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Image File history File links Information_icon. ... A stone tablet containing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry which attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/hearer/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication... The History of literature begins with the history of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary author known by name is Enheduanna... The Babylonians were an ancient culture located in what is now Iraq. ... Indian literature is generally acknowledged, but not wholly established, as the oldest in the world. ... It has been suggested that History of Bengali literature be merged into this article or section. ... Hindi poetry is divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti (devotional - Kabir, Raskhan); Shringar (beauty - Keshav, Bihari); Veer-Gatha (extolling brave warriors); and Adhunik (modern). ... The Kannada language belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is the second oldest language currently spoken in India. ... Literature in Marathi. ... Literature written in Malayalam language. ... Literature in Sanskrit, one of Indias two oldest languages, and the basis of several modern languages in India. ... Tamil literature is literature in the Tamil language which most prominently includes the contributions of the Tamil country (or Tamizhagam) history, a large part of which constitutes the modern state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as some parts of Karnataka and Andra pradesh. ... Urdu literature has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. ... // [edit] Classical texts Main article: Chinese classic texts China has a wealth of classical literature, both poetry and prose, dating from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BCE) and including the Classics attributed to Confucius. ... Latin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. ... Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language. ... Persian literature (in Persian: ‎) spans two and a half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

Ancient Greek literature (before AD 300)

Main article: Ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language until the 4th century AD. // This period of Greek literature stretches from Homer until the 4th century and the rise of Alexander the Great. ...

Classical Greek

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until the 4th century and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The other great poet of the preclassical period was Hesiod. His two surviving works are Works and Days and Theogony. Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Greek (, IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family. ... Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent c. ... Homer (Greek Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (singer) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... This is about the eBook reader. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ... Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Theogony Wikisource has original text related to this article: Theogony (in Greek) Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of ancient Greek religion. ...

The two major lyrical poets were Sappho and Pindar. The Classical era also saw the dawn of drama. Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Ancient Greek bust. ... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), perhaps the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In general usage a tragedy is a drama, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome. ... Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Ασχύλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. ... Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk familjebok. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ...

Like tragedy, comedy arose from a ritual in honor of Dionysus, but in this case the plays were full of frank obscenity, abuse, and insult. The surviving plays by Aristophanes are a treasure trove of comic presentation. Menander is considered the best of the writers of the New Comedy. Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) This article is about the ancient deity. ... Sketch of Aristophanes Aristophanes (Greek: , c. ... Bust of Menander Menander (342–291 BC) (Greek ), Greek dramatist, the chief representative of the New Comedy, was born in Athens. ... Greek comedy is the name given to a wide genre of theatrical plays written, and performed, in Ancient Greece. ...

Part of the series on Greek culture
	Architecture Art Cinema Cuisine Dance Dress History Language Literature Music People Politics Philosophy Religion Sport Television Greece is often referred to as the cradle of Western civilisation and ancient Athens was considered to be its center. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (790x2405, 282 KB) Image Column from Porch of the Caryatids at Acropolis. ... Greek architecture is an important part of the culture of Greece, playing a part in defining the natural landscape and collective identity of the people throughout the ages. ... Greece has a rich and varied artistic history, spanning some 4000 years and beginning in the Minoan prehistorical civilization, giving birth to Western classical art in the ancient period (and developing this during the Hellenistic Period), to taking in the influences of the East and the new religion of Christianity... Greek cuisine is the cuisine of Greece or perhaps of the Greeks. ... Greek dance is a very old and common tradition from the ancient land of Greece. ... The Greece is often referred to as the cradle of Western culture and ancient Athens was considered its centre. ... This article covers the Greek civilization. ... History (Timeline and Samples) Genres: Classical music -Folk - Hip hop - Jazz - Rock Regional styles Aegean Islands - Arcadia - Argos - Athens - Crete - Cyclades - Dodecanese Islands - Epirus - Ionian Islands - Lesbos - Macedonia - Peloponnesos - Thessaloniki - Thessaly - Thrace - Cyprus The musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history. ... Politics of Greece takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ... Classical (or early) Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. ...

Two of the most influential historians who had yet lived flourished during Greece's classical age: Herodotus and Thucydides. A third historian, Xenophon, began his 'Hellenica' where Thucydides ended his work about 411 BC and carried his history to 362 BC. Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: , Herodotos Halikarnasseus) was a Dorian Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC - ca. ... Bust of Thucydides residing in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ... Xenophon, Greek historian Xenophon (In Greek , c. ...

The greatest prose achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy. Amongst the tide of Greek philosophy, three names tower above the rest: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Socrates (central bare-chested figure) about to drink hemlock as mandated by the court. ... Classical (or early) Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. ... Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης, invariably anglicized as , Sǒcratēs; 470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who is widely credited for laying the foundation for Western philosophy. ... Plato (ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, wide, broad-shouldered) (c. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ...

