HOMERIC

In order to understand the evolution of the Hellenic civilization it is necessary to go back to the
first period of its history, the Homeric Age which extended from approximately 1200 to 800 BC.
It was the that the Greek nation was formed and the foundations laid for many of the social and
political developments of subsequent centuries. Not all of the glory that was Greece can be
traced to the Homeric Age, but it is nonetheless true that several of the most typical institutions
and attributes of the Greeks in their prime were modifications of forms which had survived from
the earliest days.

By 1200 BC the Greeks had occupied most of the northern sections of the peninsula and a few scattered
locations along the coast. At first they filtered in slowly, bringing their herds and flocks with them and
settling in the more sparsely populated areas. Many of these early immigrants seem to have belonged to
the group which later came to be known as Ionians. Another division the Achaeans pushed further south ,
conquered Mycenae and Troy, and ultimately gained dominion over Crete. Soon after 1200 the great
Dorian invasions began and reached their climax about two centuries later. Some of the Dorians settled in
central Greece, but most of them took to the sea , conquering the eastern sections of the Peloponnesus
and the southern islands of the Aegean. About 1000 BC they captured Knossos, the chief center of the
Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.

Whether Achaeans , Ionians , or Dorians , all of the Greeks in the Homeric Age had essentially the same
culture , which was comparatively primitive. Not until the very last century of the period was there any
general knowledge of writing . We must therefore envisage the Homeric Greeks as a preliterate people
during the greater part of their history , with intellectual accomplishments that extended no farther then
development of folk songs , ballads , and short epics sung and embellished by bards as they wandered
from one village to another. A large part of this material was finally woven into a great epic cycle by one
or more poets and put into written form in the ninth century BC. Though not all of the poems of this cycle
have come down to us , the two most important , the Iliad and the Odyssey, provide us with our richest
store of information about the ideals and customs of the Homeric Age.

The political institutions of the Homeric Greeks were exceedingly primitive. Each little community of
villages was independent of external control , but political authority was so tenuous that it would not be
too much to say that the state scarcely existed at all. The king could not make or enforce laws or
administer justice. He received no remuneration of any kind , but had to cultivate his farm for a living the
same as any other citizen. Practically his only functions were military and priestly. He commanded the
army in time of war and offered sacrifices to keep the gods on the good side of the community. Although
each little group of villages had its council of nobles and assembly of warriors, neither of these bodies had
any definite membership or status as an organ of government. The duties of the former were to advise
and assist the king and prevent him from usurping despotic powers. The functions of the latter were to
ratify declarations of war and assent to the conclusion of peace. Almost without exception custom took
the place of law , and the administration of justice was private. Even willful murder was punishable only
by the family of the victim. While it is true that disputes were sometimes submitted to the king for
settlement , he acted in such cases merely as an arbitrator , not as a judge. As a matter of fact , the
political consciousness of the Greeks of this time was so poorly developed that they had no conception
of government as an indispensable agency for the preservation of social order. When Odysseus , king of
Ithaca , was absent for twenty years , no regent was appointed in his place , and no session of the council
or assembly was held. No one seemed to think that the complete suspension of government , even for so
long a time , was a matter of any critical importance.

As is commonly known, the deities of the Homeric religion were merely human beings writ large. It was
really necessary that this should be so if the Greek was to feel at home in the world over which they ruled.
Remote, omnipotent beings like the gods of most Oriental religions would have inspired fear rather than a
sense of security. What the Greek wanted was not necessarily gods of great power, but deities he could
bargain with on equal terms. Consequently he endowed his gods with attributes similar to his own— with
human bodies and human weaknesses and wants. He imagined the great company of divinities as
frequently quarreling with one another, needing food and sleep, mingling freely with men, and even
procreating children occasionally by mortal women. They differed from men only in the fact that they
subsisted on ambrosia and nectar, which made them immortal. They dwelt not in the sky or in the stars
but on the summit of .Mount Olympus, a peak in northern Greece with an altitude of about 10,000 feet.

