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The poems Iliad and Odyssey were created. World literature. Comprehensive preparation for VNO

Homer's poems Iliad and Odysseus

The oldest written monuments of ancient Greek literature are considered to be the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", created approximately in the 8th-7th centuries BC. by the legendary author Homer and recorded by order of the Athenian ruler Peisistratus in the VI century. BC.

Both poems belong to the genre heroic epic, where a legendary and mythological hero is depicted next to famous historical figures. Respect for the gods, love and respect for parents, protection of the homeland - these are the main commandments of the Greeks, reproduced in Homer's poems.

The poem "Iliad" is an unsurpassed encyclopedia of military operations, the social life of ancient Greece, the moral principles, customs, and culture of the ancient world. Basic driving force The plot of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles as a result of his quarrel with the commander of the Greeks Agamemnon.

Agamemnon greatly offended the priest of Apollo Chrys when he came to the Greek camp to ransom his daughter Chryseis from captivity. By that time, ten years had already passed since the siege of Troy, the tension of both enemy camps had reached its climax. Offended by the refusal and rudeness of Agamemnon, Chris turns to Apollo for help, and he sends pestilence to the Greeks. To turn him away, Achilles, at the general gathering of the Greeks, offers Agamemnon to return Chryseis to his father. Agamemnon agrees, but tells Achilles to give him the captive Briseis in return, which is the trophy of the most famous hero. With sadness in his soul, Achilles submits to the commander. But the hero's heart burns with anger, so he refuses to take part in the battles.

The gods themselves were divided into two opposing camps: some support Aphrodite, who is on the side of the Trojans, others support Athena, who helps the Achaeans (Greeks).

In vain were the pleas of the envoys of Agamemnon to return Achilles to the battlefield. At the decisive moment, saving the Greek army from defeat, Achilles' closest friend, Patroclus, puts on the armor of Achilles and repels the attack of the Trojans, but he himself dies at the hands of Hector, the Trojan king. The pain of losing a friend outweighed the resentment and pride of Achilles. Achilles' wrath turns against the Trojans. Wearing the best armor forged by the god Hephaestus himself, Achilles terrifies the Trojans and enters into a duel with Hector.

Homer's skill lies not only in the depiction of battle scenes of the battle between the Trojans and the Greeks, the description of the heroic deeds of characters, both from one and from the other enemy camp. Lyricism, tenderness are imbued with lines that tell about Hector's farewell to his beloved wife Andromache.

Hector, you replace everything - father and mother for me,

You are also for my brother, and you are a wonderful husband.

Look at me now and stay here with us on the tower

In order not to leave an orphan child and a wife a widow.

The king of the Trojans takes pity on his wife, but remains implacable, because he cannot lose his honor, disgrace his father:

Hector is ready to give his life for his family - Andromache and his son:

Better let me die, let the mound of earth cover me,

Than I hear your cry, how they will lead you into captivity!

Guided by the moral foundations of antiquity, where the hero, first of all, shows courage, strength, courage, defending his land, Homer portrays Hector both as a tender husband and father, and as strong man who wants to see his son as strong and courageous.

The genius of Homer is that he went beyond the conditional limits of the image of only heroic pages ancient history, the poet also conveyed all the variety of feelings of his heroes.

Homer does not side with any camp or hero. The lines dedicated to the courage, patriotism, devotion of both the Greeks and the Trojans sound with the same enthusiasm.

The Iliad ends with the death of Hector in a duel with Achilles. A touching and heartfelt scene of the ransom of Hector's body by his father, old Priam. Achilles' anger has cooled down, and he is gradually imbued with sympathy for his parental grief, promising a twelve-day truce for a worthy burial of the Trojan hero.

Like the main characters of the Iliad - Achilles and Hector - so Odysseus in the poem "Odyssey" is devoid of purely selfish traits and pettiness. The events of the poem are completely connected with the fate of the long-suffering Odysseus, who was an active participant in the siege of Troy. For ten years after her fall, the hero cannot get to his native island of Ithaca because of the wrath of Poseidon, the god of the seas. For seven years he has been sad away from his homeland on the enchanted island of Ogygia with the nymph Calypso, who is in love with him. Odysseus renounces immortality, with which Calypso seduces him, for the sake of an irresistible desire to return to his homeland, to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. And in Ithaca, the hero is considered dead, and therefore noble persons woo Penelope, in every possible way offend the son of Odysseus - Telemachus.

