History of development. Representatives of the era of antiquity. Ancient literature

The traditionalism of ancient literature was a consequence of the general slowness of the development of slave society. It is no coincidence that the least traditional and most innovative era of ancient literature, when all the main ancient genres, there was a time of rapid socio-economic revolution in the 6th-5th centuries. BC e.

In the remaining centuries, changes in social life were almost not felt by contemporaries, and when they were felt, they were perceived mainly as degeneration and decline: the era of the formation of the polis system yearned for the era of the communal-tribal one (hence the Homeric epic, created as an extensive idealization of “heroic” times) , and the era of large states - according to the polis era (hence the idealization of the heroes of early Rome by Titus Livy, hence the idealization of the “freedom fighters” Demosthenes and Cicero in the era of the Empire). All these ideas were transferred to literature.

The literary system seemed unchanging, and poets of subsequent generations tried to follow in the footsteps of the previous ones. Each genre had a founder who gave its complete example: Homer - for epic, Archilochus - for iambic, Pindar or Anacreon - for the corresponding lyrical genres, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - for tragedy, etc. The degree of perfection of each new work or poet was measured by the degree of its approximation to these samples.

Special significance such a system of ideal models had for Roman literature: in essence, the entire history of Roman literature can be divided into two periods - the first, when the Greek classics, Homer or Demosthenes, were the ideal for Roman writers, and the second, when it was decided that Roman literature had already caught up with Greek in perfection, and the Roman classics, Virgil and Cicero, became the ideal for Roman writers.

Of course, there were also eras when tradition was felt as a burden and innovation was highly valued: such, for example, was early Hellenism. But even in these eras, literary innovation was manifested not so much in attempts to reform old genres, but in turning to later genres in which the tradition was not yet sufficiently authoritative: the idyll, epigram, epigram, mime, etc.

Therefore, it is easy to understand why, in those rare cases when the poet declared that he was composing “hitherto unheard songs” (Horace, “Odes”, III, 1, 3), his pride was expressed so hyperbolically: he was proud not only of himself, but also for all the poets of the future who should follow him as the founder of a new genre. However, in the mouth of a Latin poet such words often only meant that he was the first to transfer one or another Greek genre to Roman soil.

The last wave of literary innovation swept through antiquity around the 1st century. n. e., and from then on the conscious dominance of tradition became undivided. They adopted themes and motifs from the ancient poets (we find the making of a shield for the hero first in the Iliad, then in the Aeneid, then in the Punic of Silius Italica, and the logical connection of the episode with the context is increasingly weaker), and language, and style (the Homeric dialect became mandatory for all subsequent works of the Greek epic, the dialect of the most ancient lyricists - for choral poetry, etc.), and even individual hemistiches and verses (insert a line from the former poet into new poem so that it sounds naturally and is interpreted in a new way in a given context is considered the highest poetic achievement).

And the admiration for the ancient poets went so far that in late antiquity they learned from Homer lessons in military affairs, medicine, philosophy, etc. At the end of antiquity, Virgil was no longer considered only a sage, but also a sorcerer and warlock.

The third feature of ancient literature is dominance poetic form- the result of the most ancient, pre-literate attitude towards verse as the only means of preserving in memory the true verbal form of oral tradition. Even philosophical works in the early days of Greek literature were written in verse (Parmenides, Empedocles), and even Aristotle at the beginning of Poetics had to explain that poetry differs from non-poetry not so much in metrical form as in fictitious content. =

However, this connection between fictional content and metrical form remained very close in the ancient consciousness. Neither prose epic - novel, nor prose drama existed in the classical era. From its very inception, ancient prose was and remained the property of literature that pursued not artistic, but practical goals - scientific and journalistic. (It is no coincidence that “poetics” and “rhetoric”, the theory of poetry and the theory of prose in ancient literature differed very sharply.)

Moreover, the more this prose strived for artistry, the more it adopted specifically poetic techniques: the rhythmic division of phrases, parallelism and consonance. This was oratorical prose in the form in which it received in Greece in the 5th-4th centuries. and in Rome in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. and preserved it until the end of antiquity, having a powerful influence on historical, philosophical, and scientific prose. Fiction in our sense of the word - prose literature with fictional content - appears in antiquity only in the Hellenistic and Roman eras: these are the so-called ancient novels. But even here it is interesting that genetically they grew out of scientific prose - novelized history, their distribution was infinitely more limited than in modern times, they served mainly the lower classes of the reading public and they were arrogantly neglected by representatives of “genuine”, traditional literature.

The consequences of these three most important features of ancient literature are obvious. The mythological arsenal, inherited from the era when mythology was still a worldview, allowed ancient literature to symbolically embody in its images the highest ideological generalizations. Traditionalism, forcing us to perceive every image work of art against the background of all its previous use, surrounded these images with a halo of literary associations and thereby endlessly enriched its content. The poetic form gave the writer enormous means of rhythmic and stylistic expressiveness, which prose was deprived of.

Such was indeed ancient literature at the time of the highest flowering of the polis system (Attic tragedy) and at the time of the heyday of large states (Virgil’s epic). In the eras of social crisis and decline that follow these moments, the situation changes. Worldview problems cease to be the property of literature and are relegated to the realm of philosophy. Traditionalism degenerates into formalistic rivalry with long-dead writers. Poetry loses its leading role and retreats before prose: philosophical prose turns out to be more meaningful, historical - more entertaining, rhetoric - more artistic than poetry, closed within the narrow framework of tradition.

