The Authors of Ancient Greece
Welcome back, Greeks and Geeks! Throughout the course of my blog, I have mentioned various different people who wrote the myths I told you about. I think it’s about time we talked about them.
Two men who I have mentioned the most are Homer and Hesiod.
Homer lived during the 9th or 8th century BCE and wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. His works were so important to the Ancient Greeks that many saw themselves as fully educated if they had read both of these anthologies, and uneducated if they did not.
However, much is unknown about Homer’s life apart from the fact that his name is attached to both of these epics. Some historians dispute his entire existence because of this, but if he was a real person (as many believe him to be) then he is one of the most influential authors in the ancient world.
His writing was important to the ancient world from the time during which he was alive, all the way to the time Christianity grew in popularity, and his writing even had a huge impact on the Renaissance. Many authors took inspiration from his work, as well, including many other Ancient Greek authors and poets, including Sappho and Archilochus.
Hesiod lived around 700 BCE and wrote the Theogony and the Works and Days. He attributes his skill in poetry to the muses, who he says visited him while he was living his life as a shepherd.
The Theogony contained myths about the gods themselves, starting from the beginning with the emergence of Chaos, Gaea, and Eros. The Works and Days tells the myth of Pandora, and many other myths similar to that.
Both poets told many of the myths that we know and love today, and it is these that many people look to to learn about Greek mythology. But, they aren’t the only famous Greek poets and authors.
Sophocles, for example, wrote 123 Greek tragedies, including Antigone, Oedipus, and others, many of which I have not talked about. He lived during during the 400s BCE.
Some people, like Herodotus, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes, were not known for any myths that they told, but for writings that greatly impacted the science world. Archimedes, for example, was a mathematician, an engineer, an inventor, and an astronomer. Things he invented are still in use today. Plato and Aristotle were both philosophers. Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine, and people still take parts of his oath when becoming medical providers. Herodotus was considered the father of history, as he was the first to approach history as a science.
The Ancient Greeks were an intelligent people, and we can see this today as many of their authors created things that still affect us. While I only talked about Greek mythology here on this blog, the non-mythological writings of Ancient Greece were still very influential and interesting.
As always, thank you for reading, and I encourage you to look into these authors and their works on your own, to better understand the Ancient Greeks and what they knew. Αντίο, Σοφία.
