What famous work was Homer authored by? Brief biography of Homer. Homer Iliad Odyssey

Brief biography of the poet, basic facts of life and work:

HOMER (c. 8th century BC)

No information has been preserved about Homer's life. The biographies of the great poet available to researchers are of late origin and are of a legendary nature. There are eight ancient biographies of Homer. They are attributed, in particular, to Herodotus, Plutarch and other authors.

Since the 18th century, there have been debates about whether Homer existed at all and whether he created the Iliad and Odyssey. In literary studies, this ongoing debate is called the “Homeric question.” Pluralist scholars argue that in the 6th century BC. The songs of various rhapsodists - storytellers of epic works, or in the modern sense - poets, passed down from generation to generation, were collected together and recorded. Unitarian scholars defend the uniqueness of the author of the poems and refer primarily to the compositional unity of great works.

Many cities and islands of Greece claim the right to be considered the birthplace of Homer - including Ios, Ithaca, Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos, Rhodes and others. The ancient Greeks themselves usually named seven cities that competed for the honor of being called the poet’s homeland - Kuma, Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Paphos, Argos and Athens. In our time, a version has emerged that Homer was born, lived, died and was buried in Crimea.

The poet's parents were usually called gods or legendary heroes. Among Homer’s fathers are the great singers Musaeus and Orpheus, the god Apollo and the god of the river Meletus (Homer’s first name “Melesigenes” - “born of Meletus”), the hero Telemachus (son of Odysseus) and others. Metis, Calliope, Eumetis and other nymphs were called mothers.

A less romantic version claims that Homer’s parents were very wealthy Greeks from Asia Minor, who left their son a substantial fortune as an inheritance, which allowed him to devote himself entirely to creativity and never be in poverty.

Homer's lifetime is usually determined to be the 8th century BC. But the ancient Greek biographers of the poet also called the times of the Trojan War (presumably 1194-1184 BC), and various mythological events in the period from 1130 to 910 BC, and the times of the Spartan legislator Lycurgus (IX-VIII centuries BC) AD), and finally, the era of the Cimmerian invasion (VII century BC).

Biographies tell us that Homer became blind in his youth (the word “Homer” in the Aeolian dialect means “blind”; it should be noted that this word has other meanings - “poet”, “prophet”, “hostage”).

Most researchers agree that Homer led a wandering lifestyle (he walked mainly along the Asia Minor coast) and took part in many rhapsodist competitions.

Pseudo-biographies suggest that Homer's life was most likely connected with the ancient city of Smyrna (now the Turkish city of Izmir) and with the island of Chios (it was here that a special kind of Homerid singers - rhapsodes - were formed, who considered themselves direct descendants and followers of Homer).

By the time of Homer's birth, one can determine whether he knew writing and whether his works were written down during the author's lifetime. Apparently, the Greeks did not have writing at the time of Homer. The works of the great rhapsode were passed on from mouth to mouth for centuries until they were first recorded through the efforts of Lycurgus.

The fact that Homer's works were recorded late greatly complicates the problem of his authorship. Even during the time of Alexander the Great, in addition to the “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, other works were attributed to the poet - the so-called “cyclic” poems (closely related to the myths of the Trojan War) - “The Little Iliad”, “The Destruction of Ilion”, “Cypria” and others ; thirty-three "Homeric hymns"; comic epics “The War of Mice and Frogs” (“Batrachomyomachy”) and “Margit”; poems “Amazonia”, “Arachnomachy” (“War of the Spiders”), “Heranomachy” (“War of the Cranes”).

Nowadays, most experts recognize only the Iliad and Odyssey as the works of Homer. The plot of both poems is closely related to the Trojan War that occurred approximately five hundred years before the birth of Homer (approximately in the 12th century BC). Mycenaean Achaean warriors (Achaeans were one of the main ancient Greek tribes that lived in Thessaly and the Peloponnese) captured and plundered the Asia Minor city of Troy. In itself, this event is of little significance in history - another episode in the struggle between the peoples of Asia and Europe. Subsequently, Troy (if we count the ruins found by Heinrich Schliemann as Homeric Troy) was repeatedly ravaged, destroyed and rebuilt. However, for some reason this particular event was imprinted in the folk memory of the Greeks as something grandiose. It can be assumed that even before Homer, the predecessor rhapsodists created works about the destruction of Troy. They have not survived and could hardly compete with Homeric creations.

Homer was the first in world literature to apply the principle of synecdoche (part instead of the whole). Each poem describes only certain key events. As a result, the Iliad, for example, tells only about 51 days of the ten-year Trojan War, and of these, the events of only 9 days are fully described.

The basis of Homer's poetics is hexameter - six-foot dactyl. The ancient Greeks claimed that the hexameter was given to the rhapsodes by the god Dionysus, who spoke to mortals only in verse. To speak in hexameter meant to speak in the “language of the gods.”

In fact, the hexameter was most likely formed in Delphi and was used in composing hymns in honor of the gods and for pronouncing prophecies of the Pythia.

The hexameter is designed primarily for auditory perception. According to experts, Homer’s listeners could perceive no more than a thousand lines of hexameter during one performance of the rhapsode, which took about two hours. Homer took this into account. Each of his poems is divided into 15-16 more or less complete and interconnected episodes.

Homer supposedly died on the island of Ios, where in ancient times travelers were shown his grave.

The fate of Homer's works is interesting. First of all, it is associated with the youngest son of the Spartan king Eunom - Lycurgus, the great legislator of Sparta. When Lycurgus was accused of wanting to overthrow his young nephew, King Charilaus, from the throne, the sage chose to go into voluntary exile and went traveling. In the cities of Asia Minor, Lycurgus first became acquainted with the works of Homer and highly appreciated their significance for the entire Greek people. It was he who first tried to collect individual fragments of poems into a single whole, rewrite them and distribute them throughout Greek cities.

Thanks to the efforts of Lycurgus, Homer became for the Greeks the greatest authority in poetry, morality, religion, and philosophy. The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus, a smart and noble man, one of the first who tried to stop democratic games in his hometown, set himself the goal of raising Athens as a pan-Hellenic cultural and religious center. For this purpose, by his order, a special commission was created to edit and record the Iliad and Odyssey. It is the texts of Pisistratus (although they have not reached us in the original) that are considered classic. They were preserved thanks to later lists.

