, and, as some scholars maintain, may have been composed by one poet, the traditional Homer.

Certainly these two great epics in dactylic hexameters, handed down in the Epic-Ionic dialect, were the culmination, and not the beginning, of an epoch of literary activity. In them are discerned early legends, hymns and folk-songs, e.g., the marriage-song (kymeneeus) and the dirge (thrinos); and, in particular, the songs celebrating the deeds of heroes, themes which form the nucleus of the later epic. The 'Iliad,' divided by the Alexandrian scholars into 24 books, tells the story of the great Greek hero Achilles at the siege of Ilium and of his wrath; the 'Odyssey,' also in 24 books, narrates the exciting adventures and delayed home-coming of the intrepid Odysseus of Ithaca. The virtues of the Homeric style are admirably characterized by Matthew Arnold: it is rapid; plain in thought; plain in diction; and noble. The Homeric poems are the greatest of the world's epic poems. Their influence on Greek Literature, and Greek thought and ideals in succeeding centuries, is incalculable.

Later than the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey* there arose an Epic Cycle (the Cyclic Poems), no longer extant, which comprised such epic poems as the 'Cypria,' the 'Little Iliad,' the 'Sack of Ilium,' the 'Nostoi,' etc. The 'Homeric Hymns' although they are much later than the Homeric poems, are really preludes, for the most part, to epic recitations, composed and recited by bards in praise of the gods. These poems. 34 in number, in hexameter verse with considerable Homeric coloring, date mostly from the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 5th centuries BC. Several of the 'Homeric Hymns' are of some length, interest and poetic value, eg., the Hymn to the Delian and Pythian Apollo (546 lines) and the Hymns to Hermes, Aphrodite, Demeter and Dionysus. (Consult Shelley's charming versions in English). Much 'ater than Homer, but also falsely attributed to him by antiquity, are the two sportive epics, the 'Margites' and the 'Batrachomyomachia* (Battle of the Frogs and Mice). Of the latter there are some 300 lines.

The second great name in Greek Literature is that of Hesiod of Ascra, a little village in Boeotia. Although Hesiod is numbered among the Epic poets and employed the dactylic hexameter with many Homeric tags and reminiscences he is really of the didactic and gnomic school. His extant writings are the 'Works and Days,' a sort of farmer's almanac and calendar with useful precepts on husbandry, navigation and advice on life and behavior in general, and the 'Theogony,' which sketches the °ngin of the universe and the relationship of the gods. The 'Shield of Heracles' is undoubtedly spurious. These Hesiodic poems, although of no great poetical merit generally speaking, had very considerable influence on later Greek thought and religion. The 'Works and Days,' indeed, served Virgil as model for his 'Georgics'.

The Age of Lyric Poetry

Strictly speaking Lyric poetry should designate poetry sung to the lyre only, but the term lyric is rather loosely used to include elegiac and iambic as well as melic (i.e., sung) poetry. Lyric poetry was the outcome of that turbulent period in Greek history which was characterized by social upheaval in many states in connection with the establishment of the successive political stages of oligarchy, tyranny and democracy, an age when men were more widely informed and were thinking for themselves. While lyric poetry flourished throughout the Greek world generally, and was composed by poets in the three chief dialects (Aeolic, Doric and Ionic), it had its origin in Ionia.

Elegy, strictly speaking, may be defined as mournful poetry, i.e., the funeral dirge sung to the accompaniment of the flute, but the term is applied to any poetry of a reflective, emotional character in the elegiac distich. This couplet consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic pentameter (so-called). Elegy early lost its exclusively funereal character and was used for martial poetry by Callinus of Ephesus (first half of the 7th century BC) and by Tyrtaeus (c. 640 BC) at Sparta. It was first used for the expression of love by Mimnermus of Smyrna (c. 620 BC) who thus was the father of the erotic elegy, a literary form popular among the poets of the Alexandrian Age, who, in turn, inspired the Roman elegists, e.g., Catullus, Ovid, Propertius and Tibullus. Theognis of Megara (c. 540 BC) is the chief exemplar of the gnomic, or moral, elegy. Of his writings some 1,400 lines are extant. Solon (c. 600 BC), the great Athenian law-giver, used the elegy for political moralizings; Xenophanes employed it for philosophical teachings. The master of the funereal elegy is Simonides of Ceos who is famous for his commemorative epitaphs on the Greek heroes who fell in the Persian Wars.

