{"id":167,"date":"2014-08-17T20:12:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T20:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/worldhistory\/?post_type=chapter&p=167"},"modified":"2014-08-17T23:10:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-17T23:10:37","slug":"5d-greek-literature","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/worldhistory\/chapter\/5d-greek-literature\/","title":{"raw":"5d. Greek Literature","rendered":"5d. Greek Literature"},"content":{"raw":" \r\n

5d. Greek Literature<\/h1>\r\n
\"Theater\"\r\nGreek theaters were built into the sides of hills. This not only provided excellent seating arrangements, but remarkable acoustics as well.<\/div>\r\nThousands would come from far and wide to see the opening of the latest drama by Aeschylus, the most famous of Athenian playwrights. The citizens of Athens felt it was a part of their civic duty to attend as many dramas as possible.\r\n\r\nThe dramas typically dealt with important issues of the day, posed tough questions, and educated theatergoers. Attendance at dramas was considered such a valuable experience that sometimes the government would pay for the tickets.\r\n

Iliad<\/i>, Theogony<\/i>, and Poetry<\/h3>\r\nAmong the earliest Greek literature was Homer's epic poems, the Iliad<\/i> and the Odyssey<\/i>. The Iliad<\/i> is a detailed telling of the Trojan War while the Odyssey<\/i> recounts Odysseus' 20-year journey home following the Trojan War.\r\n\r\nCreated as early as 900 B.C.E., Homer's poems were not written down since Greek civilization lacked a written language at that time. Instead, these massive poems were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.\r\n
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\"Sappho\"\r\nImmortalized on the walls of the Roman city, Pompeii, the Greek poet Sappho has been highly regarded for centuries. Some people consider Sappho to be the first modern poet. Rather than writing epic poetry of heroic deeds, she wrote short, very personal pieces about love and loss.<\/div>\r\n
An Excerpt from the \"Iliad\"The passage which follows is from Book XXII of the Iliad. It describes a scene from the Trojan War that occurs just before Achilles, the Greek warrior, slays the Trojan hero, Hector.<\/i>\r\n\r\nOld King Priam was the first to see Achilles rushing towards the Trojans over the fields. As Achilles ran, the bronze on his breast flashed out like the star that comes to us in autumn, outshining all its fellows in the evening sky \u2014 they call it Orion's Dog, and though it is the brightest of all the stars it bodes no good, bringing much fever, as it does, to us poor wretches. The old man gave a groan. He lifted up his hands and beat his head with them. In a voice full of terror he shouted entreaties to his beloved son, who had taken his stand in front of the gates in the fixed resolve to fight it out with Achilles.\r\n\r\n\"Hector!\" the old man called, stretching out his arms to him in piteous appeal. \"I beg you, my dear son, not to stand up to that man alone and unsupported. You are courting defeat and death at his hands. He is far stronger than you, and he is savage. The dogs and vultures would soon be feeding on his corpse (and what a load would be lifted from my heart!) if the gods loved him as little as I do \u2014 the man who has robbed me of so many splendid sons, killed them or sold them off as slaves to the distant isles. So come inside the walls, my child, to be the savior of Troy and the Trojans; and do not throw away your dear life to give a triumph to the son of Peleus. Have pity too on me, your poor father, who is still able to feel.\r\n\r\nAs he came to an end, Priam plucked at his gray locks and tore the hair from his head; but he failed to shake Hector's resolution. And now his mother in her turn began to wail and weep. \"Hector, my child,\" she cried, \"deal with your enemy from within the walls and do not go out to meet that man in single combat. He is a savage; and you need not think that, if he kills you, I shall lay you on a bier and weep for you, my own, my darling boy; nor will your richly dowered wife; but far away from both of us, beside the Argive ships, you will be eaten by the nimble dogs.\"\r\n
\"Greek\r\nOriginally used in religious rituals, Greek masks became an essential part of every Greek performance.<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/td>\r\n\u0096Translated by Reverend William T. McNiff, The Pageant of Literature: Greek and Roman Writers<\/i><\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nAnother poet, Hesiod, wrote the Theogony<\/i> around 700 B.C.E. The Theogony<\/i> is a genealogy of the gods. Some scholars credit Hesiod with being one of the first to actually write down his work.\r\n\r\nAround the same time of Hesiod, there was another growing group of writers known as the Lyric poets. One of the most famous of the Lyric poets was Sappho. Sappho wrote about the world around her and focused particularly on the themes of love and sexuality. Sappho, who was bisexual, frequently wrote about her homosexual love affairs. The ancient Greeks were completely tolerant of homosexuality and did not discriminate. The word \"lesbian\" comes from the name of Sappho's island of birth, Lesbos.\r\n
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\"Oedipus\r\nIn Sophocles' great play Oedipus Rex<\/i>, Oedipus must solve the Sphinx's riddle in order to save the city of Thebes.<\/div>\r\n
