Features of ancient literature. Periodization and features of ancient literature

27.04.2019

First of all, they created a golden generation of people
Ever-living gods, owners of Olympic dwellings.
Those people lived like gods, with a calm and clear soul,
Not knowing grief, not knowing labor.
Hesiod "Works and Days"

Word antiquus translated from Latin means “ancient”. However, not all ancient literature is called ancient, but only the literature of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, which developed over 14 centuries.
The selection of ancient literature from other ancient literatures is not accidental. The culture of Ancient Greece, which was then transferred to Ancient Rome, became the foundation, the basis of European culture. The creation of philosophy, mythology, theater and history as a science belongs to the Greeks. Our ideas about the place of man in the world, about language and its grammar also go back to antiquity, and it was in the ancient era that literary genera (epic, lyric and drama) and the main poetic meters (iambic, trochaic, dactyl) took shape.

Periodization of ancient literature

Ancient literature has come a long way in its development, and is now being comprehended as literature of 4 main cultural periods:
1. Pre-literary - characterized by the creation of basic myths, on the basis of which outstanding works were subsequently written.
2. Archaic (8-6 centuries BC) - It was during this period that mathematics, philosophy and written Greek literature were born, the main task of which was the creation of the ideal of a human hero (a hero is necessarily a demigod). The form of social consciousness during this period became the epic, which took shape in a major literary genre, and the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” appear. At the end of the period (in the 6th century), the genre of lyric poetry was formed.
3. Classical or Attic (5th century BC) - this is the time of cultural superiority of Athens after Greco-Persian War. This century is associated with the emergence of democracy (for the first time in world history). A kind of drama ensues.
4. Hellenistic (Roman-Hellenistic) – continues from 4th-3rd century. BC to 4-5 centuries AD . After the conquests of Alexander the Great, a Greek-Oriental synthesis took place. Classical tuning becomes a military-bureaucratic monarchy. In the 3rd century. BC e. The literature of the ancient Latins (Roman) is born, which develops under the influence of Greek literature. Decline of ancient literature in the 4th-5th centuries. AD associated with the destruction of Rome in 476 after the invasion of the Goths and Visigoths.

Features of ancient literature

1. Mythological theme- was associated with the primitive communal system. Mythology is an understanding of reality, characteristic of the communal-tribal system, that is, all natural phenomena are spiritualized, and their mutual relationships are interpreted as related, similar to human ones. For example, Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth) are husband and wife. Mythological themes were very firmly established in ancient literature, and in comparison with them, any other theme receded into the background. Historical themes were allowed only in historical epics, and even then with numerous reservations. Everyday themes were allowed into poetry only in junior genres (comedy, epigram) and were always perceived against the backdrop of traditional “high” mythological themes. This contrast was usually specifically emphasized by ridicule of mythological stories and heroes that were boring to everyone. Journalistic themes were also allowed in poetry, but they had to be superimposed on mythological themes.

2. Traditionalism - associated with the slow development of a slave society. Contemporaries almost did not feel any changes in social life, and when the changes were too obvious, they were perceived as degeneration and decline. All these ideas were transferred to literature. The literary system seemed unchanging, and poets of subsequent generations tried to follow in the footsteps of the previous ones. Each genre had a founder, a role model: for the epic - Homer; for lyrics - Anacreon; for tragedy - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The more perfect the work was considered, the more it resembled the model.

3. Poetic form was dominant in ancient literature. There was no prose for a long period, since art was not considered an everyday matter. The songs were supposed to be like the speech of the gods, that is, to be solemn, high and have rhythm. Creating the poet was likened to a deity, became a creator god. According to the Greeks, the poet’s hand was guided by the gods, so all ancient poems began with appeals to the deities who would have to do all the work. For example, the Iliad begins with the words “Wrath, goddess, sing to Peleus’ son Achilles.”

