This book combines two brochures of the same name by F.F. Zelinsky, published in 1919-1920. Petrograd publishing house "Lights" and since then not reprinted. This is a condensed popular sketch of the initial stage of ancient Greek literature, illustrated by its samples, most of which are translated into Russian by the author himself. Greek literature for a millennium with a surplus of its development from Homer to the closure of the University of Athens by Emperor Justinian is included in the history of pan-European literature as its long and rich beginning. It is the beginning: the opinion about the influence of the vaguely represented East on Greece in this area is less justified than anywhere else. It is understandable: pictorial motifs, song tunes can still, with their convenience, be transferred from place to place and cause imitation; but for literary monuments, given the heterogeneity of languages ​ ​ and the lack of translations, this is unthinkable. So Greek literature is the beginning of pan-European, as Greek history through the Roman Empire continues in the history of the new Europe. The book is addressed to a wide range of readers interested in antiquity, and will be useful as an additional teaching aid for students and teachers of humanitarian universities.