GREEK WRITERS OF

MYTHOLOGY
Homer

(Epic Poet, Greek, c. 750 - c. 700 BCE)

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the

ancient Greek epic poems “The Iliad” and 
“The Odyssey”, widely thought to be the first extant
works of Western literature. He is considered by many
to be the earliest and most important of all the Greek
writers, and the progenitor of the whole Western
literary tradition.
2
Homer is traditionally held to be the author
of the ancient Greek epic poems “The Iliad
” and “The Odyssey”, widely thought to be
the first extant works of Western literature.
He is considered by many to be the earliest
and most important of all the Greek writers,
and the progenitor of the whole Western
literary tradition.
Biography – Who is Homer 

Nothing definite is
known of Homer the
historical man, and
indeed we do not
know for sure that
such a man ever
existed.

4
However, of the many conflicting traditions
and legends that have grown up around
him, the most common and most
convincing version suggests that Homer
was born at Smyrna in the Ionian region of
Asia Minor (or possibly on the island of
Chios), and that he died on the Cycladic
island of Ios.

5
Establishing an accurate date for
Homer’s life also presents significant
difficulties as no documentary record
of the man’s life is known to have
existed. Indirect reports from
Herodotus and others generally date
him approximately between 750 and
700 BCE.
6
The characterization of Homer as
a blind bard by some historians is
partly due to translations of the
Greek “homêros“, meaning
“hostage” or “he who is forced to
follow”, or, in some dialects,
“blind”. 7
Some ancient accounts depict Homer as
a wandering minstrel, and a common
portayal is of a blind, begging singer who
travelled around the harbour towns of
Greece, associating with shoemakers,
fisherman, potters, sailors and elderly
men in the town gathering places.

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Writings – Homer’s works

Exactly what Homer was responsible for

writing is likewise largely
unsubstantiated. The Greeks of the 6th
and early 5th Centuries BCE tended to
use the label “Homer” for the whole body
of early heroic hexameter verse.
9
This included “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”,
but also the whole “Epic Cycle” of poems
relating the story of the Trojan War (also known
as the “Trojan Cycle”), as well as the Theban
poems about Oedipus and other works, such as
the “Homeric Hymns” and the comic mini-
epic “Batrachomyomachia” (“The Frog-Mouse
War”).

10
By around 350 BCE, the consensus had
arisen that Homer was responsible for just
the two outstanding epics, “The Iliad” and 
“The Odyssey”. Stylistically they are
similiar, and one view holds that “The Iliad”
 was composed by Homer in his maturity,
while “The Odyssey” was a work of his old
age. 
11
Other parts of the “Epic
Cycle”(e.g. “Kypria”, “Aithiopus”, “Little
Iliad”, “The Sack of Ilion”, “The
Returns” and “Telegony”) are now
considered to be almost certainly not by
Homer. The “Homeric Hymns” and “Epigrams
of Homer”, despite the names, were likewise
almost certainly written significantly later, and
therefore not by Homer himself.

12
Some maintain that the Homeric poems are
dependent on an oral tradition, a generations-old
technique that was the collective inheritance of
many singer-poets. The Greek alphabet was
introduced (adapted from a Phoenician syllabary) in
the early 8th Century BCE, so it is possible that
Homer himself (if indeed he was a single, real
person) was one of the first generation of authors
who were also literate.

13
At any rate, it seems likely that
Homer’s poems were recorded
shortly after the invention of the
Greek alphabet, and third-party
references to “The Iliad” appear
as early as about 740 BCE.
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The language used by Homer is an
archaic version of Ionic Greek, with
admixtures from certain other dialects
such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as
the basis of Epic Greek, the language
of epic poetry, typically written in
dactylic hexameter verse.

15
In the Hellenistic period, Homer appears to have
been the subject of a hero cult in several cities,
and there is evidence of a shrine devoted to him
in Alexandria by Ptolemy IV Philopator in the late
3rd Century BCE.
Major Works
• “The Iliad”
• “The Odyssey”
 Sophocles
(Tragic Playwright, Greek, c. 496 – c. 406 BCE)
Sophocles (Sophokles) was the second of the three great
ancient Greek tragedians (after Aeschylus and before 
Euripides) whose work has survived. Only seven of his
123 plays have survived in a complete form but, for
almost fifty years, he was the most-awarded playwright in
the Dionysia dramatic competitions of the city-state of
Athens.

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Sophocles was an important influence
on the development of the drama, most
importantly by adding a third actor (and
thereby reducing the importance of the
Chorus in the presentation of the plot)
and by developing his characters to a
greater extent than earlier playwrights
such as Aeschylus.
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Biography
Sophocles was born in about
496 BCE, the son of
Sophillus, a wealthy armour
manufacturer in the rural
community of Hippeios
Colonus in Attica, just
outside Athens, which would
later become a setting for at
least one of Sophocles’
plays.
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His artistic career
began in earnest in
468 BCE when he took
first prize in the
Dionysia theatre
competition over the
reigning master of
Athenian drama, 
Aeschylus.

