Aeschylus (525/524–456/455 b.c.e.), probably the
world’s fi rst writer of tragic drama, expanded the possibili-
ties of stage drama. He wrote about 90 plays, 80 of which
are known by name but only seven of which have survived
in their entirety: Persians, Seven against Th ebes, Suppliants,
Prometheus Bound, and the three plays of the Oresteia tril-
ogy—Agamemnon, Th e Libation-Bearers, and Th e Furies.
Until Aeschylus, drama was largely a static aff air, recited by
a chorus and a single main actor. Aeschylus added a second
actor, expanding the possibilities for dialogue and incorpo-
rating action into the play. Sophocles (ca. 496–406 b.c.e.)
was a prolifi c writer, author of at least 123 plays, though only
seven survive in their entirety: Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian
Wome n, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus
at Colonus. It is known that at least 24 of his plays won ma-
jor dramatic competitions and that he never came in lower
than second place. Two of his plays, Antigone and Oedipus
the King, remain perennial favorites on the stage and are
widely read by students for their tragic vision of the interac-
tion of fl awed judgment and cruel fate, leading to disaster.
Euripides (ca. 484–406 b.c.e.), the author of some 92 plays,
19 of which survive, wrote darker, more frenzied tragedies
in which the disaster that befalls the central characters is
more a result of their personal fl aws and irrationality than
a cruel fate. His most famous plays include Medea, Hippoly-
tus, Electra, Tr o j a n Wo m e n, Ion, Iphigenia at Aulis, and Bac-
chae. In most of his plays he used legendary and historical
fi gures as his main characters, turning them into ordinary,
contemporary people.
Among comic dramatists, two names stand out. Th e fi rst
is Aristophanes (ca. 450–c. 388 b.c.e.), who wrote about 40
plays, only 11 of which survive intact: Archarnians, Clouds,
Wa s ps, Peace, Birds, Lysistrata, Women at the Th esmorphoria,
Frogs, Knights, Women at the Ecclesia, and Wealth. Among
these plays, perhaps Lysistrata is the most famous and widely
performed because of its contemporary theme: Th e women of
Athens, led by Lysistrata, seize the Athenian Acropolis and
the city’s treasury and declare a ban on sexual relations with
their husbands until they put an end to the 20-year-old Pelo-
ponnesian War. Overall, Aristophanes’ plays continued to be
admired for their wit, their biting political satire, and their
overall good humor.
Later, Menander (ca. 342–ca. 292 b.c.e.) wrote more re-
fi ned plays in a sophisticated literary language that became
a model for educated Greeks. While earlier Greek comedies,
such as those of Aristophanes, were devoted largely to poli-
tics and public aff airs, the comedies of Menander seem more
modern in their depiction of the manners and foibles of or-
dinary people and their wider range of character types: the
stern father, the wily slave, the misanthrope (one who dislikes
other people), pairs of young lovers, and the like. Menander is
known to have written about 70 plays, but, unfortunately, the
complete text of only one survives. Large portions of other
plays have been found, and Menander survives largely be-
cause Roman writers adapted many of his plays.
HELLENISTIC LITERATURE: THEOPHRASTUS,
CALLIMACHUS, AND APOLLONIUS OF RHODES
Cultural diversity and innovation characterized the Helle-
nistic Age that was ushered in by Alexander the Great, king
of Macedonia (r. 336–323 b.c.e.), conqueror of Asia Minor,
Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia. In literary terms, the
new sense of variety and experimentation is refl ected in the
works of Th eophrastus (ca. 372–ca. 287 b.c.e.), Callimachus
of Cyrene (ca. 305–ca. 240 b.c.e.), and Appolonius of Rhodes
(ca. 295–ca. 215 b.c.e.). Th eophrastus, Aristotle’s successor as
the head of the School of Philosophy in Athens, wrote many
scientifi c and philosophical studies, but his most colorful
work is a book called Characters, which consists of a series
of lively sketches of diff erent human types: the Chatterer, the
Talker, the Eager to Please, the Skinfl int or Stingy Man, the
Tiresome Man, the Boaster, and the Authoritarian. Th ese
multifarious types suggest a veritable gallery of Hellenistic
diversity, noteworthy for their observant detail and humor-
ous characterizations.
Th e fundamentally modern feeling of Th eophrastus’s
Characters refl ects a trend toward novelty that would give
rise to the major intellectual debate of later Greek litera-
ture: tradition versus innovation. Th e traditional position
was upheld by Apollonius of Rhodes, head librarian at the
library at Alexandria and author of an epic poem in the Ho-
meric tradition, the Argonautica. Th e search for new forms
for Greek writing is promoted by the poet and scholar Cal-
limachus, the dominant intellectual fi gure at Alexandria
under the kings Ptolemy II (r. 285–246 b.c.e.) and Ptolemy
III (r. 246–221 b.c.e.).
Callimachus criticizes Greek poets for continuing to
use the lengthy form of the Homeric epic, whose day, he be-
lieves, has passed. He claims that “a big book is a big evil.”
His proposed alternative includes the elaboration of the epi-
gram—a short, witty poem expressing a single thought or
observation—and the Pinakes, a series of biographical and
bibliographical tablets documenting “those who were out-
standing in every phase of culture, and their writings,” a sort
of Who’s Who of Greek literature and culture. Callimachus
was thus the “father of bibliography,” the fi rst person known
to have catalogued and classifi ed an extensive collection of
literature, according to such major categories as philosophy,
poetry, oratory, history, law, medicine, and miscellany. Cal-
limachus thus consolidates for the future the vast legacy of
Greek literature. Th is catalogue of literature was not his only
contribution, however. In the prologue to one of his major
works, Aitia (Th e Causes), he closes out the ancient Greek
literary tradition by creating a new one—that of the critic
of the literary critic. He calls them “malignant gnomes and
“tone-deaf ignoramuses” in their critiques of his work, end-
ing by saying, “So evaporate, Green-Eyed Monsters, / or
learn to judge poems by the critic’s art... / and don’t snoop
around here for a poem that rumbles: / not I but Zeus owns
the thunder.”literature: Greece 659