Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Discipline Courses-I
Semester-I
Paper: Indian Writing in English
Lesson: Western Classical Literature: An Introduction
Lesson Developer: Shashi Khurana
College/Department: Fellow in ILLL, University of Delhi

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Of old the Hellenic race was marked off from the barbarian as more keen-witted and more free from
nonsense.

Herodotus (480-425 B.C.)

Greek and Roman mythology is generally supposed to show us the way the human race thought and felt
untold ages ago. Through it, according to this view, we can re-trace the path from civilised people who
live so far from nature, to those people who lived in close companionship with nature; and the real
interest of the myths is that they lead one back to the time when the world was young and people had a
connection with the earth, with trees, the seas, flowers and hills. Unlike the present the ancients could

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wretched horn.

The study of 'ancient Greek literature' implies a study of literature written in Greek language in the pre-
Christian period, by non-Christians in the first six centuries of the Christian era. Though writing was used
in Greece and Crete during the Bronze Age, but the written material surviving from that period appears
to be less in the form of Literature and more in the form of administrative records. Around 700 B.C. the
Greeks used a variety of writing materials and techniques for different purposes, but literary works were
written in ink on papyrus, a fibrous material manufactured in sheets from an Egyptian plant and made
into long rolls by sticking the sheets

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Figure : 1

Source: Timeless Legends

together at the edges. However, when Greeks entered their Literatures they did so through the medium
of listening to the spoken word thus, speech is given special place in the communicative/performing
arts. Their minds carried with them a mythic consciousness which they related to their social reality.

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Speech is …only a system of gestures, having the peculiarity that each gesture produces a
characteristic sound, so that it can be perceived through the ear as well as through the
eye…..We get still farther away from the fundamental facts about speech when we think of it
as something tghat can be written and read, forgetting that what writing, in our clumsy
notations, can represent, is only a small part of the spoken sound, where pitch and stress,
tempo and rhythm, are almost entirely ignored…The written book is only a series of hints, as
elliptical as the neumes of Byzantine music, from which the reader thus works out for
oneself the speech-gestures which alone have the gift of expression.(Colin Falck, 1994)

The Historical-Geographic Space

The Greeks were not a nation governed from a capital city, but a scattering of a thousand city-states on
the Greek mainland, the Aegean islands and parts of the coastline of Turkey, the Black Sea, Libya, Sicily
and Southern Italy. These states were very small in population and territory, but each asserted its own
sovereign status and many were in constant warfare with one another. They were united only by
speaking dialects of the same language, by the access to a common literature and culture which that
language provided, by participation in shared religious cults and festivals, and by the freedom of
movement which their artists and writers enjoyed.

In the classical period tragedy was a peculiarly Athenian development and increasingly admired as the
supreme poetic form. This contributed towards turning Athens into the cultural centre of the Greek
world, but a more important consideration was the power and wealth which Athens acquired through
its role in the defeat of Persia and the imperial control which exercised over its allies throughout the
Aegean. Athens lost this great power when it suffered defeat by Sparta at the end of the fifth century,
but no political defeat or humiliation could slow down the increasing domination of its culture and
literature. Documented literary histories show that the Athenians brought prose literature to maturity:
Thucydides in history, Plato in philosophy, Demosthenes in oratory. Attic, the dialect of Athens, became
the basis of literary and official Greek thereafter and gave rise in its turn to the dialects and stylistic
‘registers’ of medieval and modern Greek. The archaic and classical periods together are the most
creative and inventive period of Greek Literature. During a period when comedy was alive with
experimentation and prose literature was attaining an unsurpassed power and elegance, the Athenians
were consciously attempting to revive fifth-century Tragedies at the dramatic festivals in preference to
the work of new playwrights. Perhaps, the defeat in the war against Sparta made them realise that not
only the military achievements of the fifth century abut also its characteristic artistic achievements were
beyond emulation and needed to be preserved. The city of Dionysia hosted the greatest of dramatic
festivals, the occasion on which subject-allies would come annually to pay tribute and be spectators to
theatrical performances and poetic renderings of familiar legends and myths.

In the second half of the fourth century, not only Athens but the other major cities of Greece and
Aegean suffered irreversible injury when the kingdom of Macedonia, under Philip II and his son
Alexander the Great gained dominance. Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire spread the Greek
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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

language and culture everywhere in the Near East, but the days of the sovereign city-state were over. In
the course of time all the Greek-speaking areas of the Mediterranean came, gradually one after the
other, under the rule of Rome.

