CHAPTER XL

GREEK LITERATURE In the article LITERATURE in the Britannica, by Professor James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, himself a specialist in Spanish literature, are these sentences: The evolution of literature is completed in Greece, and there its subdivisions may best be studied. Epic poetry is represented by the Homeric cycle, lyric poetry by Tyrtaeus, dramatic poetry by Aeschylus, history by Herodotus, oratory by Pericles, philosophy by Plato, and criticism by Zoilus, the earliest of slashing reviewers; and in each department there is a long succession of illustrative names. Roughly speaking, all subsequent literature is imitative. [Sidenote: The Main Article] This testimony to the importance of Greek literature is all the more weighty as coming from one whose own field of criticism is in Romantic literature. The authority with which such an important subject as Greek literature is treated in the Britannica will be apparent to any classical student who notes the names of the contributors of the articles mentioned in the following course of reading. The key article GREEK LITERATURE (Vol. 12, p. 507; equivalent to 65 pages of this Guide) is divided into three sections: Ancient (p. 507), Byzantine (p. 516) and Modern (p. 524). The second section, by Prof. Karl Krumbacher of Munich, author of _Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur_, and the third, by J. D. Bourchier, correspondent of _The Times_ (London) in South-Eastern Europe, need not be dwelt upon here. To the ordinary student, in spite of the increasing interest shown in Byzantine and modern Hellenic literature, “Greek literature” must mean the literature of ancient Greece, and for him the _first_ part of the article will be the foundation of his study of the subject. This section of the article is by the late Sir Richard C. Jebb, professor of Greek at Glasgow and then at Cambridge, known as the biographer of Bentley, as the author of an excellent brief history of Greek literature, and as an authority on subdivisions of that subject so diverse as rhetoric and oratory on the one side and lyric and dramatic poetry on the other. Jebb’s article divides ancient Greek literature into three periods: _Early_, including epic, elegiac, iambic and lyric poetry and coming down to 475 B.C.; _Attic_, 475–300 B.C., including tragic and comic drama and historical, oratorical and philosophical prose; and _Decadence_—Alexandrian, 300–146 B.C., and Greco-Roman, 146 B.C.–529 A.D. [Sidenote: Epic] In the first of these periods the student should supplement Professor Jebb’s treatment in the article GREEK LITERATURE by the following articles: EPIC POETRY (Vol. 9, p. 681), a general sketch of the form by Edmund Gosse; HOMER (Vol. 13, p. 626; equivalent to 40 pages of this Guide), by the late Prof. David Binning Monro of Oriel College, Oxford, editor of Homer and author of _Grammar of the Homeric Dialect_,—and on the “Homeric question” see also the articles ARISTARCHUS and F. A. WOLF; HESIOD (Vol. 13, p. 407), by James Davies, formerly head master Ludlow Grammar School, and John Henry Freese, formerly fellow St. John’s, Cambridge; CYCLE (Vol. 7, p. 682; last part of the article); and the cyclic poets, STASINUS, ARCTINUS, LESCHES, and CREOPHYLUS. [Sidenote: Elegy] For the elegy see Edmund Gosse’s article ELEGY; and on the Greek elegists, the articles CALLINUS and TYRTÆUS for martial poetry, MIMNERMUS for melancholy verse, SOLON for political and ethical poetry, THEOGNIS and PHOCYLIDES for the gnomic elegy, and XENOPHANES for the use of the measure in didactic philosophical verse. On iambic verse and its Greek writers before the time of the drama see: IAMBIC, ARCHILOCHUS, SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS, and HIPPONAX. [Sidenote: Lyric Poetry] The third poetic form of the period, one which unfortunately has come down to us only in tantalizingly brief fragments—comparable to the quotations illustrating word-usage in our dictionaries—is the lyric. On this see the general article LYRICAL POETRY, by Edmund Gosse, on this form in different literatures, and the sketches of the Greek lyrists the Aeolians ALCAEUS (see also the article ALCAICS) and SAPPHO, by Prof. John Arthur Platt, University College, London; PRAXILLA and ERINNA, Sappho’s rivals as lyric poetesses; the Ionian ANACREON (see also the article ANACREONTICS, by Edmund Gosse); the Dorian ALCMAN; STESICHORUS, ARION and IBYCUS; SIMONIDES, who may be called Panhellenic; PINDAR (Vol. 21, p. 617; equivalent to 10 pages of this Guide, by Sir R. C. Jebb), the only Greek lyrist whose work has come down to us in any considerable quantity, and whose poems are such remarkable examples of metrical structure; BACCHYLIDES (Vol. 3, p. 121; equivalent to 9 pages of this Guide; also by Sir R. C. Jebb, who was one of the first editors), Pindar’s rival, whose poems until a few years ago were known to us only by brief quotations by grammarians, but who had the good luck to survive in papyrus lately found in Egypt; and TIMOTHEUS of Miletus, of whose “Persians” a valuable fragment was found in 1903 in what seems to be the oldest papyrus in existence. [Sidenote: Attic Literature] [Sidenote: Comedy] The Attic period has two important developments—the drama, tragic and comic, and the beginnings