GREECE

The position of Greece at the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe.

• Athens, Greece• Athens, the capital

of Greece, was one of the most important centers of the ancient world. Ancient stone temples still stand on the Acropolis, a huge flat-topped hill that overlooks the city.

ANCIENT

GREEK

LITERATUR

E

• Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the Earliest texts until the rise of the Byzantine Empire.Greek literature is known as the birth place of western intellectual life.Ancient Greeks were the first to use vowels in their language.30% of the words in a ordinary dictionary comes from the ancient Greek language.Our alphabet came from the Greek language.

For example: the word “alphabet” came from ancient Greek words “alpha” “beta”.

FOUR MAJOR WRITINGS OF ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE:

The Epics

Lyric Poetry

DramaTragedyComedySatyr Play

THE EPICS• Greeks created great

works of literature.

• A poet named Homer wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey.

• Both describe great deeds performed by heroes.

The Illiad tells the story of the Trojan War andAchilles, the greatest of all Greek warriors.

The Odyssey describes the challenges Odysseus facedreturning home from war. He faced monsters, magicians,

and angry gods.

Lyric Poetry• Other poets wrote poetry

that were set to music called lyres after the instruments played while the words were recited.

• The most popular poet who wrote lyres was Sappho (SAF-oh).

• Sappho was a woman who wrote poems about love and relationships.

Today, the words of songs are called lyrics after these Greek poets.

• Ancient Greek drama was developed around Greece’s Theater Culture.

• Drama was particularly developed at Athens.

• Evolved from the song and dance in the ceremonies honoring Dionysus at Athens.

DRAMA

• Tragic plays grew out of simple choral songs and dialogues performed at festivals of the God Dionysus (Bacchus).

• Performances were held in open theater of Dionysus in Athens.

Dionysus- God of Wine

• The three best Authors are:

AeschylusSophoclesEuripides

• Aeschylus is the earliest of the three, who was born in 525 BC.

• He wrote between 70 to 90 plays, of which seven remain, among which the only surviving series of three tragedies performed together, the “Oresteia”, “Persai”, and “Prometheus Bound”.

“Oresteia”-story of Orestes

“Persai”-song of triumph for the defeat of Persians

“Prometheus Bound”- retelling the legend of the

titan Prometheus

• From Euripides, seventeen tragedies have survived, among them are the “Medea” and “The Bacchae”.

• “Most tragic of the Poets”. -Aristotle

Sophocles of Colonus• Seven works of

Sophocles have survived, the most important of which are “Oedipus rex” and “Antigone”.

“Antigone”- story of womanly-sacrifice

• Comedy also arose from the ritual in honor of Dionysus, the plays were full of frank obscenity, abuse, and insult.

• Of the the works of the earlier writers, only some plays of Aristophanes exist: “The Birds” (he held up Athenean Democracy to ridicule), and “The Clouds” (he attacked philisopher Socrates).

• The third dramatic genre was the Satyr Play. Although the genre was popular, only one example has survived in its entirety, Euripides “Cyclops”.

• a comic play that mocked a mythological subject and included a chorus of satyrs.

HISTORY

• Herodotus “Father of History”

• Thucydides

• Xenophon

PHILOSOPHY

• Socrates-”wrote nothing but his thought”

• Plato- best known for “Dialogues” and “Republic”

• Aristotle-”Father of those who know”

-”The Philosopher”