The mark of the Homeric heritage
It's impossible to talk about Greece without mentioning Homer, author of TheIliad and TheOdyssey, which marks the transition from oral to written literature. These two works evoke the themes of epic, voyage and otherness. They recall the relationship between the ancients and the dead, based essentially on the memory of the deceased and offerings. Very little is known about Homer's life, except that he lived in Smyrna in the first half of the 8th century BC. Some specialists have even speculated that the figure of Homer was invented from scratch, and that theIliad andOdyssey were the work of several anonymous authors. One thing is certain: the success of these two epics has never waned. TheIliad, which found great favor with the Ancients, celebrates individual prowess, in a spirited and abundantly flowery style. The epic recounts the last year of the Trojan War, exactly six days and six nights. In simple terms, this ten-year conflict pits two peoples against each other: the Achaeans (Greeks) and the Trojans. It began with the abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus, by the Trojan Pâris. The story depicts the battles fought by extraordinary heroes: Hector, Ajax, Achilles...
As for theOdyssey, it recounts the return of the hero Ulysses, whose cunning (his horse) enabled him to penetrate Troy, to his island of Ithaca, where his wife Penelope awaits him. His return will take ten long years, punctuated by various adventures. The Greek hero will have to face the Cicones, the Lotophages, the Cyclops, the beautiful and enchanting Circe, Hades' kingdom of the dead, the sirens, Charybdis and Scylla... All the while, the faithful Penelope does her utmost to ward off all suitors. Her ruse is to say that she will marry a new husband when she has finished her tapestry. So, never to finish, every night she undoes her work. It's a true heroic inspiration that bursts forth in this initiatory Odyssey of a man who, in twenty years of wars and adventures, never despaired: Ulysses, absent or present, cunning and invincible, remains, however miserable, the human hero par excellence.
The great names of ancient literature
Let's take a closer look at these authors who have left their mark on all literature and who still influence artists and contemporary thinkers. Let's start with the philosopher Heraclitus (circa 540-480 B.C.): we still have fragments of his work On the Universe, which deals as much with physics or politics as with theology. He defines fire as the primitive element of matter. The world, perpetually in movement and in becoming, finds its origin and its harmony in the conflict of the opposites. For his part, Aeschylus (circa 525-456 B.C.) is considered the founder of Greek tragedy. Of his 90 works we know only seven, including The Persians and Prometheus in chains. He gave the drama its rigorous laws by making more room for dialogue and action. He introduced the mask and innovated in the field of staging. Do you know Oedipus Rex, Antigone or Electra? These are the most famous plays by the tragic poet Sophocles (between 496 and 494-406 BC). Of the more than one hundred plays created, seven are known to us. Contrary to Aeschylus in whom the gods play a primordial role in human affairs, the work of Sophocles seems influenced by the spectacle of a democratic Athens at the height of its social and political system.