The word "antique" (in Latin - antiquus) means "ancient". But not all ancient literature is usually called ancient. This word refers to the literature of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (from approximately the 9th century BC to the 5th century AD). The reason for this distinction is one, but important: Greece and Rome are the direct ancestors of our own culture. Our ideas about the place of man in the world, about the place of literature in society, about the division of literature into epic, lyric and drama, about style with its metaphors and metonymies, about verse with its iambs and trochees, even about language with its declensions and conjugations - everything they ultimately go back to those ideas that developed in Ancient Greece, which were transmitted to Ancient Rome, and then from Latin Rome they spread throughout Western Europe, and from Greek Constantinople - throughout South-Eastern Europe and Rus'.

It is easy to understand that with such a cultural tradition, all the works of the Greek and Roman classics were not only carefully read and studied in Europe for two thousand years, but also seemed to be an ideal of artistic perfection and served as a model for imitation, especially in the Renaissance and classicism. This applies to almost everyone literary genres: to one - to to a greater extent, to others - less.

At the head of all genres was the heroic poem. Here the sample was the earliest works of Greek literature: “The Iliad” - about the events of the legendary Trojan War and “Odyssey” - about the difficult return to the homeland of one of its heroes. Their author was considered to be the ancient Greek poet Homer, who composed these epics based on the centuries-old experience of nameless folk singers who sang at feasts small songs-legends like our epics, English ballads or Spanish romances. In imitation of Homer, the best Roman poet Virgil wrote “The Aeneid” - a poem about how the Trojan Aeneas and his comrades sailed to Italy, where his descendants were destined to build Rome. His younger contemporary Ovid created a whole mythological encyclopedia in poems entitled “Metamorphoses” (“Transformations”); and another Roman, Lucan, even undertook to write a poem not about the mythical, but about the recent historical past - “Pharsalia” - about the war of Julius Caesar with the last Roman republicans. In addition to the heroic poem, the poem was didactic and instructive. The model here was Homer’s contemporary Hesiod (8th–7th centuries BC), the author of the poem “Works and Days” - about how an honest peasant should work and live. In Rome, Virgil wrote a poem of the same content under the title “Georgics” (“Agricultural Poems”); and another poet, Lucretius, a follower of the materialist philosopher Epicurus, even depicted in the poem “On the Nature of Things” the entire structure of the universe, man and society.

After the poem, the most respected genre was tragedy (of course, also in verse). She also depicted episodes from Greek myths. “Prometheus”, “Hercules”, “Oedipus the King”, “Seven against Thebes”, “Phaedra”, “Iphigenia in Aulis”, “Agamemnon”, “Electra” - these are the typical titles of tragedies. Ancient drama was unlike today's: the theater was under open air, the rows of seats were in a semicircle, one above the other; in the middle, on a round platform in front of the stage, a choir stood and commented on the action with their songs. The tragedy was an alternation of monologues and dialogues characters with choir songs. Classics Greek tragedy there were three great Athenians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, their imitator in Rome was Seneca (also known as a philosopher).

Comedy in antiquity was distinguished between “old” and “new”. “Old” was reminiscent of a modern variety show on the topic of the day: buffoonish skits strung on some fantastic plot, and between them - choir songs responding to the most living political topics. The master of such comedy was Aristophanes, a younger contemporary of the great tragedians. The “new” comedy was already without a chorus and played out not political, but everyday plots, for example: a young man in love wants to marry a girl from the street, but he doesn’t have the money for this, a cunning slave gets money for him from his strict but stupid old father , he is furious, but then it turns out that the girl is actually the daughter of noble parents - and everything ends well. The master of such comedy in Greece was Menander, and in Rome his imitators Plautus and Terence.

Ancient lyric poetry was remembered by posterity for three concepts: the “Anacreontic ode” - about wine and love, the “Horatian ode” - about wise life and healthy moderation and the “Pindaric ode” - to the glory of the gods and heroes. Anacreon wrote simply and cheerfully, Pindar - majestically and pompously, and the Roman Horace - restrained, beautiful and precise. These were all poems for singing; the word “ode” simply meant “song.” Poems for recitation were called “elegy”: these were poems of description and poems of reflection, most often about love and death; The classics of love elegy were the Roman poets Tibullus, Propertius and the already mentioned Ovid. A very short elegy - just a few aphoristic lines - was called an “epigram” (which means “inscription”); Only relatively late, under the pen of the caustic Martial, did this genre become predominantly humorous and satirical.

