Iliad, Odyssey, before the 12th century BC, Crete in the Aegean Sea and Mycenae in the central part of the Greek Peninsula had completed the transition from primitive communes to slave societies. , private ownership of land and slave states emerged. The cultures of these two regions are generally called Cretan culture and Mycenaean culture. At the end of the 12th century BC, the Dorians who originally lived in the north invaded and destroyed the slave economy of Crete and Mycenae. The Dorians were in a tribal society based on patrilineal clans. From then on, until the eighth century BC, historians called it the Homeric Age, or the Age of Heroes. This era is in the stage of social development from the primitive commune system to slavery. The production level is transitioning from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. It has stepped onto the threshold of civilization. Large tracts of land belong to communes, but private ownership of land has emerged. There is a metaphor describing fighting in "The Book of Ilion": "It's like two people fighting for the field boundary, holding a ruler in their hands to measure the land, fighting for it in the fields of the commune." "My own share." The inequality of wealth among tribal members has divided the tribe into nobles and civilians. The tribal leader owns a large number of means of production and livelihood, and owns domestic slaves. The emergence of domestic slaves was only the beginning of the slavery relationship, and the slavery relationship had not yet been established within the entire tribe. There was no country at that time, and the most basic social group was the tribe. Each tribe implemented a "military democracy" internally, with a meeting of chiefs and a people's assembly to discuss major tribal issues. The tribal chiefs were military commanders, judges, and high priests and had no administrative power. Tribes often formed small military alliances during wartime, but each still maintained its independence. The alliance disintegrated immediately after the war. From the eighth to the sixth century BC, slavery relations gradually formed, and many independent slave city-states appeared in the Aegean Sea region. The most important of them were Athens and Sparta. Athens was the cultural center of Greece, and Sparta was famous for its martial arts. famous. Various city-states launched large-scale immigration activities, and established more than a hundred new city-states in Asia Minor, the Black Sea coast, the southern Italian peninsula, Sicily and the northern coast of Africa. Each city-state was centered on a city and surrounded by towns and villages. The population of the city-states varied. many.
The Greek languages ??during this period mainly included Aeolian, Ionian, Dorian and other dialects. The language of Homer's epic is a mixture of the first two. Later, during the heyday of Athens, the Attic dialect of Athens (belonging to the Ionian family) became the most important dialect. The Greek alphabet is said to have been gradually formed on the basis of the Phoenician alphabet, and by the end of the fifth century BC, the Ionian script was generally adopted.
The main achievements of early Greek literature are mythology, epic poetry and lyric poetry.
Greek mythology has been passed down among various tribes for hundreds of years in the form of oral literature. It is not a complete work, but is scattered in Homer's epics, Hesiod's "Theogony", and literature, history and philosophy of the classical period of slavery. The collections of Greek mythological stories commonly seen today are compiled and compiled by later generations based on ancient books.
The ancient Greeks were at a low stage of social development, with insufficient knowledge, low production levels, and difficult lives. There is a myth that King Tantalus was punished by the gods and was immersed in deep water with fruit trees beside him. When he lowers his head to drink water, the water recedes; when he reaches out to retrieve the fruit, the tree avoids him. He is forever tormented by hunger and thirst. This philosophical story depicts the ancient Greeks who were tortured and confused by nature and society. Under such conditions, they can only understand natural and social phenomena with the help of imagination. In this way, myths are born.
Greek mythology mainly includes two parts: stories of gods and legends of heroes.
