Plots famous works The Iliad and the Odyssey are taken from a common collection of epic tales about the Trojan War. And each of these two poems is a small sketch from a larger cycle. The main element in which the characters of the Iliad operate is war, which is depicted not as a clash of the masses, but as the actions of individual characters.
Achilles
The protagonist of the Iliad is Achilles, a young hero, the son of Peleus and the goddess of the sea, Thetis. The word "Achilles" is translated as "swift, like a god." Achilles is the central character of the work. He has a solid and noble character, which personifies real valor, as the Greeks then understood it. For Achilles, there is nothing higher than duty and honor. He is ready to avenge his friend's death by sacrificing his own life. At the same time, duplicity and cunning are alien to Achilles. Despite his honesty and sincerity, he acts as an impatient and very short-tempered hero. He is sensitive in matters of honor - despite the serious consequences for the army, he refuses to continue the battle because of the offense inflicted on him. In the life of Achilles, the dictates of heaven and the passions of his own being coincide. The hero dreams of glory, and for this he also turns out to be ready to sacrifice his own life.
Confrontation in the soul of the protagonist
Achilles, main character"Iliad", used to command and manage, as he is aware of his strength. He is ready to destroy Agamemnon in place, who dared to offend him. And Achilles' anger manifests itself in many different forms. When he takes revenge on his enemies for Patroclus, he turns into a real demon-destroyer. Having filled up the entire bank of the river with the corpses of enemies, Achilles enters into a fight with the very god of this river. However, it is very interesting to watch how Achilles' heart softens when he sees a father asking for the body of his son. The old man reminds him of his own father, and the cruel warrior relents. Achilles also yearns bitterly for his friend, weeps at his mother. In the heart of Achilles nobility and the desire for revenge are fighting.
King Agamemnon, as well as the Spartan ruler Menelaus. Homer portrays both as not the most attractive characters - both do not miss the opportunity to abuse their position, especially Agamemnon. It was his selfishness that caused the death of Achilles. And the interest of Menelaus in the attack was the reason that the war broke out.
Menelaus, for whom the Achaeans advocate in battles, was to take the place of the Mycenaean ruler. However, he turns out to be unsuitable for this role, and this place turns out to be occupied by Agamemnon. Fighting with Paris, he gives vent to his anger, which he has accumulated against his offender. However, as a warrior, he is significantly inferior to other heroes of the poem. His actions are significant only in the process of saving the body of Patroclus.
Other heroes
One of the most charming protagonists of the Iliad is the elder Nestor, who likes to constantly remember the years of his youth, to give his instructions to young soldiers. Also attractive is Ajax, who, with his courage and strength, surpasses everyone, excluding Achilles. Admirable and Patroclus, the closest friend of Achilles, who was brought up with him under the same roof. Performing his exploits, he was too carried away by the dream of capturing Troy and died from the merciless hand of Hector.
The elderly Trojan ruler named Priam is not the main character of Homer's Iliad, but he has attractive features. He is a true patriarch who is surrounded by a large family. Having grown old, Priam cedes the right to command the army to his son, Hector. On behalf of all his people, the elder brings sacrifices to the gods. Priam is distinguished by such character traits as gentleness, courtesy. He even treats Elena, whom everyone hates, well. However, the old man is haunted by misfortune. All his sons die in battles at the hands of Achilles.
Andromache
The main characters of the poem "Iliad" are warriors, but in the work you can also find many female images. This is the wife of Hector named Andromache, his mother Hecuba, as well as Helen and the captive Briseis. For the first time, the reader meets Andromache in the sixth canto, which tells of her meeting with her husband, who returned from the battlefield. Already at that moment, she intuitively anticipates the death of Hector and persuades him not to leave the city. But Hector does not heed her words.
Andromache is a faithful and loving wife who is forced to live in constant anxiety for her husband. The fate of this woman is filled with tragedy. When her home city of Thebes was devastated, Andromache's mother and brothers were killed by enemies. After this event, her mother also dies, Andromache is left alone. Now the whole meaning of her existence is in her beloved husband. After she says goodbye to him, she mourns with the maids, as already dead. After this, Andromache is not found on the pages of the poem until the death of the hero. Sorrow is the main mood of the heroine. She foresees her bitter fate in advance. When Andromache hears screams on the wall and runs to find out what happened, she sees: Achilles is dragging the body of Hector along the ground. She falls unconscious.
Heroes of the Odyssey
A common question that students are asked in literature lessons is to name the main characters of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The poem "Odyssey", along with the "Iliad", is considered to be the most important monument the entire era of transition from the communal-tribal to the slave-owning system.
The Odyssey describes even more mythological creatures than the Iliad. Gods, people fabulous creatures- Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are full of different characters. The main characters of the works are both people and gods. Moreover, the gods take an active part in the lives of mere mortals, helping them or taking away their power. The protagonist of the Odyssey is the Greek king Odysseus, who returns home after the battle. Among other characters, his patroness, the goddess of wisdom Athena, stands out. The sea god Poseidon opposes the main character. An important figure is the faithful Penelope, the wife of Odysseus.
Time and place of creation of the Iliad and the Odyssey
All this points to the generic nature of Homeric society, which is on the verge of decay and transition to a slave-owning system. In the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" there is already property and social inequality, division into "best" and "thin"; slavery already exists, which, however, retains a patriarchal character: slaves are mainly shepherds and domestic servants, among whom there are privileged ones: such is Eurycleia, the nurse of Odysseus; such is the shepherd Eumeus, who acts quite independently, more like a friend of Odysseus than like his slave.
Trade in the society of the Iliad and the Odyssey already exists, although it still occupies little of the author's thoughts.
Consequently, the creator of the poems (personified in the personality of the legendary Homer) is a representative of the Greek society of the VIII-VII centuries. BC e., located on the verge of transition from tribal life to the state.
The material culture described in the Iliad and the Odyssey convinces us of the same: the author is well acquainted with the use of iron, although, striving for archaization (especially in the Iliad), he points to the bronze weapons of the warriors.
The poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are written mainly in the Ionian dialect, with an admixture of Aeolian forms. This means that the place of their creation was Ionia - the islands of the Aegean Sea or Asia Minor. The absence in the poems of references to the cities of Asia Minor testifies to the archaizing aspirations of Homer, who glorifies ancient Troy.
Composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey
Homer sympathizes in the poem "Iliad" with the soldiers of both warring parties, but the aggressiveness and predatory aspirations of the Greeks cause him condemnation. In Book II of the Iliad, the poet puts into the mouth of the warrior Thersites speeches stigmatizing the greed of military leaders. Although the description of Thersites' appearance indicates Homer's desire to express his condemnation of his speeches, these speeches are very convincing and essentially not refuted in the poem, which means that we can assume that they are consonant with the poet's thoughts. This is all the more likely because the reproaches thrown by Thersites to Agamemnon are almost analogous to the grave accusations that Achilles makes against him (v. 121 f.), and the fact that Homer sympathizes with the words of Achilles is beyond doubt.
The condemnation of war in the Iliad, as we have seen, does not only come from Thersites. The valiant Achilles himself, about to return to the army to avenge Patroclus, says:
“Oh, may enmity perish from the gods and from mortals, and with it
Hateful anger, which drives even the wise into a frenzy!”
(Il., book XVIII, pp. 107-108).
It is obvious that if the glorification of war and revenge were the goal of Homer, then the action of the Iliad would have ended with the murder of Hector, as was the case in one of the "kyklic" poems. But for Homer, it is not the triumph of Achilles' victory that is important, but the moral resolution of his anger.
Life in the representation of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" is so attractive that Achilles, met by Odysseus in the realm of the dead, says that he would prefer the hard life of a day laborer to reign over the souls of the dead in the underworld.
