0:11 The ancient Greek civilization or Helas
0:13 as the Greeks called it is regarded as
0:15 the cradle of Europe and by extension
0:18 the whole western world. Even today,
0:21 almost 3,000 years after the first Greek
0:24 city stage emerged, people are still
0:26 interested in ancient Greek literature.
0:28 Whether from epic tales like the Iliad
0:30 or the philosophy of Plato, people still
0:32 care about it. In this video, it is my
0:35 goal to offer a comprehensive guide to
0:38 that rich literary tradition and explore
0:40 how it has shaped the foundations of the
0:53 But before we start, we must first set
0:56 the stage for these works. Literature is
0:58 always a product of its time and the
1:00 people who shaped it. And ancient Greece
1:02 was a world vastly different from our
1:05 own. To truly appreciate these texts, we
1:07 must first understand the cultural,
1:10 historical, and social backdrop in which
1:12 they were created.
1:14 Ancient Greek literature was written in
1:16 the ancient Greek language. But it is
1:17 important to understand that this was
1:20 never a single unified language. Across
1:22 the Greek world, a variety of dialects
1:24 were spoken, including, for example,
1:27 Aonic, Aolic, and Doric. And each of
1:29 these dialects still had their own
1:31 regional variations. These dialects also
1:33 weren't limited to the area of
1:35 modern-day Greece. Rather, they were
1:36 spoken throughout the whole
1:38 Mediterranean area. You see, during the
1:41 first millennium BC, ancient Greek
1:44 functioned as a lingua frana, a common
1:46 language used for communication across
1:48 different cultures and regions, much
1:51 like English does today.
1:53 Of course, summarizing nearly a thousand
1:55 years of Greek literature can quickly
1:58 become overwhelming. Fortunately,
2:00 scholars have divided this vast history
2:03 into distinct periods to make it more
2:05 manageable. From the earliest Greek
2:08 writings around 800 BC to works from the
2:11 4th century AD, we generally recognize
2:13 four main periods. The pre-classical
2:16 period marked by figures like Homer, the
2:18 classical period, the Hellenistic
2:27 The history of Greece is long and
2:29 complex. From around 3000 BC,
2:32 Indo-Uropean Greeks began arriving at
2:33 the southern tip of the Balkan
2:36 Peninsula. But they did not come as one
2:38 unified people. Rather, they arrived in
2:40 independent groups and at different
2:42 times. There is no reason to believe
2:45 that these people saw themselves as one
2:48 country. Instead, they were separate
2:50 communities who happened to speak the
2:52 same language, worship the same gods,
2:54 and share a somewhat similar way of
2:56 life. There was not yet a concept of a
2:59 Greek state. During the Bronze Age, the
3:01 Greeks established some flourishing
3:03 cultures, most notably the Minowans on
3:05 the island of Cree and the Masonans on
3:07 the southern mainland. The letter also
3:09 provided us with the earliest known
3:11 written evidence of the Greek language
3:14 dating back to around 1500 B.CE. A few
3:16 clay tablets discussing the import and
3:18 export of goods have survived.
3:21 Unfortunately, these early civilizations
3:23 collapsed at the end of the Bronze Age,
3:25 and very little is known about Greece in
3:27 the centuries that followed. As a
3:29 result, schoolers have labeled this time
3:32 the Dark Age. There is ongoing debate
3:34 about what caused the collapse. Some
3:36 suggest that it was due to the so-called
3:38 Dorian invasion, where another
3:41 Greekeaking group, the Dorans, allegedly
3:44 invaded and destroyed Masonian society.
3:46 What we do know for sure is that after
3:48 this period of decline, sometime around
3:51 750 BC, the old writing systems had
3:54 disappeared and people began using a new
3:56 alphabet based on the Phoenician script.
3:58 This would later evolve into the
4:00 standard Greek alphabet, which in turn
4:02 became the model for the Latin alphabet,
4:05 the one we still use today.
4:08 Out of the shadows of the dark age rose
4:09 one of the most important literary
4:13 figures in history, Homer or Homeros as
4:15 he was known in ancient Greece. He is
4:17 traditionally credited with composing
4:19 the Iliad and the Odyssey which are
4:21 widely regarded as the foundations of
4:24 Western literature. However, it is
4:26 almost certain that the stories told in
4:28 these epics had been passed down orally
4:31 for centuries before Homer's time. Homer
4:34 himself remains a mysterious figure.