The stories of gods mainly include stories about the creation of the world, the birth of gods, the genealogy of gods, the change of dynasties in heaven, the origin of mankind and the daily activities of gods. In the imagination of the ancient Greeks, the mountains, rivers, trees, the sun, the moon, the sea and the land, even the rainbow after the rain, and the narcissus on the riverside, are all the figures of gods; life and death, illness and death, success or failure, all depend on the will of the gods. They created a huge God's family. Zeus is the leader of the gods, Poseidon is the god of the sea, Hades is the god of the underworld, Apollo is the god of the sun, Artemis is the god of hunting, Ares is the god of war, and Hephaestus is the god of fire. Hermes is the god of commerce, the nine Muses are the goddesses of literature and art, and the three Moiras are the goddesses of fate. The gods lived on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. The gods in Greek mythology are different from the gods in other more developed religions in that they are very close to secular life. Most of the gods are very much like the nobles in the clan. They are willful, love pleasure, have strong vanity, jealousy and revenge. They like to fight for power and gain. From time to time, they sneak down the mountain and have affairs with beautiful men and women in the world. Most gods, represented by Zeus, like to play tricks on humans, and even plan to destroy humans repeatedly. Ancient Greeks often laughed at the evil of gods and accused gods of injustice in their myths. Homer's epic poem once said, "God brings fear and pain to poor people, but God himself lives a happy and worry-free life." However, there are also great gods like Prometheus who benefit mankind. Prometheus stole fire from heaven into the human world, which brought about epoch-making progress for mankind. Zeus nailed him to the Caucasus Mountains and released evil eagles to eat his liver every day.
Heroic legends are memories of ancient history, social life, and man's struggle against nature. Heroes are regarded as the offspring of gods and humans, and are actually representatives of collective strength and wisdom.
Heroic legends have formed many systems centered on different families, mainly including the twelve great deeds of Heracles, Theseus's elimination of harm for the people, Jason's acquisition of the Golden Fleece and the Trojan War. Hercules was the famous strongman who strangled a water snake in his cradle. When he was young, the goddess of evil and virtue came to seduce him to take the path of pleasure, but he followed the advice of the goddess of virtue and determined to defy hardships and benefit everyone. Legend has it that after he became an adult, he killed the nine-headed poisonous dragon and the snake-haired succubus Medusa. He even went to the lower world to defeat Hades, rescued the imprisoned Theseus back to the world, and made them husband and wife. Live a happy life. The story about Hercules is full of heroic spirit and reflects the ancient people's precious qualities of loving labor and cherishing the collective.
The myth also includes some legends about the production of knowledge, such as the story of Prometheus teaching people how to build houses, sail and cure diseases. There are also a large number of myths that describe the joys and sorrows of daily life. There is a myth that the beloved daughter of Demeter, the goddess of farming, was snatched away to the underworld by Pluto. She was so sad that no vegetation grew on the earth. Thanks to Zeus' arrangements, she can meet her daughter once a year. When they are together, the earth is warm and warm, and all things grow and flourish, and there is spring; after the daughter returns, the earth returns to the cold and chill, and there is winter. This myth explaining time reflects the joys and sorrows of the human world. From many myths, we can also see the hospitality customs and hobbies of the Greeks for music, dance, athletics and other activities.
Greek mythology was formed over a long period of time, and the characters and responsibilities of the gods and storylines developed and changed. In the earliest myths, gods had strong natural attributes and often had the nature of totem worship. With the development of social life, the social attributes of gods gradually took precedence. The gods in Homer's epic poems reflect the hierarchical relationship of clan society, such as Zeus, who is the comical and perverse clan leader in the epic poem. In slave societies, gods were symbols of the slave-owning class. In some tragedies, Zeus became a tyrant who acted in his own way—the enemy of democracy. By the fifth century BC, the Sophists used a rational point of view to explain the origin of myths and denied the existence of God. However, the aristocratic group tried their best to expand the authority of God. Plato once severely criticized the ancient poets for describing God as abominable and ridiculous blasphemy. The history of heroic legends is relatively simple, and it has always maintained the imprint of the barbaric period and clan society.
Marx once pointed out, “Any myth uses imagination and the help of imagination to conquer, dominate, and visualize natural forces; therefore, as these natural forces are actually controlled, myths disappear. ” He also said that myth is “the natural and social form itself processed in an unconscious artistic way through people’s imagination.” Greek mythology is the result of the initial conscious activities of the ancient Greeks. It artistically summarizes their understanding of nature and society, expresses their indignation against social injustice, concentrates their experience and thoughts, and is full of optimism. In the descriptions of later writers, Greek mythology has an innocent and beautiful fantasy and a fresh and simple style.
Mythology is the soil of ancient Greek literature. Later poems and tragedies all used myths and heroic legends as themes. It also had an important influence on future generations of writers.
