Homer's life. What do you know about Homer

Homer by Antoine-Denis Chaudet, 1806.

Homer (dr. Greek Ὅμηρος, VIII century BC) is the legendary ancient Greek poet and storyteller, creator of the epic poems The Iliad (an ancient monument of European literature and the Odyssey).
About half of the ancient Greek literary papyrus found are excerpts from Homer.

About the life and personality of Homer reliably nothing is known.

Homer - the legendary ancient Greek poet and storyteller

It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the VI century BC. e., when their existence is reliably recorded. The chronological period in which modern science localizes the life of Homer is approximately the 8th century BC. e. According to Herodotus, Homer lived 400 years before him, other ancient sources say that he lived during the Trojan War.

Bust of Homer in the Louvre

Homer's birthplace is unknown. In the ancient tradition, seven cities argued for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. According to Herodotus and Pausanias, Homer died on the island of Ios in the Cyclades archipelago. Probably, the Iliad and the Odyssey were built on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, inhabited by Ionian tribes, or on one of the adjacent islands. However, the Homeric dialect does not provide accurate information about the tribal affiliation of Homer, as it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that his dialect is one of the forms of poetic koyne, formed long before Homer's estimated lifetime.

Paul Jourdy, Homère chantant ses vers, 1834, Paris

Homer is traditionally portrayed as a blind man. Most likely, this idea does not come from the real facts of his life, but represents a reconstruction characteristic of the genre of ancient biography. Since many prominent legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic, connecting the prophetic and poetic gift, the assumption of Homer's blindness seemed very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodok in Odyssey is blind from birth, which could also be perceived as autobiographical.

Homer. Naples, National Archaeological Museum

There is a legend about the poetic duel of Homer with Hesiod, described in the essay "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod," created no later than the third century. BC e., and according to many researchers, and much earlier. Poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea in games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read his best poems. King Paned, who acted as judge in the contest, awarded Hesiod the victory, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and battle. At the same time, the audience sympathized with Homer.

In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works undoubtedly created later: “Homer hymns” (7th – 5th centuries BC, along with Homer are considered the oldest examples of Greek poetry), the comic poem Margit, etc. .

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first encountered in the 7th century BC, when Cullin of Ephesus called it the author of Thebes) was tried to explain in antiquity, and the options were “hostage” (Hesychius) and “following” (Aristotle) or “blind man” (Efor Kimsky), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to ascribe to him the meaning of“ composer ”or“ accompanist ”.<…> This word in its Ionian form Ομηρος is almost certainly a real personal name ”(S. Boura. Heroic poetry.)

Homer (circa 460 BC)

A.F. Losev: The traditional image of Homer among the Greeks. This traditional image of Homer, which has existed for about 3000 years, if we discard all the pseudo-scientific inventions of the later Greeks, comes down to the image of a blind and wise (and, according to Ovid, also poor), necessarily an old singer who creates wonderful legends under the constant guidance of his inspiring muse and leading the life of some wandering rhapsody. We find similar features of folk singers in many other nations, and therefore there is nothing specific and original in them. This is the most common and most common type of folk singer, the most beloved and most popular among different nations.

Most scholars believe that Homeric poems were created in Asia Minor, in Ionia in the 8th century. BC e. based on mythological tales of the Trojan War. There is late antique evidence of the final edition of their texts under the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in the middle of the 6th century. BC e., when their performance was included in the festivities of the Great Panathenas.

In ancient times, Homer was credited with the comic poems Margit and The War of Mice and Frogs, a series of works about the Trojan War and the return of heroes to Greece: Cyprus, Ethiopida, The Little Iliad, The Capture of Ilion, Returns ( the so-called "cyclical poems", only small fragments have been preserved). Under the name "Homer hymns" there was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. The enormous work of collecting and updating manuscripts of Homer's poems was done during the Hellenistic era by the philologists of the Alexandria library Aristarchus of Samothrace, Zenodotus from Ephesus, Aristophanes from Byzantium (they also divided each poem into 24 songs according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet). The name of the sophist Zoyle (4th century BC), nicknamed for criticism by “the scourge of Homer,” became common. Xenon and Gellanic, so-called. "Separating", expressed the idea of \u200b\u200ba possible belonging to Homer of only one "Iliad"

Jean-Baptiste Auguste Leloir (1809-1892). Homère.

In the 19th century, the Iliad and Odyssey were compared with the epics of the Slavs, Scaldic poetry, the Finnish and German epics. In the 1930s classicman American philologist Milman Perry, comparing Homer's poems with a living epic tradition that still existed among the peoples of Yugoslavia, found in Homer's poems a reflection of the poetic technique of folk aders. The poetic formulas they created from stable combinations and epithets (the “quick-footed” Achilles, the “shepherd of nations” Agamemnon, the “wise” Odysseus, the “sweet-spoken” Nestor) made it possible for the storyteller to “improvise” to perform epic songs consisting of many thousands of verses.

The Iliad and the Odyssey belong entirely to a centuries-old epic tradition, but it does not follow from this that oral art is anonymous. “Before Homer, we cannot call anyone's poem of this kind, although, of course, there were many poets” (Aristotle). Aristotle saw the main difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey from all other epic works in that Homer does not unfold his narrative gradually, but builds it around one event - the dramatic unity of action is the basis of the poems. Another feature that Aristotle also drew attention to: the character of the hero is revealed not by the description of the author, but by the speeches made by the hero himself.

Medieval Illustration for the Iliad

The language of Homer's poems - exclusively poetic, "super-dialectic" - has never been identical to lively colloquial speech. It consisted of a combination of Aeolian (Boeotia, Thessaly, the island of Lesbos) and Ionian (Attica, insular Greece, the coast of Asia Minor) dialect features with the preservation of the archaic system of earlier eras. Hexameter, a poetic size in which each verse consists of six feet with the correct alternation of long and short syllables, metrically designed the songs of the Iliad and Odyssey, rooted in the Indo-European epic work. The unusual poetic language of the epic was emphasized by the timeless nature of events and the grandeur of the images of the heroic past.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Homer and his Guide (1874)