It was in a declining Athens, where social classes, traditions and institutions were faltering, that Euripides (480-406 BC) composed his 92 plays, of which only 18 have survived. It is a work that breaks with the traditional celebration of the past and innovates by questioning the passions of the men of his time. The modernity of his work earned him posthumous fame. He is known for his plays The Bacchae, Medea, Electra... Let us now turn to Socrates (around 470-399 BC). This Athenian philosopher, hostile to any dogmatic teaching, never wrote any treatise on philosophy. His thought is best known through Plato's Dialogues, Aristophanes' Clouds and Xenophon's Memorabilia. His method is based on questions that should lead his interlocutors to overcome their own contradictions. In short, he tried to perfect the motto: Know thyself. Accused of impiety towards the state religion and of corruption of the youth, he is condemned to drink hemlock (toxic plant of the roads and rubble) after having refused to flee by respect of the laws of the city. For his part, Democritus (around 460-370 BC) inherited the philosophical tradition of Ionia. No original text having reached us, it is Aristotle and Diogenes Laërce who have made us know his philosophy. Founder of his school, his thought defines nature as an infinity of atoms, invisible particles, indestructible and complementary between them, whose movement in the vacuum is at the origin of the beings, the worlds and the universe. For him, happiness is to be sought in the moderation of desires. Perhaps less known to the general public, Aristophanes (circa 445-380 BC) was a satirical poet who was much appreciated in his time. He criticizes with a caustic humor the social and political news. Of his work of 44 plays, belonging to the ancient comedy, only 11 pieces have survived. Of conservative tendency, he attacks the democrats at war against Sparta in The Acharnians, mocks philosophers such as Socrates or Euripides in The Clouds and The Frogs or deals with social problems in The Assembly of Women. As for Plato (circa 428-348 B.C.), we can imagine him teaching in the gardens of Académos, where he had created his academy, with his finger raised, as Raphael shows us in The School of Athens. For him, knowledge is only conceivable if one directs the soul towards the contemplation of the Good and the True. His entire work is devoted to transmitting this ideal: The Apology of Socrates, The Banquet (on love), The Republic (on the organization of the State), The Laws (on those of the city). As for Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), he was Alexander the Great's tutor from 342, but, even more, Plato's brilliant student. Very soon, however, he created his own school in Athens, a rival to Plato's academy: the Lyceum or Peripatos, a kind of peristyle where one learns by discussing and walking around. Aristotle was interested in physics, metaphysics, natural sciences and literature.
Modern literature
The history of modern Greek literature is closely linked to the question of language. In the 3rd century B.C., some linguists decided to freeze literary Greek in a kind of archaizing tension. It is the katharevousa which is completely opposed to the living Greek which, him, evolves with the wire of the centuries and which one calls the demotic language. The latter will triumph in the literature from the XIXth century. But this linguistic opposition largely paralyzed the Greek literary expression. Form of nationalism, Greek literature has also suffered from a lack of national identification in the face of multiple occupiers (Venetians, Genoese, Crusaders, Ottomans). The Greek oral poetry is the first modern literary form to be structured. One notes here the role of the poet of the XVIIth century, Vitsentzos Cornaros who, in his Erotokritos, takes again the tradition of the Cretan popular songs and rejects a frozen and learned language. These local popular songs have a paramount importance in the emergence of a modern Greek literature and allow the use of the demotic language, alive and spoken, as poetic and literary language. The cleavage between liberals and reactionaries continues until the 19th century. The poet Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) joins the lineage of the popular song and carries out the poetic synthesis which allows the victory of the demoticism. The modern Greek literature is born! A figure dominates this new generation which will be illustrated until 1920: it is the poet Costis Palamas (1859-1943), whose work is the reflection of the nationalist lyricism in vogue in the new Greek State. The generation of 1880 cheerfully drew on popular folklore, such as Alexander Papadiamantis (1851-1911), a master in this field. The latter is considered one of the greatest modern Greek writers and the founder of modern literature. He is a prolific author, having written almost two hundred essays, short stories and novels. Some of his works were published in serial form in newspapers, but many will be published after his death. He wrote, for example, historical novels such as Les Immigrés(1881), Les Marchands des Nations (1882), but also turned his pen to the life and customs of his century, the passions of love. Those who like to immerse themselves in the life of authors will have great pleasure in discovering his house in the town of Skiathos, now a museum.
Contemporary authors
As if to better echo its ancestors, Greece has hosted two Nobel Prizes for Literature in 1963 and 1979, respectively Georges Séféris (1900-1971) and Odysseus Elytis (1911-1996).
Also Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) who owes his fame to his most famous work, Alexis Zorba (1946). Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933) continues to give Greek poetry its letters of nobility. Finally, Stratis Tsirkas (1911-1980) is considered one of the best contemporary novelists. His trilogy Cities adrift (1960-1965) won, in France, the prize for best foreign book. Even more contemporary writers such as Vassilis Alexakis (1943-2021), Takis Theodoropoulos, Alexis Stamatis, Ersi Sotiropoulos or Petros Markaris have a remarkable literary production.
