10 Notable Writers from Ancient Greek

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Ancient Greek literature is referred to as the literature written in the Ancient Greek dialect from the anterior texts until within the ascent of the Byzantine Empire. The Greek Isles are referenced to as the origin of copious sciences and literary genres of the Western intellectual life. This list depicts 10 of the most influential ancient Greek writers. They emphasized on the axiological and aesthetic values of a person and education. I have placed this list in a chronological order of their impacts and connections of their works in time.

10) Homer
      ca. 8th Century BC

Homer is generally regarded as the greatest writer of all time. The two epics Iliad and Odyssey are known as the earliest extant European literary works and are attributed to him. His influence was great such that the Greeks did not regard themselves educated until they have read his works. Little or nothing is known about Homer and his life, the popular opinion is that he was a blind bard who composed and recited The Iliad and The Odyssey a few hundred years after the events described. While everything known about him is subject to debate, his literary works have had a huge influence in literature. And Shakespeare was said to have based one of his plays on Iliad.

9) Sophocles
     ca. 496 – 406 BC

Sophocles penned down 123 plays in his time; of which only 7 has survived till date, which includes  classics such as Antigone, Oedipus the King and Electra. There's a particularly supreme line in Antigone, when the chorus sings, 'There are many formidable things in the world, but there is nothing more formidable than mankind.' A true image of what mankind have become today. He introduced scenography in literature thereby reducing the baic use of a chorus. Sophocles as well erased the common trilogic form of tragedies in writing, thereby making the play outright in itself.

8) Herodotus
     ca. 484 – 425 BC

The writing of history came of age in Greece with the rich and diffuse work of Herodotus. The term history which means "inquiry" in Greek was adapted from his book The Histories. His application of a systematic form in the collection and analysis of his materials in determining their definitude integrally embellished his works. He is one writer to be reckoned with.

7) Euripides
     ca. 480 – 406 BC

In the 5th cent. BC tragedy was developed by one of the greatest dramatists in the history of the theater Euripides. The last of the great Greek tragedy writers, Euripides was unique in that he used strong women characters and intelligent slaves. He wrote about 95 plays, of which about 17 are existent, and others as bits. His most known works are Alcestis, Medea and The Bacchus. He made huge impact on European tragedy.

6) Hippocrates
     ca. 460 – 370 BC

A physician, Hippocrates is called the Father of Western Medicine. In his work Hippocratic Corpus which contains about 70 works of which the Hippocratic Oath about doctoral ethics is inclusive. Derivatives of this oath are still taken by doctors today. As whether these works were actually his is still controversial today. However, he made an immense contribution to medicine as he was the first to define a number of illnesses.

5) Aristophanes
     ca. 446 – ca. 386 BC

Equally exalted was the foremost exponent of Attic Old Comedy, Aristophanes. He composed 40 plays and 11 of them have been known to survive till date amongst fragments of a few. Aristophanes terrorized the Athenians with his writings as he made a badinage of their famous figures. Aristophanes play The Cloud was regarded as a finger in the pie to the trial and execution of Socrates according to Plato. Whether this notion was true or nay is disputable. Other of his eminent plays include The Wasps and
Lysistrata. All of which refined later literature and gave an insight into the life of the Athens.

4) Plato
     ca. 424 – 348 BC

The Greek philosopher, mathematician, and student of Socrates, Plato is regarded as the father of Western Philosophy, together with his teacher Socrates whom he did write deeply about his execution in 399 BC. Over 30 known dialogues and 12 letters are credited to him, amongst which are The Republic and Symposium and Theory of Forms which are still being studied today.

3) Aristotle
    384 BC – 322 BC

Student of Plato. Aristotle was a philosopher, scientist, was interested in the physical world and therefore considered the first biologist. He was once a teacher to Alexander the Great and mentor to St Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle is known as one of the great thinkers of time, as he propounded logic as a science and put down numerous scientific modus vivendi. You will come across his works while flipping through Catholic education and theology. Yup! You read that right, he's that awesome.

2) Euclid
     fl. 300 BC

The Father of Geometry, Euclid wrote a book called The Elements, conceived as the most famous mathematical textbook in history. It consists of fundamentals which are serves as the derivatives of many mathematical proofs today. Not much is known about Euclid except from the fact that he was active at the Library of Alexandria.

1) Archimedes
     ca. 287 BC – 212 BC

Archimedes was an engineer, physicist, astronomer, inventor, and mathematician. It is highly likely that when he was a young man, Archimedes studied with the successors of Euclid in Alexandria. His discoveries are outstanding and verse. He calculated the accurate value of pi, established The Archimedes Screw, perfected a method of integration which allowed him to find areas, volumes, surface areas, and centers of mass of many geometrical objects. His work on integration gave birth to the calculus perfection much later by Kepler, Cavalieri, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton . Legend has it that when he discovered his principle about submerging objects in water to determine its volume was bona fide, he ran into the street naked,and cheered "Eureka"-which means I have found it. He was buried in a tomb on which was carved a sphere within a cylinder. This was his wish, because he believed his greatest achievement was finding the formula for the volume of a sphere. ADVERTISEMENT HERE

Filed Under: Letters, Lists on Tuesday, 28 April 2015