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Apollodorus of Athens
Herodotus
Homer
Thucydides
XenophonAncient Greek History Quiz
Apollodorus of Athens
(Around 180-? BC)
Apollodorus was a Greek scholar who flourished about 140 BC. A pupil of Aristarchus, he left Alexandria about 146 for Pergamum and eventually settled at Athens.
Apollodorus wrote many works on grammar, history, and mythology. His best-known books, only fragments of which survive, are On the Gods, a prose treatise; and his verse Chronicle, treating Greek history from the fall of Troy. Apollodorus provides 19% of all that is known about Ancient Greece.
Apollodorus' works:
Chronicle
A Treatise On the Gods
The Homeric Catalogue of Ships
The LibraryTop
Herodotus
(c. 484-425 BC)
Herodotus is called "the father of history." Even by his contemporaries, though, he was sometimes referred to as "the father of lies." Herodotus' Histories celebrated the Greek victory over the Persians, were written about 450 B.C. In his effort to give as much information as he could about the Persian wars, Herodotus’ Histories sometimes reads like a travelogue on the entire Persian Empire. He explains the reasons for the conflict as stemming from mythological prehistory. Even so, this was an advance over the previous writers of pseudo-history, who were known as logographers, who combined intervention of the gods, local legends, and doubtful family histories with true facts about local geography and history.
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Herodotus' work:
The History of Herodotus
Homer
(8th Century BC)
There is hardly anything known about the life of Homer. Many people, in fact, argue on whether or not Homer actually wrote both "The Illiad" and "The Odyssey." There is historical evidence, however, that suggests that the poems were written in 8th century B.C., somewhere in the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor.
Homer might have written the so-called Homeric Hymns. The hymns are short poems that celebrate the various gods, and are associated with Homer because of the similar style between the epics and hymns.
Homer was, in a way, the parent of all succeeding Greek literature. Historiography, philosophy, and drama show the issues brought up in the epics, such as comedy and tragedy. They also used many of the techniques used Homer used to approach comedy and tragedy in his epics. Many poets- from Italian to English, were effected by Homer while writing their own works.
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Homer's Plays and Poems:
The Odyssey
The Iliad
Homeric HymnsPoem for Homer:
To Homer (by John Keats)
Iliad and Odyssey Study Guide & Lesson Plans
Archaeology at Troy
Thucydides
(460-400 BC)
A Greek historian known for his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides is noted as the first historian that attributed the cause of a war to human nature and greed rather than the influence and meddling of the gods. He is not totally objective, as he champions the cause of Athens over Sparta. His history is, however, one of the best early attempts to report unbiased history.
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Thucydides work:
History of the Peloponnesian War
A complete list of his works
Xenophon
(430-355 BC)
Greek historian, biographer, soldier, and essayist. He wrote from the perspective of a military man about 4th century Greece and Persia. After the Greek generals had been treacherously killed by the Persians, Xenophon was chosen as one of the leaders of the heroic retreat. He tells the story in the most celebrated of his works, the Anabasis. He spent years writing in exile and among other works, extended the History of Thucydides.
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A complete list of his works
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