What is an epic? There have always been two explanations. First, it is believed that epic refers to the long narrative works of ancient myths and legends and heroic deeds recorded in poetry genre in human childhood, which is grand in structure and full of fantasy and myth; Another explanation is that epic refers to narrative works that reflect historical events and people's various lives in a historical period. Both of these characteristics are found in Homer's epic. It is not only a narrative poem of human childhood full of fantasy and myth, but also reflects the social life, thoughts and feelings of all Greeks. It is an encyclopedia of ancient Greek life. China's poetic tradition is lyric poetry, and there are no epic works like Homer's epic or medieval heroic epic. There are five articles in The Book of Songs, Daya, which record the history from the birth of Hou Ji to the destruction of Shang Dynasty by the King of Wu. It can be said that it is the earliest narrative poem sprout or epic prototype in China, but none of them can be compared with western epics. For more than two thousand years, Homer's epic has been regarded as a model of European narrative poetry and ancient epic.
Ancient Greek literature left us two great epics-Iliad and Ode, which were produced in the ninth and eighth centuries BC and were the earliest important works in the history of European literature. According to legend, the epic was compiled by a blind poet named Homer according to the epic short songs circulated in Asia Minor, so it is called Homer's epic.
Whether Homer, the author of the epic, is human or not has been debated for thousands of years. There were seven places in ancient Greece vying to be Homer's hometown, so that some modern writers wrote two poems to satirize this matter: "Seven cities were satisfied with Homer's death, but Homer wandered and begged in these seven cities." There is no earlier record of Homer's life except Epic. It is quite possible that Homer was said to be a blind musician in ancient times. Ancient professional musicians were usually blind. This is because the blind can't choose other occupations, so they can only make a living by memorizing and singing. Homer was born in the 9th century BC and lived in eastern Greece near Asia Minor. His position and identity are similar to those of the old musician described in the eighth volume of Odessa. These old artists, who are blind, often go in and out of aristocratic halls with harps and sing poems praising heroic deeds. Homer's epics collected according to folk oral creation were handed down from generation to generation, and were not written until the sixth century before the park. In the third and second centuries BC, scholars from Alexandria compiled these two epics into twenty-four volumes, which is the final version of Homer's epic we see today.
Homer's epic describes the Trojan War from two levels. The battlefield on the ground is the Greeks against the Trojans, and the battlefield in the sky is the help of the gods on Olympus. The gods represented by Hera and Athena supported the Greeks, and the gods represented by Apollo and Aphrodite supported the Trojans. Although there is a war between heaven and earth, its main body is about people.
The Trojan War lasted 10 years. Finally, the Greek Coalition forces adopted Odysseus' Trojan horse plan, hid their troops in a huge Trojan horse, then pretended to retreat and abandoned the Trojan horse on the beach. The Trojans mistakenly thought that the Trojan horse was a trophy and pulled it back to the city. In the middle of the night, the Greek soldiers hiding in the wooden horse came out, captured Troas from the inside out and looted the whole city.