GREEK LITERATURE

Literature of the Greek-speaking peoples from about the end of the 2d millennium bc until the present day. This literature developed as a national expression with little outside influence until the Hellenistic period (see below), and had a formative effect upon all succeeding European literature. See also GREECE.

THE EARLY PERIOD

Writings produced during the early period of Greek literature were almost entirely in verse form. For explanations of the meters and other elements of verse structure discussed in this section, see VERSIFICATION,. For explanations of the Greek dialects mentioned, see GREEK LANGUAGE,.

Epic Poetry.

The early inhabitants of Greece, the people of the Aegean and Mycenaean civilizations, possessed an oral literature largely composed of songs concerning wars, harvests, and funerary rites. The songs were taken over by the Hellenes in the 2d millennium bc, and although no fragments are known to exist, the subsequent art of the ballad singers who celebrated the actions of heroes must have developed from them. The folk ballads, in turn, became the basis of Greek epic poetry.

The Greek epic reached its height in the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed by Homer sometime in the 9th century bc (see EPIC,; POETRY,). They were written in the dialect of the Greek language later called Ionic, with an admixture of the Aeolic dialect. The perfection of the dactylic hexameter verse indicates that the poems are the culmination rather than the beginning of a literary tradition. The Homeric epics were disseminated by the recitations of professional poets who, in succeeding generations, made alterations in the originals, substituting contemporary phrases for recently obsolete ones.

Mythical and heroic events that are not celebrated in the Homeric works or that are mentioned without being fully narrated became the subject matter of a number of subsequent epics, some fragments of which are extant. A group of these epics, composed by a number of unknown poets (fl. 800–550 bc) called the cyclic poets, concerns the TROJAN WAR, (q.v.) and the war of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, (q.v.). Among the known epic poets, most of them of a later period, are Peisander of Rhodes (fl. 7th cent. bc), author of the Heracleia, concerning the deeds of the mythological hero Heracles (see HERCULES,); Panyasis of Halicarnassus (fl. 500–450 bc), author of a work also called the Heracleia, of which only fragments survive; and Antimachus of Colophon or Claros (fl. 410–400 bc), author of the Thebais and considered the founder of the so-called learned school of epic poetry. Antimachus was a major influence on the later Alexandrian epic poets (see The Hellenistic Period, below).

A number of works formerly attributed to Homer have been established as of later authorship. The earliest of these are probably the 34 so-called Homeric Hymns (c. 700–400 bc), a series of magnificent hymns to the gods, written in dactylic hexameter. Among other such poems is the Batrachomyomachia (Battle of the Frogs and Mice), a parody of an epic poem.

Not long after Homer, the poet Hesiod produced his major works. Works and Days, composed like the Homeric epics in the Ionic dialect with some admixture of Aeolic, is the first Greek poem to forsake legendary subject matter in favor of a theme drawn from everyday life, the experiences and thoughts of a Boeotian farmer. The Theogony, usually attributed to Hesoid, although some critics consider it of later authorship, is an account of the establishment of order from chaos and the birth of the gods.

The elegiac couplet, or elegiac distich, became popular throughout Greece during the 7th century bc and was used for compositions of all kinds, ranging from dirges to love songs. The first known writer of elegiacs was, perhaps, Callinus of Ephesus (fl. about 675 bc). Other celebrated early elegiac poets were Tyrtaeus of Sparta (fl. about 685–650 bc); Mimnermus of Colophon (fl. 630–600 bc); Archilochus of Paros; the first Athenian poet, Solon; and Theognis of Megara (c. 570–485 bc).

Archilochus is said to have invented iambic verse and to have used it extensively in biting satires. Solon and many other poets used this meter also for reflective poems. Because it represents the rhythms of ancient Greek speech more faithfully than does any other meter, iambic verse came to be used also for the dialogue in tragedies, in the form of the iambic trimeter. The fables of Aesop were written originally in iambic trimeter, although the surviving texts are all of a much later date (see FABLE,).

Lyric Poetry.