Iambic poetry, contemporaneous with elegy, was "invented," as the Greeks said, or rather perfected, by ArchilochuS of Paros (c. 660 BC), as a weapon of satire and invective. Semonides of Amorgos (c. 640 BC) and Hipponax of Ephesus (c. 540 BC) (who invented the choliambic or skazon) likewise employed the iambus for satire. But both the iambic and trochaic meters were used for purposes other than satire.

While iambic and elegiac poetry might be merely recited or declaimed, melic verse (lyric . poetry proper) of necessity was sung to musical accompaniment. It was of two forms, monodic, of MoYic origin, for one voice, or choral, as developed by the Dorians, for a chorus. The monodic melic, whose first representative was Terpander (c. 675 BC), is known to us through the poetry of Sappho, Alcaeus and Anacreon. The fragments of the verse of the poetess Sappho of Lesbos (c. 600 BC), tantalizingly scanty, reveal poetic gifts of marvelous power and remarkable emotional intensity. Alcxus, likewise of Lesbos, poet of love and of war, together with his contemporary Sappho, inspired much of the poetry of Horace in sentir ment and form (e.g., the Alcaic, and Sapphic stanzas). Anacreon of Teos (c. S30 B.c), poet of pleasure, was an Ionian. His name is largely known to students of English poetry because of the spurious and much later 'Anacreontea' which long passed for genuine.

The Dorian choral lyric is represented by the scanty, but interesting, fragments of the melic poetry of Alcman (c. 650 BC) who lived at Sparta, of Stesichorus of Sicily (c. 620 BC), of Ibycus of Rhegium (c. 550 BC) and Simonides of Ceos (480 B.c), an Ionian, who was renowned not only for his elegies, as previously mentioned, but for his lovelyrics, dirges, epmikia and encomia. Greatest of all the Greek lyric poets, however, is Pindar of Thebes (c. 470 BC). While he won fame in all branches of melic poetry his chief renown was in epinikia, i.e., odes celebrating the victors in the four great Greek games. Of these magnificent odes we have no less than 44. They are splendid in imagery and diction, bold in conception and lofty in style. Of this same period is Bacchylides of Ceos, nephew of Simonides, a lyric poet of distinction, but inferior to Pindar.

The Attic Period (475-300 BC)

In the Attic Period, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the Greek genius revealed itself in all its splendor in magnificent achievements, especially in literature and art. In Athens, democracy and universal enlightenment stimulated remarkable literary activity in varied forms. In poetry, the drama, both tragedy and comedy, flourished. In prose, crude literary beginnings were rapidly succeeded by complete mastery in history, in rhetoric and in philosophy.

The origin of Greek tragedy is an open question. Some scholars find the origin in the ritual performed by the chorus worshipping dead heroes at the tomb; others, in the ritual which celebrated the annual death and rebirth of vegetation that was a feature of the cult of Dionysus. The traditional view, however, is that tragedy developed from the dithyramb, a choral lyric of Dorian origin (first perfected by Arion, c. 600 BC) sung and danced at festivals by a chorus of 50 men or boys in honor of Dionysus, the wine-god. As this chorus was sometimes dressed as satyrs (goat-like followers of Pan) their song was called tragqedia (goat-song). Thespis of Icaria in Attica (in the middle of the 6th century BC) took the next step in the development of tragedy by stepping out from the chorus of satyrs and addressing verses to them. Here we have the germ of the drama.

Complete development came with the introduction of a second actor by AEschylus, and a third by Sophocles, together with the reduction of the satyr chorus from 50 to 12 by AEschylus, and to 15 by Sophocles and his successors. Tragedy was indebted to Homer and the epic cycle for subject-matter, the iambic verse perfected by Archilochus being substituted in the dialogue for the epic dactylic hexameter, and to lyric poetry for the choral element.

Of the 70 tragedies said to have been written by ^schylus (525-456 BC) only seven are extant. In chronological order they are: 'The Suppliants,' the 'Persians,' the 'Seven against Thebes,' the 'Prometheus Bound', and the 'Oresteia', the last named being the only surviving trilogy, comprising the 'Agamemnon,' the 'Choephori' and the 'Eumenides.' The 'Persians' is of special interest as it is the only extant Greek tragedy with the story taken from contemporary history. It tells of the defeat of the Persians under Xerxes and contains a stirring account of the battle of Salamis. The 'Prometheus Bound,' portraying the awful punishment of the benefactor of human-kind, that hero who stole fire from heaven as a boon to man, is a magnificent poetic drama. In the trilogy of the 'Oresteia,' the 'Agamemnon,' perhaps the greatest Greek tragedy in poetic merit, tells the story of the return home of the victorious hero Agamemnon from Troy and his foul murder at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra, and her paramour, AEgisthus. AEschylus is a tragic poet of great imagination, lofty style and profound religious feeling.