"Ilion" and "Odyssey" are the earliest important works in the history of European literature. According to legend, they were written orally in Asia Minor by a blind poet named Homer in the ninth to eighth centuries BC. It is a comprehensive compilation of popular epic short songs, so it is called "Homer's epic". Since the epic took a long time to form, the poem contains elements from different eras. After the troubadour was welcomed into the court, it tended to conform to the interests of the nobility. In the sixth century BC, the two epics were formally written down. In the third to second centuries BC, they were compiled by Alexandria scholars, each divided into twenty-four volumes.
"The Ilion" describes the story of the Trojan War. This war has been confirmed by archaeological excavations. Troy is located on the northwest coast of Asia Minor and is prosperous in commerce. The epic poem calls it "gorgeous Ilion" with "mythical wealth." In the early twelfth century BC, some tribes on the Greek peninsula jointly attacked Troy and destroyed the city. The original meaning of "Ilion" is "Song of Ilion", which itself is a story of gods and heroic legend.
According to legend, when Achilles' parents held a wedding, they did not invite Eris, the goddess of discord. She came to the banquet and threw a "golden apple of discord" with the words "Gift to the most beautiful woman" ". As expected, the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite competed for this apple. Zeus asked them to find the Trojan prince Paris for judgment. The three goddesses each promised Paris the greatest benefit, Hera promised him to become the greatest monarch, Athena promised him to become the bravest warrior, and Aphrodite promised him to marry the most beautiful woman. Paris judged Aphrodite to be the most beautiful. He then went to Sparta as a guest and kidnapped the beautiful Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, and took away a large amount of wealth. The Greek tribes elected Agamemnon as their leader and jointly attacked Troy. The war lasted for ten years, and the gods helped each side. Finally, Odysseus designed a huge wooden horse with soldiers inside to be abandoned outside the city and pretended to retreat. The Trojans dragged the Trojan horse into the city. At night, the Greeks cooperated internally and externally, and finally captured Troy. After the war, the Greeks returned home with their treasures and slaves.
The epic poem focuses on what happened dozens of days before the end of the war.
Agamemnon, the commander of the coalition forces, tyrannically seized Achilles' female captive and humiliated him in public. Achilles was the most skilled general in the Greek army. He refused to participate in the war and prayed to Zeus to bring disaster to the Greeks. As a result, the Greeks suffered repeated defeats. Agamemnon apologized but was also refused. In a critical situation, Achilles' friend borrowed his armor to go into battle and was killed by the Trojan hero Hector. Achilles was so distraught that his old grudge was over, and he went into battle to take revenge, killing Hector and dragging his body behind his chariot to vent his hatred. Later, the old king of Troy knelt down to beg for the body, and the epic was written until Hector's funeral. The whole poem has 15,693 lines.
In Homer's time, wars often broke out between tribes. When talking about this era, Engels pointed out: "The ancient wars of tribes against tribes have begun to transform into continuous robberies on land and sea to seize livestock, slaves and treasures, and have become a normal business." " The war described in "The Book of Ilion" is a plunder covered by the moving cloak of myth. At that time, due to divisions within the Ushibang tribe, the attitudes of nobles and commoners towards war were different. Taking Greece as an example, serious internal strife broke out among clan nobles due to uneven division of plunder. They regard war as an important means to increase their personal wealth. Out of this need, they regard heroic fighting as the supreme virtue. They were keen on war and persevered despite several setbacks. Clan commoners no longer benefited from war as much as more primitive tribesmen; they were forced to fight and sacrifice the most under the threat of punishment. Agamemnon tests whether the Greek army has returned home, proving that the majority of Greek civilians are war-weary. However, the epic vilified the image of civilian representatives in accordance with the views of vested interest groups in the war. Under this condition, the epic's praise of war and nobility also started from the interests of the nobility. In the case of Troy, the common people of the clan supported the nobles with the same hatred and hatred because the city-state was facing destruction, but they only appeared as a background to foil the heroes.
