I. Introduction.
The works of Homer, the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", are the first known monuments of ancient Greek literature and, at the same time, the first monuments of literature in Europe in general. Containing a huge number of different kinds of legends and being very significant in size, these poems could not appear suddenly, in the form of a work of only one brilliant writer. Even if they were compiled by one poet, they were compiled on the basis of centuries-old folk art, in which modern science establishes a reflection of the most diverse periods of the historical development of the Greeks. These works were recorded for the first time only in the second half of the 6th century. BC. Consequently, the folk materials for these poems were created even earlier, at least two or three centuries before this first recording, and, as modern scholarship shows, the Homeric poems reflect even earlier periods of Greek history.
The plot of Homer's poems is different episodes of the Trojan War. The Greeks fought wars in Asia Minor for many centuries. However, it was the war with Troy that was especially imprinted in the memory of the ancient Greeks, and many different literary works were devoted to it, and, in particular, several special poems.
For a long time, the events described in Homer’s poems were considered fiction, beautiful legends, clothed in beautiful poetry, without any basis in reality. However, the amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was lucky, after many failures, to uncover the layers of ancient cities on the Hissarlik hill in Asia Minor (in the territory of modern Turkey), where Homer’s “Holy Troy” once stood. After this success, Schliemann began excavating Mycenae and Tiryns, ancient cities mentioned in Homer's poems. He discovered many monuments of exceptional historical significance, and his discoveries marked the beginning of the study of the Mycenaean period in Greek history.
Through the efforts of archaeologists, historians and philologists, a broad picture of the life of the ancient Greek tribes in the pre-Homeric and Homeric eras was recreated. However, in Homer's poems there are references to iron weapons, which the Mycenaean era did not yet know. Apparently, the heroic epic of the ancient Greeks developed gradually on the basis of the historical reality of several eras and finally took shape in the 8th century BC. But among the numerous literary works of antiquity that have survived to our time, none of them had such a strong influence on the further development of universal human culture as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
II. Homer in the history of ancient culture.
The Greeks believed that the epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were composed by the blind poet Homer. Seven Greek cities claimed to be the poet's birthplace. At the same time, there is no reliable evidence about Homer, and in general it cannot be considered proven that both poems were created by the same person. Both poems contain ancient legends, "travelers' tales" and evidence of the Mycenaean era, and at the same time, the clarity of the plot and the relief of the characters of the heroes makes the Iliad and Odyssey unlike oral epic poems. At the time of Pisistratus, both poems were already known in their final form. Apparently, the author of the Iliad was an Ionian and wrote the poem around 700 BC. based on rich material from Trojan battles. All the events of the Iliad take place over the course of several weeks, but the reader is assumed to know the entire background of the Trojan War. It is possible that the Odyssey was written later by the same author. The relationships of the heroes of the Odyssey are more complicated, their characters are less “heroic” and more refined; The author shows a deep knowledge of the countries of the eastern Mediterranean. There is a very close logical connection between the poems, and it is possible that the Odyssey was conceived as a continuation of the Iliad. Alexander the Great always carried with him a volume of the Iliad, but the Odyssey still seems to be a more original work.
It can be assumed that the blind old man Demodocus, depicted in the eighth song of the Odyssey, singing before the guests of King Alcinous on the island of the Phaeacians, served as a kind of prototype for the idea of ​​​​Homer himself back in antiquity. Scientists are still arguing about whether there really was a brilliant creator of the Iliad and Odyssey, or whether each poem had its own author, or whether they were disparate songs brought together by some editor.
Already in ancient times, questions about the author, place and time of the appearance of Homeric poems were devoid of any certainty. Perhaps only before Herodotus did the Greeks consider Homer to be the actual author of both poems and even the entire cycle.
All the existing 9 ancient biographies of Homer are full of fiction and are later forgeries. So, for example, the biographies of Homer, signed with the names of Herodotus and Plutarch, contradict what Herodotus and Plutarch themselves say about Homer.
For all the ancient Greeks, the Iliad and the Odyssey were not only their favorite reading. They were taught in schools. Teenagers and young men learned valor from the examples of heroes of ancient legends.
How widely the poems of Homer were known can be judged by an interesting discovery made in the Northern Black Sea region, where prosperous Greek colonies were located in ancient times. This is a fragment of stone on which is carved the beginning of Homer’s verse from the Iliad - “The stars have advanced...”. Since the inscription is unfinished and made with errors, scientists assume that it was carved either by a novice stone-cutter or by an apprentice carver performing an exercise. But this fragment of stone with an unfinished verse, carved in the 2nd century BC, is valuable as evidence of how great Homer's fame was. On the northernmost edge of the Greek ecumene (inhabited world), simple artisans knew the verses of the Iliad.
The dissemination and, perhaps, the very creation of the poems took place with the help of the Aeds - singers mentioned in Homer (Demodocus in Alcinous, Phemius in Ithaca). Later, the poems were distributed by professional singer-reciters, the so-called. rhapsodes ("song stitchers"). They then began to be called Homerids, about whom it is stated that at first they were singers from the family of Homer, but later they began to call all other singers this way. The name of one homerid, Cynephs of Chios, has been preserved, who, according to legend, inserted many of his own poems into Homer. In the 8th - 7th centuries, the Homerids spread throughout Greece. Entire competitions of rhapsodes are established in different places, especially in Athens during the Panathenaic festivals. Sources speak of a decree by Solon (the legislator in Athens in the first half of the 6th century BC) regarding the execution at the Panathenaea exclusively of the Iliad and Odyssey and, moreover, in a certain, strictly sequential order.
As for the first recording of Homer’s poems, later sources (Cicero, Pausanias, Aelian, etc.) attribute it to a special commission under Pisistratus in Athens. The late nature of these sources has led some scholars to doubt the existence of a commission under Pisistratus, which, however, is unnecessary criticism. The recording of Homer's poems was made no later than the 6th century BC. and had national significance.
Let's look at the summary of the poems.
III. "Iliad".
In the Iliad, the Olympian gods are the same characters as people. Their transcendental world, depicted in the poem, is created in the image and likeness of the earthly world. The gods were distinguished from ordinary people only by divine beauty, extraordinary strength, the gift of transforming into any creature and immortality.
Like people, the supreme deities often quarreled among themselves and even fought. A description of one of these quarrels is given at the very beginning of the Iliad, when Zeus, sitting at the head of the feasting table, threatens to beat his jealous and irritable wife Hera because she dared to object to him. Lame Hephaestus persuades his mother to come to terms and not quarrel with Zeus over mortals. Thanks to his efforts, peace and fun reign again. Golden-haired Apollo plays the lyre, accompanying a choir of beautiful muses. At sunset, the feast ends and the gods disperse to their palaces, erected for them on Olympus by the skillful Hephaestus.
The poems consisted of songs, each of which could be performed separately, as an independent story about one or another event in the life of its heroes, but all of them are somehow related to the Trojan War.
The cause of the Trojan War was the abduction of Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam. Insulted, Menelaus called on other kings for help. Among them were Diomedes, Odysseus, Ajax and Achilles. The Achaean warriors occupied the plain between Troy and the sea, pulled ships ashore and set up their camp, from which they made sorties, plundering and destroying small settlements. The siege of Troy lasted 10 years, but the poems describe only the last year of the war. (Here it should be noted that Homer calls the Greeks Achaeans, also calling them Danaans and Argives, and not Greeks or even Hellenes, as the Greeks themselves began to call themselves later).
Starting from the third song of the Iliad, there is a description of the battles between the Achaeans and Trojans. The gods actively intervene in these battles between individual heroes. The poem ends with a description of the solemn burial of the heroic leader of the Trojans, Hector.
