Introduction To Greek Classicism

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Dr. Kalyani Vallath

Introduction to Greek Classicism
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Greek Classicism
• Foundation of modern European lit- began with the Renaissance
in 14th -15th Century.
• Renaissance writers of Europe based their works on Greek
classical texts
• Earliest known poet is Homer who lived around 800 BC (Archaic
period)
• The Iliad
• An epic about the Trojan War
• The Odyssey
• Depicts the journey of Odysseus back home to Ithaca after
fall of Troy.
• Both these epics laid the foundation of Western literature.
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• After 6th Century BC civilization flourished and gave rise to
the classical period in Greece
• A time of brilliance- Philosophy, poetry, aesthetics,
mathematics and other contemporary disciplines came into
being in this period.
• The time of the Tragedians – Aeschylus, Sophocles and
Euripides and philosophers – Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
• After classical period, Greece politically declined due to
corruption and degeneration.
• This led to the rise of Roman empire.
• The Romans began to follow Greek classical ideals.
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The Iliad
• Epic
• An oral composition
• Written in dactylic hexameter that inspired many literary
works later
• About the last one week in the Trojan war
• Two Greek heroes- Achilles and Agamemnon are fighting for
the same female slave. Achilles’s friend Patroclus was
wounded by the Trojan hero Hector.
• Achilles kills Hector and drags his dead body for three days
and denied burial.
• Ten years of war told in flashback.
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The Odyssey
• Sequel to The Iliad
• Odysseus or Ulysses (Latin) returning home to Ithaca
• His wife Penelope and Telemachus were facing threats from
enemies .
• The enemies wanted to marry Penelope , she said that she will
marry one of the enemies after she weaves her wedding gown.
• Penelope weaves her gown in the morning and unravels the
weaving at night so the gown was never complete, known as
Penelope’s web.
• Odysseus arrives home but he wants to go back for more
adventures.
• Tennyson’s "Ulysses" is based on Odysseus’s love for adventures.
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Classical Period
• Greece is an archipelago in which Athens- the most
powerful city state of Greece, ruled by Pericles who was a
tyrant.
• Flowering of art and literature at this time.
• Tragedy developed in this period, in relation with Dionysia
a religious festival in honour of Dionysus who is the God
of wine, known as Bacchus among Romans.
• In this festival anybody could present three tragedies and
one satyr play.
• Aeschylus won the first prize in this competition.
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Aeschylus
• Father of tragedy
• Most famous work is the trilogy The Oresteia
• Prometheus Bound is attributed to him
• Another important play is The Persians
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The Oresteia
• A trilogy
• Agamemnon
• The Libation Bearers
• The Eumenides
• The Greek hero Agamemnon is killed by his wife Clytemnestra
and her lover Aegisthus for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia.
• Clytemnestra is the twin sister of Helen of Troy. She destroys
The House of Agamemnon or The House of Atreus.
• Agamemnon's children Orestes and Electra takes revenge on
their mother. Orestes kills Clytemnestra and he is haunted by
Eumenides or the furies for committing matricide.
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Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy
• Oedipus Tyrannus (Oedipus the King)
• Oedipus at Colonus
• Antigone
• Daughter of Oedipus who goes against the
state power and King Creon.
• She buries her dead brother who was killed
by Creon and kills herself
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Euripides – Medea
• Revenge of Medea on her husband Jason who
left her for another woman.
• Medea kills her husband’s bride by poisoning
her wedding gown.
• She also kills her own sons in a frenzy of rage.
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Aristophanes
• First Old Comedy writer
• The Clouds
• Attacked Socrates in his play calling him a liar and a
sophist.
• The Frogs
• Dionysius goes to Hades to bring back Euripides from
death
• A debate between Aeschylus and Euripides on who is
the better poet.
• There is a chorus of frogs
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Lysistrata
• It is a comic account of Lysistrata mission to end
the Peloponnesian war between Greek city
states by denying all the men of the land any
sex, which was the only thing they truly and
deeply desired.
• Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring
cities to deny sexual privileges from their
husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the
men to negotiate peace.
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Menander
• Associated with New Comedy
• His characters and stories were stereotypical in
nature.
• Menander’s New Comedy led to the
development of Comedy of Manners.
• Comedy of Manners attained the peak of
flourishment in The Restoration Era.
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Pindar
• Wrote lyric poetry- Pindaric odes
• Encomiastic in style- praise of somebody
• These odes inspired Horace and he wrote
Horatian odes
• Major group of Pindar’s odes are “Victory
Odes”
• A variation of Pindaric odes was developed by
Abraham Cowley in the 17th century.
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Philosophers of classical period
• Socrates
• An illiterate philosopher who presents tricky
questions to people and make them answer by
themselves – Socratic irony or Dialectical
method, in other words, question- answer
method.
• His disciples like Plato propagated his teachings
and philosophies, he appeared as the character
in their works.
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Plato
• Composed his works in dialogues in which Socrates is the
speaker.
• Teacher of Aristotle
• Founder of the school The Academy
• Works
• The Republic : talks about ideal just commonwealth .
Philosophers should rule the ideal state. Poetry will
corrupt the nation.
• Ion : A rhapsody singing in praise of Homer
• Phaedrus : about writing and speech
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Aristotle
• Praised poetry
• Talks about mimetic poetry in Poetics
• The greatest mimetic art is tragedy.
• He defines tragedy and talks about the constituent
elements of tragedy in his Poetics
• According to Aristotle, Oedipus Rex is an ideal
tragedy.
• Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation of literary
criticism
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E@6 VIDEOPEDIA PDF

Dr. Kalyani Vallath

Watch the video on Greek Classicism

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