The History of Greek Literature The History of Greek Literature

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The History of Greek Literature

Summer Schools for Greek children, children from European high Schools and from Schools in America, Australia and Asia
The project “Academy of Plato: Development of Knowledge and innovative ideas” is co-financed from National and European funds through the Operational
Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning”
EPIC POETRY

 Epos (meaning “word” “logos” from the verb έπω= λέγω)

is a narrative poem.

 It narrates heroic deeds of human and gods.

 It can also have a didactic context.


HEROIC EPOS, 8th cent. BC

Homer
 Iliad: On the occasion of the “menis” (the anger) of

Achilles, it portrays the war of the Greeks against the


Trojans.

 Odyssey: it is referred to the adventures of Odysseus in his

return home after the fall of Troy.


HOMER, Iliad
HOMER, Odyssey
DIDACTIC EPOS, 8TH CENTURY BC

Hesiod
Theogonia: about the birth of the gods.

Works and Days: on the occasion of his dispute with his


brother, the poet refers to matters of everyday life and
human relations.
LYRIC POETRY, MID. 6TH CENTURY BC

 Lyric poetry abandons the heroic character of the epic


poetry.
 It is rather a personal poetry.

 The poet expresses his personal feelings.

 It refers to problems and situations of his time, especially


of his personal life.
LYRIC POETRY, MID. 6TH CENTURY BC

The subjects of Lyric poetry covers all the aspects of human life.

 Religious life: hymn, paean, dithyramb.

 National life: Emvaterion (march), epinikion, encomium.

 Political life: elegy, iamb.

 Personal life: Scolion (symposium songs), erotic, Hemenaios


(wedding songs), Threnos.
LYRIC POETRY, MID. 6TH CENTURY BC

 Lyric poetry was sang either by one person either by a

group, accompanied at first by lyre (i.e. lyric) and then by

other instruments, like the flute, the guitar or the

Phorminx.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Flute
Phorminx
GENRES OF LYRIC POETRY

 Elegy Mimnermus, Theognis, Solon, Tyrtaeus

 Iamb Archilochus, Simonides of Amorgos

 Epigram Simonides of Ceos

 Melos Terpander, Alcaeus, Sappho

 Choral poetry Alcman, Pindar, Stesichorus


SAPPHO, Κέλομαί σε Γογγύλα
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Drama

 Tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.

 Comedy: Aristophanes.

 Satyric Drama.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Historiography

Herodotus (around 485-425)

 His work Histories is divided in nine books, named


after the nine muses.

 The subject of his work is the war between Greeks and


Persians, but at the same time he gives a geographical,
ethnological, political and cultural review of ancient
times.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Historiography

Thucydides (around 460- 399)


 His work recounts the events of the first twenty years of

the Peloponnesian War (431-411)

 He attempts to give a profound analysis of the causes of

the war, as well as an analysis of human nature, aiming at


providing the next generations with a “ktema es aei” (an
everlasting possession).
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Historiography

 Xenophon completes the history of the Peloponnesian

war after 411 BC, but he is also a prolific writer. He has

written numerous historical, philosophical and didactical

works.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Rhetoric

 Democratic institutions as well as the justice system,

especially in the city of Athens, both contribute to the

development of rhetorical speech.


CLASSICAL PERIOD
Historiography

 Deliberative or political speeches. They are delivered in the


Popular Assembly. The most famous orator of this genre is
Demosthenes.

 Forensic or Judicial speeches. They are delivered in Courts.


The most famous orator of this genre is Lysias.

 Epideictic or Ceremonial speeches. They are delivered in


public events or celebrations. The most famous orator of this
genre is Isocrates.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Philosophy

 In this period Philosophy reaches its heyday.

 The reflection of the Pre-Socratic Philosophers on issues


about the beginning of the world, of the Sophists on issues
about man and society, of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle about
politics and ethics gave unsurpassed pieces of work.
HELLENISTIC PERIOD

 The institution of city-state weakens. Men now live in

immense states ruled by absolute monarchs. Hellenistic poetry

has, thus, a new content. The poets reminisce with nostalgia

the nature and emphasize personal experience.


