History of Greek literature in II vol. Vol. I. The Early Age: Rome, Editiones Universitatis Catholicae Ucrainorum S. Clementis Papae, 1970, 725 p.

The book presented is the first volume of Mykhailo Sonevytskyi's study on the history of ancient Greek literature. The volume also provides a detailed account of the history of pre-Socratic philosophy.

Describing the work, the author notes that he wanted to avoid the Scylla of overly academic writing, overloaded with bibliography and scientific apparatus, and the Charybdis of groundlessness. As a result, specialists will have the benefit of detailed references and bibliographies, while a wider range of readers will retain interest in the book as a handbook.

The historical significance of the work lies, in particular, in the fact that for a long time (until 1995, when Anatolii Tykholaz's translation of Heraclitus' fragments was published) this book was nearly the only published source of translations of pre-Socratic texts into Ukrainian.

The first volume got favorable reviews from critics and readers. The second volume, unfinished due to Sonevytsky's death, was published by UCU in 1977 and is now also available on the ArS website: https://ars.vntu.edu.ua/index.php/ars/catalog/book/201

Oleksandr Lukovyna

CONTENTS

Introduction

Introductory remarks

In memory of my teachers

Frequent abbreviations

Introduction

1. The meaning of Greek language
2. Chronological and genre division of the history of Greek literature
3. The destiny of the Greek literary heritage
4. Philological research on Greek literature
5. Books on the history of Greek literature
6. Ukrainian translations of Greek literature

Epic period

1. At the beginning of Greek history
2. Traces of ancient oral language. The emergence of sound writing
3. The plot and structure of the Iliad
4. The plot and structure of the Odyssey
5. Homer in the course of the ages
6. The Homeric question
7. Language, verse and style of the epics
8. Cultural, historical and social aspect of the epics
9. Religious outlook of epics
10. Homer's people
11. Characterization of the characters of Iliad
12. Characterization of the characters of the Odyssey
13. Cyclic epic
14. Homeric hymns and other pseudo-Homeric works
15. Hesiod

The rise of lyrics

1. The influence of socio-political changes on the rise of lyrics in literature
2. Elegy and iambic poetry (Callinus, Tirtheus, Archilochus, Simonides, Mimnermus, Solon, Hipponax, Theognis)
3. Melic monodic poetry (Alcai, Sappho, Anacreon)
4. Choral lyrics (Alcman, Stesichor, Ibic, Simonides, Bacchylides)
5. Pindar, the coryphaeus of choral lyrics

Origins of philosophy and prose literature

1. The origins of prose. Fable (Aesop). Religious literature
2. The origins of philosophy (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles)
3. The beginnings of scientific literature. The first attempts to write history

Origins of dramatic poetry

1. The rise of tragedy
2. The emergence of comedy. Epicharmus

List of illustrations

Index of names