Homer (8th century BC)

Homer is the name of the poet to whom the great ancient Greek epics “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are attributed. About the personality, homeland and time of life of Homer in antiquity and in modern times There were many conflicting hypotheses.

In Homer they saw either a type of singer, a “collector of songs”, a member of the “Homerid society”, or a real-life poet, historical figure. The latter assumption is supported by the fact that the word “gomer”, meaning “hostage” or “blind” (in the Kim dialect), could be a personal name.

There is much conflicting evidence about Homer's birthplace. From various sources it is known that seven cities had claims to be called the birthplace of the poet: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Ithaca, Pylos, Argos, Athens (and Kima, Ios and Salamis of Cyprus were also mentioned). Of all the cities that were recognized as the birthplace of Homer, Aeolian Smyrna is the earliest and most common. This version is probably based on folk tradition, and not on the speculation of grammarians. The version that the island of Chios was, if not his homeland, then the place where he lived and worked, is supported by the existence of the Homerid family there. These two versions are reconciled by one fact - the presence in the Homeric epic of both Aeolian and Ionic dialects, of which Ionic is predominant. The famous grammarian Aristarchus, based on the peculiarities of the language, the characteristic features of religious views and life, recognized Homer as a native of Attica.

The opinions of the ancients about the time of Homer's life are as varied as about the poet's homeland, and are based entirely on arbitrary assumptions. While critics of modern times attributed Homeric poetry to the 8th or mid-9th century BC. e., in ancient times Homer was considered a contemporary, on the one hand, of the Trojan War, which Alexandrian chronologists dated to 1193-1183 BC. e., on the other hand - Archilochus (second half of the 7th century BC).

The stories about the life of Homer are partly fabulous, partly they are the fruit of the speculations of scientists. Thus, according to the Smyrna legend, Homer’s father was the god of the river Meletus, his mother was the nymph Creteida, and his teacher was the Smyrna rhapsode Phemius.

The legend of Homer's blindness is based on one fragment of a hymn to Apollo of Delos, attributed to Homer, or, perhaps, on the meaning of the word "Homer" (see above). In addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, the so-called “epic cycle”, the poem “The Taking of Oichalia”, 34 hymns, the comic poems “Margate” and “The War of Mice and Frogs”, epigrams and epithalamies were attributed to Homer in ancient times. But the Alexandrian grammarians considered Homer the author of only the Iliad and the Odyssey, and even then with great assumptions, and some of them recognized these poems as the works of different poets.

In addition to the “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, hymns, epigrams and the poem “The War of Mice and Frogs” have survived to this day from the mentioned works. According to modern experts, epigrams and hymns are the works of various authors from different times, at least much later than the time of the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey. The poem “The War of Mice and Frogs,” as a parody of the heroic epic, already for this very reason belongs to a relatively late time (Pigret of Halicarnassus was also called its author - 5th century BC).

Be that as it may, the Iliad and the Odyssey are the oldest monuments of Greek literature and the most perfect examples of epic poetry in the world. Their content covers one part of the great Trojan cycle of legends. The Iliad tells of the anger of Achilles and the consequences that arose in connection with this, expressed in the deaths of Patroclus and Hector. Moreover, the poem shows only a fragment (49 days) of the ten-year Greek war for Troy. "Odyssey" glorifies the hero's return to his homeland after 10 years of wandering. (We will not retell the plots of these poems. Readers have the opportunity to enjoy these works, since the translations are excellent: “The Iliad” - N. Gnedich, “The Odyssey” - V. Zhukovsky.)

Homeric poems were preserved and disseminated through oral transmission through professional, hereditary singers (aeds), who formed a special society on the island of Chios. These singers, or rhapsodists, not only conveyed poetic material, but also supplemented it with their own creativity. Of particular importance in the history of the Homeric epic were the so-called rhapsod competitions, held in the cities of Greece during the festivities.

The controversy over the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey and the semi-fantastic image of Homer gave rise to the so-called Homeric question in science (still debatable). It includes a set of problems - from authorship to the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic, including the relationship between folklore and the actual literary creativity. After all, the first thing that catches your eye in Homer’s texts is the stylistic devices characteristic of oral poetry: repetitions (it is estimated that repeated epithets, characteristics of identical situations, entire descriptions of identical actions, repeated speeches of heroes make up about one third of the entire text of the Iliad) , leisurely storytelling.

The total volume of the Iliad is about 15,700 verses, that is, lines. Some researchers believe that these poems are so delicately constructed into an impeccable composition that a blind poet could not have done this, that Homer was unlikely to be blind after all.

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Biography

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer.

There is a legend about a poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod, described in the work “The Contest of Homer and Hesiod,” created no later than the 3rd century. BC e. , and according to many researchers, much earlier. The poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea at games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read their best poems. King Paned, who acted as a judge at the competition, awarded victory to Hesiod, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and massacres. At the same time, the audience's sympathies were on Homer's side.

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

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first found in the 7th century BC, when Callinus of Ephesus called him the author of “Thebaid”) was tried to be explained back in antiquity; the options “hostage” (Hesychius), “following” (Aristotle) were proposed. or “blind” (Efor Kimsky), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern offers attribute to it the meaning of “complementer” or “accompanist”.<…> This word in its Ionian form Ομηρος is almost certainly a real personal name."

Homeric question

The set of problems associated with the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, their origin and fate before the moment of recording, was called the “Homeric question”. It arose in antiquity, for example, then there were claims that Homer created his epic based on the poems of the poetess Fantasia during the Trojan War.

"Analysts" and "Unitarians"

Artistic Features

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the “law of chronological incompatibility” formulated by Thaddeus Frantsevich Zelinsky. It consists in the fact that “in Homer the story never returns to the point of its departure. It follows that parallel actions in 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 suppressed. This explains some apparent contradictions in the text of the poem.

Researchers note the coherence of the works, the consistent development of action and the integral images of the main characters. Comparing the verbal art of Homer with the visual art of that era, they often talk about the geometric style of the poems. However, opposing opinions in the spirit of analyticism are also expressed about the unity of the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The style of both poems can be described as formulaic. In this case, a formula is not understood as a set of clichés, but as a system of flexible (changeable) expressions that are associated with a specific metric location in a line. Thus, we can talk about a formula even when a certain phrase appears in the text only once, but it can be shown that it was part of this system. In addition to the actual formulas, there are repeated fragments of several lines. For example, when one character retells the speeches of another, the text can be reproduced again in full or almost verbatim.

