Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019
Odyssey
Homer (approx. 750 BC e)
The Trojan War was launched by the gods in order to end the time of the heroes and the current, human, iron age. Whoever did not perish at the walls of Troy, he should have perished on the way back.
Most of the surviving Greek leaders fled to their homeland, as they floated on Troy - a common fleet across the Aegean Sea. When they were halfway, the sea god Poseidon rushed a storm, ships plucked, people drowned in waves and crashed into the rocks. Saved destined only to be elected. But even that was not easy. Perhaps only the old wise Nestor managed to calmly reach his kingdom in the city of Pylos. Supreme king Agamemnon overcame the storm, but only then, to perish even more terrible death - in his native Argos, he was killed by his own wife and her avenger-lover; about this will write the tragedy of the poet Aeschylus. Menelaus with Elena, who was returned to her, was thrown far into Egypt by the winds, and he reached for a very long time to his Sparta. But the longest and hardest was the path of a cunning king Odysseus, whom the sea wore in the world for ten years.
"Iliad" - the poem is heroic, its action takes place on the ruined field and in a military camp. Odyssey is a fairy-tale and everyday poem, its action unfolds on the one hand in the magical edges of giants and monsters, where Odysseus wandered, on the other - in his small kingdom on the island of Ithaca and in the environs where his wife, Penelope and his son is Telehome. As in the Iliad, only one episode is selected for narration, "Achilles' wrath", and in the "Odyssey" - only the very end of his wanderings, the last two races, from the far western edge of the earth to the native Ithaca. About everything that was before, Odysseus speaks for a feast in the middle of the poem, and tells very concisely: for all these fabulous adventures in the poem there are pages of fifty out of three hundred. In Odyssey, the fairy tale shades off life, and not vice versa, although readers, both ancient and modern,
In the Trojan War, Odysseus did a lot for the Greeks - especially where there was no power, but mind. It was he who guessed that he would bind Elena's grooms together to help her elect against any offender, and without this army would never have gathered in a campaign. He was attracted to the young Achilles campaign, and without this victory would have been impossible. This is when, at the beginning of the Iliad, the Greek army, after a general gathering, barely rushed from under Troy on the way back, managed to stop it. This he persuaded Achilles when he quarreled with Agamemnon, to return to battle. When, after the death of Achilles, the armor of the murderer was to receive the best warrior of the Greek class, they were received by Odysseus, not Ajax. When Troy failed to take a siege, it was Odysseus who had come up with a wooden horse that hid and penetrated the most courageous Greek leaders in Troy in this way-and he among them. The goddess of Athena, the patron saint of the Greeks, most of them loved Odysseus and helped him at every turn. But God Poseidon hated him - we will soon find out why - and this Poseidon's storms for ten years did not allow him to get to his homeland. Ten years under Troy, ten years on wanderings - and only on the twentieth year of his trials begins the action of the Odyssey.
It begins, as in the "Iliad", "Zeus will". The gods hold the council, and Athena intercedes in front of Zeus for Odysseus. He is captured by the nymph of Calypso in love with him, on the island in the middle of the wide sea, and he languishes in vain wishing to "see even the smoke, from the native coast to the far east." And in his kingdom, on the island of Ithaca, they all already consider him dead, and the local nobles demand that Queen Penelope should choose a new husband from them, and the island - a new king. There are more than a hundred of them, they live in the Odysseus Palace, burgeoning and drinking drunk, ruining Odysseev's household, and entertaining with the Odysseus slave. Penelope tried to deceive them: she said she had vowed to declare her decision not earlier than the Savet's wreath for the old Laeret, Odysseyev's father, who was about to die. During the day, she wore everything in sight, and at night she was deliberately waving woven. But the maids gave her a trick, and it became increasingly difficult for her to resist the insistence of the grooms. With her is the son of her Telemachus, whom Odysseus left as an infant; but he is young, and with him are not considered.
And then to Telemahu comes a stranger, calls himself an old friend Odysseus and gives him the advice: "The shells of a ship, bypass the surrounding land, collect news of the lost Odyssey; if you hear that he is alive, you will say to the bridegroom, that they wait another year; If you hear that he is dead, you will say that you will do the mourning and incline your mother to marriage. " Advised and disappeared - for in the image of him was the Athena itself. So Telemachus did. The bridegrooms resisted, but Telemachus managed to leave and board the ship unnoticed - for in this he was assisted by all the same Athena.
