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Ancient Greek Literature
K.J. Dover and three other classical scholars have collaborated in writing this new historical survey of Greek literature from 700 B.C. to 550 A.D. The book concentrates on the principal authors and quotes many passages from their work in translation, to allow the reader to form his own
impression of its quality. Attention is drawn both to the elements in Greek literature and attitudes to life which are unfamiliar to us, and to the elements which appeal most powerfully to succeeding generations. Although it is recoghized that this appeal lies above all in the most creative and
inventive period (700-300 B.C.), an account is given of the eight hundred years which followed, which saw the results of earlier inspirations. Poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, science, philosophy, and oratory are all examined through the available literature.
impression of its quality. Attention is drawn both to the elements in Greek literature and attitudes to life which are unfamiliar to us, and to the elements which appeal most powerfully to succeeding generations. Although it is recoghized that this appeal lies above all in the most creative and
inventive period (700-300 B.C.), an account is given of the eight hundred years which followed, which saw the results of earlier inspirations. Poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, science, philosophy, and oratory are all examined through the available literature.
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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January 1, 2019This book was less exciting than I hoped it might be (and it is full of plot spoilers if that kind of thing upsets you). It is a simple introductory account of Greek literature from Homer and the homeric poems down to the Christian era produced by four authors. As I read I thought that the text was smoother than I thought it might be, with no repetitions or contradictions, but on inspection this is because although there were four authors - two of them wrote the two last chapters and one wrote the chapter on Homer and the Homeric verse so the bulk of the book was written by Mr Dover on the classical period.
My primary interest was on what the book had to say about Homer, although I found the chapter on the Hellenistic period the most enjoyable to read.
One of the problems is a good deal of the literature of classical Greece is known only from relatively late copies, for instance from the Byzantine era, so when discussing the Odyssey we got into gloriously circular territory as apparently there are overlaps in material between the Odyssey and the tale of the Voyage of the Argo, but which influenced which one wonders, the author, M.L. West appeared to believe that a complete oral version of the Argo story was drawn upon by the 'author' of the Odyssey which much much much later was turned into a written story by Apollonius of Rhodes but that of course is the earliest known complete version of the story and since we don't have a date for the composition of the Odyssey here either one can imagine all kinds of scenarios in which the stories either became more distinct over time or instead, borrowed and built upon each other over time, before at some point in time becoming frozen in to the fixed forms that we can experience today. My feeling was the West tended to believe that the Iliad and Odyssey were composed by two different people but he may deny that furiously if asked (assuming he is still alive). I was interested that there are apparently parallels between the Odyssey and a, more terrestrial, central Asian epic, but I suppose the same issue applies is "Homer" adapting central Asian epic to a Greek audience or his his story influencing other story tellers way out east or are similar stories blurring at the edges with motivs or episodes being borrowed from one to the other? The nature of this book is that there is enough for you to learn that some of these ancient texts are a bit wierder than maybe you supposed but not to satisfy your curiosity. West also points out that it is amusing that Odysseus was such a great archer that he left his bow at home when going to war, and had fought in a ten year war ,and had ten years of perilous adventures without ever using a bow. Perhaps we can see this as evidence that the Odyssey has a patchwork construction - wandering hero stories stitched together with a returning home story to build a super narrative that isn't completely consistent.
The other issue which caught my eye was the author as fate in the Iliad the will of Zeus is the same as authorial fiat, in other words the story teller(s) were happy to use the gods as literary props from early on, they are not treated with some particularly reverence in that way so if a junior god makes an intervention contrary to Zeus' wishes, it won't be successful. Which from a theological point of view is interesting - why bother praying to Athene or Poseidon if only the will of Zeus counts?
West recommendation for a verse translation of Homer is the Robert Fitzgerald, since Homer has come down to us in hexameters which is a pretty unnatural form in English verse translations strike me as a pretty quixotic exercise, but to be fair, nobody asked my opinion.
Beyond the strange world of the Homeric epic the big questions seems to be about transmission and survival of texts. Many classical Athenian texts may have survived better than others because thy were regarded as particularly good models of written Greek, and presumably had a canonical status from early on.
Some 'new' fragments of Greek literature continue to emerge from the rubbish dumps of Oxyrhynchos, but these the author contends tend to confirm the impression that what has been conveyed to us through scribal tradition is the best of Classical literature. You may feel this is a conservative opinion and transformative works remain to be discovered.