Homer is characterized by compound epithets (“swift-footed,” “rose-fingered,” “thunderer”); the meaning of these and other epithets should be considered not situationally, but within the framework of the traditional formulaic system. Thus, the Achaeans are “lush-legged” even if they are not described in armor, and Achilles is “swift-footed” even when resting.

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, Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik Hill and Mycenae showed that this was not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, which reveal certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War. The decipherment of the Mycenaean syllabary writing (Linear letter B) gave a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and Odyssey took place, although no literary fragments in this writing were found. However, the data from Homer's poems relate in a complex way to the available archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data from the “oral theory” indicate the very large distortions that must arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.

By modern opinion, the world of Homer’s poems reflects a realistic picture of life in recent times during the ancient Greek “dark ages”.

Homer in world culture

The influence of Homer's 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 the Homeric dialect in imitation or as competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are “Argonautica” by Apollonius of Rhodes, “Post-Homeric Events” by Quintus of Smyrna and “The Adventures of Dionysus” by Nonnus of Panopolitanus. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, abstained from the large epic form, believing that "in great rivers there is troubled water" (Callimachus) - that only in a small work can one achieve flawless perfection.

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

Homer is practically unknown to the Western Middle Ages due to too weak contacts with Byzantium and ignorance of the ancient Greek language, but the hexametric heroic epic remains in culture great importance thanks to Virgil.

In Byzantium, Homer was well known and carefully studied. To this day, dozens of complete Byzantine manuscripts of Homeric poems have survived, which is unprecedented for works of ancient literature. In addition, Byzantine scholars transcribed, compiled, and created scholia and commentaries on Homer. Archbishop Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey occupies seven volumes in the modern critical edition. In the last period of existence Byzantine Empire and after its collapse, Greek manuscripts and scholars find their way to the West, and the Renaissance rediscovers Homer.

Dante Alighieri places Homer in the first circle of Hell as a virtuous non-Christian.

In Russia

Fragments from Homer were also translated by Lomonosov; the first large poetic translation (six books of the Iliad in Alexandrian verse) belongs to Yermil Kostrov (). Particularly important for Russian culture is the translation of Nikolai Gnedich’s “Iliad” (finished in), which was carried out from the original with special care and very talented (according to Belinsky’s reviews). Pushkin, in turn, spoke about the translation of Homer in the press twice: with the note “Homer’s Iliad, translated by Gnedich...” (“Literaturnaya Gazeta”, 1830, No. 2; see vol. 6) and the couplet “On the translation of the Iliad”:

Gnedich was a poet, a translator of the blind Homer, and his translation is similar to the model.

A month before this poem, Pushkin paid tribute to natural humor and wrote an epigram caused by a punning coincidence of circumstances (Homer was blind, and Gnedich was crooked). The epigram in the manuscript was carefully crossed out by Pushkin.

Homer was also translated by V. A. Zhukovsky, V. V. Veresaev and P. A. Shuisky (“Odyssey”, 1948, Ural University Publishing House, circulation 900 copies).

Already in our century, Homer was translated by: M. Amelin (First Song of the Odyssey, 2013); A. A. Salnikov translated the Iliad (2011) and the Odyssey (2014-2015) into modern Russian.

A crater on Mercury is named after Homer.

Literature

Texts and translations

For more information, see the articles Iliad and Odyssey see also: en:English translations of Homer

With the advent of printing, the Iliad and Odyssey were first published in 1488 in Florence by Demetrius Chalcocondylus.
Russian prose translation: Complete collection Homer's works. / Per. G. Yanchevetsky. Revel, 1895. 482 pp. (supplement to the Gymnasium magazine)
In the “Loeb classical library” series, the works were published in 5 volumes (No. 170-171 - Iliad, No. 104-105 - Odyssey); and also No. 496 - Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Biographies of Homer.
In the “Collection Budé” series, the works are published in 9 volumes: “Iliad” (introduction and 4 volumes), “Odyssey” (3 volumes) and hymns.
Krause V. M. Homeric Dictionary (to the Iliad and Odyssey). From 130 pics. in the text and a map of Troy. St. Petersburg, A. S. Suvorin. 1880. 532 stb. ( example of a pre-revolutionary school publication)
Part I. Greece // Ancient literature. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2004. - T. I. - ISBN 5-8465-0191-5.

Monographs on Homer

For bibliography, see also the articles: Iliad and Odyssey

Petrushevsky D. M. Society and state in Homer. M., 1913.
Zelinsky F. F. Homeric psychology. Pg., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences, 1920.
Altman M. S. Remnants of the tribal system in proper names in Homer. (News of GAIMK. Issue 124). M.-L.: OGIZ, 1936. 164 pp. 1000 copies.
Freidenberg O. M. Myth and literature of antiquity. M.: Vost. lit. 1978. 2nd ed., add. M., 2000.
Tolstoy I. I. Aeds: Ancient creators and bearers of the ancient epic. M.: Nauka, 1958. 63 pp.
Losev A. F. Homer. M.: GUPI, 1960. 352 pp. 9 t.e.
- 2nd ed. (Series “Life of Remarkable People”). M.: Mol. Guards, 1996=2006. 400 pp.
Yarkho V.N. Guilt and responsibility in the Homeric epic. Herald ancient history , 1962, No. 2, p. 4-26.
Sugar N. L. Homeric epic. M.: KhL, 1976. 397 pp. 10,000 copies.
Gordesiani R.V. Problems of Homeric Epic. Tb.: Tbil Publishing House. Univ., 1978. 394 pp. 2000 copies.
Stahl I.V. The artistic world of Homer's epic. M.: Nauka, 1983. 296 pp. 6900 copies.
Chelyshev P. V., Koteneva A. V. Essays on the history of world culture: gods and heroes of ancient mythology. M.: MGGU, 2013. 351 p. 100 copies ISBN 978-5-91615-032-2
Chelyshev P.V. Ancient space and its inhabitants. – Lambert Academic Publishing, 2016. – 154 p. ISBN 978-3-659-96641-5
Koteneva A. V. Psychology in the epic poems of Homer. Concepts, phenomena and mechanisms. – Lambert Academic Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-3-659-95960-8
Cunliffe R. J. A lexicon of the homeric dialect. L., 1924.
Leumann M. Homerische Würter. Basel, 1950.
Michalopoulos, Dimitri, L" Odyssee d"Homère au-delà des mythes, Le Pirée: Institut d'Histoire Maritime Hellene, 2016, ISBN 978-618-80599-2-4
Treu M. Von Homer zur Lyrik. Munich, 1955.
Whitman C.H. Homer and the heroic tradition. Oxford, 1958.
Lord A. Narrator. M., 1994.

