Greek Literature

The beginnings of literary activity among the Greeks are lost in obscurity; our first monuments are the Iliad and Ody ey, attributed to Homer. The Cyclic poets, now mostly lost, completed the cycle of legends connected with the siege of Troy; these and Hesiod, with other early poets, make the Ionian period, as we call it from the prevailing influence of Asia Minor, rich in literary production. This period was succeeded ab. 500 B.C. by the Attic period, which centered around the inspiration which the chief commercial city of Greece proper exerted. During it lyric poetry reached its climax in Simon ides of Ceos at Athens, and in Pindar, who employed the Doric dialect. Tragedy was developed and perfected by Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripi des. Comedy arose under Aris toph anes, and pa ed through three stages or schools, the third of which, led by Menander and Diphilus, has been the model for the modern type of play. Prose began with the historians, among whom Hero dot us and Thucydides hold the chief place. Oratory flourished under the democratic rule at Athens, and reached its highest level in Demosthenes, who has never been surpa ed. Philosophy, which had arisen before in Asia Minor, was established at Athens; the names of So crates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus stand for schools of thought which have ever since directed or affected later philosophic investigation. The third or Alexandrian period is so named because the foundation of the great library and museum made Alexandria the chief home of literature for the time between ab. 280 В.С. and the acce ion of August us, 31 B.C. This period was le rich in original works: erudition led to the development of grammatical and linguistic science. The mathematical and physical sciences are represented by many important works, but few imaginative authors deserve mention except the idyls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. Under the emperors literature was studied at Rome, and many Greeks came thither. It was a time of decadence, and Dionysius of Halicarna us, Joseph us, Arrian, and Herodian were the chief prose historians. Lucian, in his satires, displays great talent. The Byzantine period begins with Just in i an, 6th century, and has no writers of great merit to show. The troubled times and the devotion of so many to theological controversy destroyed literary culture, and only histories and collections of the older authors, or commentaries upon them, were produced. This period ends with the fall of Constantinople, 1453. Modern Greece is gradually forming its literary models: Panagiotis and Rangabé have produced poems of merit. The great works of Greek literature occupy a unique position in the literary history of the world, and have formed the types for all that is great in modern thought and expre ion.