The LYRIC, (q.v.) was originally a song to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. Two main types of lyrics were composed in ancient Greece, the personal and the choral lyric.

The personal lyric was developed on the island of Lesbos (Lésvos). The poet and musician Terpander (c. 700–650 bc), who was born on Lesbos but lived much of his life in Sparta, is considered the first Greek lyric poet because he was the earliest to set poetry to music. Most of his poems were nomes, or liturgical hymns, written in honor of a god, especially of Apollo, and sung by a lone singer to lyre accompaniment.

Terpander was followed later in the 7th century bc by the great poets of Lesbos. Alcaeus treated political, religious, and personal themes in his lyrics and invented the Alcaic strophe. Sappho, the greatest woman poet of ancient Greece, invented the Sapphic strophe and wrote also in other lyric forms. Her poems of love and friendship are among the most finely wrought and passionate in the Western tradition. The Lesbian poets, as well as a number of later lyric poets from other Greek cities, composed their poems in the Aeolic dialect.

In the 6th century bc the poet Anacreon's playful lyrics on wine and love were written in various lyric meters; subsequent verse similar in tone and theme was known as anacreontic. Anacreon also wrote elegiac distichs, epigrams, and poems in iambic meters.

The choral lyric was first developed in the 7th century bc by poets who wrote in the Dorian dialect. Dominant in the region around Sparta, the Dorian dialect was used even in later times, when poets in many other parts of Greece were writing choral lyrics. The Spartan poets first wrote choral lyrics for songs and dances in public religious celebrations. Later they wrote choral lyrics also to celebrate private occasions, such as a victory at the OLYMPIAN GAMES, (q.v.).

The earliest choral lyric poet is said to have been Thaletas (fl. 7th cent. bc?), who reputedly came from Crete to Sparta in order to quell an epidemic with paeans, or choral hymns, to Apollo. He was followed by Terpander, who also wrote choral lyrics; by Alcman, most of whose poems were partheneia, processional choral hymns sung by a chorus of maidens and partly religious in character and lighter in tone than the paeans; and by Arion (625?–585 bc). Arion is said to have invented both the dithyramb and the tragic mode, which was used extensively in Greek drama. Later great writers of choral lyrics include the Sicilian poet Stesichorus (c. 632–c. 556 bc), a contemporary of Alcaeus, who introduced the triadic form of choral ode, consisting of a series of groups of three stanzas; Ibycus of Rhegium, author of a large extant fragment of a triadic choral ode and of erotic personal lyrics; Simonides of Ceos, whose choral lyrics included epinicia, or choral odes in honor of victors at the Olympian Games, encomia, or choral hymns that celebrated particular persons, and dirges, as well as personal lyrics, including epigrams; and Bacchylides of Ceos, a nephew of Simonides, who wrote both epinicia, of which 13 are extant, and dithyrambs, of which 5 are extant.

The choral lyric reached its height about the middle of the 5th century bc in the works of Pindar, who wrote many choral lyrics of every type, including paeans, dithyrambs, and epinicia. About one-quarter of his works are extant, chiefly epinicia having the triadic structure invented by Stesichorus. Contemporary with the work of these later poets, many great choral odes, both triadic and nontriadic in structure, were written as integral parts of Greek tragedies.

Other Forms.

Another genre developed in the 6th century bc was a type of philosophical poem related to the epic and written by such Greek philosophers as Empedocles, Xenophanes, and Parmenides. Toward the end of the 5th century bc some of the earliest Greek prose works now surviving were produced, the most notable being those on medicine attributed to the physician Hippocrates.

THE ATTIC PERIOD, 6TH–4TH CENTURIES BC

The drama had been developing meanwhile in Athens during the 6th century bc (see DRAMA AND DRAMATIC ARTS.). In its earliest form the drama consisted of a chorus of men who sang and danced choral odes. Later, an actor who engaged in dialogue with the chorus was added.

Tragedy.