"Ilion" is a heroic epic, and the leader of the clan is praised in all aspects. The first is bravery. For example, Andromache advised Hector not to go to the battlefield. The poet wrote:
Hector replied: "It is my duty to defend Troy,
Everything about the war is my business
If I, Hector, fled the battlefield like a coward,
I would not be beaten by the bravery of Troy. Sons
and the Trojan women in robes
I have practiced being a brave man from my youth,
always among the Trojans. It is the one who fights at the forefront,
Winning glory for my father and myself
Another example is that Achilles’ mother once predicted that he might have two fates, or pass Live in peace and live long, or die early in the war. In order to gain honor, he chose the second fate. The way of war at that time was very primitive. Whether a person could become a hero depended on his physical strength, the hero in the epic. Most of them are physically strong and skilled in martial arts. Achilles walks like flying. He is invulnerable except for his heels. When he appears, he scares the enemy. Nestor, the hero of the older generation, is in the poem because of his old age. Comparatively inferior. The heroes in the epic are all tribal leaders, with inviolable majesty, and often act arbitrary and willful. In addition, due to the underdeveloped social division of labor at that time, the heroes all have multiple abilities. Odysseus is both. Able to build ships, fight, be eloquent, and good at making suggestions.
However, the heroes in the epics mainly fight to plunder and strengthen their personal power. The concept of heroes in the epics is also related to the clan. These heroes are different from the heroes in heroic legends. The latter are mostly the embodiment of the ideals and experiences of the masses, while the former are arrogant nobles who stand above the masses and bully the common people of their tribe. Agamemnon and Achilles are the representatives of this kind of heroes. In the case of internal division of the clan, they are the heroes in the transition period from the clan society to the slave society. The representative of the common people is Thersites. He was criticized for being a coward. In fact, he dared to confront the coalition commander and clan leaders, called on the Greek soldiers to stop working for their leaders, and returned home resolutely. He should be a hero among the civilians.
The war described in "The Book of Ilion" is related to the survival of a country. The whole book focuses on the achievements of heroes, and unfolds thrilling battle scenes. The emotions of the characters are very intense, and the whole poem is full of heroic character descriptions. Excellent. The heroic figures all have distinctive personalities. Achilles is the leader of a small tribe who coveted the wealth of Troy before the war began. He refused to participate in the war because of his personal interests and power. He suffered double damage and broke with the supreme commander as a counterattack. He was violent and fearsome, and was a typical example of bravery among clan leaders.
He had a premonition that he was a relatively mature leader. Troy was destined to be destroyed. He felt sad about the tragic fate that his wife and children were facing, and his heart was heavy. However, he controlled his sorrow and resolutely took up the responsibility of defending his home and country. His image has a strong tragic color. The images of other main characters in the epic are also very full, and their speech, behavior and inner activities are vividly written.
Their personalities are often expressed in dialogue and actions through dramatic means, but are generally static and lack change.
"The Book of Ilion" also extensively reflects the social life, religious life, production and trade, sports competition and other activities at that time. One of the more famous passages describes the blacksmith god Hephaestus forging armor for Achilles, filling his heart with the joy of labor. The pictures he carved on the shield reflected the scenes of daily productive labor.
"The Odysseus" describes the story of the Greek hero Odysseus' return home after the war in Troy.
Odysseus drifted on the sea for ten years without ever reaching home. During this period, many young nobles coveted his property, lived in his house, consumed his property, and proposed to his wife. In the tenth year, Odysseus drifted to the island of Scyrea and was entertained by the king. He recounted to the king what happened to him after leaving Troy. He first encountered a storm at sea, and some of his companions were devoured by a Cyclops; then he arrived in the land of date palm eaters, where people used dates as food, and passers-by did not want to return to their homeland after eating them. . Later, the God of Wind gave him a bag of gifts. When his hometown Ithaca was in sight, the sailors thought there was treasure in the bag and opened it. The strong winds inside flew out and blew them away. They arrived at the demon island of the witch who turned people into pigs, traveled to the underworld, and passed the Siren Demon Island, which first charmed people with their songs and then killed them. They met the six-headed and twelve-legged banshees Scylla and Zang. Charybdis beneath the maelstrom. Odysseus and the sailors overcame these dangers one by one. Later, on the island of the Sun God, the sailors violated the restrictions and slaughtered the sacred cows on the island. Zeus sank the ship with thunder, and only Odysseus survived. , was retained by the fairy Calypso on an island for seven years. After that, Zeus ordered the fairy to let him return to his hometown, and he drifted to the island of Scyria. After hearing the story, the king sent him back home. Odysseus pretends to be a beggar, kills his suitors, and finally reunites with his wife Penelope. The whole poem has 12,105 lines, and the story lasts for about forty days.
