Nothing is known for certain about the personality and fate of the legendary ancient Greek poet. Historians were able to establish that Homer could have lived around the 8th century BC. The poet's place of birth has also not yet been established. 7 Greek cities fought for the right to be called his homeland. Among these settlements were Rhodes and Athens. The time and place of death of the ancient Greek narrator also causes considerable controversy. The historian Herodotus claimed that Homer died on the island of Ios.

The dialect used by Homer when writing poems does not indicate the place and time of the poet's birth. The author of the Iliad and the Odyssey used a combination of Aeolian and Ionian Greek dialects. Some researchers claim that poetic koine was used in the creation of the works.

It is generally accepted that Homer was blind. However, there is no reliable evidence of this. Many prominent singers and poet of ancient Greece were blind. Physiological disability did not give them the opportunity to do other work. The Greeks associated the gift of poetry with the gift of divination and treated blind storytellers with great respect. Perhaps Homer's occupation made him come to the conclusion that the poet was blind.

Meaning of the name

In the Ionian dialect, the word "Homer" sounds like "Omiros". The mysterious name was first mentioned in the 7th century BC. Scientists are still arguing whether the word "Homer" is a proper name, or is it just a nickname. At different times, the name of the poet was given different interpretations: "blind", "hostage", "going for", "accompanist", "composer" and others. However, all of these interpretations are unconvincing.

• in honor of the great ancient Greek poet, one of the craters on Mercury was named;
• Homer is mentioned in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Dante placed his "colleague" in the first circle of hell. The ancient Greek poet, according to Alighieri, was a virtuous person during his lifetime and did not deserve torment after death. A pagan cannot go to heaven, but he needs to find a special place of honor in hell;
• around the 3rd century BC, an essay was written about a poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod. Tradition says that the poets met at games on one of the Greek islands. Everyone read the best of their works in honor of the tragically deceased Amphidemus. Homer had the sympathy of the audience on his side. However, King Paned, who acted in the duel as a judge, declared Hesiod the winner, who called for a peaceful life while Homer called for carnage.

Homeric question

This is the name of the set of problems associated with the creation and authorship of the poems "The Odyssey" and "Iliad".

During the period of antiquity

According to the legend widespread in the ancient period, the poems created during the Trojan War by the poetess Fantasia served as the basis for the Homeric epic.

New time

Until the beginning of the 18th century, the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey was not in doubt. The first doubts began to appear already at the end of the 18th century, when the so-called scholias to the Iliad were published by J.-B. Viloison. They surpassed the poem in volume. Scholias contained a huge number of variants that belonged to many famous ancient philologists.

Viloison's publication indicated that BC philologists doubted that one of the most famous works of ancient literature was created by Homer. In addition, the poet lived in a non-literate era. The author could not have created such a long poem without recording the fragments already composed. Friedrich August Wolff hypothesized that both the Odyssey and the Iliad were significantly shorter at the time of creation. And since the works were transmitted only orally, each subsequent narrator added something of his own to the poems. Consequently, it is generally impossible to talk about any specific author.

According to Wolff, the Homeric poems were first edited and recorded under Pisistratus (an Athenian tyrant) and his son. In history, the edition of poems, initiated by the Athenian ruler, is called "pisistratovoy". The final version of the famous works was necessary for their performance at the Panathenes. In favor of Wolf's hypothesis are facts such as contradictions in the texts of poems, deviations from the main plot, mention of events that occurred at different times.

There is a "theory of small songs" created by Karl Lachmann, who believes that the original composition consisted of only a few songs that are easy to remember. Their number has increased over time. A similar theory was put forward by Gottfried Hermann. However, according to Hermann, ne ni were not added to the poem. The fragments that already existed were simply expanded. The hypothesis put forward by Hermann is called the "theory of the initial nucleus."

The so-called "Unitarians" adhere to opposite views. In their opinion, deviations from the main plot and contradictions cannot be considered evidence that the work was written by several authors at different times. Perhaps this was the author's idea. In addition, the Unitarians rejected the "pisistratic edition". Probably, the legend that the ruler of Athens ordered the editing of the poems appeared in the Hellenistic era. At that time, the monarchs tried to acquire and preserve the most valuable manuscripts of famous authors. Thus, libraries appeared, for example, the Alexandrian one.

Iliad and Odyssey

Historical background

In the 19th century, the prevailing point of view in science was that the two most famous works attributed to Homer have no historical basis. The excavations of Heinrich Schliemann helped to refute the unhistorical nature of the poems. A little later, Egyptian and Hittite documents were discovered, which describe events similar to those of the Trojan War.

Poems have a variety of artistic features. Many of them contradict logic and make one think that the works were created by several authors. One of the main "proofs" that Homer was not the only writer who took part in the creation of poems is the "law of chronological incompatibility" formulated by F.F.Zelinsky. The researcher claims that Homer portrayed parallel events following each other. As a result, the reader may get the impression that the actions of the heroes of the Odyssey and the Iliad were performed at different intervals and are not related to each other. This feature makes you think about contradictions that actually do not exist.