In the Iliad bright features phenomena of real life and everyday life of ancient Greek tribes are reproduced. What predominates, of course, is a description of wartime life, and the poem is full of realistic depictions of scenes of death, cruel mutilations, and pre-death convulsions. However, the battle is most often depicted not as a mass battle, but as a duel between individual heroes, distinguished by strength, valor and martial art. But the exploits of the heroes, so colorfully described by Homer, do not obscure all the horrors of war from the poet’s gaze. He reproduces scenes of violence and merciless cruelty of the victors in bright and accusatory realistic colors. Homer has no sympathy for the cruelty of war. He contrasts them with such episodes full of human feelings as the farewell of the Trojan leader Hector to his wife Andromache before the decisive battle for his hometown, the cry of Queen Hecuba or the prayers of King Priam in the tent of Achilles. Here, the poet forces his beloved hero, Achilles, indomitable in anger, raging in a thirst for revenge, to soften and shed tears along with Priam. An equally serious counterbalance to the vivid depiction of fierce battles between the warring parties is detailed description scenes of peaceful life that were depicted by Hephaestus on the shield of Achilles. The poet speaks with great warmth about fat fields with ears laden with grain, about numerous herds grazing in the valleys, about lush vineyards, and, most importantly, about the hardworking people who created all this abundance, enjoying the fruits of their labors and the peace of a peaceful life.
The duration of the Iliad covers 51 days. But from this number we must subtract those days on which events are not displayed, they are only mentioned (the plague in the camp of the Achaeans, the feast of the Olympians among the Ethiopians, the burial of heroes, the outrage of Achilles against Hector, the preparation of firewood for Hector’s fire). Thus, the Iliad mainly depicts only 9 days from last year Trojan War.
IV. "Odyssey".
The capture of Troy by the Achaeans through cunning was described in one of the songs of the Odyssey. The blind singer Demodocus, singing the praises of the cunning king Odysseus, recounted the whole story of the construction of a huge wooden horse, inside which the bravest of the Achaeans hid. At night, after the Trojans dragged the monstrous horse inside the fortress walls, the Achaean warriors emerged from the horse’s belly, captured and destroyed the “sacred” Troy. It is known that the ancient Greeks had apocryphal poems that described in detail the further events of the Trojan War. It talked about the death of the valiant Achilles, who died from the arrow of Paris, the culprit of the Trojan War, and about the construction of a wooden horse that was fatal for the Trojans. The names of these poems are known - “The Little Iliad”, “The Destruction of Ilion”, but they have not reached our time.
The main content of the Odyssey is the tale of Odysseus' return to Ithaca after the end of the war with Troy. This return lasted a very long time and took 10 years. In cantos IX-XII, Odysseus himself talks about his wanderings after sailing from Troy during the first three years.
First, Odysseus and his companions end up in the country of wild people - the Cycones, then to peaceful lotus eaters, then on the island of the Cyclops, where the Cyclops Polyphenes, a savage and cannibal, ate several of Odysseus's companions and almost destroyed him.
Next, Odysseus ends up with the god of the winds, Aeolus, then ends up with the Laestrygonian robbers and the sorceress Kirke, who held him for a whole year, and then sent him to the underworld to find out his future fate.
By means of a special cunning trick, Odysseus passes the island of the Sirens, half-women, half-birds, who attracted all the travelers with their voluptuous singing and then devoured them. On the island of Trinacria, Odysseus's companions devour the bulls of Helios, for which the god of the sea Poseidon destroys all of Odysseus' ships; and only Odysseus is saved, washed up by the waves on the island of the nymph Calypso. He lives with Calypso for 3 years, and the gods decide that it is time for him to return home to Ithaca. Over the course of several songs, all the adventures of Odysseus on his way home are described, where at this time the local kings are courting Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, who has been waiting for him for 20 years.
As a result, Odysseus still gets home, together with his son Telemachus kills all the suitors, and, having suppressed the rebellion of the suitors’ supporters, reigns in his own home and begins a happy, peaceful life after a 20-year break.
Although Odysseus' journey home lasted 10 years, the Odyssey covers even less time than the Iliad and takes place over 40 days.
The Odyssey can also be told in separate days, during which the events depicted in it take place. It is quite obvious that the compiler or compilers of the poem divided the image of what was happening by day, although in Homer this division is not quite clearly expressed in some places.
If we summarize the distribution of action by day in the Odyssey, it should be noted that out of 40 days, at least 25 days do not find a detailed presentation. Those. of the 10 years of Odysseus's wanderings, the poem depicts only last days before Ithaca and a few days in Ithaca. About the rest of the time, i.e. in essence, 10 years are either told by Odysseus himself at a feast at Alcinous, or they are only mentioned.
There is no doubt that the Odyssey is a much more complex work of ancient literature than the Iliad. Research on the Odyssey from a literary point of view and from the point of view of possible authorship continues to this day. As a result of the review of criticism of the Odyssey, we can come to the following conclusions:
1. The Odyssey reveals a combination of elements of two independent poems. Of these, one can be called the “Odyssey” itself, and the other “Telemechia”.
2. “The Odyssey” represented the return of Odysseus from Calypso through Scheria to his homeland and his revenge on the suitors in conspiracy with his son, as depicted in canto XVI. Penelope recognized her husband here after the suitors had been killed by him.
3. The author of this ancient “Odyssey” himself already used more ancient songs: he combines a separate song “Calypso”, a free fantasy on the theme of “Kirk”, with “Pheakis”; his reworking of the story in the third person into the story of Odysseus himself is noticeable.
4. In "Telemachy", which tells about the journey of Telemachus to Pylos and Sparta, a decline in the art of composition is noticed in comparison with the "Odyssey". The combination of “Calypso” and “Phaeakia” is done so skillfully that the coherence and consistency of the story is completely impeccable. On the contrary, in “Telemachy” the journey of Telemachus itself and the stories told to him by Nestor and Menelaus are very loosely connected with the rest of the action of the poem, and even direct contradictions are revealed here for the attentive reader.
5. The epilogue of the Odyssey represents the contamination of individual parts of the two above-mentioned poems and more ancient origin than the final edition of the Odyssey.
6. The activity of the last editor of the Odyssey was to combine parts of the ancient Odyssey, Telemachy and the processing of the epilogue that was mentioned. The editor's insertions are characterized by some peculiarities of the language, the borrowing of many verses from ancient poems, and ambiguity and inconsistency of presentation. In some cases, the inserts are based on excerpts from ancient sources. The editor also introduces the content of cyclical poems into the Odyssey.
V. Translations of Homer.
The Old Russian reader could find references to Homer (Omir, as he was called in Rus', following the Byzantine pronunciation) already in the “Life” of the first teacher Cyril, and read about the Trojan War in the Byzantine world chronicles translated already in the Kyiv era.
The first attempt at a poetic arrangement of small fragments of Homer's poems belongs to Lomonosov. Trediakovsky translated in hexameter - the same poetic meter that Homer used to write the novel by the French writer Fenelon “The Adventures of Telemachus”, written based on the “Odyssey”, or more precisely “Telemachy”, which was mentioned above. Trediakovsky's "Telemachy" contained a number of inserts - direct translations from Greek. In the second half of the 18th century, Homer’s poems were translated by Yermil Kostrov. In the 19th century, the now classic translations of the Iliad by Gnedich and the Odyssey by Zhukovsky were made. Regarding Gnedich’s translation, Pushkin first wrote the following epigram in hexameter:
“Gnedich was a crooked poet, a translator of the blind Homer. Sideways, his translation is similar to the model.” Then Pushkin carefully erased this epigram and wrote the following:
"I hear the silent sound of the divine Hellenic speech
I feel the shadow of the great old man with my troubled soul."
After Gnedich, the translation of the Iliad was also carried out by Minsky, and then, already in Soviet times, by Veresaev, but these translations were not so successful.
After Zhukovsky, no one translated the “Odyssey” for a long time, and yet, almost 100 years after Zhukovsky, the “Odyssey” was translated by Shuisky, and then by Veresaev, but again, these translations did not receive such wide distribution and recognition.
VI. Conclusion.
The poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", attributed to the blind old man Homer, had a huge, incomparable influence on the entire history of ancient culture, and later on the culture of modern times. The enormous skill of the composer of these poems, their epochal nature, colorfulness, and coloring attracts the reader to this day, despite the huge time gap that lies between them.
Unfortunately, a great many questions related to Homer's poems have not yet been resolved, and are unlikely to ever be resolved. The question of the authorship of these poems is especially acute, but nothing really definite can be answered to this question, just as it was impossible to answer a hundred or a thousand years ago.
When writing this work, we did not set ourselves the goal of answering any questions, but simply tried to make some small general overview on the topic of Homer and his poems.
LITERATURE.
1. Homer “Iliad”, M., “Pravda”, 1984.
2. Homer “Odyssey”, M., “Pravda”, 1984.
3. Losev A.F. “Homer”, M., 1960.
4. Shestakov S. “On the origin of Homer’s poems”, Kazan,
1892.
5. Stahl I. V. "Odyssey" - a heroic poem of wanderings", M., "Science", 1978.

