Greek literature

Japanese: ギリシア文学 - ぎりしあぶんがく

Ancient Greek literature is usually defined as the literary works written in Greek beginning with Homer (8th century BC), through the Preclassical period (8th-6th centuries BC), Classical period (5th-4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic period (3rd century BC-1st century AD), up to the 5th century during the late Roman Empire.

It is said that the Greek people entered the Balkan Peninsula in the early 2nd millennium BC, but after settling there, they formed their own unique civilization, heavily influenced by the indigenous peoples and the Orient, especially the Minoan civilization of Crete. This was the Mycenaean civilization, which flourished from 1400 to 1200 BC. The so-called Linear B script used during this period was deciphered in the mid-20th century and found to contain Greek language. This allowed the history of the Greek language to go back about 400 years, but these documents written on clay tablets were mostly administrative memos and had nothing to do with literature. Therefore, the conventional wisdom that the history of Greek literature began with Homer remains unchanged even today. For information on Greek literature from the collapse of the Byzantine Empire (1453) to the present day, see the separate article "Modern Greek Literature."

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

Characteristics of Greek Literature

From around the 10th century BC, the Greeks attempted to colonize various regions for political and economic reasons, but their colonial activities became extremely active from the 8th century BC onwards, when the historical period began, and they built Greek cities over a vast area that stretched from the coast of Asia Minor in the east, the Italian peninsula and Sicily in the west, southern France and Spain, the Black Sea coast in the north, and the northern coast of Africa in the south. As a result, each region of Greece produced its own unique literature, with different styles, languages (dialects), and rhythms, and Greek literature showed a diversity unparalleled in other literatures. However, as cities became the literary centers of Athens (Athens) in the Classical period and Alexandria in Egypt in the Hellenistic period, literature reflecting local color faded into the background.

All literary forms, including epic poetry, lyric poetry, drama, and prose, originated from Greek literature. It is said that only novels are a creation of modern literature, but the love stories that were popular during the Roman Empire, known as "Greek novels," are not completely unrelated to modern novels, although they have a different feel to them. In classical literature, the concept of literature is interpreted more broadly than in modern times, and it often extends to the fields of philosophy, history, oratory, and even natural science. Herodotus, Hippocrates, Plato, and Demosthenes appear in literary history because their works are considered to be representative of prose literature.

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

The History of Greek Literature

Epic

The conventional wisdom that Greek literature began with the two great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, said to be written by Homer, may seem abrupt, since it skips over the process of the early stages of development and maturity, and instead presents highly accomplished works. However, there is no doubt that Greek epic poetry is the fruit of a long tradition dating back hundreds of years to Homer. The appearance of these two great works, which were brought to an ideal perfection by the genius of Homer, caused many smaller works from previous, contemporary, and later periods to fade and be forgotten. There were several other works said to be written by Homer, but all of them were written after Homer. These include over 30 short epic poems called "Homeric Hymns" that are similar to Japanese prayers, and "The Battle of the Frog and the Mouse," a parody of heroic epics. He also created a series of epics called the "Cyclian Circle." These were conceived to complete huge legendary spheres such as the legend of Troy, the legend of Thebes, and the legend of Hercules in several independent epics, and only a few fragments of them have been passed down.

Homeric heroic epics were created in Ionia, but on the Greek mainland, a school of epic poetry with a slightly different style flourished, centered in Boeotia. In contrast to the Ionian school, there is the Mainland or Boeotian school, whose representative poet is Hesiod (late 8th century BC). The Ionian school is flamboyant and entertaining, while mainland epics are more practical and ethical. Hesiod's Works and Days is a kind of agricultural calendar written to admonish his dissolute younger brother and teach him farming. The Theogony describes the genealogy of the gods and preaches the path of human ethics, and along with Homer, it influenced the religious and ethical views of Greeks for many years to come.

Epic poetry gradually declined after the 7th century BC, but in Hellenistic Alexandria, it was revived by two great poets, Callimachus and Apollonius. Callimachus put a lot of effort into creating mini-epic poems, while Apollonius wrote the lengthy four-volume work The Story of the Argonauts. Both had a great influence on Roman writers. During the Roman Empire, in the 4th and 5th centuries, Quintus Smyrnaeus wrote The Afterlives of Homer in 14 volumes, Musaeus wrote Hero and Leander, and the Egyptian-born Nonnus wrote The Story of Dionysus in 48 volumes. All of these works were widely read and loved until later generations, and influenced early modern literature.