At the same time, when it is necessary to act in the name of the glory of the motherland or for the sake of loved ones, the heroes of Homer despise death. Achilles, realizing that he was wrong in refusing to fight, says:
"Idle, I sit before the courts, the earth is a useless burden"
(Il., book XVIII, item 104).
Homer's humanism, compassion for human grief, admiration for the inner virtues of man, courage, fidelity to patriotic duty and mutual affection of people reaches its clearest expression in the scene of Hector's farewell to Andromache (Il., book VI, st. 390-496).
Artistic Features of the Iliad and the Odyssey
The images of Homeric heroes are to some extent static, that is, their characters are illuminated somewhat one-sidedly and remain unchanged from the beginning to the end of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", although each character has his own face, different from the others: resourcefulness is emphasized in the Odyssey mind, in Agamemnon - arrogance and lust for power, in Paris - effeminacy, in Elena - beauty, in Penelope - the wisdom and constancy of his wife, in Hector - the courage of the defender of his city and the mood of doom, since both he and his father must die, and his son, and Troy itself.
The one-sidedness in the depiction of heroes is due to the fact that most of them appear before us in only one setting - in battle, where all the traits of their characters cannot manifest themselves. Achilles is an exception, as he is shown in a relationship with a friend, and in a battle with an enemy, and in a quarrel with Agamemnon, and in a conversation with the elder Priam, and in other situations.
As for the development of character, it is still inaccessible to the Iliad and the Odyssey and, in general, to the literature of the preclassical period. Ancient Greece. We find attempts at such an image only at the end of the 5th century. BC e. in the Tragedies of Euripides.
As for the depiction of the psychology of the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, their inner impulses, we learn about them from their behavior and from their words; in addition, to depict the movements of the soul, Homer uses a very peculiar technique: the intervention of the gods. For example, in Book I of the Iliad, when Achilles, unable to endure an insult, draws his sword to attack Agamemnon, someone suddenly grabs him by the hair from behind. Looking back, he sees Athena, the patroness of the tracks, who does not allow murder.
The detail, the detail of the descriptions characteristic of the Iliad and the Odyssey, are especially evident in such a frequently used poetic device, as a comparison: Homeric comparisons are sometimes so detailed that they turn, as it were, into independent stories, torn off from the main narrative. The material for comparison in poems is most often natural phenomena: animal and vegetable world, wind, rain, snow, etc.:
“He rushed like a lion city dweller, hungry for a long time
Meat and blood, who, striving with a brave soul,
He wants to destroy the sheep, break into their fenced enclosure;
And, although in front of the fence he finds rural shepherds,
With vigorous dogs and spears guarding their flock,
He, having not experienced before, does not think of escaping from the fence;
Having rushed into the yard, he steals a sheep, or he himself is under attack
The first falls, pierced with a spear from a mighty hand.
This is how the soul of Sarpedon, who is like a god, aspired.
(Il., book XII, pp. 299-307).
Sometimes epic comparisons between the Iliad and the Odyssey are intended to create an effect retardation, i.e., slowing down the course of the narrative by artistic retreat and diverting the attention of listeners from the main topic.
The Iliad and the Odyssey are related to folklore and hyperbole: in the XII book of the Iliad, Hector, attacking the gates, throws a stone at them that even two strongest men would hardly lift with levers. The voice of Achilles, running to rescue the body of Patroclus, sounds like copper pipe, and so on.
The so-called epic repetitions also testify to the folk-song origin of Homer's poems: individual verses are repeated completely or with slight deviations, and there are 9253 such verses in the Iliad and Odyssey; thus, they constitute a third of the entire epic. Repetitions are widely used in oral folk art because they make it easier for the singer to improvise. At the same time, repetitions are moments of relaxation and relaxation for listeners. Repetition facilitates the perception of what is heard. For example, a verse from the Odyssey:
“A young woman with purple fingers arose from the darkness of Eos”
(translated by V. A. Zhukovsky).
switched the attention of the audience of the rhapsode to the events of the next day, meaning that morning had come.
Often repeated in the Iliad, the picture of the fall of a warrior on the battlefield often translates into a formula of a tree that is hardly felled by woodcutters:
"He fell like an oak or a silver-leaved poplar falls"
(translated by N. Gnedich).
Sometimes the verbal formula is intended to evoke the idea of thunder, which occurs when a body clad in metal armor falls:
"With a noise he fell to the ground, and armor rattled on the dead"
(translated by N. Gnedich).
When the gods in the poems of Homer argue among themselves, it happens that one says to the other:
“What kind of words have you flown out of the fence of your teeth!”
(translated by N. Gnedich).
The narration is conducted in an epic dispassionate tone: there is no sign of Homer's personal interest in it; this creates the impression of objectivity in the presentation of events.
The abundance in the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" of everyday details creates the impression of the realism of the described paintings, but this is the so-called spontaneous, primitive realism.
The above quotes from the Iliad and Odyssey poems can give an idea of the sound of the hexameter, a poetic meter that lends a somewhat elevated solemn style to the epic narrative.
Translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey into Russian
In Russia, interest in Homer began to gradually manifest itself simultaneously with the assimilation of Byzantine culture and especially increased in the 18th century, in the era of Russian classicism.
The first translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey into Russian appeared during the time of Catherine II: they were either prose translations or poetic, but not hexametric. In 1811, the first six books of the Iliad were published, translated by E. Kostrov in Alexandrian verse, which was considered an obligatory form of epic in poetics French classicism dominated at that time in Russian literature.
A complete translation of the Iliad into Russian in the size of the original was made by N. I. Gnedich (1829), the Odyssey by V. A. Zhukovsky (1849).
Gnedich managed to convey and heroic character Homer's narratives, and some of his humor, but his translation is replete with Slavicisms, so that by late XIX V. it began to seem too archaic. Therefore, the attempts to translate the Iliad resumed; released in 1896 new translation of this poem, made by N. I. Minsky on the basis of a more modern Russian language, and in 1949 - a translation by V. V. Veresaev, in an even more simplified language.
The main characters of the Odyssey:
Odysseus,
Penelope,
telemac,
Circe.
Plot of the Odyssey:
Homer's poem "The Odyssey" depicts the events after the Trojan War and the destruction of Troy.
All the Greek heroes returned home, except for Odysseus, king of the island of Ithaca. He wanders for ten years because of the hatred of the god of the sea, Poseidon. The first three years of his wanderings are depicted in songs IX-XII (cf. full text poems). These songs contain the story of Odysseus at a feast at the king of the Feacians Alcinous, to which he was brought by a storm.
The beginning of the "Odyssey" tells about the last events of the seven years of the wanderings of Odysseus, when he lived on the island of the nymph Calypso. From there, at the behest of the gods, he goes to his homeland.
Odysseus arrives at Ithaca in Canto XIII. At home, his wife Penelope, besieged by suitors, and his son Telemachus, who has already become a youth, are waiting for him. Odysseus stops at the swineherd Eumeus, then, under the guise of a beggar, sneaks into the palace and, finally, in alliance with faithful servants, destroys all applicants for the hand of Penelope, stops the uprising of the relatives of the dead and begins a happy life in the circle of his family.
Homer (Iliad) main characters and their characteristics
◾Agamemnon - King of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks. ◾Achilles - Leader of the Myrmidons, a hero of semi-divine origin. ◾Odysseus - King of Ithaca, the most cunning of the Greek military leaders, the hero of the Odyssey. ◾Ajax the Great - the son of Telamon, the second after Achilles in military skill. ◾ Menelaus - King of Sparta, husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon. ◾Diomedes - son of Tydeus, King of Argos. ◾Ajax the Small is the son of Oileus, a frequent ally of Ajax the Great. Patroclus is Achilles' best friend. ◾Nestor - King of Pylos, trusted adviser to Agamemnon.