The sensational discoveries of G. Schliemann in the 1870s and 80s. proved that Troy, Mycenae and Achaean strongholds are not a myth, but a reality. Schliemann's contemporaries were struck by the literal correspondences of a number of his finds in the fourth shaft tomb in Mycenae with descriptions of Homer. The impression was so strong that the era of Homer began to be associated for a long time with the heyday of Achaean Greece in the 14-13 centuries. BC e. In the poems, however, there are also numerous archaeologically attested cultural features of the “heroic age,” such as the mention of iron tools and weapons or the custom of cremation of the dead. In terms of content, the epics of Homer contain many motifs, storylines, myths gleaned from early poetry. At Homer one can hear the echoes of the Minoan culture, and even trace the connection with the Hittite mythology. However, the Mycenaean period became the main source of epic material for him. It is in this era that his epic takes place. Living in the fourth century after the end of this period, which he strongly idealizes, Homer cannot be a source of historical information about political, social life, material culture or religion of the Mycenaean world. But in the political center of this society, Mycenae found, however, objects identical to those described in the epic (mainly weapons and tools), on some same Mycenaean monuments there are images, things and even scenes typical of the poetic reality of the epic. The events of the Trojan war, around which Homer launched the actions of both poems, were attributed to the Mycenaean era. He showed this war as an armed campaign of the Greeks (called Achaeans, Danians, Argives) led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon against Troy and its allies. For the Greeks, the Trojan War was a historical fact dating from the XIV-XII centuries. BC e. (according to the calculations of Eratosthenes, Troy fell in 1184)

Karl Becker. Homer sings

A comparison of the evidence of the Homeric epos with the data of archeology confirms the conclusions of many researchers that in its final version it took shape in the 8th century. BC e., and the most ancient part of the epic, many researchers consider the "Catalog of ships" ("Iliad", 2nd song). Obviously, the poems were not created at the same time: the Iliad reflects the concept of a person of the “heroic period”, the Odyssey stands at the turn of another era - the time of the Great Greek colonization, when the borders of the world mastered by Greek culture expanded.

For a man of antiquity, Homer's poems were a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism, a source of wisdom and knowledge of all aspects of life - from military art to practical morality. Homers, along with Hesiod, were considered the creator of a comprehensive and orderly mythological picture of the universe: poets “compiled the genealogies of the gods for the Hellenes, provided epithets for the names of the gods, shared their dignities and occupations, drew their images” (Herodotus). According to Strabo, Homer was the only one of the poets of antiquity who knew almost everything about the ecumenical community, about the peoples inhabiting it, their origin, lifestyle and culture. The data of Homer as true and trustworthy were used by Thucydides, Pausanias (writer), Plutarch. The father of the tragedy, Aeschylus called his dramas "crumbs from the great feasts of Homer."

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Homer and the shepherds

Greek children learned to read the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homers were quoted, commented, explained allegorically. Pythagorean philosophers called on souls to correct souls by reading selected places from Homer's poems. Plutarch reports that Alexander the Great always had with him a list of the Iliad, which he kept under his pillow along with a dagger.

HOMER, the first of the Greek poets whose works have come down to us, and, admittedly, one of the greatest European poets. We have no reliable information about himself and his life.

Many cities claimed the right to be called the birthplace of the poet, among them Smyrn and Chios in Asia Minor. In the same way, antique chronographs diverge in Homer's life dates: some make him a contemporary of the Trojan War (early 12th century BC), but Herodotus believed that Homer lived in the middle of the 9th century. BC. Modern scholars are inclined to attribute its activity to the 8th or even 7th century. BC, indicating as the main place of his stay Chios or any other region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. In ancient times, Homer, in addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, was credited with authorship of other poems (fragments were preserved from some of them), but modern scholars usually believe that their authors lived later than Homer.

About the life and personality of Homer reliably nothing is known.

It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the VI century BC. e., when their existence is reliably recorded. Thus, the chronological period in which one could localize the life of Homer is from the 12th to 7th centuries BC. e., but the most probable is the latest date.

Homer's birthplace is unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. Probably, the Iliad and the Odyssey were built on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, inhabited by Ionian tribes, or on one of the adjacent islands. However, the Homeric dialect does not even give exact information about the tribal affiliation of Homer, since it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that the Homeric dialect is one of the forms of poetic koyne, formed long before Homer's estimated lifetime. Homer is traditionally portrayed as a blind man. Most likely, this idea does not come from the real facts of Homer's life, but represents a reconstruction characteristic of the genre of ancient biography. Since many prominent legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic, connecting the prophetic and poetic gift, the assumption of Homer's blindness seemed very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodok in the Iliad is blind from birth, which could also be perceived as autobiographical. There is a legend about the poetic duel of Homer with Hesiod, described in the essay "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod," created no later than the third century. BC e., and according to many researchers, and much earlier. Poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea in games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read his best poems. King Paned, who acted as judge in the contest, awarded Hesiod the victory, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and battle. However, the sympathy of the audience was on the side of Homer. In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works that were undoubtedly created later: Homer Anthems, the comic poem Margaret and others. They tried to explain the meaning of the name Homer in antiquity, and offered the options of “hostage” or “blind man” .