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

Lyric poetry

In ancient Greece, there was no term equivalent to today's lyric poetry, and it was called by different poetic forms and styles, such as yambos, elegia, solo poem, and choral song. Therefore, lyric poetry here means a work in which the poet expresses his or her own feelings through rhythm, and is often accompanied by a flute or lyre.

Both elegeia and emismos originated in Ionia. Elegeia is a slightly modified epic poem consisting of two stanzas, while emismos is a one-line verse form with six short and long rhymes. The two developed almost in parallel, and many poets, such as Archilochus and Solon, used both forms. As can be inferred from the form, elegeia is often solemn and solemn in content, and themes are diverse, including military songs, love songs, lamentations, and even political ideas and views on life. Representative writers of this genre include Archilochus, Kalinos, Chultaeus, Mimnermus, and, somewhat later, Solon, and, even later, Theognis, who is famous as a writer of didactic poetry. The 6th century BC philosopher Xenophanes also wrote excellent works in elegeia and emismos. The cadence of the Iambus is said to be closer to everyday speech, and its content is much more casual than that of the Elegeia, with personal attacks or pent-up dissatisfaction with society being vented through satire and insults. Archilochus is a representative poet, and his successors include Hipponax, who lived a life of debauchery in the slums, and Semonides, who wrote satirical poems that sang about the sorrows of life and compared women to animals and other types.

The closest thing to today's lyric poetry is the so-called solo poetry that originated in Aeolian and Ionian poetry. Most of them were in stanza form, consisting of four lines, and were apparently performed to the lyre. Representative poets in Aeolian poetry were Alcaeus and Sappho of Lesbos, and in Ionia Anacreon. All of them used their own country's dialect and sang frankly about their feelings about things around them. Alcaeus and Sappho were from the same country and era. Alcaeus sang passionately about his days spent in political struggles, while Sappho wrote lengthy poems about his yearning for his same-sex lovers. Anacreon was employed at the courts of dictators, and wrote many light-hearted, hedonistic works that sang about wine and women.

No great poets appeared after the classical period, but in Alexandria, Philetas and Callimachus attempted lyric works, and Theocritus created the "Pastoral" form, which is a highly lyrical poetic form. Moschus and Bion are considered to be the successors of Theocritus. Meleager and Asclepiades, whose names appear in the Anthology of Greek Poems, were also great poets of the Hellenistic period.

Choral singing is probably the genre furthest from today's concept of lyric poetry. Originally, it was composed for the singing and dancing corps of festivals and ceremonies, and naturally had a strong public character. It flourished in various Doric places, especially Sparta, as is known from the work of Alcman (7th century BC), who is famous for his Maiden Songs. The ternary form (main chant, counter-chant, and sub-chant), which is said to have been invented by Stesichorus (7th-6th century BC) from Sicily, was the final pattern of choral singing, and this was also adopted in tragic choral singing. With the emergence of the three great poets Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, choral singing reached its zenith. They made their name famous with the triumphal songs they composed at the request of royalty and nobility, praising the winners of athletic competitions such as Olympias, and four volumes of Pindar's Triumphal Song have been preserved in almost perfect form. Simonides and Bachilides were uncle and nephew, and were Ionian poets with a simple, light-hearted language and style. Pindar's work is extremely difficult to understand, with a solemn, Doric tone. In addition to maiden songs and victory songs, a form of choral song called the dithyramb, which is associated with the worship of Dionysus, was once popular, and both Pindar and Bachilides wrote works of this type. The most popular dithyramb writer from the 5th to 4th centuries BC was Timotheus. Simonides was also famous as a writer of epitaph poems, and many of his inscribed poems, including some forgeries, have been handed down.