On Olympus, the fate of Odysseus is decided: the gods allowed the hero to return to Ithaca, but this Odysseus must go a long way, overcoming obstacles.

On the way home, Odysseus encountered various obstacles: on the island of lotophages, where the storm nailed the ships, the inhabitants treated the Achaeans with a fragrant lotus, which had miraculous powers. Those who tried it forgot their homeland and did not want to sail further.

On another island, Odysseus meets the giant Cyclops Polyphemus. Only thanks to tricks and courage, Odysseus escapes with his friends: he calls himself Nobody, and when the one-eyed Polyphemus falls asleep in a cave littered with stone, Odysseus knocks out the giant's eyes with a pointed stick. On a call for help, other giants came to the cave - cyclops. When asked who deceived Polyphemus, they heard the answer: “No one!”, Therefore, they left the borders of the wounded Polyphemus. Holding on to the long wool of the giant's sheep, Odysseus and his friends got out of the cave when Polyphemus cleared the passage from the stone.

The terrible god of earthquakes and sea storms, Poseidon, swore to avenge his son Polyphemus.

The god of the winds Eol, on whose island the hero's team landed, is filled with sympathy for Odysseus. Eol collected all the violent and dangerous winds in a bag, tied it tightly and ordered Odysseus not to let them out until he reached the Motherland. The incredulous companions of Odysseus untied the sack when the weary hero slept. Violent winds broke free and drove the ship far back from the Motherland.

Strange events took place on the island of the sorceress Circe: a beautiful but insidious sorceress turned Odysseus's companions into animals, but the hero could not, because Hermes helped him in a timely manner. Circe had to free all people from the animal likeness.

Odysseus resorts to the help of dead relatives and friends: he descends into the underworld of Hades - the dead. The prophet Teresa warns Odysseus about the revenge of the god Poseidon; the hero sees the shadow of a mother who died because of the grief of her son. The shadow of Agamemnon, the commander of all the Greeks during the siege of Troy, warns of the insidiousness of women, since after the victorious return home, Agamemnon was killed by the wife of Clytemnestra.

Sirens lure the Greeks to their island with magical sweet songs. To avoid danger, Odysseus again resorts to tricks:

Comrades, I alternately then covered up the ears,

Then they tied me by the arms and legs to a strong mast, also tightly twisting them with twine.

Fantastically bloodthirsty freaks Scylla (Skilla) and Charybdis are another test of Odysseus on the way to Ithaca:

For there Charybdis terribly swallowed from the sea deep water salty.

And as she threw it back, it bubbling noisily around,

As if in a cauldron on a big fire. And spray foam

It flew high up, irrigating both rocks.

Odysseus managed to escape and not die in the jaws of monsters. And again, the test of Odysseus's fate: on the island of the sun god Helios, cows grazed, which Odysseus's companions secretly slaughtered and ate from the hero. When the Achaeans left the island, Helios sent a strong storm on them, everyone died except Odysseus. After some time, the Greeks of the feacs on their ship deliver Odysseus to Ithaca. Unrecognized, in the form of an old beggar, Odysseus arrives home. The goddess Athena, who takes care of Odysseus, helps him in everything. Penelope, taught by Athena in a dream, assigns tests to the suitors: to shoot 20 rings without hooking a single one. None of the suitors can pull the string from the bow of Odysseus, which Penelope brought to the competition. When the old beggar takes the bow, all the suitors present mock him. But, surprisingly, the beggar calmly pulled the string, and then pierced all 20 rings with an arrow.

Not allowing the suitors to recover, Odysseus strikes the offenders with accurate bow shots.

From the very beginning, they knew that Odysseus was hiding in the form of a beggar, only his son Telemachus, the faithful dog Argus and the nanny of Eurycleia, who recognized the hero by an old scar on his leg. When Penelope was convinced that her husband was in front of her, the goddess Athena returned Odysseus to his real face, and then rejuvenated the couple, restoring their youth and beauty.