If Greek literature first appears in the eighth century B.C., the reason is simply that was when the Greeks
learned alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians. They had not by any means been without literature
during the preceding centuries of illiteracy. All people at all times have poetry, song and storytelling,
whether or not they have writing and it may safely be asserted, on more than one ground, tghat the
earliest Greek poetry we have is a mature of many hundreds of years of evolution. We must not think of
Greek literature as beginning in the eighth century but as coming into view.(K.J. Dover, 1980)

Retrieving Ancient Literature

Of all that the Greeks wrote, there is not more than a fraction in stock. We know the names of hundreds
of Greek historians; we have the work of only three of them from the classical period and a handful from
later times. It is possible to assume that well over two thousand plays were staged at Athens between
500 and 200 B.C., but no more than forty-six are available for the purpose of reading and performance.
This loss may be attributed to the gradual decline in interest in pagan literature with the advent of
Christianity which diverted intellectual energy into other channels. However, there was a parallel
movement due to the enthusiasm of a few churchmen at Byzantium (Constantinople) in the ninth
century A.D. who devoted themselves to retrieving and copying manuscripts of pagan works which
survived in a scattered way from earlier times. From then onwards the study of ancient Greek literature
took its place in Byzantine education and culture; western European (particularly Italian) interest in it
was awakened in the late Middle Ages and together with the invention of printing, ensured it a place in
most educational systems.

Many surviving works written in Hellenistic times give detailed quotations or in passing reference to
earlier works which are now lost indicating that through anthologies, lexicons, grammatical and metrical
treatises, commentaries and literary or philosophical essays there is information about scores of poems,
plays and books through quotations and excerpts for every one that we can read in its entirety. It seems
that the lost authors about whom we know something far exceed in number those of whom we possess
any complete work.

Our view of Greek literature is rather like a view of a great mountain range in which a few peaks
stand out in perfect clarity against a blue sky while the rest of the range is patchily, tantalizingly
hidden by banks and drifts of clouds. ( K.J. Dover,1980 )

Practically all the literature which was rescued from oblivion in the early Middle Ages owed its survival
to a process of selection—it represents what was most admired and most often read and studied in the
last centuries of the Roman Empire. In ancient and medieval times every copy of a text had to be made,
by a hand wielding pen, from another and omissions/insertions were part of the continuous process of
copying texts. The reader of Greek literature in translation would encounter a number of translations

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

but can be reassured the different translators are not constantly guessing or disagreeing about what the
author meant to say.

“There is no sign that the Greeks thought that any art had an obligation to be charged with despair or to
depict squalor because the society for which it was created was afflicted by despair or beset by squalor.
They are more likely to have concurred with the view that it is the business of the arts to compensate
for life by creating what life generally fails to create: people of extraordinary beauty and courage,
moments divested of all triviality. A modern painter said: ‘I paint like a barbarian, in a barbarous age.’ A
Greek might have retorted: ‘If your age is barbarous, that is the strongest possible reason for not
painting like a barbarian.’” (K. J. Dover, 1980)

What is classicism?

Classicism refers to the styles, rules, conventions and modes of classical authors and their influence on
the works of later authors. What then is a Classic? A Classic is a work of high authority. It could mean a
literary work belonging to ancient Greece or Rome or a writer or his/her work that is of such high merit
that it is acknowledged as excellent. Classicism refers to any work of art pertaining to ancient Greece or
Rome. The influence of Classicism was strongest in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
though its influence was felt strongly in England at the time.

Apart from classicism another literary tradition-the neoclassical period- extending roughly between
1660-1780 gained prominence in England. Dryden, swift, Addison, Steele and Pope were some of the
exponents of this tradition. The writers of this tradition upheld the ancient classical authors and thought
of literature as an art to be perfected through prolonged study. They emerged as highly skilled
craftsmen who respected the rules of their art. They believed that the function of art was to instruct and
please and held reason and judgment in high regard. They believed in technical correctness and had a
definite vision of man and mankind. They upheld the preserving of order, balance and correctness and
also imitated the works of classical writers particularly those belonging to the Latin tradition.

Plato (427-347 B.C.) and Aristotle (350-322 B.C.) Longinus ( 3 rd century A.D.) in Greece and Horace (65-
68 B.C.) Ovid (43 B.C. - 8 A.D.) and Juvenal (60-13- A.D.) in Rome formed the basis of classical thought in
ancient times.

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

THE GREEKS

PLATO (427-348 B.C.)

Figure : 2

Source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Plato-raphael.jpg

For Plato the nature of the Universe was imitation or mimesis. He was an idealist which determined his
worldview or the way in which he perceived the constitution of Reality. He believed that Reality
consisted of various layers. The top layer was made up Ideas and all the lower levels imitated these
Ideas. This worldview implies that everything in this world is an imitation of that idea that exists as
primary. The primary is made up of one Idea –the Good. Plato imagined that all other ideas existed in so
far as they participated in the Ultimate Good which was the ultimate Reality. Therefore, the further one
moved from The Good, the further one was from reality. Plato postulated the presence of a Primary
Form, which was the essence of every object or even thought. He considered this Form to be
unchangeable and entire by itself. It was an ideal Form that could not possibly be embodied by anything
in the existing world. So, when a poet/an artist sets out to create and imaginative image of the
Ideal/Primary Form, then the work of art would become a re-created image and hence removed from
reality. All art for Plato meant a turning away from the truth. He considered all forms of art to be
removed from reality and hence untrue.