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

theater

As for drama, both tragedy and comedy can be said to have been monopolized by Attica (the capital of Athens). Although crude stages of drama were seen in other places outside Attica, it was Athenian playwrights who brought it to a state of perfection. There have been various theories about its origins since ancient times, but since both tragedy and comedy are accompanied by a chorus (chorus), it is appropriate to assume that it originated from choral singing. In the mid-6th century BC, the tragic writer Thespis gave it a certain form of drama, and from the latter half of the same century, a competition of these plays was held as a public event at the festival of Dionysus. In the 5th century BC, Aeschylus made a great leap forward, and with the appearance of Sophocles and Euripides, the Athenian theater scene experienced unprecedented prosperity. After Euripides and Sophocles died in succession in 406 BC, tragedy also rapidly declined and changed in response to the decline of Athens.

Comedy was allowed to compete alongside tragedy at the Dionysian festivals quite late, in the 5th century BC, and only 11 complete plays by Aristophanes remain. Only fragments of works by Cratinos and Eupolis, who were active at roughly the same time, have been passed down. Originally, comedy was based on the principle of criticizing and satirizing all current events, but after the defeat at the end of the 5th century BC, it rapidly lost its vitality and changed. The early stage of the 5th century BC is called Old Comedy, followed by Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Menander, Dipylus, and Philemon are representative writers of New Comedy, and only one complete work by Menander is known, while the others are all fragments. However, since most Roman comedies are adaptations of Middle and New Comedies, it is sometimes possible to restore the original to a certain extent through these works. Many are melodramas based on the daily lives of citizens, with the same types of characters in every story and the same plot progression repeated over and over again.

Outside Attica, a different kind of comedy was performed in the Doric region of Sicily, and Epicharmus (6th-5th century BC) is a representative writer of this genre. There is also a unique genre called mimos (mimesis) that was popular during the Hellenistic period. Writers such as Sophron and Herondas from the 3rd century BC are known for this, but it is a kind of skit, and many of them depict a scene from the daily life of a leisure-class family in the form of a dialogue. The characteristics of this genre are known from several mimos by Herondas, discovered at the end of the 19th century, but they seem to have been scripts for reading rather than for performance.

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

prose

The development of prose was quite delayed, and prose works finally appeared around the 6th century BCE. Before prose was differentiated from verse and commonly used as a medium different from poetry, epic poems, elegy, and sometimes ambiguous verse forms served as substitutes. Early pre-Socratic philosophers such as Empedocles, Parmenides, and Xenophanes used verse when expounding on their philosophical principles, and Solon used verse when expressing his political beliefs, because prose was still in its infancy. Like epic poems, prose also originated in Ionia. Early prose written in the Ionian dialect was widely diversified. Representative works include the nine volumes of "Histories" by Herodotus, known as the father of history, and the vast collection of medical treatises handed down under the name of Hippocrates, the father of ancient medicine. The philosopher Democritus also described his philosophical ideas in Ionian prose, although most of his works have been lost. The vocabulary and phrasing of Ionian prose were strongly influenced by epic poetry, and the style was generally simple and down-to-earth.

It was Athenian writers who inherited the tradition of Ionian prose and further refined it to perfect the art of prose. In a democratic society, the best way to stand out in the political and legal worlds was to master the art of eloquence. This, combined with the activities of the Sophists, led to a remarkable development in oratory and rhetoric, and under their influence, Attic prose was born. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, great figures in history included Thucydides and Xenophon, and in oratory included Antiphon, Lysias, Isocrates, and Demosthenes. In the field of philosophy, Plato, a student of Socrates, stood out, and his work "Dialogues" can be said to be a magnificent literary work as a dramatic dialogue in prose. Aristotle did not leave behind any works that could be considered literary works, but his works "Rhetorica," which explains rhetoric as a form of persuasion, and "Poetics," which discusses literary composition with a focus on tragedy, have had an enormous influence on literary studies since the early modern period.

After the Hellenistic period, Greek became the common language of the world, known as Koine (common language). At the same time, there was a movement among intellectuals to revive the pure Attic prose, and writings in pseudo-archaic language, mainly oratory, were actively produced. Thus, prose from the Hellenistic to Roman periods, to varying degrees, followed this trend. Notable writers include the historians Polybius and Diodorus, and the geographer Strabo in the BC period, and Plutarch, author of "Parallel Lives" and "Ethics," and the satirist Lucian in the AD period. The writings of Pausanias, Aelian, Athenaeus, and others are also highly valued as treasure troves for exploring historical facts.