This is the ancient literature of the 4th century. BC e., the era of Plato and Isocrates, or II-III centuries. n. e., the era of the “second sophistry”. However, these periods brought with them another valuable quality: attention turned to faces and objects of everyday life, truthful sketches of human life and human relationships appeared in literature, and the comedy of Menander or the novel of Petronius, with all the conventionality of their plot schemes, turned out to be more saturated with life details than was previously the case perhaps for a poetic epic or for an Aristophanic comedy. However, whether it is possible to talk about realism in ancient literature and what is more suitable for the concept of realism - the philosophical depth of Aeschylus and Sophocles or the literary vigilance of Petronius and Martial - remains a controversial issue.

The listed main features of ancient literature manifested themselves in different ways in the literary system, but ultimately it was they who determined the appearance of genres, styles, language, and verse in the literature of Greece and Rome.

The system of genres in ancient literature was distinct and stable. Ancient literary thinking was genre-based: when starting to write a poem, no matter how individual in content and mood, the poet could nevertheless always say in advance which genre it would belong to and to which ancient model pursuit.

Genres differed between more ancient and more recent (epic and tragedy, on the one hand, idyll and satire, on the other); if the genre has changed very noticeably in its historical development, then its ancient, middle and new forms were distinguished (this is how Attic comedy was divided into three stages). Genres were distinguished between higher and lower: the heroic epic was considered the highest, although Aristotle in his Poetics placed tragedy above it. Virgil’s path from the idyll (“Bucolics”) through the didactic epic (“Georgics”) to the heroic epic (“Aeneid”) was clearly understood by both the poet and his contemporaries as a path from the “lower” genres to the “higher”.

Each genre had its own traditional theme and topic, usually very narrow: Aristotle noted that even mythological themes are not fully used by tragedy, some favorite plots are recycled many times, while others are rarely used. Silius Italik, writing in the 1st century. n. e. historical epic about the Punic War, considered it necessary, at the cost of any exaggeration, to include there motifs suggested by Homer and Virgil: prophetic dreams, a list of ships, a commander’s farewell to his wife, a competition, making a shield, a descent into Hades, etc.

Poets who were looking for novelty in the epic usually turned not to the heroic epic, but to the didactic one. This is also characteristic of the ancient belief in the omnipotence of poetic form: any material (be it astronomy or pharmacology) presented in verse was already considered high poetry (again, despite Aristotle’s objections). Poets became sophisticated in choosing the most unexpected themes for didactic poems and in retelling these in the same traditional epic style, with periphrastic replacements for almost every term. Of course, the scientific value of such poems was very small.

The system of styles in ancient literature was completely subordinated to the system of genres. Low genres were characterized by a low style, relatively close to colloquial, while high genres were characterized by a high style, formed artificially. The means of forming a high style were developed by rhetoric: among them there were differences in the selection of words, the combination of words and stylistic figures (metaphors, metonymies, etc.). Thus, the doctrine of word selection prescribed the avoidance of words whose use was not sanctified by previous examples of high genres.

Therefore, even historians like Livy or Tacitus, when describing wars, avoid military terms and geographical names at all costs, so it is almost impossible to imagine the specific course of military operations from such descriptions. The doctrine of combining words required rearranging words and dividing phrases to achieve rhythmic euphony. Late antiquity goes to such extremes in this that rhetorical prose far surpasses even poetry in the pretentiousness of its verbal constructions. Likewise, the use of figures changed.

We repeat that the severity of these requirements varied in relation to different genres: Cicero uses different style in letters, philosophical treatises and speeches, and in Apuleius his novel, recitations and philosophical writings are so dissimilar in style that scholars have more than once doubted the authenticity of one or another group of his works. However, over time, even in the lower genres, authors tried to equal the higher ones in the pomp of style: eloquence adopted the techniques of poetry, history and philosophy - the techniques of eloquence, scientific prose - the techniques of philosophy.

This general tendency toward high style sometimes conflicted with the general tendency to preserve the traditional style of each genre. The result was such outbreaks of literary struggle, such as, for example, the controversy between the Atticists and the Asians in the eloquence of the 1st century. BC BC: the Atticists demanded a return to the relatively simple style of ancient orators, the Asians defended the sublime and magnificent oratory style that had developed by this time.

The language system in ancient literature was also subject to the requirements of tradition and also through the system of genres. This is seen with particular clarity in Greek literature. Due to the political fragmentation of polis Greece, the Greek language had long been divided into a number of distinctly different dialects, the most important of which were Ionian, Attic, Aeolian and Dorian.

Various genres of ancient Greek poetry originated in different areas Greece and, accordingly, used different dialects: the Homeric epic - Ionian, but with strong elements of the neighboring Aeolian dialect; from epic this dialect moved into elegy, epigram and other related genres; the features of the Dorian dialect predominated in the choric lyrics; the tragedy used the Attic dialect in the dialogue, but the interpolated songs of the choir contained - on the model of choric lyrics - many Dorian elements. Early prose(Herodotus) used the Ionian dialect, but from the end of the 5th century. BC e. (Thucydides, Athenian orators) switched to Attic.

All these dialectal features were considered integral features of the corresponding genres and were carefully observed by all later writers, even when the original dialect had long since died out or changed. Thus, the language of literature was deliberately opposed to spoken language: it was a language oriented toward the transmission of canonized tradition, and not toward the reproduction of reality. This becomes especially noticeable in the Hellenistic era, when the cultural rapprochement of all areas of the Greek world developed the so-called “common dialect” (koine), which was based on Attic, but with a strong admixture of Ionian.

In business and scientific literature, and partly even in philosophical and historical literature, writers switched to this commonly used language, but in eloquence and especially in poetry they remained faithful to traditional genre dialects; moreover, trying to distinguish themselves as clearly as possible from everyday life, they deliberately condense those features literary language, which were alien to the spoken language: orators saturate their works with long-forgotten Attic idioms, poets extract from ancient authors the rarest and most incomprehensible words and phrases possible.