Iliad

VIII century BC  e.

Summary poems

Reads in 10 minutes

The myths of most peoples are myths primarily about gods. Myths Ancient Greece- exception: most and best of them tell not about gods, but about heroes. Heroes are the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of gods from mortal women; they performed feats, cleared the earth of monsters, punished villains and enjoyed their strength in internecine wars. When the Earth felt heavy because of them, the gods made sure that they themselves killed each other in the greatest war - the Trojan War:“...and at the walls of Ilion / The tribe of heroes perished - Zeus’ will was accomplished.”

"Ilion", "Troy" - two names of the same mighty city in Asia Minor, near the shores of the Dardanelles. According to the first of these names, the great Greek poemabout the Trojan War is called the Iliad. century This episode -"Wrath of Achilles" the greatest of the last generation of Greek heroes.

The Trojan War lasted ten years . Dozens of Greek kings and leaders gathered on hundreds of ships with thousands of warriors for the campaign against Troy: the list of their names takes up several pages in the poem.The main leader was the strongest of the kings - the ruler of the city of Argos, Agamemnon; with him were his brother Menelaus (for whose sake the war began),mighty Ajax, ardent Diomedes,cunning Odysseus, old wise Nestor and others; but the bravest, strongest and most dexterous was the youngAchilles, son of the sea goddess Thetis, who was accompanied byhis friend Patroclus . He ruled the Trojans gray-haired king Priam , at the head of their troops stood valiantPriam's son Hector , with himhis brother Paris (because of which the war began) and many allies from all over Asia. The gods themselves took part in the war:The silver-bowed Apollo helped the Trojans , and to the Greeks - the heavenly queen Hera and the wise warrior Athena. The Supreme God, the ThundererZeus watched the battles from high Olympus and carried out his will.

This is how the war started . The wedding of the hero Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis was celebrated - the last marriage between gods and mortals. (This is the same marriage from which Achilles was born.) At the feast, the goddess of discord threw a golden apple intended for the “most beautiful.” Three people argued over an apple: Hera, Athena and the goddess of love Aphrodite. Zeus ordered the Trojan prince Paris to judge their dispute. Each of the goddesses promised him her gifts: Hera promised to make him king over the whole world, Athena - a hero and sage, Aphrodite - the husband of the most beautiful of women. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite. After this, Hera and Athena became the eternal enemies of Troy. Aphrodite helped Paris seduce and take to Troy the most beautiful of women - Helen, daughter of Zeus, wife of King Menelaus. Once upon a time, the best heroes from all over Greece wooed her and, in order not to quarrel, they agreed like this: let her choose whoever she wants, and if anyone tries to take her away from the chosen one, everyone else will go to war against him. (Everyone hoped that he would be the chosen one.) Then Helen chose Menelaus; Now Paris took her away from Menelaus, and all her former suitors went to war against him. Only one, the youngest, did not woo Elena, did not participate in the general agreement and went to war only to show off his valor, show strength and gain glory. It was Achilles. So that, as before, none of the gods would interfere in the battle. The Trojans continue their onslaught, led by Hector and Sarpedon, the son of Zeus, the last of the sons of Zeus on earth. Achilles from his tent coldly watches how the Greeks flee, how the Trojans approach their very camp: they are about to set fire to the Greek ships. Hera from above also sees the flight of the Greeks and, in desperation, decides to deceive her in order to divert the stern attention of Zeus. While Zeus is sleeping, the Greeks gather their courage and stop the Trojans. But sleep is short-lived; Zeus awakens, Hera trembles before his anger, and he tells her: “Know how to endure: everything will be your way and the Greeks will defeat the Trojans, but not before Achilles pacifies his anger and goes into battle: so I promised the goddess Thetis.”

But Achilles is not yet ready to “lay down his anger,” and his friend Patroclus comes out to help the Greeks instead: it hurts him to look at his comrades in trouble. Achilles gives him his warriors, his armor, which the Trojans are accustomed to fear, his chariot, drawn by prophetic horses that can speak and prophesy. “Repel the Trojans from the camp, save the ships,” says Achilles, “but do not get carried away with the pursuit, do not expose yourself to danger! Oh, even if all the Greeks and Trojans perished, you and I alone would take possession of Troy!” Indeed, when they saw Achilles’ armor, the Trojans wavered and turned back; and then Patroclus could not resist and rushed to pursue them. Sarpedon, the son of Zeus, comes out to meet him, and Zeus, looking from above, hesitates: “Shouldn’t I save my son?” - and the unkind Hera reminds:

“No, let fate happen!” Sarpedon collapses like a mountain pine, battle begins to boil around his body, and Patroclus rushes further, to the gates of Troy. "Away! - Apollo shouts to him, “neither you nor even Achilles are destined to take Troy.” He doesn't hear; and then Apollo, shrouded in a cloud, hits him on the shoulders, Patroclus loses strength, drops his shield, helmet and spear, Hector deals him the final blow, and Patroclus, dying, says: “But you yourself will fall from Achilles!”

