Golden Age of Greek Dramatists

Aeschylus (525-455 B.C.) His "Oresteia" is the only trilogy of the classical period to have survived intact. His lyrical dramas, out of which only seven (including the three mentioned above) have survived, pioneered the Greek drama & cultivated an audience, who were cultured enough to judge & award prizes to the best dramatists of the Golden age.

Euripides (484-406 B.C) 19 plays of his have survived. His "Medea" introduced a realism that shocked audiences. His "Electra" is quiet different from Aeschylus & Sophocles versions. She lives not in a palace, but in a peasant's hut & is obsessed with babies & nurses. She is motivated more by her envy of her mother than loyalty to her father.

Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) is the greatest but  with only seven tragedies extant. His "Antigone" celebrates sibling love in these immortal lines.

Had I had children or their father dead,

I'd let them moulder.

One husband gone, I might have found another,

Or a child from a new man in first child's place,

but with my parents hid away in death,

no brother, ever, could spring up for me.

Aristophanes (450-385 B.C)  With his 11 irreverent plays was the most creative, with the largest range of comedy. His "The Clouds", an attack on the Sophists, makes unfair fun of Socrates. But when he was impersonated by an actor wearing a mask, & the audience applauded, Socrates (who was in the audience), stood up so that the likeness may be better appreciated, like the true philosopher he was.

So contemporary were his plays that in his "Frogs", Aeschylus & Euripides characters appear on stage to debate who is the better tragedian!

Founding texts of Western Literature

Homer's "Iliad" & 'Odyssey" (Greek) are the most famous ancient books. "Iliad" deals with the consequences of the abduction of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta (one of the Achaeans) by Prince Paris, son of King Hector of Troy (one of the Trojans). The resulting Trojan war regained Helen, after valorous feats by Achilles, who fought for the Achaeans.

The "Odyssey" deals with the adventures of Odysseus, King of Ithaca (one of the Achaeans) on his way home after the Trojan war, to his faithful wife Penelope, who patiently awaited his return through long years.

The third great epic, Virgil's "Aeneid" (Latin) deals with the adventures of Aeneas, one of the Trojans, & son of Goddess Aphrodite. Like Homer who began his epic with the words "Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles", Virgil begins by saying "I sing of arms & a man".

If the above three appeared before the advent of Christ, the epic written in Tuscan (Italian), which appeared in the middle ages, was Dante's "The Divine Comedy". This incorporated the Christian theology of the soul's ascent from Hell through Purgatory to Paradise.

The influence of these in shaping western civilization is so profound that none can understand the western psyche without a study of these.

Golden Age of Children's Literature

Though not as famous as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, (which was roughly the first half of the twentieth century & was remarkable for the many feminine practitioners of the genre), the Golden Age of Children's Literature, also occupied the same time frame, may be starting a little bit earlier.

Humphrey Carpenter, who compiled the authoritative Oxford Companion to Children's Literature with his wife, felt the need of a more comprehensive study of the key authors of this genre & prepared the scholarly "Secret Gardens - A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature." He started with Charles Kingsley's "The Water Babies" & Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." Incidentally both authors were clergymen.

He also thought George McDonald & Bevis as influential, but both are now not very popular. Louisa Alcott with her "Little Women" was a pioneer, still relevant as evinced by the recent film. Kenneth Grahame, with his evergreen "Wind in the Willows" never allows us to forget his animals, anthropomorphized as Edwardian gentlemen.

Edith Nesbit, with her Kafkaesque vanished father of "The Railway Children" was a unique voice, as was Beatrix Potter, with her self-drawn beautiful animal pictures of Peter Rabbit & other endearing animals. James Barrie, with his age-defying Peter Pan & A. A. Milne with his two prose volumes of Winnie the Pooh are still alive through their never aging works.

Meanwhile, Carpenter's "Oxford Companion" has been updated by Daniel Hahn to include Tolkien & Rowling. The book fittingly contains notable illustrators also, with the surprising omission of Inga Moore, who in addition to being an author of children's books herself, is an outstanding illustrator in the transcendent impressionist style, having produced best-selling magnificent editions of "Wind in the Willows" & "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.