Homer - Greek. Homeros, lat. Homerus, a poet at the origins of Greek and, therefore, European literature, whose name is associated with the ancient literary genre of the Greeks, a heroic epic, especially with the Iliad and Odyssey. Already in antiquity, nothing reliable was known about the identity and life time of Homer. He was portrayed as a blind old man. Of the cities that claimed the right to be considered his homeland, the most justified seem to be the claims of Smyrna in Ionian Asia Minor and the island of Chios. It is generally accepted that Homer lived around 8th century BC. Homer is a poet of classical antiquity, but at the same time he is a great teacher-mentor and model for all of antiquity, the “Homer Question” (the question of the author and the circumstances of the emergence of Homer's epic) already existed in antiquity. In the 6th century BC. by order of Pisistratus, the texts of Homer were studied. Up to 5 c. BC. Apart from The Iliad and Odyssey, Homer was also credited with numerous epic poems (the so-called epic cycle of Cypria, Margit, and Homer's hymns). Homer was considered the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey until, in the Hellenistic era, the chorizonten (separators) challenged his authorship of the Odyssey. In modern times, F. A. Wolf in his Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795) again raised this question. Between scholars who divided the epic into separate songs (Lachmann's song theory), and unitaries who defended the strict unity of the epic, there were scholars who accepted later interpolations, expansions, and compilations of several small epic pieces or considered Homer only as the editor of the epic. The state of modern research allows us to consider Homer as the author of the Iliad. He used more ancient songs, relying on epic traditions and acting according to a single plan. These songs, heroic legends and a small epic are an oral preliminary stage, which leads into the world of the 2nd millennium to the early Greek tribes that penetrated into the Mediterranean. The question of the extent to which the Crit-Mycenaean culture is reflected in the Iliad became controversial again after an attempt to decipher the linear letter B. Songs were performed by wandering rhapsodies at the meals of a noble society (nobility). Whether these rhapsodies possessed at least partially fixed written texts is debatable, as is the question of the written text of the epic of Homer. The use of B.'s letter is considered very likely today if we take into account the arts composition of poems. In the Iliad, named for the Greek city of Ilion (Troy), the 24-day book depicts a 49-day period, the end of the 10-year struggle of the Greeks for Troy. Her theme is the anger of Achilles, from whom Agamemnon stole his slave Briseid, which is why Achilles refused to participate in the battles. After his friend Patroclus died, Achilles again enters the battle to avenge him. From his mother Thetis, Achilles receives the armor forged by Hephaestus (description of the shield in the 18th book) and kills Hector in battle. The epic ends with funeral games in honor of Patroclus. Different eras are reflected in the Iliad. Numerous episodic events along with the main actions show the heroes, often descended from the gods, in heavy battles. The gods take part in the struggle on both sides, multiple scenes with the gods take on the character of burlesque. The following are small poetic additions to The Odyssey, apparently a later work, and it does not belong to Homer. The poem probably belongs to Homer's student (?) And was processed later. In 24 books, trips lasting 10 years of travel and the return to the homeland of Odysseus to his wife Penelope are chanted. Before returning home, Odysseus stops at the nymph Calypso. After the shipwreck, presenting himself to the feacs, the hero talks about the events experienced. The poem tells how Penelope, waiting for her husband to return home, tricks her marriage with the suitors by cunning, her son Telemach helps the unrecognized Odysseus returning home to beat the grooms. In the epos, many stories of sea voyages are intertwined with fabulous motifs. Vase painting, like wall painting, presents various scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey in various variations, plasticity created an idealized portrait of the blind poet Iliad and Odyssey written with a hexameter, their language is built on the long tradition of art with Ionian -Eolian elements. The distinct, recurring revolutions in the form of formulas probably relate to the oral initial steps preserved in the epic. Among the unattainable peaks of the Homeric epos are the flight of fantasy, the power of eloquence, the slowing down of the course of action to create dramatic tension, art in particular, the naturalness in the depiction of life, the beauty of comparisons, testifying to the astonishing observation, human participation and psychological sensitivity of the author. In the field of the epos, the Iliad and Odyssey are the highest examples of poetic works. The most widely read author for 3,000 years, Homer was studied very early in the school and up to the Byzantine time. Having become the standard in evaluating any poem of antiquity, the epic of Homer gave an impetus to all subsequent artistic creativity. Livy Andronic translated Odyssey into Latin, and Virgil wanted to reach the level of the Homeric epic with his Aeneid. In the areas of the Latin language, in the Middle Ages, and in Roman countries until the new era, the epic of Virgil had a greater influence than the epic of Homer. In the 18th century, under the influence of R. Wood (England), Homer was again recognized as an unsurpassed genius. His poetry from this time began to have a strong impact on the classics of world literature (Lessing, Herder, Goethe).

Homer is an ancient Greek poet. To date, there is no convincing evidence of the reality of the historical figure of Homer. According to ancient tradition, it was customary to represent Homer as a blind wandering singer-aed, seven cities argued for the honor of being called his homeland. Probably he was from Smyrna (Asia Minor), or from the island of Chios. It can be assumed that Homer lived around the 8th century BC.

Homer is credited with authorship of the two greatest works of ancient Greek literature - the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey." In ancient times, Homer was recognized as the author of other works: the poem "Batrachomachia" and the collection of "Homer hymns." Modern science assigns to Homer only the Iliad and the Odyssey, and there is an opinion that these poems were created by different poets and at different historical times. Back in ancient times, the "Homer question" arose, which is now understood as a combination of problems associated with the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic, including the relationship between folklore and literary creativity in it.

Time to create poems. Text history

The biographical information about Homer, given by ancient authors, is contradictory and unlikely. “Seven cities, bickering are called the homeland of Homer: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Pylos, Argos, Ithaca, Athens,” says one Greek epigram (in fact, the list of these cities was more extensive). Regarding the life time of Homer, ancient scholars cited various dates, beginning from the 12th century BC (after the Trojan war) and ending with the 7th century BC; there was a widespread legend of a poetic contest between Homer and Hesiod. Most scholars believe that Homeric poems were created in Asia Minor, in Ionia in the 8th century BC on the basis of mythological legends about the Trojan War. There is late antique evidence of the final edition of their texts under the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in the middle of the 6th century BC, when their performance was included in the festivities of the Great Panathenas.

In ancient times, Homer was credited with the comic poems Margit and The War of Mice and Frogs, a series of works about the Trojan War and the return of heroes to Greece: Cyprus, Ethiopida, The Little Iliad, The Capture of Ilion, Returns ( the so-called "cyclical poems", only small fragments have been preserved). Under the name "Homer hymns" there was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. The enormous work of collecting and updating manuscripts of Homer's poems was done during the Hellenistic era by the philologists of the Alexandria library Aristarchus of Samothrace, Zenodotus from Ephesus, Aristophanes from Byzantium (they also divided each poem into 24 songs according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet). The name of sophist Zoyle (4th century BC), nicknamed for criticism “Homer's scourge”, has become a household name. Xenon and Gellanic, so-called. "Separating", expressed the idea of \u200b\u200ba possible belonging to Homer of only one "Iliad"; however, they did not doubt either the reality of Homer or the fact that each of the poems has its own author.

Homer question

The authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey was posed in 1795 by the German scholar Frederick Augustus Wolf in the preface to the publication of the Greek text of the poems. Wolf considered it impossible to create a large epic in an unwritten period, believing that the legends created by various aids were recorded in Athens at Pisistratus. Scientists were divided into "analysts", followers of the Wolf theory (German scientists K. Lachmann, A. Kirchhoff with his theory of "small epics"; G. German and the English historian J. Grot with their "theory of the main core", in Russia it was shared by F. F. Zelinsky), and the “Unitarians”, supporters of the strict unity of the epic (Homer translator Johann Heinrich Foss and philologist G.V. Nich, Johann Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Germany, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich, Vasily Andreyevich

Zhukovsky, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin in Russia).

Homer poems and epics

The language of poems

Homer and Archeology

The sensational discoveries of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870-80s. proved that Troy, Mycenae and Achaean strongholds are not a myth, but a reality. Schliemann's contemporaries were struck by the literal correspondences of a number of his finds in the fourth shaft tomb in Mycenae with descriptions of Homer. The impression was so strong that the era of Homer began to be associated for a long time with the heyday of Achaean Greece in the 14th-13th centuries BC. In the poems, however, there are also numerous archaeologically attested cultural features of the “heroic age,” such as the mention of iron tools and weapons or the custom of cremation of the dead.

A comparison of the evidence of the Homeric epos with the data of archeology confirms the conclusions of many researchers that in its final version it took shape in the 8th century BC., Many researchers consider the Catalog of Ships to be the oldest part of the epos (Iliad, 2nd song) . Obviously, the poems were not created at the same time: the Iliad reflects the concept of a person of the “heroic period”, the Odyssey stands at the turn of another era - the time of the Great Greek colonization, when the borders of the world mastered by Greek culture expanded.