HELLENISTIC PERIOD

 Callimachus (305-240 BC). He writes philological

treatises, lyric and didactic poetry, influenced by Hesiod.

 Theocritus.. He works on a new poetic genre, bucolic

poetry. His «Idylls» present in the form of dialogue


scenes of an idealized pastoral life.
NEW COMEDY

 In the Hellenistic period, Comedy flourishes again. New

Comedy is not, however, a political satire. The plays are


mainly “comedies of manners”. They present human
types of everyday life.

 The main representative was Menander (342-290).


ROMAN EMPIRE

 Plutarch (50-120 AD)


His 120 works are divided in two categories:
«Parallel Lives» They are a series of biographies arranged in pairs,
each of them containing the life of one famous Greek person and
one Roman.
«Moralia» This is a collection of treatises about ethical,
philosophical, political and religious issues.
 Arrianus ( 90-175 AD) He wrote philosophical, historical,
geographical and military works. One of his most important
works is the «Anabasis of Alexander», an account of the
Alexander’s campaign from its start until his death.
ARRIANUS, Αλεξάνδρου Ανάβασις
PAUSANIAS

Pausanias (2nd cent. AD). He writes geographic history. In his

work Description of Greece (Ελλάδος Περιήγησις) divided in

ten volumes, he describes the places and ancient monuments

he visited, combining his personal experiences with

mythological and historical digressions.


PHILOSOPHY-RHETORIC

 The conjunction of philosophy and rhetoric leads to the

movement of the Second Sophistic. This movement puts

forward the Greek culture in the Roman times.


PHILOSOPHY-RHETORIC

 Lucian 120-180 AD.

 In his Dialogues, he lampoons relentlessly the Olympian

Gods, the teaching of Philosophers, the deceit of the

Orators, the human weakness.


BYZANTINE LITERATURE

 Pre-byzantine or Christian literature emerged under the influence of

Christianity in the Greek East until the beginning of the 6th century

AD.

 Dominant figures are the three “Cappadocian fathers”, Basil,

Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, and John

Chrysostom.
JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
BYZANTINE LITERATURE

 In poetry, ecclesiastic hymnography predominates.

Romanos Melodos, composes his hymns in the 6th

century Ad.
ROMANOS MELODOS
BYZANTINE LITERATURE 10th cent.-1204

 Folk poetry (Δημοτικά τραγούδια) (Akritika, Paraloges, social


and historical poems)
 Chronicles

 Historiography

 Ptochoprodromika

 Epic of Digenes Akritas


The death of Digenis Acritas (A cretan variant)

Digenis is struggling with death and the earth


Death was envious and from a distant
shudders.
ambush watched him,
The sky is filled with thunder and lightning,
and wounded him in the heart, snatching
the upper world shakes,
the nether world has opened and its away his soul.
foundations creak.
And the trembling tombstone wonders how to
cover him,
how to cover the brave eagle of the world.
No house could put a roof over his head, no
cave could hold him;
he strode across the hills, he leapt over the
mountain tops,
he played quoits with boulders, he shook loose
deep-rooted rocks;
he jumped so high that he caught the birds,
the falcon on the wing;
he jumped and ran faster than the deer or the
wild beast.
BYZANTINE LITERATURE 1204-1453

 Threnoi

 Chronicles

 Verse romances (Ιπποτικά μυθιστορήματα)


CRETAN LITERATURE

 In Crete, during the period of Venetian rule (until 1669),

magnificent literary works are written.

 Theater: Erophili of G. Chortatsis, The sacrifice of

Abraham of V. Kornaros

 Verse romance: Erotokritos of V. Kornaros


EROPHILI

Sketch by Yannis Tsarouchis for a stage design of


Erophili, 1937.