20
He became a man of importance in
the public halls of Athens as well
as in the theatres, and he was
elected as one of ten strategoi,
high executive officials that
commanded the armed forces, as
a junior colleague of Pericles.
21
In 443 BCE, he served as one of the
hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena,
helping to manage the finances of the city
during the political ascendancy of Pericles,
and in 413 BCE, he was elected one of the
commissioners crafting a response to the
catastrophic destruction of the Athenian
expeditionary force in Sicily during the
Peloponnesian War.
22
Sophocles died at the venerable age of
ninety in 406 or 405 BCE, having seen
within his lifetime both the Greek triumph in
the Persian Wars and the terrible
bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War. His
son, Iophon, and a grandson, also called
Sophocles, followed in his footsteps to
become playwrights themselves.

23
Writings

Among Sophocles’ earliest innovations was

the addition of a third actor (an idea which the
old master Aeschylus himself also adopted
towards the end of his life), which further
reduced the role of the Chorus and created
greater opportunity for the deeper
development of character and additional
conflict between characters.
24
Most of his plays show an
undercurrent of fatalism and the
beginnings of the use of Socratic
logic in drama. After Aeschylus’
death in 456 BCE, Sophocles
became the pre-eminent playwright
in Athens.
25
Sophocles respected Aeschylus enough to imitate
his work early on in his career, although he always
had some reservations about his style. However,
Sophocles went on to a second stage which was
entirely his own, introducing new ways of evoking
feeling out of an audience, and then a third stage,
distinct from the other two, in which he paid more
heed to diction, and in which his characters spoke in
a way that was more natural to them and more
expressive of their individual character feelings.
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Only seven plays of his prodigious output
have survived in a complete form: “Ajax”, 
“Antigone” and “The Trachiniae” from
among his early works; “Oedipus the King”
 (often considered his magnum opus) from
his middle period; and “Electra”, 
“Philoctetes” and “Oedipus at Colonus”,
which were probably written during the latter
part of his career.
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The three so-called “Theban plays” (
“Antigone”, “Oedipus the King” and 
“Oedipus at Colonus”) are perhaps the
best known, although they were written
separately over a period of about 36
years and were never intended to form a
consistent trilogy.

28
Fragments of many other plays by
Sophocles also exist, in varying sizes and
conditions, including fragments
of “Ichneutae” (“The Tracking Satyrs”), the
best preserved satyr play after Euripides‘ 
“Cyclops” (a satyr play is an ancient Greek
form of tragicomedy, similar to the modern-
day burlesque style).
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Major Works

• “Ajax”
• “Antigone”
• “The Trachiniae”
• “Oedipus the King”
• “Electra”
• “Philoctetes”
• “Oedipus at Colonus”

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 Euripedes
(Tragic Playwright, Greek, c. 480 – c. 406 BCE)

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of

classical Greece (the other two being Aeschylus and 
Sophocles). Largely due to an accident of history,
eighteen of Euripides’ ninety-five plays have survived in
a complete form, along with fragments (some
substantial) of many of his other plays.

31
He is known primarily for having reshaped the
formal structure of traditional Greek
tragedy by showing strong female characters
and intelligent slaves, and by satirizing many
heroes of Greek mythology. He is considered
to be the most socially critical of all the ancient
Greek tragedians, and his plays seem quite
modern in comparison with those of his
contemporaries.
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Biography – Who is Euripides
According to
legend, Euripides was
born in Salamis
480 BCE, at the location
and on the day of the
Persian War’s greatest
naval battle (although
other sources estimate
that he was born as early
as 485 or 484 BCE).
33
His family was probably a
wealthy and influential one,
and as a youth he served
as a cup-bearer for Apollo’s
dancers, although he later
grew to question the
religion he grew up with,
exposed as he was to
philosphers and thinkers
such as Protagoras,
Socrates and Anaxagoras.
34
He was married twice, to Choerile and
Melito, and had three sons and a daughter
(who, it was rumoured, was killed after an
attack by a rabid dog). We have little or no
record of Euripides’ public life. It is likely that
he engaged in various public or political
activities during his lifetime, and that he
travelled to Syracuse in Sicily on at least
one occasion.
35
According to tradition, Euripides wrote his
tragedies in a sanctuary, known as The Cave
of Euripides, on Salamis Island, just off the
coast from Piraeus. He first competed in the
Dionysia, the famous Athenian dramatic
festival, in 455 BCE, a year after the death of 
Aeschylus (he came in third, reportedly
because he refused to cater to the fancies of
the judges).
36
In fact, it was not until 441 BCE that he
won first prize, and over the course of
his lifetime, he claimed just four victories
(and one posthumous victory for 
“The Bacchae”), many of his plays
being considered too controversial and
non-traditional for the Greek audiences
of the day.
37
Embittered over his defeats in the
Dionysia playwriting competitions,
he left Athens in 408 BCE at the
invitation of King Archelaus I of
Macedon, and he lived out his
remaining days in Macedonia.