The religion was thoroughly polytheistic, and no one deity was elevated very high above any of the
others. Zeus, the sky god and wielder of the thunderbolt, who was sometimes referred to as the father of
the gods and of men, frequently received less attention than did Poseidon, the sea god, Aphrodite,
goddess of love, or Athena, the goddess of war and patroness of handicrafts. Since the Greeks had no
Satan, their religion cannot be described as dualistic. Nearly all of the deities were capable of
malevolence as well as good, for they sometimes deceived men and caused them to commit wrongs. The
nearest approach to a god of evil was Hades, who presided over the nether world. Although he is referred
to in the Homeric poems as "implacable and unyielding" and the most hateful of gods to mortals, he was
never assumed to have played an active role in affairs on earth. He was not considered as the source of
pestilence, earthquake, or famine. He did not tempt men or work to defeat the benevolent designs of
other gods. In short, he was really not regarded as anything more than the guardian of the realm of the
dead.

The Greeks of the Homeric Age were almost completely indifferent to what happened to them after death.
Not only did they bestow no care upon the bodies of the dead, but they frequently cremated them. They
did assume, however, that the shades or ghosts of men survived for a time after the death of their bodies.
All, with a few exceptions, went to the same abode—to the murky realm of Hades situated beneath the
earth. This was neither a paradise nor a hell: no one was rewarded for his good deeds, and no one was
punished for his sins. Each of the shades appeared to continue the same kind of life its human
embodiment had lived on earth. The Homeric poems make casual mention of two other realms, the
Elysian Plain and the realm of Tartarus, which seem at first glance to contradict the idea of no rewards
and punishments in the hereafter. But the few individuals who enjoyed the ease and comfort of the
Elysian Plain had done nothing to deserve such blessings; they were simply persons whom the gods had
chosen to favor. The realm of Tartarus was not really an abode of the dead but a place of imprisonment
for rebellious deities.

Worship in the Homeric religion consisted primarily of sacrifice. The offerings were made, however, not as
an atonement for sin, but merely in order to please the gods and induce them to grant favors. In other
words, religious practice was external and mechanical and not far removed from magic. Reverence,
humility, and purity of heart were not essentials in it. The worshiper had only to carry out his part of the
bargain by making the proper sacrifice, and the gods would fulfill theirs. For a religion such as this no
elaborate institutions were required. Even a professional priesthood was unnecessary. Since there were
no mysteries and no sacraments, one man could perform the simple rites about as well as another. As a
general rule, each head of a family implored the favor of the gods for his own household, and the king
performed the same function for the community at large. Although it is true that seers or prophets were
frequently consulted because of the belief that they were directly inspired by the gods and could therefore
foretell the future, these were not of a priestly class. Furthermore, the Homeric religion included no cult or
sacred relics, no holy days, and no system of temple worship. The Greek temple was not a church or
place of religious assemblage, and no ceremonies were performed within it. Instead it was a shrine which
the god might visit occasionally and use as a temporary house.

As intimated already, the morality of the Greeks in the Homeric period had only the vaguest connection
with their religion. While it is true that the gods were generally disposed to support the right, they did not
consider it their duty to combat evil and make righteousness prevail. In meting out rewards to men, they
appear to have been influenced more by their own whims and by gratitude for sacrifices offered than by
any consideration for moral character. The only crime they punished was perjury, and that none too
consistently. The conclusion seems justified, then, that Homeric morality rested upon no basis of
supernatural sanctions. Perhaps its true foundation was military. Nearly all the virtues extolled in the epics
were those which would make the individual a better soldier— bravery, self-control, patriotism, wisdom (in
the sense of cunning), love of one's friends, and hatred of one's enemies. There was no conception of sin
in the Christian sense of wrongful acts to be repented of or atoned for..

At the end of the Homeric Age the Greek was already well started along the road of social ideals that he
was destined to follow in later centuries. He was an optimist, convinced that life was worth living for its
own sake, and he could see no reason for looking forward to death as a glad release. He was an egoist,
striving for the fulfillment of self. As a consequence, he rejected mortification of the flesh and all forms of
denial which would imply the frustration of life. He could see no merit in humility or in turning the other
cheek. He was a humanist, who worshiped the finite and the natural rather than the otherworldly or
sublime. For this reason he refused to invest his gods with awe-inspiring qualities, or to invent any
conception of man as a depraved and sinful creature. Finally, he was devoted to liberty in an even more
extreme form than most of his descendants in the classical period were willing to accept.