Homer is the founder of European literature, a legendary ancient Greek poet, whose name and life are shrouded in a lot of secrets. Even in the era of antiquity, different authors compiled 9 of his biographies, but they cannot be considered reliable, since they contain many fictitious facts and fairy-tale elements. Due to the lack of truthful information about the famous Aed, even the “Homeric question” arose, to which there is no exact answer to this day.

The real date and place of Homer's birth are unknown. Most likely, he was born in 850 BC. If you believe the legend, then his mother gave him the name Melesigenes, and they began to call him Homer (i.e. “blind”) after he became blind.

Several Greek cities are vying for the honor of being considered the birthplace of this famous poet. According to the historian Herodotus, Homer spent his childhood in Smyrna. There he was educated at a school owned by Phemius. Was one of best students. When he died, Femia bequeathed the school to him. However, after working as a mentor for some time, he closed educational institution and went on a journey by ship to expand his knowledge of the world.

Melesigenes not only got acquainted with new countries and cities, but also thoroughly studied the history and customs of various peoples. On the way to Ithaca he fell ill, and when he recovered, he continued his travels on foot. He earned his living by telling people the stories he heard in squares and markets. Later he began to recite excerpts from his own works. I finally lost my sight in Colophon.

One of the legends speaks of a poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod, which took place on the island of Euboea. And although the king declared Hesiod the winner, the listeners sympathized with Homer.

The blind Aed was revered and respected, and his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were universally recognized sources of wisdom. They were guided both in matters of universal morality and the art of war. The songs from the poems were passed down orally and were collected, structured and written down at the behest of Pisistratus.

Homer lived to old age and met death on the island of Ios. There is a version that he committed suicide for fear of losing his mental acuity.

Biography 2

The biography of Homer, the poet of ancient Greece, who is credited with the authorship of the legendary Iliad and Odyssey, is shrouded in riddles and secrets.

Historians have been unable to establish the exact time of his life. Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar and poet, claimed that Homer witnessed the end of the Trojan War in 1184 BC. Herodotus suggested that Homer lived in the ninth century BC. There are several other points of view and evidence on this matter.

However, it is known that the Iliad and the Odyssey were created by Homer long after the war between the Trojans and the Achaeans. Linguistic, geographical and historical evidence for the great poems places them at around 700 and 800 BC.

Scientists suggest that Homer was blind. From the dialect of the Aeolian tribes, his name is translated as “blind.” This fact fits into general idea about ancient soothsayers and singers, who often compensated for physical disabilities with poetic or prophetic gifts. Homer's Odysseus is also depicted in the poem as a blind minstrel who sings about the fall of Troy, but it is not possible to truly assert that the author copied this image from himself.

Homer's birthplace is also not known for certain. Traditionally, seven cities are recognized as the possible homeland of the poet: Athens, Rhodes, Argos, Chios, the city of Salamis in Cyprus, the cities of Smyrna and Colophon in Asia Minor. No matter where exactly Homer was born, he came from the peoples of Eastern Greece or Asia Minor. This is evidenced by the dialect of Eastern Greeks that he uses when writing his creations.

Because the figure of the ancient Greek poet is surrounded by myths, he is often considered the son of gods, such as Orpheus or Apollo. Sometimes paternity is attributed to Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. A less romantic version claims that Homer's parents were wealthy Greeks from Asia Minor. Material wealth made it possible not to worry about food and to completely devote oneself to creativity and poetry. Researchers of Homer's biography are inclined to believe that he led a free, if not wandering, lifestyle, traveled along the coast, and participated in competitions of rapsovods - traveling singers who recited poetry with a staff in their hand.

There are points of view that the Iliad and Odyssey are the fruits of the collective work of ancient Greek authors, and such a person as Homer did not exist at all. This name simply characterized the poetic movement that originated on the western coast of Asia Minor.

According to one legend, Homer found his last refuge on the island of Ios, which was once predicted to him by an oracle. The inhabitants of the island wrote on his gravestone: “Here the earth hides the sacred head of the pious Homer, who sang of heroes.”

Biography by dates and Interesting Facts. The most important.

HOMER(Latin Homer, Greek Omiros), 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 imagine Homer as a blind wandering singer-aed; seven cities argued for the honor of being called his homeland. He was probably 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 the authorship of two of the 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 "Homeric hymns." Modern science assigns only the Iliad and the Odyssey to Homer, and there is an opinion that these poems were created by different poets and at different times. historical time. Even in ancient times, the “Homeric question” arose, which is now understood as a set of problems related to the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic, including the relationship between folklore and literary creativity itself.

The time of creation of poems. History of the text

Biographical information about Homer given by ancient authors is contradictory and implausible. “Seven cities, arguing, 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 of Homer, ancient scholars gave various dates, starting from the 12th century. BC e. (after the Trojan War) and ending with the 7th century. BC e.; There was a widespread legend about a poetic competition between Homer and Hesiod. Most researchers believe that Homer's 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 ancient evidence of the final edition of their texts under the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in the mid-6th century. BC e., when their performance was included in the festivities of the Great Panathenaia.

In ancient times, Homer was credited with the comic poems "Margit" and "The War of Mice and Frogs", a cycle of works about the Trojan War and the return of heroes to Greece: "Cypria", "Ethiopida", "The Little Iliad", "The Capture of Ilion", "Returns" ( so-called "cyclic poems", only small fragments have survived). Under the name "Homeric Hymns" there was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. A huge amount of work on collecting and clarifying the manuscripts of Homer’s poems was done in 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 Greek alphabet). It became common noun the sophist Zoilus (4th century BC), nicknamed “the scourge of Homer” for his critical statements. Xenon and Hellanicus, so-called. “dividing”, expressed the idea that Homer may have owned only one “Iliad”; they, however, did not doubt either the reality of Homer or the fact that each of the poems had its own author.

