The Four Periods of Ancient Greek Literature

The four periods are the Hippopotamus Age, Homeric Epic, the Great Migration Age, and the Fable Age. The "Hippo Age" is a transitional period, a transition of ancient Greek culture. The main literary works of this period are myths and epics. In the history of European literature, ancient Greek mythology appeared earlier. Its characteristics are: first, it was directly created orally by the ancient Greeks; second, its content covers a very wide range. Since it is composed of two parts: mythological stories and heroic legends, its clannish color is also very obvious. Whether in our country or in ancient Greece, mythology plays an important role, as it is the thought and wisdom of the ancients; the difference lies in the understanding of gods and other aspects. The gods of ancient Greece, to put it more simply, are humans; in our country God appears in the form of half man and half beast. The productivity of ancient Greece was underdeveloped and they lacked cognition. They could only rely on their own fantasies to explain the external world that they could not touch. In ancient Greek mythology, a large number of stories talk about hunting, herding, and sailing, which are basic production and life activities. Classes had not yet appeared at that time, and the fundamental contradiction was the contradiction between man and nature. Ancient Greek mythology reflected this contradiction and more reflected many characteristics of the father's rights system. They were like a big family, " "Dis" has a distinguished status, and everyone regards "Dis" as very important. Ancient Greek mythology also has a profound influence and has far-reaching artistic value. Its artistic characteristics mainly include three points: first, it is extremely imaginative; second, it is extremely storytelling; third, it is extremely philosophical. Homer's epic was inspired by ancient Greek mythology, and other works of art were also created based on it. Some poets also drew most of their creations from ancient Greek mythology, and ancient Roman literature is no exception. Later generations of the Renaissance and Classical periods consciously formed a trend of attaching importance to ancient Greek culture; many dramatists and some artists also drew inspiration from ancient Greek mythology. The pinnacle of ancient Greek literature is Homer's epic, which promoted the development of ancient Greek culture. Homer's epic has reached a superb level in terms of creation methods and writing skills from the beginning. It uses mythology to express specific historical content. People who study Homer's epic believe that the heroes in it are heroes who appeared during wars. Homer's epic is a summary of heroic deeds in ancient Greece. The epic is large in scale and rich in content, describing all aspects of people's social life and their current mental outlook during difficult times. In the hearts of the Greeks, Homer's epic has a great status. It is an encyclopedia. By describing the gods, the epic reflects the simplicity and kindness of the ancient Greeks; by describing a series of heroes, it shows their values; The description of the relationship between man and destiny reflects the tragic color of ancient Greek culture. What is admirable is their innate fighting spirit. They are brave and tenacious and try their best to live. It can be said that the thinking of the ancient Greeks is really avant-garde and at the forefront of the times. Homer was not only a poet, he was also a designer, a designer par excellence. He has his own ideas, subject matter processing and plot layout are his strengths. He is good at portraying characters' personalities and has his own characteristics in narrative. He is a true master of language. With the emergence of Homer's epic poems, narrative poems also came out one after another. Compared with Homer's epic, it has the same meter and dialect, but it is completely different from Homer's epic in content. "Work and Time" is an educational poem. At that time, because the author's younger brother was not doing his job properly and relied on the rights of the local nobles to seize the property he deserved, he wrote this poem specifically to persuade his younger brother to follow the upright path of labor. , not to take the detour of taking advantage of others by taking advantage of others. While admonishing his younger brother, it also reflected the social phenomenon of the nobles oppressing the lower-class peasants at that time. The author's "Theogony" tells the origin of the gods. He collected many ancient legends and tried to form a complete system. In the era of the Great Migration, with the further disintegration of the clan system, the first formal social organization of mankind, slave-owning city-states began to slowly form. At this time, it is the world of lyric poems and fables. Lyric poetry was originally a folk song, and it was sung in harmony, which is similar to our country's ancient poetry. Due to the reorganization of social structure, people's consciousness and emotions changed, individual consciousness increased, and people paid more attention to their own emotional world, so lyric poetry developed. As the name suggests, lyric poetry is a kind of poetry that expresses inner emotions. Its genre is similar to that of Chinese poetry, and it is also diverse. The main ones include qin songs, and the most accomplished ones are also qin songs. Qin songs are divided into chorus and solo. The representative poet of choral Qin songs is Pindar, and the representative figure of solo singing is the famous female poet Sappho at that time. Her works mainly express personal emotions. She likes to write some love poems, and she also writes She has written poems related to maternal love and friendship. The poems she writes are very simple and natural in language expression, but they do not affect the feelings she wants to express. She is a well-deserved "tenth goddess of literature and art". At that time, there was also a kind of poetry called "Anacreon style", which was a poem praising the joy of life and praising nature. While lyricism is spreading, another form of culture is also spreading among Greek folk, that is, fables. The main content of the fable is animal life, not one or two animal lives, but many animal lives. "Aesop's Fables" is a work of the people at the bottom and a concentrated expression of the thoughts and feelings of the people at the bottom. It is the sum of the experiences and lessons of the people at the bottom. Personification is used in the writing technique, and animals are written as humans, giving animals human nature, which has the color of folk literature.

Among the more famous fables are "The Wolf and the Lamb", "The Tortoise and the Hare", "The Crow and the Fox" and "The Farmer and the Snake". I think everyone is familiar with these famous stories. Although the stories are short, they are However, it contains profound philosophy and is highly educational. The content of the story is also easy to understand and can make people think deeply.

Source: Zhiyin Inspirational·Social Science Edition