THE WAY TO HOMER

In the second act of Shakespeare's Hamlet, a wandering troupe appears, and one of the actors, at the request of the prince, reads a monologue in which the Trojan hero Aeneas tells 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, who was rabid from anger, killed her husband Priam and abused his body - the actor turns pale and bursts into tears. And Hamlet utters the famous, proverbial words:

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

What modern man Hecuba, what to him Achilles, Priam, Hector and other heroes of Homer; what is their torment, joy, love and hate, adventures and battles, which died down and burned out more than thirty centuries ago? What takes him back to antiquity, why does the Trojan War and the return 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 vanished life, in many ways strikingly unlike our life today. The historical interest inherent in any person, the 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 “compose” his heroes, or do their images and exploits reflect true events? And how true (or how freely) are they reflected and what time do they belong to? We ask question after question and look for answers in articles and books about Homer; and at our service - not hundreds and not thousands, but tens of thousands of books and articles, a whole library, a whole literature that continues to grow even now. Scientists not only discover new facts related to Homer's poems, but also discover new points of view on Homer's poetry as a whole, new ways of evaluating 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, naturalist, in a word - the supreme judge on all occasions. There was another time when everything in the Iliad and the 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 reinforced by the finds of archaeologists: in 1870, the German Heinrich Schliemann found Troy, at the walls of which the heroes of the Iliad fought and died; four years later, the same Schliemann unearthed "abundant with 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, in Crete - the “hundred-city” island, repeatedly mentioned by Homer; in 1939, the American Blijen and the Greek Kuroniotis tracked down ancient Pylos, the capital of Nestor, the “sweet-voiced Vitius of Pylos,” the indefatigable giver of wise advice in both poems… The list of “Homer’s 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, in Pylos and in some other places in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, archaeologists found several thousand clay tablets covered with unknown letters. 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. This man, who died in a car accident three and a half years later, was neither a historian of antiquity nor an expert in ancient languages ​​- he was an architect. Nevertheless, as the remarkable Soviet scientist S. Lurie wrote about Ventris, “he managed to make the largest and most amazing discovery in the science of antiquity since the Renaissance.” His name should be 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 of about the same time as the events of the Iliad and the Odyssey, documents that expanded, clarified, and in some ways turned over the previous ideas about the prototype of that society and state that are depicted by Homer.

At the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. Achaean Greek tribes appeared on the Balkan Peninsula. By the middle of this millennium, slave-owning states had formed in the southern part of the peninsula. Each of them was a small fortress with adjacent lands. At the head of each stood, apparently, two rulers. The rulers-kings with their entourage lived in a fortress, behind mighty, cyclopean masonry walls, and at the foot of the wall a settlement populated by royal servants, artisans, 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, across the sea. 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 beginning of the Achaean conquest, there were states with monarchical power in Crete and a society clearly divided into classes of free and slaves. The Cretans were skilled sailors and merchants, excellent builders, potters, jewelers, artists, they knew a lot about art, they knew 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 Cretan-Mycenaean.

The land that constantly attracted the attention of the Achaeans was the Troad in the northwest of Asia Minor, famous for its advantageous location and fertile soil. To the main city of this land - Ilion, or Troy - campaigns were equipped more than once. One of them, especially long, 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 attributed it to 1200 BC. e. - in terms of our chronology - and the work of archaeologists who dug the Hisarlyk hill after Schliemann confirm 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 - just as wild as their predecessors, the Achaeans, were a thousand years ago. They went through the entire peninsula, displacing and subjugating the Achaeans, and completely destroyed their society and culture. History turned back: a tribal community reappeared in place of the slave-owning state, maritime trade died out, the royal palaces that survived the 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. The myths about heroes were for the ancients the same indisputable truth as the myths about the gods, and the heroes themselves became the object of worship. Heroic traditions were intertwined with each other and with myths about the gods. Circles (cycles) of myths arose, connected 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.

Iliad

8th century BC  e.

Summary poems

Read in 10 minutes

The myths of most peoples are myths primarily about gods. The myths of ancient Greece are an exception: for the most part they are not about gods, but about heroes. Heroes are sons, grandsons and great-grandchildren of gods from mortal women; they performed feats, cleansed the land of monsters, punished the villains and entertained their strength in internecine wars. When the Earth became heavy from them, the gods made it so that they themselves killed each other in the greatest war - the Trojan:"... and at the walls of Ilion / The Tribe of Heroes perished - Zeus's will was done."

