ACHS Diploma

Ancient Greek Literature

Course Description

Ahmed Etman

Abstract:

Greek Literature discovered and developed some literary genres, and it made them so artistically and esthetically mature that some critics consider any change in this Greek standard a kind of deterioration. They refer to the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Sophocles as examples.

Obviously Greek Literature was almost wholly preoccupied in the essential human issues. This means that it addresses every humanbeing, everywhere and in any time. Thus it wins immortality and universality. The main essential human issues  in Greek literature can be simply exemplified in the cosmological order including the relations between men and gods, earth and heaven. Greek literary works were deeply involved in issues such as justice and future as well as the nature and function of arts. It goes without saying that these issues, dealt with in Greek Literature about thirty centuries ago, are still discussed in our contemparary life i.e. in the beginnings of the Twenty First Century.

From the beginnings of Literary production Greeks were interested in the problem of inherited tradition. Homer himself was preceded by traditional oral epic singers. He, depending on this wealthy tradition, composed his two Epics, the “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. This oral tradition itself  had oriental origins which entered Greek oral tradition through close contacts with Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete etc. Anyhow Homer gave the first model how to deal with the inherited tradition. This Homeric model was highly praised and recommended by the other Greek (and World) poets and critics. Homer himself became for the next generations a tradition by which Greek poets were inspired. Hesiod the founder of didactic poetry was inspired by Homer and he even adopted his verses, the hexameters. Lyric poets and dramatists followed the same way. Aeschylus is related to have said “My plays are nothing but the small remnant morsels of Homeric luxurious banquet”.

Aristophanes continued to discuss this issue, the conflict between tradition and modernism or innovation, in his comedies, e.g. “Frogs” and “Clouds”. Later in Alexandria the same issue developed into a literary battle between Apollonius Rhodius, the traditionalist and Callimachus the champion of modernism. Theocritus their colleague adopted a compromising technique in his pastoral poems. Under the Roman Empire the Greek men of letters continued this traditional dialogue. At that time – after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic experience – the Greeks were more open-minded towards the Other or the “Barbarians”. And so the results were valuable, among which is the birth of Greek Novel as a mixture of oriental, particularly Eygptian, elements and traditional Greek artistic technique.

In modern times it has already been well - established to deal with Greek Literature as a Human and Universal Legacy. This Greek model was restored and very fruitfnlly utilized during the European Renaissance beginning from Italy to other European countries. New Classicism, like Renaissance as a whole, was born in Italy, but it grew and it was highly maturated and elaborated in France, England and Germany. Here we can only mention some names of the Renaissance pioneers. From Italy we refer to Betrarca, Boccacio, Dante, Scaliger, Il Cinthio. From France we mention here few names e.g. Etiènne Jodelle, Robert Garnier, Boileau, Corneille, Racine and Molière. From England the names of Thomas Kid, Cristopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Shakespeare cannot be neglected. From Germany it is enough to mention Gottsched, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe and (the Dutch) Erasmus.

Through the efforts of these Pioneers, and many others, Greek (and Latin) texts were revised, edited translated, commented and published. Many literary pieces were written on the model of the Greek (and Latin) masterpieces. Greek myths became the main spring of inspiration for the writers, painters and musicians. The revival of Classical Tradition was an essential ingredient of the Renaissunce mentality. And so we can say that Modern Western Civilisation is based, from its spiritual side, on the Restored Classics.

Noteworthy is that the Arab World is closely connected with Greek Legacy. Ancient Egypt and the Orient influenced the Greek Civilisation in many fields e.g. the alphabets, mythology, architecture, medicine etc. In this way the Greek sources became essential to understand the Egyptian and Oriental  ancient traditions. One example is enough here, i.e. the myth of Isis cannot be fully understood without the Graeco – Roman Sources especially the treatise of Plutarch “On Isis and Osiris”. This treatise is still indispensable for any egyptologist .

On the other side Arab Muslims, translated the main writings of the Greeks into Arabic including Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and Galenus. These Arabic versions were translated into Latin in Andalusia, Sicily and southern Italy. These translations played a great role in the European Revival of the Classics (or Humanism) and in the Renaissance as a whole.