Story world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984.

Ancient literature - the literature of ancient Greece and Rome - originated several thousand years ago. It is considered the earliest literature in Europe. Written monuments of Greek literature that emerged in the 8th century. BC, was preceded by a huge oral creativity of the Greek people, which developed over thousands of years. The first monuments known to us are Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

The first literary monuments in Rome date back to the 3rd century. BC, its heyday was the 1st century BC, its history ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

Thus, what is called ancient literature covers a huge period of time of 1200 years, starting from the 7th century. BC, ending 5th century. AD Ancient literature, like the entire culture of Greece to this day, is a classic, in a certain sense a model - the culture of Ancient Greece is recognized as the “childhood of humanity.”

The main directions characterizing ancient literature are mythology, Homeric epic and ancient drama. In general, ancient literature is filled heroics and realism. Its main object - as in the entire culture of ancient Greece - is a real person, developed, courageous, full of the dignity offered. Even the Greek gods have human qualities - they quarrel, flirt, fall in love, slander...

The most famous heroes of the Greek epic are Prometheus and Hercules - helpers and protectors of people. The gods reside on the snow-capped Mount Olympus, led by Zeus, the father and ruler of the universe. The palaces on Olympus were built by the god Hephaestus, the god of arts and sciences Apollo performs at feasts, and nine sister muses sing to his lyre. Sitting next to him is his wife, the formidable and jealous Hera, and his daughter Pallas Athena, a warlike goddess always ready for battle.

The Greek poet Hesiod (8th century BC) has a poem “Theogony”, or "Origin of the Gods", where the grandiose battle between the Titans and Zeus is colorfully depicted, which personifies the heroism and anthropomorphism of mythology, beauty and majesty.

All stages of mythology are represented in the heroic songs of the Greeks - the so-called Homeric epic. Epic means nothing more than a word about exploits; to the accompaniment of the lyre they were sung by an aed - a songwriter or rhapsodist - a performer and collector of heroic tales. Tradition considers the creator of the ancient Greek epic to be Homer, a blind wandering aed, a beggar singer. Two greatest poems are associated with his name "Odyssey" and "Iliad" included in the Trojan mythological cycle, which unites a number of myths reflecting the struggle of the Greeks for the mastery of the Asia Minor city of Ilion or Troy. The Iliad depicts several episodes from the tenth year of the siege of Troy; “Odyssey” is the return to the homeland of one of the Achaean heroes, Odysseus. Homer's epic is rightfully considered an encyclopedia of ancient life, reflecting in artistic images the fall of the communal tribal formation and the emergence of a class slave-owning society.

Creativity dates back to the era of the general rise of Greece Aeschylus, a native of Athens, participant in the Greco-Persian wars. Of the several hundred tragedies written by the Greeks, only 32 have reached us. The plays were funny or sad (tragedies or comedies). Tragedies were very popular Aeschylus "Persians", "Bound Prometheus"", the tragedy was very popular Sophocles "Antigone". And the famous author of comedies in the mid-5th century BC. was Athenian Aristophanes(play "Birds")

Rome, having conquered little Greece, adopted the entire pantheon of Greek gods, all art and culture, and therefore the images of Roman literature are practically no different from the original. A distinctive feature of literature in comparison with Greek is that this literature is much more later and therefore much more mature. Roman literature appears on the world stage 400-500 years later than Greek. Rome could take advantage of the ready-made results of the centuries-long development of Greek literature, assimilate them quickly and thoroughly, and create on this basis its own, much more mature and developed literature. From the very beginning of the development of Roman literature, a strong Greek influence is felt.

Another feature of Roman literature is that it arises and flourishes in that period of the history of antiquity, which for Greece was already a time of decline. This was the Hellenistic period. Roman literature is predominantly Hellenistic literature.

Besides, Roman literature reproduced Hellenism extremely intensely, on a large and widespread scale and in much more dramatic, heated and acute forms. Nowhere in ancient literature was there such a sober analysis of reality as in Roman naturalism or Roman satirists, although naturalism and satire are also characteristic of Greek literature. But both of these features of Roman literature - naturalism and a satirical depiction of life - are so great here that naturalistic satire can well be considered a specific Roman literary genre.

If we periodize ancient literature, we can note that first period, which can be called pre-classical, or archaic, covers a long series of centuries of oral folk art and ends during the first third of the 1st millennium BC. This work has not reached us, and we have some idea about it on the basis of later ancient literature. Only two monuments of Greek literature, written down in the 7th century, have reached us in their entirety. BC, but undoubtedly developed over many centuries, these are the heroic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer.

Second period of ancient literature- this is the formation and flourishing of Greek classical slavery, which occupies the 7th-9th centuries. BC This period is usually called the classical period. In connection with the development of personality, numerous forms of lyric and drama appear, as well as a rich prose literature consisting of the works of Greek philosophers, historians and orators.

Third period of ancient literature, usually called Hellenistic, originates in new level ancient slavery, namely large-scale slavery. Instead of the small cities of the states of the classical period, the so-called policies, huge military-monarchical organizations arise, and at the same time a great differentiation of the subjective life of man appears, sharply different from the simplicity, spontaneity and severity of the classical period. As a result, the Hellenistic period is often interpreted as a period of degradation of classical literature, although it must be remembered that this process lasted for a very long time, right up to the end of the ancient world. Consequently, this post-classical period occupies a huge period of time - from the 3rd century. BC up to 5 v. AD Roman literature also belongs to this third period of ancient literature, which is why it is often called the Eliinistic-Roman period. Originating in the 3rd century. BC Roman literature experiences its archaic period in the first two centuries of its existence. 1st century BC is generally considered to be the heyday of Roman literature, namely the 1st to 5th centuries. AD are called the post-classical period.

