8th c. BC First written texts from ancientGreece

Phoenicians

403 BC Adoption of standard alphabet inAthens

Linear B

6th c. BC First record of prose writing fromGreece

5th c. BC Spoken word valued overwritten word in Athens

Socrates (d. 399 BC)

ekklesia

Aristophanes (d. c. 380 BC), Clouds

3rd c. BC First efforts to collect “canon”of Greek literature

Problems of modification

Herodotus of Halicarnassus (d. 425? BC)

History of the Persian Wars

Thucydides (d. c. 400 BC)

History of the Peloponnesian War

Euripides (d. 406 BC), Medea

Homer (10th or 9th c. BC)

Iliad Odyssey

Earliest record of texts from 8th c. BC

Hesiod (d. c. 670 BC)

Theogony Works and Days

Aesop (6th c. BC), known for his fables

Sappho of Lesbos (c. 600 BC)

“The Tenth Muse”

Poems on marriage, cult hymns,more private subjects, incl.homoerotic poetry

sapphist = lesbian

Lenaia (Jan)

City Dionysia (Mar)

leitourgia

Tragic contest (at Dionysia): three competitors,four plays each (three tragedies, onesatyr play)

Comic contest (at Dionysia): five competitors,one play each

Tragedies:

3 speaking actors

12-15 in chorus

Costumes andmasks

Satyr plays:

Mixed content, butlightening mood

Chorus of satyrs

Comedies:

2-4 speaking actors

Chorus, sometimeslarger thantragic chorus

Comic costumesand masks