The absurd things and stories in the epic reflect the fantasy-processed natural phenomena and ancient humans' struggle against nature. The main representative of natural forces is the sea. According to the epic, the ocean is as beautiful as violet, but it is ready to destroy mankind at any time. Compared with it, human power is originally small and fragile. However, because people fight against it with wit, courage, perseverance and calmness, man finally conquers it. Once you reach the sea, the human spirit appears greater than the sea. The poetry of this heroic epic is first expressed here. Most of the stories in the epic contain many lessons. For example, the body of the Cyclops is dozens of times larger than that of a human being and is almost invincible. However, Odysseus did not flinch and managed to blind his eyes with a huge tree trunk. He cleverly escaped the giant's revenge and escaped from the giant's cave. . This story celebrates human resourcefulness and bravery. Another example is that the sailors were greedy for personal gain, violated restraints, opened the wind bag, and ate the sacred cow, which finally brought irreversible disaster. This failure contains profound lessons.
"The Odyssey" also extensively describes the social struggles in Homer's era. It reflects the social life slightly later than "The Chronicles of Ilium", with few scenes of collective life, and the description of the family life of slave owners is very prominent. Odysseus was an early slave owner. The social struggle is reflected in his struggle with his suitors. The epic repeatedly mentions that the most detestable thing is the suitor's seizure of Odysseus' property. The struggle was primarily a struggle to preserve private rights. The author believes that it is shameful to usurp other people's property, the suitor's punishment is deserved, and Odysseus represents the power of justice.
The epic takes a celebratory view of the emerging relationship of slavery. In the poem, slave owners like Odysseus are described as generous and kind, praising the slaves who serve him loyally, and opposing the vicious slave owners like the suitors, and hating the slaves who betrayed Odysseus, so that they were all severely punished. The epic emphasizes loyalty to the slave owner, which is even reflected in the story of Odysseus' old dog. This dog has become extremely old and neglected. It is the first to recognize its returning master and struggles to express his gratitude to him. The intimacy, and then death at his feet, made Odysseus sad and shed tears. On the other hand, the epic poem also reflects the unfortunate fate of the slave in some places. Odysseus' pig slave said that when a person becomes a slave, he loses half of his dignity. The epic also expresses sympathy for slaves such as the dough grinder.
"The Odyssey" also vividly reflects family relationships and social life during the transition from clan society to slave society. At that time, monogamy was clearly established for women. The epic praises Penelope's loyalty and chastity. It can also be seen from the poem that slave owners still participated in part of the labor at that time; handicrafts and commerce had developed considerably; noble warriors despised merchants; and there was a culture of hospitality and competition in society. The epic also describes the scene in which the troubadours told the story of the Trojan War at a banquet, reflecting the style of cultural life in the Homeric era.
The central character of the epic is Odysseus. He is very alert, good at restraint, and knows how to use tactics. As an early slave owner, he possessed various qualities and talents that were idealized in slave owners in order to establish slavery. He was a wise leader, a brave warrior, a master of labor, a beloved slave owner, and a good husband.
The most important aspect of his character is that he is not afraid of difficulties. He shows his heroic qualities in the face of unimaginable difficulties. He went through countless hardships and did not covet ease. Although he returned to his home, he obeyed God's will and planned to leave home again. This ending of the epic leaves behind the lingering sound of endless courage.
"The Odyssey" is an epic that describes sailing life and family life. Its artistic characteristics are very different from "The Ilion". The style of "The Chronicles of Ilion" is more tragic and the rhythm is more rapid. Although "The Odyssey" also contains thrilling struggles, the scenes are magnificent, there are many changes, and the overall style is calm. The part of the poem that describes the experience at sea is full of romantic fantasy, while the part of the poem that describes family life is realistic and lyrical, and the description of some details is very successful. For example, when the old wet nurse was washing the feet of a stranger, she recognized Odysseus disguised as a beggar from the scars on his feet, and the past immediately emerged. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she was so excited that she could not speak.
"The Odyssey" is the first work in European literature with personal encounters as its main content, and it became a pioneer of picaresque novels and critical realist novels in the Renaissance and the 18th century.
