Amber Shoopman, Lee Bosse, Kyri Rice Reggie Jayne History 101 Western Civilization 1 December 15, 2012

2 Greek Literature through the Lens of History Literature and history are often intertwined. Much can be learned about a culture by reading the collected works that were produced during a particular time period. By examining writings closely, the reasons behind a specific event or a course taken by a certain group of people becomes apparent. Greek literature has many examples of this point. These examples give a general overview of the beliefs and culture of the day, and also provide insight into the attitudes of the intended audience. Every text written in Greek antiquity had a purpose. These historical narratives often produced a literary cycle of inspiration where tales were created in response to a specific event while, at the same time, rousing people, events, and historic movements to occur. The first example of a literary cycle can be found in the oldest known epic poems in Greek literature: Homers The Iliad and The Odyssey. From 1200 1184 B.C.E. the Greek king, Agamemnon, was at war with the Trojans. The only record we have of the people involved and the reasons behind this war come from Homers The Iliad. The Iliad was composed verbally in 850 B.C.E. Homer traveled performing his great poem for all who would listen. The Iliad immortalizes the heroic deeds of Achilles and Hector, the love between Paris and Helen, and the wisdom and cunning of the Greeks. These examples give appeal to the desires of all the Greeks. The legends appealed to the hero, the romantic, the scholar, and the leader that resided in every man. The story of Achilles and Hector taught leadership skills, courage, and honor. The

relationship of Paris and Helen reminded men of the women they were protecting and the reasons they were called upon to fight. The cunning and wisdom of the Greeks were apparent in their use of the Trojan horse, which inspired men to develop these traits within themselves. The Trojan horse also reminded men that things are not always as they appear and that what might seem a harmless overture could eventually lead to their downfall. In short: trust no one but your brother soldiers and the state! Due to the popularity of The Iliad, Homer was encouraged to write another poem. He composed The Odyssey in 850 B.C.E. as well. The Odyssey tells the story of one of the heroes of the Trojan War, Odysseus, and his journey home after Troy had been decimated. Odysseus is forced to endure trials with many mythological creatures and the gods themselves in his determination to return to his wife and family. It was during this time that the Greeks were struggling to revive themselves from their Dark Ages - a difficult period in which population declined and food production dropped (Spielvogel 57). The Odyssey gives examples of courage, wisdom, perseverance, loyalty, honor, cunning, and patience; all virtues that the Ancient Greeks endeavored to attain as they saw these qualities as belonging to the gods and goddesses they so revered, respected, and feared. The Greeks strove to be like the heroes found in the verses of Homers great works. The Greeks regarded The Iliad and The Odyssey as authentic history...[that] gave the Greeks an ideal past with a cast of heroes (Spielvogel 59). Men lived their entire lives by the teachings and examples found in Homer. However, the time was not one of many great wars, though there were small skirmishes that men could take part in. As a result of trying to find a way to show off their skills and prowess, the Olympics were born in Athens in 776 B.C.E. The Olympics gave men the chance to participate in feats of physical strength such as wrestling, fighting, and spear

throwing. The winners received much prestige and honor for both themselves and their home town. Honor and prestige were the goals that all Greeks sought to attain. These values epitomized the traits of the heroes from The Iliad and The Odyssey. It wasnt just men, however, who learned to exemplify Homer. In the Homeric world, women, too, were expected to pursue excellence (Spielvogel 59). The Iliad and The Odyssey contain many examples of brave, courageous, faithful women. One example of this is found in Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. She remains faithful to her husband and displays great courage and intelligence in preserving their household during her husbands long absence (Spielvogel 59). Women worked hard to be worthy of the same praise that Odysseus bestowed upon Penelope: Madame, there is not a man in the wide world who could find fault with you. For your fame has reached heaven itself, like that of some perfect king, ruling a populous and mighty state with the fear of god in his heart, and upholding the right. (Spielvogel 59) For nearly one hundred years the epic poetry of Homer was passed along by word of mouth to inspire the men and women to excel in whatever they did. In 750 B.C.E., with the adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet into that of the Greeks, the words of the epics were finally able to be written down. Many of the scenes and descriptions found within the stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey were adapted to fit the weapons and styles of the Greeks in 750 B.C.E. rather than the Greeks in 850 B.C.E. when they were composed, let alone in 1200 B.C.E. when the events actually took place. The people changed the stories to fit their perceptions and needs. Now that the works of Homer were in written form, they became standard texts in the education of boys. Greeks of all different cultures and societies were using the stories to teach their children. Homer had given the Greeks a model of heroism, honor, and nobility and they