Plot of the Iliad:
The plot of Homer's Iliad (see its summary, full text and analysis) is connected with the myth of the abduction of Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, ruler of Sparta, by the Trojan prince Paris. Helen, the most beautiful of all women, was destined for Paris by the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite, to whom Paris presented an apple with the inscription: "The most beautiful." This apple was thrown by the goddess of discord, Eridoin, at the wedding of the hero Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, in order to start a dispute between the goddesses, which would lead to war and people.
The Iliad begins from the moment when the plague broke out in the Greek camp in the tenth year of the siege of Troy. She was sent by the god Apollo, the patron of the Trojans, at the request of his priest, from whom the Greek leader Agamemnon took away his daughter. To stop the plague, Agamemnon is forced to return his daughter to his father, but in return he takes the captive from Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis. Angry Achilles, possessed by a sense of bitter resentment, goes to his camp, refuses to participate in the siege of Troy and asks his mother to help him in his grief.
The goddess Thetis begs Zeus to take revenge on the Greeks for the offense inflicted on her son. Let Zeus send victory to the Trojans, and then Agamemnon, resigned, will humbly ask Achilles for help.
Zeus grants Thetis' wish.
Fierce battles begin, in which the Greeks are defeated by the Trojans. Then they send ambassadors to Achilles (IX song), but to no avail: he refuses to take part in the battles. Finally, in the XVI song, Patroclus, a friend of Achilles, enters the battle, because he can no longer see how his comrades die. In this battle, Patroclus dies at the hands of the Trojan hero Hector, the son of King Priam.
Achilles, avenging his friend, enters the battle, kills Hector, cruelly mocking his corpse. However, the old man Priam, Hector's father, having come to Achilles' tent at night, begs him to return the body of his son. Achilles, touched by the old man's grief and remembering his own father, whom he will never see, returns Hector's body and even establishes a truce to give the Trojans time to mourn the dead.
The Iliad ends with the burial of the heroes of the two warring camps - Patroclus and Hector.
Heroes were born from the marriages of the Olympian gods with mortals. They were endowed with great strength and superhuman abilities, but did not possess immortality. The heroes were supposed to fulfill the will of the gods on earth, to bring order and justice into people's lives. With the help of their divine parents, they performed all sorts of feats. Heroes are highly respected.
Achilles- is the bravest of the heroes who undertook a campaign against Troy under the leadership of Agamemnon. Son of Peleus and Thetis. The protagonist of the Iliad. Arrogant and touchy, who, for any reason, runs to cry to his mother. He is feared not only by enemies, but also by his own.
Hercules- hero, son of Zeus and Alcmene. At birth, he was named Alkid. Feats: Strangulation of the Nemean lion, Killing of the Lernean hydra, Extermination of the Stymphalian birds, Capture of the Kerinean fallow deer, Taming of the Erymanthian boar and battle with the centaurs, Cleaning of the Augean stables, Taming of the Cretan bull, Victory over King Diomedes (who threw foreigners to be devoured by his horses), Theft of Ip's belt watered , The abduction of the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon, The abduction of golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, The taming of the guardian of Hades - the dog Kerber.
Odysseus- the king of Ithaca, who became famous as a participant in the Trojan War, an intelligent and quirky speaker. One of the key characters of the Iliad, the protagonist of the poem "Odyssey", which tells about the long years of wandering and the return of Odysseus to his homeland. Odysseus was distinguished not only by courage, but also by a cunning, dodgy mind.
Perseus - son Zeus and Danae. The winner of the monster Gorgon Medusa, the savior of the princess Andromeda.
Theseus - son of the Athenian king Aegeus and Ephra, king of Athens. central figure Attic mythology and one of the most famous characters in all of Greek mythology. He killed the robbers: Perithetus (who killed travelers with a copper club), Sinis (who dealt with travelers by tying them to two bent pines), Krommion pig, Skiron (who forced travelers to wash his feet at the cliff and kicked them into the abyss, where the unfortunate ones were eaten by a giant tortoise) , Kerkion (who forced travelers to fight to the death), Damast. Participated in the fight against the centaurs. Wife - Amazon Antiope. Participated in the war with the Amazons. Jason- son of King Aeson and Polymede. A hero, a participant in the Calydonian hunt, the leader of the Argonauts who set off on the Argo ship to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. This task was given to him by his father's half-brother, Pelius, in order to destroy him.
Hector- the bravest leader of the Trojan army, chief Trojan hero in the Iliad, the son of Priam and Hecuba. Husband of Andromache. He was of great stature. He wore his hair long in the back and short in the front. He killed Patroclus, a friend of Achilles, and was himself killed by Achilles, who several times dragged his body around the walls of Troy with his chariot and then gave it to Priam for a ransom.
5/6. Iliad and Odyssey. Historical and mythological basis. The current state of the Homeric question.
The authorship of Homer has not been proven, just as his existence has not been proven. He becomes a legend already in antiquity. Almost all policies argue about the right to consider themselves his homeland. Epic poetry originated in the 10th century BC. e., the poetry of Homer - turn of the 9th and 8th centuries. These are the first written creations from which European literature began. Antiquity is not characterized by the usual definition of "epos". "Epos" appears as a form of everyday story about an event important for the history of a tribe or clan. The subject of the image is the history of the people on the basis of mythological perception. Heroes of epics personify entire nations (Achilles, Odysseus). A hero is always strong by the strength of his people, personifies both the best and the worst in his people.
The language of the Iliad and the Odyssey is an artificial sub-dialect that has never been spoken in life.
Artistic features, composition, structure of the Iliad
The theme of the poem is announced in the very first verse, where the singer addresses the Muse, the goddess of song: "Anger, goddess, sing to Achilles, son of Peleus."
The Iliad covers only 50 days as events last year war. Achilles' wrath and its consequences. The Iliad is a military-heroic epic, where the central place is occupied by the story of events. Aristotle wrote that Homer's choice of subject was brilliant. Achilles is a special hero, he replaces an entire army. Homer's task is to describe all the heroes and life, but Achilles overshadows them. Achilles is great, but mortal. Heroism is the conscious choice of Achilles. Achilles epic prowess: brave, strong, fearless, war cry, fast run.
The action of the poem takes place in two parallel planes, human - under Troy and divine - on Olympus. The Trojan War also divided the gods into two camps, between which rude bickering constantly takes place. In the earthly plan, everything is determined by the consequences of the wrath of Achilles, in the heavenly - by the will of Zeus. But his will is not all-encompassing. Zeus cannot control the fate of the Greeks and Trojans. He uses the golden scales of fate.
Composition: alternation of earth and sky line stories that get mixed up at the end. Homer shows that tribal collectivity is becoming a thing of the past, a new morality is beginning to form, where the idea of value comes to the fore. own life. Events in the Iliad develop progressively and consistently. The battle scenes of the Iliad alternate with touching scenes within the walls of Troy under siege and somewhat comic bickering on Mount Olympus.
Book II ends with a long list of ships, tribes and leaders of the Greek army (“catalog of ships”), as well as Trojan forces coming out of the city under the leadership of their bravest knight Hector, son of King Priam.
Book 3 introduces the perpetrators of the war - Paris, Menelaus, Elena. Paris “before the start of the battle, calls the bravest of the Achaeans to single combat, but in fear retreats before the offended husband of Elena; only Hector's reproaches make him go back; In single combat, Menelaus is almost the winner, but Aphrodite kidnaps Paris from the battlefield. View from the wall.
The central place in the description of the first day of the battle is occupied by the 5th book, "the exploits of Diomedes." Diomedes kills Pandarus and injures the gods Ares and Aphrodite, who patronize the Trojans. This book has an archaic character and contains a number of fabulous features that are usually alien to the narrative. Gods and humans are presented here fighting as equals.
The 6th book has a completely different character, the action of which takes place mainly within the walls of the besieged Troy. The doom of the city is shown in two scenes: the procession of the Trojan women to the temple of Athena the city-keeper with a plea for salvation. The second is Hector's farewell to his wife Andromache and son. The first day of the battle ends with the unsuccessful single combat of Ajax and Hector.