38
He is believed to have died there in the
winter 407 or 406 BCE, possibly due to
his first exposure to the harsh
Macedonia winter (although an
improbable variety of other
explanations for his death have also
been suggested, such as that he was
killed by hunting dogs, or torn apart by
women).
39
Writings

The relatively large number of extant plays of

Euripides (eighteen, with as many again in
fragmentary form) is largely due to a freak
accident, with the discovery of the “E-K”
volume of a multi-volume alphabetically-
arranged collection which had lain in a
monastic collection for around eight hundred
years. 
40
His best known works include “Alcestis”, 
“Medea”, “Hecuba”, 
“The Trojan Women” and 
“The Bacchae”, as well as “Cyclops”,
the only complete satyr play (an ancient
Greek form of tragicomedy, similar to the
modern-day burlesque style) known to
survive.
41
To the plot innovations introduced
by Aeschylus and Sophocles, 
Euripides added new levels of
intrigue and elements of comedy,
and also created the love-drama.

42
It has been suggested by some that Euripides’
realistic characterizations sometimes came at
the expense of a realistic plot, and it is true that
he sometimes relied on the “deus ex
machina” (a plot device in which someone or
something, often a god or goddess, is
introduced suddenly and unexpectedly to
provide a contrived solution to an apparently
insoluble difficulty) to resolve his plays.
43
Some commentators have observed
that Euripides’ focus on the realism of his
characters was just too modern for his time,
and his use of realistic characters (Medea is a
good example) with recognizable emotions
and a developed, multi-faceted personality
may actually have been one reason why
Euripides was less popular in his own time
than some of his rivals
44
He was certainly no stranger to
criticism, and was frequently
denounced as a blasphemer and
misogynist (a rather strange charge
given the complexity of his female
characters) and condemned as an
inferior craftsman, especially in
comparison to Sophocles.
45
By the end of the 4th Century BCE,
however, his dramas had became the most
popular of all, in part due to the simplicity of
the language of his plays. His works strongly
influenced later New Comedy and Roman
drama, and were later idolized by the 17th
Century French classicists such as Corneille
and Racine, and his influence on drama
reaches modern times.
46
Major Works

• “Alcestis” • “Iphigenia in Tauris”

• “Medea” • “Ion”
• “Heracleidae” • “Helen”
• “Hippolytus” • “The Phoenician Wome
n”
• “Andromache”
• “The Bacchae”
• “Hecuba”
• “Orestes”
• “The Suppliants”
• “Iphigenia at Aulis”
• “Electra”
• “Cyclops”
• “Heracles”
• “The Trojan Women”

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Aristophanes - Father of Comedy

(Comic Playwright, Greek, c. 446 – c. 386 BCE)

Aristophanes was a prolific and much acclaimed
comic playwright of ancient Greece,
sometimes referred to as the Father of Comedy.
Eleven of his forty plays have come down to us
virtually complete (along with up to with 1,000 brief
fragments of other works), and are the only real
examples we have of a genre of comic drama
known as Old Comedy. 

48
Aristophanes’ works recreate the life
of ancient Athens perhaps more
convincingly than those of any other
author, although his biting satire and
ridicule of his contemporaries often
came close to slander.

49
Biography – Who is Aristophanes

Unfortunately, we know less about

Aristophanes the man than we do
about his plays, and most of what we
do know about him is through
references in the plays themselves.
Oblique references in later plays
suggest that he was probably born
around 446 or 448 BCE, possibly the
son of a man named Philippos from
the island of Aegina, although he
was almost certainly educated in
Athens.
50
He was writing at a time after the euphoria of
Greece’s military victories over the Persians,
when the Peloponnesian War had largely
curtailed Athens’ ambitions as an imperial
power. However, although Athens’ empire had
been largely dismantled, it had nevertheless
become the intellectual centre of Greece, and
Aristophanes was an important figure in this
change in intellectual fashions.
51
From his caricatures of the leading figures in
the arts (notably Euripides), in politics
(especially the dictator Cleon), and in
philosophy and religion (Socrates), he
often gives the impression of being something
of an old-fashioned conservative, and his
plays often espouse opposition to the radical
new influences in Athenian society.

52
He was, however, not afraid to take risks. His first
play, “The Banqueters” (now lost), won second
prize at the annual City Dionysia drama competition
in 427 BCE, and his next play, “The
Babylonians” (also now lost), won first prize. His
polemical satires in these popular plays caused
some embarrasment for the Athenian authorities,
and some influential citizens (notably Cleon)
subsequently sought to prosecute the young
dramatist on a charge of slandering the Athenian
polis.
53
It soon became apparent, though,
that (unlike impiety) there was no
legal redress for slander in a play,
and the court case certainly did not
stop Aristophanes from repeatedly
savaging and caricaturing Cleon in
his later plays.
54
Despite the highly political stance of
his plays, Aristophanes managed to
survive The Peloponnesian War, two
oligarchic revolutions and two
democratic restorations, so it can be
assumed that he was not actively
involved in politics.
55
He was probably appointed to the Council of
Five Hundred for a year at the beginning of the
4th Century BCE, a common appointment in
democratic Athens. The genial characterization
of Aristophanes in Plato’s “The
Symposium”has been interpreted as
evidence of Plato’s own friendship with him,
despite Aristophanes’ cruel caricature of
Plato’s teacher Socrates in “The Clouds”.