Overall I would have liked to read more about the actual manuscript traditions of Greek literature but that is something this book is completely uninterested in. I liked the Jasper Griffin chapter on Hellenistic literature best, but really that just means that I found his prose the most amenable in the book. He says that the increase of the Greek world due to colonisation and conquest led to an increase in readers and ultimately writers of Greek literature, and we are told how Greek philosophy and poetry fed into Roman literature and that he get writers from the region of modern Turkey writing in Greek about Greek subjects, rather than using Greek to write about local cultural traditions. Much of the book though becomes elegiac: that we know that such and such a person wrote on such and such a topic, but their work doesn't survive.
This is an ok primer that does it's best not to be controversial, on the whole though I found the brief essays on writers and literature in the The Oxford History of the Classical World more interesting.
My primary interest was on what the book had to say about Homer, although I found the chapter on the Hellenistic period the most enjoyable to read.
One of the problems is a good deal of the literature of classical Greece is known only from relatively late copies, for instance from the Byzantine era, so when discussing the Odyssey we got into gloriously circular territory as apparently there are overlaps in material between the Odyssey and the tale of the Voyage of the Argo, but which influenced which one wonders, the author, M.L. West appeared to believe that a complete oral version of the Argo story was drawn upon by the 'author' of the Odyssey which much much much later was turned into a written story by Apollonius of Rhodes but that of course is the earliest known complete version of the story and since we don't have a date for the composition of the Odyssey here either one can imagine all kinds of scenarios in which the stories either became more distinct over time or instead, borrowed and built upon each other over time, before at some point in time becoming frozen in to the fixed forms that we can experience today. My feeling was the West tended to believe that the Iliad and Odyssey were composed by two different people but he may deny that furiously if asked (assuming he is still alive). I was interested that there are apparently parallels between the Odyssey and a, more terrestrial, central Asian epic, but I suppose the same issue applies is "Homer" adapting central Asian epic to a Greek audience or his his story influencing other story tellers way out east or are similar stories blurring at the edges with motivs or episodes being borrowed from one to the other? The nature of this book is that there is enough for you to learn that some of these ancient texts are a bit wierder than maybe you supposed but not to satisfy your curiosity. West also points out that it is amusing that Odysseus was such a great archer that he left his bow at home when going to war, and had fought in a ten year war ,and had ten years of perilous adventures without ever using a bow. Perhaps we can see this as evidence that the Odyssey has a patchwork construction - wandering hero stories stitched together with a returning home story to build a super narrative that isn't completely consistent.
The other issue which caught my eye was the author as fate in the Iliad the will of Zeus is the same as authorial fiat, in other words the story teller(s) were happy to use the gods as literary props from early on, they are not treated with some particularly reverence in that way so if a junior god makes an intervention contrary to Zeus' wishes, it won't be successful. Which from a theological point of view is interesting - why bother praying to Athene or Poseidon if only the will of Zeus counts?
West recommendation for a verse translation of Homer is the Robert Fitzgerald, since Homer has come down to us in hexameters which is a pretty unnatural form in English verse translations strike me as a pretty quixotic exercise, but to be fair, nobody asked my opinion.
Beyond the strange world of the Homeric epic the big questions seems to be about transmission and survival of texts. Many classical Athenian texts may have survived better than others because thy were regarded as particularly good models of written Greek, and presumably had a canonical status from early on.
Some 'new' fragments of Greek literature continue to emerge from the rubbish dumps of Oxyrhynchos, but these the author contends tend to confirm the impression that what has been conveyed to us through scribal tradition is the best of Classical literature. You may feel this is a conservative opinion and transformative works remain to be discovered.
Overall I would have liked to read more about the actual manuscript traditions of Greek literature but that is something this book is completely uninterested in. I liked the Jasper Griffin chapter on Hellenistic literature best, but really that just means that I found his prose the most amenable in the book. He says that the increase of the Greek world due to colonisation and conquest led to an increase in readers and ultimately writers of Greek literature, and we are told how Greek philosophy and poetry fed into Roman literature and that he get writers from the region of modern Turkey writing in Greek about Greek subjects, rather than using Greek to write about local cultural traditions. Much of the book though becomes elegiac: that we know that such and such a person wrote on such and such a topic, but their work doesn't survive.