Sophocles (c. 496-406 BC), the second of the great tragedians of Athens, is also represented by seven extant tragedies. These are the 'Antigone', 'Ajax,' 'OEdipus Tyrannus, 'Trachinise,' 'Electra,' 'Philoctetes, and 'OEdipus at Colonus.' In the impressive tragedy 'Antigone' the heroine, Antigone, suffers a martyr's death because she gives holy rites of burial to her brother Polyneices in defiance of the edict of Creon, King of Thebes. In the 'Ajax,' the hero of that name, defeated in the Contest for Achilles' armor, slays himself and is grudgingly awarded honorable burial. The 'QEdipus Tyrannus,' the greatest Greek tragedy in plot construction, was Aristotle's model play. The 'Trachiniae' is interesting to moderns in that it, like the Antigone, contains the theme of love. The 'Electra,' a drama of revenge, has the same theme as the ''Choephori' of .dSschylus. It tells of the return from exile of Orestes and the slaying of Clytemnestra and ^Egisthus by Orestes, abetted by his sister, Electra. Of the three great Athenian tragedians Sophocles is perhaps most typically Greek. In plot, in delineation of character and in style he is well-nigh faultless. He is a literary artist and the embodiment of the Hellenic ideal, the golden mean.

Of Euripides (480-406 B.c) no less than 19 tragedies survive. Only a few of the greatest may here be mentioned: the 'Alcestis', a story of a wife's devotion and sacrifice; the 'Trojan Woman,' a pathetic and graphic portrayal of scenes following the fall of Troy. The 'Iphigenia among the Taurians,' an excellent and appealing play with happy ending, and the 'Medea', a moving story of the dread revenge inflicted by the Colchian sorceress upon her faithless husband, Jason. Although Euripides lived in the same century as Sophocles and jEschylus he seems to belong to a later age for he was a radical and distinctly ahead of his own generation in thought and method. In his plays we find religious scepticism and note the influence of the new rhetoric. Euripides was a realist and, as the ancient tradition asserts, painted men as they are, while Sophocles painted them as they should be. On the technical side his innovations were: a formal prologue, and the deus ex machina. While Euripides is inferior to ^schylus in creative poetic ability, and does not equal Sophocles as a literary artist, he is a playwright of first-rate ability, and as a lyricist rises at times to lofty height. Furthermore, of the Greek tragedians his influence has been the greatest on succeeding ages for he served as model for Roman tragedy and the French classical drama.

Comedy came to development a little later than tragedy. Like tragedy it had its origin among the Dorians and in the worship of the god, Dionysus, but the germ of it is to be found in the phallic songs and satire of the rustic festivals. In Greek comedy there are three periods: Old Comedy to c. 390 BC; Middle Comedy, c. 390-320 BC; and the New Comedy, after 320 BC. Old comedy is characterized by personal and political satire and abuse. Its great representative is Aristophanes (born c. 448 BC) of whom 11 comedies are extant. Of especial interest is the 'Clouds,' which is devoted to a humorous, although caustic and undeserved attack upon Socrates. In the 'Frogs', Euripides, despised by Aristophanes, is the butt. Other comedies are: 'Acharhians,' 'Knights,' 'Wasps,' 'Peace,' 'Birds,', 'Lysistrata,' 'Thesmophoriazusae' 'Ecclesiazusae' and 'Plutus.' The Middle comedy, a period of transition, is represented only by scanty fragments. The New comedy, "mirror of human life," is a comedy of manners, a delineation of stock characters in society. The famous and popular master in the field of the new comedy is Menander (342-291 BC) who was known to us until recently only through the medium of scanty fragments, and the comedies of the Latin writers, Plautus and Terence. But in 1905, in Egypt, there were discovered large portions of four of his plays.

