Chapter I: Preface: To the American Edition

The studies of Greek Poets, now reprinted, appeared in England in two series, published at an interval of three or four years. In preparing this edition, I have rearranged the chapters of both series in their proper order, and have made certain additions, with the view of rendering the book more complete as a survey of Greek Poetry. Thus I have inserted several new translations in the chapters on the Lyric Poets and the Anthology. The criticism of Euripides has been enlarged, and the concluding chapter has been, in a great measure, rewritten. Each chapter has undergone such revision and alteration in minor details as might remove unnecessary repetitions and bring the whole series of essays into harmony. At the same time I have judged it inexpedient to introduce radical changes into a book which professes to be the reprint of volumes already known to the English public. For this reason the chapters which deal with the Greek Tragedians have been left substantially in their original form, and bear upon their face the record of their composition as almost independent essays.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.

_THE PERIODS OF GREEK LITERATURE._

Language and Mythology.--The Five Chief Periods of
Greek Literature. The First Period: Homer--Religion and
State of the Homeric Age--Achilles and Ulysses.--Second
Period: Transition--Breaking-up of the Homeric
Monarchies--Colonization--the Nomothetæ--Ionians
and Dorians--Development of Elegiac, Iambic, Lyric
Poetry--Beginning of Philosophy.--Third Period: Athenian
Supremacy--Philosophy at Athens--the Fine Arts--the
Drama--History--Sparta and Athens--Pericles and
Anaxagoras.--Fourth Period: Hegemony of Sparta--Enslavement of
Hellas--Demosthenes--Alexander and Achilles--Aristotle--the
Hellenization of the East--Menander--the Orators.--Fifth
Period: Decline and Decay--Greek Influence upon the
World--Alexandria--the Sciences--Theocritus--the University of
Athens--Sophistic Literature--Byzantium--Hellas and Christendom
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