As mentioned earlier, from around the time of Christ to the 4th and 5th centuries, love stories known as "Greek novels" were popular. They were household reading material from the Greco-Roman period, and all followed the same pattern of a handsome man and a beautiful woman facing various perils, remaining true to their love, and finally uniting happily. Of the few stories that have been passed down, Heliodorus's "The Ethiopian Story" and Longus's "Daphnis and Chloe" are particularly famous. In order to preserve the uniform plot of all 1,000 stories, authors each added their own ingenious ideas, such as embellishing the story with exoticism or thrilling scenes.

[Matsudaira Chiaki]

"Guide to Greek and Roman Classical Literature" by Takatsu Harushige and Saito Shinobizu (Iwanami Bunko)" ▽ "History of Ancient Greek Literature" by Takatsu Harushige (1977, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "History of World Literature I: Greek and Roman Literature" by Takatsu Harushige (1967, Meiji Shoin)

[References] | Modern Greek literature

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

古代ギリシア文学はホメロス（前8世紀）に始まり、前古典期（前8～前6世紀）、古典期（前5～前4世紀）、ヘレニズム時代（前3～後1世紀）を経てローマ帝政後期の5世紀までの間にギリシア語で書かれた文学作品をさすのが通例である。

　ギリシア民族がバルカン半島に入ったのは、紀元前二千年紀初頭とされるが、定住後、先住民やオリエント諸国、ことにクレタ島のミノア文明の影響を強く受けて、独自の文明を形成した。これがミケーネ文明で、前1400～前1200年にもっとも栄えた。この時代に使用されたいわゆる線状文字Bが20世紀中ごろに解読されて、ギリシア語を写していることが判明した。これによりギリシア語の歴史は400年ほどもさかのぼることになったが、粘土板に記されたこれらの文書は、内容が行政事務用のメモに類するものばかりで、文学とはかかわりがない。したがって、ギリシア文学の歴史がホメロスに始まるという定説は今日でも動かない。なお、ビザンティン帝国の崩壊（1453）から現代に至るギリシア文学については別項「近代ギリシア文学」を参照。

［松平千秋］

ギリシア文学の特質

　ギリシア人は前10世紀ごろから、政治的、経済的理由で各地に植民を図ったが、ことに歴史時代に入る前8世紀以降は、植民活動は活発を極め、東は小アジアの沿岸一帯、西はイタリア半島およびシチリア、南フランスからスペインに及び、北は黒海沿岸、南はアフリカ北岸に至る広大な地域にギリシア都市を建設した。その結果、ギリシア各地に、様式、言語（方言）、韻律を異にする、それぞれ独自の文学が生まれ、ギリシア文学は他の文学には類をみない多様性を示すことになった。ただし、古典期にはアテナイ（アテネ）、ヘレニズム時代にはエジプトのアレクサンドリアと、それぞれ都市が文芸の中心地となったため、地方色を反映した文学は影が薄れていった。

　叙事詩、叙情詩、演劇、散文など文学形式のすべてがギリシア文学に発している。小説のみは近代文学の創造であるといわれるが、ローマ帝政期に流行した恋愛物語、いわゆる「ギリシア小説」は、近代小説とは趣(おもむき)を異にするとはいえ、まったく無縁ではない。古典文学においては、文学の概念を近代よりも広く解釈しており、哲学、歴史、弁論、さらには自然科学の分野にも及ぶことが少なくない。ヘロドトス、ヒポクラテス、プラトン、デモステネスらが文学史に登場するのは、彼らの作品が散文学の代表と目されるからである。

［松平千秋］

ギリシア文学の歩み

叙事詩

ギリシア文学が、ホメロス作と伝えられる『イリアス』『オデュッセイア』の二大叙事詩に始まるという定説は、唐突と受け取られるかもしれない。稚拙な揺籃(ようらん)期から成熟への過程を省略して、いきなり完成度の高い作品を掲げているからである。しかしギリシアの叙事詩がホメロス以前数百年もさかのぼる長い伝統を担っており、ホメロスはその最終的結実であることは疑いない。ホメロスの天才によって理想的完成度に達した二大作品の出現により、前代、同時代、および後代の群小作品は色あせ、やがて忘れ去られた。ホメロス作と伝えられる作品はほかにもいくつかあったが、いずれもホメロスより後代の作。『ホメロス讃歌(さんか)』と称する、わが国の祝詞(のりと)に似た趣の小叙事詩30編余、英雄叙事詩のパロディー『蛙鼠(けいそ)合戦』などである。また「叙事詩(キュクロス)の環」と称する一連の叙事詩も多くつくられた。トロイア（トロイ）伝説をはじめ、テバイ（テーベ）伝説、ヘラクレス伝説など巨大な伝説圏を、それぞれいくつかの独立した叙事詩で完結するように構想されたもので、わずかな断片以外伝わっていない。

