1, the first stage: BC 12 years-8th century.
This is the transitional period from clan society to slavery society, which is called "Homer Age" or "Hero Age" in history. The main literary achievements are myths and epics.
Greek mythology is the earliest literary form in Greece and the source of European literature. It originated from folk oral literature and scattered in various ancient Greek documents.
Greek mythology is the most primitive manifestation of the ancient Greeks' understanding of the world. Due to the low productivity and backward technology in primitive society, the ancient Greeks used imagination to explain the incomprehensible natural and social phenomena, and thought that there was a supernatural power that dominated everything. They personified and personalized natural phenomena, thus creating myths.
Greek mythology consists of two parts: the story of god and the legend of hero, which is characterized by the similarity between god and man. Compared with China's mythology, Greek mythology is developed, which is a normal reflection of human childhood. Today, Greek mythology still shows permanent charm and gives us beautiful enjoyment.
Homer's epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the earliest important works in the history of European literature, and also the earliest people's oral creation. (See special chapter for details)
Hesiod is a narrative poet who appeared at the end of 8th century BC and the beginning of 7th century BC after Homer's epic. His collection of teaching poems Time is the earliest long poem handed down from generation to generation. Another achievement is to write a long poem "Shenpu" and collect ancient myths and legends. Most of the ancient Greek myths, the origin of the universe and the genealogy of the gods handed down today come from this long poem.
2. The second stage: 8th-6th century BC.
In the process of the formation of slavery society, literary achievements include lyric poems, essays and fables. Lyric poetry is a form of poetry after the disintegration of clan society. People without clan protection get rid of the shackles of clan consciousness and the tradition of attaching importance to collective feelings, and personal experiences have triggered various complex emotions. Lyrics expressing personal freedom and independence are developing day by day. Lyrics originated from folk songs, mostly accompanied by double pipes, flutes and harps. The main genres are elegy, satire and harp songs, which reflect the taste of the upper class aristocrats. The famous solo poet is Sappho (6 BC10-? ) and Aracri Weng (550-465 BC), while Pinda (522-442 BC) was a lyric poet in chorus.
The poetess Sha Fu mainly writes love lyrics. Her poems are sincere and passionate, and her language is simple and natural. Her poetic style was imitated by later poets and called "Sappho style". Aracri Weng's poems praise love and wine, and later poets imitate his poetic style, which is called "Aracri Weng's poetic style". Pindar's poems are full of patriotic enthusiasm and moral lessons, with solemn poetic style and gorgeous rhetoric. /kloc-poets in the classical period in the 0 th and 7 th centuries regarded his poems as a model of "lofty ode", and Milton, Goethe and others all imitated his style.
Sappho had a great influence on later western writers. Byron traveled to Greece to pay tribute to Sappho. The painter also created with her as the theme. The French painter Alma's work Sappho and Alcais Uus (188 1) shows musicians playing the harp for Sappho, arousing the poet's creative imagination.
Aesop's Fables is said to have been written by Aesop, a slave in the 6th century BC, which mainly reflects the thoughts, feelings and philosophical views of the lower class civilians and slaves. While retaining the animal characteristics in fables, the author endowed them with human language and thoughts. Almost every fable should clarify a truth or viewpoint, which is thought-provoking. Its short and pithy form and vivid metaphor greatly influenced later fable writers La Fontaine and krylov. As early as the Ming Dynasty, Aesop's Fables was introduced to China. China readers often cite Aesop's fables to illustrate this problem. For example, the wolf and the lamb, the farmer and the snake, the tortoise and the rabbit race, the wolf comes and so on.
3. The third stage: 6th-4th century BC.
The heyday of the slave city-state is called the "classical period" in history. The literature of this period mainly refers to Athenian literature, and its literary achievements include tragedy, comedy and literary theory, among which drama is the greatest achievement.
Greek literature reached its peak in the heyday of Athens, with three famous tragic poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, euripides and the famous comic poet aristophanes. (See special chapter for details)
Literary theory: In ancient Greece, literary theory and aesthetics were part of philosophy, so outstanding literary theorists and aestheticians at that time were also famous philosophers. The representatives of literary theorists are Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC).
4. The fourth stage: from the end of 4th century BC to the middle of 2nd century.
The decline of slavery is also called "Hellenistic period". The main achievement of literature is the new comedy. The representative playwright was Minand (342-292 BC) who wrote family comedies.
In BC 146, Greece was destroyed by Rome, which declared the end of the Hellenistic era. Ancient Roman literature is usually divided into three stages:
The literature of 1, * * and the Republic of China (3rd century BC to 1 century BC) is the development period of ancient Roman literature. The lords of this period
The important literary achievements are drama, prose and poetry. Drama is directly transplanted into Greek drama form. From the middle of the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century BC, the famous comedians Plautus (about 254 BC-BC 187) and Terence (about BC 186 BC 16 1 year) appeared in Rome. Their comedies were adapted from New Greek comedies and integrated into Roman life. Plautus also absorbed the elements of Roman folk drama and contributed to the formation of Romanized Comedy. There are 2l works of Plautus that have been handed down to later generations. Famous works include Twin Brothers, Jintan, and Bragging Soldier. His comedies influenced playwrights such as Shakespeare and Moliere.
