Biographies of ancient writers

Solon

A great Athenian legislator, philosopher and poet (639 - 559 BC). One of the seven wise men of ancient Greece.

He belonged to a rich and aristocratic family, which originated from the generation of the king of Athens Kodrou. His father was called Exekestides, he took care of the education and upbringing of his son. When S. lost his fortune, he turned to trade and traveled to Egypt and Asia Minor. Taking advantage of his travels he studied foreign cultures and laws, as well as the political and economic life of other countries. The equipment he acquired used them efficiently for the social and economic recovery of his homeland and thus managed to become the most important man of his time. He won the trust of the people first with his poetic work. With his fiery lyrics, he influenced Athenian public opinion, advising, encouraging and excitement of the Athenians. His poems made it clear that city misery and quarrels were due to class struggle and promised the healing of evil. That is why the Athenians elected him in 594 BC. a ruler with extraordinary dictatorial authority, to restore peace by changing institutions.

Its legislation

The legislative measures of S. were very daring, but also drastic. The most important of these were:

a) Abolished the division of citizens into classes according to their origin and introduced a new income-based division. Thus, the citizens were divided into four classes: Pentakosiomedimnoi, Hippeis, Zeugitai, Thetes. Depending on the class, the rights and obligations of the citizens were regulated.
b) With the "Seisachtheia" (throwing away the burdens) he eliminated the debts.
c) Established the church of the municipality (Ekklesia), ie the assembly of the Athenian citizens.
d) Established the Council of four hundred.
e) Determine the number of rulers to nine.
f) Established a court named Heliaia, which consisted of 6,000 judges, etc.

Solon took legislative action on all issues and regulated private and criminal law on new bases. The laws were recorded on wooden square slabs, which squeezed upwards and turned around a shaft, so they were called axones (shafts) or "kyrveis". His legislation has acquired a reputation and has influenced the development of law. Solon is rightly considered to be the father of civil law.

Solon, in order to avoid changes in his legislation, he went off for ten years. But quickly, riots were provoked by the nobility, and the city fell into anarchy.

During his ten years of self-expression, S. visited, among others, King Sardeus, Croesus, who asked him if he knew any man happier than him. S. told him three cases of happy people and advised him with the known: "Nenna before dawn" (= do not bother anyone before you see the end). When he returned to Athens, he found her in very good shape thanks to his own legislative measures and died happy in deep ages.

His poetry

Solon was also a poetic poet. He wrote a "Salamis" elegy, in which he urges the Athenians to regain their favorite island. Only eleven lyrics are saved from this elegy.

Solon also wrote political elites, of which we have larger passages. In them he expresses his political views and reflects his contemplation and his love for justice. His electives were called "Opinions," because they contain many opinions.

Hesiod

Ancient Greek poet of the didactic epic (750-700 BC).

1) His Life

Son of Zeus and Pykimidis, was born in Aeolian Kyme. His parents were poor, so they were hospitalized in Boeotia, where they cultivated a small farm on the slopes of Mount Helicon, in the village of Ascra, near Thespiae. However, their economic situation has not improved significantly, because here the site was poor and, moreover, it had a hard climate. Traditionally, in the small Hesiod, which feeds its sheep at Helicon, the nine Muses were presented and gave him the gift of singing sweetly the past and the future. When his father died, his brother Perses bribed the judges in the distribution of his father's property and took a bigger share of Hesiod. But because he was lazy and wicked when he wasted his fortune, he threatened new trials to grab the share of his brother. On the occasion of these incidents, Hesiod wrote his long poem "Works and Days", where, after the Muses invoked, the poet spoke to Perses, whom he tries to prevent from judicial fury and direct him to work, because the work and the profit that comes from it give a benefit, while without sweat no good is given by the gods to man and ends with the famous saying: "job is no shame, inertia is the shame". As for the poetic struggle between Hesiod and Homer, to which the first one was defeated, it seems without doubt that it is a fantastic creation, born in the 5th century school environment BC, where discussions were held about the value of the didactic and heroic epic, which Aristophanes first began in "Eirene". Because H. was in any case later than Homer.