Homer in antiquity

For a man of antiquity, Homer's poems were a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism, a source of wisdom and knowledge of all aspects of life - from military art to practical morality. Homers, along with Hesiod, were considered the creator of a comprehensive and orderly mythological picture of the universe: poets “compiled the genealogies of the gods for the Hellenes, provided epithets for the names of the gods, shared their dignities and occupations, drew their images” (Herodotus). According to Strabo, Homer was the only one of the poets of antiquity who knew almost everything about the ecumenical community, about the peoples inhabiting it, their origin, lifestyle and culture. The data of Homer as true and trustworthy were used by Thucydides, Pausanias, Plutarch. The father of the tragedy, Aeschylus called his dramas "crumbs from the great feasts of Homer."

Homer Translations

In the 3rd century BC e. the Roman poet Livy Andronic translated the Odyssey into Latin. In medieval Europe, Homer was known only by quotations and references from Latin writers and Aristotle, Homer's poetic fame was overshadowed by the glory of Virgil. Only at the end of the 15th century. Homer's first translations into Italian appeared (Angelo Poliziano and others). An event in European culture of the 18th century. Homer began translating into English by Alexander Pop and into German by I. G. Foss. For the first time, fragments of the Iliad were translated into Russian by the twenty-complex syllabic - the so-called Alexandria - a verse by Mikhail Lomonosov. At the end of the 18th century. E. Kostrov translated iambic the first six songs of the Iliad (1787); Prose translations of the Iliad by P. Ekimov and Odyssey by P. Sokolov were published.

The titanic work on the creation of the Russian hexameter and adequate reproduction of the image system of Homer was done by N. I. Gnedich, whose translation of the Iliad (1829) still remains unsurpassed in accuracy of philological interpretation and historical interpretation. The highest artistic skill is the translation of the Odyssey by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1842-49). In the 20th century, “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Gmer were translated by Russian writer Vikentiy Vikentyevich Veresaev.

(approximately VIII century BC. - VIII century BC., island of Ios)

Biography

Homer is the legendary ancient Greek poet and storyteller, who is credited with creating the Iliad and Odyssey.

About the life and personality of Homer reliably nothing is known. It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the VI century BC. e., when their existence is reliably recorded. The chronological period in which modern science localizes the life of Homer is approximately the 8th century BC. e.

Homer's birthplace is unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. According to Herodotus and Pausanias, Homer died on the island of Ios in the Cyclades archipelago. Probably, the Iliad and Odyssey were built on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, inhabited by Ionian tribes, or on one of the adjacent islands. However, the Homeric dialect does not provide accurate information about the tribal affiliation of Homer, as it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that the Homeric dialect is one of the forms of poetic koyne, formed long before Homer's estimated lifetime.

In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works, undoubtedly created later: “Homer Anthems”, the comic poem “Margit”, etc.

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first encountered in the 7th century BC, when Cullin of Ephesus called it the author of Thebes) was tried to explain in antiquity, and the options were “hostage” (Hesychius) and “following” (Aristotle) or “blind man” (Efor Kimsky), “but all of these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to ascribe to him the meaning of“ composer ”or“ accompanist ”. This word in its Ionian form ?????? - almost certainly a real personal name.

Bibliography

Iliad
- Odyssey

Film adaptations

1911 - Odyssey / L "Odissea
1924 - Helena
1954 - The Wanderings of Odyssey / Ulisse
1956 - Helen of Troy
1968 - The Adventures of Odyssey / L "odissea
1987 - The Odyssey
1991 - Odyssey / L "odissea
1995 - The Odyssey Look / To vlemma tou Odyssea
1995 - Achilles / Achilles
1997 - The Odyssey
2003 - Helen of Troy
2003 - Odyssey / L "odyssee
2004 - Troy / Troy
2008 - Odysseus and the Cyclops
2012 - The Odyssey

Interesting Facts

* In the middle of the 19th century, the prevailing opinion in science was that the Iliad and Odyssey were unhistorical. However, the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann on the hill of Gissarlyk and in Mycenae showed that this is not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, in which certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War are found. Deciphering the syllable Mycenaean writing (Linear B) gave a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and Odyssey were taking place, although no literary fragments of this writing were found. Nevertheless, the data of Homer's poems are complexly correlated with existing archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data of the “oral theory” indicate very large distortions that should arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.
* The education system in ancient Greece that developed at the end of the classical era was built on the study of Homer's poems. They memorized partially or even completely, recitals were arranged on its topics, etc. This system was borrowed by Rome, where Homer is from the 1st century AD. n e. Virgil occupied. In the post-classical era, large hexametric poems were created in Homeric dialect in imitation or as a competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are the “Argonautics” of Apollonius of Rhodes, the “Post-Homer Events” of Quintus of Smyrna and the “Adventures of Dionysus” Nonna Panopolitansky. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, refrained from a large epic form, believing that "in large rivers there is murky water" (Callimachus), that is, only in a small work can perfect perfection be achieved.
* In the literature of Ancient Rome, the first surviving (fragmentary) work is the translation of the Odyssey, made by the Greek Livy Andronik. The main work of Roman literature - the heroic epic Virgil's Aeneid - is an imitation of the Odyssey (first 6 books) and the Iliad (last 6 books). The influence of Homeric poems can be seen in almost all works of ancient literature.
* In Byzantium, Homer was well known and thoroughly studied. Until now, dozens of complete Byzantine manuscripts of Homeric poems have been preserved, which is unprecedented for works of ancient literature. In addition, Byzantine scholars rewrote, compiled, and created scholia and commentary on Homer. The commentary of Archbishop Eustathius on the Iliad and Odyssey in the modern critical edition occupies seven volumes. In the last period of the existence of the Byzantine Empire and after its collapse, Greek manuscripts and scholars go to the West, and the Renaissance rediscovers Homer.
* Homer question - a set of problems related to the authorship of the ancient Greek epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" and the personality of Homer. Many scholars, called "pluralists", argued that the Iliad and Odyssey in their present form are not the works of Homer (many even believed that Homer did not exist at all), but were created in the 6th century. BC e., probably in Athens, when the songs of different authors were brought together and recorded from generation to generation. The so-called "Unitaries" defended the compositional unity of the poem, and thereby the uniqueness of its author.
* Dante Alighieri puts Homer in the first round of Hell as a virtuous non-Christian.
* A crater on Mercury is named after Homer.
* Lomonosov translated fragments from Homer, the first large poetic translation (six books of the Iliad by Alexandrian verse) belongs to Yermil Kostrov. Especially important for Russian culture is the translation of the Iliad by Nikolai Gnedich, which was made from the original with particular care and very talented (according to reviews by Pushkin and Belinsky). Homer was also translated by V. A. Zhukovsky, V. V. Veresaev and P. A. Shuisky.