From the 8th book, the decision of Zeus to help the Trojans comes into force, and they begin to overcome the Achaeans. Then Agamemnon equips an embassy to Achilles.
The 10th book is a story about the night expedition of Odysseus and Diomedes to the Trojan system, three of which they capture a Trojan scout and massacre the Res camp.
Book 11 and subsequent - new successes of the Trojans. The description of the battle is divided into a series of episodes dedicated to the "exploits" of various Achaean heroes, and is interspersed with action in the "Olympic" plan, where the gods friendly to the Achaeans try to help them by deceiving the vigilance of Zeus. Particularly interesting is the scene of the "seduction of Zeus" in the 14th book: Hera distracts Zeus with the help of love charms and puts him to sleep. Waking up, Zeus makes the gods stop all help to the Achaeans. By the end of Book 15, the Greeks are almost hopeless: they are pushed back to the seashore, and Hector is already preparing to set fire to their ships and thus cut off the path to returning home. From the 16th book begins a turn in the course of events. Achilles agrees to have his friend Patroclus wear his armor and repel the immediate danger. Disarmed by Apollo, he dies at the hands of Hector. A fierce battle flares up around the body of Patroclus, but Hector has already taken possession of the armor, and the Achaeans, not hoping to defend the body, send to Achilles to report what happened (book 17). Achilles is shocked by the death of a friend; anger is replaced by a thirst for revenge. 19th book - Achilles returns to military operations. The story reaches its greatest tension in the 22nd book (“the killing of Hector”). The 23rd book is dedicated to the funeral of Patroclus. The soul of Patroclus appears to Achilles in the form of a ghostly shadow and requires an early burial. The funeral rite and competitions arranged for this occasion by Achilles are described. A reconciling note is introduced into the poem by the last, 24th book. Priam at the feet of Achilles, and Achilles, holding Priam by the hand, both weep for sorrows human existence. Achilles agrees to accept the ransom and return the body. The Iliad ends with a description of Hector's burial.
Artistic features, composition, structure of the "Odyssey"
In terms of plot, the Odyssey corresponds to the Iliad. But it does not tell about military events, but about wanderings. The fate of Odysseus comes to the fore - the glorification of the mind and willpower. The Odyssey corresponds to the mythology of late heroism. Dedicated to the last 40 days of the return of Odysseus to his homeland. The very beginning testifies that the center is the return.
There are three in the composition storylines: 1) Olympian gods. But Odysseus has a goal and no one can stop him. Odysseus extricates himself from everything. 2) the return itself is a difficult adventure. 3) Ithaca: the events of the matchmaking and the theme of Telemachus' search for his father.
Appears for the first time female image, equal to the male - Penelope, the wise wife of Odysseus. The poem is more complicated not only in composition, but also in terms of the psychological motivation of actions. The main plot of the "Odyssey" refers to the type of legends widespread in world folklore about the return of a husband to the moment when his wife is ready to marry another, and the husband upsets a new wedding. The action of the poem is already attributed to the 10th year after the fall of Troy. All the most important heroes of the Greek camp of the Iliad, living and dead, are also displayed in the Odyssey. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey was divided by ancient scholars into 24 books.
The poem opens after the usual address to the Muse, brief description situations: all participants in the Trojan campaign, who escaped death, returned safely home, one Odysseus languishes in separation from his family, forcibly held by the nymph Calypso. Further details are put into the mouths of the gods, discussing the question of Odysseus in their council. Athena, who patronizes Odysseus, offers to send the messenger of the gods Hermes to Calypso with the order to release Odysseus, and she herself goes to Ithaca, to Odysseus' son Telemachus. In Ithaca at this time, suitors wooing Penelope. Athena encourages Telemachus to go to Nestor and Menelaus, who have returned from Troy, to find out about their father and prepare for revenge on the suitors. The 2nd book gives a picture of the Ithaca people's assembly. Telemachus complains about suitors, but the people are powerless against noble youth. The suitors demand that Penelope choose someone. Along the way, the image of the “reasonable” Penelope arises, with the help of tricks delaying consent to marriage. With the help of Athena, Telemachus equips the ship and secretly leaves Ithaca for Pylos to Nestor. Nestor informs Telemachus about the return of the Achaeans from under Troy and about the death of Agamemnon, but for further news he sends him to Sparta to Menelaus, who returned home later than other Achaean leaders.
Warmly received by Menelaus and Helen, Telemachus learns that Odysseus is a prisoner of Calypso. The grooms, frightened by the departure of Telemachus, set up an ambush to kill him on the way back. This whole part of the poem is rich in everyday sketches: feasts, holidays, chants, table conversations are depicted. "Heroes" appear before us in a peaceful home environment. A new line of storytelling begins. The next part of the poem takes us to the realm of the fabulous and the miraculous.
In the 5th book, the gods send Hermes to Calypso, whose island is depicted with features reminiscent of the Greek ideas about the kingdom of death. Calypso releases Odysseus. Having escaped, thanks to the goddess Levkofeya, from the storm, Fr. Scheria, where happy people live - feaks, navigators who have fabulous ships that do not need a rudder and understand the thoughts of their sailors. Alkina, with his wife Areta, receives the wanderer in a luxurious palace and arranges games and a feast in his honor, where the blind singer Demodocus sings about the exploits of Odysseus. Odysseus' story of adventure contains a number of folklore stories. The first adventure is still quite realistic: Odysseus and his companions plunder the city of Kikons in Thrace, but then a storm carries his ships over the waves for many days, and he ends up in distant, wonderful countries. At first, this is a country of peaceful “lotus eaters”, having tasted a lotus, a person forgets about his homeland and forever remains a lotus collector. Then Odysseus falls into the land of the Cyclopes, one-eyed monsters, where Odysseus blinds the cannibal giant Polyphemus. The god of the winds, Eol, handed Odysseus a fur with unfavorable winds tied in it, but not far from their native shores, Odysseus's companions unleashed the fur, again they were in the sea. Then they again find themselves in the country of cannibal giants, who destroyed all the ships of Odysseus, except for 1, which then landed on the island of the sorceress Circe (Kirki). She lives in a dark forest, turns Odysseus' companions into pigs, but the hero, with the help of a wonderful plant (Hermes helped), overcomes the spell and enjoys Circe's love for a year. At her direction, he goes to the realm of the dead in order to question the soul of the famous Theban soothsayer Tiresias. Odysseus talks with his mother, with his comrades-in-arms, Agamemnon, Achilles, sees various heroes and heroines of the past. Returning from the realm of the dead. Odysseus visits Circe again, sails with his ship past the deadly Sirens, past Skilla and Charybdis. Final Episode The narrative of Odysseus depicts the cruelty of the gods and their contempt for human grief. On the island of Trinacria, where the herds of Helios grazed, Odysseus and his companions were forced to linger because of the winds, the food ran out. Odysseus fell asleep, the satellites killed the sacred animals, Zeus destroyed the ships. Odysseus escaped, thrown by the waves on about. Ogygia. The Theacians, richly endowing Odysseus, take him to Ithaca. Odysseus, turned by Athena into a beggar old man, goes to the faithful swineherd Eumeus. Unrecognizability" of the hero is a constant motif in the plot about the "return of her husband". Unrecognizability is used to introduce numerous episodic figures and household paintings. Before the listener passes a string of images, friends and enemies of Odysseus, and both of them lost faith in the possibility of his return.
