Greek culture has a long and rich history, especially in literature. There are too many forms of poetry that derive from this culture to explore them all, so today we’ll learn a little about Homer and Hesiod, two of Greece’s earliest poets, and some of the major Greek poetic forms.
Homer
BRIEF HISTORY
In ancient times, people “sang the stories of the Trojan War and its Greek heroes; these songs would be the Greek equivalent of a miniseries, as the stories were so long that they would take days to complete. The Greeks believed that the greatest of these story-tellers was a blind man named Homer, who sang ten epic poems about the Trojan War, of which only two survived (although the Greeks seem to have known them). covered a small part of that story” (Hooker).
Homer is best known for writing the iliad and the Odyssey. They, as mentioned above, were about the Trojan War. However, “Homer’s authority and indeed even his very existence are established by tradition; nothing is actually known about him” (Matthews and Platt 43). The Iliad and the Odyssey are of special importance because it is where later Greeks sought the history of their people, their religion, and the moral ideals with which to guide their way of life. Homer also wrote some hymns that have survived to modern times.
hesiod
BRIEF HISTORY
Like Homer, Hesiod also wrote in epic form. The most famous works of him were called: theogony and Jobs and Days. Also like Homer, his work was a guide on how people should behave. “In ‘Trabajos y Días’ he talks about justice and hard work, which is the only path to success, and gives advice on agriculture, commerce, navigation as well as marriage, child rearing and other moral and useful precepts” ( Papageorgiou-Haska).
Both Hesiod and Homer are believed to have lived around 2,800 years ago.
epic
BRIEF HISTORY
The epic name comes from the word “epos”. This Greek word is translated into the phrase “to tell a tale” (Padgett, 65).
SHOULD HAVE
–Tell a story.
–There is no set length, BUT they are usually very long. So much, in fact, that they are sometimes divided into chapter-like sections called cantos (Padgett, 65).
–About a specific description of heroism, and your intention should be to motivate morality in the reader.
–Rhythm is a dactylic hexameter: “This means that each verse contains six meter feet of three beats each, the first a long syllable and the second and third short syllables (as in ‘gratitude’ and ‘Oldsmobile’)” (Padgett, 65).
MIGHT HAVE or What is the poet’s choice in all this?
–If it rhymes or not. Historically these were oral and rhyming helps with memorization, but there is no hard and fast rule for rhyming.
–Choice of hero and their specific act of heroism. Choose a hero from yesteryear or a current one. It is not even necessary to name a specific person, but a heroic effort made by many people.
–Rhythm, yes, I already listed it in the “must haves”, but the dactylic hexameter is the traditional Greek rhythm. The English epics are mainly iambic pentameters. If you choose to use your poetic license here, I would choose one meter and stick to it throughout your poem.
OF NOTE
–Funny epics are known by the term “mock epic.”
the elegant
BRIEF HISTORY
This form dates back to ancient Greece. The Manual of Poetic Forms for Teachers and Writers says that “the word elegy comes from the Greek word elegeia, meaning ‘mourning song'” (Padgett, 62).
This same manual tells us that in the VII century BC. C., “the first person to write an elegy was probably Mimnermus of Colophon”. At least his is the first written record of an elegy found. There may be many earlier elegies lost to time or yet to be discovered (Padgett, 62).
The elegy began, in modern times, as a term for a specific type of verse, but evolved into a genre-based form: sad, contemplative, and mourning death in general or the death of a specific person.
SHOULD HAVE
–Must be about death or a loss that’s like death–unless you choose the Roman change that made them about love (see below).
–If you choose to create a classical elegy, you will want to start with the theme of your elegy, then share your grief, and finally your acceptance of the death/loss.
MIGHT HAVE or What is the poet’s choice in all this?
–Any form (or no particular form) just follow the form rules if you use one.
–Any rhyme (or no rhyme), unless a form is used, then you follow the rhyme scheme for that form.
–Any meter (or no meter set) unless a form is used, then you follow the required meter for that form.
–The length can be long or short. However, if you use a form, that form can dictate the length.
OF NOTE
The Greeks wrote elegies about death, but later the Romans wrote them about love. This remained relatively unchanged until “England in 1611”. At that time, John Donne brought writing about the elegance of death back into fashion. (Padgett, 62).
Lyrically and Specifically the Monody
BRIEF HISTORY
Back in ancient Greece, the lyric had two types: the choral lyric, which was interpreted by many people, and the monody, which was sung by a single person. Since there are very few rules for this poetic form, I’ll create a few for you to use as a guide based on its historical usage. I will use Davies’ article Monody, Choral Lyric, and the Tyranny of the Hand-Book, and Mackendrick and Howe’s Classics in Translation as my historical guides.
SHOULD HAVE
–You must mourn a death.
–Should be on the short side, but generally not as short as the epitaph and epigram.
–It must be in the POV of one person, although the lament may be for the loss of many.
MIGHT HAVE or What is the poet’s choice in all this?
–Any rhyme (or no rhyme), unless a form is used, then you follow the rhyme scheme for that form. Generally the things that are sung rhyme and this form was originally sung. Consult your poetic license when deciding how to go about it.
–Any meter (or no meter set) unless a form is used, then you follow the required meter for that form. This form usually had simple meters, and if one is chosen, keep it at all times.
–Verse length, choose any, but stay the same throughout. Example: If you choose an eight verse verse and want three verses, make them all eight verses.
–Any form (or no particular form) just follow the rules of the form.
OF NOTE
–The book Classics in Translation had an interesting note. They said that this form is “closely associated with the Ionians, [and] is closer to popular popular poetry” (Mackendrick and Howe, 93).
–Lyric poetry is not a specific form, but rather a category for a form of poetry that is meant to be sung. Modern lyric poetry may not be sung, but it should at least have a musical quality. There are nearly forty forms that could be considered lyric poetry (Turco, 102).
source notes
Davies, M. (1988) Monody, Choral Lyric, and the Tyranny of the Hand-Book. The Classical Quarterly, New Series. Flight. 38, no. 1, p. 52-64.
Hooker, Ricardo. “Homer.” Bureaucrats and Barbarians: The Greek Dark Ages. 1999. Washington State University. March 1, 2009.
Mackendrick, P and Howe, H (1980). Classics in translation. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Matthews, Roy T., and F. DeWitt Platt. Western humanities. 5th. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Padget, Ron. Manual of poetic forms for teachers and writers. 2nd. New York: T&W Books, 2000.
Papageorgiou-Haska, Roula. “Hesiod”. Cosmogony-Theogony. June 05, 1996. Hellonic Electronic Center. March 1, 2009 .
Turk, Lewis. The Book of Forms. 3rd. Hanover, NH: New England University Press, 2000.
Williams, Miller (1986). Poetry Patterns: An Encyclopedia of Forms. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.