The news reaches Achilles: Patroclus has died, Hector flaunts in his, Achilles’, armor, his friends with difficulty carried the hero’s dead body out of the battle, the triumphant Trojans are hot on their heels. Achilles wants to rush into battle, but he is unarmed; he comes out of the tent and screams, and this scream is so terrible that the Trojans, shuddering, retreat. Night falls, and all night long Achilles mourns his friend and threatens the Trojans with terrible vengeance; and meanwhile, at the request of his mother, Thetis, the lame blacksmith god Hephaestus in his copper forge forges a new wondrous weapon for Achilles. This is a shell, a helmet, leggings and a shield, and on the shield the whole world is depicted: the sun and stars, earth and sea, a peaceful city and a warring city, in a peaceful city there is a trial and a wedding, in front of the warring city there is an ambush and a battle, and around there is countryside, plowing , a harvest, a pasture, a vineyard, a village festival and a dancing round dance, and in the middle of it is a singer with a lyre.

Morning comes, Achilles dons divine armor and calls the Greek army to a meeting. His anger has not faded, but now he is directed not at Agamemnon, but at those who killed his friend - the Trojans and Hector. He offers reconciliation to Agamemnon, and he accepts it with dignity: “Zeus and Fate have blinded me, but I myself am innocent.” Briseis was returned to Achilles, rich gifts were brought into his tent, but Achilles hardly looks at them: he is eager to fight, he wants to take revenge.

The fourth battle begins. Zeus lifts the bans: let the gods themselves fight for whomever they want! The warrior Athena meets in battle with the frantic Ares, the sovereign Hera - with the archer Artemis, the sea Poseidon must meet with Apollo, but he stops him with sad words: “Should we fight with you because of the mortal human race? / The sons of men are like the short-lived leaves in the oak grove: / Today they bloom in strength, and tomorrow they lie lifeless. / I don’t want to quarrel with you: let them quarrel themselves!..”

Achilles is scary. He grappled with Aeneas, but the gods tore Aeneas out of his hands: Aeneas was not destined to fall from Achilles, he must survive both Achilles and Troy. Enraged by the failure, Achilles kills the Trojans countless times, their corpses clutter the river, the river god Scamander attacks him, overwhelming him with ramparts, but the fire god Hephaestus pacifies the river god.

The surviving Trojans flee in droves to the city to escape; Hector alone, in yesterday's Achilles armor, covers the retreat. Achilles flies at him, and Hector takes flight, voluntary and involuntary: he is afraid for himself, but wants to distract Achilles from others. They run around the city three times, and the gods look at them from above. Zeus hesitates again: “Shouldn’t we save the hero?” - but Athena reminds him:

"Let fate happen." Once again Zeus lifts the scales, on which lie two lots - this time Hectors and Achilles. The cup of Achilles flew up, the cup of Hector bent towards the underworld. And Zeus gives a sign: Apollo - leave Hector, Athena - come to the aid of Achilles. Athena holds Hector back and he comes face to face with Achilles. “I promise, Achilles,” says Hector, “if I kill you, I will take off your armor, but I will not touch your body; promise me the same." “There is no place for promises: for Patroclus, I myself will tear you to pieces and drink your blood!” - Achilles shouts. Hector's spear strikes Hephaestus's shield, but in vain; Achilles' spear hits Hector's throat, and the hero falls with the words: “Fear the vengeance of the gods: and you will fall after me.” “I know, but first - you!” - Achilles answers. He ties the body of the killed enemy to his chariot and drives the horses around Troy, mocking the dead, and on the city wall old Priam cries for Hector, the widow Andromache and all the Trojans and Trojan women cry.

Patroclus is avenged. Achilles gives his friend a magnificent burial, kills twelve Trojan captives over his body, and celebrates the funeral. It would seem that his anger should subside, but it does not subside. Three times a day, Achilles drives his chariot with the tied body of Hector around the Patroclus Mound; the corpse would have broken on the rocks long ago, but Apollo invisibly protected it. Finally, Zeus intervenes - through the sea Thetis, he announces to Achilles: “Do not be fierce with your heart! After all, you don’t have long to live either. Be humane: accept the ransom and give Hector for burial.” And Achilles says: “I obey.”

At night, the decrepit king Priam comes to Achilles’ tent; with him is a cart full of ransom gifts. The gods themselves allowed him to pass through the Greek camp unnoticed. He falls at the knees of Achilles. Equal grief brings enemies together: only now the long anger in Achilles’ heart subsides. He accepts the gifts, gives Priam the body of Hector and promises not to disturb the Trojans until they betray their hero to the ground. Early at dawn, Priam returns with the body of his son to Troy, and mourning begins: the old mother cries over Hector, the widow Andromache cries, Helen cries, because of whom the war once began. The funeral pyre is lit, the remains are collected in an urn, the urn is lowered into the grave, a mound is built over the grave, and a funeral feast is celebrated for the hero.“So the sons buried the warrior Hector of Troy” - the Iliad ends with this line.

There were still many events left before the end of the Trojan War. The Trojans, having lost Hector, no longer dared to go beyond the city walls. But other, increasingly distant peoples came to their aid and fought with Hector: from Asia Minor, from the fabulous land of the Amazons, from distant Ethiopia. The most terrible was the leader of the Ethiopians, the black giant Memnon, also the son of the goddess; he fought with Achilles, and Achilles overthrew him. It was then that Achilles rushed to the attack of Troy - it was then that he died from the arrow of Paris, which was directed by Apollo. The Greeks, having lost Achilles, no longer hoped to take Troy by force - they took it by cunning, forcing the Trojans to bring into the city a wooden horse in which the Greek knights were sitting. The Roman poet Virgil will later talk about this in his Aeneid. Troy was wiped off the face of the earth, and the surviving Greek heroes set off on their way back

Odyssey

VIII century BC  e.

Summary of the poem

Reads in 20 minutes

The Trojan War was started by the gods so that the time of heroes would end and the current, human, Iron Age would begin. Whoever did not die at the walls of Troy had to die on the way back.

"Iliad" - the poem is heroic, its action takes place on a battlefield and in a military camp."Odyssey" - a fairy-tale and everyday poem, its action takes place, on the one hand, in the magical lands of giants and monsters, where Odysseus wandered, on the other hand, in his small kingdom on the island of Ithaca and in its environs, where Odysseus’s wife Penelope and his son Telemachus were waiting . Just as in the Iliad only one episode is chosen for the narrative, “the wrath of Achilles,” so in the Odyssey only the very end of his wanderings, the last two stages, from the far western edge of the earth to his native Ithaca. Odysseus talks about everything that happened before at a feast in the middle of the poem, and talks very concisely: all these fabulous adventures The poem contains fifty pages out of three hundred. In the Odyssey, the fairy tale sets off everyday life, and not vice versa, although readers, both ancient and modern, were more willing to reread and remember the fairy tale.