　ホメロス流の英雄叙事詩はイオニアで成立したが、ギリシア本土ではボイオティアを中心として、やや趣を異にする叙事詩の一派が栄えた。イオニア派に対して本土派またはボイオティア派といわれ、その代表的詩人がヘシオドス（前8世紀末）である。イオニア派は華やかで娯楽的性格が強いが、本土の叙事詩はむしろ実用的、倫理的色彩が濃い。ヘシオドス作『仕事と日々』は、放埒(ほうらつ)な弟を戒め農事を教える目的で書かれた一種の農事暦。『神統記』は、神々の系譜を述べつつ人倫の道を説き、ホメロスと並んでのちのちまでギリシア人の宗教観、倫理思想に影響を与えた。

　前7世紀以後はしだいに衰えるが、ヘレニズム時代のアレクサンドリアでは、カリマコス、アポロニオスの2大家によって叙事詩の再興が行われる。カリマコスは小叙事詩に新工夫を凝らし、アポロニオスは『アルゴ船物語』4巻の長大な作品を著した。いずれもローマ時代の作家に与えた影響は大きい。ローマ帝政期に入り、4～5世紀のころクイントゥス・スミルナイウスが『ホメロス後日談』14巻を、ムサイオスが『ヘロとレアンドロス』を、エジプト生まれのノンノスが『ディオニソス物語』48巻を著した。いずれも後世まで広く愛読され、近世の文学にも影響を与えた。

［松平千秋］

叙情詩

古代ギリシアには今日の叙情詩に相当する用語はなく、イアンボス、エレゲイア、独唱詩、合唱歌などと、それぞれの詩形や様式によってよばれていた。したがってここに叙情詩というのは、詩人が韻律によって自己の感懐を述べた作品というほどの意味で、多くの場合、竪笛(たてぶえ)または竪琴の伴奏を伴うものをいう。

　エレゲイアとイアンボスはともにイオニアにおこった。エレゲイアは叙事詩形を若干変形した2行1連からなり、イアンボスは短長の韻脚を6脚含む1行単位の詩形である。両者はほぼ並行して発達し、アルキロコス、ソロンのように両詩形を用いた詩人も少なくない。エレゲイアはその詩形から推測されるように、荘重厳粛な内容のものが多く、軍歌、恋愛歌、哀悼歌、さらに政治思想、人生観を述べたものなど、その主題は多岐にわたった。その代表的作家としてアルキロコス、カリノス、チュルタイオス、ミムネルモス、やや下ってソロン、さらに遅れて教訓詩の作家として名高いテオグニスがいる。なお、前6世紀の哲学者クセノファネスも、エレゲイアやイアンボスの詩形で優れた作品を書いた。イアンボスの韻律は日常の話しことばに近いといわれるように、その内容もエレゲイアに比べはるかに砕けたもので、個人攻撃、または鬱屈(うっくつ)した世間への不満を風刺、罵倒(ばとう)で発散している。アルキロコスはその代表的詩人で、陋巷(ろうこう)にあって無頼の生涯を送ったヒッポナクスや、人生の悲哀を歌い、女のタイプを動物その他に見立てた風刺詩を残したセモニデスは彼の後継者である。

　今日の叙情詩にもっとも近いのは、アイオリスとイオニアにおこった、いわゆる独唱詩である。多くは4行を単位とするスタンザ（連）形式のもので、竪琴で弾き語りしたものらしい。アイオリスでは、レスボス島のアルカイオスとサッフォー、イオニアではアナクレオンがその代表的詩人。いずれも自国の方言を用い、身辺の事物についての感懐をすなおに歌い上げている。アルカイオスとサッフォーとは同国人で、同時代人である。アルカイオスは政争に明け暮れる日々を激越な調子で歌い、サッフォーは同性の愛人たちへの思慕を綿々とつづる。アナクレオンは独裁者たちの宮廷に抱えられ、酒や女を歌い、軽快で享楽的な作品が多い。