Plato considered art to be devoid of good value because it imitates and imitation and is therefore thrice
removed from the Good and the True. According to Plato, art was also dangerous because when human
beings see or receive art, they want to imitate it creating the risk of being led further away from the
Truth and also because art excites strange passions in people that should necessarily be controlled and
disciplined. Looking at it in this context drama would therefore be the creation of a pot's imagination,
which the audience would watch and be encouraged to live through that same re-created experience.
Since Plato believed only in the True Form and was strongly opposed to dramatised dialogue on the

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

grounds that both drama and epic imitate the world of appearances and representation. He derided
both poetry and the tragic poet. Plato discusses the nature of poetry in Book X of the Republic. However,
one must remember that the ancient classics were not written works, but mostly speeches made at the
gymnasiums, memorised and recorded later by the pupils.

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)

Figure : 3

Source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Francesco_Hayez_001.jpg

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 Western Classical Literature: An Introduction

Plato's student Aristotle , on the other hand, had immense regard for the tragic poet. Aristotle in fact
placed tragedy at a higher position than the epic in the established hierarchy of classical art. While Plato
was opposed strongly to 'mimesis', Aristotle's Poetics begins with the belief that 'mimesis' is valuable as
a method of artistic representation. He established the three media of 'mimesis' namely: Language,
Rhythm, Harmony. He postulated that these media are then manifested through six elements of
tragedy:

myth/plot, ethos/character, dianoia/argument, lexis/diction, melopiia/music and opsis/visual

spectacle.

It is important to keep in mind that though both Plato and Aristotle talked about 'mimesis' they had
different views on it. Aristotle believed in the universality of art. He was of the opinion that an artist's
re-creation of an ideal contains universal elements in it, hence preventing it from falling short of an ideal
model of universality. He believed that a work of art serves a dual function: that of providing pleasure as
well as knowledge. This function of art could only be provided through 'mimesis'. While the Form was
transcendental all creation an imitation/'mimesis' of that Form for Plato, Aristotle believed in the
existence of Forms of all objects. Aristotle was aware of the purpose that imitation/'mimesis' served in
drama. 'Mimesis/imitation was meant to provide pleasure by imitating. For instance, an artist could use
music to imitate anger, wildness, courage, temperance, ethical qualities and emotions.

Aristotle's Poetics is an account of what can now be called dramatic theory and discusses also the
treatment of various genres of poetry--epic, tragedy and comedy and catharsis. Catharsis is often
believed to be serving a purgational/cleansing of emotion function. It is also equated with aesthetic
pleasure. "Aristotle in his definition of tragedy is thinking not only of any remote result but , of the
immediate end of art, of the aesthetic function it fulfills."(Butcher) When people watch a play the
emotions of 'pity and fear' are aroused. These emotions 'pity and fear' or the experience that people
watching a play undergo help them cleanse themselves of their own emotions of 'pity and fear'.
Aristotle wrote The Poetics basing his formulations on existing plays. The ancient Greeks wrote plays
based on the same myths but each writer handled the myths differently. Their handling of the plot made
them either win the drama festival contest or go away feeling defeated. It is supposed that Aristotle
write volumes of work but his description of what constitutes Tragedy and the character of a Tragic Hero
is the only in-depth exploration that has survived. Aristotle tried to prove that poetry is true, serious and
even useful. For Aristotle, the plot/mythos was the most important element of a tragedy, the 'very life
and soul'. Character/ethos he placed next in the hierarchy followed closely by argument/dianoi.
Diction/lexis follows next. Music/melopiia he considered to be providing the pleasure principle to
tragedy. The visual/opsis though providing attraction is the least artistic of all the six parts of tragedy,
according to Aristotle.

Aristotle set a trend by applying the techniques of natural science to Art and even establishing a
classification of artistic forms. In keeping with the metaphysics, he describes tragedy in terms of its four
causes. Its material cause is manifest in words and gestures, though these can be broken down into plot,
character, thought, diction, spectacle and song. The formal cause is, Tragedy, which Aristotle defines as
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the presentation of action (as opposed to the narration of action, which belongs to both epic and
history. The efficient cause is the playwright, and the final cause is the evocation of 'fear and pity' for the
purpose of purgation. Tragedy, according to Aristotle , makes the spectator experience 'pity and fear' so

that those emotions can be purged from one's system.

Longinus (Cassius, 3rd Century A.D.)

