Ancient Greek literature began with Homer's epic handed down in the 9th and 8th centuries BC, but as far back as 2000 BC or earlier, to the beginning of 1000 BC, there was a prosperous early slavery culture in the Aegean Sea in the eastern Mediterranean, including Crete. Modern archaeology finds that the ancient hieroglyphics used at that time were closely related to the later Greek characters, and the culture of this period did not preserve any literary materials. However, the two Homer epics handed down in the 9th and 8th centuries BC reached a quite mature stage in terms of creative techniques and writing skills from the very beginning. This shows that the original materials of Homer's epics are oral myths and legends and heroic stories accumulated in many centuries, which were produced on the basis of an early culture, and the two epics have been regarded as models of epics since the 6th and 5th centuries BC, which are the result of continuous processing and improvement by professional musicians for centuries. Before Homer's epic, there may have been much more original documents. If such written records can be found in archaeological excavations in the future, the origin of Greek literature may be a century or two earlier.
Homer's epics "Ilion Ji" and "Odysseus Ji" tell the story of the battle between Trojans and Greeks in ancient Asia Minor (then collectively referred to as achaean). The epic "Ilion Ji" focuses on the events of 5 1 day in the tenth year of the war. Another epic, Odysseus, continues to tell this story, focusing on Odysseus, the resourceful hero of the Akayan people. After capturing the city of Irian, he returned to his hometown by boat. After ten years of hardships and drifting at sea, he finally returned to his hometown to reunite with his wife. Before Homer's epic, there were many primitive myths and legends of ancient heroes in ancient Greece, including the Eastern Mediterranean to Asia Minor. According to legend, a professional musician named Homer happened to choose this story, created these two epics and preserved them completely. In addition, there are many oral literature similar to Homer's epic, but unfortunately it has long been lost.
In ancient times, there were many works similar to or imitating Homer's epics, most of which were created by poets in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. These works also use the unique meter of Ionian dialect and the six-step rising and falling in Homer's epic. These epic works still existed in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, but they were never mentioned again. Today, I only know the general contents, titles and some residual sentences of these epics, including genealogy of Greek gods, wars between old and new gods, stories about Tebai and Oedipus, the legend of heroes before and after the attack on the city of Illion, and the fate and death of Odysseus in the future. In addition, there are some short carols dedicated to different gods, generally called "Ode to Homer", which is probably the introduction used by professional musicians who read epics in ancient times. The most famous songs are dedicated to Apollo, Aphrodite and Demeter, all of which are beautiful lyrics.
At the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 7th century BC, there was a poet named hesiod, who was originally from Asia Minor and later moved to a relatively backward agricultural place called Biocia. He left us two long narrative poems, Work and Time and Shenpu. His narrative poems belong to Homer's epic because they use the same meter and dialect, but the content is completely different from Homer's epic. In Work and Time, hesiod describes the hard work of farmers all year round, the cruel exploitation of local nobles, and the good and bad luck on different days in an allegorical tone. The narrative is very simple, without the romantic flavor of Homer's epic describing the heroic era in the past. His other narrative poem, Divine Spectrum, tells the origin of the gods and tries to form a complete system of different myths and legends. From his legend about the origin of the universe, we can see the influence of the East in Asia Minor.
Around the 6th century BC, the tradition of Homer's epic has declined, and between the epic tradition centered on the East Aegean Sea and the Greek tragedy and comedy centered on Athens, a prosperous era of lyric poetry appeared. Only a few early Greek lyric poems have been completely preserved. Because the European churches in the Middle Ages destroyed the heritage of classical literature, the works of some of the most famous poets were banned and burned. Today, we can only see some broken sentences. Nevertheless, ancient Greek lyric poetry had a great influence on later European poetry, and many metrical forms of European poetry inherited the tradition of ancient Greek lyric poetry. Early lyric poems were generally used for singing and often accompanied by orchestral instruments, which were divided into flute music and piano music. Around the 7th century BC, there appeared a lyric style called Allegro, which is a double-line style composed of six-step lines and five-step lines, with a flute. From the content, there are elegies, war songs and love songs written in Algetto. Later generations generally call this allegro poem an elegy. But it is quite possible that Allegro means "flute song". Tyrtaeus was a famous elegy poet in the early 7th century BC. According to legend, he was a lame teacher in Athens. He went to Sparta and wrote some battle songs to help the Spartans defeat their enemies. From the battle songs he left behind, we can see that his poems are simple and powerful, which helps to cultivate the tradition of Sparta's courage and strength. In the 7th century BC, there was also an elegy poet named Alkirocos. It is said that he also created some new metrical patterns, such as iambic and four-step poems. His poems are also varied, including poems praising the war, lyric poems and satirical poems expressing personal feelings, but unfortunately they have not been preserved. There are also Calinos, Minamos and diogenes, who are also famous Algerian poets in this era. Solon was a statesman and a famous poet in Athens. He wrote poems in elegy and iambic style, calling on the Athenians to defend the polis and serve his political reform.