Classical Greece and Rome

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Classical Greece and Rome
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Poetry

• Homer featured people trying to live up to
  standards of courage and honor.
• Pindar wrote poems that honored sports heroes.
• Sappho wrote of friendship and love.

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Drama

• Poems evolved to songs and finally to drama when
  Thespis broke away and spoke lines on his own.
  Plays were a big deal to the Athenians. Even
  prisoners were let out to attend on opening day.

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Tragedies

• The Greek tragedies were plays that showed
  dignity in the face of trouble.
• They also showed how noble people could be.
• The Universe was ruled by fate and destiny in
  these plays.

• People who were too stubborn or proud would be
  punished by destiny. Aeshylus, Sophocles, and
  Euriopides wrote some of the great tragedies.

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Sophocles

• Sophocles is considered one of the greatest
  tragic Playwrights.
• He is famous for his characterization, graceful
  language, and sense of calm and proportion.

• He was an American educator who was a professor
  of Ancient, Byzantine, and Modern Greek at
  Harvard University. This scholar's greatest work
  was the Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine
  Periods, published in 1870.

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