Homeric question

The question of the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey was raised in 1795 by the German scientist F. A. 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 tales created by various Aeds were written down in Athens under Peisistratus. Scientists were divided into “analysts”, followers of Wolf’s theory (German scientists K. Lachmann, A. Kirchhoff with his theory of “small epics”; G. Herman and the English historian J. Groth with their “theory of the main core”, in Russia it was shared by F . F. Zelinsky), and “Unitarians”, supporters of the strict unity of the epic (Homer translator I. G. Foss and philologist G. V. Nich, F. Schiller, I. V. Goethe, Hegel in Germany, N. I. Gnedich , V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin in Russia).

Homeric poems and epics

In the 19th century The Iliad and Odyssey were compared with the epics of the Slavs, skaldic poetry, Finnish and German epics. In the 1930s The American classical philologist Milman Parry, comparing Homer's poems with the living epic tradition that still existed at that time among the peoples of Yugoslavia, discovered in Homer's poems a reflection of the poetic technique of folk singers. The poetic formulas they created from stable combinations and epithets (the “swift-footed” Achilles, the “shepherd of nations” Agamemnon, the “many-minded” Odysseus, the “sweet-tongued” Nestor) enabled the narrator to “improvise” perform epic songs consisting of many thousands of verses.

The Iliad and Odyssey belong entirely to the centuries-old epic tradition, but this does not mean that oral creativity is anonymous. “Before Homer, we cannot name 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 the fact that Homer does not unfold his narrative gradually, but builds it around one event - the basis of the poems is the dramatic unity of action. Another feature that Aristotle also drew attention to: the character of the hero is revealed not by the author’s descriptions, but by the speeches uttered by the hero himself.

Language of poems

The language of Homer's poems - exclusively poetic, "supra-dialectal" - was never identical to living spoken language. It consisted of a combination of Aeolian (Boeotia, Thessaly, the island of Lesbos) and Ionian (Attica, island Greece, the coast of Asia Minor) dialect features with the preservation of the archaic system of earlier eras. The songs of the Iliad and Odyssey were metrically designed using the hexameter, which is rooted in Indo-European epic literature - poetic meter, in which each verse consists of six feet with a regular alternation of long and short syllables. The unusual poetic language of the epic was emphasized by the timeless nature of events and the greatness of the images of the heroic past.

Homer and archeology

Sensational discoveries of G. Schliemann in the 1870-80s. proved that Troy, Mycenae and the Achaean citadels are not a myth, but a reality. Schliemann's contemporaries were struck by the literal correspondence of a number of his findings in the fourth shaft tomb in Mycenae with the descriptions of Homer. The impression was so strong that the era of Homer became associated for a long time with the heyday of Achaean Greece in the 14th-13th centuries. BC e. The poems, however, also contain numerous archaeologically attested features of the culture of the "heroic age", such as mention of iron tools and weapons or the custom of cremation of the dead.

A comparison of the evidence of the Homeric epic with archaeological data confirms the conclusions of many researchers that in its final edition it was formed in the 8th century. BC e., and many researchers consider the “Catalog of Ships” (Iliad, 2nd Canto) to be the oldest part of the epic. Obviously, the poems were not created at the same time: “The Iliad” reflects ideas about the person of the “heroic period”; “The Odyssey” stands, as it were, at the turn of another era - the time of the Great Greek colonization, when the boundaries of the world mastered by Greek culture expanded.

Homer in antiquity

For people 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. Homer, along with Hesiod, was considered the creator of a comprehensive and orderly mythological picture of the universe: the poets “compiled genealogies of the gods for the Hellenes, provided the names of the gods with epithets, divided virtues and occupations among them, and drew their images” (Herodotus). According to Strabo, Homer was the only poet of antiquity who knew almost everything about the ecumene, the peoples inhabiting it, their origin, way of life and culture. Thucydides, Pausanias, and Plutarch used Homer’s data as authentic and trustworthy. The father of tragedy, Aeschylus, called his dramas “crumbs from the great feasts of Homer.”

Greek children learned to read from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was quoted, commented on, and explained allegorically. The Pythagorean philosophers called on the Pythagorean philosophers to correct souls by reading selected passages from Homer’s poems. Plutarch reports that Alexander the Great always carried a copy of the Iliad with him, which he kept under his pillow along with a dagger.

Translations of Homer

In the 3rd century. BC e. The Roman poet Livy Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin. IN medieval Europe Homer was known only through quotations and references from Latin writers and Aristotle; the poetic glory of Homer was eclipsed by the glory of Virgil. Only at the end of the 15th century. The first translations of Homer into Italian appeared (A. Poliziano and others). An event in European culture of the 18th century. began translations of Homer into English language A. Pop and into German by I. G. Foss. For the first time, fragments of the Iliad were translated into Russian into twenty-syllable syllabics - the so-called. Alexandrian - verse by M.V. Lomonosov. At the end of the 18th century. E. Kostrov translated the first six songs of the Iliad (1787) in iambic; Prose translations of the Iliad by P. Ekimov and the Odyssey by P. Sokolov were published. The titanic work of creating the Russian hexameter and adequately reproducing Homer’s figurative system was done by N. I. Gnedich, whose translation of the Iliad (1829) still remains unsurpassed in the accuracy of philological reading and historical interpretation. The translation of “The Odyssey” by V. A. Zhukovsky (1842-49) is distinguished by the highest artistic skill. In the 20th century "The Iliad" and "Odyssey" were translated by V.V. Veresaev.

(ca. 8th century BC - 8th century BC, Ios island)

Biography

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

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer. It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the 6th century BC. e., when their existence was reliably recorded. Chronological period in which Homer's life is localized modern science, - approximately VIII 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. As Herodotus and Pausanias report, Homer died on the island of Ios in the Cyclades archipelago. Probably, the Iliad and Odyssey were composed 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, since it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that the Homeric dialect represents one of the forms of poetic Koine, which was formed long before the estimated time of Homer’s life.

In addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, a number of works are attributed to Homer, undoubtedly created later: the “Homeric Hymns”, the comic poem “Margate”, etc.