　古典期以後は優れた詩人は現れず、アレクサンドリアでピレタスやカリマコスらが叙情的作品を試みたほか、テオクリトスの創始した「牧歌」（パストラル）もきわめて叙情性の高い詩形式である。テオクリトスの後継者としてはモスコスとビオンがあげられる。『ギリシア詞華集』に名を連ねるメレアグロス、アスクレピアデスらもヘレニズム時代の優れた詩人である。

　合唱歌はおそらく、今日の叙情詩の概念にはもっとも遠いジャンルである。元来、祭礼や祝典の歌舞隊のためにつくられたもので、おのずから公的な性格が強かった。ドリス系の各地、とくにスパルタで栄えたことは、『乙女歌』で名高いアルクマン（前7世紀）がスパルタで活躍したことでも知られる。シチリア出身のステシコロス（前7～前6世紀）が創始したという三部形式（正歌、反歌、添歌）が合唱歌の最終的パターンであり、これは悲劇の合唱歌にも取り入れられた。前6～前5世紀にシモニデス、ピンダロス、バキリデスの3大家が現れて、合唱歌は最盛期を迎える。彼らの名を高からしめたのは、王侯貴族の依頼により制作した、オリンピアなどの競技優勝者をたたえる祝勝歌で、ピンダロス作の『祝勝歌』4巻がほとんど完全な形で伝存している。シモニデスとバキリデスは叔父・甥(おい)の関係にあり、イオニア系の詩人で、言語、文体も平明で軽快感がある。ピンダロスはドリス特有の荘重厳粛な格調で、きわめて難解である。乙女歌や祝勝歌のほかに、ディオニソス崇拝と関連のあるディテュランボスという合唱歌形式も一時流行し、ピンダロス、バキリデスにもこの種の作品がある。前5～前4世紀にかけてもっとも人気の高かったディテュランボス作家はティモテオスである。なおシモニデスは墓碑銘詩の作家としても名高く、偽作を含む多数の銘詩が伝えられている。

［松平千秋］

演劇

演劇に関しては、悲劇も喜劇もともにアッティカ（中心地アテネ）の独占といってよい。演劇の稚拙な段階はアッティカ以外の各地にみられるが、これを完成の域に導いたのはアテネの劇作家たちである。その起源については古来諸説があるが、悲劇、喜劇ともに合唱隊(コロス)を伴っているところから、合唱歌から発したとみるのが妥当であろう。前6世紀中期、悲劇作家テスピスがいちおう演劇の体裁を整え、同世紀後半からディオニソスの祭典においてその競演が公的行事として行われた。前5世紀に入るとともに、アイスキロスによって飛躍的発展を遂げ、ついでソフォクレス、エウリピデスの出現によって、アテナイ劇壇は空前の盛況を呈した。前406年にエウリピデス、ソフォクレスが相次いで世を去ったあとは、アテナイの衰退と呼応するように、悲劇も急速に衰え、かつ変貌(へんぼう)した。

　喜劇が悲劇と並んでディオニソスの祭典に競演を認められたのはかなり遅く、前5世紀に入ってからで、現存する完全な作品はアリストファネス作の11編のみである。ほぼ同時代に活躍したクラティノス、エウポリスらの作品は断片しか伝わらない。本来、時事万般の批判風刺をたてまえとした喜劇は、前5世紀末の敗戦を機に、急速に活力を失い変貌する。前5世紀の初期段階を古喜劇、以下、中期喜劇、新喜劇とよぶ習わしである。新喜劇はメナンドロス、ディピロス、ピレモンらが代表的作家で、完全な作品としてはメナンドロスの1編だけで、ほかはすべて断片である。しかしローマ喜劇はほとんどが中期・新喜劇の翻案なので、それらの作品を通して、ある程度まで原作を復原できる場合もある。多くは日常市民生活に取材したメロドラマで、登場人物のタイプも千編一律、筋の運びも同じパターンの繰り返しである。