Hellenistic period[edit]
Further information: Hellenistic period, Hellenistic art, and Hellenistic Greece

Imaginative nineteenth-century engraving of the ancient Library of Alexandria

By 338 BC all of the Greek city-states except Sparta had been united by Philip II of
Macedon.[73] Philip's son Alexander the Great extended his father's conquests greatly. Athens lost its
preeminent status as the leader of Greek culture, and it was replaced temporarily
by Alexandria, Egypt.[74]
The city of Alexandria in northern Egypt became, from the 3rd century BC, the outstanding center of
Greek culture. It also soon attracted a large Jewish population, making it the largest center for
Jewish scholarship in the ancient world. In addition, it later became a major focal point for the
development of Christian thought. The Musaeum, or Shrine to the Muses, which included the library
and school, was founded by Ptolemy I. The institution was from the beginning intended as a great
international school and library.[75] The library, eventually containing more than a half million volumes,
was mostly in Greek. It was intended to serve as a repository for every work of classical Greek
literature that could be found.[76]

Poetry[edit]
A painting by John William Waterhouse depicting a scene from The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes

The genre of bucolic poetry was first developed by the poet Theocritus.[77] The Roman Virgil later
wrote his Eclogues in this genre.[78] Callimachus, a scholar at the Library of Alexandria, composed
the Aetia ("Causes"),[79] a long poem written in four volumes of elegiac couplets describing the
legendary origins of obscure customs, festivals, and names,[79] which he probably wrote in several
stages over the course of many years in the third century BC.[79] The Aetia was lost during the Middle
Ages,[79] but, over the course of the twentieth century, much of it was recovered due to new
discoveries of ancient papyri.[79] Scholars initially denigrated it as "second-rate", showing great
learning, but lacking true "art".[79]Over the course of the century, scholarly appraisal of it greatly
improved, with many scholars now seeing it in a much more positive light.[79]Callimachus also wrote
short poems for special occasions and at least one short epic, the Ibis, which was directed against
his former pupil Apollonius.[80] He also compiled a prose treatise entitled the Pinakes, in which he
catalogued all the major works held in the Library of Alexandria.[81]
The Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes is best known for his epic poem the Argonautica, which
narrates the adventures of Jason and his shipmates the Argonauts on their quest to retrieve
the Golden Fleece from the land of Colchis.[82] The poet Aratus wrote the hexameter
poem Phaenomena, a poetic rendition of Eudoxus of Cnidus's treatise on the stars written in the
fourth century BC.[83]

Drama[edit]
Republican or Early Imperial relief depicting a seating Menander holding the masks of New Comedy (1st
century BC – early 1st century AD) Princeton University Art Museum

During the Hellenistic period, the Old Comedy of the Classical Era was replaced by New Comedy.
The most notable writer of New Comedy was the Athenian playwright Menander. None of
Menander's plays have survived to the present day in their complete form, but one play, The Bad-
Tempered Man, has survived to the present day in a near-complete form. Large portions of another
play entitled The Girl from Samos have also survived.[84]

Historiography[edit]
The historian Timaeus was born in Sicily but spent most of his life in Athens.[85] His History, though
lost, is significant because of its influence on Polybius. In 38 books it covered the history of Sicily
and Italy to the year 264 BC, which is where Polybius begins his work. Timaeus also wrote
the Olympionikai, a valuable chronological study of the Olympic Games.[86]

Ancient Biography[edit]
Ancient biography, or bios, as distinct from modern biography, was a genre of Greek (and Roman)
literature interested in describing the goals, achievements, failures, and character of ancient
historical persons and whether or not they should be imitated. Authors of ancient bios, such as the
works of Nepos and Plutarch's Parallel Lives imitated many of the same sources and techniques of
the contemporary historiographies of ancient Greece, notably including the works
of Herodotus and Thucydides. There were various forms of ancient biographies, including 1)
philosophical biographies that brought out the moral character of their subject (such as Diogenes
Laertius's Lives of Eminent Philosophers 2) literary biographies which discussed the lives of orators
and poets (such as Philostratus's Lives of the Sophists) 3) school and reference biographies that
offered a short sketch of someone including their ancestry, major events and accomplishments, and
death, 4) autobiographies, commentaries and memoirs where the subject presents his own life and
5) historical/political biography focusing on the lives of those active in the military, among other
categories.[87]

Science and mathematics[edit]

In 1906, The Archimedes Palimpsest revealed works by Archimedes previously thought to have been lost.