Ilion, Troy - two names of the same mighty city in Asia Minor, near the coast of the Dardanelles. By 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 a campaign against Troy on hundreds of ships with thousands of warriors: a list of their names occupies 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 most courageous, strong and dexterous was the youngAchilles, son of the sea goddess Thetis, whom he accompaniedhis friend Patroclus . Ruled by the Trojans gray-haired king Priam , at the head of their army 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 participated in the war:the silver-armed Apollo helped the Trojans , and to the Greeks - the heavenly queen Hera and the wise warrior Athena. The supreme god, the thundererZeus, followed the battles from the high Olympus and did his will.

The war started like this . 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, destined 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 their 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 that, Hera and Athena became the eternal enemies of Troy. Aphrodite helped Paris seduce and take away 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 as follows: let her choose who she wants, and if someone tries to recapture her from the chosen one, all the rest will go to war with him. (Everyone hoped that he would be the chosen one.) Then Helen chose Menelaus; now Paris has recaptured her from Menelaus, and all her former suitors have gone to war against him. Only one, the youngest, did not marry 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 still none of the gods interfered 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 coldly watches from his tent how the Greeks flee, how the Trojans approach their very camp: they are about to set fire to the Greek ships. From above, Hera also sees the flight of the Greeks and, in desperation, decides to deceive in order to divert the harsh attention of Zeus. while Zeus sleeps, the Greeks gather their courage and stop the Trojans. But sleep is short; Zeus awakens, Hera trembles before his anger, and he tells her: “Be able 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 instead of him, his friend Patroclus comes out to help the Greeks: it hurts him to look at his comrades in trouble. Achilles gives him his warriors, his armor, which the Trojans used to be afraid of, his chariot harnessed 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 endanger yourself! Oh, let everyone die, both the Greeks and the Trojans, - you and I alone would have taken Troy together! Indeed, seeing the armor of Achilles, the Trojans trembled 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 a height, hesitates: “Should we not save our son?” - and the unkind Hera recalls:

"No, let fate be done!" Sarpedon collapses like a mountain pine, the battle boils around his body, and Patroclus rushes further, to the gates of Troy. "Away! Apollo shouts to him, “Troy is not destined to take either you or even Achilles.” He does not hear; and then Apollo, wrapped in a cloud, strikes him on the shoulders, Patroclus loses his strength, drops his shield, helmet and spear, Hector strikes him the last blow, and Patroclus, dying, says: “But you yourself will fall from Achilles!”

The news reaches Achilles: Patroclus died, Hector flaunts in his Achilles armor, his friends hardly carried the dead body of the hero out of the battle, the triumphant Trojans are chasing them. 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 Achilles mourns his friend and threatens the Trojans with terrible revenge; meanwhile, at the request of his mother, Thetis, the lame blacksmith god Hephaestus in his copper forge forges a new marvelous weapon for Achilles. This is a shell, a helmet, greaves and a shield, and the whole world is depicted on the shield: the sun and stars, earth and sea, a peaceful city and a warring city, in a peaceful city there is a court and a wedding, an ambush and a battle in front of a warring city, and around - rural areas, plowing , harvest, pasture, vineyard, village festival and dancing round dance, and in the middle of it - a singer with a lyre.

Morning comes, Achilles puts on divine armor and calls the Greek army to a gathering. His anger did not fade away, but now he is not directed at Agamemnon, but at those who killed his friend - at the Trojans and Hector. He offers reconciliation to Agamemnon, and he accepts it with dignity: "Zeus and Fate blinded me, but I myself am innocent." Briseis is returned to Achilles, rich gifts are brought into his tent, but Achilles almost does not look at them: he is eager to fight, he wants to take revenge.