Program from a production of Erophili at the theatre


of Karolos Koun, 1934.
EROPHILI
EROTOKRITOS

Theophilos Hadjimichail, Erotokritos and Aretousa,


c. 1930. (Private collection)
The oldest surviving edition of Erotokritos. Title-page of
Antonio Bortoli’s edition of 1713. (Gennadius Library,
Athens)
EROTOKRITOS
18th century

 This is the time of the Greek Enlightenment. During this

period, the are made for the cultural and national


renaissance. Athanasios Christopoulos, Rigas Pheraios
and Ioannes Vilaras are considered as “forerunners” for
their important role in the promotion of education and the
development of the demotic language.
RIGAS PHERAIOS
RIGAS PHERAIOS

For how long, lads, we shall


spread our lives in straits
alone, like the lions, to
mountains and crests?
To leave inside caves , the
branches all we see
to leave from this world, all
for the bitter chain?
To lose brothers and
parents, country and friends,
all our relatives and children
as well?
It' s better if for an hour we
live our life free
than living forty years in
bondage and in jail (being
unfree)!
1821-1880

 The Greek Revolution of 1821 influenced greatly the Greek

literature of the first period of the New Kingdom of Greece.

 In the 1820’s, the first poems about the Revolution were written

by two Eptanesians, D. Solomos (Hymn to Liberty, 1823) and A.


Kalvos (Lyra, 1824, Lyrica, 1826).
D. SOLOMOS, Temptation
Eros and April linked hand in hand began to dance with joy,
And Nature found her greatest and her sweetest hour:
Out of swelling shadows enfolding dew and scent came
A most exquisite melody, languorous, soft, and faint.
Water clear and sweet, full of charm and of magic
Flows and pours itself into a fragrant abyss,
Taking the perfume with it, leaving coolness behind,
Showing to the sun all the wealth of its sources.
It runs here and there and sings like a nightingale.
But over the water of the lake, that is still and white
Still wherever you look at it, all-white to the bottom,
With a little, unknown shadow a butterfly plays,
That amid fragrance had slept inside a wild lily.
My seer, light-of-shadow, tell us what you saw tonight:
"A. night full of miracles, a most enchanted night!
There was no breeze stirring on earth, nor on sky or ocean,
Not even as much as makes a bee brushing a tiny
blossom.
Around something motionless that glows in the lake
The round face of the moon merges in close embrace,
And a fair maiden comes forth dressed in its silver light.
 In this period, Elisabeth Moutzan-Martinegou, the first
Greek woman writer. Her most known work is
“Autobiography”.
GREEK REVOLUTION, 1821

 Heroes of the Revolution write their Memoirs.

 The Memoirs of General Makrygiannis are considered a

masterpiece of Modern

Greek Literature.
MAKRYGIANNIS, Memoirs

“I had two statues masterpieces, a woman and a


prince, intact – even the veins were visible, that’s
how perfect they were. When the destroyed Poros,
some soldiers took the statues away and at Argos
they would have sold them to some Europeans;
they were asking for one thousand talers […]. I took
the soldiers aside and told them:
‘Even if they were to give you ten thousand talers,
do not degrade yourselves by letting these statues
leave our country. It was for them we fought’”
1880-1922

During this period, there is an effort of renewal of the Greek State in


the political, social and literary field.

 New European movements, like Parnassianism, Symbolism, Realism

and Naturalism, influence Greek writers.

 The development of the science of Forklore (Λαογραφία) lead to a

thematic renewal of literary works.

 The demotic language is established, first in poetry and later to prose.


POETRY 1880-1922

 The most famous poet of this generation is Kostis

Palamas, who predominated in Greek intellectual life

for the next decades.


KOSTIS PALAMAS, The Grave
Tranquilly, silently, Little moons, mouth and eyes, Torn from our bosom;
Thirsting for our kisses, One dawn you vanished Tranquilly, silently,
Unknown you glided Upon a cruel deathbed; O word, O verse, O rime,
Into our bosom; Tranquilly, silently, Your witherless flowers
Even the heavy winter In spite of all our kisses, Sow on his grave faith-shaking.
Suddenly smiled Away you wandered
Tranquilly, silently,
But to receive you;
Tranquilly, silently,
The breeze caressed you,
O Sunlight of Night
And Dream of the Day;
Tranquilly, silently,
Our home was gladdened
With sweetness of amber
With your grace magnetic;
Tranquilly, silently,
Our home beheld you,
Beauty of the morning star,
Light of the star of evening;
Tranquilly, silently,
POETRY 1880-1922

 One important and at the same time very special poet

comes from the Greek community of Alexandria:

Constantine Cavafy.
K. CAVAFY, Ithaca
PROSE 1880-1922

 The prose is also renewed. The writers, influenced by

Realism, turn now to the novel of manners.