endeavored to become like the people in his poetry (Spielvogel 59). As one Athenian put it, My father was anxious to see me develop into a good manand as a means to this end he compelled me to memorize all of Homer (Spielvogel 59). As people continued to emulate the heroes and heroines of Homers tales, a new Greece began to emerge. The people wanted to show off their skills and power; they wanted to be recognized for their greatness. These skills were used to give power to tyrants who took over the governing of the people. Greek tyrants were rulers who seized power by force and who were not subject to the law (Spielvogel 62). They were supported by those who had money, but did not have the skills to take power and control of the people. Once in power, they often created more trade, new coinage, and bigger marketplaces. Unfortunately, the focus on money had a very negative effect on the agriculture of the Greek poleis. As the trade system grew and people with money became richer, so the agricultural system waned and the farmers became poorer. In 680 B.C.E. a farmer by the name of Hesiod, wrote an epic poem, Works and Days, of over 800 verses that described the injustices of the aristocrats and implored the people to turn away from greed and to work for what they needed: You must learn to organize your work so that you may have full barns at harvest time. From working, men grow rich in flocks and gold and dearer to the deathless gods. In work there is no shame; shame is in idleness. And if you work, the lazy man will soon envy your wealth: a rich man can become famous and good. No matter what your luck, to work is better; turn your foolish mind from other men's possessions to your own, and earn your living, as I tell you to. (Spielvogel 67) Works and Days was not only a plea for the people to return to the hard work of their ancestors, that allowed them to support themselves, but a plea to the moral state of the people as well. He implores them to give up slothfulness and idleness and to please the gods by working hard and using their hands and minds to create once again (Athanassakis 94). To help the people

get started, Works and Days also contained a seasonal guide to farming and has often been referred to as the first ever Farmers Almanac. Many people grew tired of the tyrants and their way of life and left the poleis in search of new colonies to settle in. The Spartans who left in search of new colonies found them within Laconia and Messenia. They set up small villages and lived in peace with their neighbors. Eventually the Spartans decided that they wanted more land and joined forces against the natives. The Spartans proved victorious thanks, in great part, to their Homeric background and education. To ensure control over their conquered Laconian and Messenian helots, the Spartans made a conscious decision to create a military state (Spielvogel 63). A series of reforms, known as the Lycurgan Reforms, were introduced that converted Sparta into a permanent military camp. Their reforms had a great impact on the lives of the people. No longer were boys allowed to remain at home to be taught by their parents. They were taken at the age of seven and placed in barracks where they would live, fight, and learn under the direction of the state. The Spartans had no tolerance for free thinking and little acceptance of the arts. Any art or literature created must focus on the military life of a warrior and be for the benefit of teaching them courage and honor. One of the greatest Spartan poets was a young man named Tyrtaeus. Unlike Homer and Hesiod who wrote epic poetry, Tyrtaeus wrote lyrical poetry. The lyric is considerably shorter than epic poetry and focuses on personal emotions (Spielvogel 66). The greatest of Tyrtaeus poems is Courage, and was written to inspire the Spartans in their zeal to be the best warriors the world had ever known: Here is courage, mankind's finest possession, here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win, and it is a good thing his city and all the people share with him when a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten, and has well trained

