Greek Literature

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 lit erary activity. The influence of Greek liter ature on Latin literature was enormous, while the indebtedness of English literature, espe cially 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 'Lc.). (II) The Age of Lyric Poetry (the 7th, 6th and part of the 5th centuries a.c.). (III) The Attic Period (c. 475-300 a.c.). (IV) The Alexandrian Age (from c. 300 B.c. until the Roman Conquest, 146 o.c.). (V) The Grwco-Roman Age (from 146 B.c. to Justinian, 527 A.D.). To these may be added the Byzantine Period (from 527 A.D to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D.).

I. The Age of Epic Greek litera ture, and European as well, begins with the Homeric poems, the (q.v.) and the 'Odyssey' (q.v.). The origin, date and author ship 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. We may say, very briefly and rather dogmatically, that the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' were in their perfected form by the end of the 8th century n.c.; that they probably originated in Asia Minor, in Ionia, although subjected to some iEolic Influences; that they may have been the products of the same poetic school, and, as some scholars now maintain, may, have been composed by one poet, the tradi tional Homer. Certainly these two great epics in dactylic hexameters, handed down to us in the Epic-Ionic dialect, were the culmination, and not the beginning, of an epoch of literary activity. In them we can discern early legends, hymns and folk-songs, e.g., the marriage-song (iiymenceus) and the dirge (thrinos); and, in particular, the songs celebrating the deeds of heroes, themes which form the nucleus of the later epic. The

are admirably characterized by Matthew Ar nold: it is rapid; plain in thought ; plain in dic tion; and noble. The Homeric poems are the greatest of the world's epic poems. Their influ ence on Greek Literature, and Greek thought and ideals in succeeding centuries, is incalcu lable.

Later than the there arose an Epic Cycle (the Cyclic Poems), no longer extant, winch comprised such epic poems as the the (Little Iliad,' the of Ilium,' the etc. For convenience we must discuss at this point the (Homeric Hymns) although they are much later than the Homeric poems. They 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 consid erable Homeric coloring, date mostly from the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 5th cen turies a.c. Several of the (Homeric Hymns' are of some length, interest and poetic value, e.g., 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 later than Homer, but also falsely attributed to him by antiquity, are the two sportive epics, the 'Margites' and the (Battle of the Frogs and Mice). Of the latter we have some 300 lines.

The second great name in Greek Literature is that of Hesiod of Ascra, a little village in Breotia. In date he is, perhaps, of the early Part of the 8th century. 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 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 which sketches the origin of the universe and the relationship of the gods. The of Heracles> is undoubt edly 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 (Geor gics' (q.v.).