Both poems are characterized by complex epithets, for example, "rose-fingered". At the same time, epithets characterize not a temporary, but a permanent quality inherent in an object even at the moment when it is not expressed in any way, and the viewer cannot see it. Achilles is called "swift-footed" even during rest. For the Achaeans, the epithet "pompous-legged" was fixed. The author characterizes them in this way constantly, regardless of whether they are in armor or not.

In his poem In his poem The Iliad, Homer depicted one of the episodes of the Trojan War, revealing the character of the characters and showing all the intrigues that preceded the beginning of the conflict.

Homer's poem "The Odyssey" describes the events that took place 10 years after the victory over Troy, where the main character Odysseus is captured by a nymph, returning home after the war, where his wife Penelope is waiting for him.

Influence on world literature

The poems of the ancient Greek author had a huge impact on the literature of different countries. Homer was loved not only in his homeland. In Byzantium, his works were required to study. Until now, the archives have preserved manuscripts of poems, testifying to their popularity. In addition, the learned men of Byzantium created commentaries and scholias on the works of Homer. It is known that commentaries to the poems of Bishop Eustathius took up no less than seven volumes. After the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist, some of the manuscripts ended up in Western Europe.

Brief biography of the mysterious Homer

Only the sun will appear in the sky in radiant beauty,
The stars will darken before him, and the moon will turn pale;
So before you, Homer, the singers of a generation turn pale,
Only the fire of your heavenly Muse shines.

Leonid Tarentsky.

Homer's Major Works - The Iliad and The Odyssey

On the threshold of the history of Greek literature is the great name of Homer. Like the rising sun, Homer in all its splendor appears from the darkness of time on the eastern outskirts of the Hellenic world, on the Asia Minor coast, and illuminates with his rays all Hellas and all peoples. His two great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are not only the most ancient, but also the most magnificent works of Greek literature; they serve for all times as the most excellent example of the epic - a model with which no other literary work in the world can be compared. Of course, even before Homer there were poets whose songs were circulated among the people and paved the way for the creator of the Iliad and Odyssey. But the glory of his name and the perfection of Homer's works made him forget all the literary development that preceded him, like the sun makes the stars go out.

From the time of their migration to the Asian coast, the Greeks, Ionians and Aeolians for more than a century developed their heroic legends and exchanged them with each other; the singers, using rich material, created the ancient Greek epic, until, finally, the poetic genius of Homer brought it to the highest and most beautiful degree of perfection. He replaced individual, scattered epics with an integral and great epic. His predecessors composed only small songs with uncomplicated content, which could only be combined with one another externally; Homer combined these songs and from all the enormous epic material he created an organically whole work according to a peculiarly conceived plan. From folk legends that had a national interest, from the cycle of epics about the Trojan War, known to the people in every detail, he chose a finished action, imbued with one moral idea, with one main character, and was able to convey it in such a way that there was an opportunity to present many different persons and events, without overshadowing the center of the epic - the main character and the main action. The main characters in both Homer's works, the carriers of his ideas - Achilles in the Iliad and Odysseus in the Odyssey - are truly national, poetically elevated types, real representatives of ancient Greek folk life: Achilles is a young, generous and ardent hero; Odysseus is a mature husband, cunning, reasonable and sustained in everyday struggle. Homer's predecessors greatly facilitated his work: from them his works inherited a rich language, a certain epic syllable and a developed poetic dimension; Many songs served as material for him, from which he could borrow a lot. But one cannot nevertheless think that Homer's work consisted only in the fact that he combined individual epics into something whole, without subjecting them to significant processing. In all likelihood, the poet's creative genius perfected the language, syllable, and meter and, using the previous songs, recreated them in accordance with his idea.

The subject of the first of Homer's two main works - the Iliad - is the most interesting time in the history of the Trojan War - the time immediately preceding the final decision of the struggle between the two peoples and the death of Hector, whose bravery still saved his hometown from destiny. Hector falls under the blows of the main character of the Iliad, Achilles, who avenges the death of his friend Patroclus. The latter died in the battle with the Trojans only because Achilles himself did not take part in this battle, being angry at the insult inflicted on him by Agamemnon. This anger of Achilles, directed first against Agamemnon and the Greeks, and then turned against Hector and destroyed the Trojan fighter, is the main content of Homer's Iliad. Many events, artistically connected with each other, from a quarrel with Agamemnon, which aroused the wrath of Achilles, and ending with the death of Hector, develop in a short period - during 51 days of the tenth year of the Trojan siege. These events are described in the great work of Homer in such a way that, on the one hand, the incomparable heroic personality of Achilles comes to the fore, and on the other hand, they also appear in vivid images of the personalities of other heroes of the great national war. At a time when an angry Achilles refuses to take part in battles, other heroes have the opportunity to show their strength and courage in a number of brilliant feats. But all these feats do not lead to anything: the Trojans are winning victory after victory, so that every day all the Greeks want more and more to see Achilles on the battlefield. Finally, when the latter's beloved friend, Patroclus, falls from Hector's hand, Achilles forgets his anger at the Greeks, rushes into battle, crushing everything in his path, and kills Hector. All other Greek heroes in the aggregate turn out to be weaker than one Achilles - and this is his apotheosis.

