UNIT IV: GREEK LITERATURE (cont.)

SECTION I: THE OLD GREEK LITERATURE

Introduction

The Old Literature, to 529 A.D., falls into three periods.
I. The Early Literature, to about 475 B.C. Epic, elegiac,
iambic, and lyric poetry ; the beginnings of literary prose.
II. The Attic Literature, 475-300 B.c. Tragic and comic
drama; historical, oratorical, and philosophical prose. III.
The Literature of the Decadence, 300 B.C. to 529 A.D.,—
which may again be divided into (1) the Alexandrian period,
300-146 B.C., and (2) the Graeco-Roman period, 146 B.C.
to 529 A.D.
It is not the purpose of the present article to enter into details regarding particular works or the lives of their authors. These will be found in the separate articles devoted to the principal Greek writers. The object of the following pages will be to sketch the literary development as a whole, to show how its successive periods were related to each other, and to mark the dominant characteristics of each.





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