Eratosthenes of Alexandria (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC), wrote on astronomy and geography, but his
work is known mainly from later summaries. He is credited with being the first person to measure the
Earth's circumference. Much that was written by the mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes has
been preserved. Euclid is known for his Elements, much of which was drawn from his
predecessor Eudoxus of Cnidus. The Elements is a treatise on geometry, and it has exerted a
continuing influence on mathematics. From Archimedes several treatises have come down to the
present. Among them are Measurement of the Circle, in which he worked out the value of pi; The
Method of Mechanical Theorems, on his work in mechanics; The Sand Reckoner; and On Floating
Bodies. A manuscript of his works is currently being studied.[88]

Prose fiction[edit]
Very little has survived of prose fiction from the Hellenistic Era. The Milesiaka by Aristides of Miletos
was probably written during the second century BC. The Milesiaka itself has not survived to the
present day in its complete form, but various references to it have survived. The book established a
whole new genre of so-called "Milesian tales," of which The Golden Ass by the later Roman
writer Apuleius is a prime example.[89][90]
The ancient Greek novels Chaereas and Callirhoe[91] by Chariton and Metiochus and
Parthenope[92][93] were probably both written during the late first century BC or early first century AD,
during the latter part of the Hellenistic Era. The discovery of several fragments of
Lollianos's Phoenician Tale reveal the existence of a genre of ancient Greek picaresque novel.[94]

Roman period[edit]
Further information: Roman Greece
While the transition from city-state to empire affected philosophy a great deal, shifting the emphasis
from political theory to personal ethics, Greek letters continued to flourish both under
the Successors (especially the Ptolemies) and under Roman rule. Romans of literary or rhetorical
inclination looked to Greek models, and Greek literature of all types continued to be read and
produced both by native speakers of Greek and later by Roman authors as well. A notable
characteristic of this period was the expansion of literary criticism as a genre, particularly as
exemplified by Demetrius, Pseudo-Longinus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The New Testament,
written by various authors in varying qualities of Koine Greek also hails from this period,[95][7]:208-209 the
most important works being the Gospels and the Epistles of Saint Paul.[96][7]:208-213

Poetry[edit]

The Mykonos vase, one of the earliest surviving depictions of the myth of the Trojan Horse, a myth which is
described in depth in Quintus of Smyrna's Posthomerica

The poet Quintus of Smyrna, who probably lived during the late fourth century
AD,[97][98] wrote Posthomerica, an epic poem narrating the story of the fall of Troy, beginning
where The Iliad left off.[99]
The poet Nonnus of Panopolis wrote The Dionysiaca, the longest surviving epic poem from antiquity.
He also wrote a poetic paraphrase of The Gospel of John.[100][101] Nonnus probably lived sometime
during the late fourth century AD or early fifth century AD.[102][103]

Historiography[edit]
A bust of Plutarch, one of the most famous ancient Greek historians, from his hometown of Chaeronea

The historian Polybius was born about 200 BC. He was brought to Rome as a hostage in 168. In
Rome he became a friend of the general Scipio Aemilianus. He probably accompanied the general
to Spain and North Africa in the wars against Carthage. He was with Scipio at the destruction
of Carthage in 146.[104]
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC, around the time of Julius
Caesar and Augustus. He wrote a universal history, Bibliotheca Historica, in 40 books. Of these, the
first five and the 11th through the 20th remain. The first two parts covered history through the early
Hellenistic era. The third part takes the story to the beginning of Caesar's wars in Gaul, now
France.[105] Dionysius of Halicarnassus lived late in the first century BC. His history of Rome from its
origins to the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC) is written from a Roman point of view, but it is
carefully researched. He also wrote a number of other treatises, including On
Imitation, Commentaries on the Ancient Orators, and On the Arrangement of Words.[106]
The historians Appian of Alexandria and Arrian of Nicomedia both lived in the second century
AD.[107][108] Appian wrote on Rome and its conquests, while Arrian is remembered for his work on the
campaigns of Alexander the Great. Arrian served in the Roman army. His book therefore
concentrates heavily on the military aspects of Alexander's life. Arrian also wrote a philosophical
treatise, the Diatribai, based on the teachings of his mentor Epictetus.
Best known of the late Greek historians to modern readers is Plutarch of Chaeronea, who died about
AD 119. His Parallel Lives of great Greek and Roman leaders has been read by every generation
since the work was first published. His other surviving work is the Moralia, a collection of essays on
ethical, religious, political, physical, and literary topics.[109][110]
During later times, so-called "commonplace books," usually describing historical anecdotes, became
quite popular. Surviving examples of this popular genre include works such as Aulus Gellius's Attic
Nights,[111] Athenaeus of Naucratis's Deipnosophistae,[112] and Claudius Aelianus's De Natura
Animalium and Varia Historia.[113]

Science and mathematics[edit]