There were two more poetic genres that are no longer in use today. Firstly, this is a satire - a morally descriptive poem with a pathetic denunciation of modern vices; it flourished in the Roman era, its classic was the poet Juvenal. Secondly, this is an idyll, or eclogue, a description or scene from the life of shepherds and shepherdesses in love; The Greek Theocritus began to write them, and the Roman Virgil, already familiar to us, glorified them in his third famous work - “Bucolics” (“Shepherd’s Poems”). With such an abundance of poetry, ancient literature was unexpectedly poor in the prose to which we are so accustomed - novels and stories on fictional subjects. They existed, but were not respected; they were “reading material” for ordinary readers, and very few of them have reached us. The best of them are the Greek novel Daphnis and Chloe by Long, reminiscent of an idyll in prose, and the Roman novels Satyricon by Petronius and Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) by Apuleius, close to satire in prose.

When the Greeks and Romans turned to prose, they were not looking for fiction. If they were interested in interesting events, they read the works of historians. Artistically written, they resembled either a lengthy epic or an intense drama (in Greece such an “epic” was Herodotus, and a “tragic” was Thucydides in Rome - the singer of antiquity Titus Livius and the “scourge of tyrants” Tacitus). If readers were interested in instructiveness, the works of philosophers were at their service. True, the greatest of the ancient philosophers and, in imitation of them, later philosophers began to present their teachings in the form of dialogues (such as Plato, famous for the “power of words”) or even in the form of a diatribe - a conversation with oneself or an absent interlocutor (as the already mentioned Seneca wrote). Sometimes the interests of historians and philosophers crossed: for example, the Greek Plutarch wrote a fascinating series of biographies of great people of the past that could serve readers moral lesson. Finally, if readers were attracted by the beauty of style in prose, they took up the works of orators: the Greek speeches of Demosthenes and the Latin of Cicero were valued several centuries later for their strength and brightness, and continued to be read many centuries after the political events that caused them; and in the era of late antiquity Greek cities There were many speakers, entertaining the audience with serious and funny speeches on any topic.

For a thousand years ancient history Several cultural eras have changed. At its very beginning, at the turn of folklore and literature (IX–VIII centuries BC), stand the epics Homer and Hesiod. IN archaic Greece, in the age of Solon (VII–VI centuries BC), lyric poetry flourishes: Anacreon and a little later Pindar. In classical Greece, in the age of Pericles (5th century BC), the Athenian playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, as well as the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, worked. In the 4th century. BC e. poetry begins to supplant prose - the eloquence of Demosthenes and the philosophy of Plato. After Alexander the Great (IV–III centuries BC), the epigram genre flourished, and Theocritus wrote his idylls. In the III–I centuries. BC e. Rome conquers the Mediterranean and masters first Greek comedy for the general public (Plautus and Terence), then epic for educated connoisseurs (Lucretius) and eloquence for political struggle(Cicero). Turn of the 1st century BC e. and I century. n. e., the age of Augustus, is the “golden age of Roman poetry,” the time of the epic Virgil, the lyricist Horace, the elegiacs Tibullus and Propertius, the multifaceted Ovid and the historian Livy. Finally, the time of the Roman Empire (I - II centuries AD) gives the innovative epic of Lucan, the tragedies and diatribes of Seneca, the satire of Juvenal, the satirical epigrams of Martial, satirical novels Petronius and Apuleius, the indignant history of Tacitus, the biographies of Plutarch and the mocking dialogues of Lucian.