The fourth battle is coming. Zeus removes the bans: let the gods themselves fight for whom they want! The warrior Athena converges in battle with the frantic Ares, the sovereign Hera with the archer Artemis, the sea Poseidon must converge 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 short-lived leaves in the oak forest: / Today they bloom in strength, and tomorrow they lie lifeless. / I don’t want to quarrel with you: let them themselves be at enmity! .. "

Achilles is terrible. He grappled with Aeneas, but the gods pulled Aeneas out of his hands: Aeneas is not destined to fall from Achilles, he must survive both Achilles and Troy. Enraged by the failure, Achilles destroys the Trojans without counting, their corpses clutter up the river, the river god Scamander attacks him, sweeping with waves, but the fiery god Hephaestus pacifies the river.

The surviving Trojans run in droves to escape to the city; Hector alone, in yesterday's Achilles armor, covers the retreat. Achilles attacks him, and Hector takes flight, voluntary and involuntary: he is afraid for himself, but wants to distract Achilles from others. Three times they run around the city, and the gods look at them from the heights. Again Zeus hesitates: “Should we not save the hero?” - but Athena reminds him:

"Let fate be done." Again, Zeus lifts the scales, on which two lots lie - this time Hectors and Achilles. The bowl of Achilles flew up, the bowl of Hector leaned towards the underworld. And Zeus gives a sign: Apollo - to leave Hector, Athena - to come to the aid of Achilles. Athena holds Hector, 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 won’t touch your body; promise me the same and you. “There is no place for promises: for Patroclus, I myself will tear you to pieces and drink your blood!” Achilles screams. Hector's spear strikes the Hephaestus shield, but in vain; Achilles' spear strikes Hector's throat, and the hero falls with the words: "Fear the revenge of the gods: and you will fall after me." "I know, but first - you!" Achilles answers. He ties the body of the slain enemy to his chariot and drives the horses around Troy, mocking the dead, and on the city wall old Priam weeps for Hector, the widow Andromache and all the Trojans and Trojans weep.

Patroclus is avenged. Achilles arranges a magnificent burial for his friend, kills twelve Trojan captives over his body, celebrates a commemoration. It would seem that his anger should subside, but it does not subside. Three times a day, Achilles drives his chariot with the body of Hector tied around Patroclus' mound; the corpse would have long since smashed against the stones, but Apollo was invisibly guarding it. Finally, Zeus intervenes - through the sea Thetis, he announces to Achilles: “Do not rage with your heart! because you don't have long to live. Be human: accept the ransom and give Hector for burial. And Achilles says, "I obey."

At night, the decrepit king Priam comes to the tent of Achilles; with him is a wagon full of ransom gifts. The gods themselves let him pass through the Greek camp unnoticed. He falls to the knees of Achilles. Equal grief brings enemies closer: 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. A funeral pyre is lit, the remains are collected in an urn, the urn is lowered into the grave, a mound is poured over the grave, a memorial feast is celebrated for the hero.“So the sons buried the warrior Hector of Troy” - this line ends the Iliad.

Before the end of the Trojan War, there were still many events. The Trojans, having lost Hector, no longer dared to go beyond the city walls. But other, more and more 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 attack Troy - then he died from the arrow of Paris, which Apollo directed. 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 tell 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

8th century BC  e.

Summary of the poem

Read in 20 minutes

The Trojan War was started by the gods so that the time of the heroes would end and the current, human, iron age. Who did not die at the walls of Troy, he had to die on the way back.

"Iliad" - a heroic poem, its action takes place on a battlefield and in a military camp."Odyssey" - the poem is fabulous and everyday, 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 was waiting for his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus . As in the Iliad, only one episode, “the wrath of Achilles”, is chosen for the narrative, so in the Odyssey - only the very end of his wanderings, the last two hauls, from the far western edge of the earth to his native Ithaca. About everything that happened before, Odysseus tells at the feast in the middle of the poem, and tells very briefly: all these fabulous adventures in the poem account for fifty pages out of three hundred. In the Odyssey, the fairy tale sets off life, and not vice versa, although readers, both ancient and modern, were more willing to re-read and recall the fairy tale.