56
As far as we know, Aristophanes was
victorious only once at the City Dionysia,
although he also won the less prestigious
Lenaia competition at least three times.
He apparently lived to a ripe old age, and
our best guess as to his date of death is
around 386 or 385 BCE, perhaps as late
as 380 BCE.
57
At least three of his sons (Araros,
Philippus and a third son called
either Nicostratus or Philetaerus)
were themselves comic poets and
later winners of the Lenaia, as well
as producers of their father’s plays.

58
Writings – Aristophanes plays

The surviving plays of Aristophanes, in

chronological order spanning a period from 425 to
388 BCE, are: “The Acharnians”, “The Knights”, 
“The Clouds”, “The Wasps”, “Peace”, 
“The Birds”, “Lysistrata”, “Thesmophoriazusae”
, “The Frogs”, “Ecclesiazusae” and 
“Plutus (Wealth)”. Of these, perhaps the best
known are “Lysistrata”, “The Wasps” and 
“The Birds”.
59
Comic drama (what is now known as
Old Comedy) was already well-
established by Aristophanes’ time,
although the first official comedy was
not staged at the City Dionysia until
487 BCE, by which time tragedy had
already been long established there.
60
It was under the comic genius of
Aristophanes that Old Comedy received
its fullest development, and he was able
to contrast infinitely graceful poetic
language with vulgar and offensive
jests, adapting the same versification
forms of the tragedians to his own aims.

61
During Aristophanes’ time, though, there was a
discernable trend from Old Comedy to New
Comedy (perhaps best exemplified by 
Menander, almost a century later), involving a
trend away from the topical emphasis on real
individuals and local issues of Old Comedy,
towards a more cosmopolitan emphasis on
generalized situations and stock characters,
increasing levels of complexity and more
realistic plots.
62
Major Works

• “The Acharnians”
• “The Knights”
• “The Clouds”
• “The Wasps”
• “Peace”
• “The Birds”
• “Lysistrata”
• “Thesmophoriazusae”
• “The Frogs”
• “Ecclesiazusae”
• “Plutus (Wealth)”
63
Hesiod
Introduction
 Hesiod is often
paired with his near
contemporary Homer
as one of the earliest
Greek poets whose
work has survived.
64
 He is considered the creator of
didactic poetry (instructive and
moralizing poetry), and his writings
serve as a major source on Greek
mythology (Theogony) farming
techniques, archaic Greek astronomy
and ancient time-keeping (Works and
Days).
65
Biography
 As with Homer, legendary traditions
have accumulated around Hesiod,
although we do have at least some
biographical details from references in
his own works.

66
 His father came from Cyme in Aeolis,
(modern day western Turkey), but
crossed the sea to settle in a small
village in Boeotia at the foot of Mount
Helicon in Greece.

67
 As a youth, he worked as a shepherd
in the mountains, and then, when his
father died, as a small farmer working
hard land.

68
 Hesiod claimed to have been granted
the gift of poetic inspiration by the
Muses themselves (who traditionally
lived on Mount Helicon) while he was
out tending sheep one day.

69
Muses
 Greek goddesses of poetic inspiration,
the adored deities of song, dance, and
memory, on whose mercy the
creativity, wisdom and insight of all
artists and thinkers depended. They
may have been originally three in
number, but, according to Hesiod and
the prevailing tradition he established,
most commonly they are depicted as
the nine daughters
of Zeus and Mnemosyne.
70
 After losing a lawsuit to his brother
Perses over the distribution of his
father’s land, he left his homeland and
moved to the region of Naupactus in
the Gulf of Corinth.

71
 Hesiod’s dates are uncertain, but
leading scholars generally agree that
he lived in the latter half of the 8th
Century BCE, probably shortly after
Homer.
 His major works are thought to have
been written around 700 BCE.
72
 Different traditions regarding Hesiod’s
death have him dying either in the
temple of Nemean Zeus at Locris,
murdered by the sons of his host in
Oeneon, or at Orchomenus in
Boeotia.
73
Writings
 Of the many works attributed in
ancient times to Hesiod, three survive
in complete form (“Works and Days”,
“Theogony” and “The Shield of
Heracles”) and many more in form 
fragmentary state.
74
 However, most scholars now consider
“The Shield of Heracles” and most of
the other poetic fragments attributed
to him as later examples of the poetic
tradition to which Hesiod belonged,
and not as the work of Hesiod himself.
75
 Unlike the epic poetry of Homer, who
wrote from the point of view of the rich
and the nobility, “Works and Days” is
written from the point view of the
small independent farmer, probably in
the wake of the dispute between
Hesiod and his brother Perses over
the distribution of his father’s land.
76
 It is a didactic poem, filled with moral
precepts as well as myths and fables,
and it is largely this (rather than its
literary merit) that made it highly
valued by the ancients.

