Ancient Greek comedy

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Ancient Greek comedy</i></b></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>لقطه من المقال</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;">ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tO9lBwYJlxo/V0SJkiKU_II/AAAAAAAAAaU/_gPWHS27sZEynmZEjL8UR3R2I2HiW6HLQCLcB/s1600/966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tO9lBwYJlxo/V0SJkiKU_II/AAAAAAAAAaU/_gPWHS27sZEynmZEjL8UR3R2I2HiW6HLQCLcB/s640/966.jpg" width="478" /></a></div><span style="color: lime;"><br /></span><span style="color: lime;"></span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="color: lime;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: lime;"><br /></span>_____________________________<br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> forms in the theatre of classical Greece (others being tragedy and</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> the satyr play ).</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">periods , Old comedy , Middle comedy , and new comedy . </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes , While Middle</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Comedy is largely lost , i.e. preserved only in relatively</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis . </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> fragments of menander .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his poetics (c.335 BC) that</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> comedy is a representation of laughable people and involves some</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> kind of blunder or ugliness which does not cause pain or disaster .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">C.A. Trypanis wrote that comedy is the last of the great species</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> of poetry Greece gave to the world .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The Alexandrine grammarians , and most likely Aristophanes of</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Byzantium in particular , seem to have been the first to divide</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Greek comedy into what became the canonical three periods : Old</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> comedy (?pXa?a archaia) , Middle Comedy (µ??? mese) and new Comedy (v?a nea).</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">These divisions appear to be largely arbitrary , and ancient comedy</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> almost certainly developed constantly over the years .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The most important Old comic dramatist is Aristophanes. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Born in 446 B.C. his works , with their pungent political satire and </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo , effectively define </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">the genre today . Aristophanes lampooned the most important presonalities</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> and institutions of his day , as can be seen , for example , in his</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> buffoonish portrayal of socrates in the clouds and in his racy anti-war</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> farce Lysistrata .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">He was one of large number of comic poets working in Athens in the </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">late 5th century , his most important contemporary rivals being Hermippus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> and Eupolis .</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Rabelais , Cervantes , Swift , and Voltaire . In particular , they copied </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">the technique of disguising a political attack as buffoonery . The legacy of </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Old Comedy can be seend today in political satiers such as Dr.Strangelove and</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> in the televised buffoonery of Monty Python and Saturday Night.</span></div></div>

Ancient Greek comedy

Ancient Greek comedy لقطه من المقال ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ _____________________________ Ancient Greek comedy was one of the fi...

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Grammer Latino شرح قواعد اللاتينى شرح مفصل انجلش وعربى

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">درس النهارده شرح قواعد اللاتينى شرح مفصل انجلش وعربى </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kk59H0Aq_mU/V0R7cD6A0vI/AAAAAAAAAaE/1XEUDFu5XiEvRoDvmpOXTUIURtnjf4eNwCLcB/s1600/66655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kk59H0Aq_mU/V0R7cD6A0vI/AAAAAAAAAaE/1XEUDFu5XiEvRoDvmpOXTUIURtnjf4eNwCLcB/s640/66655.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">                   </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">الشرح سوف يكون باللغة العربيه والاجنبية لتسهيل الشرح </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">ولكن الامثلة تكون باللغة اللاتينية وايضا النهايات للازمنة والاسماء والافعال تكون باللغة اللاتينية </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">والضمائر باللغة الانجليزية </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b><i><u> قواعد اللغة اللاتينية</u></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><u><i>   <span style="color: red;">أولا</span>: <span style="color: red;">الضمائر</span></i></u></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"النهايات الشخصية مع المضارع او المستقبل"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">                               المجموعة الآولي</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">                                                             الضمائر المفرد</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمير أنا " i " النهاية  "o"  في المضارع و "m" في الماضي</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمائر هو .هي. هو هي لغير العاقل "he,she,it"   النهاية  "s"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمير انت "you" النهاية "t"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                                           الضمائر الجمع</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمير  هم ,هن "they" النهاية "tis"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمير نحن "we" النهاية "mus"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*مع الضمير انتم "you" الجمع  النهاية "nt"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b><i>                              </i></b></span><b style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i>     *نهايات المجموعة الأولي في اللغة اللاتينية*</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                                              ( are )</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                     *الحرف الواصل لهذه المجموعة* </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                                              ( a )</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>*يتكون الفعل من :</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">جذر الفعل +الحرف الواصل +العلامة الزمنية الدالة علي الفعل+النهايات الشخصية </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">*نحصل علي جذر الفعل بحذف النهاية الدالة علي المجموعة من الفعل  (a r e)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                      #تنقسم الأزمنة في اللغة اللاتينية الي# </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                              بسيط                  و           مركب</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                            مضارع بسيط                   مضارع تام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                            مستقبل بسيط                   مستقبل تام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                                            ماضي مستمر                  ماضي مركب (بسيط , تام )</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b><i>                                     **الأزمنة البسيطة والعلامة الزمنية الدالة عليها**</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">1-المضارع البسيط ــــ ليس له علامة زمنية</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">2-المستقبل البسيط ـــــ (will+inf)  العلامة     bi</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">3-الماضي المستمر ـــــ (v to be +ing)   العلامة     ba</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><u><i>ملحوظة </i></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">عند تصريف الفعل في زمن المضارع البسيط مع الضمير  i  نحذف حرف a  قبل أن نضع النهاية  o</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">عند تصريف الفعل في زمن المستقبل البسيط مع الضمير i  نحذف حرف a قبل ان نضع النهاية  o  وأيضا عند تصريف نفس الفعل مع الضمير  you  للمفرد  نضع  حرف  u  قبل النهاية  nt  ونحذف حرف  i</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">قبل تصريف الفعل مع النهاية الشخصية نحذف النهاية الدالة علي المجموعة الأولي ونضع الحرف الواصل لهذه المجموعة </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;">*********************************************************************************************</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>تصريف الفعل في زمن المستقبل البسيط</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">                                                 <span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">    amare</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                        amo  </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">       </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it         amas</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                 amat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we            amamus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they             amatis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you               amunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">تصريف الفعل في زمن المستقبل البسيط</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">amare             </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                    amabi     </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it       amabis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you               amabit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we           amabimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they            amabitis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you             amabunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>تصريف الفعل في زمن الماضي المستمر </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">                                  <span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">   amare</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                    amabam</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it          amabas</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                  amabat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we              amabamus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they               amabatis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                amabant</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">                                                              **الأزمنة المركبة**</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">زمن الماضي البسيط أو التام أو المضارع التام يتكون من نهايات الماضي التام +v+جذر الفعل </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">النهايات</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">أنا    i     i</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">هو .هي . هو هي لغير العاقل   he,she,it           itis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">أنت   you          it</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">نحن   we         imus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">هم .هن        they                itis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">انتم للجمع     you                 erunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">مثال</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">amare  </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                 amavi</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                      amavistis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                        amavit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                 amavimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                   amavistis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                  amaverunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">زمن المستقبل القريب يتكون من نهايات المضارع +eri+v+جذر الفعل</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">مثال</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">amare </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                                     amavera</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                        amaveris</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                                 amaverit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                            amaverimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                              amaveritis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                                amaverunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>زمن المضارع التام </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">era  فعل الكون فى المضارع التام +v+جذر الفعل</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>مثال</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">amare</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                              amaveram</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he ,she ,it                  amaveras</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                             amaverat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                         amaveramus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                          amaveratis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                             amaverant</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">فعل الكون   verb to be</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">فى الأزمنة الستة البسيطة والمركبة</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>زمن المضارع البسيط</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                        sum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it               es</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                      est</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                 sumus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                   estis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                     sunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>زمن المستقبل البسيط</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                                ero</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                  eris</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                           erit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                      erimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                        eritis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                        erunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">زمن الماضى البسيط</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">نهايات الماضي المستمر + fu </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                                   fui</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                   fuisti</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                              fuit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                        fuimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                        fuistis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                      fuerunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">زمن الماضي التام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">er فعل الكون في الماضي المستمر +جذر الماضي  fu </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                               fueram </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                   fueras</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                            fuerat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                       fueramus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                        fueratis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                           fuerant</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">زمن المستقبل التام </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">فعل الكون في المستقبل التام eri+fu</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                              fuero</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                 fueris</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                          fuerit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                     fuerimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                       fueritis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                         fuerint</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">  </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> أسماء المجموعة الأولى</span></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>                                         مؤنثة                                   </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">                تتميز بالنهاية  a      </span><span style="font-size: large;">  </span></i></b><span style="font-size: large;">  </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">الحلات الاعرابية الستة مع المفرد a   والجمع  ae  </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">nominative                  الفاعل</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">vocative                      المنادا</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">accusative                  المفعول به</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">genitive                       المضاف اليه</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">dative                          الغير مباشر (القابل)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">ablative                       مفعول الأداة  وستخدم مع cum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">مثال</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">singular</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">nom                rosa</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">voc                  rosa </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">acc               rosam</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">gen                rosae</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">dat                 rosae</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">abl                   rosa</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">plural</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">nom               rosae</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">voc                 rosae</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">acc                 rosas</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">gen            rosarum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">dat                   rosis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">abl                   rosis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">      أسماء المجموعة الثانية</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">                                               <span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">    مذكر                           جماد         </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">                              us,er                       um  </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">نهاية المضاف اليه   i</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">مثال</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">donum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">nom                donum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">voc                 donum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">acc                 donum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">gen                     doni</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">dat                     dona</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">abl                     dono</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">افعال المجموعة الثانية </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">العلامة المميزة لهذه المجموعة   ere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">نحذف  re  ونضع حرف e قبل اضافة النهايات الشخصية </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">المضارع ليس له علامة زمنية</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">مثال </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">habere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i             habe</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it               habes</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                habet</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                  habemus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                 habetis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you              habent</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">زمن المستقبل البسيط    bi</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">habere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i               habebo</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                          habebis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                 habebit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we               habebimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they              habebitis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                  habebunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">زمن الماضي المستمر     ba</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">habere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                   habebam</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                 habebas</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you           habebat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                 habebamus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they             habebatis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you             habebant</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>زمن المضارع التام</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>نهايات الماضى البسيط+u+جذر الفعل التام</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">habere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i          habui</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it          habuistis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you           habuit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we            habuimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they             habuistis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                     habeuerunt</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">زمن الماضى التام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">فعل الكون في زمن الماضي المستمر era+جذر الفعل التام </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">او  النهايات الشخصية +era+جذر الفعل التام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">habere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i          habueram</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it             habueras</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you               habuerat</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we               habueramus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                 habueratis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                  habuerant</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">زمن المستقبل التام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">فعل الكون في زمن المستقبل البسيط +u+جذر الفعل التام</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">أو النهايات الشخصية +eri+جذر الفعل التام </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">i                                        habuero</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">he,she,it                   habueris</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                            habuerit</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">we                       habuerimus</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">they                       habueritis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">you                         habuerint</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">ملحوظة هامة جدا</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">حرف  i  لا يقلب  u   في زمن المستقبل التام سواء كان مجموعة أولى او ثانية </span></div><br /><span style="color: lime;">_____________________________________________________</span><br /><span style="color: lime;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">للمزيد قم بزياره  الجروب الخاص بنا للتنبيه بكل ما هو جديد من شروحات </span><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">مدونه مستر احمد محمود</span><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">اضغط على هذا الرابط التالى  للدخول للجروب الخاص بنا !</span><br /><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/FacultyOfArts2014" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">الجروب الخاص بالمذاكره</span> </a></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">شكرا لكم مع تمنياتى للجميع بالنجاح والتفوق دعمك للمدونه يجعلنى استمر </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>

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Threads Myths Athenion democracy،epic poetry،greek litrature،greek old comedy،greek philosophy،greek religion،greek tragedy, ووو,مواضيع الاساطير

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b style="background-color: cyan;">اليكم مواضيع الاساطير </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iojFs9xBGyY/V0OhYZKBzWI/AAAAAAAAAZo/GXQgkjU6vmYt7wOKCAGfyj6I4Cj5W7TdwCLcB/s1600/d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iojFs9xBGyY/V0OhYZKBzWI/AAAAAAAAAZo/GXQgkjU6vmYt7wOKCAGfyj6I4Cj5W7TdwCLcB/s640/d.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Epic Poetry</b></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Epic poetry begins with The Epic of Gilgamesh</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> It is unlikely that any Medieval or</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Renaissance European writer had read Gilgamesh</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The European epic traditon begins with Homer in</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Greece around 800 BC. It is essential that students</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> of English literature read The Iliad and The Odyssey</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> The form of the epic poem, its typical</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">characters, its plot, its tropes, and so forth</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> are all set out in Homer. All epic poets of note</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> read him. Other epic poets include</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Hesiod, Apollonius, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The epic was written in dactylic hexameter in a</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> dignified and elevated style. It typically begins</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">with an invocation to a muse and contains elaborate</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">desriptions, similes, and speeches. It tells of major</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> events of historical importance (the fall of Troy, the</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">foundation of Rome, the fall of man, etc.). Its characters are noble</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Virgil (70-19 BC) produces the great epic poem of</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">the Roman Empire. The ?neid takes its name from</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">a character in Homer's Iliad who leaves Troy and</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">comes to Italy to found Rome. Every Medieval and</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Renaissance author of note read The ?neid and knew it well</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> It is a model for Milton's Paradise Lost</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Medieval epic poems are plentiful, though rarely read</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Each nation or state produced its great epic poets</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Italy has not only Virgil, but also Dante, among others</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Dante's great epic is The Divine Comedy</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">It has inspired poets and artists for centuries</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> T. S. Eliot is said to have carried a volume of Dante</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> in his coat pocket. Gustave Doré illustrated The Divine Comedy</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> in the nineteenth century. Here is a gallery of Doré's drawings</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">One of the great Spanish epics of the Middle Ages is El Cid, or more fully</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> El cantar de m?o Cid. Written or copied in 1207 by</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Per Abbat, it is the story of the conquest of Valencia by</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Rodrigo D?az de Vivar, who lived during the time of the Norman</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Invasion (the end of the Old English period)</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">One of the great French epics of the Middle Ages is </span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">the </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Chanson </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">de </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Roland</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> It tells the story of Charlemagne and an attack on his troops by Basques</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">at Roncevaux in 778. The poem may have been written by     </span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Turold </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">in 1090</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Two great German epics are The Heliand, a ninth-century version of the Gospels</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">in Old Saxon; and The Nibelungenlied. The latter tells the story of</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Siegfried, Brunhild, Dietrich, Gunther, Hagen, and Attila the Hun.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> It was extraordinarily influential in German literature</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">English epics begin with Beowulf. There are others in</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Anglo-Norman, which are largely unread today. A number of romances</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> reach epic length, but not epic status. Piers Plowman </span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">is </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">long,</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">but </span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">not an epic</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> Chaucer writes an epic poem, Troilus & Criseyde, which was extremely well</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> received in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">During the Renaissance, Spenser's Faerie Queene is an epic. But perhaps first</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> among euqals is Milton's Paradise Lost</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>________________________________________</b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>__________</b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greek Religion</b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal, direct, and present </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>in all areas of life. With formal rituals which included animal sacrifices </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and libations, myths to explain the origins of mankind and give the gods</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> a human face, temples which dominated the urban landscape, city festivals</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> and national sporting and artistic competitions, religion was never far</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> from the mind of an ancient Greek. Whilst the individual may have made up </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>their own mind on the degree of their religious belief and some may have been </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>completely sceptical, certain fundamentals must have been sufficiently</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> widespread in order for Greek government and society to function: the gods</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> existed, they could influence human affairs, and they welcomed and responded</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> to acts of piety and worship.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>THE GODS</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Polytheistic Greek religion encompassed a myriad of gods, each representing</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> a certain facet of the human condition, and even abstract ideas such as justice </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and wisdom could have their own personification. The most important</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> gods, though, were the Olympian gods led by Zeus. These were </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter, Ares, Artemis, Hades,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> Hephaistos, and Dionysos. These gods were believed to reside on Mt. Olympos</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> and would have been recognised across Greece, albeit, with some local variations</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> and perhaps particular attributes and associations.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>In the Greek imagination, literature, and art, the gods were given human bodies and</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> characters - both good and bad - and just as ordinary men and women, they </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>married, had children (often through illicit affairs), fought, and in the stories</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> of Greek mythology they directly intervened in human affairs. These traditions</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> were first recounted only orally as there was no sacred text in Greek religion </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and later, attempts were made to put in writing this oral tradition, notably </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>by Hesiod in his Theogony and more indirectly in the works of Homer.