 The most famous writers are Georgios Vizyinos and

Alexandros

 Papadiamantis.
A. PAPADIAMANTIS, The murderer
G. VIZYINOS, The only journey of his life (το
μόνον της ζωής του ταξίδιον )
1922-1930

 Greece faces the Asia Minor catastrophe. Hundreds of

thousands of refugees are uprooted from their birth


place and arrive in Greece.
ASIA MINOR CATASTROPHE

Refugees from
Smyrna
Rempart Vitouri, in Herakleion
1922-1930

 The main feature in this period’s poetry is pessimism

and a tendency to escape from a reality that hurts. The


most famous poet of this generation is Kostas
Karyotakis.
K. KARYOTAKIS, Imaginary Suicides
They turn the key in the door, take out
their old, well-hidden letters, They look in the mirror, look at the time,
read them quietly, then drag ask if it's madness maybe, a mistake.
their feet a final time. "It's over now" they murmur;
deep down, of course, they're going to put it off.
Their life has been a tragedy, they say.
God! people's frightful laughter,
and the tears, the sweat, nostalgia
of the skies, the landscape's solitude.

They stand there by the window, gazing at


the trees, the children, all of nature,
at the marble-workers hammering away,
the sun that wants to set forever.

It's over. Here's the note --


appropriately short, profound, and
simple,
full of indifference and forgiveness
for whoever's going to weep and read it.
THE GENERATION OF 1930

 The generation of 1930 is influenced by a new


movement, the Surrealism.
 The Surrealists, armed with imagination and dream,
create a new poetic reality, where the imaginary, the
dream, the sensations and the colours predominate.
 In this generation belong
top Greek poets, like G. Seferis
and O. Elytis.
G. SEPHERIS (Nobel Prize in Literature 1963.) His work
refers to the passions of Greeks.
Denial
On the secret seashore
white like a pigeon
we thirsted at noon;
but the water was brackish.

On the golden sand


we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew
and the writing vanished.

With what spirit, what heart,


what desire and passion
we lived our life: a mistake!
So we changed our life..
G. SEPHERIS (Nobel Prize in Literature 1963.) His work
refers to the passions of Greeks.
Helen And at Troy?
Lyric nightingale, At Troy, nothing: just a phantom image.
on a night like this, by the shore of Proteus, That’s how the gods wanted it.
the Spartan slave-girls heard you and began And Paris, Paris lay with a shadow as though it
their lament, were a solid being;
and among them — who would have believed and for ten whole years we slaughtered ourselves
it? — Helen! for Helen.
She whom we hunted so many years by the
banks of the Scamander.
She was there, at the desert’s lip; I touched
her; she spoke to me:
‘It isn’t true, it isn’t true,’ she cried.
‘I didn’t board the blue bowed ship.
I never went to valiant Troy.’
Breasts girded high, the sun in her hair, and
that stature
shadows and smiles everywhere,
on shoulders, thighs and knees;
the skin alive, and her eyes
with the large eyelids,
she was there, on the banks of a Delta.
OD. ELYTIS (Nobel Prize in Literature 1979).
His work is influenced by the Greek landscape and the
Greek tradition
Beautiful and Strange Homeland
A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I 've never
seen
He throws the net to catch fish. he catches
birds,
he sets a boat on the ground, a garden in
the water,
he cries, kisses the dirt, migrates,
ends up by himself, he becomes a man
A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I 've never
seen
He tries to grab a stone, he throws it away
he tries to poke in it, he makes miracles
he takes a little boat, he reaches the oceans
he asks for a revolution, he asks for tyrants
A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I 've never
seen
ODYSSEUS ELYTIS (collage)

Lion of the Sea


In the sea cave
G. RITSOS. He puts his work in the service of a
revolution for a world of justice.