Achilles drags the body of the slain Hector along the ground. Episode of Homer's Iliad

But not only these external feats and events attract our attention - the internal events taking place in the souls of the main characters of Homer's brilliant work are of much more interest. Achilles is, of course, the greatest and most exalted figure in the Iliad; but his greatness is somewhat overshadowed by the excessive excitement of passion. His hatred of the Greeks is as overwhelming as his desperate outbursts of grief over the loss of his beloved friend, as his ferocious anger at Hector. This wild, unrestrained feeling, this passion that knows no limits, turns into quiet sadness at the end of Homer's poem, in the scene when, after the death of Hector, the grief-stricken king Priam, a gray-haired old man, rushes at the feet of the young man Achilles, begging him to return the corpse of Hector, and reminds him of the helpless old man - his father, of the frailty and fragility of everything earthly. Thus, a softer, more human feeling resurrects in the calmed soul of Achilles, and he gives justice to his brave enemy, the hated Hector, returning his body to Priam for a solemn burial. Thus, after describing the outbursts of intense excitement, the poem concludes with a calm description of Hector's funeral. This whole epic, widely conceived by Homer, which, thanks to the abundance of material that served for its creation, turned from Achilleis into the Iliad, that is, into a living picture of the entire Trojan War, is distinguished in all its main parts by such coherence and integrity that none of the main episodes cannot be isolated from this poetic work without violating its unity.

The Greek people never doubted that the entire Iliad and the entire Odyssey were created by the divine singer Homer; on the contrary, skeptical criticism of modern times tried to rob the great poet of his glory. Many argued that Homer created only part of the works attributed to him, while others even said that he never existed. These hypotheses and guesses gave rise to the so-called "Homeric question".

In 1795, the famous German philologist Fr. Aug Wolff published the famous book "Introduction to the Study of Homer", which made a complete revolution in the Homeric question. In this book, Wolf tries to prove that at the time when, according to legend, Homer lived, writing was not yet known to the Greeks, or, if it was known, it was not yet used for literary purposes. The beginnings of book writing are noticed only later, in the time of Solon. Until then, all the works of Greek poetry were created by singers without the help of writing, were preserved only in memory and were reproduced by oral transmission. But if memory was not supported by writing, then, says Wolff, it was absolutely impossible for one singer of Homer to create and transmit to others works so vast in size and distinguished by such artistic unity as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Yes, the singer could not even think of doing this at a time when there was still neither literacy nor readers, and therefore it was not possible to distribute extensive works. Therefore, all Homeric poems in the form in which we now have them, as created undoubtedly according to one artistic plan, should be considered works of later times. In the time of Homer and after him, partly by himself, partly by other singers - Homerians - many small, independent poems were composed, which for a long time were recited from memory as independent rhapsodies, until, finally, the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus decided to collect all these separate songs, devoid of internal unity, and with the help of many poets to put them in order, that is, having subjected them to minor processing, to compose from them two large consolidated poems, which were then written down. Consequently, the Iliad and Odysseus, in the form in which they have come down to us, were created during the time of Peisistratus.

Friedrich August Wolf, one of the foremost researchers of the Homeric question

According to this initial view of Wolf on the Homeric question, Homer was the author of most of the songs that were included in the Iliad and the Odyssey, but these songs were created without any predetermined plan. Later, in the preface to the Iliad, he expressed a slightly different view of the Homeric question - namely, that Homer, in most of the individual songs he created, had already outlined the main features of the Iliad and the Odyssey, that he was, therefore, the creator of the initial edition of both poems, which were subsequently developed by the Homerians. Wolf constantly wavered between these two opinions. Anyone understands how easy it was to make the transition from Wolf's opinion to the assumption that Homer never existed, that Homer's name is only a collective nickname for the Homerians and all the singers who composed the songs that later entered the Iliad and Odyssey; this transition to denial of Homer after Wolf was made by many scholars.

Wolff argues that internal arguments based on criticism of the text of the Iliad and the Odyssey can be added to external historical arguments in favor of the origin of Homeric poems from many individual songs belonging to different authors and appearing at different times, since they can indicate many factual contradictions , irregularities in the language and meter, confirming the opinion about the different origin of the individual parts. But Wolf himself did not fulfill this task. It was only later (1837 and 1841) that another researcher of the Homeric question, Lachman, referring to Wolf's conclusions, conceived of decomposing the Iliad into its (supposed) initial constituent parts - into small songs; this idea found many followers, so that Odyssey was subjected to the same analysis and fragmentation.

Wolf's "Prolegomena", at its very appearance, attracted extreme attention not only among specialists, but also throughout the educated world interested in literature. The brilliant boldness of ideas, together with the profound and witty methods of studying the Homeric question and the brilliant presentation, made a tremendous impression and delighted many; many, however, did not agree with Wolff, but attempts to scientifically refute his ideas at first were unsuccessful. Wolff asked contemporary poets to express their views on his views. Klopstock, Wieland and Foss (translator of the Iliad) opposed his interpretation of the Homeric question; Schiller called his ideas barbaric; Goethe first became very interested in Wolf's opinions, but later abandoned them. Most of the philological specialists took the side of Wolf, so that after his death (1824) his views became dominant in Germany. For a long time he did not find an equal opponent for himself.

