The ancient Greek way

K S Sivakumaran

Let us turn over the pages of the glorious annals of classical culture of the ancient Greeks once more a sequel to last week’s column.

Yes, the Bards were respected and honoured. The Muse loved the tribal singers. Why were they respected and revered? Because a Bard was directly inspired by the Muses and by Apollo. He confers in immortality on by their songs. Apollo presented his harp to the primeval singer Orpheus according to Greek mythology. The Muse herself instructed the art of singing. Goddess Saraswathi, the deity for learning, has similarly inspired the Sanskrit poet Kaalidas, we learn. The bard could move not only humans and beasts but also rocks.

We must note that the poetry of the Heroic Age (incidentally the Lankan critic, the late Kailasapathy had done a comparative study of the poetry of the Heroic Age of the Greeks with the Thamil Sangam period poetry in his work in English) is no longer the folk poetry of the masses. Poetry no longer has the task of rousing men into battle but rather entertaining the heroes after battle.

Homer in his work also raised the problem of the relationship between the world of the Artist and the world of everyday life. According to him the relationship would be one of representation or imitation of life.

Apollo

Hesiod

The next important poet after Homer was Hesiod who had certain ideas different from Homer. His two principal works- Works and Days (a treatise on agriculture) and Theogony (stories concerning the origin of the Gods) - were books to be read. “The legendary contest between Hesiod and Homer is perhaps the symbol of contrasting attitudes between schools of poetry,” says a critic. While agreeing with Homer that inspiration is the source of poetry he disagreed with Homer in relation to the function of poetry. His poetry was didactic. Thus the poet becomes an inspired teacher with a message to deliver.

As one critic explained that the Greeks found it difficult differentiate between poetry of imagination and the verse. Prose was not born then. In Greece the poets were teachers. The playwrights were teachers.

Later on Xenophanes was the first to point out that men have created Gods in their own image. He accused Homer and Hesiod of attributing to the Gods everything. Hesiod also said that another function of poetry is to make people escape from sorrow.

In the same century Pythagoras is said to have seen in Hades the souls of Homer and Hesiod punished for their folly. Heraclitus wished that Homer should be beaten and banished.

Another criticism made is that the poets claim to be teachers of men when they did not have much knowledge. This was because they could not decide between fiction and lies because they had the same words 'pseudo' used for both.

By the 6th century before christ (B.C.), the writing of poetry began to evolve. It was Lyric Poetry - short poems of a musical type written in various metres and meant to be sung by individuals or choruses. Even the content was slightly different. Poetry became personal. Increasing emphasis was placed on their art and skill like other crafts.

There was Pindar like Homer regarded pleasure as the purpose of poetry. He was dependant Royal patronage He wrote Odes to victors at the Olympic Games. These were called Epoenician Odes. Like Hesiod, Pindar was considered the prophet of Zeus, the Greek God. Pindar has also stated the need for beauty in poetry.

A woman critic and lyric poet criticized Pindar accusing him of throwing out more decorative words without telling a story. Telling a story was the tradition of the epic, but Pindar replied that lyric poetry does not tell a story but is an expression of more than feelings.

Greek literature is a fascinating treasure. We shall know more about them briefly in subsequent weeks although our presentation is sketchy and only concentrate on things which elementary students should know.

We shall stop at that and know something different next.

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