Moonlight Sonata
N. ENGONOPOULOS. He serves surrealism both
in painting and poetry.

The civil War Orpheus and Eurydice


PROSE

 New authors appear coming from Asia Minor, like Stratis

Myrivilis, Elias Venezis, Photis Kontoglou, Stratis


Doukas

 These writers stay close to tradition and are inspired

mainly by their place of origin.


STRATIS MYRIVILIS, Life in ELIAS VENEZIS, Aeolia
the Tomb (H ζωή εν τάφω) (Αιολική γη)
Greece faces World War II, the German Occupation and
the civil war.
GREECE 1940-1949

 The authors of this period are inspired by the historical

reality, while at the same time an important figure of


Greek literature makes his appearance, Nikos
Kazantzakis.
N. KAZANTZAKIS, Askitiki
POSTWAR POETRY

 In this generation, three trends emerge:

 Resistance or social poetry,

by poets with intense

political activity,

like Manolis Anagnostakis.


Μ. ANAGNOSTAKIS, The Chess (Το σκάκι)
Come, let's play.
You can have my queen
(Once she was my beloved
But now I have no beloved)
You can have my castles
(Now I refrain from firing at my friends
They died long before me)
And this King was never mine
And then, what do I want with so many
soldiers?
(They march blindly and even dreamless)
You can have everything, even my knights
I' ll just keep this crazy bishop of mine
Who knows how to advance on one colour
only
Striding from corner to corner
Laughing at all your many panoplies
Trusting his way into your lines
Creating havoc in your camp.
And there's no end to this game.
Surrealistic Poetry, by poets who resort to the imaginary,
like Miltos Sachtouris.
MILTOS SACHTOURIS, The soldier (Ο στρατιώτης ποιητής)
I have written no poems
in thuds
in thuds
my life rolled

One day I trembled


the next day I shuddered
in fear
in fear
my life passed

I have written no poems


I have written no poems
I just nail
crosses
on graves
Existential poetry, by poets who turn to personal
experiences and the search regarding life and death.
KIKI DIMOULA, The Plural (Πληθυντικός αριθµός )
Love, The night,
name substantive, name substantive,
a lot of substantive, gender female,
singular number, singular number.
gender of neither female neither male, Plural number
gender defenceless. the nights.
Plural number The nights from I see and beyond.
the defenceless loves.
The fear,
name substantive,
in the beginning singular number
and afterwards plural:
the fears.
The fears
for all from I see and beyond.
Memory,
main name of sadnesses,
singular number,
only singular number
The memory, the memory, the memory.
POSTWAR LITERATURE

 Some writers are inspired by the experiences of the

Second World War, the Occupation and the Civil War in


novels like The Siege (Πολιορκία) of Alexandros
Kotzias, The Pyramide 67 (Πυραμίδα 67) of Renos
Apostolides and The Drifting cities (Ακυβέρνητες
πολιτείες) of Stratis Tsirkas.


POSTWAR LITERATURE

 Another topic of postwar literature is everyday life and

life in the city, which is brought forward by novelists


like Kostas Tachtses, Giorgos Ioannou, Menis
Koumantareas.
POSTWAR LITERATURE

 Some writers face with criticism and skepticism the

actual economic, social and political reality, like Spyros


Plaskovitis in The Dam, Vasilis Vasilikos in his Trilogy
or Antonis Samarakis in The Flaw.
ANTONIS SAMARAKIS, SPYROS PLASKOVITIS,
The Flaw (Το λάθος) The Dam (Το φράγµα)
Summer Schools for Greek children, children from European high Schools and from Schools in America, Australia and Asia
The project “Academy of Plato: Development of Knowledge and innovative ideas” is co-financed from National and European funds through the Operational
Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning”

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