The ancient Greeks have had major influence on the history of Western civilization. Major of the literary and science genres took their roots in ancient Greek society. Most of these important written documents are either complete or almost complete. This article presents the list of the top 10 most influential writers of ancient Greek civilization.
1. Archimedes
Archimedes was a renowned Greek inventor, physicist, astronomer, engineer and mathematician. He is remembered as the inventor of a mechanism that is used to move water. The device, known as The Archimedes Screw, remains useful up to the present time.
2. Euclid
Euclid was a famed mathematician and the recognized father of geometry. Not much is known about his life although there were documents that cited his active involvement in the Alexandria Library. His book, The Elements, remains to be a useful reference until today and second to The Bible in terms of total copies that were ever sold.
3. Aristotle
Aristotle was the famous apprentice of Plato and was also the first person who had the guts to criticize and question him. Aristotle belongs to the last crop of great Greek philosophers of ancient Greek civilization.
4. Plato
Plato was one of the most brilliant students of Socrates. Most of the thoughts and philosophies of Socrates were learned through the writings of Plato as Socrates rarely wrote anything. There are about 13 letters and 35 dialogues that were credited to Plato and the most popular of these include Symposium and The Republic.
5. Aristophanes
Aristophanes was a known Greek playwright who specialized in comedies. He was able to write a total of 40 plays and 11 of these plays have survived and remained intact as complete manuscripts. He is feared during his time because of his sharp writing style that ridiculed and pilloried known Athenians.
6. Hippocrates
Hippocrates was a physician by profession and is known as the father of medicine. His famous work, the Hippocratic Corpus, is a rich collection of 70 scientific works on various major medical subjects.
7. Euripides
Euripides was a well known Greek writer. He is credited for about 95 plays and 18 of this play remained complete manuscripts. His most popular literary masterpieces include The Bacchus, Medea and Alcestis.
8. Herodotus
Herodotus is regarded as the father of history in the Western world. He has treated history as a body of science by adopting a systematic scheme in the collection of his materials and undertaking verification and testing for their accuracy.
9. Sophocles
Sophocles was a Greek tragedian who has written a total of 123 plays in his entire lifetime. Unfortunately, only seven of his collection remains and these include Oedipus the King, Electra and Antigone.
10. Homer
Homer is famous primarily due to the two major epic poems that are associated to him, the Odyssey and the Iliad. The Iliad is regarded as the oldest literary work of Western culture. The Greeks also acknowledge the strong influence that Homer has exerted on Greek society and one is not considered learned unless he has read all his literary works.
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