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>GODS WERE CALLED UPON FOR HELP IN PARTICULAR SITUATIONS, FOR EXAMPLE, ARES DURING</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> WAR AND HERA FOR WEDDINGS.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Gods became patrons of cities, for example, Aphrodite for Corinth and Helios for</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> Rhodes, and were called upon for help in particular situations, for example, Ares</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> during war and Hera for weddings. Some gods were imported from </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>abroad, for example, Adonis, and incorporated into the Greek pantheon whilst</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> rivers and springs could take on a very localised personified form such as the nymphs.      </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>TEMPLES, RITUALS & PRIESTS</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The temple (naos - meaning dwelling place in reference to the belief</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> that the god dwelt in that place, or at least temporarily visited</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> during rituals) was the place where, on special occasions, religion</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> took on a more formal tone. Gods were worshipped at sacred sites and</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> temples in all major Greek communities in ceremonies carried out </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>by priests and their attendants.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Temple of Segesta</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Temple of Segesta</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>At first, sacred sites were merely a simple altar in a designated </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>area, but over time massive temples came to be built in honour of </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>a particular god and these usually housed a cult statue of the </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>deity, most famously the huge statue of Athena in the Parthenon </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>of Athens or Zeus at Olympia. In time, a whole complex of temples</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> to lesser gods could spring up around the main temple, creating </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>a large sacred complex, often built on an acropolis dominating </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>a city or surrounding area. This sacred area (temenos) was separated</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> from the rest of the community by a symbolic gate or propylon, and</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> in fact it was believed that this area belonged to the particular</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> deity in question. Sacred sites also received financial donations </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and dedications of statues, fountains and even buildings from the</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> faithful, often to celebrate a great military victory and give thanks</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> to the gods, and larger sanctuaries also had permanent caretakers (neokoroi) </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>who were responsible for the upkeep of the site.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The temple itself, though, was not used during religious practices </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>as these were carried out at a designated altar outside the temple. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Ancient authors often show a reluctance to go into explicit details of</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> religious ceremonies and rites as if these were too sacred to be publicised </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>in the written word. What we do know is that the most common religious practices</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> were sacrifice and the pouring of libations, all to the accompaniment of</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> prayers in honour of the god. The animals sacrificed were usually pigs, sheep, goats</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> or cows and always the same sex as the god which was being honoured. The meat was </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>then either burnt completely or cooked, with part offered to the god and the rest eaten</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> by some or all of the worshippers or taken away to be eaten later. The actual killing </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>of the animal was carried out by a butcher or cook (megeiras) whilst a young girl</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> sprinkled seeds onto the animals head, perhaps symbolic of life and regeneration </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>at the moment of the animal’s death. Other such rituals included examining </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>the entrails of sacrificed animals to ascertain signs which could help predict</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> future events.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Priests then, orchestrated the religious ceremonies and delivered prayers.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> The position was generally open to all and once assuming the role, particularly </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>when wearing the sacred headband, the body of the priest became inviolate.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> Priests served a specific god but they were not necessarily religious experts.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> For theological questions, a citizen could consult an exegetes, a state official, who </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>was knowledgeable in religious affairs. Women could also be priests, which is perhaps</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> surprising given their lack of any other public role in Greek society. Often, but not</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> always, the priest was the same sex as the god they represented. Priestesses did have</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> the added restriction that they were most often selected because they were virgins or</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> beyond menopause. Worshippers, on the other hand, could be both sexes and those rituals</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> with restrictions could exclude either men or women.      </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Pythia of the Oracle of Delphi</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Pythia of the Oracle of Delphi</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>MYSTERIES & ORACLES</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>In addition to the formal and public religious ceremonies there were also many</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> rites which were open to and known only by the initiated who performed them, the</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> most famous example being the Mysteries of Eleusis. In these closed groups, members </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>believed that certain activities gave spiritual benefits, amongst them a better </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>after-life.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Places could also acquire a divine connection; the great oracles such as that of </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Apollo at Delphi and Zeus at Dodona may well have begun as places considered </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>particularly good to receive signs from the gods. Such places became hugely</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> important centres with their priest oracles consulted by both individuals </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and city-states so that the rather vague and ambiguous proclamations might </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>help guide their future conduct.     </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>FESTIVALS & GAMES</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Athletic Games and competitions in music (especially playing the kithara and</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> lyre) and theatre (both tragedy and comedy) were held during festivals </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>such as the City Dionysia of Athens and the Panhellenic games at the most </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>important sacred sites of Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia to honour </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>a particular god. These events were attended by visitors from all over Greece </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and the experience was perhaps more akin to a pilgrimage rather than that </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>of a mere sports fan. Illustrating their sacred status, warfare was prohibited</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> during these events and pilgrims were guaranteed free-passage across Greece.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> However, there were also much smaller festivals, sometimes only attended </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>by a very select number of individuals, for example, the Arrhephoria in Athens,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> where only priestesses and a maximum of four young girls participated.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Map of Classical Greek Sanctuaries</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Map of Classical Greek Sanctuaries</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>PERSONAL RELIGION</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Although the historical record reveals much about formal religious occasions</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> and ceremony, we should remember that Greek religion was in fact practised </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>anywhere, at any time, by private individuals in a very personal way. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Not only temples but also the hearth in private homes was regarded as</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> sacred, for example. Individuals could also visit a temple anytime </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>they wanted to and it was customary to say a prayer even when just passing </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>them in the street. People left offerings such as incense, flowers, </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>and food, no doubt with a hopeful prayer or in gratitude for a past deed. Individuals</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> could also organise their own private sacrifice if they had the means to do so, and</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>these have been commemorated in thousands of stone relief markers found at sacred sites.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> In addition, temples were often visited in order to seek healing, especially at those</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> sites associated with Asclepius the god of medicine, notably at Epidaurus.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>People also looked for signs from the gods in everyday life and to interpret these</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> signs as indicators of future events. Such signs could be birds in the sky or</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> a spoken word between friends said at a particular moment or even a simple sneeze </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>which might be interpreted as an auspicious or inauspicious omen.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Such beliefs and, indeed, certain aspects of religion such as the immorality of</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> the gods as portrayed in the arts, were severely criticised by </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>intellectuals, artists, and philosophers from the 5th century BCE, but these may</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> or may not reflect the commonly held views of the wider populace, and it is difficult</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i> to believe from the wealth of archaeological and written records that religion was </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>anything but a fundamental part of life for the ordinary inhabitants of </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">.</i><i style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">the ancient Greek world</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">________________________________________</span></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">______________</span></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">Greek Tragedy</span></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Greek tragedy was a popular and influential form of drama performed in theatres across ancient Greece from the late 6th century BCE. The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and many of their works were still performed centuries after their initial premiere. Greek tragedy led to Greek comedy and, together, these genres formed the foundation upon which all modern theatre is based.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>THE ORIGINS OF TRAGEDY</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The exact origins of tragedy (trag?ida) are debated amongst scholars. Some have linked the rise of the genre, which began in Athens, to the earlier art form, the lyrical performance of epic poetry. Others suggest a strong link with the rituals performed in the worship of Dionysos such as the sacrifice of goats - a song ritual called trag-?dia - and the wearing of masks. Indeed, Dionysos became known as the god of theatre and perhaps there is another connection - the drinking rites which resulted in the worshipper losing full control of their emotions and in effect becoming another person, much as actors (hupokritai) hope to do when performing. The music and dance of Dionysiac ritual was most evident in the role of the chorus and the music provided by an aulos player, but rhythmic elements were also preserved in the use of first, trochaic tetrameter and then iambic trimeter in the delivery of the spoken words.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>A TRAGEDY PLAY</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Performed in an open-air theatre (theatron) such as that of Dionysos in Athens and seemingly open to all of the male populace (the presence of women is contested), the plot of a tragedy was almost always inspired by episodes from Greek mythology, which we must remember were often a part of Greek religion. As a consequence of this serious subject matter, which often dealt with moral right and wrongs, no violence was permitted on the stage and the death of a character had to be heard from offstage and not seen. Similarly, at least in the early stages of the genre, the poet could not make comments or political statements through the play, and the more direct treatment of contemporary events had to wait for the arrival of the less austere and conventional genre, Greek comedy.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The early tragedies had only one actor who would perform in costume and wear a mask, allowing him the presumption of impersonating a god. Here we can see perhaps the link to earlier religious ritual where proceedings might have been carried out by a priest. Later, the actor would often speak to the leader of the chorus, a group of up to 15 actors who sang and danced but did not speak. This innovation is credited to Thespis in c. 520 BCE. The actor also changed costumes during the performance (using a small tent behind the stage, the sk?ne, which would later develop into a monumental façade) and so break the play into distinct episodes. Phrynichos is credited with the idea of splitting the chorus into different groups to represent men, women, elders, etc. (although all actors on the stage were in fact male). Eventually, three actors were permitted on stage - a limitation which allowed for equality between poets in competition. However, a play could have as many non-speaking performers as required, so, no doubt, plays with greater financial backing could put on a more spectacular production with finer costumes and sets. Finally, Agathon is credited with adding musical interludes unconnected with the story itself.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>TRAGEDY IN COMPETITION</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The most famous competition for the performance of tragedy was as part of the spring festival of Dionysos Eleuthereus or the City Dionysia in Athens, but there were many others. Those plays which sought to be performed in the competitions of a religious festival (ag?n) had to go through an audition process judged by the archon. Only those deemed worthy of the festival would be given the financial backing necessary to procure a costly chorus and rehearsal time. The archon would also nominate the three chor?goi, the citizens who would each be expected to fund the chorus for one of the chosen plays (the state paid the poet and lead actors). The plays of the three selected poets were judged on the day by a panel and the prize for the winner of such competitions, besides honour and prestige, was often a bronze tripod cauldron. From 449 BCE there were also prizes for the leading actors (pr?tag?nist?s).