After Wolf's death, the Homeric question became the subject of new research and was generally considered from two opposite points of view: some, based on Wolf's conclusions, tried to determine the individual constituent parts of Homer's poems; others have tried to refute these conclusions and defended the old view of the Iliad and Odyssey. These studies shed a bright light on the development of epic poetry and significantly moved forward the study of Homeric poems; but the Homeric question still remains unresolved. In general, it can be said that attempts to decompose the Iliad and the Odyssey into separate small songs should be considered unsuccessful, and that scholars who have taken it upon themselves to defend the unity of Homeric poems, without insisting, however, on their complete immunity, find themselves more and more supporters. These are the so-called Unitarians, among which G.V. Nich occupies an outstanding place.

A careful study of the Homeric poems shows that they were created according to a pre-arranged plan; therefore, we must assume that at least each of these poems separately in their main parts is the creation of one poet. It was possible for a great genius to create and retain in memory such vast works without the help of writing, especially at a time when, in the absence of writing, the power of memory was much greater than in our days; there were people in the time of Socrates who could say by heart the entire Iliad and the entire Odyssey. What was created by a great poet could be remembered by people devoted to poetry, and thus spread throughout the world. Contrary to Wolf's view of the Homeric question, in recent times it has been proven that, at least at the beginning of the Olympic chronology (776 BC), writing was already in general use among the Greeks, and it was also used for literary purposes; many researchers, not without reason, even believe that Homer himself could have written his works. Therefore, it is possible to assume that written copies of the Iliad have existed since its inception; but we can say for sure that they existed during the first Olympiad. Of course, they were not widespread, but they were found among singers and rhapsodes, who, using them, memorized Homeric poems in order to recite them to the people later.

Homeric poems in ancient times were recited sometimes in parts, sometimes completely, in their original composition; but with the passage of time, when other works appeared alongside the songs of the rhapsodists at the ceremonial meetings, and, consequently, less time remained for the rhapsodists. The Iliad and the Odyssey were fragmented and began to be recited and distributed in parts, in separate small songs. Therefore, it could easily happen that, despite the existence of written copies, the rhapsodists added various insertions and additions to the original text, as a result of which certain parts of the Homeric poems underwent some changes in language and tone and were often joined to one another quite arbitrarily. Thus, irregularities in syllable and language and actual contradictions that we now encounter in Homer's poems could appear. In order to eliminate the confusion introduced into them by the rhapsodes, Solon of Athens ordered that Homeric songs in public meetings be recited from written copies (έξ υποβολής). These copies contained, in all likelihood, only separate parts of the poems. Pisistratus, with the assistance of the Orphic Onomacritus and several other poets, again combined these scattered passages of the Iliad and the Odyssey into an organic whole and ordered (himself or his son Hipparchus) that during Panathenaea both poems should be read in their entirety, and the rhapsodists were to replace each other (έξ ΰπολήψεως). This was a specially Athenian order, which does not exclude the possibility of the existence in other cities or private individuals of lists of Homeric poems, either in full or in parts. But the Athenian copy, which belonged to Peisistratus, apparently enjoyed particular fame and subsequently served as the basis for the grammarians of the Alexandrian Museum, who were engaged in criticizing and interpreting the text of Homeric poems.

Other works of Homer

HOMER, the first of the Greek poets whose writings have come down to us, and admittedly one of the greatest European poets. We do not have any reliable information about him and about his life.

Many cities claimed the right to be called the birthplace of the poet, among them Smyrna and Chios in Asia Minor. In the same way, antique chronographs differ in the dates of Homer's life: 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 tend to attribute his activities to the 8th or even 7th century. BC, indicating as the main place of his residence Chios or any other region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. In ancient times, in addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer was credited with the authorship of other poems (fragments of some of them survived), but modern researchers usually believe that their authors lived later than Homer.

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

It is clear, however, that the Iliad and the 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. Thus, the chronological period in which the life of Homer could be localized is from the 12th to the 7th century BC. e., but the most likely date is the latest.

Homer's place of birth is unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. 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 even give 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 is one of the forms of poetic koine, formed long before the supposed time of Homer's life. Traditionally, Homer is portrayed as a blind man. Most likely, this idea is not based on the real facts of Homer's life, but is a reconstruction characteristic of the genre of ancient biography. Since many outstanding legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic, linking the prophetic and poetic gifts, the assumption of Homer's blindness looked very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodoc in the Iliad 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 essay "The Competition of Homer and Hesiod", created no later than the 3rd century. BC e., and in the opinion of many researchers, and much earlier. The poets allegedly met on the island of Evia at the games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each recited their best poems. King Paned, who acted as a judge in the competition, awarded the victory to Hesiod, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and carnage. However, the audience's sympathy was on Homer's side. In addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer is credited with a number of works, undoubtedly created later: Homeric hymns, the comic poem Margit, etc. The meaning of the name Homer was tried to be explained back in antiquity, the options “hostage” or “blind man” were proposed ...