In connection with the death of the slave-owning formation and the onset of medieval feudalism in the 6th century. AD can be considered the line between ancient and medieval literature.

Ancient literature provides a lot of different information about the ancient poetic works and semi-legendary singers who, according to legend, competed with Homer and remained in the people's memory as sages, not much inferior to Apollo and the muses, patrons of the arts. Names preserved famous singers and song writers: Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, Eumolpus and others, who were remembered throughout antiquity.

Initial poetic forms associated with the religious and everyday practices of the ancient Greeks. These are, first of all, various types of songs that are mentioned quite often in the Homeric epic.

Types of lyrical songs

Pean - a hymn in honor of Apollo. Of the hymns to the gods, Homer mentions this particular paean. It is mentioned in the Iliad, where the Achaean youths sing it during a sacrifice to mark the end of the plague after the return of Chryseis, and where Achilles proposes to sing the paean on the occasion of his victory over Hector.

Frenos - Greek threnos - lament - funeral or funeral song. In the Iliad, it is mentioned in the episode of the death of Hector, it was performed over his corpse and at the solemn funeral of Achilles in the Odyssey, where nine Muses participated, who sang this phrenos, and the funeral singing of all gods and people around the body of Achilles lasted 17 days.

Hyporchema - the song accompanying the dance may have been mentioned in the description of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, where the workers in the vineyard lead a cheerful round dance to the singing of the young man and his playing of the forming.

Sophronistic - Greek sophronisma - suggestion - a moralizing song. This song is mentioned in Homer. Agamemnon, leaving for Troy, left a singer to look after his wife Clytemnestra, who, apparently, was supposed to instill in her wise instructions. However, this singer was sent by Aegisthus to a deserted island and died there.

Encomius - a song of praise in honor of glorious men, sung by Achilles, who left the battle and retired to his tent.

Hymen - a wedding song that accompanies the bride and groom in the depiction of the wedding celebration on the shield of Achilles.

The work song develops earlier than any other types of poetry. Homer, as a singer of military exploits, left no mention of these songs. They are known from Aristophanes' comedy "Peace", which is reminiscent of the Russian "Eh, let's go!", or the song of the flour millers on the island. Lesbos from Plutarch's Feast of the Seven Wise Men.

The musical accompaniment of the song, as well as its dance accompaniment, is a remnant of the ancient inseparability of all arts. Homer talks about solo singing accompanied by a cithara or forminga. Achilles accompanies himself on the cithara; This is how the famous Homeric singers sing: Demodocus at Alcinous and Phemius in Ithaca, and so do Apollo and the Muses.

Heroic ancient epic

Not a single complete work has reached us from the pre-Homeric past. However, they represented the vast, boundless creativity of the Greek people. Like other peoples, songs dedicated to heroes were originally associated with funeral laments for the hero. A heroic dirge is an epitaph.

Over time, these laments developed into entire songs about the life and exploits of the hero, received artistic completion, and, to the extent of the socio-political significance of the hero, even became traditional. Thus, the epic poet Hesiod in his work “Works and Days” told about himself how he went to Chalkis for festivities in honor of the hero Amphidamantus, how he sang a hymn there in his honor and how he received the first award for this.

Gradually, the song in honor of the hero gained its independence. It was no longer necessary to perform this kind of performance at festivities in honor of the hero. heroic songs. They were performed at feasts and meetings by an ordinary rhapsodist or poet, like Homer's Demodocus and Phemius. These “glories of men” could also be performed by a non-professional, as, for example, in Aeschylus’s work “Agamemnon” Iphigenia glorifies his exploits at the feasts of her father Agamemnon.

They sang not only goodies. Singers and listeners began to be interested in negative heroes, about whose atrocities legends were also formed. For example, Homer's Odyssey directly speaks in songs about the notoriety of Clytemnestra.

Thus, even scanty information about the pre-Homeric heroic epic makes it possible to name its types:

Epitaph (funeral lament);

Agon (competition at the grave);

- the “glory” of the hero, solemnly performed at a festival specially dedicated to him;

- the “glory” of the hero, solemnly performed at the feasts of the military aristocracy;

Encomium for heroes in civil or domestic life;

Skoliy (drinking song) one way or the other outstanding personalities, but not to ancient heroes, but as simple entertainment at feasts

It’s similar in the epic about the gods. Only here the process of development of the epic begins not with the cult of a deceased hero, but with a sacrifice to one or another deity, accompanied by verbal statements that are quite laconic. Thus, the sacrifice to Dionysus was accompanied by shouting of one of his names - “Dithyramb”. The "Homeric Hymns" (the first five hymns), which represent a developed epic about the gods, are no different from the Homeric epic about heroes.

Non-heroic epic

In terms of time of occurrence, it is older than heroic. As for fairy tales, various kinds of parables, fables, and teachings, they were originally not only poetic, but probably purely prosaic or mixed in style. One of the earliest parables about the nightingale and the hawk is found in Geosides' poem "Works and Days." The development of the fable was associated with the name of the semi-legendary Aesop.

Singers and poets of pre-Homeric times

The names of the poets of pre-Homeric poetry are mostly fictitious. Folk tradition I never forgot these names and colored with my imagination the legends about their life and work.

Orpheus

Among the most famous singers is Orpheus. This name of the ancient singer, hero, magician and priest gained particular popularity in the 6th century. BC, when the cult of Dionysus was widespread.

It was believed that Orpheus was 10 generations older than Homer. This explains much of the mythology of Orpheus. He was born in Thessaly Pieria, near Olympus, where the Muses themselves reigned, or, according to another option, in Thrace, where his parents were the Muse Calliope and the Thracian king Eagre.

