POETRY
Epic – best known as Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. They belong to the Trojan cycle, which was also composed of: Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliupersis, Nostoi and Telegony, forming the so-called Epic Cycle.
In the 8th century BC lived Hesiod, who was the oldest historically established Greek poet. There were his two surviving epic: Teogony (epic about the origin of the gods) and Erga kai hemerai (epic of working people).
Elegy – patriotic song, love or reflexive content created in the 7th century BC Particularly elegiac couplet.
Iambic poetry – verses of iambic rate incurred in the 7th century BC
Lyric – a traditional Greek name for a song that could sing along with the musical instrument. The Greeks had two kinds of lyric poetry: the individual’s song and the choir, that was very popular. At the turn of the 7th and 6th century BC on the island Lesbos lived a poetry Alcaeus and Sappho. Alcaeus was singing hymns and odas, and Sappho about love and friendship. Anacreon from Tea sang about love and wine. Pindar sang epithets (Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean), went in honor of Fame winner on pan-Hellenic popular games.
DRAMA
Tragedy – Athens gave 3 dramatic poets: Aeschylus introduced a second actor. He wrote 80 plays, of which of them, 7 was preserved (Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound …). Sophocles introduced a third actor. He had written over a hundred tragedies, from which 7 was preserved (King Oedipus, Antigone …). Euripides wrote about 90 plays (Medea, Hippolytus …).
Comedy – the oldest known comedy writers were Crates, Magnes, Cratinus and others. The main representative of Attic comedy Aristophanes, from whose comedies 11 had survived (Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace, Birds …).
PHILOSOPHY
The purpose of philosophy was initially to explain the world as a whole. Over time, the subject of philosophy specialized.
The first philosopher named Pythagoras. In the 6th century BC The oldest Greek philosophers were naturalists Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, representatives of the Milesian School. Among the oldest are among philosophers Pythagoras, Heraclitus and representatives eleatics Xenophon, Zeno and Parmenides. The younger philosophers, and also the two cornerstones of modern philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the third great philosopher was Socrates age.
