Greek Wisdom Literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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I. Definitions

By wisdom literature we mean works or compilations offering instruction upon moral or practical issues of life within a community of people. In the context of Greek literature, wisdom material includes mainly proverbs (Greek: paroimiai), maxims (Greek: gnomai), or longer apophthegms and anecdotes (Greek: apophthegmata and chreiai).

By

wisdom literature

we mean works or compilations offering instruction upon moral or practical issues of life within a community of people. In the context of Greek literature, wisdom material includes mainly proverbs (Greek:

paroimiai

), maxims (Greek:

gnomai

), or longer apophthegms and anecdotes (Greek:

apophthegmata

and

chreiai

).

Distinction between these types of wisdom material is often blurry, and has given considerable trouble to scholars

1277 words

Citation: Lazaridis, Nikolaos. "Greek Wisdom Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5546, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5546 Greek Wisdom Literature 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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