Classical Literature
Ancient Greek Literature The Early Period Epic Poetry
Homer - Odyssey (Ithaca King Odysseus kept 7 years on Ogygia by Calypso;
son Telemachus consults Nestor in Pylos and Menelaus in Sparta; wife Penelope makes shroud for father-in-law Laius; released by Zeus's orders, Odysseus tells Nausicaa, King Alcinous, and Queen Arete of Phaeacia Schereie about wanderings: raided Ciconians, visited Lotus-Eaters, blinded Polyphemus Cyclops, helped by King Aeolus of winds, destroyed by
Laestrygonian cannibals, turned to swine on Circe's Aeaea, saved by Hermes's moly herb, visited Tiresias in Hades, tried to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, passed Sirens, stole Helios's cattle on Thrinacia; Athene disguises Odysseus as beggar but recognized by swineherd Eumaeus, dog Argus, and nurse Eurycleia; kills wife
Penelope's suitors including Irus), Iliad (Troy: Agamemnon returns Chryseis and takes Achilles' Briseis; Paris fights Menelaus but rescued by Aphrodite;
Diomedes kills Pandarus; Hector bids farewell to Andromache; Ajax fights Hector; Agamemnon returns Briseus; Patroclus killed by Hector; Achilles avenges
friend despite warnin g of mom Thetis; river Xanthus fights Achilles; kills Hector;
Priam gets Hector's body; Ionic dialect, dactylic hexameter, c. 9th century BC) Cyclic poets - (poems about Trojan War and the Seven Against Thebes)
Peisander of Rhodes - Heracleia (about Hercules) Panyasis of Halicarnassus - another Heracleia
Antimachus of Colophonor Claros - Thebais (founder of learned school of epic poetry)
Unknown - Homeric Hymns, Battle of the Frogs and Mice Hesiod - Works and Days (about everyday life), Theogony Callinus of Ephesus - (first to use elegaic couplet)
Solon - (first Athens poet)
Archilochus of Paros - (first to use iambic verse) Lyric Poetry
Terpander of Lesvos - (first to use lyric poetry) Sappho of Lesvos - (woman, invented Sapphic strophe) Thaletas - (first choral lyric poet)
The Attic Period (6th - 4th Cent. BC, drama invented by Thespis 6th Cent. BC, honor Dionysus) Aesop (6th century BC Greek folk hero) - animal fables (popular English translation by
Samuel Croxall 1722)
Pindar ("Dircaean Swan") - Epinicia (celebrating victories or games) Tragedy
Aeschylus (of Athens) - (added 2nd actor),
Prometheus Bound (Prometheus is chained to Scythian mountain by Hephaestus under Zeus's orders for giving man fire; Oceanus tells Prometheus to stop defying Zeus; Iheifer Io tells of her sorrow;
Hermes tries to learn from Prometheus who will be mom of son that will
kill Zeus; Zeus sends him to Tartarus),
Oresteia (Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Iphigenia [sacrificed
daughter], Aegisthus [lover], Orestes [son, kills mom and her lover], Electra [sister]),
Seven Against Thebes (Oedipus's son Polynices with help of Eriphyle
and King Adrastus and Amphiaraus, who foresaw only Adrastus would survive, attack brother Eteocles for Theban throne; infant Opheltes died; Argives almost destroyed; horse Arion saved Adrastus;
brothers killed each other),
The Suppliant Women (King Pelasgus of Argos protects Danaus and his 50 daughters from brother Aegyptus, usurper of Egyptian throne, from herald of Aegyptus who wants them to marry his 50 sons), Agamemnon,
The Persians (Xerxes returns to mom Atossa in Susa after defeat) Sophocles -
Oedipus Rex (Thebes King Oedipus raised by King Polybus of Corith;
warned by Delphi he would kill dad and marry mom; killed real dad Laius on road; saved Thebes by answering Sphinx's riddle; given Laius's widow Jocasta and throne by Creon; Delphi told Creon to cast Laius's murderer out, whom Tiresias says is Oedipus; Jocasta commits suicide; Oedipus blinds self)
Antigone (Antigone buries brother Polyneices aginst order of Creon who executes her; sister Ismene spared; Antigone, Haemon, and Creon's wife Eurydice commit suicide),
