GNED 15 LESSON 2

• Compendium of literary works produced by Ancient or Classical Greece from 300 B.C. to 4th Century A.D.
• Greek Literature


  • Starting point for the development of literary genres and themes that form part of western literature
  • Responsible for the introduction of genres like poetry, tragedy, comedy, and western philosophy to the world
  • Gave rise to the great ideas of humanity and the questions of man and the role he plays in the world, life, death, its virtues, its vices, its pleasures and torments
• Characteristics of Greek Literature

  • Originates in Greece 300 B.C.
  • The first works were transmitted orally
  • The use of prose was present in texts (politics/oratory)
  • Mythology and religious content were always present
  • Had a rich history of both war and peace
  • Made up of 3 stages: Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic
• Edith Hamilton: 'Greek literature is not done in gray or with a low palette. It is all black and shining white or black and scarlet and gold. The Greeks were keenly aware, terribly aware, of life's uncertainty and the imminence of death. Over and over again they emphasize the brevity and the failure of all human endeavor, the swift passing of all that is beautiful and joyful. [...] Joy and sorrow, exultation and tragedy, stand hand in hand in Greek literature, but there is no contradiction involved thereby.'
• Topics/Themes in Greek Literature


  • The Greek gods linked to fate or destiny
  • Philosophy linked to morality and reason
  • Politics
  • Greek heroes, their battles and their relationship with the Gods (epic lyric)
  • Soul feelings and intimate emotions (lyric poetry)
  • Great human passions and everyday life (theater)
• Archaic Period


  • The literature of the Archaic era mostly centered on myth; part history and part folklore
  • Since writing had not yet arrived in Greece, much of what was created in this period was communicated orally, only to be put in written form years later
  • Homer's epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey and Hesiod's Theogony are significant examples of this period
• Homer's Iliad


  • Centered on the last days of the Trojan War, a war initiated by the love of a beautiful woman, Helen
  • Brought an array of heroes such as Achilles, Hector, and Paris to generations of Greek youth
  • A poem of contrasts: gods and mortals, divine and human, war and peace
• Homer's Odyssey


  Revolved around the ten-year "odyssey" of the Trojan War hero Odysseus and his attempt to return home
• Hesiod's Theogony


  • Wrote a hymn to Apollo's Muses
  • Told of the origins and genealogies of the gods, the kingdom of Zeus
  • Has been called the father of didactic poetry
• Other writers of the Archaic Period

  • Aesop
  • Sappho
• Aesop's fables


  Among the first printed works in vernacular English
• Sappho


  • One of the few female lyric poets of the period
  • Her poems were hymns to the gods
• Classical Period


  • Oral recitation of poetry, as well as lyric poetry, morphed into drama
  • The purpose of drama was to not only entertain but also to educate the Greek citizen, to explore a problem
  • Centered on the tragedies of such writers as Sophocles and his Oedipus Rex, Euripides's Hippolytus, and the comedies of Aristophanes
• Aristophanes


  • Author of old comedy
  • His plays were satires of public persons and affairs as well as candid political criticisms
• Hellenistic Period


  Greek poetry, prose, and culture expand across the Mediterranean influencing such Roman writers as Horace, Ovid, and Virgil
• Classical Works of Greek Literature

  • The Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer
  • The Republic, Plato
  • Oedipus King, Sophocles
  • Rhetorical art, Aristotle
  • Ode to Aphrodite and to the Beloved, Sappho
  • The Nine Books of History, Herodotus
  • Prometheus in chains, Aeschylus
  • Medea, Euripides