In the Trojan War, Odysseus did a lot for the Greeks - especially where they needed not strength, but intelligence. It was he who guessed to bind Elena's suitors with an oath to help her chosen one against any offender, and without this the army would never have gathered on a campaign. It was he who attracted the young Achilles to the campaign, and without this the victory would have been impossible. It was he, when, at the beginning of the Iliad, the Greek army, after a general meeting, almost rushed from Troy on the way back, managed to stop him. It was he who persuaded Achilles, when he quarreled with Agamemnon, to return to the battle. When, after the death of Achilles, the best warrior of the Greek camp was to receive the armor of the slain, Odysseus received them, and not Ajax. When Troy could not 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 is one of them. The goddess Athena, the patroness of the Greeks, loved Odysseus the most of them 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, Zeus' Will. The gods hold a council, and Athena intercedes with Zeus for Odysseus. He is a prisoner of the nymph Calypso, who is in love with him, on an island in the very middle of the wide sea, and languishes, in vain wishing "to see at least 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 decision not before weaving a shroud for old Laertes, father of Odysseus, who is about to die. During the day, she wove in front of everyone, and at night she secretly unraveled what was woven. But the servants betrayed her cunning, and it became more and more difficult for her to resist the insistence of the suitors.

First Adventure - Lotus Eaters . The storm took the Odyssey ships from under Troy to the far south, where the lotus grows - a magical fruit, after tasting which, a person forgets about everything and does not want anything in life except the lotus. The lotus-eaters treated the Odyssey companions to the lotus, and they forgot about their native Ithaca and refused to sail further. By force of them, weeping, they took them 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 foreheads; they herded sheep and goats and did not know wine. Chief among them was Polyphemus, the son of the sea Poseidon. Odysseus wandered into his empty cave with a dozen companions. In the evening, Polyphemus came, huge as a mountain, drove a herd into the cave, blocked the exit with a block, 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 two, smashed them against the wall, ate them with bones and snored. 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, large as a mast, sharpened it, burned it on fire, 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 will eat you last, Nobody!” - and drunken cyclops snored. Then Odysseus and his companions took a club, approached, swung it and plunged it into the single giant's eye. The blinded ogre roared, other Cyclopes came running: “Who offended you, Polyphemus?” - "Nobody!" - "Well, if no one, then there is nothing to make noise" - and dispersed. And in order to get out of the cave, Odysseus tied his comrades under the belly of the Cyclops rams so that he would not grope them, and so, together with the herd, they left the cave in the morning. But, already sailing away, Odysseus could not stand it and shouted:

“Here you are, for insulting the guests, execution from me, Odysseus from Ithaca!” And the Cyclops furiously prayed to his father Poseidon: “Don’t let Odysseus swim to Ithaca - and if it’s destined to do so, then let him swim not soon, alone, on a strange ship!” And God heard his prayer.

The 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 Odysseus: "When you swim - let go." But when Ithaca was already visible, the tired Odysseus fell asleep, and his companions untied the bag ahead of time; a hurricane arose, they rushed back to Aeolus. "So the gods are against you!" - Eol said angrily and refused to help the disobedient.

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

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 Odyssey messengers - and they turned into pigs, and she drove them into the barn. He escaped alone and in horror told Odysseus about this; he took a 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 the human form to his friends and demanded: "Get us back to Ithaca!" - "Ask the way of the prophetic Tiresias, the prophet of the prophets," said the sorceress. "But he's dead!" - "Ask the dead!" And she told me how to do it.

The sixth adventure - the most terrible: descent into the realm of the dead . The entrance to it is at the end of the world, in the country of eternal night. The souls of the dead in it are incorporeal, insensible 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 as a sacrifice; the souls of the dead flocked to the smell of blood, but Odysseus drove them away with a sword until the prophetic Tiresias appeared before him. After drinking blood, he said:

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

“Better for me to be a 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 I saw Odysseus and the infernal 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 Sirens - predators, seductive singing luring sailors to death. 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, the sweetest of which is none.