This is an ok primer that does it's best not to be controversial, on the whole though I found the brief essays on writers and literature in the The Oxford History of the Classical World more interesting.
November 25, 2021
I picked this book up at book exchange having some interest in the subject and finally got around to reading it sips at a time, as it deserved as much reflection as can be afforded it. It seems tailored to both the curious and the connoisseur, has plenty for both and is written by persons who have certainly immersed themselves into all that is termed Ancient Greek Literature.
The book, written in 1980, has four authors writing in different topic areas, with K. J. Dover providing the introduction, M.L. West next, handling the very early Greek literature which includes Hesiod and Homer as well as what is known by others and then back to Dover for the bulk of the book to speak on various types of literature; with treatment on other ancient poets, then to Tragedy and Comedy for both the well and lesser known playwrights then various historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, as well as lesser known names as many of their works, as with the playwrights, only survive in scraps and from references coming out of other surviving works. Dover then moves on to cover science and the philosophers starting with some pre-Socratic, then Socrates through those who knew him (Plato/Xenophon and others) then Plato himself, followed by Aristotle and quite a few others in-between and then finally to Classical oratory with Pericles, Isocrates, Demosthenes and others . The torch is then passed to Jasper Griffen who covers the same types of literature and it's evolvement and spread from 300 to 50BC, then to E.L. Brown who takes us to from 50 BC to about pre mid point Constantinople, circa 5th-6th Century AD in the same fashion. In all about 1000 years are covered in scholarly manner but written for the lay person and though written by four it comes across seamless.
All of the ancient writers and speakers are covered, not just with sample snippets of their writings where pertinent but also in their location, historical and political context, as well as criticisms from back in the day, which includes how well they were received by the lower and upper class and whether or not they had to later run for the their lives, all of which makes the book ideal for the arm chair historian types too.
I just took a look and see's Amazon does not carry this book but ABE Books has plenty of used copies left for under 10.00 dollars to include a 1997 version by Dover, but I found this 1980 version
to be just fine, though the pages are yellowing and I imagine in another 10 years will become too brittle for the touch. Maybe go for the 97 version if this book interests you. The book length is 277 well packed pages with some tacked on which includes two well appreciated maps, a time line, as well as an index and suggestions for further reading.
Anyway, very good book for what it does, but your going to need a taste for the material for full enjoyment.
The book, written in 1980, has four authors writing in different topic areas, with K. J. Dover providing the introduction, M.L. West next, handling the very early Greek literature which includes Hesiod and Homer as well as what is known by others and then back to Dover for the bulk of the book to speak on various types of literature; with treatment on other ancient poets, then to Tragedy and Comedy for both the well and lesser known playwrights then various historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, as well as lesser known names as many of their works, as with the playwrights, only survive in scraps and from references coming out of other surviving works. Dover then moves on to cover science and the philosophers starting with some pre-Socratic, then Socrates through those who knew him (Plato/Xenophon and others) then Plato himself, followed by Aristotle and quite a few others in-between and then finally to Classical oratory with Pericles, Isocrates, Demosthenes and others . The torch is then passed to Jasper Griffen who covers the same types of literature and it's evolvement and spread from 300 to 50BC, then to E.L. Brown who takes us to from 50 BC to about pre mid point Constantinople, circa 5th-6th Century AD in the same fashion. In all about 1000 years are covered in scholarly manner but written for the lay person and though written by four it comes across seamless.
All of the ancient writers and speakers are covered, not just with sample snippets of their writings where pertinent but also in their location, historical and political context, as well as criticisms from back in the day, which includes how well they were received by the lower and upper class and whether or not they had to later run for the their lives, all of which makes the book ideal for the arm chair historian types too.
I just took a look and see's Amazon does not carry this book but ABE Books has plenty of used copies left for under 10.00 dollars to include a 1997 version by Dover, but I found this 1980 version
to be just fine, though the pages are yellowing and I imagine in another 10 years will become too brittle for the touch. Maybe go for the 97 version if this book interests you. The book length is 277 well packed pages with some tacked on which includes two well appreciated maps, a time line, as well as an index and suggestions for further reading.
Anyway, very good book for what it does, but your going to need a taste for the material for full enjoyment.
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