Who is the greatest poet in ancient Greece?

We can't simply say who is the greatest, because there are many poets in ancient Greece, each with his own strong points. Please refer to the following for details.

Homer's Epic is the earliest formal written literary work in the history of western literature. The epic consists of two parts, namely Iliad (translated into the Iliad) and Odyssey (translated into the Odyssey), which are said by the author. However, at present, the more popular view is that Homer's Epic was created by many people, including Homer, and has been revised repeatedly.

The Iliad, with 24 volumes and 15,693 lines, is based on the legend of "golden apples of discord" in Greek mythology. It is said that Achilles' parents forgot to invite Eris, the goddess of discord, when they held their wedding, and the angry vengeance threw a golden apple at the banquet, which read ". It triggered the struggle between Hera, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and eventually led to the outbreak of the Trojan War. The epic takes Agamemnon, the Greek allied forces, as a wedge to take away the female prisoner favored by Achilles, the brave general, and Achilles stopped fighting because of anger. Describe Achilles' anger and what happened in the next 51 days.

The story of Odyssey took place in 1 years immediately after the Trojan War. Odysseus, who gave a Trojan horse to the Greek allied forces in the Trojan War, was killed at sea and stayed in a foreign land because he offended Poseidon. He overcame all kinds of difficulties with incomparable heroism and finally went home to reunite with his wife and children.

The theme of Homer's epic is to praise the glorious historical sites of the Greek nation. Praise the good qualities such as courage, justice, selflessness and hard work, eulogize the optimistic spirit of overcoming all difficulties, and affirm the value of man and life. However, the epic also has a strong fatalism color, and the struggle between people is often the epitome of the struggle between gods. However, the epic rarely judges the value of war itself and transcends narrow nationalism.

In language, Homer's Epic has reached a high level. The narrative structure is also very reasonable. Homer is good at describing characters and depicting broad social and historical scenes. Although there are many long and redundant rhetoric, it is the characteristic of all ancient literature.

Besides Homer, the poet of this period is also very famous. He lived from the end of the 8th century BC to the beginning of the 7th century. His representative works include the Oracle poems Farming and Time and Divine Spectrum. His writing style. There are traces of imitating Homer's Epic in language.

The Great Immigrant Era

The 8th century BC to 6th century BC is called the Great Immigrant Era in ancient Greek history, and the main literary achievements in this period include lyric poems and fables.

Lyrics

Lyrics in ancient Greece include various themes, mainly divided into two-line poems, satirical poems, piano songs and pastoral songs. It is said that the earliest poet was Kalinos in the first half of the 7th century BC, but Simonides (556-466 BC) was the best at writing this poem style. Solon, the founder of Athenian democracy system, also wrote many poems.

However, among the lyric poems in ancient Greece, the most successful one was Qin Song, which was a kind of song-like poem style accompanied by music. Qin Song can be divided into two types, one is solo and the other is chorus. ). She was forced to go into exile in the political struggle between the Democrats in Athens and optimates, and later founded a music school in her hometown of Lesbos. She wrote nine volumes of poems, but only two of them were intact, and the rest were fragments. Her language was gorgeous, emotional appeal was sad, and her feelings were sincere, and her subject matter described more lingering love. For example, her masterpiece To Anak Toria Touching. It is said that Sappho was a homosexual. Many of her poems were publicly burned in Rome and Constantinople in 173. However, in the ancient Greek world, Sappho had a very high status and was once called "the tenth muse" by Plato.

Besides Sappho, Alcaeus and Anacreon were also very good at writing solo piano songs. Alcaeus and Sappho were close, but their reputation was slightly inferior to Sappho's. Most of his creations were. It reflects the strong side of Qin Song. Later critics believe that it was he and Sappho who made the ancient Greek lyric poetry reach its peak. Anacreon, on the other hand, had a bad reputation because he took refuge in the royal family and acted as a royal poet. His works were popular and fluent, which had a far-reaching impact on European poetry after the 16th century.

As for the chorus Qin Song, Pindar was the most accomplished poet (518-442 BC). He was taught by some famous musicians in Athens, and the themes of his poems were mostly to praise God and the Olympic Movement. He wrote 17 volumes of poems in his life, and there are 4 complete volumes of ode to the winners (* * * 45 poems). Pindar's poems have a great influence on later generations. Milton, Goethe and others have intentionally imitated his style.