In the Trojan War, Odysseus did a lot for the Greeks - especially where it was not strength that was needed, but intelligence. It was he who guessed to bind Elena’s suitors with an oath to jointly help her chosen one against any offender, and without this the army would never have gathered for a campaign. It was he who attracted young Achilles to the campaign, and without this victory would have been impossible. It was he who, when at the beginning of the Iliad, the Greek army, after a general meeting, almost rushed back from Troy, managed to stop him. It was he who persuaded Achilles, when he quarreled with Agamemnon, to return to battle. When, after the death of Achilles, the armor of the dead man was to be received best warrior Greek camp, Odysseus received them, not Ajax. When Troy failed to be taken by siege, it was Odysseus who came up with the idea of ​​​​building a wooden horse, in which the bravest Greek leaders hid and thus penetrated into Troy - and he was among them. The goddess Athena, the patroness of the Greeks, loved Odysseus most of all and helped him at every step. But the god Poseidon hated him - we will soon find out why - and this is Poseidon

It begins, as in the Iliad, with “Zeus’ will.” The gods hold a council, and Athena intercedes with Zeus on behalf of Odysseus. He is captured by the nymph Calypso, who is in love with him, on an island in the very middle of the wide sea, and languishes, in vain wanting to “see even the smoke rising from his native shores in the distance.” And in his kingdom, on the island of Ithaca, everyone already considers him dead, and the surrounding nobles demand that Queen Penelope choose a new husband from among them, and a new king for the island.. Penelope tried to deceive them: she said that she had made a vow to declare her the decision will not be made until he has woven a shroud for old Laertes, Odysseus’s father, who is about to die. During the day she wove in full view of everyone, and at night she secretly unraveled what she had woven. But the maids betrayed her cunning, and it became increasingly difficult for her to resist the insistence of the suitors.

The first adventure is with the lotophages . The storm carried Odysseus' ships from Troy to the far south, where the lotus grows - a magical fruit, after tasting which a person forgets about everything and wants nothing in life except the lotus. The lotus eaters treated Odysseus's companions to lotus, and they forgot about their native Ithaca and refused to sail further. They were taken by force, crying, to the ship and set off.

The second adventure is with the Cyclopes. They were monstrous giants with one eye in the middle of their forehead; they tended sheep and goats and knew no wine. Chief among them was Polyphemus, the son of the sea Poseidon. Odysseus and a dozen comrades wandered into his empty cave. In the evening Polyphemus came, huge as a mountain, drove the herd into the cave, blocked the exit with a boulder, and asked: “Who are you?” - “Wanderers, Zeus is our guardian, we ask you to help us.” - “I’m not afraid of Zeus!” - and the Cyclops grabbed the two, smashed them against the wall, devoured them with bones and began to snore. In the morning he left with the herd, again blocking the entrance; and then Odysseus came up with a trick. He and his comrades took a Cyclops club, as large as a mast, sharpened it, burned it on fire, and hid it; and when the villain came and devoured two more comrades, he brought him wine to put him to sleep. The monster liked the wine. "What is your name?" - he asked. "Nobody!" - Odysseus answered. “For such a treat, I, Nobody, will eat you last!” - and the drunken Cyclops began to snore. Then Odysseus and his companions took a club, approached, swung it and stabbed it into the giants’ only eye. The blinded ogre roared, other Cyclopes came running: “Who offended you, Polyphemus?” - "Nobody!" - “Well, if there’s no one, then there’s no point in making noise” - and they went their separate ways. And in order to leave the cave, Odysseus tied his comrades under the belly of the Cyclops ram so that he would not grope them, and so together with the herd they left the cave in the morning. But, already sailing, Odysseus could not stand it and shouted:

“Here’s to you, for offending the guests, execution from me, Odysseus from Ithaca!” And the Cyclops furiously prayed to his father Poseidon: “Do not let Odysseus sail to Ithaca - and if it is so destined, then let him not sail soon, alone, on someone else’s ship!” And God heard his prayer.

Third adventure - on the island of the wind god Eol . God sent them a fair wind, and tied the rest in a leather bag and gave it to Odysseus: “When you get there, let him go.” But when Ithaca was already visible, tired Odysseus fell asleep, and his companions untied the bag ahead of time; a hurricane arose and they were rushed back to Aeolus. “So the gods are against you!” - Eol said angrily and refused to help the disobedient one.

The fourth adventure is with the Laestrygonians, wild cannibal giants. They ran to the shore and brought down huge rocks on the Odysseus ships; out of twelve ships, eleven died; Odysseus and a few comrades escaped on the last one.

The fifth adventure is with the sorceress Kirka, the Queen of the West, who turned all aliens into animals. She brought wine, honey, cheese and flour with a poisonous potion to the Odyssean envoys - and they turned into pigs, and she drove them into a stable. He escaped alone and in horror told Odysseus about it; he took the bow and went to help his comrades, not hoping for anything. But Hermes, the messenger of the gods, gave him a divine plant: a black root, a white flower - and the spell was powerless against Odysseus. Threatening with a sword, he forced the sorceress to return human form to his friends and demanded: “Bring us back to Ithaca!” “Ask the way from the prophetic Tiresias, the prophet of the prophets,” said the sorceress. “But he died!” - “Ask the dead!” And she told me how to do it.

The sixth adventure is the most terrible: the descent into the kingdom of the dead . The entrance to it is at the edge of the world, in the land of eternal night. The souls of the dead in it are disembodied, insensitive and thoughtless, but after drinking the sacrificial blood, they acquire speech and reason. On the threshold of the kingdom of the dead, Odysseus slaughtered a black ram and a black sheep; the souls of the dead flocked to the smell of blood, but Odysseus drove them away with his sword until the prophetic Tiresias appeared before him. After drinking the blood, he said:

“Your troubles are for offending Poseidon; your salvation is if you do not also offend the Sun-Helios; if you offend, you will return to Ithaca, but alone, on someone else’s ship, and not soon. Penelope's suitors are ruining your house; but you will master them, and you will have a long reign and a peaceful old age.” After this, Odysseus allowed other ghosts to participate in the sacrificial blood. The shadow of his mother told how she died of longing for her son; he wanted to hug her, but there was only empty air under his hands. Agamemnon told how he died from his wife: “Be careful, Odysseus, it is dangerous to rely on wives.” Achilles said to him:

“It’s better for me to be a farm laborer on earth than a king among the dead.” Only Ajax did not say anything, not forgiving that Odysseus, and not he, got the armor of Achilles. From afar Odysseus saw the hellish judge Minos, and the eternally executed proud Tantalus, the cunning Sisyphus, the insolent Tityus; but then horror seized him, and he hurried away, towards the white light.

The seventh adventure was the Sirens - predators who lure sailors to their death with seductive singing. Odysseus outwitted them: he sealed the ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast and not let go, no matter what. So they sailed past, unharmed, and Odysseus also heard singing, sweeter than that.