The reason why the Homeric era could produce such splendid literature was determined by the historical conditions at that time. As mentioned above, Marx believed that ancient Greek society was the most perfectly developed society of human childhood. Only in human childhood with backward production and insufficient knowledge can the innocent and beautiful fantasy of the Greeks be produced, which has permanent charm. Gorky also said that the literature of the Homeric era has been refined by generations of people and is the crystallization of the collective creative genius of the ancient Greek people. It is difficult for individual works of later generations to compare with it.
In Homer’s epic poems, we can already see the people-centered idea. The ancient Greeks also had concepts about Hades and Paradise, but they talked about them very little. They did not think much about the afterlife. Their hope was in the human world. Achilles' ghost said that he would rather be a hired servant on earth than a king in Hades. Epic praises the beauty and wisdom of man and mocks the evil of God. The author loves life, praises labor, and still believes in man's own power when facing dangers in nature.
Elements of the two most basic creative methods, realism and romanticism, have appeared in the epic. In "The Odyssey", the realist method has been strengthened.
The literary achievement of the Homeric era also lies in the creation of the perfect epic form. According to Aristotle, there were many types of epics in those days, including simple epics, complex epics, suffering epics and character epics. These two Homeric epics include the characteristics of these epics and are often called heroic epics. It takes serious and major events as its subject matter, centers on heroes, and has a sublime and dramatic style. It adopts the third person narrative method, is grand in scale, has many episodes, and the language is richly decorated. It often uses daily life, labor and various phenomena in nature as metaphors. It adopts a hexameter-long short-form poetry style, which is usually called a hero. grid.
Homer’s epic was an important material for civic education in the later city-state period. It was like an encyclopedia, from which the ancient Greeks absorbed all knowledge about astronomy, geography, history, society, philosophy, art and mythology. . Homer's epic is a model for subsequent generations of European epics. Many writers in Europe have drawn material from the stories and characters of the two epics. It still provides readers with artistic enjoyment and enables people to understand all aspects of ancient clan society.
After Homer's epic poem, Hesiod's didactic poem "Farming and Days" appeared in Greece. In the eighth century BC, industry, commerce and the monetary economy were developed, land was concentrated in the hands of the nobles, and the peasants were trapped in poverty and rose up against the nobles. Hesiod's brother Perses tried to use the power of the local nobles to usurp his property. He wrote this poem to persuade Perses. The whole poem has 828 lines. The poem describes the hardships of human life and mentions the golden age, silver age, bronze age, heroic age and iron age of mankind. The author believes that each era has gone from bad to worse. The Iron Age emphasized power rather than justice, and farmers were like nightingales under the talons of a goshawk. The poet advises his brother to act justly. One part of the poem describes a farmer's operations for a year and tells how to run agriculture, which is very exciting. The last section records the auspicious and unlucky days of each month. The whole poem denounces the arrogance of the nobles and praises the hard-working farmers. It is the first poem handed down from ancient Greece to take real life as its theme. The style is fresh, natural, simple and concise. There is also a poem called "Theogony" handed down in the name of Hesiod, which is probably not his work. This poem describes the formation of the universe and the lineage and struggle of the gods. The struggle between Zeus and the Titans is vividly written in the poem.
During the eighth to sixth centuries BC, clan society further disintegrated and slave city-states gradually formed. After the disintegration of the clan society, people lost the protection of the clan and had to make a living alone, facing the difficulties of the struggle for survival. At this time, collective emotions were diluted due to class differentiation and unequal social status. Personal experiences caused various complex emotions, which were expressed in poetry. Therefore, lyric poetry flourished particularly during this period. Lyrical poems originate from folk songs and are divided into double-pipe songs (or laments), piano songs and satirical poems. The themes of double-pipe songs are diverse, including military and political, moral education and love, and most of them are sung with double-pipe accompaniment. Qin songs are divided into solo Qin songs and chorus songs, with harp accompaniment. Satires are written in short and long verse and can be sung with double pipes or harp. The double-pipe song style is relatively quiet and soft, while the satire style is more lively, passionate and sharp.