Orpheus is an extraordinary singer and lyre player. From his singing and music, trees and rocks move and are tamed wild animals, and the impregnable Hades himself listens to his songs. After the death of Orpheus, his body was buried by the Muses, and his lyre and head floated across the sea to the banks of the Meletus River near Smyrna, where Homer, according to legend, composed his poems. Many legends and myths are associated with the name of Orpheus: about the magical effect of Orpheus’ music, about the descent into Hades, about Orpheus being torn to pieces by the Bacchantes.

Other singers

Musaeus was considered a teacher or student of Orpheus (Museus - from the word “muse”), who is credited with transferring the Orphic teachings from Pieria to Central Greece, to Helikon and Attica. Theogony, various kinds of hymns and sayings were also attributed to him.

Some ancient authors considered the hymn to the goddess Demeter to be the only genuine work of Musaeus. The son of Musaeus Eumolpus ("eumolpus" - beautifully singing) was credited with disseminating the works of his father and playing a major role in the Eleusinian Mysteries. The hymnical poet Pamphus ("pamph" - all-bright) is also attributed to pre-Homeric times.

Along with Orpheus, the singer Philammon was known, a participant in the Argonauts' campaign, revered in the Delphic religion of Apollo. It is believed that he was the first to create girls' choirs. Philammon is the son of Apollo and a nymph. The son of Philammon was the no less famous Thamyrid, the winner of the hymn competitions in Delphi, who was so proud of his art that he wanted to compete with the Muses themselves, for which he was blinded by them.

Ancient Greek literature

IN ancient Greek literature There are two periods: classical, from about 900 BC. until the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), and Alexandrian, or Hellenistic (from 323 to 31 BC - the date of the Battle of Actium and the fall of the last independent Hellenistic state).

It is more convenient to consider the literature of the classical period by genres, in the order of their appearance. 9th and 8th centuries BC - the era of the epic; 7th and 6th centuries - time of takeoff of lyrics; 5th century BC marked by the flourishing of drama; The rapid development of various prose forms began at the end of the 5th century. and continued into the 4th century. BC

Epic poetry

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were composed, according to some scientists, back in the 9th century. BC These are the earliest literary works in Europe. Although they were created by one great poet, they undoubtedly have a long epic tradition behind them. From his predecessors, Homer adopted both the material and style of epic storytelling. He chose as his topic the exploits and trials of the Achaean leaders who devastated Troy at the end of the 12th century. BC
The subsequent epic tradition is represented by a number of less significant poets - imitators of Homer, who are usually called “cyclics” (authors of cycles). Their poems (almost not preserved) filled the gaps left in the legend by the Iliad and Odyssey. Thus, Cypria covered the events from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis to the tenth year of the Trojan War (when the action of the Iliad begins), and Aethiopida, the Destruction of Troy and the Return - the interval between the events of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In addition to the Trojan cycle, there was also the Theban cycle - it included Oedipodium, Thebaid and Epigones, dedicated to the house of Laius and the campaigns of the Argives against Thebes.

The birthplace of the heroic epic was, apparently, the Ionian coast of Asia Minor; in Greece itself, a didactic epic arose somewhat later, adopting the language and meter of Homer’s poems.

It was this form that Hesiod (8th century BC) used in Works and Days, a poem in which advice on agriculture was interspersed with reflections on social justice and life at work. If the tone of Homer's poems is always strictly objective and the author does not reveal himself in any way, then Hesiod is quite frank with the reader, he narrates in the first person and provides information about his life. Hesiod was probably also the author of Theogony, a poem about the origin of the gods.

Homer's poems were first published in Milan by Demetrius Chalkokodylas at the end of the 15th century AD. Their first translation into Latin made by Leonzio Pilate in 1389. The translation manuscript is now kept in Paris. In 1440, Pir Candido Decembrio translated 5 or 6 books of the Iliad into Latin in prose, and a few years later Lorenzo Balla translated 16 books of the Iliad into Latin prose. Balla's translation was published in 1474.

Lyric poetry

Development of Greece in the 8th-7th centuries. BC was characterized by the emergence of policies - small independent city-states - and the increasing social role of the individual citizen. These changes were reflected in the poetry of the era. By the beginning of the 7th century BC. The most important type of literature in Greece was lyric poetry - the poetry of subjective feeling. Its main genres were:

Choral lyrics;

Monodic, or solo, lyrics, intended, like choral ones, to be performed to the accompaniment of the lyre;

Elegiac poetry;

Iambic poetry.

Choral lyrics include, first of all, hymns to the gods, dithyrambs (songs in honor of the god Dionysus), parthenias (songs for a choir of girls), wedding and funeral songs and epinikias (songs in honor of the winners of competitions).

Choral lyrics until the end of the 6th century. BC known only very fragmentarily. A major representative of choral lyric poetry lived at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century BC. - Simonides of Keos (556 - 468 BC). True, only a small number of fragments have survived from Simonides' lyrics; Not a single complete poem has survived. However, Simonides' fame was based not only on the choir; he was also known as one of the creators of epigrams.

Around the same time, the classic of solemn choral lyrics, Pindar of Thebes (518 - 442 BC), lived. It is believed that he wrote 17 books, of which 4 books have survived; a total of 45 poems. In the same Oxyrhynchus papyri, Pindar's paeans (hymns in honor of Apollo) were found. As early as the 15th century, the humanist Lorenzo Balla mentions Pindar as a poet whom he prefers to Virgil. Manuscripts of Pindar's works are kept in the Vatican. Until recently, Pindar was the only choric lyricist from whom complete works have been preserved.

There is fragmentary information about three more poets: Even of Ascalon (5th century BC), Kheril (5th century BC) and the poetess Praxilla (mid-5th century BC); the latter, they say, was famous for drinking songs, but also wrote dithyrambs and hymns.