The eighth adventure was the strait between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis : Scylla - about six heads, each with three rows of teeth, and about twelve paws; Charybdis - about one larynx, but such that in one gulp it drags the whole ship. Odysseus preferred Scylla to Charybdis - and he was right: she grabbed six of his comrades from the ship and ate 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, mindful of the covenant of Tiresias, took a terrible oath from his comrades not to touch them; but opposite winds blew, the ship stopped, the satellites were hungry, and when Odysseus fell asleep, they slaughtered and ate the best bulls. It was scary: the flayed skins moved, and the meat on the skewers lowed. The Sun-Helios, who sees everything, hears everything, knows everything, prayed to Zeus: “Punish the offenders, otherwise I will descend into the underworld and will shine among the dead.” And then, as the winds subsided and the ship sailed from the shore, Zeus raised a storm, struck with lightning, the ship crumbled, the satellites drowned in a whirlpool, and Odysseus, alone on a fragment of a 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 Alkina fulfilled his promise: Odysseus boarded the Phaeacian ship, plunged into an enchanted dream, and woke up already on the foggy coast of Ithaca. Here he is met by the patroness Athena. “The time has come for your cunning,” she says, “hide, beware of suitors and wait for your son Telemachus!” She touches him, and he becomes unrecognizable: old, bald, poor, with a staff and a bag. In this form, he goes deep into the island - to ask for shelter from the good old swineherd Evmey. He tells Eumeus that he comes from Crete, fought near Troy, knew Odysseus, sailed to Egypt, fell into slavery, was with pirates and barely escaped. Eumeus calls him to the hut, puts him to the hearth, treats him, grieves for the missing Odysseus, complains about violent suitors, pities Queen Penelope and Prince Telemachus. The next day, Telemachus himself comes, having returned from his wandering - of course, Athena herself also sent him here. In front of him, Athena returns Odysseus his true appearance, mighty and proud. "Are you a god?" - asks Telemachus. “No, I am your father,” Odysseus replies, and they, embracing, cry with happiness.

The end is near. Telemachus goes to the city, to the palace; behind him wander Eumeus and Odysseus, again in the form of a beggar. At the palace threshold, the first recognition is made: the decrepit Odysseus dog, having not forgotten the voice of the owner for twenty years, raises his ears, crawls up to him with his last strength and dies at his feet. Odysseus enters the house, goes around the room, asks the suitors for alms, suffers ridicule and beatings. Suitors pit him against another beggar, younger and stronger; Odysseus, unexpectedly for everyone, knocks him over with one blow. The suitors laugh: “Let Zeus send you whatever you want!” - and do not know that Odysseus wishes them a speedy death. Penelope calls the stranger to her: has he heard the news of Odysseus? “I heard,” says Odysseus, “he is in a nearby region and will arrive soon.” Penelope can't believe it, but she is grateful for the guest. She tells the old maid to wash the wanderer's dusty feet before going to bed, and invites him to be in the palace at tomorrow's feast. And here the second recognition takes place: the maid brings in the basin, touches the guest's legs and feels the scar on her lower leg, which Odysseus had after hunting the boar in his younger years. Her hands trembled, her leg slipped out: “You are Odysseus!” Odysseus clamps her mouth: "Yes, it's me, but be quiet - otherwise you will 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, he will become my husband! One after another, one hundred and twenty suitors try on the bow - not a single one can even pull the bowstring. They already want to postpone the competition until tomorrow - but then Odysseus gets up in his impoverished 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, to whom I want, I give it; and you, mother, go to your women's affairs. Odysseus takes up the bow, easily bends it, rings the bowstring, the arrow flies through the 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 a spear. “No, I haven’t forgotten how to shoot: now I’ll try another target!” And the second arrow hits the most impudent and violent of suitors. “Oh, you thought Odysseus was dead? no, he lives 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 Eumeus brings. The suitors rush about the ward, the invisible Athena darkens their minds and diverts their blows from Odysseus, they fall one by one. A pile of dead bodies piles up in the middle of the house, faithful slaves and slaves crowd around and rejoice when they see 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 does not believe: no, yesterday's beggar is not at all like Odysseus, as he was twenty years ago; and the suitors were probably punished by angry gods. “Well,” says Odysseus, “if the queen has such an unkind heart, let them make a bed for me alone.” And here the third, main recognition takes place. “Well,” says Penelope to the maid, “take out the guest’s bed from the royal bedroom to his rest.” “What are you talking about, woman? - Odysseus exclaims, - this bed cannot be moved, instead of legs it has an olive tree stump, I once knocked it together on it and adjusted it. And in response, Penelope weeps with joy and rushes to her husband: it was a secret, they alone knew a sign.