Aesop's Fables

According to legend, Aesop was a freed slave in the first half of the century BC, and he was extremely clever. He wrote many fables in his life, but now only more than 12 stories have been compiled by some ancient writers in the 4th century BC. However, according to textual research, many of them may come from Asia or Africa. Aesop didn't write it.

Aesop's fables mainly convey moral teachings through the words and deeds of some animals. The famous stories include "The Lion and the Mouse", "The Fox and the Crane", "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" and "The Fox and the Grape". Aesop's fables are usually short and pithy, with strong thoughts, which reflect the wisdom of ancient Greeks and have an impact on the literature of the world in later generations.

It refers to the period from the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC. This era was the heyday of the ancient Greek world, and all the city-states were prosperous and developed. Athens, which is located in the bay and has convenient transportation, was increasingly developed in industry and commerce, and established a slave-owner democracy. In Athens, there was no king in the country, and the highest authority was the general assembly of all citizens, which was drawn by citizens and discussed state affairs.

In addition, The victory of foreign wars also strengthened this prosperous situation to a certain extent. At the beginning of the 5th century BC, the economic and political contradictions between Greece and Persia caused the Greek-Persian War, and the Greeks won great victories in the Marathon and Salami battles. After the war, many Greek city-states established maritime alliances to defend against Persian aggression, and Athens became the leader. Since then, the economy and politics of Athens have become increasingly prosperous. It also ushered in the golden age of ancient Greek literature.

Athens' democratic politics is not only a model of ancient Greece, but also a model of the whole ancient world. Athens' democratic politics is not only the first in human history, but also directly affects the political system of the west in later generations. In modern western languages, such as English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and other languages, the word "democracy", They all evolved from the word "demokratia a" in ancient Greek. The word "demokratia a" in ancient Greek consists of "demos" and "kratos". "demos" means "people" and "region" and "kratos" means "rule" and "management". Therefore, the so-called "democracy" refers to "people's rule" or "people's management".

Athens practiced the "direct democracy" with the highest degree of democratization. In Pericles' era, all official positions in Athens were open to all citizens, and anyone could hold official positions at all levels in the government by drawing lots (except for ten generals). Government officials in Athens had a term of office, usually one year, and most of them could not be connected. In order to avoid cronyism, Athens also implements a committee system, in which all major issues are decided by the collective, and the collective is responsible for them. Instead of one person having the final say, autocracy and bureaucracy are avoided. In order to ensure that democratic politics are not infringed, from the time of Cleisthenes, Athens has also enacted a pottery exile law, in which people who may pose a threat to Athens' democratic politics are elected by pottery. If someone gets more than 6, votes, they will be exiled abroad. It will take 1 years to return, which makes it impossible for political careerists to take advantage of it.

The highest achievement of ancient Greek literature in this period is drama.

Ancient Greek tragedy

Ancient Greek tragedy originated from the celebration of Dionysus, the god of wine. During the long evolution of the ancient Greek world, this primitive sacrifice activity gradually developed into an artistic style accompanied by a chorus, performed by actors and shaped by curtains, backgrounds and masks. This is the embryonic form of western drama.

Most ancient Greek dramas are based on myths, the legend of heroes and epics, so the themes are usually very serious. Aristotle once specifically discussed the meaning of tragedy in Poetics. He thought that the purpose of tragedy was to arouse the audience's pity for the characters in the drama and their fear of the fickle fate, thus purifying their feelings. Conflicts described in tragedies are often difficult to reconcile. It is fatalistic. The hero in tragedy often has a strong and unyielding character and heroism. However, they always fail in the process of fighting against fate.