　アッティカ以外では、シチリアのドリス方言地域で別種の喜劇が行われ、エピカルモス（前6～前5世紀）がその代表的作家である。またヘレニズム時代に流行したミモス（擬曲）という特殊なジャンルもある。前3世紀のソフロンやヘロンダスらの作家が知られるが、これは一種の寸劇で、多くは有閑階級の家庭の日常の一こまを対話の形で写す。19世紀末に発見されたヘロンダスのミモス数編によってその特質が知られるが、これは上演用というよりも朗読用の脚本であったらしい。

［松平千秋］

散文

散文の発達はかなり遅れ、ようやく前6世紀ごろから散文作品が姿を現す。散文が韻文と一線を画して、詩歌と異なる分野のメディアとして常用される以前は、叙事詩やエレゲイア、場合によってはイアンボスの詩形がそのかわりの役を果たしていた。ソクラテス以前の初期の哲学者たち――エンペドクレス、パルメニデス、クセノファネスらがその哲理を説くとき、ソロンが己の政治的信念を吐露するときなども韻文を用いているのは、散文がなお未発達の状態にあったからである。散文も叙事詩と同じく、まずイオニアにおこった。イオニア方言を用いる初期の散文の分野は多岐にわたっている。歴史の父と称されるヘロドトスの『歴史』9巻、古代医学の祖ヒポクラテスの名で伝わる膨大な医学論集はその代表的作品。哲学者デモクリトスも、その作品はほとんど失われたが、イオニア散文でその哲学思想を叙述した。イオニア散文の語彙(ごい)、措辞(そじ)には叙事詩の影響が強く残っており、文体は概して単純素朴である。

　イオニア散文の伝統を継ぎながら、さらに磨き上げて精巧な芸術的散文を完成したのはアテナイの文章家たちである。民主政治下の社会で頭角を現すには、政界および法曹界において、雄弁技術の修得が最上の策とされた。ソフィストたちの活動と相まって、ここに雄弁術、修辞学が目覚ましく発達し、その影響下にアッティカ独特の散文が生まれた。歴史ではトゥキディデス、クセノフォン、弁論ではアンティフォン、リシアス、イソクラテス、デモステネスらが前5世紀から前4世紀にかけて輩出した。哲学の分野ではソクラテス門下のプラトンが傑出し、その著『対話篇(へん)』は散文による劇的対話としてみごとな文学作品といってよい。アリストテレスは、文学作品といえる著作は残さなかったが、説得術としての弁論法を説いた『レトリカ』、悲劇を中心とする文学作法を論じた『創作論（詩学）』は、近世以降の文学研究に多大の影響を与えた。

　ヘレニズム時代以後、ギリシア語はいわゆるコイネー（共通語）とよばれて世界の通用語となった。それとともに知識人の間に純正なアッティカ散文復活の機運が生じ、弁論を中心に擬古文による著作が盛んに行われ、したがってヘレニズムからローマ時代にかけての散文は、程度の差はあれ、この傾向を受けている。注目すべき作家としては、紀元前では史家ポリビオスやディオドロス、地理学者ストラボンがあり、紀元後では『対比列伝』『倫理論集』の著者プルタルコス、風刺作家ルキアノスをあげることができる。またパウサニアス、アイリアノス、アテナイオスらの著述も、故実を探る宝庫として珍重されている。

　先にも触れたように、紀元前後から4～5世紀にわたって、「ギリシア小説」といわれる恋愛物語が流行した。グレコ・ローマン時代の家庭読み物で、主人公の美男美女がさまざまな危難にあいながら純愛を貫き、最後はめでたく結ばれるというパターンはみな同じである。伝えられている数編のうち、ヘリオドロスの『エチオピア物語』、ロンゴスの『ダフニスとクロエ』がとくに名高い。千編一律の筋立てを救うために、作者たちは異国趣味を盛ったり、スリルに満ちたシーンを加えるなど、それぞれ趣向を凝らしている。

［松平千秋］

『高津春繁・斎藤忍隨著『ギリシア・ローマ古典文学案内』（岩波文庫）』▽『高津春繁著『古代ギリシア文学史』（1977・岩波書店）』▽『高津春繁著『世界の文学史Ⅰ　ギリシア・ローマの文学』（1967・明治書院）』

[参照項目] | 近代ギリシア文学

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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