Electra (Electra recognizes brother Orestes, who murders mom Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus)
Euripides - The Cyclops,
Electra (Aegisthus makes Electra marry an old farmer; Orestes and
Pylades murder Aegisthus and then Clytemnestra, who is portrayed as a victim unlike in Sophocles' Electra),
Hippolytus,
Orestes (Tyndareus, dad of Clytemnestra and Helen, convinces
Menelaus to execute Electra and Orestes; Electra, Orestes, and friend Pylades go to Argive Assembly and plan to kill Helen and take her daughter Hermione; Apollo [deus ex machina] dictates that Orestes marry Hermione, Electra marry Pylades, and takes Helen to sky as beacon for sailors),
The Bacchants (King Pentheus of Thebes torn to pieces by mom Agave),
Medea (Jason, Medea),
The Phoenician Women (story of Seven Against Thebes; Creon's son
Menoceus kills self to save city; Jocasta kills self; Antigone exiles self with dad Oedipus rather than marry Creon's son Haemon),
Iphigenia in Aulis (Agamemnon sacrifices daughter Iphigenia to get good winds in Aulis harbor),
Iphigenia in Tauris (Orestes and Pylades go to Tauris to rescue statue of Artemis, which Apollo said would cure Orestes' madness; high priestess Iphigenia recognizes brother and they escape with Athena's help),
Hecuba (Polyxena and Polydorus, the last 2 of Hecuba's 50 kids, are killed, and she takes revenge on Polymestor; Agamemnon decides against Polymestor),
The Suppliant Women (mothers of Seven Against Thebes ask Theseus to bury their sons),
Helen (Helen brought to Egypt and Paris abducts phantom like Helen;
Menelaus realizes Trojan War was pointless),
The Children of Heracles (Eurystheus makes Heracles do 12 labors;
Iolaus kills Eurystheus to free Heracles's children) The Trojan Women (Priam's widow Hecuba and their son Hector's
widow Andromache and mad Cassandra made slaves; Greeks sacrifice
Hector's sister Polyxena to Achilles' ghost and throw his son Astyanax from walls; Helen persuades husband Menelaus not to kill her; play indicts Greeks for slaughter of Melos natives),
Alcestis (Alcestis dies in place of husband Admetus but rescued by Hercules)
Aristophanes - Daitaleis,
The Frogs (Dionysus, disguised as Heracles, goes to Hades with slave Xanthias to retrieve Euripides for drama festival but brings back Aeschylus instead),
The Clouds (farmer Strepsiades encourages son Pheidippides to enroll in Socrates' school the Thinkery, where he learns to evade creditors by shrewd arguments; mocks Sophists),
The Wasps (Bdelocleon persuades dad Philocleon, who loves to serve on juries, to hold trials at home; dog is tried for stealing cheese), The Peace (farmer Trygaeus flies to Zeus on dung beetle and learns that
goddess Peace has been hidden in a pit under stones by War; she is rescued by Greeks and they feast),
Ecclesiazusae, Plutus,
The Knights (political topics; attacks demagogue Cleon),
The Birds (Euelpides and Pithetaerus flee Athenian taxes and persuade birds to found Cloudcuckooland, keeping sacrifice smoke from reaching gods),
Lysistrata (Lysistrata persuades wives in Athens and Sparta to be celibate until end of Peloponnesian War)
Menander - The Curmudgeon History
Herodotus - History (of the Persian Wars) Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War Xenophon - Anabasis, Memorabilia
Timaeus - (history of Sicily, measured time by Olympiads) Oratory
Antiphon - (earliest)
Lysias - (wrote speech for Socrates's trial) Isocrates
Demosthenes Philosophy
Socrates - (Socratic paradox - knowledge is virtue, refined propositions, syllogisms, viewed soul as combination of intelligence and character, put to death)
Plato - The Republic (defines justice; guardians, soldiers, and workers classes), Phaedo (disciple of Socrates describes his death), Crito, Apology,
Phaedrus (Socrates and friend Phaedrus discuss conventional and true rhetoric [based on dialectic]; simile of charioteer with black and white steeds), Theaetetus