2) His Work

From the many poems of H. the following are preserved:

a) "Works and Days": Verses 1-764 are the "Works," so called, because the poet advises in it about the work, which is the only way for the bliss of man. The rest of the lyrics (765-828) deal with the favorable and insidious days to which the second part of the title "Days" is due and are considered as a later addition.
b) "Theogony" (1022 verses). In this the poet tries to record in a system with continuity and elasticity the various Greek myths referring to the genesis, to the axioms and generally to the history of the Greek gods.
c) "Shield of Heracles" (480 verses). It describes the shield of Hercules in imitation of the S of the Iliad, describing the shield of Achilles, the work of Hephaestus.
d) "Ehoiai" (54 verses). It contains a list of women who, as gods, gave birth to heroes. It was named because in every section where a heroine is praised, the poet begins with the Greek words "ē hoiē"="which" (that is, was this heroine).

PLATO

Greek philosopher and writer (427 - 347 BC).

Born in Athens by noble parents. His father Ariston said that he was descended from the generation of the king of Athens Codrus and his mother Perictioni from the famous lawmaker Solon. He had two brothers, Adeimandus and Glaucon. His first name was Aristocles. Plato was later named for his broad chest and wide forehead. The young man dealt with poetry, but quickly turned to philosophy. He was 20 years old when he met Socrates and stayed with him for eight whole years, until the great teacher died (399 BC). The unfortunate death of Socrates convinced him that Athenian democracy had major defects and assumed the role of a social reformer.

After the killing of Socrates he briefly escaped to Megara, near his classmate Euclides. He then returned to Athens, where he spent 10 years writing philosophical works bearing the stamp of Socratic philosophy. Then he traveled to Egypt and Cyrene, where he was associated with the mathematician Theodore, and finally Taranto of Italy, where he met the Pythagoreans, whose philosophical thought was decisively influenced. Then he passed to Sicily. In the courtyard of the King of Syracuse, Dionysios I met the royal female brother of Dion, with whom he was friendly. But this friendship caused Dionysius' suspicion of conspiracy, so he sent Plato out of Sicily. In Aegina he was threatened to be sold as a slave but was bought by Annrian's Kyriani friend. Returning to Athens he opened his Philosophical School, the Academy (387). But the effort of the two friends to convert their ideas to the new ruler, Dionysius II, failed. For the third time he came to the Syracuse courtyard in 361, in order to reconcile Dion with Dionysius. This time his life has also been jeopardized. It was saved by Pythagorean Arkita. But Dion did not escape. He was murdered in 353. So P. lost the man in whom he supported his hopes of imposing his political ideas. Since then, P. and until his death he has been engaged in teaching and writing philosophical works.

His work

The works of P. are 36 and all, except for "Apology", are interactive. And in the writing, the philosopher imitated the teachings of Socrates, who taught it interactively. His dialogues are marked with the name of one of the selected persons, eg. "Timaeus", "Gorgias", "Protagoras" etc. Only three dialogues, "Symposium", "State" and "Laws" are titled by their content. In all dialogues, Socrates leads the debate. In older dialogues he retains the image of the real Socrates, while in the younger one under the teacher's face hides the student himself. The entire platonic work is divided into three periods in chronological order:

a) Youth period (400 - 387 BC): This includes: Apology, Kriton, Harmidis, Protagoras, Lachis, Efthypros, Hippies of the Greatest, Hippie of Elas, Ion, Lysis.

b) Maturity period (386-367). In it belong: Menexenos, Kratylos, Efedimos, Gorgias, Menon, Parmenides, Phaedon, Phadros, State, Symposium, Theeite.

c) Age of aging (366-348). Includes: Sophist, Political, Phillibos, Critias, Timaeus, Laws, 7th letter.

His Philosophy

Platonic philosophy is ideological. It introduces the theory of ideas, which in P. are the generic and eternal types of things, substances that are perceived only by logic rather than by sense. He senses them as images of ideas. Thus, P. recognizes two worlds, the perceived, constantly changing and constantly flowing, according to Heraclitus, and the conceived world, the unalloyed, that is, the ideas that exist in a place of heaven. These are the archetypes of this visible world, the eternal models and examples.