Tragic drama as we know it today is said to have been originated in the 6th century bc by the Athenian poet Aeschylus. Aeschylus included the role of a second actor, apart from the chorus. His tragedies, numbering about 90, treat such lofty themes as the nature of divinity and the relations of human beings to the gods. Only seven of his tragedies are extant, including Prometheus Bound, the story of the punishment of Prometheus, one of the TITANS, (q.v.), by the god Zeus; and the Oresteia, a trilogy portraying the murder of the Greek hero Agamemnon by his wife, her murder by their son Orestes, and Orestes' subsequent fate.

The second great Greek tragedian was Sophocles. The fine construction of his plots and the manner in which his themes and characters aroused both pity and fear led Aristotle as well as other Greek critics to consider him the greatest writer of tragedy. These qualities are found particularly in Oedipus Rex. Of the more than 100 plays that Sophocles wrote, only 7 tragedies, a satyr play (a type of comedy), and more than 1000 fragments are extant. His special contribution to tragedy was the introduction of a third actor on the stage, an innovation that was adopted later by Aeschylus.

Euripides, a younger contemporary of Sophocles, was the third great Greek playwright. He wrote about 92 plays, of which 18 tragedies (one of doubtful authorship) and one complete satyr play, The Cyclops, are extant. His works are considered more realistic than those of his predecessors, especially in the psychological acuteness of his characterizations. Because of this some critics consider him the most modern of the Greek tragedy writers. Among his major works are Medea, about the revenge taken by the enchantress Medea on her husband Jason; and Hippolytus, about Phaedra's love for her stepson Hippolytus and his fate after rejecting her.

Comedy.

One of the greatest comic poets was Aristophanes, whose first comedy, Daitaleis, now lost, was produced in 427 bc. Using dramatic satire, he ridiculed Euripides in The Frogs and Socrates in The Clouds. These works represent the Old Comedy of Greek literature.

Later Greek comedy is grouped into two divisions, Middle Comedy (400–336 bc) and New Comedy (336–250 bc). In Middle Comedy, exemplified by two later works of Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae and Plutus, both written between 392 and 388 bc, personal and political satire is replaced by parody, ridicule of myths, and literary and philosophical criticism. The chief writers of Middle Comedy were Antiphanes of Athens (408?–334? bc) and Alexis of Thruil (c. 350–290 bc); only fragments of their works are extant.

In New Comedy, satire is almost entirely replaced by social comedy involving family types, plot and character development, and the themes of romantic love. The chief writer of New Comedy was Menander. His comedies had a strong influence upon the Latin dramatists of the 3d and 2d centuries bc, notably Plautus and Terence. One complete play by Menander is extant, The Curmudgeon, as are fragments of others.

History.

The earliest Greek historian, Herodotus, writing in the Ionic dialect, gave an account of the Persian Wars (500–449 bc). The History is valued for the wealth of information it presents about ancient Greece and for its charming style. Thucydides was the first great Attic prose writer, and in his History of the Peloponnesian War he emerges as the first critical historian. The chief literary works of the soldier-historian Xenophon were Anabasis, an account of Greek mercenaries attempting to escape from Persia; Memorabilia, a refutation of the charges brought against Socrates together with personal reminiscences, in the form of conversations, of his character and philosophy; and Hellenica, in which Xenophon continued Greek history from the point at which Thucydides had finished. A later historian, Timaeus (c. 365–c. 260 bc), wrote a history of Sicily and reportedly devised the method of reckoning time by the Olympiads (see OLYMPIAD,).

Oratory.

Attic prose reached its highest expression in the works of the Athenian orators. Of these the earliest whose works have survived was Antiphon (480?–411 bc), a teacher of RHETORIC, (q.v.). The orator Lysias used a simple, forthright style devoid of rhetorical devices. It is said that he wrote a speech for Socrates to use at his trial (399 bc). The speeches of Isocrates, on the other hand, are literary works intended to be read rather than spoken. The full perfection of Greek oratory was achieved in the works of Demosthenes. Utilizing all the resources of the language, he gave speeches that became models for subsequent orators.

Philosophy.