Dated roughly in the later part of the first century A.D. On the Sublime (Peri Ipsous) has come down to
the readers in an imperfect form with frequent and extensive gaps. The central argument in the work is
on sublimity. According to Longinus, sublimity is a certain loftiness and excellence in language. It is only
through sublimity that great writers have achieved eminence and immortality. The true sublime uplifts
one's soul. It arises from lofty ideas clothed in lofty language. It gives joy and exalts the spirits. In short,
the true sublime pleases and pleases always. "The false sublime, on the other hand, consists merely of a
gorgeous exterior, which conceals nothing but emptiness. Affected, pompous language is used to clothe
thoughts which are essentially trivial. It also displays passion unwarranted by the subject matter."

There are five principal sources of the sublime:

i. Grandeur of thought or the power of conceiving great thought.

ii. Strong and inspired passion and the vigorous treatment of it.

iii. The use of figures of thought and figures of expression

iv. Noble diction including proper choice and arrangement of words and handling of metaphor.

v. Dignified, elevated and elaborate composition (the rhythm)

The notion of sublime as used by Longinus implies 'elevation' or 'loftiness' and all that raises style above
the ordinary and gives it a distinction. Longinus uses both historical and comparative methods of
criticism considering poetry in relation to its age in which it was written, contrasting Hebrew literature
with the Greek and Roman literatures in order to highlight his theories. Longinus also uses the analytical
methods for he analyses extracts from works and estimates the author's use of words, phrases, epithets
and images.

Longinus has been described as '...an exponent of the genuine classical spirit since he is concerned with
the ancient Greek models from which he derives his theory, while talking about the lines of Aristotle, he
also deviates from him, 'for nothing could be farther removed from the cold intellectualism of Aristotle
than the impassioned and suggestive teaching of Longinus. (Atkins)

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There was a gradual decline in Greek supremacy because of territorial defeats, was propelled by Roman
interest in retrieving and adding to Greek thought with a distinct Roman slant. Rome adopted the
entire pantheon of Greek gods, only changing their names.

The Romans

HORACE ( Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-68 B.C.)

Figure : 4

Source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Quintus_Horatius_Flaccus.jpg

Horace's contribution to literary and philosophical thought has been aptly summed up in the following
observation: "What Cicero had done in the sphere of rhetoric was now carried over by Horace into the
realm of poetry. He recalled to men's minds the standards of classical art, while directing their steps
back to the poetry of antiquity, and he undoubtedly stands out as the most influential of Roman critics,

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one who achieved results of a lasting kind and was to rank in stature with Aristotle at the
Renaissance".(Atkins)

Horace's main critical postulations are found in his Ars Poetica(the Art of Poetry) a work which equaled
Aristotle's Poetics in its influence during the Renaissance. Though critics have found it difficult to assign
any date to Horace's work, it is believed that Ars Poetica could have been written around 15 B.C. Ars
Poetica literally means a treatise of the art of writing poetry. Some critics have pointed out to the
apparent formless and unsystematic appearance of Ars Poetica. However, its subject matter falls into
three definite divisions: the first division is about poesis or a discussion on the subject matter of poetry;
the second is about poema or form. The third is poeta or the poet; In this part advice is given to poets
while examining the function of poetry. Ars Poetica opens with the assertion that a poem must have
organic unity. In a poem, as in a painting, all the parts should be vitally connected with one another.
Horace writes, "If a painter should try to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and to add various
features to limbs collected from every kind of animal so that a woman's fair form above should end in a
foul and ugly fish beneath, tell me, my friend, could you control your laughter, if admitted to a private
view?" Horace's view is that poetry is not mere imitation, it is creative. poets are free to indulge their
fancy to use their imitation, but they should be true to life; imagination must not be overdone.

In the second part he discusses plot, characterisation and dramatic style.The plot must be based on
only familiar stories. These stories, by skilful treatment, may be given novelty. New themes also may be
invented but their successful treatment requires skill and genius from the author.

Characters must be true to type and must be consistent. Characters drawn from tradition must preserve
their original traits: "Thus, Achilles should be represented as energetic, wrathful and passionate; Medea
as savage and unsubdued; Orestes as melancholy and grief-stricken." If not treated this way, they would
sound unreal and unconvincing.

The dramatic style must vary in accordance with character, mood and circumstance. In order to
introduce verisimilitude, different tones are to be invested with different moods and personalities.
Further the dramatist must use some discretion to find out what is to be represented on the stage and
what is to be reported to the audience. Some incidents can well be staged, while some others are to be
only reported to the audience. Such episodes as Medea slaughtering her children or Pronce being
turned into a bird must not be shown on the stage and should only be reported. In this section, Horace
also deals with the short-comings of the Greek stage and the nature of the satyr-play.

