PHILOSOPHY
No discussion of ancient Greek literature would be complete
without mentioning some of the major Greek philosophers.
While the works of numerous of these philosophers survive,
those of three in particular stand out and continue to be read
and studied: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Socrates (ca. 470–399 b.c.e.) is oft en regarded as the
founder of Western philosophy. Most of what is known about
him comes from later sources, including Plato. Because most
of his work survives through Plato, it is diffi cult to distin-
guish the philosophical views of the two. Socrates is perhaps
best remembered not for his unorthodox life as a wandering
gadfl y but for his death. He was executed by being forced to
drink hemlock, a poison, for being perceived as a threat to the
Athenian state. Whether Plato (428/427–348/347 b.c.e.) was a
student of Socrates is unclear. Much of Plato’s philosophy was
written in the form of dialogues, the so-called Socratic dia-
logue, featuring Socrates as the “teacher” and various other
contemporary fi gures as his “students,” who have to explain
and defend their positions through a seemingly endless series
of questions, but Plato never explicitly says that he ever took
part in dialogues with Socrates. Either way, it would be dif-
fi cult to overstate the infl uence of Plato on Western thought.
Among modern philosophers, a common expression is
that all Western philosophy is a “footnote to Plato,” meaning
that modern philosophy is an attempt to refi ne and explain
philosophical views outlined by Plato over two millennia ago.
Perhaps the best-known and most widely read of Plato’s dia-
logues is the Republic, a wide-ranging discussion of the na-
ture of justice, courage, wisdom, morals, and virtues as they
pertain both to individuals and to society as a whole. Perhaps
the most famous portion of the Republic is referred to as the
Allegory of the Cave. In this passage people are imagined
confi ned in a cave where the only reality they know is shad-
ows cast on the wall. When they are released from the cave,
they see reality as it really is.
Finally, Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.) was one of Plato’s stu-
dents. He began his career as a scientist and physician, and
throughout his work he explored a wide range of subjects,
including science, poetry, biology, zoology, logic, ethics, poli-
tics, government, and rhetoric. It is almost impossible to give a
thumbnail sketch of Aristotle’s philosophical views, but he re-
mains important for his eff or ts to u ndersta nd t he nature of t he
real and the universal, to categorize and systematize knowl-
edge, and to apply reason and logic to philosophical problems.
In connection with literature, his Ars poetica (Poetics) was an
eff ort to defi ne the essential nature of such literary genres as
tragedy, comedy, and the epic. While Plato tended to focus on
the moral qualities of literature, Aristotle was more interested
in the formal structure and internal logic of such works.
AESOP AND PLUTARCH
Th e works of two additional writers survive, though neither
fi ts into any of the categories outlined. Th e fi rst, Aesop, is
probably a legendary fi gure. His name is connected with some
200 “Aesop’s fables” that continue to be read for their moral
lessons, usually taught through the behavior of animals. Most
of these stories were traditional, and their written versions
were probably the production of numerous authors. Some
of these fables have become woven into the fabric of modern
life. Schoolchildren are familiar, for example, with the tale of
the hare and the tortoise; the swift hare should beat the slow
tortoise in a race, but he keeps getting distracted while the
tortoise focuses his attention on what he is doing and wins.
Th e fable of the fox and the grapes is the source of the expres-
sion sour grapes, referring to the claim that a person did not
really want something that he or she was unable to attain, just
as the fox claims that he does not really want the grapes he is
unable to reach.
Finally, Plutarch (ca. 46–ca. 119 c.e.) is best known for
history, essays, and biography. Plutarch wrote an immense
number of philosophical essays about a wide range of top-
ics, but many do not survive. His most famous work is gener-
ally referred to simply as Lives, but more formally the English
translation of the title is Parallel Lives. In this collection of
essays, which has not survived in complete form, he paired
famous Greeks and Romans, writing biographical sketches of
them with emphasis on their moral strengths and failings. For
some historical fi gures of the time, Plutarch is the only source
of information or, in some cases, one of few such sources. His
work has been criticized for historical inaccuracies and reli-
ance on gossip and legend, but it survives because of his keen
insight into human character.ROME
BY JAMES A. CORRICK
Roman literature prior to the third century b.c.e. was oft en as-
sociated with specifi c events. Th us, poetry about the deceased
was recited or sung at funerals; later, this poetry was replaced
by an oration, a formal speech. At harvest festivals, weddings,
and other celebrations, humorous poetry—generally racy and
vulgar as well as improvised—was popular. Banquets were the
occasion for reciting or singing the deeds of heroes. Political
debate generated speeches. Although much of this early Ro-
man literature was oral, some—how much is now uncertain—
was written down. Th e names of these early Roman authors of
both the oral and the written have been lost.THE GREEKS AND THE EPIC
Beginning in 272 b.c.e. with the capture of the Spartan colony
of Tarentum in southern Italy and the subsequent conquest of
other Greek colonies and fi nally Greece itself, Greek slaves
began arriving in Rome by the thousands. Some of these
slaves became tutors to Roman youths and passed on to their
charges a love and reverence for much of Greek culture, par-
ticularly poetry. Indeed, Greek poetic forms would dominate
Roman verse until the end of the empire in 476 c.e.
As with the Greeks, Romans considered the noblest po-
ems to be epics. From the Greek epos for “word,” an epic is a660 literature: Rome