THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE

The world lived in darkness and barbarism but because of the ancient Greek the world was out of darkness by pursuing beauty in all forms and developed passion for democratic existence.

Conversation between Herodotus and Queen Atossa

Queen: Who are the Greeks?Herodotus: I am Greek. When you look at me, you see a Greek.Queen: What master do they obey?Herodotus: They have no masters; they are not slaves.Queen: Whom do they obey then?Herodotus: They obey the laws!Queen: The laws? They have no masters? What strange people!

Pre-Classical and Classical Antiquity

Alfred North Whitehead- Claimed that all modern philosophy is but a footnote to Plato.

Four Great Tragic Writers

Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides Shakespeare

Aeschylus

“God’s most lordly gift to man is decency of mind.”

Aeschylus

“Money is the worst currency that ever grew about mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from homes, this teaches and corrupts worthleast minds to the turn base deeds. ”

Euripides

“No one can confidently say that he will still be living by tomorrow.”

Shakespeare

“Can’t find the words that you are looking for? Invent them.”

Mycenaean-Writings are written in the Linear B on clay tablets.-No real literature was discovered.-Epic poems was passed orally.

Literary Genres

Between prose and poetry. Fictional literature was written in

verse, scientific literature was in prose.

Greek terminology become the common European terminology about literary genres.

In prose, there was more freedom; the main areas were historiography, philosophy and political rhetoric.

Poetry Genres

Epic Lyric Drama

Lyric

Elegiac Iambic Monodic Choral

Drama

Tragedy Comedy Pastoral Drama

Hesiod

Native of Boeotia in Central Greece

Works and Days and Theogony

Homer

Blind, old and beggarly wanderer

Singing his epic poems

“The Blind Bard” Iliad and

Odyssey

Ages in Greek Literature

Age of Epic Poetry Age of Lyric Poetry The Attic Period The Alexandrian Age The Graeco

Age of Epic Poetry: 6th Century B.C.

The sterling works that glorified this period are the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”, doubtlessly the world’s greatest epic poems by Homer. “Works and Days” by Hesiod, and the “Fables” of Aesop.

Aesop, Father of the Fable

Age of Lyric Poetry: 6th Century B.C.

Identified by the musical instrument which accompanied it or by the subject matter that it dealt with, lyric poetry was sung either by a single individual or by a chorus. Generally lyric pieces were mournful and melancholic, usually dealing with death or with love.

The Attic Period: 470-300 B.C.

This period saw the “grand explosion” in Greek literature and the other arts as well. Poetry, drama, history, oratory and philosophy all reached unprecedented heights in their development.

Rubens Painting

Also known as the Laocoon Group, this is another incredible sculpture housed in the Vatican Museums in Rome and shows Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents.

Mythology

Great Writers in History

Herodotus, Father of History

Thucydides

Philosophy

SPA: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

The Alexandrian Age: 300-146 B.C.With Alexander the Great’s conquest of Ancient Greece, Hellenic culture spread through Egypt and many parts of Asia.

The Graeco, Roman Age: 146 B.C.-A.D. 527

The age when the conqueror in arms became the conquered in culture. Even in captivity, the Greek culture predominated that of the Roman conquerors’. Prose became the predominant literary trend of the period. Plutarch and Lucian were the prominent writers during this period.

Plutarch

Parallel lives, the best known collection of biographies in the world.

Lucian

The master of Greek writers of “True History”, a classical prose romance.

The Iliad

The Iliad is set three millennia ago, during the final year of the Trojan War, a conflict in which Greek warriors sailed the Aegean to what is now Turkey and besieged the citadel of Troy for ten years.

In the first few pages the Greek hero Achilles quarrels with the chief king, Agamemnon, over a female slave whom the Greek soldiers had awarded to Achilles as a prize of honor in recognition of his exploits.

Agamemnon seizes the woman. Achilles withdraws from fighting in a rage, and remains withdrawn for the bulk of the poem, during which time the Trojans, led by Hector--Trojan King Priam's son--almost burn the beached Greek ships and drive the invaders into the sea.

Hector kills Achilles' close friend, Patroclus, prompting Achilles to resume fighting. The Greeks drive the Trojans back to their citadel. Achilles kills Hector. He abuses the corpse but, in the final pages of the poem, returns it to Priam for funeral honors.

The Iliad ends there, before Achilles dies from an arrow shot into his heel, before the Greeks enter Troy by means of a hollow wooden horse and destroy the citadel.