(Athenian mathematician Theaetetus mortally wounded in Corinthian War), Sophist
Aristotle - (tutored Alexander the Great) Poetics (says art has origins in
imitation; defines literary terms like tragedy, comedy, catharsis, hamartia, deus ex machina), Corpus Aristotelicum, Ethics, Metaphysics, Rhetoric, (biological works)
The Hellenistic Period
Callimachus - (librarian at Alexandria and poet) Theocritus (of Sicily) - Idylls
Bion of Smyrna - Lament for Adonis
Moschus (of Sicily) - Europa
The Greco-Roman Period, 2nd Century BC - 4th Century AD
Polybius - (wrote about history of the Roman conquest, 146 BC) Strabo - Geographica
Plutarch - Parallel Lives (translated by Thomas North) Galen - (wrote about medicine)
Lucian - Dialogues of the Dead, Dialogues of the Gods, True History Unknown - Ninos Romance (first known novel)
Chariton - Chaereas and Collirhoe
Heliodorus - Aethiapieca or Theagenes and Charialeia
Longus - Daphnis and Chloe (love story of children of a goatherd and a shepherd) Xenophon of Ephesus - Ephesiaca or Anthia and Habrocaomes
Achilles Tatius - Leucippe and Clitophon Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius - (Stoic writers) Plotinus - (Neoplatonist writer)
Unknown - Greek Anthology (including Palatine and Planudean Anthologies and epigrams)
Latin Literature Early Period
Livius Andronicus Lucius - (Greek slave, translated Odyssey and Greek plays into Latin) Gnaeus Naevius - (first native Roman writer, wrote comedies) Bellum Poenicum (about
First Punic War)
Quintus Ennius - (invented Latin satire) Annales (about Rome's conquests) Plautus - (wrote comedies)
Terence - (wrote comedies)
Cato the Elder - De Agri Cul.tura, (delivered oratories denouncing Carthage) Gaius Lucilius - (wrote satire)
Golden Age (1st Century BC)
Lucretius - De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
Catullus - (wrote lyric poetry expressing love for Lesbia and his dead brother) Vergil -
Ecologues or Bucolics (10 pastoral poems including love song of Corydon,
Messianic Eclogue possibly prophesying Christ, death of shepherd Damon, Song of Silenius, and Pharmaceutria),
Georgies (about agriculture; bees of Aristaeus resurrected in corpse of sacrificed bulls; tells Orpheus and Eurydice story),
Aeneid (Trojan hero Aeneas founds Rome; loved by Dido of Carthage; visits
Anchises in underworld; steersman Palinurus first Trojan killed in Italy; marries Lavinia; Nisus and Euryalus die trying to penetrate enemy lines; Mezentius and Turnus slain by Aeneas)
Horace - (wrote odes)
Albius Tibullus - (love elegies)
Sulpicia - (only known Roman woman poet) Sextus Propertius - (love elegies to Cynthia)
Ovid - Ars Amatoria (ironic handbook of love), Metamorphoses (collection of myths, including Daphne, Echo, Pygmalion and Galatea, Baucis and Philemon)
Cicero - (wrote political oratories including several denouncing Catiline and others about friendship and old age)
Gaius Julius Caesar - De Bello Gallica, De Bello Civili (about the Gallic and Civil Wars) Livy - Ab Urbe Condita Libri (From the Founding of the City)
Silver Age (1st Century AD)
Lucan - Pharsalia (about Roman Civil War) Publius Papinius Statius - The Thebais
Seneca - (wrote tragedies, promoted Stoic philosophy, tutored Nero) Phaedrus - (slave, translated Aesop)
Petronius Arbiter - Satyricon (about human excesses) Juvenal - (great satirist)
Martial - (epigrams, some for Juvenal)
Petronius Arbiter - Satyricon (rogue Encolpius, friend Giton, and jealous Ascyltus wander in Rome; "Trimalchio's Feast" satirizes Nero)
Second Century AD
Lucius Apuleius - The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses (narrated by Lucius; accidentally takes potion to make into an ass rather than an owl; wanders through Greece; restored as human by Isis)
Third Century AD
Porphyry - Enneads (treatises about neo-Platonist Plotinus, friend of Emperor Gallienus)
