Ancient Greek Literature and Society

Download or read book Ancient Greek Literature and Society written by Charles R. Beye and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles R. Beye here offers a lively and challenging overview of Greek literature from Homer to Apollonius of Rhodes, providing a coherent social and historical background to the era. Beye stresses the great distance that separates the twentieth century from the age and audience for which ancient Greek literature was intended. He emphasizes those aspects of antiquity which are apt to be most alien to modern-day readers, particularly the oral nature of early poetry and the public and political—and hence manipulative, conformist, and conventional—quality of much of the literature. He also notes the openly imitative practices of early authors and establishes the Homeric epics as the dominant informing feature of subsequent literature.