The physician Galen lived during the 2nd century AD. He was a careful student of anatomy, and his
works exerted a powerful influence on medicine for the next 1,400 years. Strabo, who died about AD
23, was a geographer and historian. His Historical Sketches in 47 volumes has nearly all been lost.
His Geographical Sketches remain as the only existing ancient book covering the whole range of
people and countries known to the Greeks and Romans through the time of Augustus.[114] Pausanias,
who lived in the 2nd century AD, was also a geographer.[115]His Description of Greece is a travel
guide describing the geography and mythic history of Greece during the second century. The book
takes the form of a tour of Greece, starting in Athens and ending in Naupactus.[116]
The scientist of the Roman period who had the greatest influence on later generations was
undoubtedly the astronomer Ptolemy. He lived during the 2nd century AD,[117] though little is known of
his life. His masterpiece, originally entitled The Mathematical Collection, has come to the present
under the title Almagest, as it was translated by Arab astronomers with that title.[118] It was Ptolemy
who devised a detailed description of an Earth-centered universe,[119] a notion that dominated
astronomical thinking for more than 1,300 years.[120] The Ptolemaic view of the universe endured
until Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and other early modern astronomers replaced it
with heliocentrism.[121]

Philosophy[edit]
Head of Plotinus, a major philosopher from the Roman Era

Epictetus (c. 55 AD – 135 AD) was associated with the moral philosophy of the Stoics. His teachings
were collected by his pupil Arrian in the Discourses and the Encheiridion (Manual of Study).[122]
Diogenes Laërtius, who lived in the third century AD, wrote Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers, a voluminous collection of biographies of nearly every Greek philosopher who ever
lived. Unfortunately, Diogenes Laërtius often fails to cite his sources and many modern historians
consider his testimony unreliable.[123] Nonetheless, in spite of this, he remains the only available
source on the lives of many early Greek philosophers.[124] His book is not entirely without merit; it
does preserve a tremendous wealth of information that otherwise would not have been preserved.
His biography of Epicurus, for instance, is of particularly high quality and contains three lengthy
letters attributed to Epicurus himself, at least two of which are generally agreed to be authentic.[125]
Another major philosopher of his period was Plotinus. He transformed Plato's philosophy into a
school called Neoplatonism.[126] His Enneadshad a wide-ranging influence on European thought until
at least the seventeenth century.[127] Plotinus's philosophy mainly revolved around the concepts
of nous, psyche, and the "One."[128]
After the rise of Christianity, many of the most important philosophers were Christians. The second-
century Christian apologist Justin Martyr, who wrote exclusively in Greek, made extensive use of
ideas from Greek philosophy, especially Platonism.[129] Origen of Alexandria, the founder of Christian
theology,[130] also made extensive use of ideas from Greek philosophy[131] and was even able to hold
his own against the pagan philosopher Celsus in his apologetic treatise Contra Celsum.[132]

Prose fiction[edit]
A nineteenth-century painting by the Swiss-French painter Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre depicting a scene
from Daphnis and Chloe

The Roman Period was the time when the majority of extant works of Greek prose fiction were
composed. The ancient Greek novelsLeucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius[133][134] and Daphnis
and Chloe by Longus[135] were both probably written during the early second century AD. Daphnis
and Chloe, by far the most famous of the five surviving ancient Greek romance novels, is a nostalgic
tale of two young lovers growing up in an idealized pastoral environment on the Greek island
of Lesbos.[136] The Wonders Beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes may have also been written during
the early second century AD, although scholars are unsure of its exact date. The Wonders Beyond
Thule has not survived in its complete form, but a very lengthy summary of it written by Photios I of
Constantinople has survived.[137]The Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus was probably written
during the late second century AD.[135]
Illustration from 1894 by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley depicting a battle scene from Book One of Lucian
of Samosata's A True Story