his heart to be steadfast and to endure, and with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him. (Marshal and Hendrix) Nothing was more important to a Spartan than protecting their home and families. Women, who had few rights, were not sheltered in Sparta like in other poleis. They were also taught to fight and to become strong, like the boys, for if ever they were attacked and the men had to leave the city to fight, it would fall to the women to defend it. The worth of every citizen of Sparta was determined by his/her willingness to fight, and if needed, to die for the protection of the state. As one woman said to her son as he left to fight a great battle, Come back carrying your shield, or carried on it (Spielvogel 63). In other words, the only way a soldier should return home to Sparta was as a victor of the battle or dead. The Spartans became a great force to be reckoned with and most poleis throughout the Greek mainland chose to ally themselves with the Spartans. Unfortunately, there was another city/state that deemed themselves just as powerful and cunning. The clash between these two great civilizations would forever change the fate of Greece. In 497 B.C.E. the Persians attacked the Greek mainland and the city/states were forced to work together to defend their homes. The Spartans led a great land army to drive the Persians to the sea. The Athenians, who prided themselves on the strength of their navy, then pursued the Persians back to their own shores and defeated them. The Athenians, believed themselves responsible for the victory over the Persians. They formed the Delian League in the guise of protecting the shores of Greece. As the Athenians controlled the navy that was to be used by the Delian League, they demanded payments from the other members of the League for its support and upkeep. After a while, some of these other poleis decided they would rather take their chances against a foreign invader than continue to make payments to Athens. Instead of releasing

them from the Delian League, Athens attacked the poleis and forced them to pay the tribute money. The Athenians continued to attack other poleis on the Greek mainland in an attempt to create a land empire. The biggest mistake Athens made was in trying to conquer the Spartans on the Peloponnesus peninsula. In 460 B.C.E., the First Peloponnesian War broke out between Sparta and Athens. Sparta was only concerned with protecting its people, while Athens was seeking domination. It was during the course of the Peloponnesian War that another great literary cycle was born. Just two years after the start of the war, an Athenian tragedian, Aeschylus, wrote the Oresteia trilogy. As was common with all Greek tragedies of the day, the Oresteia trilogy was written around a common theme; Homers Iliad. Arranged thus, Agamemnon begins the story with the king returned from Troy to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra slayed Agamemnon for previously killing their child, Igphinea. It was this act that the gods required from the Mycenaean king for the Greek armies to sail on towards Troy and recapture his brother's honor. The second act, The Choephori or The Libation Bearers allows the feud to thicken. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is overcome with grief at his father's demise and his mother's cruel behavior. He and his sister agree that Clytemnestra must be slain and their dead father avenged. Orestes does so and this unleashes the Furies who seek to torment Orestes for murdering his mother. The third act, The Eumenides, finds the Furies pursuing Orestes throughout the world. They are beings of fate which pursue and punish mortals who have spilled their own blood. Orestes is pursued because he killed his own mother. Orestes is eventually put on trial and the goddess Athena pardons him. The Furies then become the Eumenides or Kindly Ones and stop tormenting him.

Aeschylus had many reasons for writing this great trilogy. In Agamemnon, he reminds the people of the heroes of The Iliad and the lessons they had been taught all their lives. He reminds them of the virtues they have been taught to emulate; honor, courage, sacrifice, patience, endurance, and wisdom. Agamemnon believed his cause was just. He did his duty by sacrificing his beloved daughter to the gods so that they might prosper and protect the state on their quest. In this play Aeschylus reminds the people that no one man or woman is more important than Athens as a whole. In The Libation Bearers Aeschylus reminds the people that they need to sacrifice their comforts and desires to appease the gods, in the hopes that they would grant the Athenians victory over their enemies. He encourages them to rise up in the pursuit of that which is right and fight against the Spartans, who he implies were unjust in their actions of war. Evil acts breed evil acts and suffering is ones lot (Spielvogel 77). He lets the Athenians know that their personal feelings in regards to the war must be set aside for the state. They are reminded in this play that suffering is but a small price to pay in the face of righteous acts. The Eumenides was written to remind the people that there is not higher law than that of Athens. When Orestes is finally caught by the Furies and put on trial, Athena, the great goddess of wisdom and protector of Athens, comes to his defense. Athena justifies Orestes' murder of his mother as just, because the murder of Agamemnon was unjust and Orestes was righting the wrong. The people were inspired to believe that the war against Sparta was just and that Athena, in her great wisdom, would defend them in their mission (Vellacot 107). In light of the Oresteia trilogy the Athenians pulled together and fought harder than the Spartans had realized they could. Finally, after fifteen years of fighting, the two great city/states

