List of ancient Greek writers explained

This is a list of most influential Greek authors of antiquity (by alphabetic order):

1. Aeschines – Rhetorics
2. Aeschylus – Tragedy
3. Aesop – Fables
4. Alcaeus of Mytilene – Lyric Poetry
5. Alcman – Lyric Poetry
6. Anacreon – Lyric Poetry
7. Anaxagoras – Philosophy
8. Anaximander – Philosophy, Mathematics
9. Anaximenes – Philosophy, Mathematics
10. Andocides – Rhetorics
11. Antiphon – Rhetorics
12. Apollodorus of Carystus – Comedy
13. Aristophanes – Comedy
14. Archimedes – Mathematics, Geometry
15. Aristotle – Philosophy, Physics, Biology
16. Aratus – Poetry, Astronomy
17. Arrian – History
18. Athanasius of Alexandria – Theology
19. Bacchylides – Lyric Poetry
20. Callimachus - Small-scale, personal poetry
21. Chionides – Comedy
22. Chrysippus – Philosophy
23. Claudius Ptolemy – Geography, Astronomy
24. Clement of Alexandria – Theology, Philosophy
25. Democritus – Philosophy, Chemistry
26. Demosthenes – Rhetorics, Politics
27. Dinarchus – Rhetorics
28. Dinon – History
29. Diodorus – History
30. Diogenes Laërtius – History of Philosophy
31. Duris of Samos – History
32. Epicurus – Philosophy
33. Epimenides of Knossos – Philosophy, Philosophical poetry
34. Eubulus (poet) – Comedy
35. Euclid of Megara – Mathematics, Geometry
36. Euripides – Tragedy
37. Evagrius Ponticus – Theology
38. Gorgias – Philosophy
39. Hegemon of Thasos – Comedy
40. Heraclitus – Philosophy
41. Herodotus of Halicarnassus – History
42. Hesiod – Epic Poetry
43. Hippocrates of Cos – Medicine
44. Homer – Epic Poetry
45. Hypereides – Rhetorics
46. Iamblichus – Philosophy
47. Ibycus of Rhegium – Lyric Poetry
48. Irenaeus – Theology, Philosophy
49. Isaeus – Rhetorics, Logography
50. Isocrates – Rhetorics
51. Justin the Martyr – Theology, Philosophy
52. Leucippus – Philosophy, Atomism
53. Lucian – Satire, Rhetoric
54. Luke the Evangelist – Theology, Medicine, History
55. Lycurgus of Athens – Rhetorics
56. Lysias – Logography, Rhetorics
57. Maximus the Confessor – Theology, Philosophy
58. Menander – Comedy
59. Melissus of Samos – Philosophy
60. Nicomachus of Gerasa – Mathematics
61. Origen – Theology, Philosophy
62. Papias of Hierapolis – Theology
63. Parmenides – Philosophy
64. Pherecydes of Athens – Mythography, Logography
65. Philo of Alexandria – Theology, Philosophy
66. Pindar – Lyrical Poetry
67. Plato – Philosophy
68. Plutarch – History, Biography, Philosophy
69. Posidippus (comic poet) – Comedy
70. Protagoras – Philosophy
71. Sappho of Lesbos – Lyric Poetry
72. Simonides – Lyric Poetry
73. Solon – Politics, Philosophy
74. Sophocles – Tragedy
75. Stesichorus – Lyric Poetry
76. Strattis – Comedy
77. Thales of Miletus – Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics
78. Theocritus – Bucolic poetry
79. Theognis of Megara – Lyric Poetry
80. Theopompus – History
81. Thucydides – History
82. Xenarchus of Seleucia – Philosophy, Philology
83. Xenophanes– Philosophy, Theology
84. Xenophon – History
85. Zeno of Citium – Philosophy
86. Zeno of Elea – Philosophy

Further reading

• Nisetich, Frank J., Pindar's Victory Songs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980: translations and extensive introduction, background and critical apparatus.
• Durant, Will (1926). The Story of Philosophy. Simon & Schuster. .
• Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, Encounter Books, 2001
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization—Greece Secrets of the Past
• Ancient Greece website from the British Museum Economic history of ancient Greece
• The Greek currency history Limenoscope, an ancient Greek ports database
• The Ancient Theatre Archive, Greek and Roman theatre architecture
• Illustrated Greek History—Dr. Janice Siegel, Department of Classics, Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia
• Whitmarsh, Tim (2004). Ancient Greek Literature. Cambridge: Polity Press. .
• Beye, Charles Rowan (1987). Ancient Greek Literature and Society. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. .
• C. A. Trypanis (1981). Greek Poetry from Homer to Seferis. University of Chicago Press.
• Anonymous, 1780. The History and Amours of Rhodope. London: Printed for E.M Diemer.
• John Purkis-The Greek Civilization
• Greek Lyric II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympis to Alcman (Loeb Classical Library) translated by David A. Campbell (June 1989) Harvard University Press (Original Greek with facing page English translations, an excellent starting point for students with a serious interest in ancient lyric poetry.)