The eighth adventure was the strait between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis : Scylla - about six heads, each with three rows of teeth, and twelve paws; Charybdis is about one larynx, but one that swallows a whole ship in one gulp. Odysseus chose Scylla over Charybdis - and he was right: she grabbed six of his comrades from the ship and devoured six of his comrades with six mouths, but the ship remained intact.

The ninth adventure was the island of the Sun-Helios , where his sacred herds grazed - seven herds of red bulls, seven herds of white rams. Odysseus, remembering the covenant of Tiresias, took a terrible oath from his comrades not to touch them; but contrary winds were blowing, the ship was standing still, the companions were hungry and, when Odysseus fell asleep, they slaughtered and ate the best bulls. It was scary: the flayed skins were moving, and the meat on the spits was mooing. Sun-Helios, who sees everything, hears everything, knows everything, prayed to Zeus: “Punish the offenders, otherwise I will go down to the underworld and shine among the dead.” And then, as the winds died down and the ship sailed from the shore, Zeus raised a storm, struck with lightning, the ship crumbled, the companions drowned in a whirlpool, and Odysseus, alone on a piece of log, rushed across the sea for nine days until he was thrown ashore on the island of Calypso.

This is how Odysseus ends his story.

King Alcinous fulfilled his promise: Odysseus boarded the Phaeacian ship, fell into an enchanted sleep, and woke up on the foggy shore of Ithaca. Here he is met by his patroness Athena. “The time has come for your cunning,” she says, “hide, beware of the suitors and wait for your son Telemachus!” She touches him, and he becomes unrecognizable: old, bald, poor, with a staff and bag. In this form, he goes deep into the island to ask for shelter from the good old swineherd Eumaeus. He tells Eumaeus that he was from Crete, fought at Troy, knew Odysseus, sailed to Egypt, fell into slavery, was among pirates and barely escaped. Eumaeus calls him to the hut, sits him at the hearth, treats him, grieves about the missing Odysseus, complains about the violent suitors, feels sorry for Queen Penelope and Prince Telemachus. The next day, Telemachus himself arrives, returning from his journey - of course, he was also sent here by Athena herself. Before him, Athena returns Odysseus to his true appearance, powerful and proud. "Aren't you god?" - asks Telemachus. “No, I am your father,” Odysseus replies, and they embrace, crying with happiness.

The end is near. Telemachus goes to the city, to the palace; Eumaeus and Odysseus wander behind him, again in the guise of a beggar. At the palace threshold, the first recognition takes place: the decrepit Odyssean dog, who for twenty years has not forgotten the voice of his owner, raises his ears, crawls with his last strength to him and dies at his feet. Odysseus enters the house, walks around the upper room, begs for alms from the suitors, and endures ridicule and beatings. The suitors pit him against another beggar, younger and stronger; Odysseus, unexpectedly for everyone, knocks him over with one blow. The suitors laugh: “May Zeus give you what you want for this!” - and they don’t know that Odysseus wishes them quick death. Penelope calls the stranger to her: has he heard news about Odysseus? “I heard,” says Odysseus, “he is in a nearby region and will arrive soon.” Penelope can't believe it, but she is grateful to the guest. She tells the old maid to wash the wanderer's dusty feet before going to bed, and invites him to be at the palace for tomorrow's feast. And here the second recognition takes place: the maid brings in a basin, touches the guest’s feet and feels the scar on his shin that Odysseus had after hunting a boar in his youth. Her hands trembled, her leg slipped: “You are Odysseus!” Odysseus covers her mouth: “Yes, it’s me, but keep quiet - otherwise you’ll ruin the whole thing!”

The last day is coming. Penelope calls the suitors to the banquet room: “Here is the bow of my dead Odysseus; whoever pulls it and shoots an arrow through twelve rings on twelve axes in a row will become my husband!” One after another, one hundred and twenty suitors try on the bow - not a single one is able to even pull the string. They already want to postpone the competition until tomorrow - but then Odysseus stands up in his beggarly form: “Let me try too: after all, I was once strong!” The suitors are indignant, but Telemachus stands up for the guest:

“I am the heir of this bow; I give it to whomever I want; and you, mother, go to yours women's affairs" Odysseus takes the bow, bends it easily, rings the string, the arrow flies through twelve rings and pierces the wall. Zeus thunders over the house, Odysseus straightens up to his full heroic height, next to him is Telemachus with a sword and spear. “No, I haven’t forgotten how to shoot: now I’ll try another target!” And the second arrow strikes the most arrogant and violent of the suitors. “Oh, you thought Odysseus was dead? no, he is alive for truth and retribution!” The suitors grab their swords, Odysseus strikes them with arrows, and when the arrows run out, with spears, which the faithful Eumaeus offers. The suitors rush around the chamber, the invisible Athena darkens their minds and deflects their blows from Odysseus, they fall one after another. A pile of dead bodies is piled up in the middle of the house, faithful male and female slaves crowd around and rejoice at the sight of their master.

Penelope did not hear anything: Athena sent it to her in her chamber deep dream. The old maid runs to her with good news: Odysseus has returned. Odysseus punished the suitors! She doesn’t believe: no, yesterday’s beggar is not at all like Odysseus as he was twenty years ago; and the suitors were probably punished by the angry gods. “Well,” says Odysseus, “if the queen has such an unkind heart, let them make my bed alone.” And here the third, main recognition takes place. “Okay,” Penelope says to the maid, “bring the guest’s bed from the royal bedroom to his rest.” - “What are you saying, woman? - Odysseus exclaims, “this bed cannot be moved from its place, instead of legs it has an olive tree stump, I myself once knocked it together on it and fixed it.” And in response, Penelope cries with joy and rushes to her husband: it was a secret sign, known only to them.

This is a victory, but this is not peace yet. The fallen suitors still have relatives, and they are ready to take revenge. They go towards Odysseus in an armed crowd; he comes out to meet them with Telemachus and several henchmen. The first blows are already thundering, the first blood is being shed, but Zeus’s will puts an end to the brewing discord. Lightning flashes, striking the ground between the fighters, thunder rumbles, Athena appears with a loud cry: “...Do not shed blood in vain and stop evil enmity!” - and the frightened avengers retreat. And then:

“The light daughter of the Thunderer, the goddess Pallas Athena, sealed the alliance between the king and the people with sacrifice and oath.”

The Odyssey ends with these words

Time and place of creation of the Iliad and Odyssey

All this indicates the generic nature of Homeric society, which is on the verge of decay and transition to a slave system. In the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, property and social inequality, the division into “best” and “worst” are already evident; Slavery already exists, which, however, retains a patriarchal character: slaves are mainly shepherds and household servants, among whom there are privileged ones: such is Eurycleia, Odysseus’s nanny; such is the shepherd Eumaeus, who acts completely independently, rather as a friend of Odysseus than as his slave.

Trade already exists in the society of the Iliad and Odyssey, although it still occupies little of the author’s thoughts.

Consequently, the creator of the poems (personified by the legendary Homer) is a representative of Greek society in the 8th–7th centuries. BC e., on the verge of transition from tribal life to state life.

The material culture described in the Iliad and Odyssey convinces us of the same thing: 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 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 Aegean Sea or Asia Minor. The absence of references to the cities of Asia Minor in the poems testifies to the archaic aspirations of Homer, glorifying ancient Troy.