4:36 Schoolers still debate whether he was a
4:39 real person or a name attached to a long
4:41 oral tradition. Virtually nothing is
4:43 known about him except that he likely
4:46 lived around 750 BC. But that didn't
4:49 stop later generations from inventing
4:51 biographies about him, often describing
4:54 him as a blind poet born on the island
4:56 of Kios. Before we move on, let's take a
4:59 look at a short passage from the Iliad.
5:01 It shows that Homer did not shy away
5:04 from the brutality of war. One of the
5:05 most gripping moments comes when
5:08 Achilles, enraged by the death of his
5:11 friend Petraas, confronts Hector outside
5:14 the walls of Troy. As he stands over his
5:29 The other great poet of the pre-class
5:32 period was Heizot. Unlike Homer, Heizot
5:34 actually refers to himself in his
5:37 poetry, but still nothing is known about
5:39 him from outside sources. His two
5:42 surviving works are Works and Days and
5:44 Theogyny. Works and Days paints a
5:46 detailed picture of the poor rural life
5:49 he experienced firsthand, offering
5:51 advice, moral lessons, and farming
5:54 rules. Theogyny on the other hand is a
5:56 mythological account of the origins of
5:58 the gods and the cosmos. It also
6:01 includes the famous story of the ages of
6:03 men beginning with a long lost golden
6:06 age. The works of Homer and Heizot were
6:08 held in high regard throughout the whole
6:11 of antiquity. Together they shaped the
6:13 early landscape of Greek literature.
6:15 Homer gave the Greeks a heroic and
6:18 mythic past while Heizot anchored that
6:20 world with a vision of cosmic order and
6:23 human struggle. Their works were
6:25 studied, memorized and recited
6:27 throughout antiquity and were regarded
6:30 as central texts not only for literature
6:33 but also for religion and education. By
6:36 the early 5th century BC, Greece had
6:39 changed. The dark age was long gone.
6:42 City states or polies like Athens,
6:44 Sparta and Corinth had grown into
6:46 powerful and often competing centers of
6:48 politics, culture and war. Most
6:50 important for us, the classical period
6:52 marks the height of ancient Greek
6:55 literature, a time when poetry, drama,
6:58 history, and philosophy flourished like
7:00 never before. What we often think of as
7:02 ancient Greece comes mostly from this
7:04 relatively short but incredibly
7:06 productive stretch of time roughly from
7:10 500 to 323 BC. Athens in particular
7:12 became the cultural and intellectual
7:14 center of the Greek world thanks to its
7:17 growing democracy and wealth from trade.
7:19 It offered a space for writers, thinkers
7:21 and artists to experiment and share
7:24 their work. Public festivals like the
7:26 Donisia gave playrs the chance to
7:28 present their tragedies and comedies
7:31 before large engaged audiences. These
7:33 weren't just for entertainment. They
7:36 were civic events deeply tied to
7:44 Three playwrights in particular tower
7:46 over this era of tragedy. Iscles,
7:49 Sophocles, and Uripides. Iscles is often
7:52 called the father of tragedy. His plays
7:54 like the Orestia trilogy are filled with
7:57 solemn grandeur and focus on justice,
7:59 divine will, and the moral cost of
8:01 vengeance. Sophocles, who was slightly
8:04 younger, added emotional complexity and
8:06 character depth. This is seen in his
8:09 masterpiece Odipus Rex, where fate and
8:11 free will crash into each other with
8:13 devastating results. Uripides was the
8:16 most daring of the three. His plays
8:18 often challenged social norms, portrayed
8:21 gods as flawed beings, and gave voice to
8:23 outsiders and women, something almost
8:26 unheard of in this time. Alongside
8:28 tragedy, comedy also flourished,
8:30 especially in the works of Aristophanes.
8:32 His plays were bold, funny, and often
8:35 crude, but they tackled serious themes
8:37 with sharp political satire. In
8:39 Lysistrata, for instance, he images
8:42 women from across Greece ending a war by
8:45 refusing sex until peace is made. It's
8:47 absurd, yes, but also a biting
8:49 commentary on war, power, and gender roles.