</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>THE WRITERS OF TRAGEDY</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The first of the great tragedian poets was Aeschylus (c. 525 - c. 456 BCE). Innovative, he added a second actor for minor parts and by including more dialogue into his plays, he squeezed more drama from the age-old stories so familiar to his audience. As plays were submitted for competition in groups of four (three tragedies and a satyr-play), Aeschylus often carried on a theme between plays, creating sequels. One such trilogy is Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (or Cheoephori), and The Furies (or Eumenides) known collectively as the Oresteia. Aeschylus is said to have described his work, consisting of at least 70 plays of which six or seven survive, as ‘morsels from the feast of Homer’ (Burn 206).</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The second great poet of the genre was Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE).  Tremendously popular, he added a third actor to the proceedings and employed painted scenery, sometimes even changes of scenery within the play. Three actors now permitted much more sophistication in terms of plot. One of his most famous works is Antigone (c. 442 BCE) in which the lead character pays the ultimate price for burying her brother Polynices against the wishes of King Kreon of Thebes. It is a classic situation of tragedy - the political right of having the traitor Polynices denied burial rites is contrasted against the moral right of a sister seeking to lay to rest her brother. Other works include Oedipus the King and The Women of Tr?chis, but he in fact wrote more than 100 plays, of which seven survive.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>The last of the classic tragedy poets was Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE), known for his clever dialogues, fine choral lyrics and a certain realism in his text and stage presentation. He liked to pose awkward questions and unsettle the audience with his thought-provoking treatment of common themes. This is probably why, although he was popular with the public, he won only a few festival competitions. Of around 90 plays, 19 survive, amongst the most famous being Medeia - where Jason, of the Golden Fleece fame, abandons the title character for the daughter of the King of Corinth with the consequence that Medeia kills her own children in revenge. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>THE LEGACY OF TRAGEDY</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>Although plays were specifically commissioned for competition during religious and other types of festivals, many were re-performed and copied into scripts for ‘mass’ publication. Those scripts regarded as classics, particularly by the three great Tragedians, were even kept by the state as official and unalterable state documents. Also, the study of the ‘classic’ plays became an important part of the school curriculum.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>There were, however, new plays continuously being written and performed, and with the formation of actors’ guilds in the 3rd century BCE and the mobility of professional troupes, the genre continued to spread across the Greek world with theatres becoming a common feature of the urban landscape from Magna Graecia to Asia Minor.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>In the Roman world, tragedy plays were translated and imitated in Latin, and the genre gave rise to a new art form from the 1st </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>century BCE, pantomime, which drew inspiration from </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">.</i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>the </i></span><i style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">presentation and subject matter of Greek tragedy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">______________________________________________________</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greek comedy</b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Ancient Greek comedy was a popular and influential form of theatre performed across ancient Greece from the 6th century BCE. The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aristophanes and Menander and their works, and those of their contemporaries, poked fun at politicians, philosophers, and fellow artists. In addition to maintaining their comic touch, the plays also give an indirect but invaluable insight into Greek society in general and provide details on the workings of political institutions, legal systems, religious practices, education, and warfare in the Hellenic world. Uniquely, the plays also reveal to us something of the identity of the audience and show just what tickled the Greeks' sense of humour. Finally, Greek comedy and its immediate predecessor Greek tragedy would together form the foundation upon which all modern theatre is based.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>THE ORIGINS OF COMEDY PLAYS</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The precise origins of Greek comedy plays are lost in the mists of pre-history, but the activity of men dressing as and mimicking others must surely go back a long way before written records. The first indications of such activity in the Greek world come from pottery where decoration in the 6th century BCE frequently represented actors dressed as horses, satyrs, and dancers in exaggerated costumes. Another early source of comedy is the poems of Archilochus (7th century BCE) and Hipponax (6th century BCE) which contain crude and explicit sexual humour. A third origin, and cited as such by Aristotle, lies in the phallic songs which were sung during Dionysiac festivals.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>A COMEDY PLAY</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Although innovations occurred, a comedy play followed a conventional structure. The first part was the parados where the Chorus of as many as 24 performers entered and performed a number of song and dance routines. Dressed to impress, their outlandish costumes could represent anything from giant bees with huge stingers to knights riding another man in imitation of a horse or even a variety of kitchen utensils. In many cases the play was actually named after the Chorus, e.g., Aristophanes' The Wasps.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The second phase of the show was the agon which was often a witty verbal contest or debate between the principal actors with fantastical plot elements and the fast changing of scenes which may have included some improvisation (if references to specific audience members are taken as being to individuals actually present in the theatre). The third part of the play was the parabasis, when the Chorus spoke directly to the audience and even directly spoke for the poet. The show-stopping finale of a comedy play was the exodos when the Chorus gave another rousing song and dance routine.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>All performers were male professional actors, singers, and dancers and they were helped in their endeavour to represent a vast variety of human and non-human characters by wonderful costumes and highly decorated face masks. The main actors - one protagonist (who took the lion’s-share of the limelight) and two other actors, performed all of the speaking parts. On occasion, a fourth actor was permitted but only if non-instrumental to the plot. These restrictions were to ensure equality in competition and keep down the costs to the state which funded the professional actors. The Chorus, costumes, musicians, and rehearsal time were funded by an appointed private citizen, a khor?gos, which was a role carrying great prestige.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Due to the restricted number of actors then, each performer had to take on multiple roles which involved fast changes of costume and the use of recognisable character masks such as those for slaves or gods like Hercules and Hermes. In addition, some masks may well have been decorated to represent in caricature certain contemporary figures that the poet wished to poke fun at. Masks did, however, deprive the actor of using facial expressions and consequently the use of voice and gesture became extremely important. Costumes were another important visual part of the performance, and the most common were padded with tights and a short tunic which revealed a false and exaggerated phallus (connected with Dionysian ritual) - a detail clearly seen on many comic scenes represented on Greek pottery.         </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Plays were performed in an open-air theatre (theatron) such as that of Dionysos in Athens and seemingly open to all of the male populace (the presence of women is contested). The presence of theatres in towns across the Greek world and finds of terracotta theatre masks also suggest that comedies (and of course tragedies) were widely performed. The semi-circle of seats created a central area known as the orchestra and it was here that the Chorus performed. The main actors performed on a raised stage with a background provided by the sk?ne - a two-storey structure which also provided various entrance points for the actors and provided a means to change costume unobserved by the audience. There was some movement between these areas as the Chorus might occasionally climb the stage, and actors could also enter the orchestra via the public entrances or parodoi at each side of the theatre.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>COMEDY IN COMPETITION</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>During the 5th century BCE, at major religious festivals such as the City Dionysia and the Lenaea, comedies were performed in competition over three days. First five and later three comedies were entered for competition, a comic play being performed at the end of the day after the tragedy and satyr plays. Plays were judged by a panel of ten judges chosen by lot and they voted by placing pebbles in an urn. Five urns were then chosen at random to decide the final winner.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Old Comedy refers to plays written in the 5th century BCE. The earliest surviving complete play is Aristophanes’ Acharnians, first performed in 425 BCE, and citations from surviving fragments of earlier plays can be dated no earlier than c. 450 BCE.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The plot of comedies usually stretches reality in terms of time and place, jumping incredible geographic distances and rapidly changing scenes. Fantastical elements such as giant creatures and improbable disguises are mixed with references to the audience which delivers a roller-coaster ride of satire, parody, puns, exaggeration, colourful language, and crude jokes. Indeed, as the plays were popular entertainment, they reveal some of the popular language used by the Greeks, language not usually found in more serious written material. Any public figure was fair game it seems, and even mythology and religion could be made fun of. However, despite this high degree of free speech, certain aspects of religion such as the Mysteries and the higher gods such as Zeus and Athena seem to have been off-limits for the comic poet.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>NEW COMEDY</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Sometime in the late 4th century BCE, a new style of Greek comedy arrived, although the transition from Old Comedy may have been more gradual than the surviving plays suggest and some scholars propose an intermediary stage called Middle Comedy. Certainly, Aristophanes’ final two plays differ in style in comparison to his other plays and provide a transition towards a newer style of presentation. This New Comedy focused more on the plot of the play and often employed recurring stock characters such as cooks, soldiers, pimps, and the cunning slave. The Chorus becomes less important to the plot, (providing only musical interludes between acts) and plays seem to settle on an established five act structure. Another difference is that there seem to be fewer personal attacks (or is that only the impression given by having too few sources to compare with?) which may be due to legislation made specifically to curb this practice. The subject of New Comedy also differed and was more concerned with fictional everyday people and their relations with family, other classes, and foreigners.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>THE WRITERS OF COMEDY</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The giant of Greek comedy is Aristophanes. Little is known for certain about him, but from the dates of his plays, we may surmise that he lived from 460 to 380 BCE and was from Athens. Eleven of his plays survive complete and these are the only surviving examples of the Old Comedy genre. Seen by some (notably Aristotle) as rather crude, the plays, nevertheless, reveal Aristophanes’ sharp wit, and they often comment on the inconsistencies and ridiculous aspects of society and public figures. The politician Kleon, the philosopher Socrates, and the tragedy playwright Euripides were the three figures most often found in Aristophanes’ comic sights.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Other important playwrights of Old Comedy include Cratinus (whose works include Cheimazomenae 426 BCE, Satyrs 424 BCE and Pytine 423 BCE) and Eupolis (Numeniae 425 BCE, Maricas 421 BCE, Flatterers 421 BCE and Autolycus 420 BCE) both of whom were multiple winners at the most prestigious festivals. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>We know much more about the New Comedy writers, many of whom were prolific and sometimes wrote more than 300 plays. The most important poets include Philemon (c. 368/60 - 267/3 BCE), the author of 97 comedies, Diphilus who wrote around 100 plays, and Philippides. However, the writer of this genre whose work survived longest is Menander (c. 342-291 BCE). Philemon actually won more festival victories than Menander, but it is the latter who came to be considered the great poet of New Comedy. He wrote around 100 plays and many survived up to the 7th century CE when unfortunately they were lost to posterity. The Dyskolos (originally performed in 316 BCE) is the most complete surviving play and significant portions of six other plays also survive.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The popularity of Menander is attested by over 900 quotations preserved in secondary sources and his works were frequently adapted by later Latin playwrights. Famous for his imaginative situations, fast-moving dialogue, suspense, and attention to private domestic dramas, he often included a romantic lead, typically a young single male (in contrast to Aristophanes’ heroes who are usually middle-aged and married). In addition, Menander’s comedy often hinted at the importance the author gave to tolerance and understanding in our social relations. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>THE LEGACY OF COMEDY</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Greek Comedy would continue to be popular through Hellenistic and Roman times with many of the classic plays being re-performed again and again. Latin comedies were written most famously by Plautus & Terence, and the </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>genre diversified into various other forms </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>of </i></b></span><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i>comic theatre such as</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i>.</i></b><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i>pantomime </i></b><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i>and</i></b><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i> togata </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">____________________________________________________</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Athenion Democracy</b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Athens in the 4th to 5th century BCE had an extraordinary system of government, whereby all male citizens had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. This system was democracy. Further, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>HISTORICAL SOURCES</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Other city-states had at one time or another systems of democracy, notably Argos, Syracuse, Rhodes, and Erythrai. In addition, sometimes even oligarchic systems could involve a high degree of political equality, but the Athenian version, starting from c. 460 BCE and ending c. 320 BCE and involving all male citizens, was certainly the most developed.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The contemporary sources which describe the workings of democracy typically relate to Athens and include such texts as the Constitution of the Athenians from the School of Aristotle; the works of the Greek historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon; texts of over 150 speeches by such figures as Demosthenes; inscriptions in stone of decrees, laws, contracts, public honours and more; and Greek Comedy plays such as those by Aristophanes. Unfortunately, sources on the other democratic governments in ancient Greece are few and far between. This being the case, the following remarks on democracy are focussed on the Athenians.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>THE INSTITUTIONS OF DEMOCRACY</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The word democracy (d?mokratia) derives from d?mos, which refers to the entire citizen body, and kratos, meaning rule. Any male citizen could, then, participate in the main democratic body of Athens, the assembly (ekkl?sia). In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. The assembly met at least once a month, more likely two or three times, on the Pnyx hill in a dedicated space which could accommodate around 6000 citizens. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. The majority won the day and the decision was final. Nine presidents (proedroi), elected by lot and holding the office one time only, organised the proceedings and assessed the voting.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Specific issues discussed in the assembly included deciding military and financial magistracies, organising and maintaining food supplies, initiating legislation and political trials, deciding to send envoys, deciding whether or not to sign treaties, voting to raise or spend funds, and debating military matters. The assembly could also vote to ostracise from Athens any citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the polis. In this case there was a secret ballot where voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (ostrakon). An important element in the debates was freedom of speech (parrh?sia) which became, perhaps, the citizen's most valued privilege. After suitable discussion, temporary or specific decrees (ps?phismata) were adopted and laws (nomoi) defined. The assembly also ensured decisions were enforced and officials were carrying out their duties correctly.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>There was in Athens (and also Elis, Tegea, and Thasos) a smaller body, the boul?, which decided or prioritised the topics which were discussed in the assembly. In addition, in times of crisis and war, this body could also take decisions without the assembly meeting. The boul? or council was composed of 500 citizens who were chosen by lot and who served for one year with the limitation that they could serve no more than two non-consecutive years. The boul? represented the 139 districts of Attica and acted as a kind of executive committee of the assembly. It was this body which supervised any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Then there was also an executive committee of the boul? which consisted of one tribe of the ten which participated in the boul? (i.e., 50 citizens, known as prytaneis) elected on a rotation basis, so each tribe composed the executive once each year. This executive of the executive had a chairman (epistates) who was chosen by lot each day. The 50-man prytany met in the building known as the Bouleuterion in the Athenian agora and safe-guarded the sacred treasuries.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>In tandem with all these political institutions were the law courts (dikasteria) which were composed of 6,000 jurors and a body of chief magistrates (archai) chosen annually by lot. Indeed, there was a specially designed machine of coloured tokens (kleroterion) to ensure those selected were chosen randomly, a process magistrates had to go through twice. It was here in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged and decisions were made regarding ostracism, naturalization, and remission of debt.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>This complex system was, no doubt, to ensure a suitable degree of checks and balances to any potential abuse of power, and to ensure each traditional region was equally represented and given equal powers. With people chosen at random to hold important positions and with terms of office strictly limited, it was difficult for any individual or small group to dominate or unduly influence the decision-making process either directly themselves or, because one never knew exactly who would be selected, indirectly by bribing those in power at any one time. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>As we have seen, only male citizens who were 18 years or over could speak (at least in theory) and vote in the assembly, whilst the positions such as magistrates and jurors were limited to those over 30 years of age. Therefore, women, slaves, and resident foreigners (metoikoi) were excluded from the political process.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The mass involvement of all male citizens and the expectation that they should participate actively in the running of the polis is clear in this quote from Thucydides: "We alone consider a citizen who does not partake in politics not only one who minds his own business but useless". Illustrating the esteem in which democratic government was held, there was even a divine personification of the ideal of democracy, the goddess Demokratia. Direct involvement in the politics of the polis also meant that the Athenians developed a unique collective identity and probably too, a certain pride in their system, as shown in Pericles'  famous Funeral Oration for the Athenian dead in 431 BCE, the first year of the Peloponnesian War:</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Athens' constitution is called a democracy because it respects the interests not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. (Thuc. 2.37)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Although active participation was encouraged, attendance in the assembly was paid for in certain periods, which was a measure to encourage citizens who lived far away and could not afford the time off to attend. This money was only to cover expenses though, as any attempt to profit from public positions was severely punished. Citizens probably accounted for 10-20% of the polis population, and of these it has been estimated that only 3,000 or so people actively participated in politics. Of this group, perhaps as few as 100 citizens - the wealthiest, most influential, and the best speakers - dominated the political arena both in front of the assembly and behind the scenes in private conspiratorial political meetings (xynomosiai) and groups (hetaireiai). These groups had to meet secretly because although there was freedom of speech, persistent criticism of individuals and institutions could lead to accusations of conspiring tyranny and so lead to ostracism.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Critics of democracy, such as Thucydides and Aristophanes, pointed out that not only were proceedings dominated by an elite, but that the d?mos could be too often swayed by a good orator or popular leaders (the demagogues), get carried away with their emotions, or lack the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Perhaps the most notoriously bad decisions taken by the Athenian d?mos were the execution of six generals after they had actually won the battle of Arginousai in 406 BCE and the death sentence given to the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>CONCLUSION</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Democracy, which had prevailed during Athens’ Golden Age, was replaced by a system of oligarchy after the disastrous Athenian defeat in Sicily in 409 BCE. The constitutional change, according to Thucydides, seemed the only way to win much-needed support from Persia against the old enemy Sparta and, further, it was thought that the change would not be a permanent one. Nevertheless, democracy in a slightly altered form did eventually return to Athens and, in any case, the Athenians had already done enough in creating their political system to eventually influence subsequent civilizations two millennia later.</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was Ideals such as these would form the cornerstones of all democracies in the modern world. The ancient Greeks have provided us with fine art, breath-taking temples, timeless theatre, and some of the greatest philosophers, but it is democracy which is, perhaps, their greatest and most </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><i>.</i></b><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>enduring legacy</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>___________________________________________________</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><i><b></b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greek philosophy</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Who are we? How can we be happy? Does the universe have a purpose? Greek philosophers approached the big questions of life sometimes in a genuine scientific way, sometimes in mystic ways, but always in an imaginative fashion. Pythagoras considered a charlatan for claiming the doctrine of reincarnation, a half-naked Socrates haranguing people in the street with provocative and unanswerable questions, Aristotle tutoring great generals: these are examples of how Greek thinkers dared to question traditional conventions and to challenge the prejudices of their age, sometimes putting their own lives at stake. Greek Philosophy as an independent cultural genre began around 600 BCE, and its insights still persist to our times.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>THE PRE-SOCRATICS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>About 600 BCE, the Greek cities of Ionia were the intellectual and cultural leaders of Greece and the number one sea-traders of the Mediterranean. Miletus, the southernmost Ionian city, was the wealthiest of Greek cities and the main focus of the “Ionian awakening”, a name for the initial phase of classical Greek civilization, coincidental with the birth of Greek philosophy.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The first group of Greek philosophers is a triad of Milesian thinkers: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. Their main concern was to come up with a cosmological theory purely based on natural phenomena. Their approach required the rejection of all traditional explanations based on religious authority, dogma, myth and superstition. They all agreed on the notion that all things come from a single “primal substance”: Thales believed it was water; Anaximander said it was a substance different from all other known substances, “infinite, eternal and ageless”; and Anaximenes claimed it was air.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Observation was important among the Milesian school. Thales predicted an eclipse which took place in 585 BCE and it seems he had been able to calculate the distance of a ship at sea from observations taken at two points. Anaximander, based on the fact that human infants are helpless at birth, argued that if the first human had somehow appeared on earth as an infant, it would not have survived: therefore, humans have evolved from other animals whose offspring are fitter. The science among Milesians was stronger than their philosophy and somewhat crude, but it encouraged observation in many subsequent thinkers and was also a good stimulus to approach in a rational fashion many of the traditional questions that had previously been answered through religion and superstition. The Ionian rational view caused nothing but perplexity among some of their powerful neighbours such as the Babylonians and Egyptians, which were nations based on theocratic governments where religion played an important political and social role.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Pythagoras is considered one of the Ionian thinkers but outside the Milesian school: he was originally from Samos, an offshore Ionian settlement. His approach combines science with religious beliefs, something that would have caused horror among the Milesian school. His philosophy has a dose of mysticism, probably an influence of the Orphic tradition. Mathematics, in the sense of demonstrative deductive arguments, begins with Pythagoras: he is credited as the author of the first known mathematical formulation, the theorem which states that the square of the longest side of a right triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Deductive reasoning from general premises seems to have been a Pythagorean innovation.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Atomism began with Leucippus and Democritus. Among the ancient schools, this approach is the closest to modern science: they believed that everything is composed of atoms, which are indestructible and physically indivisible. They were strict determinists, who believed that everything happens in accordance with natural laws and the universe, they said, has no purpose and is nothing more than a mixture of infinite atoms being shuffled and re-shuffled according to the indifferent rules of nature. What is interesting about this school is that it attempted to understand the universe as objectively as possible and minimize intellectual deviations in favour of cultural and mystic prejudices.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>THE RISE OF ATHENS: THE SOPHISTS & SOCRATES</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>About 500 BCE, the Greek city-states or poleis were still largely divided. They had a common language and culture, but they were very often rivals. Some years earlier, Athens implemented a socio-political innovation by which all free male citizens had equal rights regardless of their origin and fortune. They named it democracy. Before the time of democracy, government decision-making was in the hands of a few, often aristocratic and noble families. Democracy allowed all free citizens to be part of the important decisions of the polis. They could engage in the discussions held during deliberative assembly and tribunals, their voices could be heard everywhere and had the same value as any other voice. In this context, speech was king: being able to discuss different topics effectively and to persuade others, granted a competitive advantage. This was true not only of citizens actively involved in politics, but for any other citizen. During court hearings, for example, prosecutor and accused had to appear in court in person, never through lawyers, and the failure or success of the process relied largely on rhetorical skills and any citizen could be subject to a court hearing. This period, therefore, saw the beginning of the Sophist school.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Sophists were intellectuals who taught courses in various topics, including rhetoric, a useful skill in Athens. Because they taught in return for a fee, the Sophists’ schools were only attended by those who could afford it, usually members of the aristocracy and wealthy families. This was a time of profound political and social change in Athens: democracy had replaced the old way of doing politics and many aristocrats whose interests were affected were trying to destroy the democracy; the rapid increase of wealth and culture, mainly due to foreign commerce, undermined traditional beliefs and morals. In a way, the Sophists represented the new political era in Athenian life, especially because they were linked with the new educational needs.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Caught in the clash between cultural conservatism and innovation, we find a peculiar character: Socrates, the pivotal figure in Greek philosophy and the wisest among Greeks at his time according to the oracle of Delphi. Like the Sophists, Socrates enjoyed teaching, but unlike the Sophists he never requested a fee in return and lived a life of austerity. He either underestimated or ignored most of the topics that were popular among his predecessors. Before the time of Socrates, philosophers’ main concern had been the physical world and how to explain it naturally. However, Socrates set in motion a new approach by focusing entirely on moral and psychological questions. His methodology sought to define key questions such as: what is virtue? what is patriotism? what do you mean by morality? As a result of this, most of his debates ended up with even more questions, the central issue unanswered, and the disputers’ ignorance on many topics revealed, since he invariably proved that the words being used by his contenders were actually abstract terms with an empty meaning.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>By combining a humble spirit (he never claimed to be any wiser than anyone else) and a strict agnosticism (he said he knew nothing) with a method that challenged conventional assumptions and an intolerance for unclear thinking, Socrates gradually earned enemies from various sectors of Athenian society. He was, consequently, put on trial and condemned to death. However,  Athenians did not like to condemn a citizen to death, therefore, this was merely a formal sentence and he was offered the possibility to escape. He refused to do so and obeyed the jury’s decision: a mixture containing poison hemlock took away his life, but his example granted him immortality.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>PLATO & ARISTOTLE</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Plato and Aristotle are the two most important Greek philosophers. Their work has been the main focus of interest for students of philosophy and specialists. This is partly because, unlike most of their predecessors, what they wrote survived in an accessible form and partly because Christian thought, which was the dominant thought in the Western world during the Middle Ages and early modern age, contained a high dose of Platonic and Aristotelian influence. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Plato was a student of Socrates who left Athens disgusted by the death of his teacher. After travelling for many years, he returned to Athens and opened his famous Academy. He is the best known Greek philosopher; the triumph of his work has been so complete and influential in western philosophy, that the famous quote from Alfred North Whitehead, although an exaggeration, is not far from the truth: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Plato had many philosophical interests including ethics and politics but he is best known for his metaphysical and epistemological ideas. One of his most influential insights is the Theory of Ideas: to Plato, notions like virtue, justice, beauty, goodness, etc., would not be possible unless we had some direct knowledge of these things in an earlier existence. We are born into this world with an imperfect memory of these Forms. In that ideal world of Ideas, one can experience the real Forms which are perfect and universal. Our world is an imperfect parody of the Platonic flawless and superior world of Ideas. A knowledge of these Forms is possible only through long and arduous study by philosophers but their eventual enlightenment will qualify them, and they alone, to rule society.