Homer's epic, known as the ancestor of European literature, is the crystallization of highly developed western ancient literary skills. For more than 3,000 years, many scholars have studied these two epics, and the books printed by the research results alone can form a small library.
(A) the formation process of Homer's epic.
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'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.
(B) The Iliad story outline
The Iliad means "an epic about a million people". The Greeks called Troy Illion. Troy is a city on the northwest coast of Asia Minor at the entrance of Heiler's Skou Strait (now called Da Daniil Strait), with prosperous commerce, fertile land, rich coverage and beautiful scenery. According to legend, the Trojan War was the cause, because of the "disharmonious golden apples".
According to legend, when peleus, king of Di Sajari, married Poseidon's daughter, he invited all the gods to the wedding, but the only god who didn't invite Eris, the goddess of discord, came to the party to retaliate angrily and threw down a golden apple of discord, which read "For the most beautiful woman".
So, the three goddesses began to compete for apples. The three goddesses are Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. But the three goddesses could not argue, so they asked Zeus, the Lord God, to judge. Zeus sent them to Paris, the prince of Troy, to be judged. The three goddesses found Paris and made wishes to the prince: Hera hoped that Paris would become the greatest monarch; Athena wants Paris to be the bravest soldier; Aphrodite hopes that Paris has the charm to confuse women. Finally, Paris decided to accept Aphrodite's wish and give her a golden apple to make her the most beautiful woman.
Later, Paris visited Sparta, which really puzzled the king's beautiful wife Helen and stole a lot of property. So the Greek tribes elected Agamemnon as commander-in-chief, launched 65,438+10,000 troops, 1 186 warships, crossed the sea to attack Troy, avenged Helen and retaken Helen. Troy also joined forces with the tribe to resist, and the war broke out. Because Troy was easy to defend but difficult to attack, the Greek army attacked the city for nine years without capturing it, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.
10 years, the Greek army was designed by the resourceful Odysseus, and the troops pretended to retreat, but left a huge wooden horse. The Trojans dragged the Trojan horse back to the city and didn't want to hide 20 Greek soldiers in the Trojan horse. In the evening, while the Trojans were still celebrating, Greek soldiers riding Trojans came out and opened the door from the inside. After fierce fighting between the two sides, the Greek army occupied Troy.
After the Greek army entered the city, it killed all the men, burned the city and returned to the motherland with female prisoners and other trophies.
(3) Outline of Odyssey story
"Odyssey" means "a story about Odysseus". It describes the story of Odysseus, the hero of the Greek army, who went home after attacking Troy. This story is divided into two parts. The first part is the story of 10 drifting at sea. The second part is the story of revenge after returning to China.
[Part I] After the war, Odysseus left Troy with his men. They were caught in a storm at sea and drifted to Los Yi Sima. They killed local residents and plundered countless money. When they are drinking and having fun, they are surrounded by Cakones.
Odysseus came to break through and drifted to the lotus-eating country. There is a kind of lotus in this country. People don't want to go back to their hometown after eating it. Two of Odysseus' men ate the lotus, so they quickly set sail and got rid of the temptation. But then he broke into Cyclops Island, and two of his men were eaten by Cyclops for stealing sheep. Odysseus was imprisoned in a cave. He came up with a plan to poke the giant's eyes with a red-hot trunk, and finally fled back to the ship.
I didn't expect this giant to be Poseidon's son, so I made enemies with Poseidon, and Poseidon made waves and blocked Odysseus' navigation everywhere. Odysseus finally came to the island where Aeolus, the son of Hippocrates, lived. The son of Hippocrates, Fengshen, gave him a bag full of all kinds of winds, but left the west wind to help Odysseus return home. After sailing for 9 days, you can already see the bonfire on the coast of your hometown. Unfortunately, Odysseus' men thought they had treasure in their pockets. After the private drive, the wind blew them back to their original road. On the way, I met a giant again and lost all the ships, leaving only Odysseus' own boat.
Later, they went through hardships and hardships and came to Apollo Island. Because his companions slaughtered the sacred cow, which violated heaven, Zeus sank the ship with thunder, and they all drowned. Only Odysseus did not eat beef to save his life. After Odysseus drifted to Augustus Island, he was left as his husband by the beautiful fairy Calypso mythology myth and lived there for seven years. For years Zeus ordered the fairy to let him go home.
After Odysseus left Troy 10, he drifted to Scrieux Island. When the king of this island learned that he was Odysseus, he gave him many gifts and sent a clipper to take him home.