Telemachus floats to the mainland - first to Pylos to the shabby Nestor, then to Sparta to the newly returned Menelaus and Elena. The clumsy Nestor tells how the heroes from the Troy floated and sank in the storm, as he died in Argos Agamemnon and how his son Orestes avenged his assassin; but about the fate of Odysseus he knows nothing. The hospitable Menelaus tells how he, Menelaus, lost his journey, on the Egyptian shore, was hooked up by the sea elder, the sealed shepherd Protea, who was able to address both the lion and the boar, and in the leopard, and in the serpent, and in the water, and in tree; how he fought against Protheum, and overcame him, and he knew his way back; but at the same time he learned that Odysseus was alive and suffering among the wide sea on the island of the nymphs of Calypso. Excited with this message, Telemachus is about to return to Ithaca.
The intercession of Athens helped: Zeus sends to Calypso the messenger of the gods of Hermes: time has come, it's time to let Odyssey go. Nympha grumbles: "For whether I saved him from the sea, for whether I wanted to give him immortality?" - but he does not dare to disobey. There is no ship from Odysseus - you need to combine the raft. For four days he works with an ax and a ram, on the fifth - the raft is lowered. Seventeen days he sails under the sail, right on the stars, the eighteenth rains a storm. This Poseidon, seeing the hero slipping away from him, poured the abyss with four winds, raft logs flew like straw. "Oh, why did not I die under Troy!" Cried Odyssey. Odyssey helped two goddesses: a good sea nymph threw him a magic blanket that saved from drowning, and the faithful Athena took away three winds, leaving the fourth to carry him to the next bank. Two days and two nights he floats, not touching his eyes, and on the third wave they throw him on land. Naked, tired, helpless, he burrows into a bunch of leaves and falls asleep in a dead sleep.
It was the land of blissful fairies, over which the good king Alkina ruled in the high palace: copper walls, golden doors, sewn cloths on benches, ripe fruit on branches, eternal summer over the garden. The king had a young daughter Juicy; At night, Athena appeared to her and said: "Soon you marry, and your garments are not washed away; gather the maids, take the chariot, go to the sea, wash your dresses. " They drove away, rubbed, dried up, began to play ball; the ball flew into the sea, the girls cried out loudly, Odysseus woke their cry. He climbs up from the bushes, a terrible, covered with a sea-drenched thigh, and pray: "Are you a mortal or mortal, help me: let me cover nakedness, tell me the way to the people, and the gods of a good husband will send you." He is washed, smelted, dressed, and Admiring, admiring, he thinks: "Ah, if the gods of such a husband gave me". He goes to the city, enters the king Alkina, tells him about his misfortune, but he does not call himself; Alkina, who is touched by the promise, will give the Fekaic ships a place where he will not ask.
Odyssey sits on the Alkinoe feast, and the wise blind singer Demodoc is entertaining with feasting songs. "Sing about the Trojan War!" - asks Odysseus; and Demodochek sings about Odysseus's wooden horse and about the capture of Troy. In Odysseus, tears are in sight. "Why are you crying? - says Alkina. - For this, the gods send death to the heroes, so that the descendants sang their glory. Is it true that some of your relatives fell under Troy? "And then Odysseus reveals:" I am Odysseus, the son of Laerta, the king of Ithaca, a little stone, but dear to heart ... "and begins the story of his wanderings. In the story of this - nine adventures.
The first adventure is the lotophages. The storm took Odysseus ships from under Troy to the far south, where the lotus - a magic fruit - grows, after which one has forgotten everything and does not want anything but a lotus in life. Lothophages treated the lotus of the Odysseus satellites, and they forgot about their native Ithaca and refused to swim further. With their force, weeping, they were taken to the ship and set off on their way.
