Plato's "Utopia", the most perfect country in Plato's mind, represents the ideals and expectations of Greek slaves and peace.
"Prometheus", the greatest tragedy of ancient Greece, represents mankind's resistance to nature, unyielding and even compromise.
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Or "Homer's Epic" should be able to be read for a long time. It is very rich and exciting. The chapters of "The Iliad" and "The Austrian Epic" The chapter "Deseus" is the most famous.
In terms of philosophy, /question/4014205.html
I also recommend you the female poet Sappho (about 630 or 612 BC to about 592 or 560 BC), an ancient poet. A famous female lyric poet in Greece, people only know her as a great poet in ancient times: the ancient Greeks praised her very much, saying that the male poets are Homer and the female poets are Sappho. Plato once praised her as "the tenth Muse". Her poems had a great influence on the creations of the ancient Roman lyric poets Catullus and Horace, and were later praised in Europe. The poet's portrait has appeared on coins. The poet's poems were first compiled into nine volumes around the 3rd century BC, but very few have been handed down to this day. Only one 28-line poem has been well preserved. Until the 19th century, people mainly learned about the poet through quotations from other authors. . In 1898, scholars unearthed a batch of papyrus containing fragments of the poet's poems. In various modern editions, the total number of fragments of the poet's poems has reached 264, but only 63 fragments contain complete lines of poetry, and only 21 fragments contain complete verses. So far, almost none of them can be appreciated as literary works. There are only 4 complete poems. The fourth poem was newly discovered in 2004. This 12-line poem was found on papyrus on an Egyptian mummy. The poem, together with an English translation by Oxford University scholar Martin West, was published in the Times Literary Supplement, published in the third week of June 2005.
Sappho was given the name "Lyric Poet" because at that time, poetry was sung with the accompaniment of a lyre. Sappho improved lyric poetry in technique and genre, and achieved a shift in Greek lyric poetry: from writing poetry in the name of the gods and muses to singing in a personal voice. She was the first poet to describe personal love and loss.
Sappho left as many as nine volumes of poetry, but currently only one complete poem remains, and the rest are fragments. From the third century BC, Sappho's name began to appear in poetry, drama and various writings. She was gradually deified or vilified according to the needs of the times - or she was likened to the tenth Muse; For a dark-skinned, ugly-looking woman. In the Middle Ages, she was considered a heretic by the church because of her poems about same-sex love, and all her poems were burned. Even more poetry would have been lost had it not been for an Egyptian farmer who accidentally discovered Sappho's poems on papyrus in the waters of the Nile at the end of the 19th century. But the legend of Sappho has always endured, especially as a beacon in the hearts of poets of all generations.
Sappho’s poems are gentle and elegant, sincere and forthright. Most of them take human love and desire as the theme - unlike her previous poems, which used God as the object of singing - the poems are full of love. exhortations, the sweetness and pain of love or the intertwined emotions of the two, and the mournful voice filled with pity and jealousy. Reading her poems is like venturing on a long voyage.
Sappho's poetic skills are very high. In the only remaining poems, it can be seen that she skillfully used metaphors (unlike Homer's era where similes were often used), a modern poetry technique, to make the poems image and The inner meaning is richer and fuller, such as her description of pigeons: "Their hearts gradually cooled down/let their wings hang down." The image is beautiful and sad, inlaid with a certain lonely feeling that she can't describe; and as in the above quotation, " "Chariots and knights", in addition to the specific reference, it also metaphorically refers to men. In addition, sometimes her poems are like the lyric poems of the Romantic period, using natural scenery and mountains and rivers to symbolize her subtle emotions.
Sappho's poetic style is original. In the history of Western poetry, this style of poetry is called "Sapphic style". They are in the form of solos - many of the Homeric and ancient Greek tragedies were collective choruses of choruses - the poems are short in style, mainly lyrical and expressing inner feelings, and the syllables are simpler and clearer. In the rhythm of "Sapphic", each stanza is divided into four lines. The long and short syllables in each line are relatively fixed and slightly change. The first three lines are a bit like the hexameter of Homer's era, and the fourth line is syllable. Short, crisp and clear. According to legend, Solon, the ruler of Athens who was contemporary with Sappho, was also a poet. When he accidentally heard Sappho's poems, he said, "If I learn her melody, I can die without regrets."
Sappho's poetry style is similar to ancient Chinese lyrics, and is intended for people to sing on the piano, but she often composes her own music. Sappho not only created the "Sapphic style" in terms of technique and reformed the rhythm of poetry creation at that time, but also worked with other poets to shift the object of singing from God to humans in terms of style, and used the first person to express personal sorrow and joy. , quite innovative at the time.
Sappho's works are mostly soft and graceful love poems about longing for love, and they were often written for her female disciples. At that time, many young women came to Lesbo Island to learn from her. Sappho not only taught them art, but also wrote them love notes expressing her strong love. When his disciples left the island and got married, Sappho also wrote wedding poems for them.
Homosexual love between teachers and students was prevalent in ancient Greece. Teachers taught and solved doubts, and disciples reciprocated love. Therefore, these poems with strong homosexual feelings were not banned at the time, but were also widely sung, even on the island of Lesbos. The currency used was patterned with Sappho's head. When Sappho was in exile in Sicily for family reasons, the residents there erected a statue in her honor to show their love. Plato called Sappho the "Tenth Muse" and regarded her status as equal to the gods of Athens. Solon, the ruler of Athens, was also an outstanding poet, but when he heard Sappho's poem once, he insisted on learning to sing it and said: "As long as I can learn this song, I will die with no regrets."
Although Sappho was famous at the time, and it is said that he had nine volumes of works, due to improper preservation and later religious suppression, numerous damages were caused. Only one complete poem has been handed down to this day, and the others are only fragments. fragment. In the late nineteenth century, manuscripts dating as early as the eighth century BC were unearthed in the Nile Valley, some of which were confirmed to be Sappho's works. Later, Sappho's poems were found among the papyrus wrapped in mummies and coffins in Egyptian ruins.
The translation of Sappho’s poetry is very difficult. Because many fragments have been lost, the translator needs to first "fill in the gaps" in ancient Greek according to the meaning and rhythm of the context. This kind of "filling in the gaps" inevitably involves speculation, and may differ from the original poem in terms of technique and style, and the expressions added by the translator may also be different from Sappho's original meaning. But for many readers, without these efforts, Sappho's poetry may never have been buried.