The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman ... - Historia Antigua

PREFACE
T HIS book is an outline of the chief ways in which Greek and
Latin influence has moulded the literatures of western Europe
and America.
The Greeks invented nearly all the literary patterns which we
use: tragedy and comedy, epic and romance, and many more. In
the course of their two thousand years of writing they worked out
innumerable themes—some as light as 'Drink to me only with thine
eyes', others as powerful as a brave man's journey through hell.
These themes and patterns they passed on to the Romans, who
developed them and added much of their own.
When the Roman empire fell civilization was nearly ruined.
Literature and the arts became refugees, hiding in outlying areas
or under the protection of the church. Few Europeans could read
during the Dark Ages. Fewer still could write books. But those
who could read and write did so with the help of the international
Latin language, by blending Christian material with Greek and
Roman thoughts.
New languages formed themselves, slowly, slowly. The first
which has left a large and mature literature of its own is Anglo-
Saxon, or Old English. After it came French; then Italian; and
then the other European languages. When authors started to
write in each of these new media, they told the stories and sang
the songs which their own people knew. But they turned to Rome
and Greece for guidance in strong or graceful expression, for
interesting stories less well known, for trenchant ideas.
As these languages matured they constantly turned to the
Greeks and Romans for further education and help. They enlarged
their vocabulary by incorporating Greek and Roman words, as we
are still doing: for instance, television. They copied and adapted
the highly developed Greco-Roman devices of style. They learned
famous stories, like the murder of Caesar or the doom of Oedipus.
They found out the real powers of dramatic poetry, and realized
what tragedy and comedy meant. Their authors modelled themselves
on Greek and Roman writers. Nations found inspiration
for great political movements (such as the French Revolution)
in Greece and Rome.
This process of education by imitating Greco-Roman literature,