Staying with Eumeus is an idyllic picture; a devoted slave, honest and hospitable, but tempted by hard life experience and somewhat distrustful, is depicted with great love, although not without light irony. Here Odysseus meets his son Telemachus. In the form of a beggar tramp, Odysseus comes to his house. The "recognition" of Odysseus is repeatedly prepared and pushed back again. Only the old nanny Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus by the scar on his leg. With the 21st book, the denouement begins. Penelope promises her hand to the one who, having bent the bow of Odysseus, will pass the arrow through the twelve rings. Odysseus reveals himself to the suitors and, with the help of Telemachus and Athena, kills them. After this, there is a "recognition" of Odysseus by Penelope. The poem ends with the scene of the arrival of the souls of the grooms in the underworld, the meeting of Odysseus with his father Laertes and the conclusion of peace between Odysseus and the relatives of the dead.
Homer's poems were written down for the first time only in the second half of the 6th century BC, therefore, they reflect even more ancient periods of Greek or, perhaps, even pre-Greek history.
The plot of the Homeric poems are different episodes of the Trojan War. The Greeks who inhabited the Balkan Peninsula waged wars in Asia Minor for many years. One such war, namely with Troy, was especially imprinted in the memory of the ancient Greeks, and many different literary works and, in particular, several special poems. They talked about the Trojan War, about the reasons that caused it, about the capture of Troy and the return of the winners - the Greeks to their homeland. The immediate reason for the war was that Paris, the son of the Trojan Priam, kidnapped Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. To avenge this kidnapping and bring Elena back, the brother of Menelaus and the king of Argolis, neighboring Sparta, Agamemnon, advises Menelaus to gather all the Greek kings with their squads and start a war with Troy. Among the attracted Greek kings, Achilles, the king of Phthia, striking with his power, and Odysseus, the king of the island of Ithaca, stand out. All Greek tribes they send their troops and their leaders to Aulis, from where the general Greek army moves through the Aegean Sea and lands near Troy, which is several kilometers away from the coast. Agamemnon is elected supreme leader of the entire Greek army. The war has been fought with varying success for 10 years. And only after 10 years the Greeks manage to get into the city itself, burn it, kill the men, and take the women prisoner.
In the Iliad and the Odyssey, only allusions to the war as a whole are scattered. But in the poems there is no special narrative either about the causes of the war, or about its first 9 years, or about the capture of Troy. Both poems are each devoted to a special plot, namely, "Iliad" - one episode of their tenth year of the war, and "Odyssey" - legends about the return of Odysseus after the war to his homeland. .The action of the "Iliad" is related to the 10th year of the Trojan War, but neither the reasons nor its course are described in the poem. The content of the poem is only one episode, within which a huge historical and mythological material is concentrated and a large number of Trojan and Greek heroes. The culture depicted by Homer is generally Mycenaean culture (a shapeless leather shield, a bronze weapon when attacking; bull and lion motifs that have passed into Homeric comparisons, possibly from Mycenaean visual arts; various kinds of art industry, such as Nestor's cup, Penelope's earrings, Hercules' bandage, etc.). But Homer also knows a later culture: he processes not only bronze, but also iron. His palaces are not only luxurious Mycenaean, but also quite simple.
The Odyssey is, to a certain extent, a continuation of the Iliad; the action of the poem is already attributed to the 10th year after the fall of Troy, but the stories of the characters mention those episodes whose time was timed to coincide with the period between the action of the Iliad and the action of the Odyssey. All the most important heroes of the Greek camp of the Iliad, living and dead , displayed in the Odyssey. Polis in Homer is placed above all. A person outside the policy, extra-state, extra-citizen, causes only regret and contempt. In the Odyssey, a stranger is always asked the question: "Where is your city and where are your parents?" To this we must also add a keen sense of the homeland, which permeates both poems.
Homeric question, a set of problems related to the personality of Homer and the authorship of the ancient Greek epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" attributed to him; more broadly - a set of problems relating to the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic. Already in antiquity it was suggested that Homer lived in a non-literate time and his poems were transmitted orally; This was associated with reports that in the 6th c. BC e. Athenian tyrant Peisistratus commissioned to work out the official text of the Homeric poems. The German philologist F. A. Wolf in his "Introduction to Homer" came to the conclusion that the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are collections of individual songs, and the German critic F. Schlegel directly recognized the Homeric epic as the fruit of the collective work of folk poets. Wolf's followers, the so-called "analysts", sought, based on plot contradictions and stylistic differences within the poems, to single out its constituent parts in the text itself. However, all such assumptions turned out to be subjective and arbitrary.
7. Epic heroes of the Iliad. ways of depicting them.
The images of warriors were diverse. Homer did not yet have an idea about the character, but, nevertheless, he does not have two identical warriors. It was believed that a person is already born with certain qualities, and nothing can change during life. The amazing moral integrity of Homeric man. They have no reflection or duality - this is in the spirit of Homer's time. Fate is a share. Therefore, there is no doom. The actions of the heroes are not related to divine influence. But there is a law of double motivation of events. The birth of feelings is most easily explained by divine intervention. Image Helena in the Iliad - demonic. In The Odyssey, she is a housewife. It is not her appearance that is being described. And the reaction of the elders to her. We know very little about her feelings. In the "Odyssey" it is different - there is nothing mysterious. The set of qualities for each warrior is the same, but the images are unique. Each of the characters expresses one side of the national Greek spirit. There are types in the poem: elders, wives, and so on. The central place is occupied by the image Achilles A. He is great, but mortal. Homer wanted to portray the poetic apotheosis of heroic Greece. Heroism is the conscious choice of Achilles. Achilles epic prowess: brave, strong, fearless, war cry, fast run. To make the characters different, the number of different qualities is different - individual characteristic. Achilles has impulsiveness and immensity. Characteristics of Homer: he knows how to compose songs and sings them. Second strongest warrior Ajax Big. He has too much ambition. Achilles is swift, Ajax is clumsy, slow. Third - Diomedes. The main thing is complete disinterestedness, so Diomedes is granted victory over the gods. Epithets: Achilles and Odysseus have more than 40. In the battle, Diomedes does not forget about the household. The leaders of the campaign are depicted in conflict with the epic laws. The authors of the epic write objectively. But Homer has many epithets for his favorite heroes. Atrids have few epithets. Diomedes reproaches Agamemnon "Zeus did not give you valor." Another attitude to Nestor, Hector and Odysseus. Hector- one of the favorite heroes of Homer, he is reasonable and peaceful. Hector and Odysseus do not rely on the gods, so Hector has fear, but this fear does not affect his actions, since Hector has epic prowess, which includes epic shame. He feels responsible to the protected people.
Elders: Priam And Nestor. Nestor survived three generations of people for thirty years. New Wisdom: The Intelligence of Odysseus. This is not experience, but the flexibility of the mind. Odysseus is also distinguished: all heroes strive for immortality - it is offered to him twice, but he changes him to his homeland.
