Лекция курсы lecture 1 The Problems of the Lecture

2. Poems by Homer “The Iliad” and “Odyssey”

Homer is traditionally considered as the ancient Greek poet who composed the great epics “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”. Scholars know almost nothing about Homer. Some believe that he may have lived in a Greek speaking city on the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea, or on the island of Khios. Other scholars deny that he ever existed. According to tradition he was blind.

Homer’s poems. The events in “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” occur during and after the Trojan war. The legend of the war may be based on an actual war fought between Greece and the city of Troy in the mid-1200’s BC. Many scholars believe the poems were composed between 800 and 700 BC, because the poems refer to social conditions at that time.
Archaelogists have discovered evidence in the ruins of Troy and ancient Greece that confirms the historical basis for some things described in the poems. But the poems’ characters and events-even if partly based on real people and historical incidents - were altered over the centuries in the retelling of folk tales and in the poems of singing poets called “bards”. The bards created a series of poems that told the entire story of the Trojan War. “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are the only ones that survive, probably because of their long and sophisticated form.
After Homer’s time, the two poems were recited as part of great religious festivals in Greece. Copies of the poems became the basic textbooks that Greek children used to learn to read and to study the legends and myths of ancient Greece. As a result, the Greeks formed their religious views from Homer’s portrayals of the gods and goddesses. His poems also furnished characters and plots for the great tragic dramatists of the 400’s BC.-Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles.
Early scholarship. The Greek people came to know Homer’s poems by hearing them recited or by reading handwritten copies by them. In making copies, writers sometimes made mistakes or deliberable changes in the text. By 300 BC many slightly different versions of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” existed in Greek.
From about 300 BC to about 100 BC scholars at the great Alexandrian Library in Egypt tried to correct the changes in the two poems and restore them to their original form. A few of scholars came to believe that the poems were the work of two different poets. These scholars, called separatists thought that the language, point of view, and subject matter of the two poems differed so greatly that they could not have been created by one person.
A second group of scholars, called unitarians, opposed against analysts. The unitarians insisted that both poems were the work of one poetic genuis or at most, of two great poets. They stressed the unified overall plan of the poems and the consistent character portrayals. The dispute between the analysts and the unitarians became known as the Homeric question. The Homeric question today has been greatly influenced by our increased knowledge of how oral poetry is created. During the 1930’s an American scholar named Milman Parry began studying the bards of Yugoslavia. These bards were illiterate, but they composed long poems orally. Parry pointed out the “The Iliad” and ”The Odyssey” share these characteristics, though on a much larger scale.
The Iliad is one of the oldest surviving Greek poems. “The Iliad” describes certain events in the final year of the Trojan War, According to legend; the Trojan War lasted 10 years, until Greece defeated Troy.
According to “The Iliad” the Trojan War was fought over Helen, the beautiful wife of king Menelaus of Sparta. Helen had been taken from Sparta to the city of Troy by Paris, a son of the Trojan king, Priam. Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon led an army of Greek heroes to bring Helen back to Sparta.
The Iliad is divided into 24 books (sections). The story covers 54 days. Most of the action takes place in the Greek camp, inside the walls of Troy and in nearby areas. A quarrel develops between Agamemnon and Achilles, the greatest of the young Greek heroes. Achilles feels he is not being adequately rewarded for his services to the Greeks. Agamemnon, in turn, feels that Achilles doesn’t have enough respect for his position as commander of the army. Achilles withdraws into his tent and refuses to fight. Without him the Greeks are driven back to the ships by Trojan forces led by Hector. Achilles’ closest friend, Patroclus, goes to fight in Achilles’ armor to help the Greeks. Hector kills Patroclus, which arouses Achilles to seek revenge. Achilles then kills Hector. He keeps Hector’s body, until Priam comes to plead with him. Achilles takes pity on Priam and gives him the body for proper burial. He story ends with Hector’s funeral.
For nearly 3000 years readers have found “The Iliad” a moving expression of the heroism, idealism and tragedy of war. In addition to the battle scenes, “The Iliad” tells about life within Troy. It describes the emotional farewell between Hector and his wife, Andromache, who foresees his death. The poem also deals with issues of honour and social obligation.