If the choral lyrics were addressed to the entire community of citizens, then the solo lyrics were addressed to individual groups within the polis (girls of marriageable age, unions of table mates, etc.). It is dominated by such motives as love, feasts, laments about lost youth, and civic feelings. An exceptional place in the history of this genre belongs to the Lesbian poetess Sappho (c. 600 BC).

The first love poet, creator of erotic elegy, was the Ionian Mimneom (second half of the 7th century BC). Several small poems from him have survived. Some fragments of his poems that have come down to us also display political and military themes.

At the turn of 600 BC. The Athenian legislator Solon wrote elegies and iambs. Political and moralizing themes predominate in his work.

Elegiac poetry covers several various types poetry, united by one meter - elegiac distich. The Athenian politician and legislator Solon (archon in 594) clothed discussions on political and ethical topics in an elegiac form.

On the other hand, the elegiac distich was used from early times for epitaphs and dedications, and it was from this tradition that the genre of the epigram (literally "inscription") subsequently emerged.

Iambic (satirical) poetry. Iambic meters were used for personal attacks in poetic form. The oldest and most famous iambic poet was Archilochus of Paros (c. 650 BC), who lived the hard life of a mercenary and, according to legend, drove his enemies to suicide with his merciless iambics. Later, the tradition developed by the iambic poets was adopted by ancient Attic comedy.

Prose of Ancient Greece

In the 6th century. BC writers appeared who expounded Greek legends prose. The development of prose was facilitated by the growth of democracy in the 5th century. BC, accompanied by the flourishing of oratory.

The works of historians and philosophers made a great contribution to the development of Greek prose.

The narrative of Herodotus (c. 484 - c. 424) about the Greco-Persian wars has all the hallmarks historical essay- they have both a critical spirit and a desire to find universally significant meaning in the events of the past, and artistic style, and compositional construction.

The followers of Socrates were the Cynic Antisthenes, Aristippus and others. Aristotle (384-322 BC) also came from this circle, who also wrote a number of Platonic dialogues, widely known in antiquity.

The development of rhetoric as an independent genre in Greece was associated with the rise of democracy and the involvement of an increasing number of citizens in political life. The sophists did a lot to transform rhetoric into art; in particular, Gorgias of Leontinus and Thrasymachus of Chalcedon expanded the range of rhetorical figures and introduced fashion for symmetrical antitheses and rhythmic periods.

Rhetoric reached its highest flowering in Athens. Antiphon (d. 411 BC) was the first to publish his speeches, some of them purely rhetorical exercises dealing with fictitious cases. The thirty-four surviving speeches of Lysias are considered examples of the simple and refined Attic style; Lysias, not being a native of Athens, made his living by writing speeches for citizens speaking in court.

The speeches of Isocrates (436-338) were pamphlets for public reading; the elegant style of these speeches, built on antitheses, and the original views on education expressed in them provided him with ancient world enormous authority.
But the Orator with a capital S for the Greeks was Demosthenes (384-322). Of all the speeches that have come down to us, he delivered 16 in the national assembly, convincing the Athenians to oppose Philip of Macedon. It is in them that the passionate, inspiring eloquence of Demosthenes reaches its highest strength.

Alexandrian era

Profound changes have taken place in everything Greek world with the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), were reflected in literature. The connection between the citizen and the life of the polis weakened, and in art, literature, and philosophy, the tendency toward the individual, the personal, prevailed. But, although art and literature lost their former socio-political significance, the rulers of the newly formed Hellenistic kingdoms willingly encouraged their development, especially in Alexandria.

The Ptolemies founded a magnificent library containing lists of all famous works past.
Here, classical texts were edited and commentaries on them were written by such scholars as Callimachus, Aristarchus, and Aristophanes of Byzantium.

Reconstruction of the Library of Alexandria

The largest poet of the Alexandrian era was Theocritus of Syracuse (3rd century BC), the author of pastoral idylls and other short poetic works.

For modern reader Of greater interest are the epigrams of such poets as Asklepiades, Philetus, Leonidas, etc.; they were preserved in the Greek (or Palatine) anthology compiled in the Byzantine era, which included a collection from Alexandrian times - the Crown of Meleager (c. 90 BC).

Alexandrian prose was primarily the field of science and philosophy. Of literary interest are the Characters of Theophrastus (c. 370-287 BC), who replaced Aristotle at the head of the Lyceum: these sketches of typical characters of the Athenians were widely used in Neo-Attic comedy.

From significant historians of this period, only the works of Polybius (c. 208-125 BC) have survived (in part) - a monumental history of the Punic Wars and the Roman conquest of Greece.

The Alexandrian era marks the birth of biography and memoirs as independent literary genres.

Aeschylus was the founder of the ideologically civil tragedy, a contemporary and participant in the Greco-Persian wars, a poet of the time of the formation of democracy in Athens. Main motive his work is a glorification of civil courage and patriotism. One of the most remarkable heroes of Aeschylus’s tragedies - the irreconcilable god-fighter Prometheus - personification creative forces Athenians

Medea and Jason

A feature of all ancient dramas was the choir, which accompanied all the action with singing and dancing. Aeschylus introduced two actors instead of one, reducing the chorus parts and focusing on the dialogue, which was a decisive step in transforming the tragedy from purely mimetic choral lyrics into genuine drama. The play of two actors made it possible to increase the tension of the action. The appearance of a third actor is Sophocles' innovation, which made it possible to outline different lines of behavior in the same conflict.

Euripides

In his tragedies, Euripides reflected the crisis of traditional polis ideology and the search for new foundations of worldview. He sensitively responded to pressing issues of political and social life, and his theater was a kind of encyclopedia of the intellectual movement of Greece in the second half of the 5th century. BC e. In the works of Euripides, various social problems were posed, new ideas were presented and discussed.