77
 A didactic poem is directly and
unapologetically instructional or
informational: it teaches or explains
something such as a truth, a moral, a
principle or a process. The English
word "didactic" derives from the
Greek didaktikos ("able to teach or
instruct").
78
 The 800 verses of  “Works and
Days” revolve around two general
truths: that labor is the universal lot of
Man, but he who is willing to work will
always get by.

79
 It contains advice and wisdom,
prescribing a life of honest labor
(which is portrayed as the source of all
good) and attacking idleness and
unjust judges and the practice of
usury.
80
 It also lays out the “Five Ages of Man”,
the first extant account of the
successive ages of mankind.
 Golden Age
 Silver Age
 Bronze Age
 Age of Heroes
 Iron Age
81
 “Theogony” uses the same epic
verse-form as “Works and Day” and,
despite the very different subject
matter, most scholars believe that the
two works were indeed written by the
same man.
82
 It is essentially a large-scale synthesis
of a vast variety of local Greek
traditions concerning the gods, and
concerns the origins of the world and
of the gods, beginning with Chaos and
his progeny, Gaia and Eros.
83
 The better known anthropomorphic
deities like Zeus only come to the fore
in the third generation, long after the
early powers and the Titans, when
Zeus wins a struggle against his father
and thereby becomes king of the
gods.

84
 Anthropomorphic deities exhibited
human qualities such as beauty,
wisdom, and power, and sometimes
human weaknesses such as greed,
hatred, jealousy, and uncontrollable
anger.
85
 According to the historian Herodotus,
Hesiod’s retelling of the old stories
became, despite the various different
historical traditions, the definitive and
accepted version that linked all
Greeks in ancient times.
86
Major Works
 “Works and Days”
 “Theogony”

87
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek fubulist and
storyteler credited with a number
of fables now collectively known as 
Aesop's Fables. Although his
existence remains unclear and no
writings by him survive, numerous
tales credited to him were gathered
across the centuries and in many
languages in a storytelling tradition
that continues to this day.
88
 Many of the tales are characterized by animals
and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems,
and generally have human characteristics. Little is
known about the ancient Greek writer Aesop (c. 620
B.C.E.–c. 560 B.C.E.), whose stories of clever
animals and foolish humans are considered Western
civilization's first morality tales. He was said to have
been a slave who earned his freedom through his
storytelling and went on to serve as advisor to a king.

89
 Both his name and the animist tone of his tales
have led some scholars to believe he may have been
Ethiopian in origin.
Aesop never wrote down any of the tales himself;
he merely recited them orally. The first recorded
mention of his life came about a hundred years after
he died, in a work by the eminent Greek historian
Herodotus, who noted that he was a slave of one
Iadmon of Samos and died at Delphi.

90
 Anthropomorphism, or animals with human
capabilities, is the common thread throughout
Aesop's fables. The most famous among them are
"The Tortoise and the Hare," in which the plodding
turtle and the energetic rabbit hold a race. The
arrogant hare is so confident that he rests and falls
asleep halfway; the wiser tortoise plods past and
wins. "Slow but steady wins the race," the fable
concludes.

91
 According to myth, Aesop won such fame
throughout Greece for his tales that he became the
target of resentment and perhaps even a political
witch-hunt. He was accused of stealing a gold cup
from Delphi temple to the god Apollo and was
supposedly tossed from the cliffs at Delphi as
punishment for the theft.
His tales told of human folly and the abuses of
power, and he lived during a period of tyrannical rule
in Greece.
92
His defense, it is said, was the fable "The Eagle and
the Beetle," in which a hare, being preyed upon by an
eagle, asks the beetle for protection. The small insect
agrees, but the eagle fails to see it and strikes the
hare, killing it. From then on, the beetle watched the
eagle's nest and shook it when there were eggs
inside, which then fell to the ground. Worried about
her inability to reproduce, the eagle asks a god for
help, and the deity offers to store the eggs in its lap.

93
The beetle learns of this and puts a ball of dirt there
among the eggs, and the god—in some accounts
Zeus, in others Jupiter—rises, startled, and the eggs
fall out. For this reason, it is said, eagles never lay
their eggs during the season when beetles flourish.
"No matter how powerful one's position may be,
there is nothing that can protect the oppressor from
the vengeance of the oppressed" is the moral
associated with this particular fable.

