The Greek Isles are recognized as the birthplace of Western intellectual life. The earliest extant European literary works are the Iliad and the Odyssey, both written in ancient Greek probably before 700 B.C. and attributed to Homer. Among other early epic poems, most of which have perished, those of Hesiod, the first didactic poet, remain. The poems dealing with mythological subjects and known as the Homeric Hymns are dated 800-500 B .C. Only fragments survive of the works of many early Greek poets, including the elegiasts Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Theognis, Solon, Phocylides, Semonides of Amorgos, Archilochus, and Hipponax. The most personal Greek poems are the lyrics of Alcaeus, Sappho, and Anacreon. The Dorian lyric for choral performance, developed with Alcman, Ibycus, and Stesichorus, achieved perfection in Pindar, Simonides of Ceos and Bacchylides. From the song and dance in the ceremonies honoring Dionysus at Athens, the drama evolved. Within a century tragedy was developed by three of the greatest playwrights in the history of the theater, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Equally exalted was the foremost exponent of Attic Old Comedy, Aristophanes. Other writers who developed this genre included Cratinus and Eupolis, of whom little is known. The rowdy humor of these early works gave way to the more sedate Middle Comedy and finally to New Comedy, which set the form for this type of drama. The best-known writer of Greek New Comedy is Menander. The writing of history came of age in Greece with the rich and diffuse work of Herodotus, the precise and exhaustive accounts of Thucydides, and the rushing narrative of Xenophon. Philosophical writing of unprecedented breadth was produced during this brief period of Athenian literature; the works of Plato and Aristotle have had an incalculable effect in the shaping of Western thought. Greek oratory, of immense importance in the ancient world, was perfected at this time. Among the most celebrated orators were Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Lycurgus, Aeschines, and, considered the greatest of all, Demosthenes. "Classical" Greek literature is said to have ended with the deaths of Aristotle and Deosthenes [c.322 B.C.]. the greatest writers of the classical era have certain characteristics in common; economy of words, direct expression, subtlety of thought, and attention to form. The next period of Greek literature reached its zenith in Hellenistic Alexandria, where a number of major philosophers, dramatists, poets, historians, critics, and librarians wrote and taught. Hellenistic literature was imitative and specialized as to subject matter. It was appreciated less by Renaissance humanists than it is today. The poems of Callimachus, the bucolics of Theocritus, and the epic of Appollonius Rhodius are now recognized as major works of world literature. The production of literary works just before and after the birth of Christ was enormous, but most were characterized by artificiality, pedantry, and self-consciousness. With the Roman political subjugation of Greece, Greek thought and culture, introduced largely by slave-tutors to the Roman aristocracy, came to exert enormous influence in the Roman world. Among the greatest writers of this period were the historians Polybius, Josephus, and Dion Cassius; the biographer, Plutarch; the philosophers Philo and Dion Chrysostom; and the novelist Lucian. Yet the conscious cultivation of Greek writing in general produced many works that seemed strained and precious. One great exception was the philosophical mediations of Marcus Aurelius. With the spread of Christianity, Greek writing took a new turn, and much of the writing of the Greek Fathers of the Church is eloquent. Religion dominated in the literature of the Byzantine Empire, and a vast treasury of writing was produced which is not generally well known to the West, with the exception of some historians [e.g., Procopius, Anna Comena, George Acropolita, and Emperor John VI] and some anthologists [e.g., Photius]. The Loeb Classical Library offers text and translations of most of the extant ancient Greek literature . . . . [Ancient Greek Literature. Harris, William H., and Judith S. Levey, eds. The New Columbia Encyclopedia. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1975.]
Greek Literature [Kyriazis/Eternal Greece] - Greek literature in its written form makes its first appearance at the end of the 8th Century B.C. The initial form of expression was that of epic poetry. The Homeric epics have been dated in the 8th Century and they make up the first written monuments of ancient Greek literature. Earlier records are of a sporadic nature and by virtue of their contents cannot be rightly considered as literary achievements.
Two significant events which occurred beforehand provided the basic means by which the Homeric poems could be composed. The first was the creation of a profound mythological corpus from which to draw, and the second was the introduction of the Greek vowel system in writing, the writing known and understood by us. This system came into use with the addition of the vowel sounds to the already existing North-Semitic alphabet of consonantal forms. The myth developed between the 12th and 8th Centuries. Of vowel writing, the oldest record is found on a wine pitcher of Dipylus dating in the first half of the 8th Century.
The cornerstone of Greek literature is that which was laid by the anonymous Muse of the people. Mythology was after all nothing more than an attempt by the race to speak about itself, that is, to relate its history, explain its roots, and give some answer to the many questions regarding its existence. And Greek mythology is that vast and rich corpus from which the creative literary genius of antiquity was to draw.
We have seen that literature in the sense of the written word begins with Homer. This of course does not mean that poetry did not exist before Homer's age, for the Homeric epics themselves provide ample evidence of rhapsodes and singers. Poetry in the form of the heroic epic must have been the main medium through which the myth was disseminated among the Greeks for a long period of time before the first appearance of the written word. [p. 131]
[Greek Literature in Kyriazis, Constantine D. Eternal Greece. Translated by Harry T. Hionides. A Chat Publication.]]