Homer - Greek. Homeros, lat. Homerus, a poet who stood at the origins of Greek and, therefore, European literature, whose name is associated with the oldest literary genre of the Greeks, the heroic epic, especially the Iliad and Odyssey. Already in antiquity, nothing reliable was known about the personality and time of Homer's life. He was portrayed as a blind old man. Of the cities that claimed the right to be considered his homeland, the most justified claims of Smyrna in Ionian Asia Minor and the island of Chios. It is believed that Homer lived around the 8th century BC. Homer is a poet of classical antiquity, but at the same time he is a great teacher-mentor and a model for all antiquity. The “Homeric question” (the question about the author and the circumstances of the origin of the Homeric epic) existed already in antiquity. Back in the 6th century. BC. by order of Peisistratus, the texts of Homer were examined. Up to 5 in. BC. Apart from the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer was credited with numerous epic poems (the so-called epic cycle Cypriot, Margit, Homeric hymns). Homer was considered the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey until, in the Hellenistic era, the chorizonten (dividers) challenged his authorship in relation to the Odyssey. In modern times, F. A. Wolf, in his Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795), raised this question again. Between the researchers who divided the epic into separate songs (Lachmann's song theory), and the Unitarians who defended the strict unity of the epic, there were researchers who accepted the later interpolations, extensions and compilations of several small epic works or considered Homer only the editor of the epic. The state of modern research allows Homer to be considered the author of the Iliad. He used more ancient songs, drawing on epic traditions and acting according to a single plan. These songs, heroic legends and a small epic are an oral preliminary stage that leads to the world of the 2nd millennium to the early Greek tribes that penetrated the Mediterranean. The question of the extent to which the Cretan-Mycenaean culture is reflected in the Iliad again became controversial after an attempt was made to decipher Linear B. Songs were sung by itinerant rhapsods at meals of a noble society (nobility). Whether these rhapsodes possessed even partly written texts is controversial, as is the question of the written text of Homer's epic. The use of B.'s letter is considered very likely today, given the artistic composition of the poems. In the Iliad, named after the Greek city of Ilion (Troy), 24 books depict a 49-day period, the end of the 10-year Greek struggle for Troy. Its theme is the anger of Achilles, from whom Agamemnon took away his slave Briseis, because of which Achilles refused to participate in the battles. After the death of his friend Patroclus, Achilles re-enters the battle to avenge him. From his mother Thetis, Achilles receives armor forged for him 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. The Iliad reflects different eras. Numerous episodic events, along with the main action, show heroes, often descended from gods, in difficult battles. The gods take part in the struggle on both sides, multiple scenes with the gods take on the character of burlesque. This is followed by small poetic additions to the Odyssey, apparently a later work, and it does not belong to Homer. The poem probably belongs to a student of Homer (?) And was edited later. The 24 books celebrate the 10-year journey and return to his homeland of Odysseus to his wife Penelope. Before returning home, Odysseus stops with the nymph Calypso. After the shipwreck, appearing in front of the feaca, the hero tells about the events he has experienced. The poem tells how Penelope, who is waiting for her husband to return home, cunningly postpones her marriage with the suitors, her son Telemachus helps Odysseus, who has returned home unrecognized, in beating the suitors. In the epic, many stories about sea voyages are intertwined with fabulous motives. Vase painting, as well as wall painting, in various variations represents numerous scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey, plastic has created an idealized portrait of the blind poet. -eolian elements. Distinct, repetitive phrases in the form of formulas probably refer to the oral initial stages preserved in the epic. Among the unattainable peaks of the Homeric epic are the flight of fantasy, the power of eloquence, the slowing down of the course of action to create dramatic tension, the arts in particular, the naturalness in the depiction of life, the beauty of comparisons, testifying to the author's amazing observation, human participation and psychological sensitivity. In the field of the epic "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the highest examples of poetry. The most widely read author for 3000 years, Homer was studied at school very early and until Byzantine time. Having become the standard in evaluating any poem of antiquity, Homer's epic gave impetus to all subsequent artistic creation. Livy Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin, Virgil with his Aeneid wanted to reach the level of the Homeric epic. In the areas of the Latin language, in the Middle Ages, and in the Romance countries until modern times, 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 that time began to have a strong influence on the classics of world literature (Lessing, Herder, Goethe).

Homer is an ancient Greek poet. To date, there is no convincing evidence for the reality of the historical figure of Homer. According to ancient tradition, it was customary to represent Homer as a blind wandering aedom singer, seven cities argued for the honor of being called his homeland. He probably came 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 The Iliad and The Odyssey. In ancient times, Homer was recognized as the author of other works as well: the poem "Batrachomachia" and a collection of "Homeric 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. Even in ancient times, the "Homeric question" arose, which is now understood as a set of problems associated with the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic, including the relationship between folklore and literary creativity itself.

Time of creation of poems. History of the text

Biographical information about Homer, cited by ancient authors, is contradictory and hardly plausible. "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). Ancient scholars gave various dates regarding the life of Homer, from the 12th century BC (after the Trojan War) to the 7th century BC; there was a widespread legend about a poetic contest between Homer and Hesiod. As most researchers believe, Homeric poems were created in Asia Minor, in Ionia in the 8th century BC, based on mythological legends about the Trojan War. There is late antique evidence of the final editing 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 Panathenae.