Composition of "Iliad" and "Odyssey"

In the poem “Iliad,” Homer sympathizes with the warriors of both warring sides, 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 condemning the greed of the 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 we can assume that they are in tune with the poet’s thoughts. This is all the more likely since the reproaches hurled by Thersites to Agamemnon are almost similar to the grave accusations that Achilles brings against him (v. 121 ff.), 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, sounds not only in the mouth of Thersites. The valiant Achilles himself, about to return to the army to avenge Patroclus, says:

“Oh, let the enmity perish from the gods and from mortals, and with it
Hateful anger, which drives even the wise into fury!”
(Ill., book XVIII, art. 107–108).

It is obvious that if the glorification of war and revenge had been Homer’s goal, then the action of the Iliad would have ended with the murder of Hector, as was the case in one of the “cyclical” poems. But for Homer, what is important is not the triumph of Achilles’ victory, but the moral resolution of his anger.

Life as depicted in the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” is so attractive that Achilles, met by Odysseus in the kingdom of the dead, says that he would prefer the hard life of a day laborer to reigning 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 homeland or for the sake of loved ones, Homer’s heroes despise death. Realizing that he was wrong in avoiding participation in battles, Achilles says:

“Idle, I sit before the courts, the earth is a useless burden”
(Ill., book XVIII, art. 104).

Homer's humanism, compassion for human grief, admiration for the inner virtues of man, courage, loyalty to patriotic duty and mutual affection of people reaches its clearest expression in the scene of Hector's farewell to Andromache (Il., book VI, art. 390–496).

Artistic features of the Iliad and Odyssey

The images of Homer's 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 action 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 - delicacy, in Helen - beauty, in Penelope - the wisdom and constancy of a wife, in Hector - the courage of the defender of his city and the mood of doom, since he, and his father, and his son, and Troy herself.

The one-sidedness in the depiction of heroes is due to the fact that most of them appear before us in only one situation - in battle, where all the traits of their characters cannot appear. Some exception is Achilles, since 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 not yet available to the Iliad and the Odyssey and, in general, to the literature of the pre-classical period of Ancient Greece. We find attempts at such images 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 Odyssey, their internal 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 unique technique: the intervention of the gods. For example, in Book I of the Iliad, when Achilles, unable to endure the insult, takes out his sword to attack Agamemnon, someone from behind suddenly grabs him by the hair. Looking back, he sees Athena, the patroness of the tracks, who does not allow murder.

The detail and detailed descriptions characteristic of the Iliad and Odyssey are especially manifested in such a frequently used poetic device as comparison: Homeric comparisons are sometimes so developed that they turn into independent stories, divorced from the main narrative. The material for comparison in poems is most often natural phenomena: animals and vegetable world, wind, rain, snow, etc.:

“He rushed like a city lion, hungry for a long time
Meat and blood, which, driven by a brave soul,
He wants to break into the fenced-in fold of sheep to kill them;
And, although he finds rural shepherds in front of the fence,
With vigorous dogs and spears guarding their flock,
He, having not experienced it before, does not think of escaping from the fence;
Hiding into the yard, he kidnaps a sheep, or is himself under attack
The first one falls, pierced by a spear from the mighty hand.
This is how the soul of Sarpedon, like a god, directed"
(Ill., book XII, art. 299–307).

Sometimes epic comparisons of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are intended to create the effect retardation, i.e., slowing down the narrative through artistic digression 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 gate, throws a stone at it that even the two strongest men would have difficulty lifting with levers. The voice of Achilles, running to rescue the body of Patroclus, sounds like a copper trumpet, etc.

The so-called epic repetitions also testify to the song-folk origin of Homer’s poems: individual verses are repeated in full or with slight deviations, and there are 9253 such verses in the Iliad and Odyssey; thus, they constitute a third part 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 rest and relaxation for listeners. Repetitions also make it easier to hear what you hear. For example, a verse from the Odyssey:

“Young Eos with purple fingers rose from the darkness”
(translated by V. A. Zhukovsky).

turned the rhapsode's audience's attention to the events of the next day, meaning that morning had come.

The often repeated picture in the Iliad of a warrior falling on the battlefield often results in the formula of a tree being felled with difficulty by woodcutters:

“He fell like an oak tree or a silver-leafed poplar falls.”
(translated by N. Gnedich).

Sometimes a verbal formula is intended to evoke the idea of ​​thunder, which occurs when a body dressed in metal armor falls:

“With a noise he fell to the ground, and the armor thundered on the dead man.”
(translated by N. Gnedich).

When the gods in Homer's poems argue among themselves, it happens that one says to the other:

“What kind of words flew out of your teeth!”
(translated by N. Gnedich).

The narrative is told in an epically dispassionate tone: there is no sign of Homer's personal interest; Thanks to this, the impression of objectivity in the presentation of events is created.

The abundance of everyday details in the Iliad and Odyssey creates the impression of realism in the pictures described, but this is the so-called spontaneous, primitive realism.

The above quotes from the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” can give an idea of ​​​​the sound of hexameter - a poetic meter that gives a somewhat elevated, solemn style to the epic narrative.

Translations of the Iliad and 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, during the era of Russian classicism.

The first translations of the Iliad and Odyssey into Russian appeared during the time of Catherine II: these were either prose translations or poetic translations, but not hexametric ones. 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 the poetics of French classicism, which dominated Russian literature at that time.

A complete translation of the Iliad into Russian in original size was made by N. I. Gnedich (1829), and the Odyssey by V. A. Zhukovsky (1849).

Gnedich managed to convey both the heroic character of Homer’s narrative and some of his humor, but his translation is replete with Slavicisms, so that end of the 19th century V. it began to seem too archaic. Therefore, experiments in translating the Iliad were resumed; in 1896, a new translation of this poem was published, made by N. I. Minsky, based on a more modern Russian language, and in 1949, a translation by V. V. Veresaev, in an even more simplified language.

Homer's epic poems "Odyssey" and "Iliad" are priceless and ingenious works of literary art that have not lost their relevance and relevance for many centuries. deep meaning. The plots of these famous two poems are taken from an extensive and multifaceted cycle of legends about the Trojan War. The Iliad and Odyssey depict only small episodes from a huge cycle.

"Iliad"

The Iliad tells about the events of the tenth year of the Trojan War, and at the same time the work ends with the death and burial of Hector, the main Trojan warrior. There is no mention of subsequent events of the war.

In general, war is the main “thread” of the poem “Iliad” and the main element of its heroes. One of the many features of this work is that the battle is mainly depicted not in the form of bloody battles of the masses, but as the performance of individual heroes demonstrating exceptional courage, strength, resilience and skill. Among all the battles, the main duel between Hector and Achilles can be highlighted. The martial arts of Agamemnon, Diomedes and Menelaus are described with less expressiveness and heroism. The Iliad very clearly depicts the traditions, habits, morality, moral aspects of life and life of the Greeks of that time. An example is an episode that describes how the winner hurries to remove the armor from the dead man and take possession of his corpse in order to ask his relatives for a ransom for him. According to the ancient Greeks, remaining after death without burial promised enormous and endless misfortunes in the afterlife.