The two major Greek philosophical writers in the Attic period were Plato and Aristotle. Plato developed certain aspects of the philosophy of Socrates and expressed, in the form of written dialogues, the type of philosophy later called IDEALISM, (q.v.; see also GREEK PHILOSOPHY,). Plato's dialogues are not only great philosophical works but literary masterpieces as well, having many qualities common to poetry and drama. His prose style is one of the clearest and most beautiful in Greek literature. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, wrote a large number of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, rhetoric, and politics. Some classical scholars consider these to be notes taken by students from Aristotle's lectures delivered at the Lyceum, his school in Athens. Of Aristotle's literary criticism, only the sections on tragedy, epic poetry, and rhetoric still exist.

THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD, 323–146 BC

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century bc, Greek culture spread throughout his vast empire. The most outstanding of the many literary schools that came into being and the greatest library of antiquity were located in the city of Alexandria, Egypt (see ALEXANDRIA, LIBRARY OF,).

Poetry.

Among the finest Alexandrian poetry was that of Callimachus, the master of a school in Alexandria and the chief librarian of the Alexandrian library. Callimachus is credited with writing more than 800 volumes, each containing many works, of which only 6 hymns, 64 epigrams, and a few elegies and other poems are extant. He and his followers improved the use of meter and invented the epullion, a type of short story in verse. They also developed the purely literary didactic poem and the pastoral, and they perfected the epigram, which was later adopted by their Roman disciples.

The Sicilian poet Theocritus, who did most of his work in Alexandria and is considered by many critics to be the greatest of the Alexandrian poets, wrote the Idylls, a series of pastoral poems. They were imitated by his successors, such as Bion of Smyrna, among whose 18 extant poems is the famous Lament for Adonis; and the Sicilian poet Moschus (fl. about 150 bc), who wrote an epic poem, Europa, and pastoral verse.

Prose.

Possibly the most important work of the Hellenistic period was done by the scientific and scholarly writers, particularly the physician Herophilus; the anatomist Erasistratus; the astronomers Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and Aristarchus of Samos (the first to maintain that the earth revolves around the sun); and the mathematician, astronomer, and geographer Eratosthenes, who measured the circumference of the earth.

THE GRECO-ROMAN PERIOD, 2D CENTURY BC–4TH CENTURY AD

After the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 bc, the Greek historian Polybius wrote an account of that conquest, and a century later the geographer Strabo compiled his Geographica, a systematic study of places, animals, and objects of interest. In the late 1st and early 2d centuries ad Plutarch produced his famous Parallel Lives, in which biographies of celebrated Greeks are matched with those of notable Romans. Later in the 2d century ad, Galen, the greatest of the ancient anatomists, wrote works that laid the foundations of modern medicine.

The early Christian writers who transcribed and compiled the New Testament made use of a variety of the Koine (Gr., “common”), the court and literary language of Hellenistic Greece. The Koine dialect is distinct from the one used by the classical Greek writers and their imitators, the so-called Atticists, the best of whom was the satirist Lucian, author of Dialogues of the Dead, Dialogues of the Gods, and True History, the latter a comic narrative work.

According to modern scholars, the prototype of the NOVEL, (q.v.) probably was developed in Greece sometime before the 2d century ad. The most important extant fragments of an early Greek novel, those of the so-called Ninos Romance, dealing with the love of Ninos, legendary founder of Ninevoli, are thought to be of the 1st century bc. Five extant complete Greek novels were written after ad 100 and before ad 300: Chaereas and Callirhoe, by Chariton (fl. before ad 300), considered the earliest of the five works; Aethiopica, or Theagenes and Charicleia (early 3d cent. ad), by the skillful writer Heliodorus of Emesa; Daphnis and Chloë, by Longus (fl. 3d cent. ad), the most famous and probably the best of these novelists; Ephesiaca, or Anthia and Habrocomes, by Xenophon, possibly of Ephesus (fl. after ad 117 and before ad 263), the least skillful of the novelists; and Leucippe and Clitophon (before ad 300) by Achilles Tatius (fl. 2d and 3d cent. ad), thought to be the latest of the five extant novels. All of the works are romantic stories of love and adventure in which virtuous lovers or spouses are separated and made to endure many perils, but are reunited in the end.