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: "Cypriot", "Ethiopis", "Little Iliad", "The capture of Ilion", "Returns" ( the so-called "cyclical poems", only small fragments have survived). There was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods called Homeric Hymns. In the Hellenistic era, the philologists of the Library of Alexandria Aristarchus of Samothrace, Zenodotus from Ephesus, Aristophanes from Byzantium (they also divided each poem into 24 songs according to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet) did a great job of collecting and refining the manuscripts of Homer's poems during the Hellenistic era. The name of the sophist Zoilus (4th century BC), nicknamed the "scourge of Homer" for his critical statements, has become a household name. Xenon and Gellanic, the so-called. “Dividing”, expressed the idea of ​​the possible belonging to Homer of only one Iliad; they, however, did not doubt either the reality of Homer, or that each of the poems has its own author.

Homeric question

The question of the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey was raised in 1795 by the German scholar Friedrich August Wolf in the preface to the publication of the Greek text of the poems. Wolff considered it impossible to create a great epic in the unwritten period, believing that the legends created by various aedids were recorded in Athens under Pisistratus. Scientists were divided into "analysts", followers of Wolf's theory (German scientists K. Lachman, A. Kirchhoff with his theory of "small epics"; G. Hermann and the English historian J. Groth with their "theory of the main core", in Russia it was divided by F F. Zelinsky), and "Unitarians", supporters of the strict unity of the epic (translator of Homer Johann Heinrich Foss and philologist G.V. Nitsch, Johann Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Germany, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich, Vasily Andreevich

Zhukovsky, Alexander Sergeevich 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 Germanic epics. In the 1930s. American classical philologist Milman Perry, comparing Homer's poems with the living epic tradition that still existed at that time among the peoples of Yugoslavia, found in Homer's poems a reflection of the poetic technique of the aedi folk singers. The poetic formulas created by them from stable combinations and epithets ("swift-footed" Achilles, "shepherd of nations" Agamemnon, "clever" Odysseus, "sweet-spoken" Nestor) enabled the narrator to "improvise" to perform epic songs consisting of many thousands of verses.

The Iliad and The 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). The main difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey from all other epic works, Aristotle saw in the fact that Homer does not unfold his story 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 descriptions of the author, but by the speeches uttered by the hero himself.

Poem language

The language of Homeric poems - exclusively poetic, "supra-dialectal" - has never been identical with lively colloquial speech. It consisted of a combination of Aeolian (Boeotia, Thessaly, Lesbos island) and Ionian (Attica, island Greece, the coast of Asia Minor) dialectal features with the preservation of the archaic system of earlier eras. Metrically designed the songs of the Iliad and the Odyssey, rooted in Indo-European epic creativity, hexameter - a poetic meter in which each verse consists of six feet with the correct alternation of long and short syllables. The originality of the 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 the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s and 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 finds in the fourth shaft tomb at Mycenae with Homer's descriptions. The impression was so strong that the era of Homer for a long time became associated with the heyday of Achaean Greece in the 14-13th centuries BC. In the poems, however, there are also numerous archaeologically attested features of the culture of the "heroic age", such as the mention of iron tools and weapons or the custom of cremating the dead.

Comparison of the evidence of the Homeric epic with the data of archeology confirms the conclusions of many researchers that in its final version it took shape in the 8th century BC, and many researchers consider the Catalog of Ships (Iliad, 2nd Canto) to be the most ancient part of the epic. ... Obviously, the poems were not created at the same time: The Iliad reflects the idea of ​​a person of the “heroic period”, “The Odyssey” stands, as it were, at the turn of a different era - the time of the Great Greek colonization, when the boundaries of the world assimilated by Greek culture were expanding.

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. Homer, along with Hesiod, was considered the creator of a comprehensive and ordered mythological picture of the universe: the poets "compiled genealogies of gods for the Hellenes, provided the names of the gods with epithets, divided their virtues and occupations, and drew their images" (Herodotus). According to Strabo, Homer was the only one of the poets of antiquity who knew almost everything about the oecumene, about the peoples inhabiting it, their origin, way of life and culture. Thucydides, Pausanias, Plutarch used Homer's data as authentic and trustworthy. The father of the 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. By reading selected passages from Homer's poems, the Pythagorean philosophers called for the correction of souls. Plutarch reports that Alexander the Great always had a copy of the Iliad with him, which he kept under his pillow along with a dagger.

Homer's translations

In the 3rd century. BC NS. the Roman poet Livy Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin. In medieval Europe, Homer was known only by quotes and references from Latin writers and Aristotle, Homer's poetic glory was overshadowed by the glory of Virgil. Only at the end of the 15th century. the first translations of Homer into Italian appeared (Angelo Poliziano and others). An event in European culture of the 18th century. were the translations of Homer into English by Alexander Popa and into German by J.G. Foss. He was the first to translate fragments of the Iliad into Russian in twenty-syllabic syllabic - the so-called. Alexandrian - Mikhail Lomonosov's verse. At the end of the 18th century. E. Kostrov translated the first six songs of the Iliad in iambic (1787); Prose translations of the Iliad by P. Yekimov and the Odyssey by P. Sokolov were published.