The earliest tragic writers include Thespis, the "father of drama", Corilos, who first introduced masks into drama, etc. But Aeschylus is the most accomplished tragic writer in this period. Sophocles and euripides.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) was the greatest tragic writer in ancient Greece. His greatest contribution to ancient Greek tragedy was to introduce a second actor into the performance, which changed the traditional mode that only one actor and chorus performed together in ancient Greek drama. It provides possible and convenient conditions for the development of the drama plot and the richness of the drama. There are 8 works with known drama titles by Aeschylus, only 7 of which have been handed down from generation to generation, including the Trilogy of Theia (Agamemnon, The Dionysian and The Nemesis), Beggars, Persians and Seven Attacks on Thebes. It has had a far-reaching influence on the development of the whole western drama art.

Sophocles (496-46 BC) was a tragic writer in the heyday of democracy in Athens. At the age of 27, he took part in the tragedy competition for the first time, that is, he defeated Aeschylus. aristophanes praised him for "being perfect before his death and having no regrets after his death". Sophocles wrote more than 1 plays in his life, but only 7 of them were handed down. The highest achievements are antigone and King Oedipus. Among them, King Oedipus is regarded as a model of ancient Greek tragedy. Sophocles' tragedy is often called "the tragedy of fate", which usually shows the conflict between individual will and fate.

euripides (485-46 BC) was a tragic writer in the crisis era of the slavery democratic country in Athens. He never participated in any political activities in his life. He was obsessed with philosophical thinking. He raised many questions in his works, including divinity and humanity, war and peace, democracy, women's issues, etc. He wrote more than 8 tragedies in his life, and 18 of them have been handed down from generation to generation. Among them, Medea and Trojan Women are the best. Euripides lived in an era when Athens was gradually moving from superficial prosperity to turmoil. The Peloponnesian War. Belief crisis and moral decay appear. In Euripides' plays, we can clearly feel the playwright's skepticism about Greek political reality. Medea is considered as one of the most touching tragedies in ancient Greece, and it is also the first time that women are portrayed as the main characters in western literature. Because euripides's drama style is different from the traditional tragic style, he was not famous before his death, but he became famous after his death. His plays had a great influence on the new drama in the Hellenistic period, Roman literature and later European literature.

Three famous tragic poets were born in ancient Greek history. They represent the highest achievement of the ancient Greek tragic art "rise-prosperity-decline" in each period:

Aeschylus-known as the "father of tragedy"

The masterpiece "Prometheus Bound" tells the story that Prometheus, the "fire thief", brought light and warmth to mankind from heaven. The story of being punished by Zeus.

Sophocles-known as "Homer of dramatic art"

The masterpiece "King Oedipus" is a model that marks the perfect structure of Greek tragic art. It tells the story that King Oedipus finds himself the culprit of "killing his father and loving his mother" by flashback. The appeal of his tragedy is particularly shocking. Peters —— "the originator of psychological drama"

Masterpiece: Medea. Write the story of Medea, the wife of golden fleece hero Jason, who retaliates by killing her own children. In the eyes of later feminists, the issue of women was first raised.

The ancient Greek tragedy was mainly about expressing lofty and heroic thoughts. According to Aristotle's definition, the ancient Greek tragedy described serious events. The purpose is to arouse pity and fear, and lead to the purification of these emotions; The protagonist often suffers unexpected misfortune, which leads to tragedy, so the conflict of tragedy becomes the conflict between man and fate.

Ancient Greek comedies

Ancient Greek comedies originated from carnival songs and dances and folk burlesque. In 487 BC, Athens officially decided to add comedy competitions to the spring Dionysian Festival.

Most ancient Greek comedies were political satires and social satires. Comedy was born in the prosperous period of democratic politics with relatively free speech. The comedies in this period were highly critical, especially good at satirizing people in power. At this time, comedies were called "old comedies". In the 5th century BC, there were three great comedy poets in Athens, namely Cratinus, Orpolis and aristophanes, and only aristophanes had works handed down.

aristophanes (from 446 to 358 years ago) lived during the Peloponnesian War. The city-state civilization in Athens is declining, and there are phenomena such as polarization between the rich and the poor and political factions in Athenian society, which are called the materials for playwrights' creation. aristophanes wrote 44 comedy plays in his life, but only 11 of them have survived completely, including Babylonian, Cloud, Bird, Knight and Akanai, among which Bird is the most famous. It is the origin of utopian comedy. aristophanes is the father of comedy in Europe, and it is he who established the tradition of comedy expressing serious themes in funny forms in western literature.