The most famous of the double-barreled songs are the war hymns written by Tyrtaeus (at the end of the 7th century BC) for the Spartans, and the political poems written by the Athenian legislator Solon (639?-559 BC) to defend his policies. Poetry, and the epitaph written by Simonides (556?-468? BC) for the three hundred Spartan athletes who died in the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). Satires are used to satirize or curse. The most famous author is Alcherochus (714?-676? BC). His satire is sharp and powerful.
The most famous author of solo harp songs is Sappho (612 BC?-?). She was a nobleman on the island of Lesbos. She organized a music school there and wrote love songs and wedding songs. Female disciples sang harmony. She wrote nine volumes of poetry, but only two complete poems and some fragments have been handed down. She wrote about her complex psychological changes in concise and natural verses, reflecting the life interests of the Greek slave-owning aristocrats. After Sappho's death, her fame spread throughout Greece. Plato called her the "tenth goddess of literature and art." She was praised by aristocratic poets throughout Western Europe. Another famous author of lute songs is Anacreon (550?-465? BC). He wrote five volumes of poems praising wine and love, including solo lute songs, double pipe songs and satirical poems. Some short poems and fragments. Many people in ancient times and later generations imitated his poetic style, which is called "Anacreon style".
Singing solo music to express personal emotions was only popular in narrow aristocratic circles. The combination of chorus, music, and dance, with a complex and rigorous structure, expresses the emotions of most people, and is loved by the majority of people. The most famous author of choral music is the professional poet Pindar (522?-442 BC). At that time, sports competitions were popular in Greece, and competitive activities were combined with godly festivals. Pindar sang in his poems about the competitive winners of the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic Games and their city-states. He wrote seventeen volumes of poetry, but only four volumes have been handed down. His poems contain Panhellenic patriotic enthusiasm and moral teaching; he praised the Greeks for their victory in the Battle of Salami (480 BC); he believed that the fate of people after death depends on their actions while alive. His poetry style is solemn, the words are gorgeous, and the form is perfect. Pindar's chorus had a great influence on later European literature and was considered an example of "sublime ode" during the classicism period of the seventeenth century.
At the same time as lyric poems, some prose stories are also widely circulated among the people. Many of them are animal fables, said to have been written by Aesop in the sixth century BC. The legendary Aesop was an ugly but extremely clever slave who was later emancipated. In the first century AD, Babrius rewrote more than 120 Aesop's fables in metrical verse and compiled them into a collection. There may also be some Asian and African origins in Aesop's fables.
The content of Aesop's fables is very different from that of lyric poetry. Lyric poems mainly reflect the tastes of aristocratic slave owners; Aesop's fables reflect the thoughts and feelings of lower-class civilians and slaves. Many of the stories express the class antagonisms of the time, such as "The Wolf and the Lamb." A wolf saw a lamb drinking water by the river and wanted to find an excuse to eat him. The wolf accused the lamb of dirtying the water. The lamb said, I am downstream and it is impossible to dirty the water upstream. The wolf then said that the lamb scolded him last year, and the lamb replied, I was not born yet. The wolf became angry with shame and said: "Even if you defend your case well, I will not let you go," and he devoured the lamb. The lesson of the fable is, "A tyrant has no shortage of excuses." This story is a profound portrayal of slave society. Aesop's fables compare the oppressors to lions, jackals, poisonous snakes, crocodiles and foxes, and condemn them for their evil deeds and atrocities that harm the people. There are many stories in fables that summarize the struggle experience and life lessons of ancient people. For example, "The Farmer and the Snake" teaches people not to be kind to their enemies; "The Cat and the Chicken" tells people to be wary of their enemies and not to be fooled; "The Farmer's Sons" tells people not to be merciful to their enemies; "The Quarrel" illustrates that unity is strength; "The Tortoise and the Hare" advises people not to be proud; "The Crow and the Fox" satirizes vanity; "The Fox and the Grapes" satirizes the self-comfort of the incompetent. There are also some fables that reflect the negative consciousness of the oppressed people who are content with the status quo. For example, "Two Roosters and the Eagle" advocates that people must be humble in order to receive favors. Aesop's fables are highly ideological, short and concise in form, appropriate in metaphor, and vivid in image. They have a great influence on later European fable writers and are often imitated and quoted by future generations.