Stoic philosophy (see STOICISM,) was represented in the writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius; the Neoplatonists (see NEOPLATONISM,) found their chief exponent in Plotinus.

Some of the finest verse of the period consists of anonymous epigrams in the Greek Anthology, a collection of Greek poetry and prose covering almost 2000 years; it is composed of two books conjoined in the 10th and 14th centuries ad, known, respectively, as the Palatine Anthology and the Planudean Anthology.

THE BYZANTINE PERIOD, MID-4TH–15TH CENTURIES

From the beginning of the reign of Constantine in ad 323, until the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453 (see BYZANTINE EMPIRE,), Greek literature lacked the homogeneous character of the earlier periods and was strongly influenced by both Latin and Oriental elements. The greater part of the writings of this period are theological and attack the various heresies that arose during the first millennium of the Christian era. Thus, St. Athanasius in the 4th century assailed Arianism, and, later, Anastasius of Antioch and Leontius of Byzantine (c. 485–545) attacked the Monophysites. The Cappadocian Fathers—St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus—were of importance both as writers and as influences on subsequent theology. In the 8th century the last of the great Greek theologians, St. John of Damascus, wrote polemics against the Iconoclasts (see ICONOCLASM), as well as one of the earliest books on Christian dogma, The Foundation of Knowledge. Symeon Metaphrastes (d. 977?) is important as the editor of the Acts of the Martyrs, which revised and compared older accounts of saints' lives. Numerous hymns were composed by Romanus Melodus (fl. 500–40) and by the early Fathers of the Church, particularly by St. Gregory of Nazianzus and by Cosmas of Jerusalem (fl. about 760–81).

Because of ecclesiastical influence, the writing of secular verse declined. An important legendary and historical poem, however, was the remarkable popular epic Digenes Akritas (10th–11th cent.), a work that originated among the common people and was spread orally by folk singers before being written down.

Also of importance from the literary point of view were the Byzantine historians, critics, and philosophers. Noteworthy among the historians were Procopius, Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Michael Psellus (1018–78?), Anna Comnena, Georgius Pachymeres (c. 1242–1310), and John VI Cantacuzene. The greatest of the Byzantine critics was Photius, whose summaries and extracts of 280 classical works still extant in the 9th century preserved much that might otherwise have been lost. In the 12th century Eustathius of Thessalonica (fl. 1160–93) wrote a commentary on the works of classical authors, including Hesiod, Pindar, and the Greek tragedians. Of importance among Byzantine philosophers was the highly original thinker Georgius Gemistus Pletho (c. 1356–1450), who introduced Platonic philosophy to the Italian Renaissance.

THE MODERN PERIOD

The Fourth Crusade, launched in 1204, carried with it a horde of Frankish invaders who established themselves in central and southern Greece with such titles as dukes of Athens or barons of Thebes (see CRUSADES,). A major literary work, the result of this occupation, was The Chronicle of the Morea (14th cent.), a long epic poem in swinging Greek verse, probably written by a Greek-speaking Frenchman of the third generation. The epic is remarkable for the beauty of the poetry, its dramatic force, and the easy flow of a vividly descriptive colloquial idiom.

In the mid-15th century the Byzantine Empire and the remnant of the Franks in Greece were swept away by the Ottoman Turks, and Greek literature suffered an eclipse. Until the end of the 18th century it continued to flourish only on the periphery of the Greek world, outside the Ottoman Empire.

Cretan Writings.