of a Greek prose. For the drama read the part of Prof. A. W. Ward’s article DRAMA dealing with the Greek period (Vol. 8, pp. 488–493), and the article COMEDY; and the articles on the great dramatists:—the tragedians THESPIS, CHOERILUS, PHRYNICHUS and PRATINAS in the earlier period; AESCHYLUS (Vol. 1, p. 272; equivalent to 12 pages of this Guide), by Arthur Sidgwick, fellow of Corpus Christi, Oxford, and editor of the Oxford text of Aeschylus; SOPHOCLES (Vol. 25, p. 424; equivalent to 12 pages of this Guide), by Lewis Campbell, editor and translator of this poet; and EURIPIDES (Vol. 9, p. 901; equivalent to 15 pages of this Guide), in the main by Sir R. C. Jebb; and the comic poets,—the Sicilian EPICHARMUS; the representatives of the Attic Old Comedy, CRATINUS, CRATES, PHERECRATES, EUPOLIS, PHRYNICHUS (not to be confused with the tragic poet of that name), MAGNES, PLATO (to be distinguished from the philosopher),—all these known to us only by allusions and chance quotations—and ARISTOPHANES (Vol. 2, p. 499; equivalent to 7 pages of this Guide, by Sir R. C. Jebb), the only Greek poet of whom we have complete plays and probably the greatest of the writers of Greek comedy; the names—they are little more—of EUBULUS, ANTIPHANES, ALEXIS in the Middle Comedy; and in the New Comedy or third period, PHILEMON, MENANDER (by J. H. Freese), who was so highly esteemed and so constantly pilfered from by the Roman comic writers, and of whose plays large fragments have been found in the last few years; DIPHILUS, APOLLODORUS of Carystus, POSIDIPPUS, RHINTHON and SOTADES. [Sidenote: History] The prose of the Attic period we may divide roughly into history, oratory and philosophy. On the historians read LOGOGRAPHI, GREECE, _Ancient History_, “Authorities” (Vol. 12, p. 454), with criticism of the historical accuracy of Herodotus, Thucydides, Diodorus, Plutarch, Xenophon, etc., HECATAEUS of Miletus, HERODOTUS (Vol. 13, p. 381; equivalent to 10 pages of this Guide), by the historian George Rawlinson and E. M. Walker, librarian of Queen’s College, Oxford; THUCYDIDES (Vol. 26, p. 893; equivalent to 10 pages of the Guide), by Sir R. C. Jebb, and Malcolm Mitchell, editor of Grote’s _Greece_; XENOPHON (Vol. 28, p. 885; equivalent to 7 pages in this Guide), by E. M. Walker and J. H. Freese; CTESIAS, PHILISTUS, THEOPOMPUS, and TIMAEUS. [Sidenote: Oratory] On Attic orators read ANDOCIDES, LYSIAS, ISOCRATES, ISAEUS, ANTIPHON, DEMOSTHENES, AESCHINES, HYPEREIDES,—most of these articles being by Sir R. C. Jebb, who was particularly versed in this branch of Greek literature. The special student of the orators should read also the articles GREEK LAW (Vol. 12, p. 501; equivalent to 15 pages in this Guide), by Prof. J. E. Sandys of Cambridge, author of _A History of Classical Scholarship_, etc.; SOPHISTS (Vol. 25, p. 418, equivalent to 20 pages of this Guide), by Prof. Henry Jackson of Cambridge, a well-known writer on Greek philosophy, and RHETORIC (Vol. 23, p. 233), by Sir R. C. Jebb. On Greek philosophical writing see the articles PHERECYDES of Syros, ANAXIMENES of Miletus, ANAXIMANDER, and the names great not only in Greek thought and literature but in the world’s—PLATO (Vol. 21, p. 808; equivalent to about 50 pages of this Guide), by Lewis Campbell, editor and critic of many of the Platonic dialogues, and ARISTOTLE (Vol. 2, p. 501; equivalent to 70 pages of this Guide), by Prof. Thomas Case, Oxford, author of _Physical Realism_, etc. For a fuller guide to Greek philosophy see the chapter in this Guide on _Philosophy_. [Sidenote: Decadence] The third period of classical Greek literature was one of Greek thought in unGreek surroundings—see the article HELLENISM, by E. R. Bevan, author of _The House of Seleucus_, etc.,—and this came to its first and finest flower in Alexandria, in Egypt, under the Ptolemies—see the article ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL, especially that part of it dealing with _Literature_ (Vol. 1, p. 573). On the writers of the Alexandrian period see: for poetry, PHILETAS, HERMESIANAX, ASCLEPIADES of Samos, and the comic poets SOTADES and RHINTHON, already mentioned; HERODAS, by W. G. Headlam, editor of Herodas; the idyllist THEOCRITUS (Vol. 26, p. 760), by A. C. Clark, fellow of Queen’s, Oxford; Theocritus’s followers BION and MOSCHUS; the mythologist CALLIMACHUS, who influenced Catullus as much as Theocritus did the young Virgil; the didactic poet ARATUS, whom Cicero translated into Latin and whom Virgil imitated in his _Georgics_; the epic APOLLONIUS of Rhodes, and the late tragedian LYCOPHRON; and for prose the critic ARISTARCHUS. In the Greco-Roman period, following the Alexandrian the principal articles for the student are: the historians POLYBIUS and DIODORUS SICULUS, the satirist LUCIAN, the later historians DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENSIS, DIO CASSIUS, ARRIAN, APPIAN, HERODIAN, EUSEBIUS, ZOSIMUS, the biographers PLUTARCH, DIOGENES LAERTIUS, PHILOSTRATUS, the rhetoricians LONGINUS and DIO CHRYSOSTOM, and the emperor philosopher MARCUS AURELIUS and his forerunner the “slave philosopher” EPICTETUS. Possibly the most typical output of the later Greek age is the matchless collection of short poems known to us as “the Greek Anthology”; on this see the articles EPIGRAM and ANTHOLOGY.