A Short History of Greek Literature 0226143112, 9780226143118

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A SHORT HISTORY OF GREEK LITERATURE Jacqueline de Romilly Translated by Lillian Doherty

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London

Romilly, professor at the Collège de France until her retirement in 1984 has published numerous works of classical scholarship. Two have already appeared in English: Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism (1963) and The Rise and Fall of States According to Greek Authors (1977). The present work was first published in Paris under the title Précis de littérature grecque, © Presses Universitaires de France, 1980.

JACQUELINE DE

This translation was supported in part by a generous grant from the French Ministry of Cultural and Foreign Affairs.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1985 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1985 Printed in the United States of America 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86

5432

Library of Congress Cataloging In Publication Data

Romilly, Jacqueline de. A short history of Greek literature.

Translation of: Précis de littérature grecque. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Greek literature—History and criticism I. Title. PA3055.R6513 1985 880'.9 84-16457 ISBN 0-226-14311-2 ISBN 0-226-14312-0 (pbk.)

Contents

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE PREFACE Map

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1 · Homer

1 I · The Epic and Its Formation 1 II · The Epic in Its Finished Form 9 Appendix: The Epic Cycle and the Homeric Hymns

2 · The Archaic Age 23 I · Hesiod 23 II · Archaic Poetry: From Hesiod to Pindar III · Pindar and Bacchylides 34 IV · Presocratic Philosophy 39

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3 · The Early Fifth Century: The Birth of History and Tragedy I · Aeschylus 47 II · Herodotus 57 4 · DRAMA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY:

Sophocles,Euripides, and Aristophanes I · Sophocles 66 II · Euripides 75 III · Aristophanes 84

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5 · New Ideas at Athens in the Second Half of the Fifth Century 90 I · Medicine, Philosophy, and Rhetoric 90 II · Thucydides 99

6 · Attic Oratory of the Fourth Century 109 I · Forensic Oratory 110 II · Demosthenes 115 III · Orators Contemporary to Demosthenes v

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Contents

7 · Reflections on Politics and History: Isocrates Xenophon 127 I · Isocrates 127 II · Xenophon 134

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8 · Philosophers of the Fourth Century.· Plato and Aristotle Introduction: Socrates 142 I · Plato 143 II · Aristotle 155 9 · The Hellenistic Age 166 I · Menander 166 II · The Philosophic Schools 170 III · Alexandrian Poetry 176 IV · Natural and Human Sciences 184

10 · Perspectives on the Roman Age 191 I · Plutarch 192 II · The Historians 197 III · Rhetoric 202 IV · The Romance 205 V · Lucian 207 VI · Philosophy 211 VII · The Christians 214 VIII · The Last Flare of Paganism 220

Chronological Tables Bibliography 247 Index 271

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Translator's Note

In a few places, this translation diverges considerably from the French text of 1980. This is due in most cases to the correction of errata, all of which have been checked by the author. In response to some queries of mine, Madame de Romilly has also suggested slight changes in wording, and at one point (p. 154 of the present edition) has expanded a passage for greater clarity. In rendering translations from the Greek, I have tried to be faithful to Ma­ dame de Romilly's understanding of each passage, but have also consulted the original Greek. In a very few places (indicated in the notes) I have used existing English translations I did not think I could improve on. The bibliog­ raphy has been completely revised with the needs of an English-speaking au­ dience in mind. I owe deep thanks to Madame de Romilly for her careful responses to my queries; to Mr. Arthur Adkins for many improvements in the translation; and to Mr. Richard Garner, Mr. Adkins, and Mr. Jeno Platthy (of the Center for Hellenic Studies) for important additions to the bibliography. Lillian Doherty

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Preface

To write about Greek literature in the hope of helping others know it better is a pleasant task indeed. To do so concisely, however, is a harsh assignment, demanding a series of difficult and even arbitrary choices. First, with respect to chronology, I felt I ought to trace the whole history of Greek literature in order to give the reader a synoptic view of that extraor­ dinary flowering in all its diversity, over the course of more than ten centur­ ies (from the eighth century before Christ to the fourth century after, without touching on the Byzantine era). This could be done only by abridging the ac­ count of the final periods and making do with a brief overview of the Chris­ tian literature, which follows different canons and is rooted in different tradi­ tions. For the latter, the limited information offered will be just enough to let the reader see the various forms of Greek literature in their proper relations to one another. Instead of giving each period equal consideration, then, I have put the greatest emphasis on the classical centuries and, within those centuries, on the authors destined to have the widest influence on the literatures of the fu­ ture. I have done so in the expectation that these authors will continue to hold a place of honor in the curriculum, so that the information offered here will prove useful to students at various levels. In the same perspective, I de­ liberately abandoned the idea of including in my "short history" a summary of the issues outlined in Albin Lesky's excellent History of Greek Literature, which is available in German, English, and Italian and is frequently revised and updated.11 preferred to limit myself to the most firmly established facts, of which one cannot afford to be ignorant. By the same token, I avoided of­ fering personal opinions, which might have been open to debate. A short his­ tory of this kind must aim at the greatest possible objectivity. Naturally I have tried to give the work a historical direction. The histori­ cal spirit is that of our own age, distinguishing it from the age that produced, for example, the Croisets' fine History of Greek Literature, published in Par-1 1. The first German edition dates from 1957-58, the first English edition from 1966; revi­ sions are made in each successive edition.