94
Famous Works
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
• The Goose That Laid the Golden
Egg
• The Lion and the Mouse
• The Tortoise and the Hare
• The Ant and the Grasshopper

95
Sappho
Sappho was an Archaic Greek
poet from the island of Lesbos.
Sappho is known for her lyric
poetry, written to be sung
while accompanied by a lyre. In
ancient times, Sappho was
widely regarded as one of the
greatest lyric poets and was
given names such as the "Tenth
Muse" and "The Poetess".
96
Biography
Little is known of Sappho's life. She was
from a wealthy family from Lesbos,
though her parents' names are
uncertain. Ancient sources say that she
had three brothers; the names of two
of them, Charaxos and Larichos, are
mentioned in the Brothers Poem
discovered in 2014. 97
She was exiled to Sicily around 600
BC, and may have continued to
work until around 570. Later
legends surrounding Sappho's love
for the ferryman Phaon and her
death are unreliable
98
Writings
Sappho was a prolific poet, probably
composing around 10,000 lines. Her
poetry was well-known and greatly
admired through much of antiquity, and
she was among the canon of nine lyric
poets most highly esteemed by
scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria.
99
The earliest surviving manuscripts of Sappho,
including the potsherd on which fragment 2 is
preserved, date to the third century BC, and thus
predate the Alexandrian edition. The latest
surviving copies of Sappho’s poems transmitted
directly from ancient times are written on
parchment codex pages from the sixth and
seventh centuries AD, and were surely
reproduced from ancient papyri now lost.
100
▷ According to legend, Sappho's poetry was lost
because the church disapproved of her morals.These
legends appear to have originated in the renaissance
– around 1550.
▷ Jerome Cardan wrote that Gregory Nazianzen had
Sappho's work publicly destroyed, and at the end of
the sixteenth century Joseph Justus Scaliger claimed
that Sappho's works were burned in Rome and
Constantinople in 1073 on the orders of Pope
Gregory VII.

101
In reality, Sappho's work was probably lost as
the demand for it was insufficiently great for
it to be copied onto parchment when codices
superseded papyrus scrolls as the
predominant form of book. Another
contributing factor to the loss of Sappho's
poems may have been the perceived
obscurity of her Aeolic dialect, which contains
many archaisms and innovations absent from
other ancient Greek dialects.
102
Manuscript copies of Sappho's works
may have survived a few centuries
longer, but around the 9th century her
poetry appears to have
disappeared,and by the twelfth
century, John Tzetzes could write that
"the passage of time has destroyed
Sappho and her works".
103
Sappho's poetry is still considered
extraordinary and her works continue to
influence other writers. Beyond her
poetry, she is well known as a symbol of
love and desire between women, with the
English words sapphic and lesbian being
derived from her own name and the name
of her home island respectively.
104
▷ Whilst her importance as a poet is confirmed
from the earliest times, all interpretations of
her work have been coloured and influenced
by discussions of her sexuality.
▷ Sappho clearly worked within a well-
developed tradition of Lesbian poetry, which
had evolved its own poetic diction, meters,
and conventions. Among her famous poetic
forebears were Arion and Terpander
105
Nonetheless, her work is innovative; it is
some of the earliest Greek poetry to adopt
the "lyric 'I'" – to write poetry adopting the
viewpoint of a specific person, in contrast
to the earlier epic poets Homer and
Hesiod, who present themselves more as
"conduits of divine inspiration".

106
Her poetry explores individual
identity and personal emotions –
desire, jealousy, and love; it also
adopts and reinterprets the
existing imagery of epic poetry in
exploring these themes.
107
Sappho's poetry is known for its clear
language and simple thoughts, sharply-
drawn images, and use of direct
quotation which brings a sense of
immediacy.Unexpected word-play is a
characteristic feature of her style.

108
Today Sappho, for many, is a symbol of
female homosexuality; the common term
lesbian is an allusion to Sappho, originating
from the name of the island of Lesbos,
where she was born.However, she has not
always been so considered. In classical
Athenian comedy (from the Old Comedy of
the fifth century to Menander in the late
fourth and early third centuries BC).
109
Sappho was caricatured as a
promiscuous heterosexual
woman,and it is not until the
Hellenistic period that the first
testimonia which explicitly discuss
Sappho's homoeroticism are
preserved. 110
All critical comment is, of course,
embedded in the values of its
time, and the world view of the
person writing it. Today, it is
generally accepted that Sappho's
poetry portrays homoerotic
feelings. 111
Major Works
▷ Sappho 2 ▷ Ode to
▷ Sappho 16 Aprhodite
▷ Midnight Poem
▷ Sappho 31
▷ Brothers Poem
▷ Sappho 44 ▷ Tithonus Poem
▷ Sappho 94

112
Pindar
Introduction
Pindar was one of the most
famous ancient Greek lyric
poets, and perhaps the best
known of the canonical nine
lyric poets of ancient Greece.
113
▷ He was regarded in antiquity as the
greatest of Greek poets and the esteem
of the ancients may help explain why a
good portion of his work was carefully
preserved (most of the other Greek lyric
poems come down to us only in
fragments, but nearly a quarter of all
Pindar’s poems survive complete).
114
▷He is particularly known for his
epinicia (or victory odes) in
honour of notable personages
and winners of athletic games.