Crete, under the control of the Venetians, was the literary center of Greece during the 16th and 17th centuries. Dramas written during this period, such as the Erophile of Georgios Hortatzis (fl. early 17th cent.), were largely patterned after Italian models. The period also saw the production of two of the greatest Cretan works in demotic, or colloquial, Greek: the romantic poem Erotókritos by Vitzéntzos Kornáros (fl. mid-17th cent.), now ranked by some as a national epic, and The Sacrifice of Abraham (1635), a psychological drama of family relationships by an anonymous author, perhaps Kornáros; both were translated into English in 1929. A large number of popular songs were written, including the pastoral poem The Fair Shepherdess, a well-known version of which was published in 1627. The composition of such songs also abounded on Cyprus and the Aegean Islands.

The flourishing Cretan school was all but terminated by the Turkish capture of the island in the 17th century. The ballads of the klephts, however, survive from the 18th century; these are the songs of the Greek mountain fighters who carried on guerrilla warfare against the Turks.

Classical Versus Demotic Greek.

Toward the end of the 18th century, dreams of liberation began to inspire the Greeks. While patriots and poets wrote copiously, a language problem developed that was to afflict Greek literature for many decades. Under Turkish domination the education of all Greeks was undertaken by the church. Instruction was conservative, and the language used preserved the antique forms of Byzantine Greek. Furthermore, many of the Greek patriots writing abroad, assuming that ancient Hellas was about to arise from its ashes, forced the modern idiom into unnatural antique patterns. Adamantios Korais (1748–1833), a learned classicist living in Paris, urged the use of a combined language, one that was neither ancient nor modern.

The language dichotomy can easily be traced in the area of poetry. Since the Middle Ages a rich, orally transmitted, self-perpetuating folk poetry had flourished as the real poetry of Greece. It was written in demotic Greek, a natural medium for narrative and lyrical verse. In the 18th century some poets began following the classical tradition instead. Among these were Konstantinos Rhigas (1754?–98) and Iakovos Rhizos Neroulos (1778–1850). A number carried on the classical tradition in the 19th century, among them Alexandre Rizos Rangabé (1810–92), poet, historian, and novelist. In the 19th century, however, poets tended increasingly to use the more expressive demotic Greek, and for decades fierce controversy raged. Today demotic is used for literature and a more classical form of Greek for professional and scientific writing.

Literature of the Liberation Movement.

In the first decades of the 19th century, literature, and particularly poetry, was mainly patriotic. The rousing verse of the leader of the Ionian school of poetry, Dionysios Solomos (1798–1857), encouraged the nation emerging from bondage. His fine Hymn to Liberty (1823), translated by the English writer Rudyard Kipling, has become the national anthem of Greece. Perhaps the best poet of the Ionian school was Andreas Ioannides Kalvos (1796–1869), a great classical scholar; his stirring poems, in a dialect of his own making and of singularly harmonious texture, resound with echoes of the ancient Greek paeans.

Following the emergence of Greece as an independent state in 1832, literature developed with new vigor, expressing the spirit of a highly articulate people. Prominent writers of fiction in the 19th century included Emmanuel Roidis (1836–1904), whose earliest work was the novel Pope Joan (1865), translated into English in 1954 by the British writer and translator Lawrence Durrell. Roidis was also a satirist, a literary critic, and an important translator of English and French authors. Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851–1911), novelist and short-story writer, wrote lyrical vignettes of village life and island scenery. Papadiamantis's work was completely free of foreign influence. A posthumous collection of his best stories, Ta rodina akroyialia (The Roseate Shores), was published in 1913. Another author of pure Greek inspiration is the Ionian story-writer Argyris Eftaliotis (1849–1923). His best-known work is Nisiotikes istories (Island Tales, 1897).

Outstanding among the 19th-century poets of the postliberation period is Aristotelis Valaoritis (1824–79), a poet noted for his vigor and descriptive imagery who wrote in demotic Greek. Another important writer of the period is the symbolist poet Ioannes Papadiamantopoulos, who wrote in French under the name Jean Moréas (1856–1910). Moréas had a considerable influence on younger Greek poets, among them Konstantinos Hadzopoulos (1868–1921), a fine writer of fiction as well as poetry, and Miltiades Malakasses (1870–1932), who started his career writing in French but soon turned to Greek. Important also is Georgios Souris (1853–1919), the great political satirist in the tradition of Aristophanes; Souris published in verse a weekly journal that proved a lively and caustic commentary on public affairs.

