in ancient greece, the epics of homer, who wrote the "iliad" and the "odyssey", and hesiod, who wrote "works and days" and "theogony", are some of the earliest, and most influential, of ancient greek literature. classical greek genres included philosophy, poetry, historiography, comedies and dramas. plato and aristotle authored philosophical texts that are the foundation of western philosophy, sappho and pindar were influential lyric poets, and herodotus and thucydides were early greek historians. although drama was popular in ancient greece, of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors still exist: aeschylus, sophocles, and euripides. the plays of aristophanes provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as old comedy, the earliest form of greek comedy, and are in fact used to define the genre.