WORLD LITERATURE > Greek History and Literature

Greeks – seafarers
Surrounded by water
One of the intellectuals
Socrates
True happiness is obtained if you have a good soul.
Plato
Examined reality – reflection
Mimesis
Viewed litt as imitation of life, and litt should be reality
Not all real are empirical
Deux ex machina – intervention of life
Chronos – father of zeus (3 or 4)
Swallowed his kids
Poseidon
Heidis
Zeus
Typhos
Mount Olympia – Habitat of Gods and Goddesses
Parody – approach in analysing stories > different angle
Aristotle
Studied Nature – empirical
Beauty, balance/symmetry, order/harmony
No ugly main characters
Bulge body is a beautiful body.

Classicism
Beauty, balance/symmetry, order/harmony
Hera=Zeus; Woman<Zeus

2 major city states

Athens
Democracy
Drama and philosophy/Theatre
Arts and literature

Naval Force
Involved in Persian War
Sparta
Passion for military
Way of life (war)
7 – 20 age inside the military
20 – 30 but stay in the barracks
30 – marry, balik na naman ulit.
Up to 60.
Odysseus > Penelope
After 20 years Telemakus.
Rival for Supremacy > Adelian League > Peloponnesian War (27 years)
Historical Periods
Minoan Civilization
Achaeans-dominion of the Aegean sea
Invaders of Mycenae (Mycenaean’s)-early inhabitants of Greece
Imposed their culture
Led by King Minos son of (in legend son of Zeus and Europa)
Legend of Minotaur (Head of bull, body of human) – Killed by Theseus

We can only trace Mycenaean Civilization only thru Minoan

This Civilization is labels as Heroic Age/Pre-Homeric Age
Way of life is warship – warriors
The famous Trojan War – defeated Trojan
Now named- Turkey

The decline – Homeric Age

Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization
Kept their glory through the epics of Homer: Iliad and Odyssey (Greatest Epic)

The Growth of City States

Athens
Sparta
Independent
Has own culture, army and government
Delian League
Devised the Atheneans, Atheneans wanted Unity
But was declined, so city states convinced Sparta to defy against Athens

The Great Wars

A. Persian War
a. Collapse of Greek civilization the Persians invaded Greece
b. Athens seek helped to Sparta, but did not showed off
c. Persian Leader – Xerxes (gave-up)
B. Peloponnesian War
a. Sparta and other city states cannot accept the supremacy of Athens, so they
declared war against Athens.

Macedonia and Hellenistic Periods

A. Fall of Athens
B. Philip II of Macedonia invaded Greece
C. Alexander the Great unified:
a. Greece
b. Persia
c. India
d. Egypt
One Empire – Hellenistic Culture
Combination of the 4 Cultures
Dominated the Greek Culture – Influenced Roman Culture
Literary Genre
 Epics – long narrative poem, recited, memorized, sung by Rhapsodes
o Homer did not wrote Iliad and Odyssey
 Lyric Poems – sung and memorized
o Of Sappho and Alcaeus
 Drama
o Tragedy
 Euripides
 Aeschylus
 Sophocles
o Comedy
 Comedy of Aristophanes

No Religion
No Sacred text
No Commandments
But they have belief in Gods and Goddesses as conceived in Mythology

15 Age of marrying
Greek women marries double their age
While in Athens: Wives submit themselves to their Husbands
No land ownership
Woman is considered contaminated
Not allowed to socialized with men and attend socializations of men
Can be liken to India

Sparta: Woman can own a land

Liberated women
Can be liken to China

Helen - Sparta