115
Biography
▷ Pindar was born around the year 522 or 518 BCE in
the village of Cynoscephalae near Thebes in
Boeotia, the son of Daiphantus and Cleodice. His
family traced their line to the noble clan of the
Aegidae of Thebes, and thence back to the
legendary founder of Thebes, Cadmus. He married
Megacleia and they had two daughters, Eumetis
and Protomache, and a son, Daiphantus.

116
▷ Although Pindar was probably related to
individuals and groups who sided with
Persia during the the Medean wars in
490 and 480 BCE, his career does not
seem to have suffered much by this
association, and, soon after the war, his
reputation as a poet spread throughout
the Greek world and its colonies.
117
▷His house in Thebes was
deliberately spared by Alexander
the Great in recognition of the
complimentary works Pindar had
composed about and for his
ancestor, King Alexander I of
Macedon.
118
▷ Pindar travelled extensively throughout the
Greek world to attend to his various patrons,
including trips to the court of Hieron of
Syracuse in 476 BCE (where he may have
met some of the other great poets of the time
who were attracted to Syracuse,
including Aeschylus and Simonides), to the
courts of Theron of Acragas and Arcesilas of
Cyrene, and to the cities of Delphi and
Athens.
119
▷Eleven of his 45 odes were written
for Aeginetans, which makes it
likely that he also visited the
powerful island of Aegina.

120
Writings
Pindar wrote many choral works, such as
paeans, songs and hymns for religious
festivals, known to us only by quotations in
other ancient authors or from papyrus scraps
unearthed in Egypt. However, 45 of his
“epinicia” survive in complete form and these
are anyway considered his masterworks.

121
▷An “epinicion” is a lyric ode in
honour of notable personages
(such as winners of the athletic
games which were so popular in
ancient Greece), designed to be
sung by a Chorus in celebration of
a victory.
122
▷ His extant victory odes are grouped in
four books based on the games in which
the celebrated winner had competed,
the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and
Nemean games, the most famous
being “Olympian Ode 1” and “Pythian
Ode 1” (from 476 BCE and
470 BCE respectively).
123
▷ Pindar’s odes are complex in
construction and rich and allusive in
style, packed with dense parallels
between the athletic victor and his
illustrious ancestors, as well as
allusions to the myths of deities and
heroes which underlie the athletic
festivals.
124
▷ They employ the traditional triadic or three
stanza structure, comprising a strophe (first
stanza, chanted when the Chorus danced to
the left), an antistrophe (second stanza,
chanted when the Chorus danced to the
right) and a concluding epode (third stanza,
in a different metre, chanted when the
Chorus stood still mid-stage).

125
Major Works

▷“Olympian Ode 1”
▷“Pythian Ode 1”

126
Aeschylus
Introduction
Aeschylus (Aiskhylos) is often
recognized as the father of
tragedy, and is the first of the
three early Greek tragedians
whose plays survive extant (the
other two being Sophocles and 
Euripides).
127
▷ In fact, by expanding the number of characters
in plays to allow for conflict among them
(previously, only a single character interacted
with the Chorus) he was arguably the founder
of all serious Greek drama (although some
credit that honour to Phrynichus or the even
earlier Thespis). Only seven of over seventy
plays written by Aeschylus have survived into
modern times, the best known being 
“The Oresteia” trilogy.
128
Biography – Who Was Aeschylus?
▷ There are few reliable sources for the life of
Aeschylus. He was said to have been born in about
525 or 524 BCE in Eleusis, a small town just
northwest of Athens. As a youth, he worked at a
vineyard until, according to tradition, the god
Dionysus visited him in his sleep and commanded
him to turn his attention to the nascent art of
tragedy. 

129
▷ His first play was performed when he was
only 26 years old (in 499 BCE), and fifteen
years later he won his first prize at Athens’
annual Dionysia playwriting competition.

130
▷ Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought
to defend Athens against Darius’s invading
Persian army at the Battle of Marathon in
490 BCE and, although the Greeks won a
famous victory against apparently
overwhelming odds, Cynegeirus died in the
battle, which had a profound effect on
Aeschylus. 131
▷ He continued to write plays, although he
was called into military service against the
Persians again in 480 BCE, this time against
Xerxes’ invading forces at the Battle of Salamis.
This naval battle holds a prominent place in 
“The Persians”, his oldest surviving play, which
was performed in 472 BCE and won first prize at
the Dionysia. In fact, by 473 BCE, after the death
of his chief rival Phrynichus, Aeschylus was
winning first prize in nearly every competition at
the Dionysia.
132
He was an adherent of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, a mystical,
secretive cult dedicated to the
Earth-mother goddess Demeter,
which was based in his hometown
of Eleusis. According to some
reports, an attempt was made on
his life while he was acting on
stage, possibly because he
revealed a secret of the Eleusinian
Mysteries
1
He made several visits to the important Greek city of
Syracuse in Sicily at the invitation of the tyrant
Hieron, and it is thought that he also travelled
extensively in the region of Thrace. He returned to
Sicily for the last time in 458 BCE and it was there
that he died, while visiting the city of Gela in 456 or
455 BCE, traditionally (although almost certainly
apocryphally) by a tortoise which fell out of the sky
after it was dropped by an eagle. 