The time of ancient literature is over. But the life of ancient literature continued. Themes and plots, heroes and situations, images and motifs, genres and poetic forms, born of the era of antiquity, continued to occupy the imagination of writers and readers of different times and peoples. They especially widely turned to ancient literature as a source of their own artistic creativity writers of the Renaissance, classicism, romanticism. In Russian literature, the ideas and images of antiquity were actively used by G. R. Derzhavin, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin, K. N. Batyushkov, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, F. I. Tyutchev , A. A. Fet, Vyach. I. Ivanov, M. A. Voloshin and others; in Soviet poetry we find echoes of ancient literature in the works of V. Ya. Bryusov, A. A. Akhmatova, O. E. Mandelstam, M. I. Tsvetaeva, V. A. Lugovsky, B. L. Pasternak, N. A. Zabolotsky, Ars. A. Tarkovsky and many others.

an ideal, but due to the insignificance of the political role of the German bourgeoisie in the 18th century, not the political, but the aesthetic side of the ideal, the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient images, was brought to the fore. Antiquity is seen as a kingdom of beauty and harmony, the blissful childhood of humanity, the embodiment of “pure humanity.” One of the theoretical founders of this trend, later called “neo-humanistic,” was the famous art critic Winckelmann (1717 - 1768), the main literary representatives at the end of the 18th century. - Goethe and Schiller. "Neo-humanism" transferred the center of gravity of interest in antiquity from Rome to Greece and from later eras Greek society to those early periods, which court classicism looked at with a certain disdain. This interest of the progressive bourgeoisie in the eras of growth of ancient society raised the interpretation of antiquity to the highest level. Winckelmann, calling for “imitation of the Greeks,” established a direct connection between the flowering of Greek art and the political freedom of the ancient republics, between the loss of freedom and the eras of decline of art; in political freedom he saw the basis of ancient “harmony.” However, the revolutionary content inherent in Winckelmann’s artistic teachings and which found a great response in France, completely disappeared in his own homeland, and the aesthetic introduction to the ancient “ideal” marked in German bourgeois classicism the rejection of the revolutionary reorganization of society and the call for “self-restraint” (Goethe) . The neo-humanistic understanding of antiquity played a huge role in both literature and science and formed the basis of Hegel’s views on the philosophy of history and aesthetics. Some of Winckelmann's propositions were subsequently adopted, in a materialist revision, by Marx.

In Russia, Belinsky was a prominent representative of the new understanding of antiquity. Together with the neo-humanists, he argued that “Greek creativity was the liberation of man from the yoke of nature, a wonderful reconciliation of spirit and nature, which had hitherto been at odds with each other. And so greek art ennobled, enlightened and spiritualized all the natural inclinations of man... All forms of nature were equally beautiful for artistic soul Hellene; but, as the noblest vessel of the spirit - man, the creative gaze of the Hellene stopped with rapture and pride on his beautiful figure and the luxurious grace of his forms - and the nobility, greatness and beauty of the human figure and forms appeared in the immortal images of Apollo Belvedere and Venus of Medicea " . But the revolutionary worldview of the great Russian educator could not be satisfied with a one-sided aesthetic attitude towards antiquity, and he puts forward its progressive significance in the fight against “feudal tyranny”: “there, on this classical soil, the seeds of humanity, civic valor, thinking and creativity developed; there is the beginning of any rational society, there are all its prototypes and ideals.” At the same time, Belinsky believed that in the ancient world “society, having freed man from nature, too subjugated him to itself”; he tries to avoid the dangerous mistake into which many researchers of the ancient world fell - modernization * of antiquity, the desire to attribute to it

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History of foreign literature

The concept of ancient literature (additions)

1. General characteristics ancient literature

The term ancient literature refers to the literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greek literature began to take shape from the 8th century BC. e., and Roman - from the middle of the 3rd century BC. e.

