The great achievement of Homer's epic lies in its far-reaching influence on the western literary tradition. Homer is a knowledgeable, imaginative and creative language master. Homer's epics are rich in rhetoric and quips, and there are a lot of vivid words and metaphors in poems. As far as literary factors are concerned, Homer's epic is also worthy of being one of the most outstanding literary works in the world.
As far as the art of epic creation is concerned, the first thing to mention is realism and romanticism, the two most basic creative methods that have appeared in epic. The wars and characters described in epics are not only the factors of ancient myths and legends, but also the portrayal of Greek social life.
Heroes depicted in epics, such as Achilles, hector, Agamemnon and Odysseus, are all realistic and romantic. There are both legends and realities; It has both the * * * nature of national heroes and distinctive personality characteristics. When portraying characters' personalities, we put the characters in great conflict and describe them through their language actions.
For example, the contradiction between Achilles and Agamemnon, and the contradiction between Achilles and hector. Secondly, the epic's high artistic generalization is combined with vivid and concrete detail description. During the ten-year war in Troya, there were many clues and personnel, but the author was able to select the best from the rough, see the big from the small, and intercept several fragments after the war with superb artistic generalization ability, which was compact, concentrated and distinctive.
At the same time, this historical fact with a high degree of artistic generalization is reflected through the detailed description of people and things in real life, including thrilling, tragic and inspirational scenes and the love description that makes people cry in Where Are You Going? The extensive and profound historical content is expressed through detailed character activities, which makes the epic have a strong artistic appeal.
Thirdly, the perfect literary form (such as heroic lines), the obvious oral literary features (such as the metaphor of Homer's epic) and the biographical genre (such as Odessa) with personal experience as the main content are also important factors for the epic to achieve brilliant artistic achievements, and make it the source and model of literary creation in later generations.
Homer's epic is an outstanding monument of ancient Greek culture, with such rich and profound ideological content and unique and exquisite artistic characteristics. It is like an encyclopedia, from which the ancient Greek people learned all the knowledge about astronomy, geography, history, society, philosophy, art and mythology.
Later generations of writers and artists in Europe and many other regions and countries have drawn infinitely rich nutrients from it. Even now, it is still a precious document for us to study ancient society, and it can still give us noble artistic enjoyment with its permanent charm.
Extended data:
1, creative background
Like other nationalities in the world, the history of ancient Greece is preserved in the memory of ancient ancestors in the form of legends, and later passed down from mouth to mouth in the form of epics.
Although these legends and epics are not true historical works, they retain many historical facts of ancient society and have important historical value, which can be said to have some functions and attributes of historiography. They directly gave birth to ancient Greek historiography.
Homer's Epic is not a one-off work, but a history preserved in the memory of all Greeks. After the Trojan War, some folk singers and artists from the Greek city-states composed the heroic deeds and victories of the Greeks in the war into lyrics and sang them at public gatherings.
These stories were handed down by folk singers, and after centuries of continuous acquisition and revision, they were cut into two parts in Homer's hands and became rigid works. Around the middle of the 6th century BC, when Cytra was in power in Athens (about 605-527 BC), it was finally fixed in words.
The Homer epic we see today was compiled by scholars in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. 1795, the German scholar Wolff made a detailed study of the epic along this line of thought, thus asserting that every part of the epic was sung by the singer as an independent poem, and after many times of sorting and processing, it became what we see today.
Later, Wolff's compatriot Rahman expounded his views more clearly, thus forming the "short song theory". Homer's epic tells the story of Greece's attack on Troy in BC 12 and after the war. The formation and recording of epic almost experienced the whole process of slavery. After the Trojan War, many short songs praising war heroes appeared in Asia Minor.
In the process of spreading, these short songs were integrated with the stories of the gods, which enhanced the mythical color of the heroes in this war. After Homer's arrangement, it gradually became a grand war legend in the eighth and seventh centuries BC, and was formally recorded in the form of words in the sixth century BC.
In the third and second centuries BC, it was edited by Alexandria scholars, with 24 volumes in each part. The formation of this book has gone through several centuries, and it is a mixture of historical factors of various eras, which can be regarded as the national creation of the ancient Greeks.
2. Introduction to the author
Homer, a blind poet in ancient Greece. The date of birth and death cannot be tested. According to legend, the ancient Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey were written by him based on short folk songs. Therefore, he lived between 10 BC and the 8th century. At present, there is no definite evidence to prove Homer's existence or non-existence, so some people think that he is a constructed figure in legend.
As for Homer's epic, most scholars think it is the crystallization of poems that have been passed down orally for centuries at that time. Homer's epic tells the story of Greece's attack on Troy in BC 12 and after the war. The formation and recording of epic almost experienced the whole process of slavery.
After the Trojan War, many short songs praising war heroes appeared in Asia Minor. In the process of communication, these short songs are integrated with the stories of gods, which enhances the mythical color of war heroes. After Homer finished it, it gradually became a grand war legend in the 8th and 7th centuries BC.
It was not officially recorded in writing until the 6th century BC. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, it was edited by Alexandria scholars, with 24 volumes in each part. The formation of this book has gone through several centuries, and it is a mixture of historical factors of various eras, which can be regarded as the national creation of the ancient Greeks.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Homer Epic