Greek Literature

Lecture 2
M.A English (Drama)
 The three best authors are Aeschylus, Sophocles
and Euripides. From Aeschylus, we still have
seven tragedies, among which the only surviving
series of three tragedies performed together, the
so-called Oresteia. Seven works of Sophocles
have survived, the most important of which are
Oedipus Rex and Antigone. From Euripides,
seventeen tragedies have survived, among them
Medea and The Bacchae.
Philosophy
 The greatest achievement of the 4th century was in
philosophy. There were many Greek philosophers,
but Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle tower above the
rest and had enormous influence on Western society.
Socrates himself wrote nothing, but his thought is
believed to be given by Plato's early Socratic
dialogues. Aristotle is virtually without rivals among
scientists and philosophers. 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 exist 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 his death in 322 BC, the classical era
of Greek literature drew to a close.
Hellenistic Age
 By 338 BC all of the Greek city-states except
Sparta had been conquered by Philip II of
Macedon. Philip's son Alexander the Great
extended his father's conquests greatly. Athens lost
its preeminent status as the leader of Greek
culture, and it was replaced temporarily by
Alexandria, Egypt.
 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
 Poetry flourished in Alexandria in the third
century BC. The chief Alexandrian poets were
Theocritus, Callimachus, and Apollonius of
Rhodes. Theocritus, who lived from about 310 to
250 BC, invented a new genre of poetry—bucolic,
a genre that the Roman Virgil would later imitate
in his Eclogues.
 While the transition from city-state to empire
affected philosophy a great deal, shifting the
emphasis from political theory to personal ethics,
Greek letters continued to flourish both under the
Successors (especially the Ptolemies) and under
Roman rule. Romans of literary or rhetorical
inclination looked to Greek models, and Greek
literature of all types continued to be read and
produced both by native speakers of Greek and later
by Roman authors as well.
Historiography
 Timaeus was born in Sicily but spent most of his
life in Athens. His History, though lost, is
significant because of its influence on Polybius. In
38 books it covered the history of Sicily and Italy
to the year 264 BC, which is where Polybius
began his work. Timaeus also wrote the
Olympionikai, a valuable chronological study of
the Olympic Games. Polybius was born about 200
BC. He was brought to Rome as a hostage in 168.
 At Rome he became a friend of the general Scipio
Aemilianus. He probably accompanied the general
to Spain and North Africa in the wars against
Carthage. He was with Scipio at the destruction of
Carthage in 146. The history on which his reputation
rests consisted of 40 books, five of which have been
preserved along with various excerpts. They are a
vivid recreation of Rome's rise to world power. A
lost book, Tactics, was on military matters.
Science and Mathematics
 Eratosthenes of Alexandria, who died in 194 BC,
wrote on astronomy and geography, but his work
is known mainly from later summaries. He is
credited with being the first person to measure the
Earth's circumference. Much that was written by
the mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes has
been preserved.
 Euclid is known for his Elements, much of which was
drawn from his predecessor Eudoxus of Cnidus. The
Elements is a treatise on geometry, and it has exerted
a continuing influence on mathematics. From
Archimedes several treatises have come down to the
present. Among them are Measurement of the Circle,
in which he worked out the value of pi; The Method
of Mechanical Theorems, on his work in mechanics;
The Sand Reckoner; and On Floating Bodies. A
manuscript of his works is currently being studied.
Philosophy
 Epictetus, who died about AD 135, was associated with the
moral philosophy of the Stoics. His teachings were
collected by his pupil Arrian in the Discourses and the
Encheiridion (Manual of Study). Diogenes Laertius, who
lived in the 3rd century, wrote on Lives, Teachings, and
Sayings of Famous Philosophers, a useful, though often
unreliable, sourcebook. Another major philosopher of his
period was Plotinus. He transformed Plato's philosophy into
a school called Neoplatonism. His Enneads had a wide-
ranging influence on European thought until at least the
17th century.
Legacy
 The influence of Ancient Greek Literature on
Western Literature has been enormous. In fact, the
frame of Greek literary genres has been almost
perfectly adopted by Latin literature, firstly, and
then by the European literatures, until the 18th
century. The Greek works were well known by
Roman writers, as well as by European writers since
Renaissance. These works, particularly the Homeric
poems and the tragedies were the model for the
successive writers of the same genres.
 In this influence was determining the fact that, since
Renaissance, the Greek Literature was taught in the
European high schools, along with Latin literature,
and still is in some countries, like Germany, Austria
and Italy. So, the influence of Greek literature
exceeded literature proper and also hit, for instance,
philosophy (like in the thought of Søren
Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche) and
psychology (like in the theories of Sigmund Freud).
 Anybody can become angry--that is easy, but to be
angry with the right person and to the right degree
and at the right time and for the right purpose, and
in the right way--that is not within everybody's
power and is not easy."
Aristotle
 “Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in
the consciousness that we deserve them."
Aristotle
 “I count him braver who overcomes his desires
than him who overcomes his enemies."
Aristotle
 "In the arena of human life the honors and rewards
fall to those who show their good qualities.
 “What is a friend? One soul inhabiting two
bodies."
Aristotle
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