formulated a thirty years peace treaty. Athens consented to give up most of its land empire, and in return, Sparta recognized the existence of Athens maritime empire (Spielvogel 72). Athenians and Spartans returned to their homes in an attempt to recover their economies and rebuild the moral of their people. Never before had either polis been involved in such a war where they did not reign victorious. The people of Athens were comforted by the fact that they did not lose the war, because Sparta had not won it. However, they were overwhelmed by the knowledge that another state existed who could challenge them militaristically. To help the people regain their confidence Sophocles wrote a tragedy in 441 B.C.E. called Antigone. This play tells the story of the great King Oedipus' two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who have waged a terrible war over the throne of Thebes, which has been succeeded unjustly by their uncle, Creon, brother of Jocasta, Oedipus' mother/wife. When he is killed Antigone, Oedipus' daughter, wishes to bury Polynices properly, as she believes her brother deserves, but the state will not allow it. Polynices is seen as a traitor in the eyes of the people for his actions against King Creon. Antigone buries him anyways, and so she is killed. In this play, Sophocles implores the people to remember their place in their religion. The Greeks believed in the Pantheon of gods and goddesses who ruled the world of the living. They believed the gods and goddesses had bodies and could move among the people at will. They believed the Pantheon held power over everything. If it rained it was a gift from the gods. If there was a draught it was a punishment from the gods. In Antigone, Sophocles reminds the people that they had no control over what happened in their lives or when it happened. The only thing they had control over was how they were going to react to the trials and challenges the gods placed before them. Though their lives were difficult in the wake of war, the Athenians could choose to wallow in self-pity and despair, or they could choose to act on what they had learned to regroup,

rebuild, and prepare for another battle on another day. Sophocles entreats the people to learn wisdom from the war and to supplicate the gods, that if they should again be forced to battle with the Spartans, they will be ready: You are right, if there can be right in so much wrong. The briefest way is best in a world of sorrow. All that will come when it will; but we, meanwhile, have much to do. Leave the future to itself. There is not happiness where there is no wisdom; no wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, and proud men in old age learn to be wise. (Fitts and Fitzgerald 244-245) As the Athenians started to regain their strength and confidence, they once more set out to conquer the cities around them in search of revenue to help rebuild their mighty navy. In 431 B.C.E. Athens started on a campaign against Corinth and Megara, both allies of Sparta. When the two cities could not resist the advances of Athens, they pleaded with the Spartans to come to their aid. Sparta demanded the Athenians leave the cities alone or they would once again go to war. The Athenians refused to compromise [as they were convinced] that if they accepted Spartas ultimatum, they would be admitting that Sparta was the dominant power in Greece (Spielvogel 73). As the Athenians refused to back down, the thirty year peace agreement was nullified and Sparta declared war. The Second Peloponnesian War was even more deadly and ruthless than the first had been. Both sides realized they had to win, and were convinced they had learned enough in the twenty-six years of peace to gain the advantage over their opponent. It was during this time that the Athenians started to wane in their resolve. In the midst of the war, a deadly plague ravished the city of Athens killing over one-third of the population, and leaving many more too sick to fight. Compounded by the deaths of their soldiers in the war, the Athenians once again became discouraged, believing the gods were against them. Sophocles took it upon himself to write

