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Homer is the name traditionally ascribed to the brilliant Greek bard that authored, most notably, the Iliad and the Odyssey (Western civilization's first complete stories). Nothing concrete is known of his life, but he is traditionally thought to be blind and was probably born in either Chios or Smyrna. His epic poems were most likely memorized and recited in bardic lays and only later written down. While the details and dates of Homer's life have been lost in the mists of time, the Iliad and Odyssey were probably composed in the late eighth century B.C.- Hesiod Hesiod is known for Prometheus and Pandora (2009).750 B.C.
- Greek slave. Many of the 200+ fables attributed to him may not have been his own, but since his name is synonymous with fables they were credited to him anyway. Sentenced to death for heresy. Was thrown from the edge of a cliff, c. 560 BC. The excepted dates of his birth and death would mean that he lived to around 60, remarkable for his time.
- Chinese philosopher who was born Kong Qiu, with the formal name Kong Zhongni, in the state of Lu in what is now Shandong province. The second son of a minor aristocratic family that had fallen from power, Confucius was orphaned as a child and grew up in relative poverty. A voracious reader, he educated himself, eventually becoming a private tutor for the sons of wealthy gentlemen. Distressed by the division of China into fiercely competitive and often warring states, Confucius, like many other thinkers of his era, devoted much time to pondering ways to restore order to the chaotic world in which he lived. For a decade beginning when he was about 55, Confucius wandered through neighboring states, attempting to convince various rulers of his worthiness for political positions through which he could introduce his planned reforms. Though by most accounts his travels never resulted in an offer for political office (some sources say he became a minister of state), Confucius was able to gather a substantial number of students who devoted themselves to his school of thought. Though it has been described as a religion, Confucianism is more of a political and social philosophy based on humanism, rationality, education, and virtuous example. During imperial times, Confucius was lauded as the "First Teacher" and the "Uncrowned King".
- Aeschylus is considered by some as the greatest writer ever to walk the face of earth. He was born to a noble family in Elefsinia, a few miles from Athens. The greatest festival in his hometown was the Elefsinia Mysteria, a dramatic imitation of nature's awakening in spring. Aeschylus is the founder of the classic Ancient Greek drama and was the first to clad his actors in impressive costumes on stage. His heroes were greater than life, always decent, even in their most dramatic moments. In his plays he was questioning everything, including the gods. People would walk for days to see his new play. He was leading an unhappy life, however, constantly seeking answers to the mysteries of life and death. He spent his last few years in the western Greek colonies of Sicily.
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Versatile Greek poet and tragic dramatist. He was the son of Sophilus, a wealthy arms manufacturer. Sophocles studied tragedy under Aeschylus, whom he subsequently defeated in the dramatic festival of 468 BC, thus gaining his first victory at these competitions. He became a general under Nicias and after the failure of the Athenian expedition to Syracuse (413) was appointed one of the special commissioners to deal with the emergency. He was a priest of Amynos, a god of healing, and offered his own house as a place of worship for the healing deity Asclepius until his temple was ready. In addition, he founded a literary and musical society. His descendants were also tragedians - his son Iophon and grandson Sophocles the younger. Unlike his rival Euripides, he had very early acquired a favorable public. About 130 plays were attributed to him, (7 of which were subsequently reckoned spurious). In the dramatic competitions he probably won 24 victories--that is to say, 24 of his tetralogies (each comprising 3 tragedies and a satyr play) were successful. Seven of his tragedies have survived viz. Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, the Trachinian Women, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus (his last play performed in 401 after his death). Sophocles died just before the catastrophic end of the Peloponnesian War.- Writer
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Born on Salamis island around 484 BC, Euripides is considered the first professional writer in Athens. His dramas evolve around human passions and his interest lies in strong feelings of love, hate and revenge. Often also the gods themselves share the same low moral standards as the humans do. In several of his plays women take leading parts, "Medea" is probably the most famous. He also stressed the importance of the dialogue and lessened the the influence of the choir. Of his around 90 plays, 18 plays remain, the rest are lost or only known in fragments.- Socrates (470-399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre. Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.