\"To Aphrodite\" by SapphoYou know the place: then\r\n\r\nLeave Crete and come to us\r\nwaiting where the grove is\r\n\r\npleasantest, by precincts\r\n\r\nsacred to you; incense\r\nsmokes on the altar, cold\r\nstreams murmur through the\r\napple branches, a young\r\nrose thicket shades the ground\r\n\r\nand quivering leaves pour\r\n\r\ndown deep sleep; in meadows\r\nwhere horses have grown sleek\r\n\r\namong spring flowers, dill\r\n\r\nscents the air. Queen! Cyprian!\r\nFill our gold cups with love\r\nstirred into clear nectar.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/td>\r\n\u0096 Translated by Reverend William T. McNiff, The Pageant of Literature: Greek and Roman Writers<\/i><\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

The Age of Pericles<\/h3>\r\nThe years between 461 to 429 B.C.E. marked the Age of Pericles. Named after an Athenian leader, arts and literature flourished in this era. Outdoor theaters were built in Athens and other city-states for performances of the latest dramas. Made of stone, the theaters were positioned so that scenes of natural beauty served as backdrops for the stage.\r\n\r\nFor example, the Greek theater at Taormina in Sicily is built high upon a rocky hill. Behind the audience's back lay the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Perfectly centered behind the stage and facing the audience, sits the active, smoldering volcano, Mount Etna.\r\n\r\nThe Greeks held drama festivals in which plays competed against one another for the audience's favor. During these festivals, the Greeks performed the plays as a tribute to the gods. The first major drama festival of the spring in Athens honored Dionysus, the god of grapes and wine. This festival celebrated the renewal of the grape vines.\r\n\r\nOn stage, actors could play several roles by wearing different masks A chorus of several people in the background chanted from time to time, serving as a kind of narrator, and helping move the plot along.\r\n

Tragic Literature<\/h3>\r\nAll three of the most famous ancient Greek writers specialized in tragedies. Tragedy is a form of drama in which a strong central character or hero ultimately fails and is punished by the gods. Usually, the hero has a fatal flaw that causes his undoing.\r\n\r\nFor many years, Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E.) was the most successful dramatist in Athens winning several competitions. One of his rivals, the Athenian writer Sophocles (496-406 B.C.E.), wrote the famous play Oedipus Rex<\/i>, (Oedipus the King<\/i>). In this play, the main character, Oedipus is fated by the gods to kill his father and marry his own mother. Despite Oedipus's efforts to avoid this outcome, it happens just as the gods predicted. In shame, Oedipus blinds himself and is then banished.\r\n\r\nA third major writer named Euripides (484-406 B.C.E.) focused more on people than gods in his writing. Among Euripides most famous works are Electra<\/i> and The Trojan Women<\/i>\r\n
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An Excerpt from \"Medea\" by Euripides<\/h3>\r\n
\r\n\r\nIn this tragic story, Medea has been deserted by her husband, Jason, who has left to marry the daughter of King Creon. In revenge, Medea ultimately kills the two children she and Jason share and then herself<\/i>.\r\n\r\nThe chorus enters. The following lines between the Nurse, Chorus, and Medea are sung.\r\n\r\n
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Chorus<\/span><\/td>\r\nI heard the voice, uplifted loud, of our poor Colchian lady, nor yet is she quiet; speak, aged dame, for as I stood by the house with double gates I heard a voice of weeping from within, and I do grieve, lady, for the sorrows of this house, for it hath won my love.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Nurse<\/span><\/td>\r\n'Tis a house no more; all that is passed away long since; a royal bride keeps Jason at her side, while our mistress pines away in her bower, finding no comfort for her soul in aught her friends can say.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Medea (from within)<\/span><\/td>\r\nOh, oh! Would that Heaven's levin bolt would cleave this head in twain! What gain is life to me?Woe, woe is me! O, to die and win release, quitting this loathed existence!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Chorus<\/span><\/td>\r\nDidst hear, O Zeus, thou earth, and thou, O light, the piteous note of woe the hapless wife is uttering? How shall a yearning for that insatiate resting-place ever hasten for thee, poor reckless one, the end that death alone can bring? Never pray for that. And if thy lord prefers a fresh love, be not angered with him for that; Zeus will judge 'twixt thee and him herein. Then mourn not for thy husband's loss too much, nor waste thyself away.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Medea (from within)<\/span><\/td>\r\nGreat Themis, and husband of Themis, behold what I am suffering now, though I did bind that accursed one, my husband, by strong oaths to me! O, to see him and his bride some day brought to utter destruction, they and their house with them, for that they presume to wrong me thus unprovoked. O my father, my country, that I have left to my shame, after slaying my own brother.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Nurse<\/span><\/td>\r\nDo ye hear her words, how loudly she adjures Themis, oft invoked, and Zeus, whom men regard as keeper of their oaths? On no mere trifle surely will our mistress spend her rage.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Chorus<\/span><\/td>\r\nWould that she would come forth for us to see, and listen to the words of counsel we might give, if haply she might lay aside the fierce fury of her wrath, and her temper stern. Never be my zeal at any rate denied my friends! But go thou and bring her hither outside the house, and tell her this our friendly thought; haste thee ere she do some mischief to those inside the house, for this sorrow of hers is mounting high.