In the soul he distinguishes three parts, the accounting, the anomalous and the desirable. That is why he recognizes three virtues, wisdom, bravery and wisdom, each of which corresponds to one of the three parts of the soul. These three virtues of the soul parallels them with the three strings of the lyre, the gendarme, the waist and the moon. But these three virtues must grow harmoniously so that the accounting as a divine rule, the anomaly obey it as an assistant, both together to direct the desire, not to attempt to do that, since it is the most invaluable and the lower part of the soul. The harmonious development of the three virtues consists of justice, which is the harmony of the three other virtues.

Because the city is an enlargement of man, it also distinguishes three generations: the parliamentary, the war and the money, which correspond to the three parts of the soul. As in man, so in the city there must be justice, that is, harmony, which succeeds, when in the city each of the generations performs his own work and does not seek foreigners.

The influence of this philosopher was too great. The history of philosophy up to Cicero is full of him and either he doubts or follows his teaching. The fathers of the church from him borrow ideas and arguments and consider him the most important representative of human philosophy. But the newer philosophical thought has not been left unaffected by P. The various philosophical systems or trying to overturn or build on them.

  Proclus

Greek neoplatonic philosopher. He was born in 410 or 412 AD in Constantinople and died in 485 in Athens. He studied in Alexandria a rhetoric with Leonas and Orion teachers and philosophy with his masters Olympiadoro and Herona. Later he continued his studies in Athens, where he was a student of Plutarch and Conscience. He tried to incorporate all of the older philosophical theories into a rigorous classification of ideas and hence was called "Hegel of antiquity". His main works: commentary on the dialogues "Alcibiades I", "Parmenides", "Krastilos", "State" and "Timaeus" of Plato, theoretical "Theological affirmation", "In Plato's theology" in works by Hesiod, Homer, Euclid, Ptolemy and others.

Plutarch

Historian, biographer and moral philosopher (50 AD - 127 AD). He was born in Chaeroneia, Boeotia, from a wealthy and aristocratic family. He studied philosophy at the Academy of Athens and traveled to Alexandria and Rome, where he stayed for a long time, and he was involved in the courtyard of Trajan, later becoming a teacher of Emperor Hadrian. In Rome, he was given the opportunity to consult the archives of the city, which he used as a source for the writing of his "Parallel Life". Trajan gave him a political post in Illyria. But his compatriots honored him with various offices, such as the lord and the priest of the Pythian Apollo, while for a long time he was a curator of the Pythian struggles. P. had four sons, one of whom, Plutarch the younger, published his father's anecdotes. As a man he was calm, gentle, simple and philanthropist.

His work

Of his works, 50 "Life" and "Ethics" were saved, ie 83 treatises and varied content, some of which are considered to be wrong. Such is the wealth of knowledge in his writings, so we learn about antiquity more than any other writer. P. is ranked among historians for his "Parallel Life", which is 23 pairs. Each of them biographed two eminent men, one Greek and one Roman, who in the end parallels and compares, so the lives are called parallel. Thus, they compare Demosthenes with Cicero, Alexander with Caesar, Themistocles with Kamilos, Aristides with Kato, etc. His historical material is derived from Greek and Roman sources, most of which have been lost. That is why the writings of P. were precious. In all centuries and in many peoples, "Parallel Life" found inexperienced readers and admirers, for the writer not only excited, but also the reader wakes up to resemble the great men who are biographed.

Critias (460 - 403 BC)

Athenian politician, philosopher, poet, orator, and the toughest and most violent of the "Thirty-Fours" of Athens. Son of the rich Calleschra, a student of Socrates, Gorgia and many philosophers and sophists. His great intelligence and the multilateral education he received made him one of the most talented politicians and educated men of his time. was charged with Alcibiades, with whom he was a close friend, to cut the heads of Hermes and was jailed. In 411 BC, when the oligarchic post-conflict in Athens took place, it was with the democrats. In 408, when Alkiviadis returned to Athens, he became his closest associate. In 407 he was exiled to Thessaly but returned to Athens in 405. In 404, following the subjugation of Athens from Sparta, he was elected one of the "Thirty Thorons". He managed to exterminate all his political opponents, even his loyal friend Theramenis, whom he condemned to drink the hemlock. Socrates's teacher forbade teaching or doing business with young people, his religious beliefs approached the atheism and committed many arbitrariness and atrocities at the expense of his fellow citizens. In May of 403 BC, battling the mummy that Thrasyvulos possessed with his democratic revolutionaries, K was killed along with many of his associates. C. as a scholar dealt with all kinds of speech. He wrote epic, elective, dramatic, erotic, state descriptions (Sparta, Athens, etc.), the trilogy "Tennes, Rhadamanthis, Pirates", the satirical work "Sisyphus". His rhetorical works were used in Roman times as models for the great Roman rhetoric. Only a few extracts of his works are saved.