Biography

Homer is considered a legendary poet, because we are not reliably aware of anything about him. He was the author of two heroic poems of antiquity, the Iliad and Odyssey, which are among the first monuments of world literature.

First of all, you need to find out what the Greeks themselves knew about Homer. There are nine biographies of Homer in ancient literature, but all of them contain fabulous and fantastic elements. There is evidence that in the first half of the VI century. BC. the Athenian legislator Solon ordered Homer’s poems to be performed at the Panathenaic festival and that in the second half of the same century, the tyrant Pisistratus convened a commission of four to record Homer's poems. From this we can conclude that already in the VI century. BC. Homer's text was well known, although what kind of works they were was not exactly established.

There is no consensus on Homer's birthplace. According to the ancient tradition, the “seven cities” (Chios, Smyrna, Colophon, Salamin, Rhodes, Argos, Athens) argued for the honor of being called Homeland. Although the vast majority of sources still attribute it to the city of Chios in Ionia. At the same time, other cities of Ionia are also called.

Poems are written in the so-called Homeric dialect. But he does not give us exact information about the tribal affiliation of Homer, since it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language.

There was no consensus on Homer's life either. Various Greek writers attributed his life to centuries, from XII to VI BC

A serious study of Homer's poems began in the Hellenistic era in the 4th – 2nd centuries. BC. The study of his poems was carried out by a number of scholars of the Alexandria Library, among whom are especially famous: Zenodotus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus of Samothrace, Didim. But they do not provide any accurate biographical information about Homer.

The general and popular opinion of all antiquity about Homer was that it was an old and blind singer who, inspired by the muse, led a wandering lifestyle and himself composed both two poems known to us and many other poems.

Homer question.

Science has always been interested in the question: who is the author of The Odyssey and the Iliad? In the ancient period, most scholars believed that of the entire heroic epic, Homer owns only the Iliad and the Odyssey. At the same time, scientists were found who drew attention to the presence of some significant differences between the poems and concluded from this that they could not belong to one author. Such scholars were called "chorizonts", i.e. delimiters. Among them, the most famous are Xenon and Gellanic.

Of great importance in the history of the Homeric question was the “Thesis on the Iliad” by the French abbot François D'Obignac (died in 1676), written in 1664, but published only 50 years later - in 1715. In this essay was first the idea was expressed that the Iliad was not a work of one author, but a combination of songs by different singers, collected long before Pisistratus. Comparing all the information of the ancients about Homer, D’Obignyak concluded that Homer as an individual never existed, that the word "Homer" meant "blind man," and Homer's "Iliad" is "a collection of songs of the blind." Although until the end of the XVIII century. The general opinion prevailed that Homer was the sole author of the Iliad and Odyssey, a folk storyteller and performer of his works. In modern times, various theories arose about the authorship of these works. There are three main theories.

1. Theory of small songs. According to this theory, the songs are based on various songs of Aeds (singers), and Homer is just a rhapsody (stapler). The creator of this theory is F.A. Wolf (Wolf, 1759 - 1824). This point of view was held by K. Lahman, I.G. Fichte, W. Humboldt and F. Schlegel.
2. Theory is unitary (unity). The unitaries believed that all the works were written by one author. This theory was scientifically substantiated by G.V. Nitsch (Nitzsch, 1790 - 1861). This theory was adhered to by F. Hegel,
3. The theory of the main grain. The theory of "unitary" is directly opposite to the "theory of small songs", its antithesis. As if their synthesis was the "theory of the main grain" (Kerntheorie), or the theory of gradual "expansion". Its essence lies primarily in the recognition of two opposite features of the structure of poems - unity, i.e. harmonious artistic plan, which gives integrity to poems, and diversity, i.e. various deviations from the main plan. Gottfried Hermann (Hermann, 1772 - 1848) became the creator of this theory, and this theory was further developed by the English historian George Grotto (Grote, 1794 - 1871). In Russian science, P.M. Leontiev, S.P. Shestakov, F.G. Mishchenko, F.F. Zelinsky, L.F. Voevodsky, A.A. Zakharov.

In the 1960s, American researchers passed all the songs of the Iliad through a computer, which showed that the author of this poem was alone.

Interesting facts from life

* In antiquity, Homer was considered a sage: "Wiser than all Hellenes taken together." He was considered the founder of philosophical thought, a philosophical poet. In his poems they saw the beginning of geography, physics, mathematics, medicine and aesthetics.

Bibliography

* Iliad
* Odyssey

Films, theatrical productions

* Ulysses (in the national box office of Odyssey's Wanderings) (1953). Dir. M. Camerini.
* The Adventures of Odyssey (1969). Dir. F. Rossi.
* Odyssey (1997). Dir. A. Konchalovsky.
* Elena Troyanskaya (2003) Dir. D. Kent Harrison
* Troy (2004). Dir. V. Petersen.

Biography (ru.wikipedia.org)

About the life and personality of Homer reliably nothing is known.

Homer's birthplace is unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. According to Herodotus and Pausanias, Homer died on the island of Ios in the Cyclades archipelago. Probably, the Iliad and the Odyssey were built on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, inhabited by Ionian tribes, or on one of the adjacent islands. However, the Homeric dialect does not provide accurate information about the tribal affiliation of Homer, as it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that the Homeric dialect is one of the forms of poetic koyne, formed long before Homer's estimated lifetime.

Homer is traditionally portrayed as a blind man. Most likely, this idea does not come from the real facts of Homer's life, but represents a reconstruction characteristic of the genre of ancient biography. Since many prominent legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic, connecting the prophetic and poetic gift, the assumption of Homer's blindness seemed very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodok in Odyssey is blind from birth, which could also be perceived as autobiographical.

There is a legend about the poetic duel of Homer with Hesiod, described in the essay "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod," created no later than the third century. BC e., and according to many researchers, and much earlier. Poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea in games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read his best poems. King Paned, who acted as judge in the contest, awarded Hesiod the victory, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and battle. However, the sympathy of the audience was on the side of Homer.

In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works undoubtedly created later: “Homer hymns” (7th – 5th centuries BC, considered, along with Homer, as the most ancient examples of Greek poetry), the comic poem Margit, etc. .

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first encountered in the 7th century BC, when Cullin of Ephesus called it the author of Thebes) was tried to explain in antiquity, and the options were “hostage” (Hesychius) and “following” (Aristotle) or “blind man” (Efor Kimsky), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to ascribe to him the meaning of“ composer ”or“ accompanist ”. This word in its Ionian form ?????? “It's almost certainly a real personal name.”

Homer question

Antique period

Legends of this time claimed that Homer created his epic based on the poems of the poetess Fantasy of the times of the Trojan War.