The first important Greek dramatists of the 19th century, Demetrios Vernadakis (1834–1907) and Spyridon Vasiliadis (1845–74), wrote in the classical manner. The realistic and satirical dramas of Ioannis Kambisis (1872–1902) about Athenian life were written in the vernacular. Influenced by the realism of the Russians, novelist and playwright Spyros Melas (1883–1964) wrote the dramas Ios tou iskyou (Son of the Shadow, 1907) and Kokkino poukamiso (Red Shirt, 1908). The plays of Gregorios Xenopoulos (1867–1951), particularly Stella Violanti (1909), were influenced by the 19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. The Greek symbolist movement found its expression in plays such as Zontani ke pethameni (The Living and the Dead, 1905) by Demetrios Tangopoulos (1867–1926).

Modern Poetry.

One of the most popular poets in the early part of the 20th century was Georgios Drosines (1859–1951). Drosines began writing in the purified literary dialects but later adopted and advocated the use of the vernacular. His work includes the volumes of poems Photera skotadia (Light Through Darkness, 1903–14) and Klista vlephara (Closed Eyelids, 1914–17).

Ranked by critics as one of the most important poets in Europe was Drosines' contemporary, Kostes Palamas, some of whose best poetry is contained in Asalephti zoi (Immutable Life, 1904). Palamas's long poem Phloyera tou vasilia (The King's Flute, 1910) presents a pageant of Byzantine history. His epic poem and masterpiece The Twelve Words of the Gypsy (1907; trans. 1964) expresses the hopes and aspirations of the Greek people.

It is generally accepted by critics that Constantine Cavafy was one of the greatest and most influential poets of modern Greece; his work is internationally recognized. He was born and lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. The city was the center of Greek culture at the turn of the 20th century, as it was in the Hellenistic period, and formed the background of many of Cavafy's disturbingly nostalgic historical poems. A Baudelairean melancholy pervades both his homoerotic poems and those that evoke deeply moving human tragedies of ancient times. “Ta vimata” (“Footsteps,” before 1911), for example, is an impressive poem about the Roman emperor Nero, lying asleep as the Furies, who pursue the wicked, approach. Cavafy's verse is written in a blend of literary and demotic Greek—harmonious, lyrical, and pleasing to the ear.

Also worthy of mention is Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951), whose poetry is somewhat ritualistic and often Pindaric in mood (see PINDAR). Sikelianos was one of the first modern Greek poets to write in free demotic verse, which often recalls the mood of ancient lyrics and choric odes. Among his finest works are Aphierosi (Consecration, 1922); the poetic drama Christos sti Romi (Christ in Rome, 1946); Thanatos tou Digeni (The Death of Digenis, 1948); and Lyrikos vios (The Lyric Breath of Life, 3 vol., 1947), a collection of lyric poems. Together with his American-born wife Eva (née Palmer, 1885–1952), Sikelianos organized the Delphic Festival in Athens and the impressive production and direction of the plays of Aeschylus at the sanctuary of Apollo on Mount Parnassus.

Modern Prose.

One of the most widely known Greek writers of the 20th century is Nikos Kazantzakis, Cretan novelist and poet, whose works, written largely in his own adaptation of Cretan dialect, have been translated into several languages. His best-known poem is The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938; trans. 1958), a long epic beginning where Homer's Odyssey ends. Among his most popular novels, available in English, are Zorba the Greek (1943; trans. 1952), later made into a film and a musical, and The Greek Passion (1948; trans. 1954).