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Aristotle, a student of Plato for almost 20 years, was the tutor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s interests covered a wide scope: ethics, metaphysics, physics, biology, mathematics, meteorology, astronomy, psychology, politics and rhetoric, among other topics.  Aristotle was the first thinker who systematically developed the study of logic. Some of the components of Aristotelian logic existed long before Aristotle such as Socrates’ ideas on exact definition, argumentative techniques found in Zeno of Elea, Parmenides and Plato, and many other elements traceable to legal reasoning and mathematical proof. Aristotle’s logic system consists of five treatises known as the Organon, and although it does not exhaust all logic, it was a pioneering one, revered for centuries and regarded as the ultimate solution to logic and reference for science. Aristotle’s contribution in logic and science became an authority and remained unchallenged as late as the modern age: we can recall Galileo who, after careful observation during the Renaissance, came to the conclusion that most of the Aristotelian physics and astronomy was not in line with the empirical evidence and yet, Galileo’s ideas were widely rejected by his contemporary Aristotelian scholars. Even during the most obscure times during the Middle Ages, a copy of the Organon, or maybe fragments of it, could be found in all prestigious libraries.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>During the Hellenistic age, four philosophical schools flourished: the Cynics, Sceptics, Epicureans and Stoics. During this time, political power was in the hands of the Macedonians. Therefore, Greek philosophers abandoned their political concerns and focused on problems of the individual. Instead of trying to come up with plans to improve society, their interest was how to be happy or virtuous.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Cynics rejected all types of conventions: marriage, manners, religion, housing, and even decency. The Sceptic philosophical school systematized old doubts: the senses caused troubles to most philosophers except some rare exceptions like Plato who simply denied the cognitive value of perception in favour of his world of ideas. On top of the scepticism of the senses, the Sceptics added moral and logical scepticism. Epicureanism claimed that life was about pursuing this world's pleasures. They only believed in the material world, a belief which attracted the opposition of the Stoics. Stoics said that everything that happens is due to divine providence, therefore, whatever misfortune occurs, a stoic will accept it without complaint. Stoics rejected Aristotle’s views on the relevance of bodily and material goods to human happiness. Achieving happiness, stoics said, is not important, what is actually important is to pursue happiness since the outcome of our attempt is not fully under our own control.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>LEGACY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>While Rome was expanding, Greece started to decline. The western Mediterranean was left untouched by Alexander the Great. After the first and second Punic Wars (264-241 and 218-201 BCE), Rome neutralized Carthage and controlled Syracuse (the two leading city-states of the western Mediterranean), and continued its expansion by conquering the Macedonian monarchies during the second century BCE followed by Spain, France, and Britain. Paradoxically, despite its expansion and military superiority, Rome’s influence in the cultural life of Greece was not significant. On the contrary, the influence of Greece on Roman culture was deep and long-lasting. Roman gods were identified with the Olympian deities, Hellenic art, literature, architecture, philosophy and even the language captivated most educated Romans. Rome was superior to Greece in building roads, implementing social cohesion, creating effective systematic legal codes and military tactics. However, Roman science, art and philosophy were heavily influenced by the Greek tradition.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Given this Roman admiration of all things Greek it is, therefore, no wonder that one of the most important Roman philosophers, Plotinus (204-270 CE), is the founder of Neo-Platonism. Plotinus lived during a time of political disaster in Rome. Roman rulers were placed and removed at will by the army in return for favours. German tribes from the north and Persians from the east profited from this scenario: the Roman army was more concerned with domestic political struggle rather than defending the borders and their ineptitude in defence was complete. Pestilence reduced the population, unsuccessful military campaigns increased expenditure and taxes while resources diminished and the entire Roman fiscal system crashed. The world showed few signs of hope during the time of Plotinus, which could explain why the ideal and eternal world of Platonic ideas was an appealing refuge. This shift of attention from the Real World to the Other World was also adopted by pagans and Christians alike whose philosophies revolved around the idea of an eternal and heavenly afterlife. The resemblances between Platonic and Christian thought are so strong that Christian theologians used many ideas of Plotinus to build their philosophy.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Platonism played a central role in shaping Christian theology. Christian religion developed during the time of Rome and combined Platonism, some philosophical beliefs from the Stoics and Orphism, esoteric aspects traceable to cults of the Near East, and morals and history acquired from Judaism. Even Saint Augustine refers to Plato’s ideas as “the most pure and bright in all philosophy”. Christianity has undergone many changes during its long history and it is important to note that during the Middle Ages its philosophy revolved largely around ideas derived directly from the Greeks.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Across the millennia, the voices of the Greek philosophers have been shaping our minds, our institutions, our leaders and our civilization as a whole. These Greek thinkers have unquestionably proved that the same problem can be approached in different ways, that common sense is not as common as we like to believe, that considering unfamiliar possibilities can enlarge our thought and that </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;">.</b><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;">imagination and ideas can be immortal</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">____________________________________________________</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Greek literature</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a continuous history extending from the 1st millennium bc to the present day. From the beginning its writers were Greeks living not only in Greece proper but also in Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands, and Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy). Later, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the common language of the eastern Mediterranean lands and then of the Byzantine Empire. Literature in Greek was produced not only over a much wider area but also by those whose mother tongue was not Greek. Even before the Turkish conquest (1453) the area had begun to shrink again, and now it is chiefly confined to Greece and Cyprus.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ancient Greek literature</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Of the literature of ancient Greece only a relatively small proportion survives. Yet it remains important, not only because much of it is of supreme quality but also because until the mid-19th century the greater part of the literature of the Western world was produced by writers who were familiar with the Greek tradition, either directly or through the medium of Latin, who were conscious that the forms they used were mostly of Greek invention, and who took for granted in their readers some familiarity with Classical literature.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The periods</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The history of ancient Greek literature may be divided into three periods: Archaic (to the end of the 6th century bc); Classical (5th and 4th centuries bc); and Hellenistic and Greco-Roman (3rd century bc onward).</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>ARCHAIC PERIOD, TO THE END OF THE 6TH CENTURY BC</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Greeks created poetry before they made use of writing for literary purposes, and from the beginning their poetry was intended to be sung or recited. (The art of writing was little known before the 7th century bc. The script used in Crete and Mycenae during the 2nd millennium bc [Linear B] is not known to have been employed for other than administrative purposes, and after the destruction of the Mycenaean cities it was forgotten.)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Its subject was myth—part legend, based sometimes on the dim memory of historical events; part folktale; and part religious speculation. But since the myths were not associated with any religious dogma, even though they often treated of gods and heroic mortals, they were not authoritative and could be varied by a poet to express new concepts.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Thus, at an early stage Greek thought was advanced as poets refashioned their materials; and to this stage of Archaic poetry belonged the epics ascribed to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, retelling intermingled history and myth of the Mycenaean Age. These two great poems, standing at the beginning of Greek literature, established most of the literary conventions of the epic poem. The didactic poetry of Hesiod (c. 700 bc) was probably later in composition than Homer’s epics and, though different in theme and treatment, continued the epic tradition.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The several types of Greek lyric poetry originated in the Archaic period among the poets of the Aegean Islands and of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. Archilochus of Paros, of the 7th century bc, was the earliest Greek poet to employ the forms of elegy (in which the epic verse line alternated with a shorter line) and of personal lyric poetry. His work was very highly rated by the ancient Greeks but survives only in fragments; its forms and metrical patterns—the elegiac couplet and a variety of lyric metres—were taken up by a succession of Ionian poets. At the beginning of the 6th century Alcaeus and Sappho, composing in the Aeolic dialect of Lesbos, produced lyric poetry mostly in the metres named after them (the alcaic and the sapphic), which Horace was later to adapt to Latin poetry. No other poets of ancient Greece entered into so close a personal relationship with the reader as Alcaeus, Sappho, and Archilochus do. They were succeeded by Anacreon of Teos, in Ionia, who, like Archilochus, composed his lyrics in the Ionic dialect. Choral lyric, with musical accompaniment, belonged to the Dorian tradition and its dialect, and its representative poets in the period were Alcman in Sparta and Stesichorus in Sicily.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Both tragedy and comedy had their origins in Greece. “Tragic” choruses are said to have existed in Dorian Greece around 600 bc, and in a rudimentary dramatic form tragedy became part of the most famous of the Dionysian festivals, the Great, or City, Dionysia at Athens, about 534. Comedy, too, originated partly in Dorian Greece and developed in Attica, where it was officially recognized rather later than tragedy. Both were connected with the worship of Dionysus, god of fruitfulness and of wine and ecstasy.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Written codes of law were the earliest form of prose and were appearing by the end of the 7th century, when knowledge of reading and writing was becoming more widespread. No prose writer is known earlier than Pherecydes of Syros (c. 550 bc), who wrote about the beginnings of the world; but the earliest considerable author was Hecataeus of Miletus, who wrote about both the mythical past and the geography of the Mediterranean and surrounding lands. To Aesop, a semi-historical, semi-mythological character of the mid-6th century, have been attributed the moralizing beast fables inherited by later writers.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>CLASSICAL PERIOD, 5TH AND 4TH CENTURIES BC</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>True tragedy was created by Aeschylus and continued with Sophocles and Euripides in the second half of the 5th century. Aristophanes, the greatest of the comedic poets, lived on into the 4th century, but the Old Comedy did not survive the fall of Athens in 404.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The sublime themes of Aeschylean tragedy, in which human beings stand answerable to the gods and receive awe-inspiring insight into divine purposes, are exemplified in the three plays of the Oresteia. The tragedy of Sophocles made progress toward both dramatic complexity and naturalness while remaining orthodox in its treatment of religious and moral issues. Euripides handled his themes on the plane of skeptical enlightenment and doubted the traditional picture of the gods. Corresponding development of dramatic realization accompanied the shift of vision: the number of individual actors was raised to three, each capable of taking several parts.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Old Comedy of Aristophanes was established later than tragedy but preserved more obvious traces of its origin in ritual; for the vigour, wit, and indecency with which it keenly satirized public issues and prominent persons clearly derived from the ribaldry of the Dionysian festival. Aristophanes’ last comedies show a transition, indicated by the dwindling importance of the chorus, toward the Middle Comedy, of which no plays are extant. This phase was followed toward the beginning of the 3rd century by the New Comedy, introduced by Menander, which turned for its subjects to the private fictional world of ordinary people. Later adaptations of New Comedy in Latin by Plautus and Terence carried the influence of his work on to medieval and modern times.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>In the 5th century, Pindar, the greatest of the Greek choral lyrists, stood outside the main Ionic-Attic stream and embodied in his splendid odes a vision of the world seen in terms of aristocratic values that were already growing obsolete. Greek prose came to maturity in this period. Earlier writers such as Anaxagoras the philosopher and Protagoras the Sophist used the traditional Ionic dialect, as did Herodotus the historian. His successors in history, Thucydides and Xenophon, wrote in Attic.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The works of Plato and Aristotle, of the 4th century, are the most important of all the products of Greek culture in the intellectual history of the West. They were preoccupied with ethics, metaphysics, and politics as humankind’s highest study and, in the case of Aristotle, extended the range to include physics, natural history, psychology, and literary criticism. They have formed the basis of Western philosophy and, indeed, they determined, for centuries to come, the development of European thought.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>This was also a golden age for rhetoric and oratory, first taught by Corax of Syracuse in the 5th century. The study of rhetoric and oratory raised questions of truth and morality in argument, and thus it was of concern to the philosopher as well as to the advocate and the politician and was expounded by teachers, among whom Isocrates was outstanding. The orations of Demosthenes, a statesman of 4th-century Athens and the most famous of Greek orators, are preeminent for force and power.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>HELLENISTIC AND GRECO-ROMAN PERIODS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>In the huge empire of Alexander the Great, Macedonians and Greeks composed the new governing class; and Greek became the language of administration and culture, a new composite dialect based to some extent on Attic and called the Koine, or common language. Everywhere the traditional city-state was in decline, and individuals were becoming aware of their isolation and were seeking consolidation and satisfaction outside corporate society. Artistic creation now came under private patronage, and, except for Athenian comedy, compositions were intended for a small, select audience that admired polish, erudition, and subtlety.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>An event of great importance for the development of new tendencies was the founding of the Museum, the shrine of the Muses with its enormous library, at Alexandria. The chief librarian was sometimes a poet as well as tutor of the heir apparent. The task of accumulating and preserving knowledge begun by the Sophists and continued by Aristotle and his adherents was for the first time properly endowed. Through the researches of the Alexandrian scholars, texts of ancient authors were preserved.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Hellenistic period lasted from the end of the 4th to the end of the 1st century bc. For the next three centuries, until Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Greek writers were conscious of belonging to a world of which Rome was the centre.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The genres</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>EPIC NARRATIVE</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Some features of the poems reach far into the Mycenaean age, perhaps to 1500 bc, but the written works are traditionally ascribed to Homer; in something like their present form they probably date to the 8th century.