"Analysts" and "Unitaries"

Until the end of the 18th century, European science was dominated by the view that Homer was the author of the Iliad and Odyssey, and that they were preserved in approximately the form in which they were created (however, the abbot d'Aubignac in 1664 in his Conjectures academiques ”argued that the Iliad and the Odyssey are a series of independent songs compiled by Lycurgus in Sparta of the 8th century BC). However, in 1788, J. B. Viloison published the scholars for the "Iliad" from the Venetus A codex, which in their volume significantly exceeded the poem itself and contained hundreds of variations belonging to ancient philologists (mainly Zenodotus, Aristophanes and Aristarchus). After this publication, it became clear that the Alexandrian philologists considered hundreds of lines of Homeric poems doubtful or even authentic. they did not delete them from the manuscripts, but marked them with a special sign. The reading of the scholias also led to the conclusion that the text of Homer that we have is related to Hellenistic time, and not to the alleged period of the poet's life. Based on these facts and other considerations (he believed that the Homeric era was unwritten, and therefore the poet could not write a poem of this length), Friedrich August Wolf put forward the hypothesis that both poems are very significant, radical changed in the process of being. Thus, according to Wolf, it is impossible to say that the Iliad and the Odyssey belong to any one author.

The formation of the text of the Iliad (in its more or less modern form) Wolf refers to the VI century BC. e. Indeed, according to a number of ancient authors (including Cicero), Homer's poems were first brought together and recorded at the direction of the Athenian tyrant Pisistratos or his son Hipparchus. This so-called “Pisistratic edition” was needed to streamline the performance of the Iliad and Odyssey at the Panathenaeans. In favor of the analytical approach, contradictions in the texts of poems, the presence in them of layers of different times, extensive deviations from the main plot testified.

On how exactly Homer's poems were formed, analysts made various assumptions. Karl Lachmann believed that the Iliad was created from several songs of a small size (the so-called "theory of small songs"). Gottfried Hermann, on the contrary, believed that each poem arose through the gradual expansion of a small song, to which all new material was added (the so-called "theory of the original core").

Wolf's opponents (the so-called “Unitaries”) put forward a number of counterarguments. Firstly, the version of the “writing editorial office” was called into question, since all reports about it were quite late. This legend could appear in Hellenistic times by analogy with the activities of the then monarchs, who cared about the acquisition of various manuscripts (see the Library of Alexandria). Secondly, contradictions and deviations do not indicate multiple authorship, as they inevitably occur in large works. The Unitarians proved the unity of the author of each of the poems, emphasizing the integrity of the design, the beauty and symmetry of the composition in the Iliad and Odyssey.

Oral Theory and Neoanalysts

The assumption that Homer's poems were transmitted orally, since the author lived in an unwritten time, was made in ancient times; since there was evidence that in the VI century BC. e. the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus instructed to develop the official text of Homeric poems.

In the 1930s, American professor Milman Perry organized two expeditions to study the South Slavic epic in order to compare this tradition with the texts of Homer. As a result of this large-scale study, an “oral theory” was formulated, also called the “Parry-Lord theory” (A. Lord is the successor to the work of the early deceased M. Perry). According to oral theory, in Homer's poems there are certain features of oral epic narration, the most important of which is a system of poetic formulas. Each time an oral narrator creates a song anew, but considers himself only a performer. Two songs on one plot, even if they are radically different in length and verbal expression, from the point of view of the narrator - the same song, only "performed" in different ways. Narrators are illiterate, since the notion of a fixed text is fatal to improvisational technique.

Thus, from oral theory it follows that the text of the Iliad and Odyssey acquired a fixed form during the life of their great author or authors (that is, Homer). The classic version of the oral theory involves writing these poems under dictation, since if the oral transmission were part of an improvisational tradition, their text would radically change already at the next performance. However, there are other explanations. Whether both poems are created by one or two authors, the theory does not explain.

In addition, oral theory confirms the ancient belief that "there were many poets before Homer." Indeed, the technique of oral epic narration is the result of a long, obviously centuries-old development, and does not reflect the individual features of the author of poems.

Neoanalysts are not modern representatives of analyticism. Neoanalysis is a direction in home science that deals with the identification of earlier poetic layers that the author of (each of) poems used. The Iliad and Odyssey are compared with cyclical poems that have come down to our time in paraphrases and fragments. Thus, the neoanalytical approach does not contradict the prevailing oral theory. The most prominent of modern neoanalysts is the German researcher Wolfgang Kuhlmann, the author of the monograph Sources of the Iliad.

Art Features

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the "law of chronological incompatibility" formulated by Faddey Frantsevich Zelinsky. It consists in the following: “In Homer, a story never returns to its point of departure. It follows that the parallel actions of Homer cannot be depicted; Homer's poetic technique knows only a simple, linear, and not a double, square dimension. ” Thus, sometimes parallel events are depicted as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even hushed up. This explains some of the alleged contradictions in the text of the poem.

Researchers note the connectedness of the works, the consistent development of the action and the whole images of the main characters. Comparing the verbal art of Homer with the visual art of that era, one often speaks of the geometric style of poems. However, on the unity of the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, opposing opinions are expressed in the spirit of analyticism.

The style of both poems can be described as formulaic. In this case, a formula is understood not as a set of stamps, but as a system of flexible (variable) expressions that are associated with a certain metric place of a string. Thus, one can speak of a formula even when a certain phrase occurs only once in a text, but it can be shown that it was part of this system. In addition to the actual formulas, there are repeating fragments of several lines. For example, when one hero retells the speeches of another, the text can be reproduced again completely or almost verbatim.

Homer is characterized by composite epithets (“swift”, “pink-toed”, “thunderer”); the significance of these and other epithets should not be considered situationally, but within the framework of the traditional formula system. So, the Achaeans are “magnificent” even if they are described not in armor, but Achilles is “swift” even during rest.

The historical basis of Homer's poems

In the middle of the 19th century, the prevailing opinion in science was that the Iliad and Odyssey were unhistorical. However, the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann on the hill of Gissarlyk and in Mycenae showed that this is not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, in which certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War are found. Deciphering the syllable Mycenaean writing (Linear B) gave a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and Odyssey were taking place, although no literary fragments of this writing were found. Nevertheless, the data of Homer's poems are complexly correlated with existing archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data of the “oral theory” indicate very large distortions that should arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.