Ancient Greek civilization is perceived by Europeans as a definite beginning, since its echoes are present in all spheres of modern life; it was in it that the main humanitarian constants, archetypes of images and plots arose, catchphrases etc. Thus, a continuous and constant connection between ancient Greek civilization and culture and the modern world can be traced. Roman literature served as a transmission link between ancient Greek and Western European literatures. This “intermediary” role fell to the lot of Roman literature due to its own specific qualities, which distinguish Roman literature from ancient Greek and make it more consonant with the aesthetic requirements of the Renaissance and Classicism of the 16th-17th centuries. The art of the Renaissance, freed from medieval scholasticism and dogmatics, was permeated with the ideas of humanism, which affirmed the highest value of man. The center of artistic attention was placed on the individual, his nature, free and natural in all its manifestations. The most important feature of the Renaissance was the general interest in antiquity, caused, in particular, by the fact that subjects and images ancient mythology and literature are distinguished by harmonious completeness and plasticity, transparent and deep meaning.

Both literatures went through certain, similar stages of development, but Roman literature went through them faster. Developing later than Ancient Greece, Rome very often found ready-made answers to its ideological needs from the Greeks. Worldview and ideological forms developed in Greece at different stages of its historical path, turned out to be suitable for the second ancient society - the Roman - at the appropriate moments of its development. “Borrowing” from the Greeks therefore played a very significant role in the most diverse areas of Roman culture, in religion and philosophy, in art and literature. But, “borrowing” from the Greeks, the Romans from the very beginning selected what they borrowed in connection with their ideological needs and with the local cultural tradition, adapted to their needs and developed according to the specific features of their history.

Despite the similarity of both literatures, corresponding to the same stage in the development of human society (namely, the slave system), despite the far-reaching dependence of younger Roman literature on the previously developed ancient Greek, Roman literature is not a simple copy of the Greek original and has specific peculiarities.

Classical ancient Greek literature refers to the period of formation of ancient society and to that stage of its development, which can be characterized as the “polis period”. In Rome the situation is different. The heyday of Roman literature, its golden age, occurred during the decomposition of the Roman polis and the emergence of the empire, that is, at a later stage in the development of the ancient world. The new social stage corresponds to a different phase in the relationship between society and the individual, a more narrowed range of problems, but a higher level of personal self-awareness. The golden age of Roman literature does not know those broad and complex issues, which stood before Greek social thought of the Attic period, but it gives a much deeper study of subjective life and a greater intensity of inner experience, although in a narrower and more limited sphere.

On the other hand, Roman literature as a whole is inferior to classical ancient Greek literature both in the degree of revelation of reality and in the strength of artistic specificity. Setting herself more complex artistic tasks, she solves them much more abstractly. In the literature of the already declining Roman society of the times of the empire, there are very noticeable tendencies towards a false idealization of reality or towards a nakedly naturalistic depiction of it; The situation of the empire often constrains the very freedom of artistic creativity.

Roman literature, at its best, often represents a creative reworking of everything that ancient Greek literature provided in different periods.

In our perception, ancient Greek and Roman literature are equivalent, but in different periods the attitude towards them changed. In the Middle Ages, under the influence of religion, society sought to forget the culture of Antiquity and destroy its heritage. During the Renaissance, they sought to restore Roman literature: it was considered primary, since the texts of ancient Greek literature had not yet been found. Later, when ancient Greek works were discovered, Roman literature began to be considered a copy of ancient Greek. Nowadays, both literatures are perceived as equal in their cultural achievements.

2. Periodization of ancient Greek literature

2.1 Archaic period

Archaic period (before the beginning of the 5th century BC) - the main rudiments appear folk literature, mythology is formed. Author's literature is born - epic: heroic (Homer) and didactic (Hesiod); epic genres emerge and take shape. The lyrics begin to develop.

2.2 Attic period

The Attic (classical) period (V-IV centuries BC) is also called the age of Pericles - Athens became the cultural center of Ancient Greece - an association of equal policies.

Ancient Greek literature reaches its highest development. Tragic poets (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) form the canons of tragedy and the Greek language. Comedy (Aristophanes) and monologue lyrics (Sappho, Pindar) begin to develop. Dramatic (comedy and tragedy) and lyrical genres are being formed. This period is called the golden age of Greek literature.

All literary works are written poetic language, the hexameter is mainly used. Prose is used only for drawing up various documents of a everyday nature.