Homer

An ancient Greek epic poet, the greatest poet of all ages, with whom Greek and European artistic literature begins.

1) His life.

The information we have about Homer are minimal and unclear. Many cities claimed that was the birthplace of Homer, as these two dactylic hexameters tell us: "Seven cities claimed the roots of Homer, Kymi, Chios, Colophon, Smyrna, Pylos, Argos, Atheni". His most likely homeland, however, is Smyrna, an Aeolian colony, which was later added to the Ionian Union.

This view is reinforced by the fact that the poet knew his region very well, as evidenced by the similarities borrowed from the clang of the swans and the geese of Caistus River, from the momentum of the north wind and Zephyros that flow from the Thrace, from the bull that is sacrificed to Panionios. He was still well acquainted with the shores of Adramythos Gulf, Mount Ida, Skamandros plain, etc., which the poet saw with his eyes, and these became theaters of the games of their heroes.

It is unknown when Homer lived. He himself suggests in his poems that he lived much later than the Trojans. Because he often says that the heroes of the Trojans were far superior to his contemporaries in bravery and strength. According to Herodotus (B 53), Homer lived 400 years earlier than him and, according to this testimony, must have lived in the middle of the 9th century BC. Finally, the tradition that Homer was born blind must be rejected because it is incompatible with the subtle observation of the nature that exists in his work. Unless he was blinded then, why in his works he revealed, in the spoken language of his time that all the people can read, many secrets that had been recorded many years ago by the priesthood. This version is also reported by many ancient writers.

2) His work

Homer wrote: a) Iliad, whose case runs out in 51 days and 15,700 verses.

Its theme is "Achilles' wrath" against Agamemnon and the aftermath that followed. Normally, therefore, it had to be called "Achilleada". However, because the poet intervenes many events of the war that took place around Ilio (= Troy), so it took the name "Ilias"
b) Odyssey, whose incidents last for 41 days and grow to 12,100 verses . Its theme is Odysseus' nostos (= return) from Troy to Ithaca.

Other works attributed to H. in the ancient times, today this is being disputed, were: "Homeric Hymns", the comic mini-epic "Batrachomyomachia" (The Frog-Mouse War), "Margites", etc.

3) The value of the Homeric Epics

Characteristic of the art of H. is that his epics have beginning, middle and end and that with the successive episodes he keeps the audience's interest constantly until the end. His narrative is calm and gentle. It depicts the most miserable scenes, but its realism never becomes vulgar. Persons presenting act consistently to their "ethos". No person is left "without some ethos" in his work. The language it uses is the Ionic dialect, mixed with some Aeolic features. Just as the heroes' life is simple and authentic (unaffected), in the same way the poet's language is simple and naive, with a particular preference for the contradictory connection of sentences. However, this naive poet has such a verbal richness in his work as no other poem or prose. And it proves to be a deep knowledge of the human soul and an incomparable observer of nature and the world.

The Homeric verse is the "dactylic hexameter", which the poet found prepared by the older vocalists, but he used it with undeniable skill and used it as no other. The admiration for Homer's epics has remained unabated since antiquity to our days, so he is taught in all of Europe's schools as the greatest poet and pedagogue of the centuries. Homeric epics have been translated into all the languages ​​of the world, as well as in Greek demotic language, by I. Polylas, Arg. Eftaliotis, Z. Sideris, N. Kazantzakis, I. Kakridis and others.

Donysius of Halicarnassus (60 BC- after 7 BC)

Rhetoric, historian and critic of the 1st century. B.C. He was born in Alikaranassos of Caria (part of today's Asia Minor opposite the Dodecanese). After studying in his native country, he went to Rome where he lived for 22 years. There he learned the Latin language and studied Latin literature. He wrote "Romaiki archeologia, Roman Antiquities" which is a history of Rome from the mythical period to the First Carthaginian War (or First Punic War, 264 BC). It consists of 20 volumes and only a part of it is preserved. He also wrote criticism of ancient Greek writers (Demosthenes, Plato, Thucydides, Lysias, Isocrates, etc.) in his work "Art Rhetoric". The date of his death is unknown.

