GREEK

LITERATURE
 ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE
 Ancient Greece was one of the first civilizations to
widely use in writing as a form of literary and personal
expression.
 Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis
on literature and, according to many, the whole
Western literary tradition began there, with the epic
poems of Homer.
 Body of writings in the Greek language, with a
continuous history extending from the 1st millennium
B to the present day.
 ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE
• Ancient Greek literature had four major writings;
epic tradition, lyric poetry, tragedy and comedy.
• An example of the epic traditions are the Iliad
and the Odyssey.
• 30% of the words in a ordinary dictionary comes
from the ancient Greek language.
• Our alphabet came from the Greek language.
 WRITERS OF GREEK LITERATURE
 Hesiod was another very early Greek poet and his
didactic poems give us a systematic account of Greek
mythology, the creation myths and the gods.
 Aeschylus considered the first of the great Greek
playwrights and essentially invented what we think of
as drama in the 5th Century
 Sophocles is created with skillfully developing irony
as a literature technique and extended what was
considered in drama.
• The fables of Aesop represent a separate genre
of literature, unrelated to any other and
probably developed out of an oral tradition.
• Aristophanes defined and shaped our ideas of
what is known as Old Comedy while, almost a
century later, Menander carried on the mantle
and dominated the genre of Athenian New
Comedy.
• Euripides used his plays to challenge the societal
norms and mores of the period.
 MODERN GREEK LITERATURE
• Recognize as masters of modern Greek letters,
Seferis and Elytis received the Novel Prize
Literature, in 1963 and 1979.
• The poet Maria Polydouri gain renown through
her intense, erotic love lyrics.
• The effort of modern Greek writers to achieve a
synthesis of the rich tradions of the Greek
heritage is well represented in the work of Nico
Kazantzakis.
POMPEY MUSES
 GREEK
MYTHOLOGY
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
 The first generation of Olympian Gods were the sons and
the Daughters of Titans Cronus and Rhea.
 Cronus, having received Gaea’s prophecy that he will also
be slain by his children, tried to avoid ii by swallowing his
children.
 When the youngest child Zeus was born, Rhea tricked
Cronus by giving him a large rock instead.
 Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the
culture, arts and literature of Western civilization and
remains part of Western heritage and language.
MAJOR GODS AND GODDESSES
Aphrodite
Apollo
Ares
Artemis
Athena
Demeter
Dionysus
Hades
Hephaestus
Hera
Hermes
Hestia
NATIONAL ANTHEM
We knew thee of old,
Oh, divinely restored,
By the lights of thine eyes
And the light of thy Sword
From the graves of our slain
Shall thy valour prevail
As we greet thee again-
Hail, Liberty! Hail!
Long time didst thou dwell
Mid the peoples that mourn,
Awaiting some voice
That should bid thee return.
 Ah, slow broke that day
And no man dared call,
For the shadow of tyranny
Lay over all:
And we saw thee sad-eyed,
The tears on thy cheeks
While thy raiment was dyed
In the blood of the Greeks.
Yet, behold now thy sons
With impetuous breath
Go forth to the fight
Seeking Freedom or Death.
From the graves of our slain
Shall thy valour prevail
As we greet thee again-
Hail, Liberty! Hail!
FACTS
 Greece is the “Sunniest” Country in Europe
 Voting is required by law for every citizen
who is 18 or older.
 7% of all the marble produced in the world
comes from Greece.
 Greece has more international airports
than most foreign tourists want to visit.
 The world’s third leading producer of
olives.
 The Greek flag is included nine blue and white
horizontal stripes, which some scholars say
stand for the nine syllables of the Greek motto
“Eleftheria I Thantos” or “Freedom or Death”.
 Blue represents Greece’s sea and sky, while
white stands for the purity of the struggle of
freedom.
 Greece’s most famous modern writer is Nikos
Kazantzakis. His novels Zorba and the Greek
and The last Temptation of Christ.
 Alexander the Great was the first Greek
ruler to put his own face on Greek coins.
 Greek’s highest elevation is the legendary
home of Zeus and the Olympian Gods and
Goddesses, Mount Olympus at 9,750 feet.
Its lowest elevation is the Mediterranean
Sea.
 Spartan warriors were known for their
long, flowing hair.
RELIGION IN GREECE
Religion in Greece
 The Greek Orthodox Church is accorded
the status of “prevailing religion” in
Greece’s constitution and Greece is the
only country in the world where an Eastern
Orthodox Church recognized as a state
religion.
 Catholic Greeks are found all over Greece;
the majority live in the Cyclades and the
Ionian Islands.
 Religion in Greece
 The number of Greek citizens followers of Islam
is estimated to be at 97,604 people or 0.95% of
the total population. They live mostly in Western
Thrace and are Turkish, slavonic (Pomaks) and
romani (Gypsies) speakers.
 Buddhism followers is not so high amongst the
Greeks but it has increased during the last
decades.
 Hinduism in Greece has a small following in the
community.
 Saint Andrew
Our Lady of Tinos Church of Patras