2.3 Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period (end of the 4th - end of the 1st century BC) - a new breakthrough in the development of literature due to the campaigns of Alexander the Great. During his conquests of North Africa and Asia Minor (before India), Alexander the Great instilled in the conquered countries the Greek language and culture, which he considered standard. This led not only to the creation of an empire, but also to the formation of the Hellenistic world.

This period is characterized by: 1) a multiple increase in the number of Greek writers (since everyone who wrote in Greek was considered such); 2) a sharp expansion of the problems of the works (since it included everything that was of interest to the conquered peoples).

Alexandria of Egypt becomes a new cultural center, where the Library of Alexandria, the most significant collection of books of the Ancient World, is being built. To form a library, notes and annotations are created. Catalogs - librarianship appears, philology is born. The first philological work is “Poetics” by Aristotle, who, in addition, was the teacher of Alexander the Great.

During this period greatest development poetry receives, namely Alexandrian poetry - a certain stage in the development of lyric poetry. Poetic science is developing, attempts are being made to create a certain standard genre, which leads to the emergence of new poetic meters, new themes and issues. A rhyme appears. Alexandrian poetry was the standard until the middle of the Middle Ages, before the emergence of a qualitatively new phenomenon - knightly love poetry.

2.4 Roman period

The Roman period (from the end of the 1st century BC) is the final period of ancient Greek literature, its decline. Greece is finally conquered by Rome and becomes a province, which leads to the degradation of Greek literature and culture. It is impossible to name a single poet equal to the representatives of previous periods.

The latest outbreak of ancient Greek literature - the Greek novel - prose works adventurous and erotic in nature with fantastic elements (Heliodorus, Xenophon, Long).

2.5 The uniqueness of ancient Greek literature

1. Ancient Greek literature developed and reached heights (became standard) without any known significant external influence. All literary achievements of other civilizations were made on the basis of previous developments that we know about. Ancient Greek civilization, as far as we know, is the first in Europe, and there is no information about its cultural connections (and significant external influence) with the civilizations of the East (before the campaigns of Alexander the Great). Thus, ancient Greek literature did not have any external connections, was formed independently and reached certain heights, namely, it became a standard.

2. It was in Ancient Greece that theater appeared and the canons of dramatic art were formed.

3. All the main genres, types and types of literature were formed in ancient Greek literature.

4. Ancient Greek culture, literature and civilization became the foundation of European and world civilizations.

3. Periodization of Roman literature

3.1 Earliest period

The most ancient (pre-Greek) period (until the middle of the 3rd century BC - the beginning of the era of the republic) - before the appearance in Rome of literature based on the ancient Greek model. Thanks to the period of national literary development, the Latin language acquired that adaptability to various types creativity, which he showed already among the first writers who came up with literary works compiled according to ancient Greek models or under their influence.

All major types of poetry and prose emerge and develop. Early Roman poetry (including songs about the deeds of heroes) disappeared during the time of widespread imitation of ancient Greek literature. Prose marks the beginning of historiography and eloquence.

Despite early development written language, virtually no works of Roman literature from this period have survived.

3.2 Archaic period

Archaic period (III-I centuries BC) - early Roman literature develops under the influence of Ancient Greece. Wars with ancient Greek cities introduced the Roman people to high level cultural development Hellenes, and also brought to Rome, as prisoners, many Greeks with literary education. One of them was Livy Andronicus, who, while teaching Greek and Latin in Rome, translated Homer’s poem “Odyssey” into Latin as a textbook, which is the first famous example translation. As a result, interest in the study of Greek literature arose.

Ennius compiles a poetic history of the Roman people, the Annals, written in hexameter, which becomes the unchanging verse of epic poetry in Rome. He also spread the views of Greek philosophy in Rome through numerous tragedies and poetic philosophical treatises.

Palliata - comedy of the cloak - an early Roman comedy that appeared in the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC e. based on ancient Greek works. The cape comedies maintained a Greek plot and Greek characters, took place somewhere in Greece, and had actors dressed in Greek costumes.