Homer gives us for the first time an experience of comparative characterization. 3rd song of the Iliad: Elena talks about the heroes. Menelaus and Odysseus are compared. + abstract
Before us in the poems there are many images of heroes. Each of them has its own unique character, each of which is multifaceted. The experiences of the characters are not yet complicated, they are revealed through external reactions, i.e. the hero blushes, gets angry, grabs his sword. All feelings out. Characters are not given in development, they are constantly static. But they are expanding. Much of the behavior of the heroes is explained by the intervention of God: sudden decisions and actions, a sharp change in mood. The author uses various techniques to characterize the characters. Helen's beauty is never described, it is revealed through the perception of the Trojan elders. With the help of Elena, a characterization of the heroes is given. Sometimes the author knows how to show the experiences of the characters in the first line. All images of the poems reflect the folk ideals of that era. Thus, the main idea of the Iliad is the glorification of military prowess, heroism, and patriotism. All heroes open from a military point of view. The ideal warrior is Achilles - courage, physical strength, courage, dexterity, his speed are limitless. His battle cry is terrifying. Loyalty in Friendship: Revenge for Patroclus. But although Achilles is an ideal warrior, he has many weaknesses, he is aware of them and condemns them. Parallel to the image of Achilles is the image of Hector, the Trojan leader. Hector is an ideal warrior, a brave, talented commander, a patriot who sacrifices his life for the sake of his homeland. A sense of duty and military honor. At the same time, Hector is a wonderful family man: a loving husband and father, a wonderful husband. The poet draws Hector with great sympathy. Image Agamemnon and not entirely positive - the king is unjust, soulless. Achilles calls him "the king-devourer of the people." He treats his enemies with amazing cruelty. In the Odyssey, the main ideological task is the glorification worldly wisdom, experience, important rules worldly morality. The ideal hero is Odysseus, a multifaceted, bright character: smart, cunning, eloquent, patient, has the ability to find a way out of any hopeless situation, find an approach to any person, optimism, stamina, he never loses heart. These qualities Odyssey. Typical for that era, when a person breaks away from his tribe, goes on a journey. The author does not condemn the cunning of Odysseus, because. this is a white lie. In the tragedies of Euripides, Odysseus turned into a negative hero. The wonderful quality of Odysseus is love for the motherland, patriotism, he refuses to exchange his homeland even for eternal youth and immortality. A wonderful family man, pious. All images of the poem reflect the humanity of the author. A characteristic for all the heroes is a passionate love for life, while being aware of its hardships and brevity, each of them tries to live it with dignity and leave a mark. The feeling of an elbow, mutual support, all the heroes sacredly honor the law of hospitality.
8. The image of Odysseus and the new concept of the hero compared to the Iliad
Odysseus is the most prominent figure in the Ionian epic. This is not just a diplomat and a practitioner, and certainly not just a cunning, hypocrite. The practical and business inclination of his nature acquires its real significance only in connection with his selfless love for his native hearth and his wife waiting for him, as well as his constantly difficult fate, forcing him to constantly suffer and shed tears away from his homeland. Odysseus is par excellence a sufferer. His permanent epithet in "Odyssey" "long-suffering". Athena tells Zeus with great feeling about his constant suffering. Poseidon is constantly angry with him, and he knows this very well. If not Poseidon, then Zeus and Helios break his ship and leave him alone in the sea. His nanny wonders why the gods are constantly indignant at him with his constant piety and obedience to the will of the gods. His grandfather gave him the name precisely as "the man of divine wrath." In the Iliad, Odysseus at war is glorified in 10 cantos. In the Iliad, he fights bravely and even gets wounded, but Diomedes tries to keep him from fleeing and reproaches him with cowardice. Cunning, fantasy cunning. Then he gets out of the cave under the belly of the ram, grabbing his wool, and thus deceives the vigilance of the blind Polyphemus. Then he makes the Cyclops and the ogre drunk and gouges out his only eye. Now he slips past the sirens, where no one has ever passed alive and healthy, then he makes his way into his own palace and takes possession of it. He himself speaks of his subtle cunning, and Polyphemus guessed that it was not strength that killed him, but the cunning of Odysseus. Odysseus is a complete adventure, resourcefulness. He lies even when there is no need for it, but for this the patronizing Athena praises him: Introducing himself to Achilles, he reports about himself: I am Odysseus Laertides. I am glorious with cunning inventions among all people. My glory reaches heaven. Everyone praises Odysseus' love for Penelope. He was both the husband of Calypso, and, moreover, for at least seven years, and the spouse of Kirk, and according to other sources, he even had children from them. However, he prefers immortality to return to his native hearth. He spent his nights with Calypso, and during the day he wept on the seashore. Odysseus still likes to pretend to be a merchant and entrepreneur: he is a very prudent owner. Arriving at Ithaca, he first of all rushes to count the gifts that were left for him by the feacs. Finally, let's add to everything that has been said the brutal cruelty that this humane and sensitive person shows. Tracking down the suitors, he chooses a convenient moment to deal with them and fills the whole palace with their corpses. Sacrificer Leod tries to ask him for mercy, but he blows his head off. Melantius was cut into pieces and given to be eaten by dogs, unfaithful servants Telemachus, on the orders of his father, hung on a rope. After this wild reprisal, Odysseus, as if nothing had happened, hugs the maids and even sheds tears, and then a happy meeting with his wife.
Homer's Odysseus is the deepest patriot, the bravest warrior, sufferer, diplomat, merchant, businessman, dodgy adventurer, womanizer, wonderful family man and cruel executioner.
The epic poems of Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the first monuments known to us in time ancient Greek literature. They were created in the first third of the 1st millennium BC. Of course, they could not belong to the pen of only one author (Homer) and appear suddenly, as a result of individual creativity. If these brilliant works were compiled by one poet, who is conventionally called Homer, then this work was based on the centuries-old work of the Greek people. It is no coincidence that the most diverse periods of the historical development of the ancient Greeks were reflected in the poems of Homer.
In principle, the Homeric epic describes the communal-clan organization of society. But the period that is depicted in the poems is very far from the real communal-tribal collectivism of the ancients. In the Homeric epic, signs of a highly developed private property, private initiative within tribal organizations and slavery. True, the slaves are only doing the work of shepherds and domestic servants. But, if in the "Iliad" slavery is still patriarchal in nature, then in the "Odyssey" the degree of exploitation of slaves increases significantly.
Based on the foregoing, we note that the Homeric poems were written not just in the epic style, which reflects the communal-clan formation, but in its later variety, the free or mixed epic style. In contrast to the earlier, strict epic style, the free style reflects the period of the emergence of private property, the appearance on the stage of an individual, though not yet quite detached from tribal community, but already conscious of herself as an independent hero. This hero often acts on his own initiative and sometimes even fights with the gods, like Diomedes, who wounded Aphrodite and Ares, the god of war himself. Diomedes, as a hero of the late, free epic style, is ready to fight even with Apollo, and Odysseus in the second Homeric poem (Odyssey, Canto 5) is not inferior to the god of the sea, Poseidon himself.
Sometimes the independence of the Homeric hero inspires fear in the gods. In this regard, when the gods consult among themselves, discussing the further fate of King Odysseus of Ithaca, Zeus admits that people blame the gods for their misfortunes in vain. If they had not acted contrary to fate, they would have avoided many troubles. Concerned about Odysseus's excessive independence, the gods decide to return him to Ithaca, otherwise he will return there regardless of the will of the gods, thanks to his own perseverance and determination.
Such behavior of the hero, of course, is not allowed in the strict epic style, which reflected the life of the ancient Greek society, soldered into a monolithic collective. This collective subordinated absolutely every personal life to itself, and individual human life was considered only in connection with the activities of the entire collective. An individual human life in itself did not represent any value - only the entire collective as a whole had value; it seemed to be a single organism, and human lives were included in it as cells. The same structure of relations exists in some phenomena of living nature, for example, in an anthill. In the 20th century a prime example similar organization of society - the Stalinist totalitarian state.
There is a whole cycle of myths associated with the Trojan events. The poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are only small parts of this vast Trojan mythology. The Iliad describes only a few episodes that take up 51 days of the ten-year siege by the Greeks of the Asia Minor city of Troy. This is by all the rules of the genre - a heroic poem. The "Odyssey", as the researchers of the Homeric epic say, at first, apparently, was not included in the Trojan cycle and was just an analogy to the adventurous fairy-tale mythology of the Argonauts. Reworking the myths about Odysseus, Homer introduced the idea of the hero's return to his homeland from under the walls of the defeated Ilion into a purely adventure narrative. Thus, the main idea"Odyssey" - the hero's love for the homeland, for his wife, for the family hearth, which is defiled by obsessive suitors seeking the hand of Penelope.