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first found in the 7th century BC, when Callinus of Ephesus called him the author of “Thebaid”) was tried to be explained back in antiquity; the variants “hostage” (Hesychius), “following” (Aristotle) were proposed. or “blind” (Ephorus of Kim), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to attribute to him the meaning of “compiler” or “accompanist.” This word in its Ionian form?????? - almost certainly a real personal name.

Bibliography

Iliad
- Odyssey

Film adaptations

1911 - Odyssey / L "Odissea
1924 - Elena / Helena
1954 - The Wanderings of Odysseus / Ulisse
1956 - Helen of Troy / Helen of Troy
1968 - The Adventures of Odysseus / L "odissea
1987 - Odyssey / The Odyssey
1991 - Odyssey / L "odissea
1995 - The View of Odysseus / To vlemma tou Odyssea
1995 - Achilles / Achilles
1997 - Odyssey / The Odyssey
2003 - Helen of Troy / Helen of Troy
2003 - Odyssey / L "odyssee
2004 - Troy
2008 - Odysseus and the Cyclops
2012 - Odyssey / 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, Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik Hill and Mycenae showed that this was not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, which reveal certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War. The decipherment of the Mycenaean syllabary script (Linear B) has provided a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and Odyssey took place, although no literary fragments in this script have been found. However, the data from Homer's poems relate in a complex way to the available archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data from the “oral theory” indicate the very large distortions that must arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.
* The education system that emerged towards the end of the classical era Ancient Greece was built on the study of Homer's poems. They were memorized partially or even completely, recitations were organized on its topics, etc. This system was borrowed by Rome, where Homer took place from the 1st century. n. e. Virgil took over. In the post-classical era, large hexametric poems were created in the Homeric dialect in imitation or as competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are “Argonautica” by Apollonius of Rhodes, “Post-Homeric Events” by Quintus of Smyrna and “The Adventures of Dionysus” by Nonnus of Panopolitan. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, abstained from the large epic form, believing that “in great rivers there is troubled water” (Callimachus), that is, that only in a small work can one achieve flawless perfection.
* In the literature of Ancient Rome, the first surviving (fragmentary) work is the translation of the Odyssey by the Greek Livius Andronicus. The main work of Roman literature - the heroic epic "Aeneid" by Virgil - is an imitation of the "Odyssey" (the first 6 books) and the "Iliad" (the last 6 books). The influence of Homer's poems can be seen in almost all works of ancient literature.
* In Byzantium, Homer was well known and carefully studied. To this day, dozens of complete Byzantine manuscripts of Homeric poems have survived, which is unprecedented for works of ancient literature. In addition, Byzantine scholars transcribed, compiled, and created scholia and commentaries on Homer. Archbishop Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey occupies seven volumes in the modern critical edition. During the last period of the Byzantine Empire and after its collapse, Greek manuscripts and scholars found their way to the West, and the Renaissance rediscovered Homer.
* The Homeric question is 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 passed down from generation to generation were collected and recorded. The so-called “Unitarians” defended the compositional unity of the poem, and thereby the uniqueness of its author.
* Dante Alighieri places Homer in the first circle of Hell as a virtuous non-Christian.
* A crater on Mercury is named after Homer.
* Fragments from Homer were also translated by Lomonosov; the first large poetic translation (six books of the Iliad in Alexandrian verse) belongs to Yermil Kostrov. The translation of Nikolai Gnedich’s “Iliad” is especially important for Russian culture, which was carried out from the original with special care and very talented (according to reviews of 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 know nothing reliably about him. He was the author of two heroic poems antiquity "Iliad" and "Odyssey", which are among the first monuments of world literature.

First of all, it is necessary to find out what the Greeks themselves knew about Homer. There are nine biographies of Homer in ancient literature, but they all contain fairy-tale and fantastic elements. There is information that in the first half of the 6th century. BC. the Athenian legislator Solon ordered the performance of Homer's poems at the Panathenaic festival and that in the second half of the same century, the tyrant Peisistratus convened a commission of four people to record Homer's poems. From this we can conclude that already in the 6th century. BC. Homer's text was quite well known, although what kind of works they were was not precisely established.

There is no consensus about the birthplace of Homer. According to ancient tradition, “seven cities” (Chios, Smyrna, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens) argued for the honor of being called the homeland of Homer. Although the overwhelming number of sources still refers it to the city of Chios in Ionia. At the same time, other cities of Ionia are also named.

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

There was also no consensus about the time of Homer's life. Various Greek writers dated his life to centuries ranging from the 12th to the 6th BC.

Serious study of Homer's poems began in the Hellenistic era in the 4th - 2nd centuries. BC. A number of scientists from the Library of Alexandria studied his poems, among whom the most famous were: Zenodotus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus of Samothrace, Didymus. But they also do not provide any accurate biographical information about Homer.

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

Homeric question.

Science has always been interested in the question: who is the author of the Odyssey and the Iliad? In the ancient period, most scientists believed that of all the heroic epics, only the Iliad and the Odyssey belonged to Homer. At the same time, there were scientists who drew attention to the presence of some significant differences between the poems and concluded from this that they could not belong to the same author. Such scientists were called “horizonts”, i.e. separators. Among them, the most famous are Xenon and Hellanicus.

Of great importance in the history of the Homeric question was the “Dissertation on the Iliad” by the French abbot François D'Aubignac (died 1676), written in 1664, but published only 50 years later - in 1715. In this work for the first time there was the idea has been expressed that the Iliad is not the work of one author, but a combination of songs by different singers, collected long before Pisistratus. Comparing all the ancient information about Homer, D’Aubignac came to the conclusion that Homer as an individual never existed, that the word “Homer” meant “blind,” and Homer’s “Iliad” is “a collection of songs of the blind.” Although until the end of the 18th 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, different theories have emerged about the authorship of these works. There are three main theories.