Homer in world culture

In Europe

The educational system in ancient Greece that developed at the end of the classical era was based on the study of Homer's poems. They memorized partially or even completely, recitals were arranged on its topics, etc. This system was borrowed by Rome, where Homer is from the 1st century AD. n e. Virgil occupied. In the post-classical era, large hexametric poems were created in Homeric dialect in imitation or as a competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are the “Argonautics” of Apollonius of Rhodes, the “Post-Homer Events” of Quintus of Smyrna and the “Adventures of Dionysus” Nonna Panopolitansky. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, refrained from a large epic form, believing that "in large rivers there is murky water" (Callimachus), that is, that only in a small work can perfect perfection be achieved.

In the literature of Ancient Rome, the first surviving (fragmentary) work is the translation of the Odyssey, made by the Greek Livy Andronik. The main work of Roman literature - the heroic epic Virgil's Aeneid, is an imitation of the Odyssey (first 6 books) and the Iliad (last 6 books). The influence of Homeric poems can be seen in almost all works of ancient literature.

Homer is hardly known in the Western Middle Ages because of too weak contacts with Byzantium and lack of knowledge of the ancient Greek language, however, the hexametric heroic epic remains of great importance in culture thanks to Virgil.

In Byzantium, Homer was well known and thoroughly studied. Until now, dozens of complete Byzantine manuscripts of Homeric poems have been preserved, which is unprecedented for works of ancient literature. In addition, Byzantine scholars rewrote, compiled, and created scholia and commentary on Homer. The commentary of Archbishop Eustathius on the Iliad and Odyssey in the modern critical edition occupies seven volumes. In the last period of the existence of the Byzantine Empire and after its collapse, Greek manuscripts and scholars fall to the West, and the Renaissance rediscovers Homer.

Dante Alighieri puts Homer in the first round of Hell as a virtuous non-Christian.

In honor of Homer, a crater on Mercury is named.

In Russia

Fragments from Homer were also translated by Lomonosov, the first large poetic translation (six books of the Iliad by Alexandrian verse) belongs to Yermil Kostrov (1787). Especially important for Russian culture is the translation of the Iliad by Nikolai Gnedich (completed in 1829), which was made from the original with particular care and very talented (according to reviews by Pushkin and Belinsky).

Homer was also translated by V. A. Zhukovsky, V. V. Veresaev and P. A. Shuisky (Odyssey, 1948, Ural University Press, circulation of 900 copies)

Literature

Texts and translations

* Russian prose translation: Complete collection of Homer's creations. / Per. G. Yanchevetsky. Revel, 1895. 482 pp. (Supplement to the journal "Gymnasium")
* In the Loeb classical library series, compositions are published in 5 volumes (No. 170-171 - Iliad, No. 104-105 - Odyssey); and No. 496, Homer Anthems, Homeric Apocrypha, Homer's biographies.
* In the collection Bude series, the compositions are published in 9 volumes: The Iliad (introduction and 4 volumes), The Odyssey (3 volumes) and hymns.
* Krause V.M. Homer Dictionary (to the Iliad and the Odyssey). Over 130 pics in the text and the map of Troy. SPb., A.S. Suvorin. 1880.532 stb. (example of a pre-revolutionary school publication)
* Part I. Greece // Ancient literature. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University, 2004. - T. I. - ISBN 5-8465-0191-5

Monographs about Homer

* bibliography see also in the articles: Iliad and Odyssey
* Petrushevsky D. M. Society and the State at Homer. M., 1913.
* Zelinsky F.F. Homer psychology. Pg., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences, 1920.
* Altman M. S. Remnants of the clan system in Homer’s own names. (Proceedings of GAIMK. Issue 124). M.-L.: OGIZ, 1936. 164 p. 1000 copies.
* Freidenberg O. M. Myth and literature of antiquity. M .: Vost. lit. 1978. 2nd ed., Ext. M., 2000.
* Tolstoy I.I. Aeda: Ancient creators and carriers of an ancient epic. M .: Nauka, 1958. 63 pp.
* Losev A.F. Homer. M .: GUPI, 1960.352 p. 9 i.e.
* 2nd ed. (Series “Life of wonderful people”). M .: Mol. Guards., 1996 \u003d 2006. 400 p.
* Varkho V.N. Wines and responsibility in the Homeric epos. Bulletin of Ancient History, 1962, No. 2, p. 4-26.
* Sugar N. L. Homer epic. M .: HL, 1976. 397 pp. 10,000 copies.
* Gordesiani R.V. Problems of the Homeric epic. Tb .: Publishing house Tbil. Univ., 1978. 394 pp. 2000 copies.
* Stahl I.V. The Artistic World of Homer's Epic. M .: Nauka, 1983. 296 pp. 6900 copies.
* Cunliffe R. J. A lexicon of the homeric dialect. L., 1924.
* Leumann M. Homerische Wurter. Basel 1950.
* Treu M. Von Homer zur Lyrik. Munchen, 1955.
* Whitman C.H. Homer and the heroic tradition. Oxford, 1958.
* Lord A. The Storyteller. M., 1994.

Front desk Homer:
* Egunov A.N. Homer in Russian translations of the XVIII-XIX centuries. M.-L., 1964. (2nd ed.) M.: Indrik, 2001.

The Greek poet Homer was born approximately between the 12th and 18th centuries BC. He is famous for the epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", which had a huge impact on the European literary tradition. What else is known about Homer, as about their alleged author - read on.

Homer question

Homer's biography is still a mystery, since the real facts of his life are unknown. Some scholars believe it was one man; others think that these iconic works were created by a whole group of poets.

Homer's literary style, whoever he is, falls more into the category of poet-storyteller, in contrast to the image of the lyric poet, for example, like Virgil or Shakespeare. There are recurring elements in these stories, almost like in a song refrain, which may suggest the presence of a musical component. Nevertheless, Homer's works are designated as epic rather than lyrical poetry.

It was also not possible to determine the exact place where Homer was born, although scientists still do not give up attempts. It has long been said that seven cities claimed the title of native to the poet: these are Smyrna, Ithaca, Colophon, Argos, Pylos, Athens, Chios. But scholars are close to the view that Homer was originally from Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) or lived near Chios, an island in the eastern Aegean.

All this speculation about who he was ultimately led to what is now known as the “Homer question”: did Homer really exist? This is today and is considered one of the greatest literary puzzles. But although all these issues related to authorship may never be resolved, a poet named Homer - fictional or real - is still revered due to his epic works that have had a great influence on the poetry of the whole world: “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

In fact, with such a colossal lack of information, almost every aspect of Homer's biography originates from his creations. For example, the fact that Homer was blind - this statement is based solely on the character of the Odyssey, a blind storyteller named Demodok.

Homer's famous poems

The Iliad and the Odyssey can be called the basis of all modern literature, and the poet himself is its forefather. These poems embody spirituality, wisdom, justice and courage. For many, Homer's creations became the very first books - according to them, in ancient Greece, children were often taught to read. Translations of these poems into Latin appeared in the III century BC. e., although the first translation into Russian is already in the XVIII century.