8:55 A rich tradition of lyrical poetry also
8:57 played a crucial role in shaping Greek
8:59 literature. Unlike the epic poetry of
9:01 Homer, which told grand stories about
9:04 gods and heroes, lyrical poetry was more
9:06 personal, intimate, and often performed
9:08 with the accompaniment of a liar. It
9:11 explored themes of love, desire,
9:13 personal reflection, and the fleeting
9:15 nature of life. Among the most famous
9:17 poets in this tradition was Safo who
9:19 lived on the island of Lesbos in the
9:22 late 7th and early 6th century BC just
9:24 before the classical period fully
9:26 blossomed. Known for her passionate and
9:29 evocative verses, Saful's poetry express
9:31 the complexities of love and longing
9:33 with emotional intensity and lyrical
9:35 beauty. Though only fragments of her
9:38 work survive today, her influence is
9:40 immense, laying the groundwork for how
9:42 personal feelings could be transformed
9:45 into art. Outside the theater, history
9:47 and philosophy were beginning to take
9:50 shape as written disciplines. Herodtos,
9:52 often called the father of history,
9:54 wrote the histories, a sprawling account
9:57 of the Persian wars and the cultures of
9:59 the known world. His approached mixed
10:02 storytelling, myth and observation. He
10:04 wanted to preserve the memory of human
10:08 events before they faded. Truscidities
10:10 writing a generation later took a much
10:13 stricter approach in his history of the
10:15 Peliponyian war. He aimed for factual
10:18 accuracy and deep analysis of human
10:21 behavior in times of crisis.
10:23 Lastly, there is philosophy, something
10:25 the Greeks basically invented as a
10:27 systematic way of thinking. In the
10:30 classical period, we see the rise of
10:33 three towering figures, Socrates, Plato,
10:35 and Aristotle. Socrates himself didn't
10:38 write anything down. But his method of
10:39 questioning, challenging people to
10:41 define their beliefs and examine their
10:43 lives became central to the western
10:46 thought. Plato, his student, wrote a
10:48 dialogue that explored justice,
10:51 politics, knowledge, and the soul. His
10:52 republic remains one of the most
10:55 influential works in philosophy.
10:57 Aristotle Plato's student took a more
10:59 practical and observational approach,
11:02 writing on everything from ethics and
11:05 logic to biology and literary theory.
11:07 His poetics is the first known work of
11:09 literary criticism in the west. All of
11:12 this, the drama, the philosophy, the
11:14 history, it all emerged from a culture
11:17 in constant tension between freedom and
11:20 order, tradition and innovation, war and
11:22 peace. And while these authors lived
11:25 over 2,000 years ago, their ideas and
11:26 forms still shape the way we write,
11:29 think, and speak today. With the death
11:33 of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, a new
11:35 chapter in Greek history began. The
11:37 classical city states, once the heart of
11:39 Greek cultural life, were now
11:42 overshadowed by sprawling empires ruled
11:44 by Alexander's successors. Greek
11:46 culture, however, did not fade. It
11:49 spread from Egypt to Persia. Greek
11:52 language and customs blended with local
11:53 traditions, giving rise to a more
11:56 cosmopolitan world. This period known as
11:59 the Hellenistic age lasted until roughly
12:02 31 BC when Rome took over the Eastern
12:04 Mediterranean. It was a time of great
12:06 change and Greek literature changed with
12:09 it. The center of cultural life shifted
12:12 from Athens to Alexandria, the Egyptian
12:14 city founded by Alexander the Great.
12:17 There under the patronage of the ptomeic
12:20 kings the famous library of Alexandria
12:22 was established. This was an ambitious
12:25 attempt to collect all human knowledge
12:28 in one place. It wasn't just a library
12:30 but a research institute where scholars,
12:34 poets and grammarians lived and worked.
12:36 The aim was no longer just to create
12:39 great works but also to preserve, study
12:41 and comment on the classics of the past.
12:44 Hellenistic literature reflects this
12:46 scholarly atmosphere. The big heroic
12:48 epics and tragic dramas of the classical
12:51 period gave way to more refined personal
12:53 and experimental forms. One of the
12:56 leading poets of this time was Scaly
12:58 Mahus who rejected long epics in favor
13:02 of short carefully crafted poems. Big
13:04 book, big evil, he once wrote a clear
13:07 jab at the style of earlier writers like
13:10 Homer. Instead, he championed elegance,
13:13 learning, and clever illusion. His
13:15 poetry often draws on myth, but with a
13:17 fresh, ironic, and sometimes playful
13:20 tone. Another major figure was
13:22 Theocritus, credited with inventing
13:25 pastoral poetry. Poems about shepherds,
13:28 nature, and rural life. On the surface,
13:30 his work seems simple and peaceful, but
13:32 it often touches on deeper themes like
13:34 love, loneliness, and the contrast
13:37 between city and countryside. The
13:39 pastoral tradition he started would
13:41 later inspire Roman poets like Virgil
13:45 and much later even Shakespeare.