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Ancient Greek poet and comic dramatist Aristophanes was the son of Philippus of Athens. A leading exponent of the Athenian "Old Comedy," Aristophanes lived most of his life during the Peloponnesian War against Sparta (431-404). Some of his works include "Acharnians" (425), "Knights" (424), "In the Clouds" (423), "In the Wasps" (422), "The Peace" (421), "The Birds" (414), "In Lysistrata" (411), "The Thesmophoriazusae" (411), "In the Frogs" (405; it won the first prize at the Lenaean festival), "In the Ecclesiazusae" (392) and "In the Plutus" (388). He is the only exponent of the Athenian Old Comedy who has left us complete plays. In his day comic plays were performed at Athens annually at the festivals of Dionysus and Lenaea, at which occasions five poets competed, each producing a single play. The targets of Aristophanes' humor includes notable politicians (Pericles, Cleon, Hyperbolus), poets (Euripides) and philosophers (Socrates), to name a few. Aristophanes often makes fun of cultural innovators (although the construction of his plays shows that he was one of them himself), whereas the characters with whom he expresses sympathy are usually people who just want to be left to enjoy themselves in traditional ways.- Greek historian and man of letters, he was the son of a well-born Athenian named Gryllus. Xenophon approached manhood during the last turbulent years of the Peloponnesian War (431-404), in which he himself took part as a cavalryman; and perhaps he was also present at the sea battle of Arginusae (406). He got to know Socrates and became his keen admirer, though probably not his pupil, since he possessed no aptitude for philosophy himself. Xenophon was a man of right-wing political tastes, with a simple belief in the virtues of strong leadership; he probably found life uncomfortable when the short-lived oligarchic revolution came to an end and democracy was restored in Athens (403). In any case, he moved away from the city. In 401 his Boeotian friend Proxenus invited him to join the expedition (anabasis, march up country) of Cyrus the Younger who was in rebellion against his brother King Artaxerxes II of Persia. After Cyrus had been defeated and killed at Cunaxa (401), Xenophon was elected a general and played a major part in the evacuation of the Greek expeditionary force to Trapezus (Trabzon, northeastern Turkey). Then, after a brief period of service with the Thracian king Seuthes, he offered himself and his troops to Thibron--a general from Sparta, which was at war with Persia--and engaged as his ally, in operations that continued under Thibron's successor Dercylidas (399-397). In Xenophon's absence, however, at the time when Socrates had just been executed and his associates were discredited, the Athenians formally pronounced a sentence of exile upon him, involving the confiscation of his property. In 396-394 he fought against the Persian satrap Pharnabazus in the service of Agesilaus, king of Sparta (398-361), to whom he formed a strong attachment; and when Agesilaus was called home in 395 at the outset of the Corinthian War (in which Sparta was pitted against Thebes), Xenophon took part in the battle of Coronea (394), thus fighting against his own Athenian compatriots, who were in alliance with Thebes. Subsequently, he settled with his family at Sparta. He was presented by the Spartans with an estate at Scillus in Elis (northwestern Peloponnese) where he spent the next two decades living the life of a literary country gentleman, dividing his time between hunting and writing. The Spartans appointed him as their envoy (proxenos) to look after such of their citizens as visited Olympia nearby. When, after its defeat by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra (371), Sparta lost possession of Scillus, Xenophon and his family moved to a new residence on the isthmus of Corinth. However, relations between Athens and Sparta having now improved, the Athenians repealed his condemnation to exile (c. 365), and it seems likely that he returned to Athens and lived there. In 362 his sons Gryllus and Diodorus (by his wife Philesia) were members of an Athenian contingent fighting with the Spartans against the Thebans at Mantinea, and Gryllus was killed. Xenophon was probably on a visit to Corinth when he died.
- One of the greatest Greek philosophers (considered the greatest Greek writer of prose by some), Plato, was born into an aristocratic Athenian family. He met Socrates around 407 BC and became his disciple in philosophy. Socrates was executed in 399 BC. Plato and fellow disciples took refuge under Euclid in Megara. Following that for a period of 12 years Plato traveled extensively to Egypt, Sicily and Italy. He met Dionysius I of Syracuse in 390 BC. And the Pythagorean mathematician Archytas of Taras (Tarentum) while in Italy, who was a follower of the semi-legendary Pythagoras of Samos (6th Cent. B.C.). He began teaching pupils near the grove of Academus outside Athens in 388 BC. His school was named Academy after the place. Plato was summoned to the court of Dionysuis II of Syracuse by Dion, the ruler's uncle, in 366 BC, and by Dionysius II himself in 362 BC. Plato's philosophical and literary activities extend over a period of 50 years. His main works falls into 2 categories viz. letters and dialogs. The 13 letters are mainly addressed to Dionysus the Tyrant of Syracuse and deal with political advice. The 26 dialogs fall into 3 broad categories - early, middle and late based on his travels. The more well known include the Protagoras, Gorgias, Ion, the Republic (where he attacks the power and pretension of literature), Cratylus, Phaedrus, Sophist and Laws. His death is reported by some authorities as having occurred at a wedding feast or while he was writing. He was buried at the Academy.
- Aristotle was born on 12 February 384 in Stagira, Chalcidian League. He died in 322 in Euboea, Macedonian Empire.
- Publius Vergilius Maro was born on 15 October 70 in Andes, Italy. Publius Vergilius was a writer, known for Troy: The Resurrection of Aeneas (2018), Great Performances (1971) and Dido & Aeneas (1995). Publius Vergilius died on 21 September 19 in Brundisium [now Brindisi, Italy].
- Titus Livius was born in 1959 in Patavium, Roman Republic [now Padua, Veneto, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Cabiria (1914). He died in 2017 in Patavium, Roman Empire [now Padua, Veneto, Italy].
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Born a year after the notorious murder of Julius Caesar, Ovid passed his childhood in relative peace despite the civil wars that wracked the Roman Empire. At last Augustus was crowned emperor and the Pax Romana began, and Ovid set out to study rhetoric in Rome. Despite a promising career in government and even a shot at becoming senator, he preferred writing love poetry and concentrating on his unusual epic, "Metamorphoses". In 8 A.D. he was exiled by the Emperor Augustus for an unspecified crime; scholars speculate Ovid was involved somehow with the scandal of Augustus' daughter Julia's adultery. His erotic and sexually liberated work was wildly popular before and after his exile, and both "Metamorphoses" and "Ars Amatoria", his cynically humorous book on seduction, would greatly influence later writers.