Other writers also contributed to the literature of the period. Elias Venezis (1904–73), a superb master of style and of realistic description, wrote Galene (Serenity, 1939) and Beyond the Aegean (1943; trans. 1955). Stratis Myrivilis (1892–1969), a novelist of great romantic charm, produced The Teacher with the Golden Eyes (1932), on the first World War, Small Flames (1942), and The Mermaid Madonna (1955). Pandelis Prevelakis (1909–86), dramatist, novelist, essayist, poet, and former disciple of Kazantzakis, wrote such dramatic works as In the Hands of the Living God (1955) and The Last Tournament (1956); his collected poems were published in 1969. Kosmas Politis (1893–1974), an accomplished stylist, proved himself an idealist with a fine insight into the character of women. Politis managed to combine 19th-century romanticism with a sense of 20th-century realities; chief among his novels are Lemonodasos (The Lemon-Tree Grove, 1928), Hekate (1933), and Eroica (1938). George Theotokas (1905–66), a novelist and dramatist, was onetime director of the National Theatre of Greece. Among his works are The Demon (1938), an analysis of the modern Greek temperament; the novel Leonis (1940); and two volumes of plays (1944 and 1947). Important among contemporary Greek writers is I. M. Panayotopoulos (1901–82), poet, novelist, essayist, critic of literature and art, and recorder of his travels. Panayotopoulos was a prolific writer, having produced more than 30 works, and an influential contributor to the cultural life of Greece. His Captive (1951) is a story that extends from the prewar days of Greece through the German occupation of the country.

Post–World War II Trends.

During and following World War II many writers, reflecting their participation in the struggle of the Greek people for survival, began a new kind of literary activity. Themos Kornaros (1906–70) described in Haidari (1946) the attempts of German soldiers during World War II to break the morale of Greek prisoners. Other documentary works of literary merit were written about the Greek Resistance movement, as well as several patriotic poems dealing with the Resistance and the ensuing civil war.

Among the writers who emerged to carry on the work of Nikos Kazantzakis after his death in 1957 was Vassilis Vassilikos (1934– ), the author of more than 20 novels, including the protest novel Z (1966), which was translated into English in 1968 and later made into a compelling film. This work concerns the violent tactics of the corrupt politicians and army officers who protected the Greek monarchy. Later works include three lengthy novellas, published under the title Kroup Ellás (1976). The title story concerns a vast munitions factory (the Krupp works) that controls the lives of its workers and makes possible mass war deaths.

Several novelists began, in the 1950s, to turn away from fiction specifically about the war and its aftermath to novels dealing with other aspects of existence. Stratis Tsirkas (1911– ) described the life of Greeks exiled in Egypt during the war in his trilogy The Club (1960), Ariagni (1962), and The Bat (1965). Antonis Samarakis (1919– ) wrote of individuals caught in the pressures of modern society, as in The Flaw (1965; trans. 1966); Galatia Sarandi (1920– ) dealt with the contemporary psychological stress of women; and Nestoras Matsas (1931– ) has written about the Jews in wartime Greece.

After the war a vigorous group of inspired poets appeared in Greece. Their modernity is not impaired but rather enhanced by their continuation of an old tradition of nostalgic sentiment—expressed in fresh new ways. George Seferis, whose evocative symbolism, quiet understatement, and nostalgic touch excite the intellect and stir the emotions, won the Nobel Prize in 1963. His Collected Poems, 1924–1955, which was translated (1969) into English by Edmund Keeley (1928– ) and Philip Sherrard (1922– ), was published in a bilingual edition in 1967. The work of the political radical Yannis Ritsos (1909–90) dating from 1957 may be found in English translation in Selected Poems (1974). More recent poetry appears in Eighteen Short Songs of the Bitter Motherland (1974). Odysseus Elytis, born in Crete, a painter and translator as well as a poet, was one of the few surrealists in Greek literature. His major theme is the redemption of human beings despite all obstacles, and his work conveys the special light and architectural features of the Greek landscape. For his achievements Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979. His major works include The Sovereign Sun (1971; trans. 1974) and Worthy It Is (1959; trans. 1974)—a title taken from the first words of a hymn: “It is worthy.”

Drama, which up to the end of World War II had remained untouched by international developments, began to change in the 1950s. In contrast to the tragedies of Sikelianos and Kazantzakis, set in antiquity and Byzantine times, plays of younger writers deal with contemporary problems.