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Preface

is, in five volumes, at the end of the last century. Today any moral or aesthet­ ic judgment would seem old-fashioned. This is not to say that I have system­ atically avoided assessments based on literary criticism. After all, whatever the importance of historical perspective, Greek literature is much more than a mere cultural phenomenon: both the beauty of the works and their mean­ ing can speak forcefully to each one of us, as they have to others for centur­ ies. I hope to have fostered this meeting of minds, which an understanding of the historical circumstances and the internal development of Greek literature can only enhance. In trying to give the reader a sense of this internal development I encoun­ tered problems of organization. Although I resolved these as best I could, the flaws inherent in my solutions cannot be glossed over. The overall organization was not a problem: the rhythm according to which Greek literature unfolds is that of history—a history that falls into well-marked phases. It begins with the Homeric epic, which preserves tradi­ tions reaching back to the Trojan War and the Mycenaean period, that is, to the twelfth century B.C. But in Homers day the Greek world had already been transformed by the arrival of the Dorians and the recent migrations to Asia Minor. The archaic age of the seventh and sixth centuries is thus an age of new beginnings: lyric poetry unfolds and develops, and philosophy makes its appearance, along with the first prose works. Next, extending from the Greek victory (largely an Athenian victory) in the Persian Wars to the defeat of Athens, and of Greece as a whole, at the hands of Philip of Macedonia— from 480 to 338 B.C.—are the two great Athenian centuries. The century of glory, the "Periclean" age of the fifth century, is followed by the age of reflec­ tion—that of Plato—in the fourth. The fifth century saw Athens at the height of her power, but her defeat in 404 ruined and disillusioned her. Philip and Alexander completed her subjugation. With the death of Alexander an en­ tirely new period opens, with new centers, new genres, and new tastes; Alex­ andria is its great capital. Finally, in the period of Roman supremacy, Greece and its literature entered the orbit of Rome. At the same time, the bursting through of old boundaries made possible the development of new centers of learning throughout Asia Minor and later around Byzantium. Nothing could be clearer than these major lines of development, imposed by shifts of politi­ cal power. The reader will note, however, that following my decision to em­ phasize the classical period I have devoted three chapters each to the fifth and fourth centuries, while the other major periods are covered in single chapters. Clear as the outlines were, problems arose over the division of material in the central chapters and the order of these chapters, not to mention the de­ tails of presentation. The chapters covering single centuries could not be or­ ganized in strict chronological order. Works follow one another thick and fast: tragedies, comedies, philosophical treatises, historical works take shape simultaneously. Parallel developments can be traced, from year to year, in

Preface

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different genres. Chronologically, the influence of the Sophists should fall between Sophocles and Euripides, as between Herodotus and Thucydides. But how are we to separate two poets so close and so comparable to one an­ other? A logical order would permit us to follow the internal history of a genre. Yet the order I have adopted is neither chronological nor strictly "logi­ cal." It seemed more to the point to begin with a joint discussion of the two authors who were most clearly influenced by the Persian Wars, before exam­ ining separately the evolution of the genres they created. As a result, the sophists appear in my book after Euripides, who was influenced by them: the complexities of life escape and resist one's every attempt to simplify them. Similarly, for the fourth century, the authors I have divided among three chapters are in fact nearly all contemporaries: how could they be classified if not according to the genres in which they worked? I should add that I have always taken care to point out overlappings like these in my text; and a chronological table at the end of the book puts everything back in temporal order and indicates which authors were writing concurrently. Even in the chapters covering the other periods, some overlapping seemed acceptable where it clarified the overall view. That is why I have put the Ho­ meric hymns, which belong to the archaic period, at the end of the chapter on Homer; and that is why I have separated philosophers who were contem­ poraries of one another and have placed them with philosophers of the ar­ chaic age or of the fifth century, depending on the tenor of their philosophies. Likewise, the earliest historians are discussed along with Herodotus, for they were his forerunners, rather than with the earliest philosophers, who wrote at the same time but seemed to deserve separate treatment within the context of the archaic age. These difficulties of organization may cause misgivings and even misun­ derstandings; but that in itself is worth thinking about. Why is it so difficult to arrange the Greek authors in a satisfactory order if not because Greek lit­ erature displays a more constant and complex evolution than any other? Here we touch on one aspect of what has been called "the Greek miracle," a phenomenon that hinges, I believe, on two factors. The first of these is the extraordinary faculty of invention, discovery, and self-renewal that Greek literature has always shown. Among its inventions, for our Western world, are lyric, tragedy, comedy, history, philosophy, bi­ ography, the romance, the dialogue: all had their beginnings in that litera­ ture. The reason it is so difficult to trace tendencies from year to year is that everything is constantly changing. No one can write in the same way after the Sophists, after Socrates, after a particular military victory or defeat. Nothing could be less stable or less fixed than this literature, later styled "classical." As for the second factor, the parallel evolution of diverse genres and the role played by public events in this evolution are enough to remind us that Greek literature—all ancient Greek literature, at least—is anchored in the

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life of the community: the author is first and always a citizen. Literary genres like drama are organized around civic festivals. Others, like history, take the city-state and its destiny as their theme. And philosophy itself, at least in the classical period, never ceases to be moral and political philosophy. This com­ mon concern explains the fact that the authors' lives share a common rhythm and that influences are felt from one genre to another. This civic focus— which, incidentally, is as characteristic of French as of Greek literature­ makes a chronological organization particularly necessary and particularly impracticable. In the long run, the imperfections of my account will not weigh too heav­ ily if my readers are willing to correct their impressions by turning to the texts themselves. The present work aims merely to whet the appetite and to serve as a framework or guide. The only way to know a literature is to read it; this short history is intended as an invitation to that reading.

Map of Greece and Greek Asia Minor in Classical Times

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