Classical literature

The notion of classics in literature has evolved in the last three centuries of antiquity: it denoted a certain category of writers who, for not always clear reasons (by virtue of antiquity or authority in the eyes of enlightened people), were considered worthy to serve as models and mentors in everything concerning the acquisition of the word and mastery. . The first classic author, of course, was considered Homer.

The Odyssey and the Iliad were already considered to be an unattainable dramatic summit in the classical period of the development of Greece (5th century BC) (the concept of "drama" of the ancient Greeks was almost identical to that of literature as a whole). In the V-VIII centuries BC. e. a canonical list of auctores (literally: "guarantors") with auctoritas - texts that defined norms and theories that were transmitted in the course of training was formed.

This canon was not completely unbreakable; however, it varies minimally in different schools, and its core remains constant. As we approach the fourteenth century, there is a tendency to expand the list. Along with poets and prose writers of the Augustan period, these writers include writers of later epochs, as well as representatives of paganism and Christianity of the IV, V, and sometimes VI and VIII centuries. All these "authors" serve as a common, impersonal asset; they are constantly quoted, imitated, cut into sentiments, and glosses are written to them.