"Odyssey"

As for the Odyssey, we can say with full confidence that this is a more complex work than the Iliad. "Odyssey" has a huge amount features that, from the point of view of literature, are still being studied to this day. Basically, this epic poem narrates the return of Odysseus to Ithaca after the end of the war with Troy.

In conclusion, we can say that Homer’s poems are a real treasury of wisdom of the entire Greek people, as his great works “Iliad” and “Odyssey” perfectly demonstrate. Homer did not know writing and was an oral storyteller. But despite this, he was distinguished by incredibly high poetic technique and skill. And his works were filled with absolute unity. The Iliad and Odyssey share several characteristics, particularly their epic style. Unhurried thoroughness, sustained narrative tone, unhurried development of the plot, complete objectivity in everything - from events to persons - all this character traits these great works of Homer.

THE WAY TO HOMER

In the second act of Shakespeare's Hamlet, a traveling troupe appears, and one of the actors, at the request of the prince, reads a monologue in which the Trojan hero Aeneas talks about the capture of Troy and the cruelties of the victors. When the story comes to the suffering of the old queen Hecuba - in front of her eyes, Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, mad with anger, killed her husband Priam and violated his body - the actor turns pale and bursts into tears. And Hamlet utters the famous, proverbial words:

What is he to Hecuba? What does Hecuba mean to him?
And he's crying...[Translation by B. Pasternak]

What to modern man Hecuba, what is Achilles, Priam, Hector and other heroes of Homer to him; What does he care about their torments, joys, love and hatred, adventures and battles that died down and burned out more than thirty centuries ago? What takes him back to antiquity, why does the Trojan War and the return to the homeland of the long-suffering and cunning Odysseus touch us, if not to tears, like a Shakespearean actor, then still quite vividly and strongly?

Any literary work of the distant past is capable of attracting and captivating a person of modern times with the image of a disappeared life, which in many ways is strikingly different from our life today. Historical interest, characteristic of any person, a natural desire to find out “what happened before” is the beginning of our path to Homer, or rather, one of the paths. We ask: who was he, this Homer? And when did you live? And did he “invent” his heroes or do their images and exploits reflect true events? And how accurately (or how freely) are they reflected and to what time do they relate? We ask question after question and look for answers in articles and books about Homer; and at our service are not hundreds or thousands, but tens of thousands of books and articles, an entire library, an entire literature that continues to grow even now. Scientists are not only discovering new facts related to Homer’s poems, but also discovering new points of view on Homer’s poetry as a whole, new ways of assessing it. There was a time when every word of the Iliad and Odyssey was considered an indisputable truth - the ancient Greeks (in any case, the vast majority of them) saw in Homer not only a great poet, but also a philosopher, teacher, natural scientist, in a word - the supreme judge of all occasions. There was another time when everything in the Iliad and Odyssey was considered fiction, a beautiful fairy tale, or a crude fable, or an immoral anecdote that offended “good taste.” Then the time came when Homer’s “fables,” one after another, began to be supported by archaeological finds: in 1870, the German Heinrich Schliemann found Troy, near whose walls the heroes of the Iliad fought and died; four years later, the same Schliemann excavated “rich in gold” Mycenae - the city of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army near Troy; in 1900, the Englishman Arthur Evans began excavations unique in terms of the wealth of finds on Crete, the “hundred-degree” island repeatedly mentioned by Homer; in 1939, the American Bligen and the Greek Kuroniotis found ancient Pylos - the capital of Nestor, the “sweet-voiced Vitius of Pylos”, the tireless giver of wise advice in both poems... The list of “Homeric discoveries” is extremely extensive and has not been closed to this day - and is unlikely to be closed in the near future . And yet it is necessary to name one more of them - the most important and most sensational in our century. During excavations on the island of Crete, as well as in Mycenae, Pylos and some other places in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, archaeologists found several thousand clay tablets covered with unknown writings. It took almost half a century to read them, because even the language of these inscriptions was not known. Only in 1953, thirty-year-old Englishman Michael Ventris solved the problem of deciphering the so-called Linear B script. This man, who died in a car accident three and a half years later, was neither an ancient historian nor an expert in ancient languages ​​- he was an architect. And yet, as the remarkable Soviet scientist S. Lurie wrote about Ventris, “he managed to make the largest and most striking discovery in the science of antiquity since the Renaissance.” His name should stand next to the names of Schliemann and Champollion, who unraveled the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Its discovery put into the hands of researchers authentic Greek documents from approximately the same time as the events of the Iliad and Odyssey, documents that expanded, clarified, and in some ways overturned previous ideas about the prototype of the society and state depicted in Homer.

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Tribes of Greek-Achaeans appeared on the Balkan Peninsula. By the middle of this millennium, slave states had formed in the southern part of the peninsula. Each of them was a small fortress with lands adjacent to it. Each was headed, apparently, by two rulers. The rulers-kings and their entourage lived in a fortress, behind mighty, cyclopean masonry walls, and at the foot of the wall a village populated by royal servants, artisans, and merchants arose. At first, the cities fought with each other for supremacy, then, around the 15th century BC. e., the penetration of the Achaeans into neighboring countries, overseas, begins. Among their other conquests was the island of Crete - the main center of the ancient, pre-Greek culture of the southeastern region of the Mediterranean. Long before the start of the Achaean conquest, states with monarchical power and a society clearly divided into classes of free and slave existed in Crete. The Cretans were skilled sailors and merchants, excellent builders, potters, jewelers, artists, knew a lot about art, and were fluent in writing. The Achaeans had previously been strongly influenced by the high and refined Cretan culture; now, after the conquest of Crete, it finally became the common property of the Greeks and Cretans. Scientists call it Creto-Mycenaean.

The land that constantly attracted the attention of the Achaeans was Troas in the north-west of Asia Minor, famous for its favorable location and fertile soil. Campaigns were launched more than once to the main city of this land - Ilion, or Troy. One of them, a particularly long one, which brought together a particularly large number of ships and soldiers, remained in the memory of the Greeks under the name of the Trojan War. The ancients dated it to 1200 BC. e. - in terms of our chronology - and the work of archaeologists who dug the Hissarlik Hill following Schliemann confirms the ancient tradition.

The Trojan War turned out to be the eve of the collapse of the Achaean power. Soon, new Greek tribes appeared in the Balkans - the Dorians - as wild as their predecessors, the Achaeans, were a thousand years ago. They marched across the entire peninsula, displacing and subjugating the Achaeans, and completely destroyed their society and culture. History reversed: in the place of the slaveholding state, a clan community reappeared, maritime trade died out, the royal palaces that had survived destruction were overgrown with grass, arts, crafts, and writing were forgotten. The past was also forgotten; the chain of events was broken, and individual links turned into legends - into myths, as the Greeks said. Myths about heroes were for the ancients the same indisputable truth as myths about gods, and the heroes themselves became the subject of worship. Heroic legends were intertwined with each other and with myths about the gods. Circles (cycles) of myths arose, united both by the sequence of facts underlying them and by the laws of religious thinking and poetic fantasy. Myths were the soil on which the Greek heroic epic grew.