Rhetoric and Oratory

Two factors contributed to the development of oratory and stylistic Greek prose: The Sicilian rhetoric and the influence or the teachings of the Sophists (e.g., Protagoras and Prodicus) the majority of whom came from Ionia. The first handbooks of formal rhetoric were written by Corax and Teisias, and their pupil, Gorgias, who made popular _ the ornate, antithetical style, by his captivating speeches and teaching throughout Greece. Athens of the latter half of the 5th century, and in the 4th, took the keenest interest in public-speaking and rhetoric. Of the many Attic orators of this period a list of the ten greatest was drawn up in the famous 'Canon' by Alexandrian critics. These orators are as follows: Antiphon (c. 480-411 BC), rugged and austere in style, all of whose 15 speeches are concerned with murder causes.

Andocides (born about 440), an "amateur," has three _ speeches extant of which the most interesting is the 'On the Mysteries.' Lysias, a metic (resident-alien) at Athens, adopted the profession of writer of speeches for litigants. Thirty-four speeches are extant under his name. Of these the 'Against Eratosthenes' was spoken by Lysias himself. He is regarded as a master of the Attic idiom, and is noted for clearness and vividness of style and is particularly esteemed for his skill in delineation of character.

Isocrates (436-338) will always hold a prominent place in the history of rhetoric. He was a Sophist, in the best sense of the term, and conducted an influential school in Athens for over 50 years. He taught rhetoric as a "philosophy* and defended it as an effective preparation for life. Because of temperamental defects he was not a public speaker but devoted himself to the composition of pamphlets, or discourses, in which teaching he aimed to make contributions of permanent value. Of especial interest are the 'Panegyricus' (his masterpiece, 380 BC), in which he expounds his cherished political idea, viz., the subjugation of Asia by a united Hellas, the 'Panathenaicus' and the 'Philip.' His theory of culture is elucidated in the 'Against the Sophists' and the 'On the Antidosis.' In style, Isocrates is smooth: his periods are lengthy and flowing. The influence of Isocrates has been very great upon subsequent Greek writers, upon Cicero, and upon modern literary prose. Isaeus specialized in the writing of speeches involving will-cases and of these discourses 11 are extant.

Demosthenes (384-322) is by far the greatest ancient orator and a master of all the oratorical virtues. In the 'Olynthiacs' and the 'Philippics' Demosthenes vigorously opposed the growing power of Macedon and urged, largely in vain, lethargic Athens to more active resistance to Philip. Demosthenes' masterpiece is the famous speech 'On the Crown' (see Oration On The Crown), in which Demosthenes successfully defends his whole public career and shows himself worthy of the golden crown of honor which was proposed by Ctesiphon and opposed by his rival, AEschines. The superlative virtues of Demosthenes as orator and statesman are attested by the unanimous praise of ancient and modern critics. The remaining four orators of the Canon of the Ten are: AEschines, defeated rival of Demosthenes; Lycurgus, the great Athenian statesman and financier; Hypereides, and Deinarchus.

The Alexandrian Age (c. 300 BC-146 BC)

After the 4th century BC Athens no longer occupied the supreme position in literature and the arts. Alexander's conquests were not only followed by Athenian political decline but Hellenic culture was spread widely throughout Asia and Egypt and gave the impulse to the founding and rapid growth of new Greek cities. Alexandria, founded by the Macedonian conqueror in 332 BC became a centre of learning with a Museum and large library which attracted numerous scholars, teachers, and students. Grammar and lexicography were much studied. Editions of selected classic writers of previous centuries, with commentaries, were industriously produced by such learned scholars as Zenodotus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Aristarchus, all of whom won fame, particularly in the study of the Homeric poems.

But in general it may be said that the creative age was over. Erudition, scholarship and literary industry flourished during the Alexandrian Age but there were few works of great originality such as had almost been the rule during the Attic Period. A brilliant exception is Theocritus (3d century BC), who lived in Sicily, Alexandria and Cos. He was the founder of pastoral poetry and his charming bucolic idyls have enjoyed great popularity and have ever profoundly influenced poetry of this type, as, for example, Virgil in his 'Bucolics' (Eclogues) and numerous English poets, e.g., Tennyson. The names of Bion of Smyrna (contemporary of Theocritus) with his 'Lament for Adonis,' and of Moschus (c. 140 BC), author of the 'Lament for Bion' and 'Europa,' are generally coupled with that of Theocritus, a greater master in poetry of this genre. Other poets of the age are the erudite Alexandrian Callimachus (c. 260 BC), composer of hymns, elegies and epigrams, and Apollonius of Rhodes, author of the epic poem, the 'Argonautica,' a source for Virgil. In this period likewise we may place the 'Mimes' of Herondas, and the astronomical verses of Aratus. The excellent history of Polybius (c. 150 BC) is a valuable source of information particularly for the first Punic War.