Hellenism

By 338 BC most of the Greek city-states had been conquered by Philip II of Macedon. There were of course some exceptions, the most notable of which being The city of Sparta. Philip's son Alexander the Great extended his father's conquests greatly. The city of Alexandria in northern Egypt became, from the 3rd century BC, the outstanding center of Greek culture. Later Greek poetry flourished primarily in the 3rd century BC. The chief poets were Theocritus, Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes. Theocritus, who lived from about 310 to 250 BC, was the creator of pastoral poetry, a type that the Roman Virgil mastered in his Eclogues. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 343 BC 342 BC 341 BC 340 BC 339 BC - 338 BC - 337 BC 336 BC 335... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. ... Philip II of Macedon: victory medal (niketerion) struck in Tarsus, 2nd c. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. ... Theocritus (Greek Θεόκριτος), the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. ... Callimachus (ca. ... Apollonius of Rhodes (Apollonios Rhodios) (270 BC? – unknown, after 245 BC), Hellenistic Greek epic poet and scholar of the Library of Alexandria, during the reigns of Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III, and a chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ...

Roman Age

The significant historians in the period after Alexander were Timaeus, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Appian of Alexandria, Arrian, and Plutarch. The period of time they cover extended from late in the 4th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Timaeus (c. ... Polybius (c. ... Diodorus Siculus (c. ... Dionysius Halicarnassensis (of Halicarnassus), Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, flourished during the reign of Augustus. ... Appian of Alexandria (Gr. ... Alexander the Great Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon (c. ... Plutarch Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46- 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was an Hellenistic historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ...

Eratosthenes of Alexandria, who died about 194 BC, wrote on astronomy and geography, but his work is known mainly from later summaries. The physician Galen, in the history of ancient science, is the most significant person in medicine after Hippocrates, who laid the foundation of medicine in the 5th century BC. One of the most valuable contributions of the Hellenistic period was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. The work was done at Alexandria and completed by the end of the 2nd century BC. The name Septuagint means "seventy," from the tradition that there were 72 scholars who did the work. Eratosthenes (Ἐρατοσθένης) Eratosthenes (Greek ) (276 BC - 194 BC) was a Hellenistic mathematician, geographer and astronomer. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC - 190s BC - 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC Years: 199 BC 198 BC 197 BC 196 BC 195 BC - 194 BC - 193 BC 192 BC... Greek: Γαληνός, Latin: Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (129 – 200 AD), better known in English as Galen, was an ancient Greek physician. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ... The Septuagint: A page from Codex vaticanus, the basis of Sir Launcelot Lee Brentons English translation. ...

Byzantine literature (AD 300-1453)

Main article: Byzantine literature

Byzantine literature refers to literature written in Medieval Greek. If Byzantine literature is the expression of the intellectual life of the Hellenized populace of the Eastern Roman Empire during the Christian Middle Ages, then it is a multiform organism, combining Greek and Christian civilization on the common foundation of the Roman political system, set in the intellectual and ethnographic atmosphere of the Near East. Byzantine literature partakes of four different cultural elements: the Greek, the Christian, the Roman, and the Oriental, the character of which commingling with the rest. To Hellenistic intellectual culture and Roman governmental organization are added the emotional life of Christianity and the world of Oriental imagination, the last enveloping all the other three. Byzantine literature refers to literature written in the Greek language during the Middle Ages, although certain works written in Latin, like the Corpus Juris Civilis may also be included. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the third period in the history of the Greek language. ... The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... This article is becoming very long. ...

Modern Greek literature (post 1453)

Main article: Modern Greek literature

Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in Modern Greek from the 15th century, emerging from late Byzantine times from the 11th century. Erotokritos is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this period, and perhaps the supreme achievement of modern Greek literature. It is a verse romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1613). The Korakistika (1819), a lampoon written by Jakovakis Rizos Neroulos and directed against the Greek intellectual Adamantios Korais, is a major example of the Greek Enlightenment and emerging nationalism. Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears of Greeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine literati, the compilers of the New Testament, or, of course, the... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Erotokritos (Greek Ερωτόκριτος) is a romantic epic composed by Vitsentzos Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. ... Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1617) was a 16th century Cretan poet who wrote the lengthy poem Erotokritos, dealing with themes such as love, honour, friendship and courage. ... // Events June 26 - Christs Hospital in London gets a Royal Charter July 6 - Edward VI of England dies July 10 - Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England - for the next nine days July 18 - Lord Mayor of London proclaims Queen Mary as the rightful Queen - Lady Jane Grey... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Adamantios Korais (April 27, 1748 - April 6, 1833) was a graduate of the University of Montpellier in 1788 and he spent most of his life as an expatriate in Paris. ...

See also

• Loeb Classical Library
• Greek Anthology
• Ancient literature
• Latin literature

The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which present important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each... Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ... The History of literature begins with the history of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary author known by name is Enheduanna... Latin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. ...

External links

• Greek Authors on the Web
• Synopsis of the most famous works and author pictures