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Nurse<\/span><\/td>\r\nThis will I do; but I doubt whether I shall persuade my mistress; still willingly will I undertake this trouble for you; albeit, she glares upon her servants with the look of a lioness with cubs, whenso anyone draws nigh to speak to her. Wert thou to call the men of old time rude uncultured boors thou wouldst not err, seeing that they devised their hymns for festive occasions, for banquets, and to grace the board, a pleasure to catch the ear, shed o'er our life, but no man hath found a way to allay hated grief by music and the minstrel's varied strain, whence arise slaughters and fell strokesof fate to o'erthrow the homes of men. And yet this were surely a gain, to heal men's wounds by music's spell, but why tune they their idle song where rich banquets are spread? For of itself doth the rich banquet, set before them, afford to men delight.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Chorus<\/span><\/td>\r\nI heard a bitter cry of lamentation! loudly, bitterly she calls on the traitor of her marriage bed, her perfidious spouse; by grievous wrongs oppressed she invokes Themis, bride of Zeus, witness of oaths, who brought her unto Hellas, the land that fronts the strand of Asia, o'er the sea by night through ocean's boundless gate.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/center>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/td>\r\n\u0096Translated by Reverend William T. McNiff, The Pageant of Literature: Greek and Roman Writers<\/i><\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nAnother type of play was the comedy. The most significant writer of comedies in ancient Greece was Aristophanes, whose works included The Frogs<\/i> and The Clouds<\/i>.\r\n
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An Excerpt from \"The Frogs\"<\/h3>\r\n
Enter Dionysus on foot dressed in the skin of the Nemean Lion, and the club of Heracles in his hand, and Xanthias heavily laden on a donkey.<\/i>
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Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nMaster, should I tell one of those usual jokes which always make the audience laugh?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nBy Zeus, say what you want--except \"I'm hard pressed.\" Forget that one, it's really quite annoying.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nNothing else witty either?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nAnything but \"What a strain!\"<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nWhat then? Can I say the really funny one?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nOf course,Go right ahead--but don't let me catch you saying this.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nWhat's that?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nThat you must shift your pack to ease yourself.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nWell, can't I say I've got such a load on me, unless someone takes it off, I'll bust a gut?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nPlease don't, unless you wish to make me sick.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nSo why should I have to carry all this stuff,without doing any of the jokes that Phrynichus and Lycis and Ameipsias always make the baggage-carriers say in all their comedies?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nJust don't. Since when I'm in the theater and hear any of these stupid jokes, I go away just older by a year.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nAlas, poor wretched me! My neck is really strained, but can't crack the joke.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nNow is this not outrage and utter insolence, That I myself, Dionysos, son of Winejug, must walk, and let this fellow ride, so he might feel no pain and bear no burden?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nWhat? I bear no burden?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nHow can you bear anything? You're riding.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nBut I've got all this!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nHow so?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nMost heavily!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nThe weight you carry--isn't it carried by the donkey?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nAbsolutely not; not what I'm holding and carrying.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nHow can you carry, for God's sake, when you yourself are carried by another?<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nI don't know, but my shoulder's sure hard pressed.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nWell, since you say the donkey doesn't help,Suppose you take your turn, and carry him.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Xanthias<\/span><\/td>\r\nUnhappy wretch! Why didn't I join the navy? Then I'd tell you to whistle a different tune!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Dionysus<\/span><\/td>\r\nYou scoundrel, get on down! Here's the doorI'm walking to, the first placeI must stop.--Ho, porter! porter there, I say.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/center>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/td>\r\n\u0096Translated by Reverend William T. McNiff, The Pageant of Literature: Greek and Roman Writers<\/i><\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nHis plays were witty and sarcastic. More often than not, comedies poked fun and made light of the major political figures of the day. Fortunately, the government of Athens tolerated this style of criticism.\r\n\r\n
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