The satirist Lucian of Samosata lived during the late second century AD. Lucian's works were
incredibly popular during antiquity. Over eighty different writings attributed to Lucian have survived to
the present day.[138] Almost all of Lucian's works are written in the heavily Atticized dialect of ancient
Greek language prevalent among the well-educated at the time. His book The Syrian Goddess,
however, was written in a faux-Ionic dialect, deliberately imitating the dialect and style
of Herodotus.[139][140] Lucian's most famous work is the novel A True Story, which some authors have
described as the earliest surviving work of science fiction.[141][142] His dialogue The Lover of
Liescontains several of the earliest known ghost stories[143] as well as the earliest known version of
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice."[144] His letter The Passing of Peregrinus, a ruthless satire
against Christians, contains one of the earliest pagan appraisals of early Christianity.[145]
The Aethiopica by Heliodorus of Emesa was probably written during the third century AD.[146] It tells
the story of a young Ethiopian princess named Chariclea, who is estranged from her family and goes
on many misadventures across the known world.[147] Of all the ancient Greek novels, the one that
attained the greatest level of popularity was the Alexander Romance, a fictionalized account of the
exploits of Alexander the Great written in the third century AD. Eighty versions of it have survived in
twenty-four different languages, attesting that, during the Middle Ages, the novel was nearly as
popular as the Bible.[148]:650-654 Versions of the Alexander Romance were so commonplace in the
fourteenth century that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that "...every wight that hath discrecioun / Hath herd
somwhat or al of [Alexander's] fortune."[148]:653-654

Legacy[edit]

Hero Mourns the Dead Leander by Gillis Backereel (1640s)

Ancient Greek literature has had an enormous impact on western literature as a whole.[149] Ancient
Roman authors adopted various styles and motifs from ancient Greek literature. These ideas were
later, in turn, adopted by other western European writers and literary critics.[149] Ancient Greek
literature especially influenced later Greek literature. For instance, the Greek novels influenced the
later work Hero and Leander, written by Musaeus Grammaticus.[150] Ancient Roman writers were
acutely aware of the ancient Greek literary legacy and many deliberately emulated the style and
formula of Greek classics in their own works. The Roman poet Vergil, for instance, modeled his epic
poem The Aeneid on The Iliad and The Odyssey.[151]
During the Middle Ages, ancient Greek literature was largely forgotten in Western Europe. The
medieval writer Roger Bacon wrote that "there are not four men in Latin Christendom who are
acquainted with the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic grammars."[152] It was not until the Renaissance that
Greek writings were rediscovered by western European scholars.[153] During the
Renaissance, Greek began to be taught in western European colleges and universities for the first
time, which resulted in western European scholars rediscovering the literature of ancient
Greece.[154] The Textus Receptus, the first New Testament printed in the original Greek, was
published in 1512 by the Italian humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus.[155] Erasmus also published
Latin translations of classical Greek texts, including a Latin translation of Hesiod's Works and
Days.[156]
The influence of classical Greek literature on modern literature is also evident. Numerous figures
from classical literature and mythology appear throughout The Divine Comedy by Dante
Alighieri.[157] Plutarch's Lives were a major influence on William Shakespeare and served as the main
source behind his tragedies Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus.[158]:883-
884
Shakespeare's comedies A Comedy of Errors and The Twelfth Night drew heavily on themes from
Graeco-Roman New Comedy.[158]:881-882Meanwhile, Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens was
inspired by a story written by Lucian[159] and his comedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre was based off an
adaptation of the ancient Greek novel Apollonius of Tyre found in John Gower's Confessio
Amantis.[160]

Page from an Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics by Abū Bishr Mattā

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is written using a similar style to the two Homeric epics.[161] It
also makes frequent allusions to figures from classical literature and mythology, using them as
symbols to convey a Christian message.[162] Lucian's A True Story was part of the inspiration
for Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.[158]:545 Bulfinch's Mythology, a book on Greek
mythology published in 1867 and aimed at a popular audience, was described by Carl J. Richard as
"one of the most popular books ever published in the United States".[163]
George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is a modern, rationalized retelling of the ancient Greek
legend of Pygmalion.[158]:794 James Joyce's novel Ulysses, heralded by critics as one of the greatest
works of modern literature,[164][165] is a retelling of Homer's Odyssey set in modern-
day Dublin.[166][167] The mid-twentieth-century British author Mary Renault wrote a number of critically
acclaimed novels inspired by ancient Greek literature and mythology, including The Last of the
Wine and The King Must Die.[168]
Even in works that do not consciously draw on Graeco-Roman literature, authors often employ
concepts and themes originating in ancient Greece. The ideas expressed in Aristotle's Poetics, in
particular, have influenced generations of Western writers and literary critics.[169] A Latin translation of
an Arabic version of the Poetics by Averroes was available during the Middle Ages.[170] Common
Greek literary terms still used today
include: catharsis,[171] ethos,[172] anagnorisis,[173] hamartia,[174] hubris,[175] mimesis,[176] mythos,[177] nemesis
,[178] and peripeteia.[179]