The Graeco-Roman Age (146 BC-527 AD)

In any sketch of Greek literature no hard and fast line can be drawn between the Alexandrian and Roman Ages. Literary activity continued to flourish without any break throughout the Greek world under Roman sway or, rather let us say, throughout the politically supreme Roman Empire which was dominated by Greek culture. The one great original genius of this age is Lucian (2d century AD), the pioneer and master in a new field, the romance. Born in Syria, he traveled and studied widely, residing for a time in Athens. Lucian is rhetorician, satirist, sceptic and wit, all in one. Very famous are the satiric Dialogues 'Of the Dead,' 'Of the Gods,' and 'Of the Sea,' and his 'True History,' a model much imitated by writers of extravagant fiction ever since Lucian's day.

In the province of biography, Plutarch (1st century AD) won fame by his 'Parallel Lives' and 'Morals.' Worthy of mention are the 'Geography' of Strabo (1st century BC), the guide-book of Pausanias (2d. century AD), a work of great value for a knowledge of Greek monuments and topography; the general history of Diodorus Siculus; the excellent literary criticism of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1st century at), and pseudo-Longinus; the Roman histories of Appian- and Dio Cassius; the historical treatise on Alexander of Arrian; the 'History of the Jews' of Josephus; the useful miscellany, the 'Deipnosophistae' of Athenaeus (c. 200 AD); the compilations of Stobaeus; the medical works of Galen, and the notable 'Meditations' (q.v.) of the great Stoic Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (131-180 AD). The beginnings of the novel should also be noted in the romances of Longus, Heliodorus, and Achilles Tatius.

The brief outline of this period should not be concluded without a few words concerning the Greek Anthologies or Collections of epigrams, beginning with Meleager (c. 60 BC), and the much later and enlarged collections of Agathias (6th century AD); the 'Palatine Anthology* of Cephalas (10th century AD), and the 'Planudean Anthology* (14th century AD). In these large collections we possess several thousand short poems or epigrams (in the Greek sense of the term), largely in the elegiac meter, dating from 700 BC to 1000 AD. Many of these little poems treating of love, life, death, fate, etc., are charming; some have genuine inspiration.

The Byzantine Period to the Fall of Constantinople (527-1453 AD)

By the designation Byzantine is meant the long period of many centuries during which Byzantium (Constantinople) was the center of Greek culture in the East. The language which was the medium of expression of this culture was still Greek; the civilization was naturally much influenced by Rome. In literature there was great productivity but it is, on the whole, lacking in originality and has little interest for the modern world except for the theologian, the historian, or the specialist.

In the early part of the Byzantine period theology held a dominant position in intellectual interest. The mass of theological literature is great and includes such writings as the works of the famous scholars, Eusebius, Synesius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, and Saint Chrysostom. These Christian Fathers, many of whom are of the 4th century AD, might, with greater chronological accuracy, be placed in the Graeco-Roman period, but in their influence and interests they are rather Byzantine. John of Damascus (8th century AD) and Phatius (9th century AD) must also be mentioned among the prominent theologians whose writings and teachings were influential.

Second in importance in this age is historical writing. This province is represented by Procopius, who wrote of the times of Justinian; Agathias (6th century); Nicephorus Briennius, and his wife Anna Comnena (11th century AD). Among the compilers, or chroniclers, who have handed down accounts of the Byzantine Empire, are Theophanes, Georgius Monachus, and John Zonaras. Philosophy, lacking a congenial environment, did not flourish during this period. Rhetoric was industriously cultivated but the voluminous literary output is of indescribable aridity and dreariness. (Consult Walz, 'Rhetores Graeci,' 9 vols.).

Of especial value to modern students are the numerous stupid, but often extremely helpful, compilations, commentaries, lexicons, etc., which are based upon, or are explanatory of, the ancient classical writers. The Lexica of Suidas, Photius, and the 'Etymologicum Magnum*; the 'Scholia* (explanatory notes) of Eustathius on Homer; and the commentaries of Tzctzes, of Moschopulus, and Thomas Magister are of note. Of decided importance is the 'Bibliotheca' or 'Muriobiblon' of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople (9th century AD). In this work he has handed down abstracts and critiques of some 280 ancient books. Since many of these works are now lost these synopses are of value. Unfortunately Photius neglects poetry and over-emphasizes the theological writers.