Ancient criticism called Euripides “a philosopher on stage.” The poet was not, however, a supporter of a particular philosophical doctrine, and his views were not consistent. His attitude towards Athenian democracy was ambivalent. He glorified it as a system of freedom and equality, but at the same time he was frightened by the poor “crowd” of citizens who decided issues in public assemblies under the influence of demagogues. A common thread running through Euripides’ entire work is interest in the individual with his subjective aspirations. Great playwright depicted people with their drives and impulses, joys and sufferings. With all his creativity, Euripides forced viewers to think about their place in society, about their attitude towards life.

Exercise:
1 . Make a presentation on the topic "Ancient Literature".
2. Post it on the Ru Tube channel

The term “ancient” refers to the literature of Ancient Greece and Rome from the 9th century. BC according to the 5th century AD It takes its place among the literatures of antiquity: Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese. Ancient literature has always been presented as the source and model of new literatures and cultures (a huge contribution to the spheres of politics, law, science, art) of Europe; the study of ancient languages ​​and ancient literatures has been the basis of humanities education in Europe since the Renaissance. Many European theories of literature and literary creativity were based on the concepts of Aristotle and Plato. Monuments of ancient literature were presented as models for poets and writers throughout the centuries. Genre system European literature developed from the system of genres of ancient literature. The system of styles of European literature with its classification of techniques, distinction of metaphors, metonymies, etc. was developed by ancient rhetoric.

Throughout history ancient culture The writer's position in society and the idea of ​​the value of literature changed significantly.

In the history of ancient culture, three stages can be distinguished; for the first one, archaic , characterized by a transition from a communal tribal system to a slave system, it was completed by the 8th century. BC e. The literary monument of this period remains the epic of Homer. At this time, written literature did not yet exist; the bearer of verbal art was the singer (aed or rhapsodist), who composed his songs for feasts and national holidays, his work was comparable to the craft of a carpenter or blacksmith.

The basis of the second period, classical , become city-states (policies) with a republican form of government. In literature, this is the heyday of Attic drama in the 5th century. BC e. and Attic prose of the 4th century. BC e. Written literature appeared in this era. Epic poems, lyrical songs, tragedies of playwrights, and treatises of philosophers are stored in written form, but are still distributed orally. Poems are recited by rhapsodists, songs are sung in friendly circles, tragedies are played out at national festivals. Literary creativity is still one of the secondary forms social activities human citizen.

Third period – Hellenistic era . The leading role in this period was played first by the Hellenistic monarchies, and then by the Roman Empire. At this time, written literature became the main form of literature. Literary works written and distributed as books; a standard type of book is created - a papyrus scroll or a pack of parchment notebooks with a total volume of about a thousand lines, a system of book publishing and bookselling is created; the book becomes more accessible. Books, even prose ones, are still read aloud (hence the exceptional importance of rhetoric in ancient culture).

Ancient literature, as well as all literature of antiquity, is characterized by:

1) mythological themes, in comparison with which any other receded into the background;

2) traditionalism of development;

3) poetic form.

Mythology becomes the main material of literature and art.

Traditionalism of development associated with the idea of ​​the presence of examples of each genre; the degree of perfection of each new work was measured by the degree of its approximation to these models. For each genre there was a founder who gave its complete example: Homer - for epic, Pindar or Anacreon - for the corresponding lyrical genres, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - for tragedy, etc.

The third feature of ancient literature is dominance of poetic form - the result of the most ancient, preliterate attitude towards verse as the only means of preserving

in memory the true verbal form of oral tradition. Even philosophical works in the early days of Greek literature were written in verse. Neither prose epic - novel, nor prose drama existed in the classical era. From its very inception, ancient prose was and remained the property of scientific and journalistic literature, which pursued practical rather than artistic goals, such as oratorical prose. Fiction in modern sense The word appears only in the Hellenistic and Roman eras: these are the so-called ancient novels.

The system of genres in ancient literature was distinct and stable. Ancient literary thinking was genre-based: when starting to write a poem, no matter how individual in content and mood, the poet, nevertheless, could always say in advance what genre it would belong to and what ancient model it would strive for. The genres differed: into more ancient and more recent ones (epic and tragedy, on the one hand, idyll and satire, on the other); into higher and lower ones (the heroic epic was considered the highest). The system of styles in ancient literature was completely subordinated to the system of genres. Low genres were characterized by a low style, relatively close to colloquial, while high genres were characterized by a high style, formed artificially. The means of forming a high style were developed by rhetoric: among them there were differences in the selection of words, the combination of words and stylistic figures (metaphors, metonymies, etc.).

In an era when poetry had not yet separated from music and singing, the main meters of ancient poetry took shape: dactylic hexameter in epic (“Wrath, goddess, sing to Achilles, son of Peleus…”), iambic trimeter in drama (“O you, young children of Cadmus ancient..."), complex combinations of verses and feet in lyrics (Alcaeus stanza, sapphic stanza, etc.)

At the head of the genres of ancient literature is the poem: heroic (Homer “Iliad”, Virgil “Aeneid”, Ovid “Metamorphoses”), didactic (Hesiod “Works and Days”, Virgil “Georgics”, Lucretius “On the Nature of Things”). It is followed by a tragedy written on a mythological plot, which is an action commented on by a choir, including dialogues and monologues characters(Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides). Comedy, old and new, is gaining popularity. The old one was written “on the topic of the day”, it could be based on political subjects (Aristophanes), the new one assumed everyday subjects (Menander, Plautus).