Euhemerus or Evemerus (4th - 3rd century BC)

An ancient Greek historian, philosopher and mythographer from Messina in Sicily or from Tegea or from Kos, who lived between the 4th and the 3rd century BC. He became famous with his work "Sacred History" in which he tried to prove that the gods and heroes of mythology were people who were distinguished in life and deified after their death. He also argued that many mythological stories can be attributed to historical figures and historical or natural events.

His work was brutally fought by the old writers, among whom Kallimachos and Eratosthenes. Plutarch in his work "About Isis and Osiris" calls him an atheist, while Diodorus Sikeliotis saved some extracts from his work. However, his theory has had a great influence on religious issues. It was even used by Christians to fight idolatry. His followers were called Euhemeristes and his theory Euhemerism (that is, the existing gods were once great people and heroes). But even in the modern age, and even in the 17th and 18th centuries, many turned to his teachings and were called younger Euhemeristes.

Herodotus  

A Greek historian, traveler and geographer. He was born in Asia Minor in Halicarnassus between 480-484 BC, and died between 420-425 BC. He was rightly described as the "Father of History".

His life.

He descended from a wealthy and fond of learning family and was raised in a circle of people who loved Homer and the old legends. His parents, Lyxes and Dryo, belonged to one of the most important families of Alikaranassus. When Carian tyrant Lygdamis reigned in his homeland, Halicarnassus, H. took part in a failed conspiracy to overthrow him, with the result that he was exiled in 468 or 467 BC. in Samos, along with his family. After many years of exile in Samos, he returned to Halicarnassus after the overthrow of Lygdamis, in 455 BC. - according to another view he participated in his overthrowning - but after a while he had to leave his homeland, perhaps because he was fighting with his compatriots for some political reasons.

Since then he has begun as a traveler and explorer to visit various parts of the well-known world of his time. Probably these trips were made between 458 and 445 BC. In 445 BC he was in Athens, where he stayed for several years and was friendly with the great men of that time, Pericles and Sophocles. Together with Protagoras they founded the Thurium colony in "Greater Greece" of Lower Italy. In this colony, founded near the destroyed Sivari, H. spent most of the rest of his life, so he was called "Thourios". In Athens he came again shortly after the construction of the Propylaea (431). For the last few years of his life there is little information. Perhaps he died in the Thurium around 422 BC.

His work

Herodotos wrote a world story that he himself described as "Ιστορίης Απόδεξις" ("Histories Evidence") in the preface. The Alexandrians called it with the title "Herodotus's Muses" and divided it into nine books and each gave the name of one of the nine Muses. In the first four books he presents the formation and growth of the Persian power, in the fifth and sixth the first clashes with the Greeks of mainland Greece, in the last part of the sixth and in the two following describes the two major campaigns, which ended the first in the battle of Marathon and the other at the naval battle of Salamis. Finally in the ninth book it refers to the other victories of the Greeks.

For the writing of his work, he used the works of the logographers, and especially of Hecataeus of Miletus, the archives of the cities and all other official inscriptions and finally the collection of oracles. The main source of his work was oral traditions and his personal search. Many times he calls his informant, as is the case with Thersandros of Orchomenos, Tymni of Scythi and others.

The first four books are removed from history and considered to be more political information, myths and anecdotes. The five remaining books are more coherent. In any case, his work is not limited to telling the battles, but analyzes morals, customs, religious beliefs and theories about the rule of a state.

A great place in his work is freedom, subject to law and allowing man and the city to get their fullest form. The language of H. is the new Ionic, derived from the influence of the Homeric language, with the addition of Attic and Doric types. His suggestions are small and are tied together. The beauty of his style is due to the blending of simplicity and height. Using as the basis of the work, which he called "Ιστορίης Απόδεξις", autopsy, research and criticism, H. first approached the story, but could not be considered an objective historian. Despite this, his work as a whole is a reliable source and the only continuous and complete we have for such an important era of history. Cicero named him father of history. At the same time, he can be considered the father of the geography and patriarch of all the tourists.