Lucretius (about 93- 50)' s philosophical poem On Nature; Catullus (84 BC-54 BC) is famous for his beautiful lyric poems.
Cicero (106-43) reached the peak of eloquence since ancient Greece and became a model of Latin prose.
2. The literature in Augustus period (from late BC 1 century to early AD 1 century) was the "golden age" of ancient Roman literature. The literature of this period is mainly poetry. Virgil, Horace and Ovid are three famous poets.
Virgil's main works (70 BC-BC 19) are pastoral poems, agricultural poems and the epic Aeneas (or translated Enid). Aeneas described the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas who led people to Italy to establish a country after the fall of Troy, and praised the history of Roman countries and the achievements of Augustus. Aeneas studied and imitated Homer's epic, which was the first literati epic in Europe and had an important influence on later European epics.
Horace (65-8) is an outstanding poet and literary theorist. His collection of songs is mainly lyric poetry. His literary treatise "The Art of Poetry" inherits the traditional view that literature learns from nature, emphasizes the perfection of form, advocates following the classics, and puts forward the original idea of entertaining and entertaining. Ovid (43- 18)' s masterpiece is Metamorphosis, which is based on ancient myths, vivid and imaginative. Many European writers draw themes from it.
3. Literature in the imperial period (A.D. 1 century-A.D. 476), the period when ancient Roman literature went into decline. Seneca (4-65 BC) was a major tragic writer in this period. His tragedies are based on Greek mythology, often alluding to real life, and often enhancing the tragic atmosphere with scenes of terror, bloodshed, ghosts and witchcraft. His tragedy had a great influence on Renaissance drama. 1, forming
Homer's epics, including Heriat and Odyssey (also translated as Odessa), are said to have been written by Homer.
Troy war stories, which has been passed down orally through the ages, provides the material for Homer's epic and is the basic source of its content. The procedures of repeating poems, fixed phrases and basic themes formed by the troubadour in story singing provide a preliminary poetic form for the formation of epic. There are both memory factors and improvisation factors in bard's singing programs, and these initially formed poems are constantly changing in the process of singing, which provides a broad creative space for the formation of epics.
2. Content and significance
Both Heriat and Odyssey are about the Trojan War. "Heriat" is about the last 50 days of the Greek siege of Troy, and "Odyssey" is about the triumphant return of the Greek hero Odysseus from Troy.
Homer's epic reflects society and life. It can be seen that it describes hundreds of years of history from Mycenae to Homer. Hiriart shows the military and political picture of Greece in the late Timoshenko era. It also describes the religious belief, production and life of the ancient Greeks. The Odyssey is about people's struggle with natural forces, praising people's wisdom and describing family life and moral concepts at that time.
3. Characteristics
Homer's epic is concentrated in plot and ingenious in structure. "Hiriart" focuses on what happened in the last 50 days of the Trojan War and revolves around Achilles' anger. Other events were related to Achilles' anger. In these 50 days, the epic narrative was refined, focusing only on 10 days. The plot of Odessa focuses on the last 40 days of the protagonist's wandering in 10, and his past experience is expressed by the protagonist's narrative in Arcino Palace. The plot of the epic runs through two clues: man and god. Mythological factors have the function of creating or resolving conflicts and promoting the development of the plot in the epic plot.
Homer's epic has many narrative styles. "Heriat" describes war life, and its style is heroic and tragic. The Odyssey describes navigation and family life with a beautiful and gentle style. Heriat narrates in the third person, and Odessa flashbacks narrate in the third and first person. Hiriart has few lyric elements, while Odyssey has many lyric elements.
Homer's epic is oral literature, which is improvised under established procedures. These procedures have the original form of poetry, with fixed syntax and rhythm. Metaphors and attributive adjectives in Homer's epic are unique. In Homer's metaphor, the description of the figurative object is often beyond the scope of * * * between it and the figurative object. When describing people or things, epics often use adjectives or modifiers that express the special attributes of people or things, such as "Scud Achilles" and "The sea is as black as grapes". These artistic techniques were imitated by later epics.
Homer's epic has a great influence on European culture. In ancient Greece, Homer's epic was a textbook for civic education. Most carving arts in ancient Greece look for themes from epics. Later writers, such as Aeschylus, Virgil, Dante, Milton and Goethe. Or look for material from the epic, or get inspiration from it, or imitate the form of the epic. Homer's epic became an excellent model of European literature.