It is no coincidence that these motifs of heroism and love for the motherland prevail in the poems. The fact is that the Homeric epic was taking shape at a time when the once strong Greece was devastated by the Dorians tribes that invaded from the north of the Balkan Peninsula. Creating their own poems, which absorbed ancient songs, myths and historical traditions, Homer wanted to remind the Achaeans (there was no single name for the Greek people then) of their glorious heroic past, to awaken in them love for their homeland and the will to resist the invaders. Therefore, the generation of ancient heroes, in contrast to his contemporaries enslaved by the Dorians, is presented by Homer as endowed with all sorts of virtues, a worthy role model.
Here one can also recall the “Tale of Igor's Campaign”, similar in meaning to Homer's poems, by an unknown ancient Russian author, who, with his work, warned Russian princes mired in civil strife on the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
2. Gods
In the Homeric epic, myth and historical reality, truth and fairy-tale fiction are closely intertwined. It is no coincidence that at first even the reality of the existence of the city of Troy itself in antiquity was questioned. But then, in the 70s of the last century, the German enthusiastic archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Ilova (Troy) in the north of Asia Minor.
Based on ancient Greek myths, the Iliad and Odyssey are heavily populated with Olympian gods. Olympus and the earth live in close unity. In the poems of Homer, in a mythological form, the world appears as a single tribal community headed by Zeus.
The ancient Greeks believed that the immortal celestials were fully endowed with the whole gamut human feelings that they interfere in the lives of heroes, determine the fate of those who live on earth.
In addition to virtues, the gods possess all human shortcomings which Homer ruthlessly ridicules. They, like people, quarrel, scold, even sometimes fight. The gods are vindictive and vengeful. But they are also concerned about the fate of the heroes fighting under the walls of Ilion. Indeed, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, generations of heroes descend from Zeus, who is called by Homer "the father of people and gods", or from his relatives. Some heroes are directly related to the gods. As, for example, Achilles is the son of the sea goddess Thetis, the Lycian king Sarpedon, who is the son of Zeus and the goddess of Europe, and others.
The epic always deals with events so significant for the fate of entire peoples that, by the will of the ancient singers - the Aeds (Homer was also considered a blind singer), the gods necessarily interfere in these events. The events that caused the Trojan War are also clearly of a cosmic nature. The myth tells that the Earth, burdened with a huge human population, turned to Zeus with a request to reduce the human race. Zeus heeded the request of the Earth and unleashed a war between the Greeks and the Trojans. The reason for the war was the abduction of the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus Helen by the Trojan prince Paris. Enraged, Menelaus, together with his brother Agamemnon, gathers the Greek army and sails on ships to Ilion.
In the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as in the entire Trojan cycle, the gods are directly involved in the events. The motivation for all the personal actions of the characters comes from outside. What, for example, caused Achilles' anger at the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon? The anger that brought the Achaeans, as it is said in the poem: "suffering without count" and "many strong souls heroes" sent to Hades. The reason for the quarrel between the two heroes was the captive, the daughter of the priest of Chris, Briseis, whom Agamemnon took away from Achilles. By the will of Apollo, he was forced to give his captive Chryseis to her father Chris. Thus, the god Apollo turned out to be the culprit in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, who sent an evil disease to the Achaean army and thereby forced Agamemnon to return the daughter captured from him to the priest of the temple of Apollo in Troy.
Also, the will of the gods motivates other actions of heroes and life situations. When, for example, during a duel, Menelaus grabbed Paris by the helmet and dragged him to the Achaean camp (Iliad, Song 3), the goddess Aphrodite tore the helmet strap and freed Paris. But the belt could break on its own, without the intervention of Aphrodite, who patronizes Paris.
The gods not only interfere in human life, they direct the thoughts and actions of people in the direction they need. As a result of the decision of the gods and the direct influence of Pallas Athena, who sympathizes with the Achaeans, the Trojan Pandarus shoots at the Greek camp, treacherously violating the recently concluded truce. When the Trojan Priam comes to Achilles' tent to ask for the body of his son Hector, he goes to meet him. Here, all the actions of Priam and Achilles are inspired by the gods.
However, the Homeric epic should not be understood in such a way that as if a person does not mean anything in himself, but true heroes are the gods. Homer hardly understood mythology literally and represented man as just a pitiful toy of the gods. Without a doubt, Homer puts forward human heroes in the first place in his poems, and his gods are only a generalization of human feelings and actions. And if we read about how a deity put some act into this or that hero, then this should be understood in such a way that this act is the result of own decision person. But this decision came to his mind so subconsciously that even the hero himself considers it a divine predestination. And although the strict epic style implies that all thoughts, feelings and actions of a person are inspired by the gods, Homer, on this strict epic basis, cites infinitely diverse types of relationships between heroes and the gods. Here there is a complete subordination of a person to the divine will, and a harmonious unification of the divine and human will, and a rude attack of a person on one or another Olympian god.
In Homer's poems there is almost no episode where the gods would not act, being, as it were, the main culprits of the events in the life of the heroes. The gods are at enmity with each other as well as the Achaeans with the Trojans, divided into two camps. The Trojans are constantly patronized by Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, the Achaeans - Pallas Athena, the wife of Zeus Hera, Thetis. This does not happen by chance. The fact is that the Trojan mythology of the ancient Greeks reflected the complex process of mutual assimilation of the cultures of the Balkan and Asia Minor Greeks that was taking place at that time. As a result of this assimilation, gods appeared in the pantheon of Olympian deities, so to speak, of Asian origin. These are Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, constantly sympathetic to the Trojans. When Zeus allows the gods to join the war, they all immediately take the side of the defenders of Ilion. This is natural for the psychology of the ancients. After all, according to their concepts, the gods are also members of their tribal communities and are subject to the requirements of communal ethics, which, above all, obliges them to defend their homeland.
Homer often laughs at the gods. Even famous battle he draws the gods not in a heroic way, but rather in a humorous way. And indeed, how can one seriously take such a battle of the gods, when Apollo and Poseidon shook the land and sea so much that
Hades, the lord of the underworld, was terrified under the earth,
Terrified, he jumped down from the throne and shouted loudly to
The bosom of the earth was not opened by Poseidon, the shaker of the earth ... "
The comic reaches the level of burlesque when the sublime is portrayed as base. In the style of burlesque, Homer almost always describes scenes that take place on Mount Olympus. He has gods for the most part feasting and laughing. An example is the first song of the Iliad, which depicts Hera's marital jealousy. Zeus intends to beat his jealous wife, and the bow-legged freak Hephaestus makes the feasting gods laugh, rushing around the house with a goblet of wine.
Strong in the poems of Homer and satirical motifs. So, the Cyclopes in the poem "Odyssey" are depicted as a caricature and satire of people living without any laws. The images of some gods and heroes are also satirical. And although humorous and satirical tendencies are just a touch in the diverse palette of shades with which Homer depicts gods and heroes, it was precisely for this that he received criticism in his time. Already at that time, Homer was condemned by some of his contemporaries from the point of view of religion and morality. Many ancient Greeks were jarred by what they thought was the frivolity with which Homer endowed his gods and heroes with almost all human weaknesses and vices. The main detractors of the blind singer were the Pythagoreans and Orphics. Along with them, Xenophanes critically evaluated the works of Homer. He wrote: "Everything that people have dishonorable and shameful, Homer and Hesiod wrote to the gods: theft, adultery and mutual deceit." Plato also considered the Homeric myths about the gods to be just a thin lie, and Heraclitus, in general, called for Homer to be expelled from public meetings and even punished with rods!
Alas, this is probably the fate of all geniuses, from century to century justifying the assertion that "there is no prophet in his own country." The Jews did not accept Christ, in Rus' they burned Archpriest Avvakum at the stake, and what a long way to go, in the 20th century in our country more than one prophet was expelled abroad or imprisoned. At least the same Solzhenitsyn.