1. The theory of small songs. According to this theory, the works were based on various songs of the aeds (singers), and Homer was just a rhapsodist (stitcher). The creator of this theory is F.A. Wolf (Wolf, 1759 – 1824). This point of view was shared by K. Lachman, I.G. Fichte, W. Humboldt and F. Schlegel.
2. The theory is unitary (unity). Unitarians believed that all works were written by one author. This theory was scientifically substantiated by G.V. Nich (Nitzsch, 1790 – 1861). This theory was adhered to by F. Hegel,
3. Main grain theory. The “unitary” theory is directly opposite to the “small song theory”, 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 opposing features of the structure of the poems - unity, i.e. a harmonious artistic plan, giving integrity to the poems, and diversity, i.e. various deviations from the main plan. The creator of this theory was Gottfried Hermann (Hermann, 1772 - 1848), and his further development This theory was received from the English historian George Grote (Grote, 1794 - 1871). In Russian science, supporters of the “main grain” theory were P.M. Leontyev, S.P. Shestakov, F.G. Mishchenko, F.F. Zelinsky, L.F. Voevodsky, A.A. Zakharov.

In the 1960s, American researchers put all the songs of the Iliad through a computer, which showed that there was only one author of this poem.

Interesting facts from life

* In antiquity, Homer was considered a sage: “Wiser than all the Hellenes put together.” He was considered the founder of philosophical thought, a philosophical poet. His poems were seen as the beginning of geography, physics, mathematics, medicine and aesthetics.

Bibliography

*Iliad
* Odyssey

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

* Ulysses (in the domestic release “The Wanderings of Odysseus”) (1953). Dir. M. Camerini.
* The Adventures of Odysseus (1969). Dir. F. Rossi.
* Odyssey (1997). Dir. A. Konchalovsky.
* Helen of Troy (2003) Dir. D. Kent Harrison
* Troy (2004). Dir. V. Petersen.

Biography (en.wikipedia.org)

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer.

It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the 6th century BC. e., when their existence was 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.

Traditionally, Homer is portrayed as blind. It is most likely that this idea does not come from real facts the life of Homer, but is a reconstruction typical of the genre of ancient biography. Since many outstanding legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic that connected the prophetic and poetic gifts, the assumption of Homer’s blindness looked very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodocus in the Odyssey is blind from birth, which could also be perceived as autobiographical.

There is a legend about the poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod, described in the work “The Contest of Homer and Hesiod,” created no later than the 3rd century. BC e., and according to many researchers, much earlier. The poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea at games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read their best poems. King Paned, who acted as a judge at the competition, awarded victory to Hesiod, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and massacres. However, the audience's sympathies were on Homer's side.

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

The meaning of the name “Homer” (it was first found in the 7th century BC, when Callinus of Ephesus called him the author of “Thebaid”) was tried to be explained back in antiquity; the variants “hostage” (Hesychius), “following” (Aristotle) were proposed. or “blind” (Ephorus of Kim), “but all these options are as unconvincing as modern proposals to attribute to him the meaning of “compiler” or “accompanist”. This word in its Ionian form?????? - almost certainly a real personal name.”

Homeric question

Antique period

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

"Analysts" and "Unitarians"

Until the end of the 18th century, the prevailing opinion in European science was that the author of the Iliad and Odyssey was Homer, and that they were preserved approximately in the form in which they were created by him (however, already the Abbe d'Aubignac in 1664 in his " Conjectures academiques" argued that the Iliad and Odyssey are a series of independent songs collected together by Lycurgus in Sparta in the 8th century BC). However, in 1788, J. B. Viloison published the scholia to the Iliad from the Codex Venetus A, which in their volume significantly exceeded the poem itself and contained hundreds of variants belonging to ancient philologists (mainly Zenodotus, Aristophanes and Aristarchus). After this publication, it became clear that Alexandrian philologists considered hundreds of lines of Homeric poems doubtful or even inauthentic; they did not cross them out from the manuscripts, but marked them with a special sign. Reading the scholia also led to the conclusion that the text of Homer we have belongs to Hellenistic times, and not to the supposed 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 was not able to compose a poem of such length), Friedrich August Wolf in his book “Prolegomena to Homer” put forward the hypothesis that both poems are very significantly, radically changed in the course of existence. Thus, according to Wolf, it is impossible to say that the Iliad and the Odyssey belong to any one author.

Formation of the text of the Iliad (in its more or less modern form) Wolf dates it to the 6th century BC. e. Indeed, according to a number of ancient authors (including Cicero), Homer's poems were first collected and written down at the direction of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus or his son Hipparchus. This so-called “Pisistratan edition” was needed to streamline the performance of the Iliad and Odyssey at the Panathenaea. The analytical approach was supported by contradictions in the texts of the poems, the presence of multi-temporal layers in them, and extensive deviations from the main plot.

Analysts have made various assumptions about how exactly Homer's poems were formed. Karl Lachmann believed that the Iliad was created from several small songs (the so-called “small song theory”). Gottfried Hermann, on the contrary, believed that each poem arose through the gradual expansion of a small song, to which everything was added new material(the so-called “primordial core theory”).

Wolf's opponents (the so-called "Unitarians") put forward a number of counterarguments. Firstly, the version of the “pisistratan edition” was questioned, since all reports about it are quite late. This legend could have appeared in Hellenistic times by analogy with the activities of the then monarchs, who took care of the acquisition of various manuscripts (see. Library of Alexandria). Secondly, contradictions and deviations do not indicate multiple authorship, as they inevitably occur in large works. “Unitarians” proved the unity of the author of each of the poems, emphasizing the integrity of the plan, 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 expressed in antiquity; since there was information that in the 6th century BC. e. The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus gave instructions to develop the official text of Homer's poems.

In the 1930s, American professor Milman Parry organized two expeditions to study the South Slavic epic with the aim of comparing this tradition with the texts of Homer. As a result of this large-scale research, an “oral theory” was formulated, also called the “Parry-Lord theory” (A. Lord is the successor to the work of the early deceased M. Parry). According to the oral theory, Homeric poems contain undoubted features of oral epic storytelling, the most important of which is a system of poetic formulas. An oral storyteller creates a song anew each time, but considers himself only a performer. Two songs on the same 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” differently. Storytellers are illiterate, since the idea of a fixed text is detrimental to improvisational technique.

Thus, from the oral theory it follows that the text of the Iliad and Odyssey acquired a fixed form during the lifetime of their great author or authors (i.e. Homer). The classic version of oral theory involves recording these poems under dictation, since if they were transmitted orally within the framework of the improvisational tradition, their text would radically change the next time they were performed. However, there are other explanations. The theory does not explain whether both poems were created by one or two authors.