In this way we can understand the efforts of the pioneers in Egyptian Modern Renaissance. e.g. Rifa’a Rafie El Tahtawi, Ahmed Lutfy El Sayed, Taha Hussein, Ahmed Shawqi and Tewfiq El Hakim. All of them stressed the importance of Classical scholarship for modern Arab Renaissance. All of them, however, got their knowledge of the Classics through this or that modern European Language and not directly through Greek (or Latin). Now after the foundation of Classical Departments in Cairo University and the other Egyptian Universities the contact of Arab culture with the Classics became direct and well established.

In the same time these contacts with Greek Literature from Ancient times till nowadays are widely reflected in Modern Arab Literature. In Arab Theatre for example we have no less than four pieces dealing with the so-called “Arab Oedipus”. In poetry we have Apollo School poets such as, Abu El Quasem El Shaby, Aly Mahmoud Taha, Abu Shady, Nazek El Malaïaka. Also the poems of El Sayab, El Baiati, Adonis, Salah Abd El Sabour and Nazar Qabany are full of Greek symbolic myths especially Prometheus, the “Fire Stealer”. Greek myths in modern Arab poetry are closely connected with the idea of Innovation, Revival or in one word Renaissance. This phenomenon in modern Arab Literature requires more stress on the Classical and Comparative Studies in our Universities.

Course description per week:

Week-1  The Nature and Function of Greek Epic:

           a- Oriental Sources and Homeric Problem

           b- Oral Background of the Epic Technique

Week-2  Oral techniques: 

               a- Unity of Theme

               b- Character delineation

               c-Anthropomorphism of Gods and Apotheosis of Men.

               d- Epic Reciter: The Nature of his Work in ancient and modern times.

Week-3 Hesiod: Man as an Individual, Poet as a Teacher:

         a- Between Epic and Didactic Poetry

         b- “Works and Days”

         c- “Theogony”

Week-4 Lyric poetry and prosperous Individualism.

Week-5 Monody and Choral Odes.

Week-6 Natural “genesis” of Drama:

              a- Dionysus Myth and the Origins of Drama in Greek Mentality

               b- Dithyramb: Spermatic seed of Drama

              c-Thespis, Phrynichus and the beginnings of Tragic Art

Week-7 Aeschylus, Marathon-Fighter and Father of Tragedy.

Week-8 Sophocles: the Flower of Maturity.

Week-9 Euripides and Tragic self- laceration.

Week-10 Comedy between Political Birth and Egoistic Self-preoccupation:

                a- Aristophanes from Old to Middle Comed

                b- Menander and New Comedy or the Prison of Egoistic Preoccupation

Week-11 Prose as an Artistic Expression in the Age of Maturity, Wisdom and Eloquence.

Week-12 Literary face of Philosophy.

Week-13 Science of History:

            a- From Myths to Truth

            b- Herodotus “pater historiae”

           c- Thucydides, Founder of the Science  of  History

Week-14 Rhetoric or the Persuasive Art.

Week-15 Revision & Final exam.

Bibliography

Bowra (C.M.) : Landmarks in Greek Literature. Weidenfeld and Nicol­son 1970.

Idem : Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides. Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1961.

Ehrenberg (V.) : From Solon to Socrates. Greek History and Civilization during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. London – ­Methuen 1967.

Flacelière (R.) : A Literary History of Greece (translated from French by Douglas Garman). A Mentor Book, The New American Library 1964.

Higginbotham (J.) ed.: Greek and Latin Literature. A Comparative Study. Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1969.

Kennedy (G.A.): The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Vol 1. Classical Criticism. Cambridge University Press 1989 reprint 1999

Kitto (H.D.F.) : Poiesis, Structure and Thought. Berkeley and Los An­geles 1967.

Lesky (A.) : History of Greek Literature. Translated by James Willis and Cornelia de Heer. London 1966.

Idem : Greek Tragedy. Translated by H.A. Frankfort with Foreword by E.G. Turner. London Ernest Benn Limited, New York 1967.

Pfeiffer (R.) : History of Classical Scholarship, From 1300 to 1850. Oxford 1976 reprint 1999.