Togata - comedy of toga - Roman comedy of the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e., in which the characters are no longer Greeks, but Roman characters, in local costume and with Latin names. The action of Togata takes place in Italy, on the streets of small Latin towns.

Contamination is a widespread technique in Roman literature, used in the processing of ancient Greek comedies, which consisted of introducing interesting scenes and motifs from other comedies into the translated play.

3.3 Classic period

Classical period (1st century BC - 1st century AD) - in Roman literature there appears a desire, without stopping the study of ancient Greek literature, to be as national as possible, not only in content, but also in form.

The Age of Cicero is the golden age of Roman prose. Historiography and eloquence are rapidly developing; Marcus Tullius Cicero in his speeches forms the canons of the literary Latin language. A Roman type of literature appeared - satire, which subsequently received wide and diversified development. The system of mass spectacles is spreading.

The Age of Augustus (the beginning of the era of the empire) is the golden age of Roman poetry. Widespread literary clubs with the aim of promoting the ideological foundations of the new system (Maecenas). Virgil and Horace are rightly considered the main representatives of all Roman poetry, not so much even by the creative power of their enormous poetic talent, but by the classical completeness of their works and their extraordinary influence on all subsequent literature. Virgil creates the poem “Aeneid” - the highest achievement of the Roman epic.

3.4 Silver Age

For silver age(I-II centuries AD), the literature of the Roman Empire, under the influence of political conditions that constrained and distorted its development, was noticeably declining, despite the abundance of writers. Constrained in the freedom of its development, it began to become smaller in its tasks, lose originality and quickly become exhausted.

The main feature of the poetry of this period is rhetorical coloring. Literary word begins to lose the naturalness of expression and tries to replace the lack of serious content with the desire for a purely external effect, sophistication of turns, artificiality of pathos and the brilliance of witty maxims. Since there was no need for great orators (and eloquence in general disappeared as unnecessary), declamation began to actively develop everywhere, the techniques of which were diligently applied in epic works and tragedies. Tragedy, dealing with speeches and actions mythological characters, gave unlimited scope for artificial pathos, intricate maxims and all kinds of declamation. It is in this style that Seneca's tragedies are written - the only examples of Roman tragedy that have survived to this day.

The most prominent phenomenon of Roman poetry of that time - satire - also did not escape the pernicious influence of rhetorical schools. But rhetorical means were not aimless exercises in recitation, but were more or less purposeful tools of literary art, designed to enhance the impression and most vividly display the monstrous pictures of real life (for example, the time of the despotic rule of Nero or Domitian).

The writers of the Silver Age, quite large and original, were inferior to their predecessors, such as Virgil, Horace and Ovid, in skill, scale, and depth of the problems posed. Writers are already less dependent on Greek influence and are developing original Roman artistic forms. A significant factor was the arrival of people from the provinces in literature (Seneca, Lucan, Quintilian, Martial, Apuleius). Political issues fade into the background. Writers' attention to problems of ethics and human behavior increased, which was viewed through the prism of the philosophy of Stoicism, so popular in imperial Rome. The genres of mythological poem and tragedy become characteristic. Art deepens psychological characteristics and a portrait. Large prose works appear (such as Petronius’s “Satyricon”, and later Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass”), rich in everyday details and details, giving a very unsightly picture of the life of the Roman Empire, struck by a moral crisis.

3.5 Late Imperial period

antique literature roman ancient greek

Late imperial period (II-VI centuries AD): after the Silver Age, the productive power of Roman literature dries up, the inability to create anything vital sets in, a tendency towards dry knowledge and pedantic erudition prevails, and in poetry - towards soulless versification.

In the II century. n. e. Rome lost its literary and cultural center, and the provinces begin to conduct their own literary activity. As a result, the language itself declines: there is a transition to the vulgar, and then to the barbaric Latin of the Middle Ages. We can name only a few poets who wrote a dozen works in the correct, living Latin language.