It's a victory, but it's not peace yet. The fallen suitors have relatives left, and they are ready to take revenge. With an armed crowd, they go to Odysseus, he comes forward to meet them with Telemachus and several henchmen. The first blows are already thundering, the first blood is 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 the evil enmity!” - and the frightened avengers retreat. And then:

“With a sacrifice and an oath, the alliance between the king and the people was sealed / The bright daughter of the Thunderer, the goddess Pallas Athena.”

With these words the Odyssey ends.

The World History. Volume 3 Age of Iron Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Iliad and Odyssey

Iliad and Odyssey

The poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were created on the basis of a popular cycle of works about the war of the allied leaders of the Greek (Achaean) tribes against Troy. The title of these epic works is directly related to the content of the poems. So the name of the first Iliad comes from Greek name Troy-Ilion. The Iliad describes the events of the last, tenth, year of the siege of Troy. It was one of the most difficult periods of the siege. The poem begins with a description of the quarrel between Achilles and the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, over the division of booty. Achilles refused to participate in the battles, which led to the victories of the Trojans. And only after the death of his friend Patroclus, who was killed in battle with Hector, the mighty son of King Priam, Achilles decides to take part in the battles again. The Iliad ends its narrative with a description of the burial of the strongest defender of Troy - Hector, who was killed by Achilles. But the Iliad does not tell about the events of both the previous wars and the first years of the war with Troy. She also does not bring the story to the victory of the Greeks - the capture of Troy.

The Odyssey describes the ten-year wanderings of one of the leaders of the Achaeans in the Trojan War - the cunning Odysseus, king of the small island of Ithaca. Having provoked the wrath of Poseidon, he cannot return and is forced to seek salvation in a foreign land. After a series of fantastic adventures, overcoming many dangers, Odysseus returns to his homeland. Here he is forced to fight for his property. With the help of his son Telemachus and his faithful slaves, he kills numerous suitors, from the noblest families of the island, who sought the hand of his wife Penelope; thus he regains his right to rule Ithaca. It also provides information about future fate some of the heroes of the Iliad. Thus, the plots of the poems are closely connected with each other by the same heroes and the unity of the theme. However, the Odyssey is not a logical continuation of the Iliad. In addition, they differ sharply from each other in the nature of the presentation. If the Iliad vividly depicts wartime life - battles, the exploits of heroes, the cruelty of war, then in the Odyssey the poet mainly draws pictures peaceful life ancient Greek tribes. Other episodes of the Trojan cycle were set forth in the so-called kyklic poems, which took shape in the form of songs no earlier than the 8th century BC. e. and have come down to us only in the form brief retellings, references in the works of authors of a later period. In all likelihood, they were based, as well as the basis of the Iliad and the Odyssey, were heroic songs, legends associated with the Trojan War. They were performed by the Aeds (singers) who roamed the land of Ancient Hellas and were very popular. They were passed down from generation to generation, like legends and myths, the traditions of other peoples of antiquity, and over time were filled with tales of real historical events, reflecting in a peculiar way the phenomena of the natural and social environment in which they arose. Poems were transmitted orally and only in the VI century. BC e. they were recorded in Athens and turned into literary works. And Homer, who, perhaps, was an aed, only collected and processed all those legends, creating on their basis two epic poems of exceptional scale and outstanding artistic merit.

The historical material included in the Homeric narrative is very complex. It certainly has elements dating back to the Mycenaean era, perhaps even earlier than the Trojan War itself. At the same time, poems are works folk art: a rich language full of images and comparisons, magnificent characteristics of the characters, a complex composition are clear evidence of the long path of development of the Greek heroic epic. The ancient turns of the epic language, the very image of the world in which the heroes fight with bronze weapons, take us back to the era of the Achaean kings of the Mycenaean period. The epic tradition has all its roots in the Mycenaean culture. However, despite the fact that the influence of traditional material is very great, the poems are not entirely immersed in the past, but are also addressed to the modern era.

Under all conditions and reservations, the Homeric epic is the most important source that reflects the historical life of Greece, not so much the Mycenaean, but the post-Mycenaean period, with its characteristic predominance of features of the tribal system. For a researcher, the works of Homer are invaluable sources about the life and way of life of the Hellenes at the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e.