The subject matter of the third part 'poeta' is the poet. The art of poetry requires long and persistent
labour. The focus is on polished workmanship which is the outcome of consistent toil. A poet must not
be in a hurry to publish. The work should be able to stand the test of at least a decade. It is important for
a poet to be a keen observer of men and manners and the poet's themes should be drawn from the
book of life. A poet's own life should imbibe nobility and dignity and a clear avoidance of indulgence in
absurdities and extravagances. The poet's aim should be to instruct or please or combine both. Poetry
has great power and appeal. The poetry of Orpheus charmed even the beast with its music, whereas

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Tiresias inspired masculine minds to war. Great poets have also been great prophets and they should be
proud of their calling.

To Horace the idea of poetic madness or inspiration is absurd. Excess must be kept under restraint. As
for the choice of subject, "choose a theme suited to your powers and ponder long what weights your
shoulders refuse to bear, and what they can support." Further, "the language of poetry should be
different from the language of common man, because the essence of art lies in the creation of beauty.
So, the poet should give something finer, and higher than common life and use a finer, more polished
language. "

Horace takes ancient Greek literature as his standard, advocates an imitation of these works and thus
asserts the supremacy of classical Greek literature. He recommends the method of re-creation of the art
of evolving something new out of the existing and the old. "What he says on poetic diction and on the
new graces to be won by skilful setting of familiar words is also of significance....nor are his remarks on
Drama without their value; on both plot and characterisation he has something important to say and
while urging in general a standard of artistic distinction or correctness, he is far from advocating poetry
that is faultily faultless'. (Atkins) It was Ars poetica which broadcast the seed of the poetics over every
literature in Europe. In the Poetics the efficacy of Aristotles's doctrine depends on his reader's ability to
follow philosophical reasoning. In Ars Poetica the magic of poetry has released it from this severe
condition.

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OVID (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 B.C. -A.D. 18)

Figure : 5

Source : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Latin_Poet_Ovid.jpg

His works include in rough chronological order the 'Amores', Heroides', 'Ars Amatoria',
'Metamorphoses', 'Fasti', 'Tristia', and 'Epistulae ex Ponto.' ovid wrote in elegiacs and documented as
one of the favourite Latin poets of the Middle Ages. Metamorphoses which states "change is my
subject" was not merely a brilliant collection of much of the classical mythology which involved changes
of state of being--people into animals, plants rocks, fountains and even stars. It provided a kind of form
or template for poetic realisation of a whole world view.

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JUVENAL (Decimus Junius Juvenalis, A.D.60-130)

Figure : 6

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Juvenalcrowned.gif

A satirical poet whose extant works consist of sixteen satires, depicting contemporary society and
denouncing its vices. Satire was a genre of poetry invented and developed by the Romans. When it
came into juvenal's hands, he stamped his mark of 'indignation' upon it. For the Romans , 'satire'
denoted a particular form of discourse, a genre of poetry with 'rules' and not merely an attitude or a
voice. Like all authors of Greco-Roman literature which had its unwritten laws, theses laws prescribed
the choice of metre and form, material, presentation and language. The metre was the dactylic
hexameter(the metre of epic poetry) and the form required compositions of short to middle length,
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usually in the range of 50-250 lines. The material included matters of morality, education and literature.
The type of presentation was the autobiographical monologue with occasional extensions into dialogue,
epistle or narrative.

Though Roman verse satire uses the autobiographical monologue as the chief mode of presentation.
This does not mean that the satirists are necessarily using their satires to convey their personal feelings
to the world. Authors in all genres of Roman literature, including Roman verse satire, were accustomed
to creating characters. In some genres this is more obvious than in others, for example in drama and in
epic, where these characters are given names. But in the personal genres of poetry--love elegy, lyric
poetry, epigram and satire-- the character or persona, 'mask' is frequently presented as a first-person
voice. This ensured a relationship between speaker and audience providing a sense of participation and
evoking a response from the listener. It must be remembered that most Greek and Latin literature was
written for oral delivery by the author or another voice to a live audience.

For the Romans there were two types of satire, one in prose and the other in verse. The two share many
characteristics, but the Romans privilege the verse form. This is perhaps because the prose type, often
called Menippean satire, had its roots in Greek culture, specifically in the diatribe, which was a kind of
sermon associated with Hellenistic philosophical schools such as Cynicism. In contrast the verse form
was claimed as Roman.

Classical Literature : Genres

EPIC POETRY

The evolution of the two great epics, Illiad and Odyssey, follows the same pattern as that of the early
epics of great nations. However, it is assumed that Epic poetry goes back much earlier than the Illiad
and Odyssey and the other written epics that gained currency in the archaic period. All the poems look
back to events supposed to have happened a dozen or more generations previously, when Mycenae,
Tiryns, Pylos, Iolkos were important towns and Thebes and Troy were sacked. The heroic age of epic
tradition contains a hard core of historical reality. Archaeology confirms that the towns remembered in
epic( and in Greek mythology ) as being rich and powerful, down to the thirteenth or twelfth century
B.C. and in most cases never reached such status again.