Roman literature died from exhaustion (like the Roman Empire itself), having been in agony for at least 3 centuries before that.

Starting from the end of the 2nd century. n. e., when the decline of pagan literature had already sharply marked itself, Latin-language Christian literature emerged, which, in its origin, spirit and objectives, represents a completely different literary field, completely unrelated to the literature of Ancient Rome.

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Periodization of ancient literature

The history of ancient literature is based primarily on In this regard, three periods of its development are distinguished.

1. The first period is usually called pre-classical or archaic. Literature is presented orally folk art, which originated thanks to the religion of the pagans. It includes hymns, spells, stories about the gods, laments, proverbs and many other genres that represent folklore. The time frame of the first period cannot be precisely determined. Oral genres were formed over many centuries, but the approximate time of its end is the first third of the 1st millennium.

2. Ancient literature of the second period occupies the 7th - 4th centuries. BC e. It is usually called classical, since it coincides with the formation of the classical form of slavery in Greece. During this period, numerous lyrical and epic works, as well as prose, to the development of which speakers, philosophers and historians made a huge contribution. Separately, it should be noted the 5th century BC. e., which is called Golden. Theater occupied a central place in the literature of this period.

The Hellenistic period in the history of ancient literature is associated with the development of slavery. With the advent of the military-monarchical form of organization of power, a sharp differentiation of human life occurred, which was fundamentally different from the simplicity of the classical period.

This time is often interpreted as a period of degradation of literature. It distinguishes the stage of early and late Hellenism, which occupy a period of time from the 3rd century BC. e. until the 5th century AD e. During this period, Roman ancient literature made its presence known for the first time.

Ancient mythology

The basis of ancient mythology are stories about ancient deities, Olympian gods and heroes.

Legends about the ancient gods appeared among the Greeks and Romans at a time when society was matriarchal. These gods were called chthonic, or bestial.

With the advent of patriarchy, the gods began to look more like people. At this time, the image of Zeus or Jupiter appears - the supreme deity who lived on Mount Olympus. This is where the name of the Olympian gods comes from. In the minds of the Greeks, these creatures had a rigid hierarchy, which justified the same order existing in society.

Heroes ancient myths were unusual people, which appeared as a result of the connection between mere mortals and the Olympian gods. For example, one of the most famous is Hercules, the son of Zeus and the ordinary woman Alcmene. The Greeks believed that each of the heroes had a special purpose: to cleanse the Earth of the monsters that Gaia gave birth to.

Epic

Works of ancient literature are represented by such names as Homer and Virgil.

Homer is a legendary poet who is considered the author of the oldest surviving epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The sources for the creation of these works were myths, folk songs and legends. Homer was written in hexameter.

Lyrics and drama

One of the most famous representatives can be called the poetess Sappho. She used traditional folklore motifs, but infused them with bright images and strong feelings. The poetess gained wide fame during her lifetime. Her work included nine books of poetry, but only two poems and a hundred lyrical passages have survived to this day.

Theatrical performances were one of the most popular entertainments of ancient Greece. Ancient literature of the Golden Age of this movement is presented in two main genres: tragedy and comedy.

Essentially ancient tragedy was an opera. Its founder is considered to be the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. He wrote more than 90 plays, but only seven have survived to this day. One of the most famous tragedies of Aeschylus is “Prometheus Bound”, the image of which is still used by writers.

Ancient comedy had a political orientation. For example, one of the representatives of this genre, Aristophanes, in his comedies “The World” and “Lysistrata” condemns the war between Greece and Sparta. The comedy "Riders" harshly criticizes the shortcomings of democracy that has developed in Athens.

The origins of the prose genre

The list of ancient literature in the prose genre is represented primarily by Plato’s dialogues. The content of these works is presented through reasoning and argument between two interlocutors who must find the truth. The main character of Plato's dialogues was his teacher Socrates. This form of presenting information is called “Socratic dialogue.”

There are 30 known dialogues of Plato. The most famous of them are the myth of Atlantis, the Symposium, Phaedo, and Phaedrus.