The name "Iliad" comes from "Ilion" - the second name of the city of Troy. In the poem, Homer describes an excerpt from the history of the ten-year Trojan War: the last forty-nine days before the fall of Troy. The central character of the poem is a revenge for the murdered friend of Patroclus Achilles, a strong and valiant warrior.

Despite the fact that Homer's poem "The Iliad" is replete with battle scenes, the main message of this poem is humanistic. Here, even Zeus admits his dislike of the god of war, just as Achilles condemns any war except defensive.

In The Odyssey, Homer tells us about the post-war period - a long and adventurous return from the Trojan War. The protagonist of the poem, another hero of Greek mythology, Odysseus, ten years after the end of the war, is still looking for a way back to his homeland and finds himself in different stories. Unlike the strong and brave Achilles of The Iliad, the main trump card of Odysseus is his sharp mind, thanks to which he managed to get out of more than one mess, and even help others.

The poem is built in a light, fabulously domestic genre. It reveals remarkable features of everyday life, material culture, customs and traditions, as well as the organization of society in ancient Greece.

Although in general modern science is inclined to attribute only the Iliad and the Odyssey to the works of the ancient Greek poet, Homer, according to some scholars, is considered the author of poems entitled The War of Mice and Frogs, Margit, as well as a collection of thirty-three divine hymns called "Homer hymns."

And now we offer you to listen to an interesting discussion of Homer's poem Iliad in the following video:

Take it to yourself, tell your friends!

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 5

✪ Homer and the Homeric question (narrated by philologist Nikolai Grinzer)

✪ Homer's poem, The Odyssey. General History Video Lesson Grade 5

✪ Homer's poem, The Iliad. General History Video Lesson Grade 5

✪ Homer - O D I S C E I (audiobook part 1)

Subtitles

Biography

About the life and personality of Homer reliably nothing is known.

There is a legend about the poetic duel of Homer with Hesiod, described in the essay "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod," created no later than the third century. BC e. , and according to many researchers, much earlier. Poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea in games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read his best poems. King Paned, who was the judge in the contest, awarded Hesiod the victory, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and battle. At the same time, the audience sympathized with Homer.

In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works, undoubtedly created later: “Homer hymns” (VII-V centuries BC, along with Homer are considered the oldest examples of Greek poetry), the comic poem “Margit” and others .

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first encountered in the 7th century BC, when Cullin of Ephesus called him the author of “Thebaids”) was tried to explain in antiquity, the options “hostage” (Hesychius), “following” (Aristotle) \u200b\u200bwere offered or “blind man” (Efor Kimsky), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to ascribe to him the meaning of“ composer ”or“ accompanist ”.<…> This word in its Ionian form Ομηρος is almost certainly a real personal name. ”

Homer question

The set of problems associated with the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey, their occurrence and fate until the time of recording, was called the “Homer Question”. It arose even in antiquity, for example, then there were allegations that Homer created his epic based on the poems of the poetess Fantasy of the times of the Trojan War.

"Analysts" and "Unitaries"

Art Features

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the "law of chronological incompatibility" formulated by Faddey Frantsevich Zelinsky. It is that “in Homer, a story never returns to its point of departure. It follows that the parallel actions of Homer cannot be depicted; Homer's poetic technique knows only a simple, linear, and not a double, square dimension. ” Thus, sometimes parallel events are depicted as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even hushed up. This explains some of the alleged contradictions in the text of the poem.

The historical basis of Homer's poems

In the middle of the 19th century, the prevailing opinion in science was that the Iliad and Odyssey were unhistorical. However, the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann on the hill of Gissarlyk and in Mycenae showed that this is not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, in which certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War are found. Deciphering the syllable Mycenaean writing (Linear B) gave a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and the Odyssey were taking place, although no literary fragments of this writing were found. Nevertheless, the data of Homer's poems are complexly correlated with existing archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data of the “oral theory” indicate very large distortions that should arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.

According to modern opinion, the world of Homeric poems reflects a realistic picture of the life of the last time of the period of the ancient Greek "dark centuries".

Homer in world culture

The influence of the Homeric poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" on the ancient Greeks is compared with the Bible for the Jews.

In the post-classical era, large hexametric poems were created in Homeric dialect in imitation or as a competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are the “Argonautics” of Apollonius of Rhodes, the “Post-Homer Events” of Quintus of Smyrna and the “Adventures of Dionysus” Nonna Panopolitansky. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, refrained from a large epic form, believing that "in large rivers there is murky water" (Callimachus) - that only in a small work can perfect perfection be achieved.

Literature

Texts and translations

See the Iliad and Odyssey articles for more information. see also: en: English translations of Homer

With the advent of printing, in 1488 in Florence, Demetrius Chalkocondilus first published the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Russian prose translation: Complete Collection of Homer's Creations. / Per. G. Yanchevetsky. Revel, 1895. 482 pp. (Supplement to the journal "Gymnasium")
In the Loeb classical library series, the compositions are published in 5 volumes (No. 170-171 - Iliad, No. 104-105 - Odyssey); and No. 496, Homer Anthems, Homeric Apocrypha, Homer's biographies.
In the Collection Budé series, compositions are published in 9 volumes: The Iliad (introduction and 4 volumes), The Odyssey (3 volumes) and hymns.
Krause V.M. Homer Dictionary (to the Iliad and the Odyssey). Over 130 pics in the text and the map of Troy. SPb., A.S. Suvorin. 1880.532 stb. ( example of a pre-revolutionary school publication)
Part I. Greece // Ancient literature. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University, 2004. - T. I. - ISBN 5-8465-0191-5.

Monographs about Homer

bibliography see also in the articles: Iliad and Odyssey

Petrushevsky D.M. Homer society and state. M., 1913.
Zelinsky F.F. Homer psychology. Pg., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences, 1920.
Altman M.S. Remnants of the clan system in Homer's own names. (Proceedings of GAIMK. Issue 124). M.-L.: OGIZ, 1936. 164 p. 1000 copies.
Freidenberg O.M. The myth and literature of antiquity. M .: Vost. lit. 1978. 2nd ed., Ext. M., 2000.
Tolstoy I.I. Aeds: Ancient creators and carriers of the ancient epic. M .: Nauka, 1958. 63 pp.
Losev A.F. Homer. M .: GUPI, 1960.352 p. 9 i.e.
- 2nd ed. (Series “Life of wonderful people”). M .: Mol. Guards., 1996 \u003d 2006. 400 p.
Yarkho V.N. Guilt and responsibility in the Homeric epic. Bulletin of Ancient History, 1962, No. 2, p. 4-26.
Sugar N. L. Homer epic. M .: HL, 1976. 397 pp. 10,000 copies.
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