134
▷ Interestingly, the inscription on Aeschylus’
gravestone makes no mention of his theatrical
renown, commemorating only his military
achievements. His sons, Euphorion and Euæon, and
his nephew, Philocles, followed in his footsteps and
became playwrights themselves.

135
 Writings
▷ Only seven of an estimated seventy to
ninety tragedies written by Aeschylus have survived
intact: “Agamemnon”, “The Libation Bearers” and 
“The Eumenides” (these three forming a trilogy
collectively known as “The Oresteia”), “The Persians”
, “The Suppliants”, “Seven Against Thebes” and 
“Prometheus Bound” (whose authorship is now
disputed). 

136
▷ All of these plays, with the possible exception
of “Prometheus Bound”, are known to have
taken the first prize at the City Dionysia,
which Aeschylus won thirteen times in total.
Although “The Oresteia” is the only wholly
extant example of a connected trilogy, there
is ample evidence that Aeschylus often wrote
such trilogies.

137
▷ At the time that Aeschylus first began
writing, the theatre had only just begun
to evolve in Greece, usually involving
just a single actor and a
Chorus. Aeschylus added the
innovation of a second actor,
allowing for greater dramatic variety,
and gave the Chorus a less important
role. 138
▷ He is also sometimes credited with introducing
scene-decoration (although this distinction is
sometimes ascribed to Sophocles) and more
elaborate and dramatic costuming. In general, though,
he continued to write within the very strict bounds
of Greek drama: his plays were written in verse, no
violence could be performed on stage, and the works
had a strong moral and religious emphasis.

139
 Major Works
▷ “The Persians”
▷ “The Suppliants”
▷ “Seven Against Thebes”
▷ “Agamemnon” (Part 1 of “The Oresteia”)
▷ “The Libation Bearers” (Part 2 of “The Oresteia”)
▷ “The Eumenides” (Part 3 of “The Oresteia”)
▷ “Prometheus Bound”
140
Apollonius of Rhodes
Introduction
 Apollonius of Rhodes (Apollonius
Rhodius) was an innovative and
influential Hellenistic Greek epic
poet, best known as the author of
the epic poem “The Argonautica
”, the popular myth of Jason and
the Argonauts’quest for the
Golden Fleece.
141
 Following in the ancient tradition of Homer, Apollonius
provided a more contemporary model for subsequent
Latin poets, particularly Vergil, but also Catullus and 
Ovid.

142
Biography
▷ Very little is known about the life of
Apollonius, and even his connection with
the island of Rhodes is actually mere
speculation. Biographical information from
other scholars is sparse and often
contradictory, and even his own works
offer little or no biographical details.
143
 The best we can say is that Apollonius
was born some time in the early 3rd
Century BCE, probably in Alexandria,
Egypt, or possibly further south in
Naucratis, and that his mother may (or
may not) have been from the Greek island
of Rhodes.
144
▷ He was a student (or at least a contemporary)
of the Hellenistic poet and scholar
Callimachus. He was, for a time, the head of
the prestigious Library of Alexandria, a position
in which he succeeded Zenodotus, and was in
turn succeeded by Eratosthenes (which would
have put Apollonius’ time there as prior to 246
BCE).
145
 Some reports indicate a high-profile literary feud
between Apollonius and the more flamboyant figure of
Callimachus, and this may even have been why
Apollonius removed himself from Alexander to Rhodes
for a time, but even this is questionable, and the dispute
may well have been sensationalized.

146
 Other reports have Apollonius removing himself to
Rhodes after his work was poorly received in
Alexandria, only to return to great acclaim after a
significant redrafting and reworking of his “Argonautica
”.

147
 Writings
 Apollonius was considered one of the foremost
scholars of Homer in Alexandrian times, and wrote
critical monographs on Homer, as well as on
Archilochus and Hesiod.

148
He is best known, though, for his “Argonautica”, a
Homer-style epic poem on Jason’s quest for the
Golden Fleece, and he may have tried to
incorporate into it elements of his own Homeric
research, as well as some of the recent Hellenistic
scientific advances in geography. For all that, recent
studies have established the “Argonautica”‘ ‘s
reputation as not merely a derivative reworking of 
Homer, but as a vibrant and successful epic in it’s
own right.
149
▷ His other poetry survives only in small
fragments, and mainly concern the
origins and founding of various cities,
such as Alexandria, Cnidus, Caunus,
Naucratis, Rhodes and Lesbos. These
“foundation-poems” have some geo-
political significance for Ptolemaic Egypt,
but they also relate to some extent to
parts of the “Argonautica”.
150
Major Works
▷ “The Argonautica”

151
152