The tradition of epic poetry must have been exclusively oral in its earlier phases, as Greece was illiterate
until the eighth century. The Illiad and Odyssey, written poems though they are, show signs of an oral
ancestry. The poet summons the Muse at the beginning to 'tell' or 'sing' him the story so that listeners
can 'hear the report'. Each performer learnt the traditional stories by listening to other performers and
learnt a traditional style in which to tell them.

LYRIC POETRY

When the Greeks grew tired of epics, Stesichorus recast the stories in choral lyrics. The lyric or the
personal culminates in two great figures, Alcaeus and Sappho in the sixth century. Both came from the

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aristocratic class of the island of Lesbos and both were exiled by the democratic faction for taking active
part in a conspiracy by the nobility to recapture power. Alcaeus was a firebrand who mingled politics
with poetry.

Sappho was hailed by Plato as the most lyrical of the Greek poets--the tenth Muse. Sappho herself set
her poems to music for the harp , a musical instrument and though the harp is dead the musical quality
of her poems cannot be missed:

Round about me hum the winds of autumn,

Cool between the apple-boughs, and slumber

Flowing from the quivering leaves to earthward

Spreads as a river

The melodic/melic poetry of Sappho points highlights social factors like a thriving women's society or
unmarried women or girls, who gathered in Sappho's house to practise music and song and at other
times sang in public at weddings and festivals.

Greek Drama had its roots in religious rituals. The English word 'tragedy' is derived from the Greek and it
originally meant a goat-song. In order to understand the linkage one needs to delve into the origin of
myths.

The mountain goat of Arcadia, leaping with sure foot from crag to crag, at home and on the slopes of
high mountains where the air is pure, must have suggested the figure of the satyr, the personification of
an untrammeled life, in tune with nature with instincts and impulses finding free expression without the
restraints of reason. The satyrs were the followers of Pan, the god of the Arcadian shepherds. Pan later
merged into the figure of Dionysus Bacchus. Originating in fertility cults, Bacchus is the god of vegetation
and the god of wine. Like seasonal vegetation, he dies and is reborn. Life is prior to thought not only in
evolutionary origin but in the saga of daily existence. Life's energy persists in the face of great odds. Men
do not put an end to their lives when reason proves that their predicament is desperate. Nor can reason
yield an intense experience of life if the will to live, the vital energies, are at a low ebb. Dionysus thus
becomes the god of ecstasy both above and below reason. The centaurs, personifications of the wild
forces that crash through the Thessalian forests, become the attendants of the god along with the
satyrs.

During the festival of Dionysus, long poems narrating the exploits of the god were recited by a choral
group in front of his altar or image. In this ritual recital, the singers were dressed like satyrs, the
attendants of the god. That is why the ritual was called a goat -song. The poet who composed the song
led with it and the chorus followed him. Gradually the recital became enlivened by mimetic gestures and
action, the poet becoming an actor-singer. The chorus also split up into two groups, each with its leader.
The primitive dramatic form thus acquired three actors--the poet and the leaders of the two groups.
Dialogue and interchange were now possible between the three actors and dramatic opposition and
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conflict were developed. Three actors could play more than three roles, as they could change costumes
and the only demand was that not more than three characters should be on the stage at the same time.

Visual

Figure : 7

Source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Reveller_courtesan_BM_E44.jpg

Originally the theme was the adventure, death and resurrection of the god. Gradually the poets were
allowed to substitute the sufferings and death of a hero in Greek myth. But the sequence had to close
with a drama on Dionysius. Since the actors had to change costumes three times during the day-long
performance, each sequence came to consist of three tragedies followed by Dionysian drama. Later the
tail end drops off and dramatists also take to writing individual plays instead of trilogies.

Chorus as the unique feature of Greek Drama can be understood in the light of the ritual origins of
ancient drama. It influenced dramatic form and method to a considerable extent. Since the action of the
drama was carried on from beginning to end in the presence of the chorus, a band of witnesses always
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the same and remaining in the same place, the dramatic action tended to be limited to one spot and its
time to one day. As a result of these limitations, the unities of time and place were not rigid rules.

The Theatre

Visual

Figure : 8

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pE_JGOM4Ec

Figure : 9

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mask_youngster_Louvre_S3044.jpg

Drama was staged in open-air theatres with almost fifteen thousand seats rising in a fan-like semi-circle
of tiers. Painted background and a crane-like arrangement for the sudden descent of gods were used.
The actors wore tall head-gear and thick-soled shoes to enhance their height and masks fitted with a
resonant mouth-piece of brass, so that they could be seen and heard by the farthest of the vast
audience. Actors enjoyed a high prestige. They were exempt from military service and were allowed safe
passage through the lines in war. The chorus consisted of selected citizens, but later, when the music of
these plays became complex, professional singers took their place. More than at any other time in
history, the drama in Greece was an art in which the whole community participated.