In lyric poetry, the most popular genre is the ode: anacreontic (Anacreont) - about wine and love; Horatian (Horace) - about wise life and healthy moderation; pinandric (Pinander) - to the glory of the gods and heroes. The odes were performed to music and intended for singing. Elegies were created for recitation - reflections on love and death. A short elegy was widely used - an epigram, which later became humorous. The purpose of satire (Juvenal) was to glorify morality and stigmatize vices. Scenes from the life of shepherds and shepherdesses in love were captured in idylls - shepherd's poems (Virgil "Bucolics").

Ancient literature is known to us only to a small extent. Little has survived from the work of most writers: from Aeschylus - 7 dramas out of 80–90, from Sophocles - 7 dramas out of 12, from Livy - 35 books out of 142. Huge number We know the writers only by names and meager passages: uncopied texts were forgotten and, given the fragility of ancient writing material (papyrus), were doomed to quick destruction.

The oldest literature of Greece (Greek and Roman folklore) is represented by a few songs related to the rhythm of labor (the song of rowers, plowmen); laments (funeral lamentations, or praises that transformed

sya later in the epitaph), songs-spells for diseases or at the conclusion of peace, proverbs.

The poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are the first monuments of Greek fiction that have come down to us.

From the work of Hesiod, a poet of the late 8th century. BC, a representative of the didactic epic, the poems “Works and Days” have been preserved (about the division of the land after the death of the father; with Hesiod’s characteristic poeticization of the work of the farmer, a clear morality, an abundance of descriptions of nature, with genre scenes, bright images) and “Theogony” (the origin of the world from chaos, fixation of the mythological tradition).

Philosophical epic of the 6th century. BC presented with excerpts from elegies and verses from the poem “On Nature” by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes.

The collection of fables by Aesop (the legendary poet considered the founder of the fable) was compiled in the Middle Ages, so it is difficult to clearly establish authorship.

In the 7th–6th centuries. BC lyrics and melika (vocal lyrics) appear. Alcaeus and Sappho, representatives of the Lesbos Melika, aristocrats who were expelled and then returned to Lesbos, sang in poetry about wine, love, passion, and the worship of beauty.

Themes of the poetry of Anacreon, a poet of the second half of the 6th century. there was wine, love, joyful intoxication with life, he had many imitators, however original texts almost not preserved.

In the V–IV centuries. BC Solemn choral lyrics (Simonides, Pinander), tragedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), and comedies (Aristophanes) became widespread. Historical texts are left to us from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon. There are known examples of the oratorical prose of Lysias and Demosthenes, written philosophical works preserved from the classical period - Plato's Symposium, Aristotle's Poetics.

In the III–II centuries. BC, significant events took place in Italy related to expansion in the Mediterranean. The influence of Greece contributed to the formation of Roman literature, already in the 3rd century. BC poets appear who reworked them for the Roman stage Greek tragedy and comedy. The first poet to translate Homer's Odyssey was Livy Andronicus, the other was Naevius, famous for his poem about the Punic Wars, who was the first to consolidate in literature the myth of the origin of the Romans from the Trojans.

Test questions and assignments

1. Poem: Homer, “Iliad” or “Odyssey”.

2. Tragedy: Aeschylus, “Oedipus the King.”

3. Lyrics: Anacreon, Sappho.

Answer the questions:

1. Definition of heroic epic; features of the Homeric epic.

2. Formation and development of Greek theater. Laws of theatrical action. Transformation of the mythological plot in the tragedy of Aeschylus. Man and his fate in Greek tragedy.

3. Types of Greek lyrics. Themes of Greek lyric poetry.

The following features were characteristic of ancient literature:

1. mythological theme

2. traditionalism of development

3. poetic form.

« Mythologism themes of ancient literature was a consequence of the continuity of communal tribal and slave culture. Mythology is an understanding of reality, characteristic of the communal-tribal system: all natural phenomena are spiritualized, and their mutual relationships are interpreted as related, similar to human ones.” Gasparov M.L. Literature of European Antiquity. - M., 1983, P.306

In early antiquity, mythology was the main material of literature, but in later ancient literature, mythology is precisely the arsenal for art. “Any new content, instructive or entertaining, philosophical sermon or political propaganda, was easily embodied in traditional images and the situation of the myths about Oedipus, Medea, Atrides, etc. Gasparov M.L. ibid. Each era of antiquity gave its own version of all the main mythological legends. Compared to mythological themes, others receded into the background in ancient fiction .

Traditionalism ancient literature is explained by the fact that each genre had its own founder: Homer for epic, Archilochus for iambic, Pindar or Anacreon for lyrical genres, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides for tragedy. The degree of perfection of each new work, of a new poet, was measured by how close he was able to approach these models. This system of ideal models was of particular importance for Roman literature: the entire history of Roman literature can be divided into two periods - the first, when the Greek classics, Homer or Demosthenes, were the ideal for Roman writers, and the second, when Roman literature was already equal to Greek in perfection, and the Roman classics, Virgil and Cicero, became the ideal for Roman writers.

Antiquity was also characterized by literary innovation, but here it manifests itself not so much in attempts to reform old genres, but in turning to later genres in which the tradition was not yet sufficiently authoritative: the idyll, epillium, epigram, etc.

The third feature of ancient literature is the dominance of poetic form . This was a consequence of the preliterate attitude towards verse as the only possibility retain in memory the verbal form of an oral tradition. Even philosophical works in the early days of Greek literature were written in verse (Parmenides, Empedocles). Neither prose epic - novel, nor prose drama existed in the classical era. From its very inception, ancient prose was the property of literature that pursued exclusively practical goals - scientific and journalistic. There is also a known pattern that the more prose strived for artistry, the more it adopted poetic techniques: the rhythmic division of phrases, parallelisms and consonances. Such was oratorical prose in Greece in the 5th-4th centuries. and in Rome in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e.