But let's not exaggerate, Homer, of course, had admirers. They considered his poems to be the center of wisdom, copied and memorized them. They perceived Homer as an ideal and a role model. Under the influence of Homer, Roman heroic poetry also developed, in particular, the poetry of Virgil. However, it is not yet known who would have prevailed if book publishing had been like ours in those days. I'm afraid that the Iliad and the Odyssey would not have been printed then, and if they had been printed, then, for sure, with large denominations. But Homer, fortunately, had another way out - he sang his poems. (Like Vysotsky in our time).
4. Heroes
If the gods of Homer, as already noted above, carry all the features of ordinary people and the poet, at times, reduces his description of the activities of the gods to sarcasm (as if justifying the well-known saying that from the great to the ridiculous is one step), then some heroes he equally endows the traits of the gods. Such is Achilles, born of the goddess Thetis, invulnerable to arrows and spears, whose armor is made by the god Hephaestus himself. Achilles himself is like a god. From one of his screams, the troops of the Trojans take flight in horror. And what is the description of the spear of Achilles:
"It was hard
Strong, huge that ash; its none of the Achaeans
Could not move; only one Achilles easily shook them ... "
Of course, Homer's poems, created in the era of communal-clan decomposition, show the heroes in their new quality. These are no longer heroes of a strict epic style. Features of subjectivism, instability, and effeminacy creep into the characters of Homer's heroes. The psychology of some of them is very capricious. The same Achilles, no doubt, who is the main character of the Iliad, throughout the entire poem only knows that he is capricious, because of trifles he harms his own compatriots, and when Hector kills him best friend Patroclus, falls into a real frenzy. He puts his personal interests above his patriotic duty. Although according to the laws of a strict epic style, he had to fight not because of revenge, but because of his duty to his homeland.
Achilles is probably one of the most complex figures in all of ancient literature. In his character, all the contradictions of that transitional era from the communal-clan form of society to slavery were refracted. In Achilles, along with insane cruelty and a thirst for revenge, tender feelings for Patroclus and for his mother, the goddess Thetis, coexist. Significant in this regard is the scene when Achilles cries, laying his head on his mother's lap.
Unlike the cunning and treacherous Odysseus, Achilles is straightforward and brave. Even knowing about his bitter fate to die young, he still undertakes this dangerous campaign to Ilion. Meanwhile, as already mentioned, this is the hero of the later epic, when the ideals of severe heroism were already a thing of the past, and the capricious personality of the hero, very selfish and nervous, was next in line. Instead of the former primitive collectivism, separate person. Namely - a person, and not just a hero, since according to the laws of a tribal community, every man must be a hero. Every man had to fight bravely for his community, and cowardice on the battlefield was considered the greatest disgrace.
But in view of the fact that Homer's work is based on heroic mythology, the personality in his poems is still in strong connection with his family and tribe, it represents a single whole with them. A different depiction of personality would go beyond the boundaries of the epic and would show a picture of later classical slavery.
The son of the Trojan king Priam Hector strictly observes the rules of communal ethics. Unlike the hysterical Achilles, he is strict, fearless and principled. His main goal is to fight for his homeland, for his people, for his beloved wife Andromache. Like Achilles, he knows he must die defending Troy, and yet he openly goes into battle. Hector is a model of an epic hero, almost devoid of any flaws.
Agamemnon, unlike Hector, is endowed with numerous vices. He is also a brave warrior, but at the same time a weak-willed, greedy and, so to speak, morally unstable subject. Sometimes a coward and a drunkard. Homer often tries to belittle him, to present him in an ironic perspective. Along with the Olympian gods, Homer is also ironic about the heroes. In general, the Iliad can be interpreted as a satire on the Achaean kings, especially on Agamemnon and Achilles. Of course, the leader of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, is not as capricious and petty as Achilles, because of whose selfish offense the Greeks suffered such great losses. He is in many ways more principled and honest, but still cannot be considered a classic epic hero. Agamemnon, in a way, match the eternally feasting and laughing Olympic gods.
And finally - Odysseus, as Homer says, "in rationality equal to God." His image cannot be understood in a simplified way, as the image of only a diplomat and a practitioner, and even more so, a cunning and adventurer. The adventurism of the image of Odysseus in the second Homeric poem would have had its rightful place if the hero had not self-sacrificing love for his native hearth, “the smoke of his native land” and for Penelope waiting for him on Ithaca. But we must not lose sight of the time of creation of the Odyssey, that is, the period of decomposition of tribal relations. In this regard, in the epic of Homer, willy-nilly, some features of the new, emerging social order, slavery, were also reflected.
The synthesis of myth, fairy tale and real life led to one goal - the creation of the image of a new hero, who absorbed the features necessary for an active person in the era of the development of new lands, the development of navigation, crafts, slavery and trade. It is no coincidence, therefore, that Homer's appeal to a clearly adventurous-adventure plot. In the Odyssey, he was attracted primarily by intelligence, enterprise, dexterity, patience and courage - everything that was required for a hero of modern times. Indeed, unlike the rest of the Achaean kings, Odysseus also owns a carpenter's ax when he builds a raft for himself, as well as a battle spear. People obey him not by order or law of the tribal community, but by the conviction of the superiority of his mind and life experience.
Of course, Odysseus is practical and cunning. He gladly receives rich gifts from the feacians and, on the advice of Athena Pallas, who patronizes the hero, hides these treasures in a cave. Once in Ithaca, he tenderly falls to native land, but his head at this moment is full of cunning plans, how to deal with insolent suitors.
But Odysseus is fundamentally a sufferer. No wonder Homer constantly calls him "long-suffering." He is more of a sufferer than even a sly one, although Odysseus's cunning seems to be limitless. It is not for nothing that in the Iliad he often acts as a scout, in disguise making his way into Troy besieged by the Achaeans. The main reason for the suffering of Odysseus is an irresistible longing for the homeland, which he cannot achieve by the will of circumstances. The gods take up arms against him: Poseidon, Aeolus, Helios and even Zeus. Terrible monsters and cruel storms threaten the hero with death, but nothing can restrain his craving for his native Ithaca, love for his father, wife, son Telemachus. Odysseus did not even hesitate in choosing when, in return for his homeland, the nymph Calypso promised to grant him immortality and eternal youth. Odysseus chooses a path full of hardships and dangers home to Ithaca. And of course ill tie in with this tenderly loving husband and father the role of a bloodthirsty killer who mercilessly cracks down on suitors, filling the entire palace with their corpses. What can you do, Odysseus is a product of his cruel era, and the suitors would not have spared him either, if Odysseus fell into their hands.
Summing up what has been said, we note that the immortal creations of Homer had a huge impact on all subsequent world literature. The influence of Homeric poems on Roman literature was strong. At all, heroic epic- this is a historically natural stage in the artistic development of the world, which arose in the ancient and Middle Ages at decisive, turning points in the fate of peoples. These are, in addition to Homer's poems "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", the Indian "Mahabharata" and "Ramayama", the Icelandic sagas, the legends of the Nibelungs of the ancient Germans, the Kyrgyz "Manas", the Karelian-Finnish "Kalevala" and much more. Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" can be noted as a stylization of such an epic poem. Of the works of the 20th century, as an epic, without a doubt, Mikhail Sholokhov's "Quiet Flows the Don" can be considered.
“The works of Homer are an excellent encyclopedia of antiquity,” wrote the poet N. I. Gnedich, who first translated the Iliad into Russian in 1829. Zhukovsky, Belinsky, Gogol admired Homeric poems.
The Homeric epic has not lost its relevance in our time - in the era of the collapse of the patriarchal-communal Stalinist barracks socialism and the emergence of something new, still incomprehensible, but certainly better. Gone are the days of thoughtless glorification of the so-called glorious revolutionary past. The pantheon of the “Kremlin gods” has noticeably diminished. The strict epic style in describing our past victories and achievements has been replaced by a mixed style of criticism and satire. The ancients were right: from the great to the ridiculous - one step. The main thing is not to break away from your homeland. After all, the way to Ithaca is so long.