another play to help ease the minds of the people and inspire them to, once again, rise above the challenges placed upon them by the Pantheon. In 424 B.C.E. Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex as a prequel to his Antigone. Oedipus who, according to an oracle, is going to kill his father and marry his mother, decides that he will not be driven by destiny, but rather will make his own choices and his own path in life. Despite his own attempts at changing his fate, he does in fact murder his father, marry his mother, and have children of his own conceived by her. Oedipus talks of the oracle as being the designer of his misery but through the events of the tragedy, realizes he made his own choices (Spielvogel 77). Through the lessons of Oedipus, Sophocles teaches the people that all men are responsible for their own destinies and actions. As Oedipus learned, one cannot escape their fate, because they are responsible for it. The people once again attempt to rise above that which the gods have heaped upon them and attack the island of Sicily in 415 B.C.E. Because the commander in charge of the attack had refused to offer sacrifices to the gods first, he was removed from the leadership of the expedition on a charge of profaning the religious mysteries (Spielvogel 75). Instead of standing trial, he escaped to Sparta where he proceeded to teach the Spartans all of the weaknesses of the Athenian navy and strategies. Sparta once again resumed the war with the belief that their new found knowledge would grant them victory over Athens. The Athenians rejoined the war but, the Spartans had the upper hand. Focusing on their navy and not their ground troops proved to be a mistake, when Sparta allied itself with Persia, whose navy had been rebuilt and expanded in the years since Athens had decimated it. Just four years after the war had resumed, Athens was once again standing on shaky ground. The numbers

were dwindling, and those who were left to fight were unsure of their cause. In an attempt to inspire the men to negotiate a peace with the Spartans, the comedic playwright, Aristophanes, wrote Lysistrata. Unlike most plays and poems, this one was intended for the women of Athens. In Lysistrata, Aristophanes beseeches the women to withhold sexual intimacies from their men until another peace is declared with the following pledge: All of you women: come, touch the bowl, and repeat after me: I will have nothing to do with my husband or my lover, though he come to me in pitiful condition. I will stay in my house, untouchable in my thinnest saffron silk, and make him long for me. I will not give myself and if he constrains me, I will be as cold as ice and never move. I will not lift my slippers toward the ceiling or crouch on all fours like the lioness in the carving. And if I keep this oath let me drink from this bowl. If not, let my own bowl be filled with water. (Spielvogel 78) Aristophanes message was received loud and clear, and the women sent messages to the men in battle, pleading with them to find a way to end the war. Despite the efforts of the Athenians to negotiate peace, the Spartans would not retreat. They knew that they were resolute in their determination to either be victorious or defeated; they would not allow the war to end in a compromise for a third time. In 404 B.C.E. the Spartans finally defeated the Athenians and set their own oligarchical control over their enemy. Though the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian War they retained the great works of literature that would one day serve to inspire the next generation of warriors just as they did for the audience and time they were written for. This next generation would use the ideas, values, and lessons taught in these literary classics and eventually defeat the Spartans into nothing more than a memory. Thus is the cycle of literature in the history of Greece. History inspires literature. Literature inspires history. Together the lessons and values that were so important to the Greeks of antiquity are passed from one generation to the next. They lived in the minds of the people and even hundreds of years past the time they were intended for, continued to give hope and

encouragement to the people. Some were classics of Greece as a whole, such as Homers epics and Hesiods Works and Days. Some were classics designed to inspire a specific group of people, such as Tyrtaeus Courage for the Spartans, and the Oresteia trilogy for the Athenians. No matter their audience or purpose, there is no doubt that these works of literature inspired men to do great things.

Works Cited Aristophanes. "Lysistrata." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. Athanassakis, Apostolos N. Hesiod. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. Print. Benton, Janetta Rebold and Robert DiYanni. Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities. 4th ed. Upper Saddle Creek: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print. Fagles, Robert. Sophocles' The Three Theban Plays. 5th ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1984. Print. Fitts, Dudley and Robert Fizgerald. Sophocles: The Oedipus Cycle. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1977. Print. Kuiper, Kathleen. Plutarch. The Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 14 May 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. Marshal, Kevin and Kevin Hendrix. Spartan Poetry: Tyrtaeus of Sparta. Sparta Pages. University of Texas: 15 Mar. 2001. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: Volume One: To 1715. 8th ed. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Vellacot, Phillip. Aeschylus' The Oresteian Trilogy. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1959. Print.