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1、The Influence of Greek Culture on English LiteratureThough the Greek culture existed a long time ago and was far from now, its influence is enormous enough for us to concentrate on it and have a deep understanding of it. In this essay, I will talk something about this topic and give some examples to
2、 show what it is. The examples include two aspects, vocabulary and ideology. Maybe these examples are really simple, but their history can be very long and I suppose few of you know. From this essay I see how the Greek culture influence English literature and how enormous it is. Greek culture is a l
3、ost and classic culture. Its existence is over 2000 years far from now. But the rationality and wisdom in it is still charming. Thousands of scholars who are curious about culture have studied in this area and can not help losing themselves in it. The beauty of it makes later generations excited. We
4、 must not ignore its strong power. Also the English literature has a very long history. And the influence of Greek culture on English literature is obviously enormous and far-reaching. English knew Greek culture through the Romans. Romans came in for Greek culture, especially the Greek mythology. Du
5、ring the communication between English and Romans, Greek mythology penetrated ancient English via ancient Latin. There are lots of things in English literature that come from Greek culture. Maybe we can say the influence is in everywhere, such as vocabulary, art, ideology, architecture and so on. Th
6、ere are too many that I can not list all of them but some of them. We can learn something about the influence in this essay. So the essay is trying to focus on some examples to show the influence of Greek culture on English literature. At first let us take a look at the influence of Greek culture on
7、 English literary vocabulary. The Greek mythology is a big part of Greek culture. The stories came down over thousands of years. However, they are always being read studied. Writers use them in their books students use them in their compositions. They have already come into the modern life. The myth
8、ology usually has some special meanings in the ancient. So people and writers use them as a way to show their special meanings. Of course, there are many derivations from the Greek culture. And some of these derivations are now widely used in the modern life and many great works. Take Flora for exam
9、ple. She is the protector of all the flowers in the Greek mythology. Her husband is Zephyr. Zephyr gave her a beautiful garden which grew exotic flowers and rare herbs. In spring, when Flora went for a walk with her husband all the flowers in the garden would come out. So in the modern English Flora
10、 means plants. In addition, flower, flour, flourish, floral and florist are its derivations. They are so common in our daily life but few people know how they come. Music and museum are so familiar to us. But do you know where and how they do come? I believe there is rare. The majority of you maybe
11、have not asked yourselves such questions. You think that it matters nothing. Actually they came from Muses who controlled the art in the Greek mythology. They have nine members and take charge of history, lyric, comedy, tragedy, song and dance, love poem, carol, astronomy and epic. And the happiness
12、 that art brings to us is called amuse and amusement. These things sometimes sound interesting. January, March, June, Atlas, Cereal, odyssey even the word Europe are come from Greek culture. You see the Greek culture is so close to us. We can see it frequently in the English vocabulary. The influenc
13、e of it is so wide on the English literary vocabulary.The second is in the ideology. During the Renaissance which used Greek culture as a slogan, people started to focus on human beings but not god. They started to admire human nature and rationality and realized human being were the most important.
14、 They looked forward to a better life. They were against the idea that the god was the most important in the world. Humanism was the mainstream and many great men wrote many a works to sing the praises of it. So the Greek literature laid the basic foundation of literary spirit on English literature.
15、 No matter mythos, epopee or drama all praised the human life. They spoke highly of the braveness, intelligence and wisdom. And also people regard the action fighting against nature as a glory. That is a big improvement though it revived the ancient Greek culture and some people believed it is a way
16、 of back up. Despite the objection of the church and its ruler, the Renaissance developed quickly.The colleges in England resumed teaching ancient Greek. Then a good many of scholars and writers started to translate ancient works of Greek and Rome to early latter-day English. Philosophers, education
17、alists, historiographers, politicians and religions all went in for writing books. They expressed humanitarianism in different ways. Thomas Moore is one of them. And he is the major member of the early humanist in England. He wrote the book which is called Utopia. The works criticized the England an
18、d European society in that time. He created an ideal society in the book. There were no wars, competition and rule in the society. Every people were equal and lived a happy life. But this only can be a nice dream. The ideal society can not exist in the real life. And soon Utopia became a symbol of M
19、icawberism. It is the origin of English philosophical fantastic novel.Troilus and Cressida is a class act written by Shakespeare. He got inspiration from the Greek mythology. The book tells something about the war in Troia and the betrayal of Cressida to her lover. It indicates the great change in a
20、ge, human nature and value during that time. P.B.Shelley mythology scholars vocabulary literature ideology English literary vocabulary Shakespeare used the story of Troilus and Cresida to express his ideas. He hated wars and sang the praises of nice life. Through his works we can obviously see this
21、topic. There are a lot of works which written by Shakespeare are according to the Greek mythology, such as Venus and vocabulary Adonis, A Lovers Complaint and The Rape of Lucrece. They are all great works in the world. And all are linked with Greek culture. It is obvious ideology to us that Greek cu
22、lture has a strong power on English literature. Besides, the theories of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation of English literature in the abstract. Greek culture reflects a process that people go into civilization from obscuration. It laid the foundation of English literature. It is po
23、werful no matter it is in ancient or in modern English literature. It represents the excellent characters and precious spirit of the ancient Greek people in life. So Greek culture gained an everlasting charm. Its influence on the English literature is strong and long-term. After all, it is an origin of English culture. A lot of thoughts in English works are from Greek culture. Greek culture makes English literature more vivid and gained more historical playfulness. If we want to have a good understand of English literature, we should know about Greek culture at first. 4.