13:48 Meanwhile, Apollonius of roads did take
13:50 up the long epic form, though in a very
13:51 different way than Homer. His
13:54 Argonautica tells a story of Jason and
13:56 the Argonauts, but with a more
13:58 psychological depth and narrative
14:01 complexity. The heroes are less certain,
14:03 the gods more distant, and a tone more
14:05 reflective, fitting for an age that had
14:08 grown more skeptical and inwardlooking.
14:10 The Hellenistic period also saw the
14:12 growth of literary criticism, grammar,
14:14 and philology. Schoolers at the library
14:17 of Alexandria carefully edited and
14:19 annotated the texts of Homer and other
14:21 classical authors, preserving them for
14:24 future generations. This technical
14:27 behindthe-scene work might seem dry, but
14:29 without it, we would have lost much of
14:30 what we know about early Greek
14:32 literature. While the literature of the
14:35 Henistic Age might not have had the
14:37 great public voice of the classical
14:39 period, it speaks in a different key,
14:42 more private, more intellectual, often
14:44 more emotionally nuanced. It reflects a
14:47 world that was larger, more diverse, and
14:49 less certain. And though it was later
14:52 overshadowed by Roman authors, many of
14:54 whom borrowed heavily from Hellenistic
14:57 models, the period left a rich legacy of
15:00 innovation and refinement.
15:02 By the first century BC, Greece had been
15:05 absorbed into the growing Roman Empire.
15:07 But instead of ending Greek culture,
15:09 Roman rule gave it a new stage. Greek
15:11 remained the language of the educated
15:14 elite in the Eastern Mediterranean and
15:16 Greek literature continued to thrive.
15:17 Though now under very different
15:20 conditions, the great civic festivals of
15:23 the classical age were gone and so as a
15:25 vibrant Athenian democracy that once
15:28 fueled public drama and debate. In its
15:30 place was a more private, sometimes
15:33 nostalgic literary world. Writers in
15:35 this period often looked backward,
15:37 preserving, editing, and imitating
15:40 earlier works. At the same time, new
15:42 genres emerged. Plutarch, for example,
15:45 became famous for his parallel lives, a
15:47 series of biographies comparing Greek
15:51 and Roman figures. Lucien of Samosata,
15:53 writing in a witty and satirical style,
15:55 mocked philosophers, gods, and human
15:57 vanity in works that often feel
16:00 surprisingly modern. Meanwhile,
16:02 philosophy continued to flourish,
16:04 especially in schools like Stoicism and
16:07 Neoplatonism with figures such as
16:10 Epictatus and Plotinus. In many ways,
16:12 Greek literature during the Roman period
16:15 acted as a bridge connecting the
16:16 classical world to the emerging
16:19 Christian and Byzantine cultures. Though
16:21 it was no longer the cultural center, it
16:24 remained a vital force respected and
16:26 studied by both the Romans and early
16:29 Christians. Even as political power
16:31 shifted westward, the Greek literary
16:33 tradition continued to speak across
16:35 centuries. The scientist of the Roman
16:38 period who had the greatest influence on
16:40 later generations was undoubtedly the
16:42 astronomer Pollmi. He lived during the
16:45 2n century AD. Though little is known
16:48 about his life, it was who devised a
16:50 detailed description of an earth
16:52 centered universe, a notion that
16:54 dominated astronomical thinking for more
16:57 than 1300 years. The ptomic view of the
17:00 universe endured until Copernicus,
17:03 Galileo, Kepler and other early modern
17:05 astronomers replaced it with helioentrism.
17:07 helioentrism.
17:08 After the fall of the Western Roman
17:11 Empire in 476,
17:13 the Greek language would continue to be
17:16 used mainly in Byzantium by Christian
17:18 schoolers. But that history goes beyond
17:20 the scope of this video. I know there
17:22 are so many more writers, thinkers,
17:24 poets, and scientists that deserve to be
17:26 mentioned, but it is impossible to cover
17:29 everything in such little time. I did my
17:31 best to devise a clear overview of Greek
17:33 literature, as well as offer you some
17:35 deeper insight into Greek history in
17:37 general. So, thank you for watching and