The dramas were staged during the festival of Dionysus and the plays were selected by competition.
Rich citizens competed for the privilege of paying the cost of training the singers, dancers and actors and
meeting the other expenses of production.

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The Nature Of Greek Tragedy

Figure : 10

Source: Timeless Legends

Origins in ritual, imparted to Greek Drama a serious temper. Unlike Modern Drama,(a study of
character in conflict with oneself) and Elizabethan Drama (a study of action or man in conflict with man)
Greek Drama was a study of man in relation to the gods, of fate, of the dark, obscure, positive meaning
in fate. Sanskrit drama avoided tragedy because it implied a morbid world-view.

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The statue of Dionysus was brought to the theatre and so placed on the stage that he continued to be
the recipient of this transformed worship of the gods to Dionysus. Blasphemy against the gods was
dangerous in the presence of the god. the tension between the intense poetic experience of suffering
and the religious faith that the vicissitudes of life, however bitter have a meaning, raised Greek drama to
heights which may have been reached but never excelled in other epochs.

The Nature Of Greek Comedy

In one sense it would be correct to say that Greek Comedy emerged from religious life and practice, just
as Greek tragedy did. But the mood of religious prayer is not the same as the mood of religious festival.
The intense fervour of annual ritual is in contrast to the relaxed gaiety of processions and celebrations.
Since Greek comedy rose from the latter, its temper was completely different from that of tragedy.
Dionysus was not only the god of rational inspiration and ecstasy, but was celebrated as the god of
fertility and thus the sexual motif was predominant in the celebrations. The revellers in the procession,
who were dressed like satyrs, the followers of the god, wore a large artificial phallus of red leather. The
festival which celebrated the reproductive principle could not but give rise to frank, outspoken and
some obscene merriment. If Greek comedy appears appallingly obscene in places, one should recall its
origins and further the fact that it arose, not in civilised Athens but among the rustic population of the
island of Sicily.

About 560 B.C., Susarion of Sicily developed this abandoned merriment into brief plays of rough satire
and comedy. About 484 B.C., Epicharmus, who was a philosopher, wrote about thirty-five comedies of
which none has survived, which he used as the vehicles of rationalist thought. The approach to life of
Greek comedy thus crystallised into a clear pattern. Basically it was meant for merriment and retained a
complete freedom of expression. Often the laughter and the ridicule gave an edge to thought. The
possibilities of comedy becoming a powerful instrument of social criticism thus began to emerge clearly.
When comedy came from Sicily to Athens and became popular, the authorities in charge of the dramatic
performances gave it a chorus for representation at the official festivals of Dionysus. One of the
elements is chorus(of twenty-four) which may represent human beings but also and often, other
creatures , for example, Birds and personified entities for example, Clouds. This was an old art form
evidenced in representations on sixth century Attic vases pictures of men dressed up as horses or birds
and dancing to the accompaniment of a piper.

Visual

It may be surmised that in 465 B.C. , Greek Comedy emerged with a structural form identical with that
of tragedy. However, the temper of the two forms was completely different.

Tragedy evolved out of the chorus, from its deep immersion in the intense mood of worship. Comedy
arose from the ribald fertility festivals and merely took over the chorus to get some integrity of form.

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Figure : 11

Source: Timeless Legends

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Glossary

Herodotus: A Greek historian, known as the father of history, for he was the first to collect his materials
systematically, test their accuracy, so far as he was able, and arrange them agreeably,. His work, the first
masterpiece of Greek prose, is divided into nine books, each called after one of the Muses. He travelled
widely in Europe, Asia and Africa. The main theme of his work is the enmity between Asia and Europe.
He traces it from mythical times, through the reign of Croesus in Lydia, the rise of the Persian monarchy,
the expedition of Cambyses into Egypt(with details of Egyptian history), that of Darius against the
Scythians, the Ionian revolt, and the struggle between Persia and Greece.

Proteus: An old man of the sea, who tended the flocks of Poseidon. He had received the gift of prophecy
from the god, but those who wished to consult him found him difficult to access, for he assumed various
shapes at will.

Triton: A sea deity, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Amphitrite.