[Part II] Odysseus left his hometown for 20 years and had an accident in China. Many aristocratic teenagers want to seize his property and throne, propose to his wife Penelope, and fool around in the palace every day, almost spending a fortune of Odysseus.
After returning home, Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar under the guidance of Athena, took various measures to test the loyalty of his wife, son and servant, and punished the rogue suitors. The couple finally reunited.
(D) The theme of Homer's epic
The theme of the epic is to praise the heroes of the clan society, so as long as they represent the ideals of the clan, no matter which side of the war they belong to, they are among the heroes. The tone of Iliad regards war as a just, reasonable and great cause, but at the same time it depicts the cruelty of war, the disaster it brings to the people, the people's war-weariness and anti-war sentiment, and vaguely expresses the condemnation of war through the tragic ending of heroes. The Odyssey is a tribute to the brave, witty, strong and optimistic spirit shown by heroes in their struggle with nature and society. Homer's epic is the social history and custom history during the transition from ancient Greek clan society to slavery, which has important values in history, geography, archaeology and folklore. This epic also shows humanism and affirms human dignity, value and strength. This is the artistic creation of human childhood, which inevitably has ideological and artistic limitations. Homer, born in Ionia in the second half of the eighth century BC, is the most famous and greatest poet in ancient Greece. He is the author of Homer's epics (Iliad and Odyssey).
Homer's epic is divided into six parts, which is a masterpiece of ancient Greek oral literature. It is the greatest work in ancient Greece and the greatest work in western literature.
The Iliad and Odyssey tell the story of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon in the Trojan War, and the story of Odysseus returning to the kingdom of Ithaca after the fall of Troy and reuniting with Queen Penelope.
Homer's Epic is a panoramic view of the early heroic era, and it is also a wonderful work in art. It takes the whole Greece and the surrounding Wang Yang Sea as the main plot background, showing the liberal freedom scene and setting an example for the moral concept of the Greeks in the future (and then for the moral concept of the whole western society). What followed was, firstly, a humanistic ethic of pursuing achievement and self-realization, and secondly, a liberal theology of the same sex between man and god, which stripped away the mysterious fear in the spiritual world. Homer's epic became the "Greek Bible".
Homer, a blind poet in ancient Greece. The date of birth and death cannot be tested. According to legend, he wrote the ancient Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey, which described the Trojan War and related maritime adventures in 12 ~ 1 century BC, based on short folk songs. Therefore, he lived between 10 BC and the 9th and 8th centuries.
Homer's epic is the collective name of Iliad and Odyssey. Homer's epic, known as the ancestor of European literature, is the crystallization of highly developed western ancient literary skills. For more than 3,000 years, many scholars have studied these two epics, and the books printed by the research results alone can form a small library. 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 finishing by Homer, it gradually became a grand war legend in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, and it was not officially recorded in words 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.
Homer's epic is the social history and custom history during the transition from ancient Greek clan society to slavery, which has important values in history, geography, archaeology and folklore. This epic also shows humanism and affirms human dignity, value and strength. This is the artistic creation of human childhood, which inevitably has ideological and artistic limitations.
In ancient Greece, myths and legends about the Trojan War were widely circulated. Many rappers and bard wandering in the Greek world like it very much, thus making it passed down from generation to generation. The Iliad and Odyssey, two outstanding poems of the great ancient Greek poet Homer, are based on this.
Is there Homer in history? Did he really write these two epics? These issues have been debated for a long time in western academic circles. As early as ancient Greece, famous historians Herodotus, Thucydides, philosophers Plato and Aristotle all affirmed that Homer was the author of two epics. Until the beginning of18th century, Europeans still believed that Homer was a great ancient poet in history.
However, it was also in the early years of the18th century that French monks Zheng Dobi Yong and Vico took the lead. They believe that Homer, which people have always believed before, does not exist. He is only the general representative of Greek rap artists of all ethnic groups, not a person. The two epics are separated by hundreds of years, so it is impossible for one person to write a work. This ground-breaking new viewpoint quickly caused a sensation in western academic circles, and the "Homer problem" sprang up suddenly.
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".
In contrast, it is the "unification theory" represented by German scholar Nicky. This theory is essentially the resurrection of the traditional Homer view. He believed that Homer did exist, and he lived no later than the ninth century BC. He believes that Homer used the materials of ancient folk poems, and re-processed and reorganized them to form a complete artistic structure.