The titanic work on the creation of the Russian hexameter and adequate reproduction of the figurative system of Homer was done by NI 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 Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1842-49) is distinguished by the highest artistic skill. In the 20th century, Gmer's Iliad and Odyssey were translated by the Russian writer Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev.

Homer is known to the world as an ancient Greek poet. Modern science recognizes Homer as the authorship of such poems as The Iliad and The Odyssey, but in antiquity he was recognized as the author of other works as well. It is worth saying that the existence of Homer's personality is, in principle, questioned. It is also believed that the authorship of both the Iliad and the Odyssey belongs to different people who lived at different times. There are also works called Homeric hymns, but they are not counted among the creations of Homer himself.

Be that as it may, Homer is the first ancient poet whose works have survived to this day. During his lifetime, 9 of his biographies were compiled. So, according to Herodotus, the poet lived in the 9th century. BC NS. To this day, the place of his birth remains a mystery, but it is believed that he lived in Asia Minor, in Ionia. According to legend, as many as 7 Greek largest policies argued for the right to call themselves the birthplace of the creator.

Traditionally, it is customary to portray Homer as blind, but scientists explain this not so much by the real state of his vision as by the influence of the culture of the ancient Greeks, where poets were identified with prophets.

In the poet's biography, there is a place for a poetic battle with such a person as Hesiod. It took place on the island of Evia during the games in memory of the deceased. The winner was Hesiod, as he raised more populist topics. However, Homer sympathized with the audience more.

Since the 17th century, scientists have been faced with the so-called Homeric question - a dispute about the authorship of legendary poems. But, no matter what scientists argue about, Homer entered the history of world literature, and in his homeland, for a long time after his death, he had special respect. His epics were considered sacred, and Plato himself said that the spiritual development of Greece was the merit of Homer.

The legendary narrator died on the island of Ios.

Homer's biography about the main thing

Before talking about the biographical facts of Homer, it should be noted that his name in translation from ancient Greek means "blind." Perhaps it was for this reason that the assumption arose that the ancient Greek poet was blind.

If we talk about the exact date of birth of Homer, then it is not known for certain until today. But there are several versions of his birth.

So, version one. According to her, Homer was born very shortly after the end of the war with Troy.

According to the second version, Homer was born during the Trojan War and saw all the sad events. According to the third version, Homer's lifetime varies from 100 to 250 years after the end of the Trojan War.

But all versions are similar in that the period of Homer's work, or rather its heyday, falls on the late 10th - early 9th centuries BC.

The exact date of Homer's birth is unknown, and the place where the ancient rhetorician was born is also unknown. As many as seven cities in Greece argue about where Homer was actually born. These are, for example, Athens, Colophon, Smyrna, Argos and others.

Due to the lack of many biographical data in connection with the personality of Homer, a large number of legends began to appear.

One of them says that shortly before his death, Homer turned to the seer to reveal the secret of his origin. Then the seer named Ios as the place where Homer would die. Homer went there. He remembered the sage's admonition to beware of puzzles from youth. But remembering is one thing, but in reality it always turns out differently. The boys who were fishing saw a stranger, talked to him and asked him a riddle. He could not find an answer to her, went in his thoughts, hesitated and fell. Homer passed away three days later. He was buried there.

Homer has two genius poems: The Odyssey and The Iliad. The Greeks at all times believed and still think so. Some critics began to question this fact and began to express the point of view according to which these works appeared only in the 18th century and did not belong to Homer at all.

In the 18th century, German linguists published a work in which it is said that during the period of Homer's life there was no written language, the texts were kept in memory and passed from mouth to mouth. Therefore, such significant texts could not be preserved in this way.

It should be noted that such famous masters of the pen as Goethe and Schiller, nevertheless, gave the authorship of the poems to Homer. We believe that it is important to cite additional interesting facts related to the biography and work of the ancient Greek rhetorician.

First, Mikhail Lomonosov performed selective translation of Homer's texts.

Secondly, in 1829 Nikolai Gnedich translated the Iliad completely into Russian for the first time.

Thirdly, today there are nine versions of Homer's biography, but none can be considered completely documentary. In each description, fiction occupies a large place.

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Interesting facts and dates from life

Homer - one of the most ancient poets of antiquity, is the author of world famous epic works, including "The Odyssey" and "Iliad". He lived in the 8th - 7th centuries BC. According to Herodotus, the writer created his masterpieces in the ninth century.

Some chronographs claim that Homer was a contemporary of the Trojan War, and he died in the 12th century BC. Research proves that more than half of the papyri found came from his pen. Little is known about the life path and personality of the creator.

Myths and facts from the life of the poet

There are still debates among scientists about the date and place of Homer's birth. Most of them believe that the years of the poet's life fell on the eighth century BC. If we talk about the place where the author of the epic poems lived, seven cities are most often named, each of which is located in the territory of the country of Ionia.

Among them are Rhodes, Smyrna, Athens, Colophon, Argos, Salamis and Chion. His most famous epic poems were written on the Asia Minor coast of Greece. There is a possibility that this happened on one of the islands that adjoined this country.