Satyr: A type of comic play in ancient Greece commonly performed after the tragedies at the City
Dionysia, he principal civic and religious festival of Athens. The playwrights winning the right to stage
their works in the festival wrote three tragedies and one satyr play to form the traditional tetralogy, or
group of four. the structure of a satyr play was similar to the structure of tragedy. Its subject matter
treated in burlesque, was drawn from myth or the epic cycles, and its chorus was composed of satyrs
(half- human and half-horse or half-goat) under the leadership of Silenus, the adoptive father of
Dionysius. Rascals and revellers, satyrs represented wild versions of humanity, opposing the values of
civilised men. Euripides's Cyclops (450 B.C.) is the only complete surviving example of the genre.

Pan: The Greek god of shepherds and huntsmen, represented as a monster, with two small horns on his
head, flat nose, ruddy complexion and legs and feet of a goat. Plutarch mentions that in the reign of
Tiberius a ship with passengers was driven near the coast of the Isles of Paxi. A loud voice was heard
calling to one Thamus that the great god Pan was dead. The incident in Christian legend is associated
with the birth of Christ.

Bacchus: Another name of the Greek god, Dionysus.

Chorus: In classical drama, the chorus is a group of characters placed on stage to comment upon the
action and express traditional wisdom. The chorus originates in ancient Greece, developing out of
religious ritual and as the oldest manifestation of stage playing and likely to be instrumental in the
evolution of drama as a discrete art form.

Aegean: Relating to the region of the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey.

Byzantium: The former name of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Division of the Roman Empire.

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Dionysus: A Greek god, also known as Bacchus, the son of Zeus and Semele, a god of the fertility of
nature, a suffering god, who dies and comes to life again, particularly a god of wine, who loosens care
and inspires man to music and poetry. Hence, his connection the dithyramb, tragedy and comedy.

Pagan: A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the mainstream world religions.

Hellenistic : "Hellenic" refers to the culture and history of the Hellenes, the name by which the Greeks
may be known even today. Greece is therefore, also called Hellas. Originally the Hellenes belonged to
the region around Dodona, a part of South Thessaly. Along with the Dorians they spread all over Greece.
In Homer, the Greeks are called Achaeans, Argives and Danai. The Hellenes as a name became popular
for all Greeks only after the seventh century B.C.

Phoenicians: An ancient race of people living in Phoenicia in the eastern Mediterranean.

Persona: Latin for mask. A figure imagined by an author to be the speaker of a poem, story or novel. A
persona is the voice of the work, not a character in it.

Mimesis: Greek word which means imitation of reality in art and literature.

Catharsis : (Greek, Katharsis, 'purgation') Aristotle uses the word in his definition of tragedy in chapter
VI of Poetics. 'Tragedy through pity and fear effects a purgation of such emotions'. In this sense it would
imply that tragedy, having aroused powerful feelings in the spectator, has also a therapeutic effect; after
the storm and climax there comes a sense of release from tension, an experience of calmness.

Genre: (JAWN-ruh) A term for the different kinds of literary work--epic, novel, tragedy, etc.
Classifications of literary genres are based upon their combination of literary form and subject matter.
An epic is a genre the literary form of which includes an episodic plot and a consistent, expansive verse
form such as blank verse or heroic couplets and the subject matter includes a hero and grand martial
adventures. The same genre becomes mock-heroic if the hero is a comical character and the incidents
trivial.

Satire: A genre using derisive humour to mock human pretence and vice or to censure social and
political follies and incompetence. Satire has been practised for hundreds of years , from the ancient
Greeks and Romans to the great age of English satire(late seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries)
to the contemporary times and it remains a constant tool of moral judgment. The tone of satire ranges
from detached amusement to unremitting contempt, depending on the anger with which satirists
regard their subject. It is the art of the ridiculous, blending criticism and humour with varying degrees of
spite with irony as its chief tool.

Metre: A systematic rhythmic pattern of stresses in verse. When stresses fall at regular intervals, the
result is metre and the different existing metres are classified by differences in those intervals. in
metrical compositions, the organisation of stresses may vary from line to line, but not so much as to
break the general pattern.

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Bibliograpahy

Maurice Bowra: Ancient Greek Literature, 1933

R.G. Collingwoood: The Principles of Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945)

David Daichies: Critical Approaches to literature ( Calcutta: Orient Longman Ltd. 1977)

W. B. Stanford: Greek Tragedy and the Emotions: An Introductory Study. (London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1983)

Colin Falck: Myth, Truth and Literature. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 1994)

Chronology

B.C. Archaic Period

700 Hesiod

675 Homer

600 Solon; Sappho; Alcaeus

Classical Period

475 Aeschylus

450 Sophocles; Euripides

425 Aristophanes

375 Plato

350 Aristotle

B.C. Hellenistic Period

300 Theophrastus

250 Archimedes

254 Plautus

200 Beginnings of Roman intervention in Greece and the Aegean

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Roman Period

65 Horace

43 Ovid

25 Roman annexation of Egypt

A.D.

60 Juvenal

450 Final break-up of Roman Empire in Western Mediterranean

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