In addition, the oral theory confirms the ancient ideas that “there were many poets before Homer.” Indeed, the technique of oral epic storytelling is the result of a long, apparently centuries-long development, and does not reflect the individual characteristics of the author of the poems.

Neoanalysts are not modern representatives of analyticism. Neoanalysis is a direction in Homeric studies that deals with identifying earlier poetic layers used by the author of (each of) the poems. The Iliad and Odyssey are compared with the Cyclical poems that have survived to our time in retellings and fragments. Thus, the neoanalytic approach does not contradict mainstream oral theory. The most prominent modern neoanalyst is the German researcher Wolfgang Kuhlmann, author of the monograph “Sources of the Iliad.”

Artistic Features

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

Researchers note the coherence of the works, the consistent development of action and the integral images of the main characters. When comparing Homer's verbal art with the visual art of that era, one often talks about the geometric style of the poems. However, opposing opinions in the spirit of analyticism are also expressed about the unity of the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The style of both poems can be described as formulaic. In this case, a formula is not understood as a set of cliches, but as a system of flexible (changeable) expressions that are associated with a specific metric place in a line. Thus, we can talk about a formula even when a certain phrase appears in the text only once, but it can be shown that it was part of this system. In addition to the actual formulas, there are repeated fragments of several lines. For example, when one character retells the speeches of another, the text can be reproduced again in full or almost verbatim.

Homer is characterized by compound epithets (“swift-footed,” “rose-fingered,” “thunderer”); the meaning of these and other epithets should be considered not situationally, but within the framework of the traditional formulaic system. Thus, the Achaeans are “lush-legged” even if they are not described as wearing armor, and Achilles is “swift-footed” even when resting.

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, Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik Hill and Mycenae showed that this was not true. Later, Hittite and Egyptian documents were discovered, which reveal certain parallels with the events of the legendary Trojan War. The decipherment of the Mycenaean syllabary script (Linear B) has provided a lot of information about life in the era when the Iliad and Odyssey took place, although no literary fragments in this script have been found. However, the data from Homer's poems relate in a complex way to the available archaeological and documentary sources and cannot be used uncritically: the data from the “oral theory” indicate the very large distortions that must arise with historical data in traditions of this kind.

Homer in world culture

In Europe

The education system in Ancient Greece that emerged towards the end of the classical era was built on the study of Homer's poems. They were memorized partially or even completely, recitations were organized on its topics, etc. This system was borrowed by Rome, where Homer took place from the 1st century. n. e. Virgil took over. In the post-classical era, large hexametric poems were created in the Homeric dialect in imitation or as competition with the Iliad and Odyssey. Among them are “Argonautica” by Apollonius of Rhodes, “Post-Homeric Events” by Quintus of Smyrna and “The Adventures of Dionysus” by Nonnus of Panopolitan. Other Hellenistic poets, recognizing the merits of Homer, abstained from the large epic form, believing that “in great rivers there is troubled water” (Callimachus), that is, that only in a small work can one achieve flawless perfection.

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

Homer is practically unknown to the Western Middle Ages due to too weak contacts with Byzantium and ignorance of the ancient Greek language, but the hexametric heroic epic retains great importance in culture thanks to Virgil.

In Byzantium, Homer was well known and carefully studied. To this day, dozens of complete Byzantine manuscripts of Homeric poems have survived, which is unprecedented for works of ancient literature. In addition, Byzantine scholars transcribed, compiled, and created scholia and commentaries on Homer. Archbishop Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey occupies seven volumes in the modern critical edition. During the last period of the Byzantine Empire and after its collapse, Greek manuscripts and scholars found their way to the West, and the Renaissance rediscovered Homer.

Dante Alighieri places Homer in the first circle of Hell as a virtuous non-Christian.

A crater on Mercury is named after Homer.

In Russia

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

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

Literature

Texts and translations

* Russian prose translation: The Complete Works of Homer. / Per. G. Yanchevetsky. Revel, 1895. 482 pp. (supplement to the Gymnasium magazine)
* In the “Loeb classical library” series, works were published in 5 volumes (No. 170-171 - Iliad, No. 104-105 - Odyssey); and also No. 496 - Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Biographies of Homer.
* In the “Collection Bude” series, the works are published in 9 volumes: “Iliad” (introduction and 4 volumes), “Odyssey” (3 volumes) and hymns.
* Krause V. M. Homeric Dictionary (to the Iliad and Odyssey). From 130 pics. in the text and a map of Troy. St. Petersburg, A. S. Suvorin. 1880. 532 stb. (example of a pre-revolutionary school publication)
* Part I. Greece // Ancient literature. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2004. - T. I. - ISBN 5-8465-0191-5

Monographs on Homer

* For bibliography, see also the articles: Iliad and Odyssey
* Petrushevsky D. M. Society and state in Homer. M., 1913.
* Zelinsky F. F. Homeric psychology. Pg., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences, 1920.
* Altman M.S. Remnants of the tribal system in proper names in Homer. (News of GAIMK. Issue 124). M.-L.: OGIZ, 1936. 164 pp. 1000 copies.
* Freidenberg O. M. Myth and literature of antiquity. M.: Vost. lit. 1978. 2nd ed., add. M., 2000.
* Tolstoy I. I. Aeds: Ancient creators and bearers of the ancient epic. M.: Nauka, 1958. 63 pp.
* Losev A.F. Homer. M.: GUPI, 1960. 352 pp. 9 t.e.
* 2nd ed. (Series “Life of Remarkable People”). M.: Mol. Guards, 1996=2006. 400 pp.
* Yarho V.N. Guilt and responsibility in the Homeric epic. Bulletin of Ancient History, 1962, No. 2, p. 4-26.
* Sugar N. L. Homeric epic. M.: KhL, 1976. 397 pp. 10,000 copies.
* Gordesiani R.V. Problems of the Homeric epic. Tb.: Tbil Publishing House. Univ., 1978. 394 pp. 2000 copies.
* Stahl I.V. The artistic world of the Homeric 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. Storyteller. M., 1994.

Homer's Reception:
* Egunov A. N. Homer in Russian translations of the 18th-19th centuries. M.-L., 1964. (2nd ed.) M.: Indrik, 2001.