The Greeks are actively spreading the legend that the poet was born in Smyrna near the Melesa River. His mother is called Crifeida. According to the stories written during that period of time, the scientist man Themiy fell in love with Homer's mother, after which he took his son to his disciples. The young man learned quickly, and soon was able to surpass his teacher. After Femiya's death, the school passed into the possession of the poet. People from all over the country came to him for a wise conversation. Among them was the sailor Mentes, who persuaded Homer to go on a journey with him, closing the school.

Legends say that the young creator was very curious, so he carefully studied the culture of each place he visited. He noticed any little things, and then gradually began to describe the events he saw. The Greeks claim that the writer went blind after visiting Ithaca. Some sources state that it was only temporary blindness, and vision was quickly restored. Others are inclined to believe that Homer remained blind until the end of his days. It was during this period that the dawn of his work fell.

Homer traveled a lot, helped people, even raised the children of one rich gentleman. In adulthood, he settled in the city of Chios, where he founded a school. The locals showed him respect in every possible way, so the writer could teach their children in comfort. After a while, he got married, and the family had two sons and a daughter.

Researchers have drawn some facts from ancient manuscripts and paintings depicting the writer. So, in most of the sculptures, he was shown blind. At that time, it was customary to portray representatives of the literary professions as blind, so it is impossible to prove whether this information is true. The Greeks believed that there was some connection between writing talent and the inability to see. Moreover, one of the characters in the Iliad also had vision problems. That is why literary scholars are inclined to conclude that this feature was just a reconstruction.

To draw conclusions about the origin of the author, scientists studied in detail the language of his works. But even the dialectical features of the language did not help to get closer to the truth, since they combined too many words from the Ionian and Aeolian dialects. This combination is called a special poetic koine, formed long before the birth of the creator. The meaning of Homer's name is traditionally deciphered as "blind man" and "hostage."

It is also known about a kind of poetic duel in which Homer and Hesiod participated. They read their works to the audience of one of the islands. King Paned was appointed as the judge of this battle. Homer lost the match because there were too many calls for war and battle in his poetry. Unlike him, Hesiod advocated peace, therefore he actively promoted agriculture and hard work for the good. However, visitors to the island were more supportive of the losing poet.

It is known that death overtook Homer on an island in the Cyclades archipelago. He was very saddened, did not look at his feet, as a result of which he stumbled on a stone. Some sources claim that the poet died of grief, because shortly before the collision he could not solve the riddle of the local fishermen. Other researchers are inclined to believe that Homer was sick.

Homer's work

As mentioned above, Homer was the author of acclaimed epic poems such as The Iliad and The Odyssey. In addition, he was often credited with other works that were published much later. Among them are a comic poem called "Margit", a cycle of "Cypriots", "Homeric hymns" and other works.

Representatives of the Alexandria Library have done a tremendous job to establish the authorship of each work. They studied the manuscripts, compared the language and the storyline to which the authors of the poems adhered. As a result, even today there are disputes among scholars about which texts belong to Homer and which ones were unfairly attributed to him.

Philologists admit that it was this poet who became the first of his kind. They are struck by the unity of the action, the original concept and style of the story. According to the researchers, the poems reflect the technique of folk singers. Like them, Homer created stable phrases, from which later it was possible to easily create songs of a large size.

Homeric question

All discussions related to the two epic poems are usually called the Homeric question. Indeed, there have been many dubious facts in the history of the study of these works. Even in antiquity, some people stated that Homer borrowed the plot for the poems from the poetess Fantasia, who lived during the Trojan War.

For a long time, European art critics adhered to the point of view of the undoubted authorship of the poet. It was also taken for granted that the Iliad and The Odyssey were published with a minimum of corrections. But at the end of the 17th century, philologists discovered other versions of the Iliad's songs. This called into question not only the authorship of Homer, but also the integrity of the work. Some researchers argued that each song was separate from the others, while others advocated the unity of the author's thought.

Since epic poems have undergone many editing options, literary scholars consider it inappropriate to attribute authorship to just one. The texts revealed inconsistencies in the temporal-spatial framework, deviations from the plot and contradictions. That is why analysts came to the conclusion that the poem was constantly expanding, and far from one person participated in this process.

There are also opponents of analysts, the so-called Unitarians. They argue that Homer was the sole author of two poems. They refute all the arguments of their opponents with the idea that errors and contradictions inevitably occur in every great work. The Unitarian emphasis is placed on the integrity of the concept, symmetry and beauty of the composition of both poems.

Translations of the poet

The language of epic poems should be mentioned separately. Homer preferred to use phrases that did not appear in living speech. There were many dialecticisms, and metrically, the poet designed his texts in such a size as a hexameter. Each song consisted of six feet, where short and long syllables were moderately alternated. That is why an adequate translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey required titanic efforts and talent.

The first translations saw the world even before our era. In the third century, a Roman poet created a Latin version of the Odyssey. Children from Greece learned to read using the works of Homer. In the 15th century, a translation into Italian appeared, three centuries after that, epic poems were gradually translated into English, Russian and German. Mikhail Lomonosov was the first to use the most complex Alexandrian verse during his translation. After him, a partial translation of Kostrov in iambic size appeared, then it became known about some prosaic versions. V. Zhukovsky and N. Gnedich are rightfully considered the unsurpassed translators of Homer in Russia.