World literature - Greek Literatures

Greek Literature is not only the oldest in Europe; it is also the most original and spontaneous. It has the highest intrinsic significance and it is extremely important as a determining factor in shaping the course of Roman literature. It has also fixed most of the literary types in modern times. Directly or indirectly, therefore, it is the source and origin of much of our modern culture. It is not surprising that in the minds of many people cultivated Greek literature, Greek art, and the Greek view of life constitute our most precious human heritage.

The Iliad and Odyssey, the greatest of the world’s epic poems, were cast into their present form in Ionia, Asia Minor, by the end of the eight century B.C. They are ascribed to Homer and may indeed have been composed by him, or at least by one man, though there are some indications of composite authorship. They represent the culmination and perfection of a long development of epic poetry, the earlier stages of which are lost. Matthew Arnold described the Homeric poems as rapid in style, plain in thought and diction, and noble in action. The Iliad deals with the events leading to the final defeat of the Trojans by the Greeks. The Odyssey is a sort of sequel, narrating the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) on his return from Troy to his own kingdom, the island of Ithaca. The historical basis of these epics is very likely some struggle that took place between the Greeks and the earlier Phrygian inhabitants of the coast of Asia Minor.

Greek literature begins with homer, about whom we know nothing. He is the reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but we are completely ignorant of any facts about his life. Even the century in which he lived is uncertain, the estimates varying within a range of nearly three hundred years. Seven cities have claimed to be his birthplace, with no shred of reliable evidence for anyone of them. There exist eight biographical accounts of him, all of them late inventions. There are legends to the effect that he was a blind, wandering bard, who begged his bread from door to door, that he lived to a very old age, and even that he committed suicide. So entirely we are in the dark about him that certain scholars have advanced the theory that he is purely mythical figure, and that the poems which bears his name are really compilations in which many people have had a hand. The tendency of recent investigation is to discredit his view. Although the Homeric poems undoubtedly had many predecessors, since they are obviously the fulfilment and not the beginning of a poetic movement, there is enough unity and individuality in them to warrant the belief that they are in their present form essentially the work of a single man, whom we are fee to call by his traditional name, Homer. He may have lived about the ninth century B.C. possibly in one of the islands of the Aegean or on the eastern mainland. The Iliad and the Odyssey were not committed to writing until the latter part of the sixth century B.C. Previous to that, they had been recited by rhapsodists or minstrels.

The characteristics that are most admired in Homeric poems are simplicity of sentiment and language, swiftness of narrative movement and nobility of outlook on life. Though the characters are simple and their motives uncomplicated, they are vividly realized and their actions are true to the fundamentals of human nature. Homer viewed life as an heroic enterprise to be undertaken with cheerful courage, but he did blink the hazards of it. The joy of living is matched with the tragic sense of life. The Greek verse admirably expresses this union of apparent opposites: it is light without suffering loss of dignity. Perhaps naturalness and fresh spontaneity are the most striking qualities of the poems. It is unpremeditated art, which is art of the highest order.