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Iliad and the Odyssey are primary examples of the epic narrative, which in antiquity was a long narrative poem, in an elevated style, celebrating heroic achievement. The Iliad is the tragic story of the wrath of Achilles, son of a goddess and richly endowed with all the qualities that make men admirable. With his readiness to sacrifice all to honour, Achilles embodies the Greek heroic ideal; and the contrast between his superb qualities and his short and troubled life reflects the sense of tragedy always prevalent in Greek thought. Whereas the Iliad is tragedy, the Odyssey is tragicomedy. It is an enriched version of the old folktale of the wanderer’s return and of his triumph over those who were usurping his rights and importuning his wife at home. Odysseus too represents a Greek ideal. Though by no means inadequate in battle, he works mainly by craft and guile; and it is by mental superiority that he survives and prevails.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Both poems were based on plots that grip the reader, and the story is told in language that is simple and direct, yet eloquent. The Iliad and the Odyssey, though they are the oldest European poetry, are by no means primitive. They marked the fulfillment rather than the beginning of the poetic form to which they belong. They were essentially oral poems, handed down, developed, and added to over a vast period of time, a theme upon which successive nameless poets freely improvised. The world they reflect is full of inconsistencies; weapons belong to both the Bronze and Iron Ages, and objects of the Mycenaean period jostle others from a time five centuries later. Certain mysteries remain: the date of the great poet or poets who gave structure and shape to the two epics; the social function of poems that take several days to recite; and the manner in which these poems came to be recorded in writing probably in the course of the 6th century bc.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>In the ancient world the Iliad and the Odyssey stood in a class apart among Archaic epic poems. Of these, there were a large number known later as the epic cycle. They covered the whole story of the wars of Thebes and Troy as well as other famous myths. A number of shorter poems in epic style, the Homeric Hymns, are of considerable beauty.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>A subgenre was represented by epics that recounted not ancient mythical events but recent historical episodes, especially colonization and the foundation of cities. Examples include Archaeology of the Samians by Semonides of Amorgos (7th century bc; in elegiac couplets), Smyrneis by Mimnermus of Colophon (7th century bc; in elegiac couplets), Foundation of Colophon and Migration to Elea in Italy by Xenophanes of Colophon (6th century bc; metre unknown), none of which are extant.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Epic narrative continued and developed in new forms during the Classical, Hellenistic, and Greco-Roman periods; works represented both subgenres. Notable mythical epics included the lost Thebais of Antimachus of Colophon (4th century bc), the surviving Argonautica in 4 books by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century bc), and the surviving Dionysiaca in 48 books by Nonnus of Panopolis (5th century ad). The historical epics do not survive, but among them were Persica, on the Persian Wars, by Choerilus of Samos (5th century bc); an epic on the deeds of Alexander the Great by Choerilus of Iasus (4th century bc); an epic on the deeds of Antiochus Soter (3rd century bc) by Simonides of Magnesia; and Thessalic History, Achaean History, and Messenian History by Rhianus of Crete (3rd century bc). As the greatest epic poet, however, Homer continued to be performed in rhapsodic contexts and was read in schools through the Classical, Hellenistic, and Greco-Roman periods.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Didactic poetry was not regarded by the Greeks as a form distinct from epic. Yet the poet Hesiod belonged to an altogether different world from Homer. He lived in Boeotia in central Greece about 700 bc. In his Works and Days he described the ways of peasant life and incidentally described the dreary Boeotian plain afflicted by heat, cold, and the oppression of a “gift-devouring” aristocracy. He believed passionately in a Zeus who cared about right and wrong and in Justice as Zeus’s daughter. Hesiod’s other surviving poem, the Theogony, attempts a systematic genealogy of the gods and recounts many myths associated with their part in the creation of the universe.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>LYRIC POETRY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Hesiod, unlike Homer, told something of himself, and the same is true of the lyric poets. Except for Pindar and Bacchylides at the end of the Classical period, only fragments of the works of these poets survive. There had always been lyric poetry in Greece. All the great events of life as well as many occupations had their proper songs, and here too the way was open to advance from the anonymous to the individual poet.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The word lyric covers many sorts of poems. On the one hand, poems sung by individuals or chorus to the lyre, or sometimes to the aulos (double-reed pipe), were called melic; elegiacs, in which the epic hexameter, or verse line of six metrical feet, alternated with a shorter line, were traditionally associated with lamentation and an aulos accompaniment; but they were also used for personal poetry, spoken as well as sung at the table. Iambics (verse of iambs, or metrical units, basically of four alternately short and long syllables) were the verse form of the lampoon. Usually of an abusive or satirical—burlesque and parodying—character, they were not normally sung.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>If Archilochus of Paros in fact was writing as early as 700 bc, he was the first of the post-epic poets. The fragments reflect the turbulent life of an embittered adventurer. Scorn both of men and of convention is the emotion that seems uppermost, and Archilochus was possessed of tremendous powers of invective. Of lesser stature than Archilochus were his successors, Semonides (often mistakenly identified with Simonides) of Amorgos and Hipponax of Ephesus.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Like the iambic writers, the elegiac poets came mostly from the islands and the Ionian regions of Asia Minor. Chief among them were Callinus of Ephesus and Mimnermus of Colophon. On the mainland of Greece, Tyrtaeus roused the spirit of the Spartans in their desperate struggle with the Messenian rebels in the years after 650. His martial poems are perhaps of more historical than literary interest. The same is to some extent true of the poems in elegiac, iambic, and trochaic (the latter a metre basically of four alternately long and short syllables) metres by Solon, an Athenian statesman, who used his poetry as a vehicle for propaganda. Xenophanes (born about 560 bc) rather in the same way used his poems to propagate his revolutionary religious and ethical ideas. The elegiacs attributed to Theognis seem to be poems of various dates suitable for use at drinking parties. Many of them were actually by Theognis himself (about 540 bc). Some give uninhibited expression to his hatred of the lower class rulers who had ousted the aristocracy of Megara; others are love poems to the boy Cyrnus; still others are gnomic commonplaces of Greek wisdom and morality.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>About the beginning of the 6th century a new kind of poetry made its appearance in the island of Lesbos. It was composed in the local Aeolic dialect by members of the turbulent and factious aristocracy. Alcaeus (born about 620 bc), absorbed in political feuds and in civil war, expressed with striking directness searing hate and blind exultation. With the same directness and stunning grace, Sappho, a contemporary who seems to have enjoyed a freedom unknown to the women of mainland Greece, told of her love for girls named in her poems. The surviving works by their successor in personal lyric, Anacreon of Teos, suggest a more convivial amorousness.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Choral lyric was associated with the Dorian parts of the Greek mainland and the settlements in Sicily and south Italy, whereas poetry for solo performance was a product of the Ionian coast and the Aegean Islands. Thus choral song came to be conventionally written in a Doric dialect.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Choral lyric, which had lyre and aulos accompaniments, was highly complicated in structure. It did not use traditional lines or stanzas; but the metre was formed afresh for each poem and never used again in exactly the same form, though the metrical units from which the stanzas, or strophes, were built up were drawn from a common stock and the form of the strophe was usually related to the accompanying dance. This elaborate art form was connected mainly with the cult of the gods or, as in the case of Pindar, the celebration of the victors in the great Hellenic games.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The earliest poet of choral lyrics of whose work anything has survived was Alcman of Sparta (about 620 bc). Somewhat later Stesichorus worked in Sicily, and his lyric versions of the great myths marked an important stage in the development of these stories. Simonides of Ceos, in Ionia, was among the most versatile of Greek poets. He was famed for his pathos, but today he is best known for his elegiac epitaphs, especially those on the Greek soldiers who fell in the struggle against Persia.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The supreme poet of choral lyric was Pindar from Thebes in Boeotia (born 518 or possibly 522–died after 446 bc), who is known mainly by his odes in honour of the victors at the great games held at Olympia, Delphi, the Isthmus of Corinth, and Nemea. The last of the lyric poets was Bacchylides (flourished 5th century bc), whose works too were largely victory odes, characterized by an exquisite taste for mythical digression.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>TRAGEDY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Tragedy may have developed from the dithyramb, the choral cult song of the god Dionysus. Arion of Lesbos, who is said to have worked at Corinth in about 600, is credited with being the first to write narrative poetry in this medium. Thespis (6th century bc), possibly combining with dithyrambs something of the Attic ritual of Dionysus of Eleutherae, is credited with having invented tragedy by introducing an actor who conversed with the chorus. These performances became a regular feature of the great festival of Dionysus at Athens about 534 bc. Aeschylus introduced a second actor, though his drama was still centred in the chorus, to whom, rather than to each other, his actors directed themselves.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>At the tragic contests at the Dionysia each of three competing poets produced three tragedies and a satyr play, or burlesque, in which there was a chorus of satyrs. Aeschylus, unlike later poets, often made of his three tragedies a dramatic whole, treating a single story, as in the Oresteia, the only complete trilogy that has survived. His main concern was not dramatic excitement and the portrayal of character but rather the presentation of human action in relation to the overriding purpose of the gods.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>His successor was Sophocles, who abandoned for the most part the practice of writing in unified trilogies, reduced the importance of the chorus, and introduced a third actor. His work too was based on myth, but whereas Aeschylus tried to make more intelligible the working of the divine purpose in its effects on human life, Sophocles was readier to accept the gods as given and to reveal the values of life as it can be lived within the traditional framework of moral standards. Sophocles’ skill in control of dramatic movement and his mastery of speech were devoted to the presentation of the decisive, usually tragic, hours in the lives of men and women at once “heroic” and human, such as Oedipus.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Euripides, last of the three great tragic poets, belonged to a different world. When he came to manhood, traditional beliefs were scrutinized in the light of what was claimed by Sophist philosophers, not always unjustifiably, to be reason; and this was a test to which much of Greek religion was highly vulnerable. The whole structure of society and its values was called into question. This movement of largely destructive criticism was clearly not uncongenial to Euripides. But as a dramatic poet he was bound to draw his material from myths, which, for him, had to a great extent lost their meaning. He adapted them to make room for contemporary problems, which were his real interest. Many of his plays suffer from a certain internal disharmony, yet his sensibilities and his moments of psychological insight bring him far closer than most Greek writers to modern taste. There are studies, wonderfully sympathetic, of wholly unsympathetic actions in the Medea and Hippolytus; a vivid presentation of the beauty and horror of religious ecstasy in the Bacchants; in the Electra, a reduction to absurdity of the values of a myth that justifies matricide; in Helen and Iphigenia Among the Taurians, melodrama with a faint flavour of romance.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>COMEDY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Like tragedy, comedy arose from a ritual in honour of Dionysus, in this case full of abuse and obscenity connected with averting evil and encouraging fertility. The parabasis, the part of the play in which the chorus broke off the action and commented on topical events and characters, was probably a direct descendant of such revels. The dramatic element may have been derived from the secular Dorian comedy without chorus, said to have arisen at Megara, which was developed at Syracuse by Epicharmus (c. 530–c. 440). Akin to this kind of comedy seems to have been the mime, a short realistic sketch of scenes from everyday life. These were written rather later by Sophron of Syracuse; only fragments have survived but they were important for their influence on Plato’s dialogue form and on Hellenistic mime. At Athens, comedy became an official part of the celebrations of Dionysus in 486 bc. The first great comic poet was Cratinus. About 50 years later Aristophanes and Eupolis refined somewhat the wild robustness of the older poet. But even so, for boldness of fantasy, for merciless invective, for unabashed indecency, and for freedom of political criticism, there is nothing like the Old Comedy of Aristophanes, whose work alone has survived. Cleon the politician, Socrates the philosopher, Euripides the poet were alike the victims of his masterly unfairness, the first in Knights; the second in Clouds; and the third in Women at the Thesmophoria and Frogs; whereas in Birds the Athenian democracy itself was held up to a kindlier ridicule. Aristophanes survived the fall of Athens in 404, but the Old Comedy had no place in the revived democracy.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The gradual change from Old to Middle Comedy took place in the early years of the 4th century. Of Middle Comedy, no fully developed specimen has survived. It seems to have been distinguished by the disappearance of the chorus and of outspoken political criticism and by the growth of social satire and of parody; Antiphanes and Alexis were the two most distinguished writers. The complicated plots in some of their plays led to the development of the New Comedy at the end of the century, which is best represented by Menander. One complete play, the Dyscolus, and appreciable fragments of others are extant on papyrus. New Comedy was derived in part from Euripidean tragedy; its characteristic plot was a translation into terms of city life of the story of the maiden—wronged by a god—who bears her child in secret, exposes it, and recognizes it years after by means of the trinkets she had put into its cradle.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>HISTORY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The first great writer of history was Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who was also a geographer and anthropologist. The theme of his history, written in large part for Athenian readers, is the clash between Europe and Asia culminating in the Persian War. The account of the war itself, which occupies roughly the second half of the work, must have been composed by means of laborious inquiry from those whose memories were long enough to recall events that happened when Herodotus was a child or earlier. The whole history, though in places badly put together, is magnificent in its compass and unified by the consciousness of an overriding power keeping the universe and humankind in check.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Thucydides (c. 460–c. 400) was perhaps the first person to apply a first-class mind to a prolonged examination of the nature of political power and the factors by which policies of states are determined. As a member of the board of generals he acquired inside knowledge of the way policy is shaped. After his failure to save Amphipolis in 424, he spent 20 years in exile, which he used as an opportunity for getting at the truth from both sides. The result was a history of the war narrowly military and political but of the most penetrating quality. Thucydides investigated the effect on individuals and nations both of psychological characteristics and of chance. His findings were interpreted through the many speeches given to his characters.