Chapter 4, The Greek Way of Writing Summary and Analysis

The reader will anticipate a discussion of the unique characteristics of the literature of fifth century Athens. This expectation is met in chapter four, although not necessarily in quite the way the reader anticipated. The previous discussion of the background and the achievements of Greek art pointed to forms of expression readily embraced, understood and copied by other cultures and later generations.

The accessibility of Greek artistic expression is, unfortunately, not available in the literature of the period. There are two primary reasons for this fact: first, very little of the literature of the period has survived, and, second, the nature of the Greek language makes it very difficult to translate the literature accurately or to read the literature in the original language without years of study and immersion.

Here the...