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Just as Thucydides had linked his work to the point at which Herodotus had stopped, so Xenophon (c. 430–died before 350) began his Hellenica where Thucydides’ unfinished history breaks off in 411. He carried his history down to 362. His work was superficial by comparison with that of Thucydides, but he wrote with authority of military affairs and appears at his best in the Anabasis, an account of his participation in the enterprise of the Greek mercenary army, with which the Persian prince Cyrus tried to expel his brother from the throne, and of the adventurous march of the Greeks, after the murder of their leaders by the Persians, from near Babylon to the Black Sea coast. Xenophon also wrote works in praise of Socrates, of whom his understanding was superficial. No other historical writing of the 4th century has survived except for a substantial papyrus fragment containing a record of events of the years 396–395.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>RHETORIC AND ORATORY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>In few societies has the power of fluent and persuasive speech been more highly valued than it was in Greece, and even in Homer there are speeches that are pieces of finished rhetoric. But it was the rise of democratic forms of government that provided a great incentive to study and instruction in the arts of persuasion, which were equally necessary for political debate in the assembly and for attack and defense in the law courts.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The formal study of rhetoric seems to have originated in Syracuse c. 460 bc with Corax and his pupils Tisias and Gorgias (died c. 376); Gorgias was influential also in Athens. Corax is reputed to have been the first to write a handbook on the art of rhetoric, dealing with such topics as arguments from probability and the parts into which speeches should be divided. Most of the Sophists had pretensions as teachers of the art of speaking, especially Protagoras, who postulated that the weaker of two arguments could by skill be made to prevail over the stronger, and Prodicus of Ceos.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Antiphon (c. 480–411), the first professional speech writer, was an influential opponent of democracy. Three speeches of his, all dealing with homicide cases, have been preserved, as have three “tetralogies,” sets of two pairs of speeches containing the arguments to be used on both sides in imaginary cases of homicide. In them ideas are expressed concerning bloodguilt and the duty of vengeance. Antiphon’s style is bare and rather crudely antithetical. Gorgias from Sicily, who visited Athens in 427, introduced an elaborate balance and symmetry emphasized by rhyme and assonance. Thrasymachus of Chalcedon made a more solid contribution to the evolution of a periodic and rhythmical style.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Andocides (c. 440–died after 391), an orator who spent much of his life in exile from Athens, wrote three speeches containing vivid narrative; but as an orator he was admittedly amateurish. Lysias (c. 455–died after 380) lived at Athens for many years as a resident alien and supported himself by writing speeches when he lost his wealth. His speeches, some of them written for litigants of humble station, show dexterous adaptation to the character of the speaker, though the most interesting of all is his own attack on Eratosthenes, one of the Thirty Tyrants imposed on Athens by the Spartans in 404 bc.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The 12 extant speeches of Isaeus, who was active in the first half of the 4th century bc, throw light on aspects of Athenian law. Isocrates, who was influential in Athens for half a century before his death in 338, perfected a periodic prose style that, through the medium of Latin, was widely accepted as a pattern; and he helped give rhetoric its predominance in the educational system of the ancient world. In his writings, which took the form of speeches but were more like pamphlets, Isocrates shows some insight into the political troubles besetting Greece, with its endless bickering between cities incapable of cooperation.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The greatest of the orators was Demosthenes (384–322), supreme in vehemence and power, though lacking in some of the more delicate shadings of rhetorical skill. His speeches were mainly political, and he is best remembered for his energetic opposition to the rise of Macedonia under its king Philip II, embodied in the three “Philippics.” After Demosthenes, oratory faded, together with the political setting to which it owed its preeminence. Three more 4th-century-bc writers need only be mentioned: Aeschines (390–c. 314; the main political opponent of Demosthenes), Hyperides (c. 390–322), and Lycurgus (c. 390–324).</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>PHILOSOPHICAL PROSE</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Prose as a medium of philosophy was written as early as the 6th century. Practitioners include Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heracleitus, Anaxagoras, and Democritus. Philosophical prose was the greatest literary achievement of the 4th century. It was influenced by Socrates (who himself wrote nothing) and his characteristic method of teaching by question and answer, which led naturally to the dialogue. Alexamenus of Teos and Antisthenes, both disciples of Socrates, were the first to use it; but the greatest exponent of Socratic dialogue was the Athenian Plato (428/427–348/347). Shortly after Socrates’ death in 399 Plato wrote some dialogues, mostly short; to this group of work belong the Apology, Protagoras, and Gorgias. In the decade after 385 he wrote a series of brilliant works, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, and the Republic. His Socrates is the most carefully drawn character in Greek literature. Subsequent dialogues became more austerely philosophical; Socrates tended increasingly to be a mere spokesman for Plato’s thought; and in the last of his works, the Laws, he was replaced by a colourless “Athenian.” Plato’s style is a thing of matchless beauty, though ancient critics, who were likely to entangle themselves in the rules they had invented, found it too poetical.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Plato’s pupil Aristotle (384–322) was admired in antiquity for his style; but his surviving works are all of the “esoteric” sort, intended for use in connection with his philosophical and scientific school, the Lyceum. They are without literary grace, and at times they approximate lecture notes. His works on literary subjects, the Rhetoric, and above all, the Poetics, had an immense effect on literary theory after the Renaissance. In the ancient world, Aristotelian doctrine was known mainly through the works of his successor Theophrastus (c. 372–288/287), now lost except for two books on plants and a famous collection of 30 Characters, sketches of human types much imitated by English writers of the 17th century.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>LATE FORMS OF POETRY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The creative period of the Hellenistic Age was practically contained within the span of the 3rd century bc. To this period belonged three outstanding poets: Theocritus, Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes. Theocritus (c. 310–250), born at Syracuse, is best known as the inventor of bucolic mime, or pastoral poetry, in which he presented scenes from the lives of shepherds and goatherds in Sicily and southern Italy. He also dramatized scenes from middle-class life; and in his second idyll the character Simaetha, who tries by incantations to recover the love of the man who has deserted her, touches the fringe of tragedy. He also used another Hellenistic form, the epyllion, a short scene of heroic narrative poetry in which heroic stature is often reduced by playful realism and delicate psychology. In his hands the hexameter attained a lyric purity and sweetness unrivaled elsewhere. He was the first of the nature poets, succeeded by Moschus and Bion.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Callimachus (flourished about 260) was a scholar as well as a poet. His most famous work, of which substantial fragments survive, was the Aitia, an elegiac poem describing the origins of various rites and customs. It was heavy with learning but diversified by passages of entertaining narrative. His six hymns show immense poetic expertise but no religious feeling, for the gods of Olympus had long since become obsolete. Callimachus also wrote epigrams, and fragments survive of iambi (“iambs”). The form was widely used throughout the 3rd century to denounce the vanities of the world. Sometimes, in a mixture of prose and verse, these pieces had links with satire; and their chief exponents were Bion the Borysthenite, Menippus of Gadara, Cercidas of Megalopolis, and Phoenix of Colophon.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Callimachus avoided epic in favour of the greater intensity possible in shorter works. The last surviving Classical Greek epic was written by his successor at Alexandria, Apollonius of Rhodes (born about 295). Apollonius’ account of the voyage of the Argonauts is so full of local legend that the coherence of the poem is lost; but the story of Medea’s wild passion for Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, is marked by a new sort of romantic awareness that is fully realized in the episode of Dido’s passion for Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The desire to combine learning with poetry led to the revival of didactic verse. The Phaenomena of Aratus of Soli (c. 315–c. 245) is a versification of a treatise on the stars by Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 390–c. 340). Chance has preserved the poems of Nicander (probably 2nd century) on the unlikely subjects of cures for bites and antidotes to poisons.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The mimes of Herodas (3rd century), short realistic sketches of low life in iambic verse, have affinities with the non-pastoral mimes of Theocritus. They perhaps give a hint as to the character of the literature of popular entertainment, now largely lost. Mime, especially pantomime, was the main entertainment throughout the early Roman Empire.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>After the middle of the 3rd century, poetic activity largely died away, though the great period of scholarship at Alexandria and at Pergamum was still to come. The names of a few poets are known: Euphorion (born about 275) of Chalcis and Parthenius (flourished 1st century bc), the teacher of Virgil. Thereafter Greek poetry practically ceased, apart from a sporadic revival in the 4th century ad. An exception exists in the case of epigrammatic poetry in elegiac couplets, surviving mainly in two compilations, the Planudean and Palatine anthologies.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>LATE FORMS OF PROSE</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Almost all of the great mass of Hellenistic prose—and later prose, historical, scholarly, and scientific—has perished. Among historians Polybius (c. 200–c. 118 bc), the most outstanding, has survived in a fragmentary condition. Present at Rome when it was succumbing to the first influences of Greek literature, he wrote mainly of events of which he had direct experience, often with great insight; his work covered the period from 264 to 146. Diodorus Siculus’ universal history (1st century bc) is important for the sources quoted there. The most considerable of lost historians was Timaeus (c. 356–c. 260), whose history of the Greeks in the west down to 264 provided Polybius with his starting point. Later historians were Dionysius of Halicarnassus (flourished about 20 bc); Appian of Alexandria (2nd century ad), who wrote on Rome and its conquests; and Arrian (c. ad 96–c. 180) from Bithynia, who is the most valuable source on Alexander the Great.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The most important works of criticism, of which little has survived, were by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the obscure Longinus. Longinus’ treatise On the Sublime (c. ad 40) is exceptional in its penetrating analysis of creative literature. The Bibliotheca attributed to Apollodorus (c. 180 bc) is a handy compendium of mythology.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Scientific work such as the astronomy and geography of Eratosthenes (c. 276–c. 194) of Alexandria is known mainly from later summaries; but much that was written by the mathematicians, especially Euclid (flourished c. 300 bc) and Archimedes (c. 287–212), has been preserved.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Much survives of the writings of the physician Galen (ad 129–199). His contemporary Sextus Empiricus is an important source for the history of Greek philosophy. The survey of the Mediterranean by Strabo in the time of Augustus preserved much valuable information; and so, in a more limited field, did the description of Greece by Pausanias (2nd century ad). Greek achievement in astronomy and geography was summed up in the work of Ptolemy of Alexandria in the 2nd century ad.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greek became the language of the large settlement of Jews at Alexandria, and the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, was completed by about the end of the 2nd century bc. Much of the Apocrypha was composed in Greek, and the New Testament was written in popular Greek (Koine). Of the early Christian writers in Greek the most notable were Clement of Alexandria (c. ad 150–c. 215) and Origen (c. ad 185–c. 254), together with Clement I and Ignatius of Antioch.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Parallel Lives of famous Greeks and Romans by Plutarch (c. ad 46–c. 119) of Chaeronea in Boeotia was for centuries one of the formative books for educated Europeans. Great figures from an idealized past are presented for the edification of the lesser people of his own day; and the anecdotes with which the Lives abound are of various degrees of credibility. They belong to biography rather than to history, though they are an important source for historians. A number of shorter works on a wide variety of subjects have come down under the Latin title Moralia (Greek Ethica), which show the intellectual tide of Greece on the ebb.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>There was much concern over a question that had been argued ever since the days when Athens had ceased to be a free city: to what extent was Attic prose a norm that writers and especially orators were bound to follow? Many had shunned it in favour of a more ornamental Asiatic style. But at the end of the 1st century ad there was a revival of the Attic dialect. Speeches and essays were written for wide circulation. This revival is known as the Second Sophistic movement, and chief among its writers were Dion Chrysostom (1st century ad), Aelius Aristides (2nd century), and Philostratus (early 3rd century). The only writer of consequence, however, was Lucian (c. 120–c. 190). His works are mainly slight and satirical; but his gift of humour, even though repetitive, cannot be denied. Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers was a valuable work of the 3rd century by Diogenes Laërtius, a writer otherwise unknown.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Philosophical activity in the early empire was mainly confined to moralizings based on Stoicism, a philosophy advocating a life in harmony with nature and indifference to pleasure and pain. Epictetus (born about ad 55) influenced especially the philosophic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180), whose Meditations have taken their place beside works of Christian devotion. Many of Plutarch’s Moralia were Platonic, with vaguely mystical tendencies; but Plotinus (c. 205–260/270) was the last major thinker in the Classical world, giving new direction to Platonic and Pythagorean mysticism.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>The latest creation of the Greek genius was the novel, or erotic romance. It may have originated as early as the 1st century bc; but its roots reach back to such plays of triumphant love as the lost Andromeda of Euripides, to the New Comedy, to Xenophon’s daydreams about the education of Cyrus, and to the largely fictitious narratives that were one extreme of what passed for history from the 3rd century bc onward. Of these last, the best known examples are the Alexander romances, a wildly distorted and embroidered version of the exploits of Alexander the Great, which supplied some of the favourite reading of the Middle Ages. Erotic elegy and epigram may have contributed something and so may the lost Milesian Tales of Aristides of Miletus (c. 100 bc), though these last appear to have depended on a pornographic interest that is almost completely absent from the Greek romances. Only fragments survive of the Ninus romance (dealing with the love of Ninus, legendary founder of Nineveh), which was probably of the 1st century bc; but full-length works survive by Chariton (2nd century ad), Achilles Tatius (2nd century ad), Xenophon of Ephesus (2nd or 3rd century ad), and Heliodorus (3rd century ad or later). All deal with true lovers separated by innumerable obstacles of human wickedness and natural catastrophe and then finally united. Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (between 2nd and 3rd century ad) stands apart from the others because of its pastoral, rather than quasi-historical, setting. The works of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius belong to the same period. They claim to give a pre-Homeric account of the Trojan War. The Greek originals are almost wholly lost, but the Latin version was for the Middle Ages the main </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>source for the story of Troy. (See also </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue; font-size: xx-large;">.(</b><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>Hellenistic romance</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Mr.Ahmed Mahmoud</b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Threads Myths Athenion democracy،epic poetry،greek litrature،greek old comedy،greek philosophy،greek religion،greek tragedy, ووو,مواضيع الاساطير

اليكم مواضيع الاساطير  Epic Poetry . Epic poetry begins with The Epic of Gilgamesh  It is unlikely that any Medieval or . Renaissance Europe...

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