The second adventure is with the Cyclops. These were monstrous giants with one eye in the middle of the forehead; they graze sheep and goats and did not know the fault. The main among them was Polifem, son of the sea Poseidon. Odysseus with a dozen comrades wandered into his empty cave. Polifem came up in the evening, huge as a mountain, drove a flock into the cave, blocked the way out of the boulder, asked, "Who are you?" - "Wanderers, Zeus is our keeper, we ask to help us." - "I'm not afraid of Zeus!" - and the kiclop grabbed two, broke down on the wall, ate it with bones and snored. In the morning he left with a herd, once again blocking the entrance; and here Odysseus came up with a trick. He and his comrades took a cyklop's club, bigger than a mast, sharpened, burned on fire, hid; but when the villain came and ate two more comrades, he gave him the fault to be asleep. The wine liked the monster. "What is your name?" He asked. "No one!" - answered Odysseus. "For such a treat I'm you, No one, eat the last!" - and the hopeless kiklop snapped. Here Odysseus and his companions took a knock, approached, rocked her and intruded into the only giants' eyes. The blinded eater roared, other kiclops fled: "Who offended you, Polifem?" - "No one!" - "Well, when nobody, there is nothing to do" - and they broke up. And to get out of the cave, Odysseus tied his comrades under the belly to the sheep of the Cyclops, so that he could not catch them, and so with the flock they left the cave in the morning. But, already sailing, Odysseus could not stand and shouted: And to get out of the cave, Odysseus tied his comrades under the belly to the sheep of the Cyclops, so that he could not catch them, and so with the flock they left the cave in the morning. But, already sailing, Odysseus could not stand and shouted: And to get out of the cave, Odysseus tied his comrades under the belly to the sheep of the Cyclops, so that he could not catch them, and so with the flock they left the cave in the morning. But, already sailing, Odysseus could not stand and shouted:
"Here is a punishment for my offense to my guests, Odysseus with Ithaca!" And Kichlop fiercely prayed to his father Poseidon: "Do not let Odysseus swim to Ithaca, and if it is so destined, let it not soon swim, one, on another's ship!" And God heard his prayer.
The third adventure is on the island of the god of winds of Aeola. God sent them a passing wind, and the rest were tied in a leather bag and gave Odysseus: "Do not swim - let go." But when Iatha was already seen, tired Odysseus fell asleep, and his companions unleashed the bag earlier than time; a hurricane rose, they drove back to Aeol. "So the gods are against you!" Eol said angrily, and refused to help the disobedient.
The fourth adventure - the lethrighons, the wild giants-cannibals. They ran to the shore and crashed huge rocks on the Odysseus ships; Of the twelve ships, eleven were lost, and Odysseus with few comrades was saved by the latter.
The fifth adventure - the wizard of Kirk, the queen of the West, all aliens turned into beasts. She sent wine, honey, cheese and flour with poison poison to the Odysseus messengers - and they turned to pigs, and she drove them into a cage. One was saved and horrifiedly told Odyssey about it; he took the bow and went to help his comrades, hoping for nothing. But Hermes, the messenger of the gods, gave him a goddess: the root was black, the flower was white, and the spell was powerless against Odysseus. Threatened by a sword, he forced the wizard to return the appearance of man to his friends and demanded: "Drive us to Ithaca!" - "Ask the path of the thing of Tirezius, a prophet of the prophets," said the witch. "But he died!" - "Ask the dead!" And she told me how to do it.
The sixth adventure is the worst: the descent into the realm of the dead. Entrance to it is on the edge of the world, in the country of eternal night. The souls of the dead in it are insoluble, insensible and thoughtless, but, after drinking sacrificial blood, they find speech and reason. On the threshold of the kingdoms of the dead, Odysseus slaughtered a black ram and a black sheep; the souls of the dead flew to the smell of blood, but Odysseus disposed them with a sword until a bearer of Tiresius appeared to him. Having shed blood, he said:
"Your troubles - for the offense of Poseidon; your salvation - if you do not offend even the Sun-Helios; If you are offended, you will return to Ithaca, but one, on a strange ship, and not soon. Your house is ruined by Penelope's grooms; but you will manage them, and you will have a long kingdom and peaceful old age. " After this, Odysseus admitted to the sacrificial blood and other ghosts. The shadow of his mother told how she died of her son's grief; he wanted to hug her, but at his hands was just empty air. Agamemnon told how he died from his wife: "Be Odysseus, be careful, it's dangerous to rely on wives." Achilles said to him:
"It's better for me to be a farmer on earth than the king among the dead." Only Ajax did not say anything, not forgiving that Odysseus, but not for him, received the armor of Achilles. From the time he saw Odysseus and the infernal judge of Minnos, and the perpetually executed pride of Tantal, the cunning Sizifa, the torturer of Titia; but then horror took him, and he hurried away to white light.
The seventh adventure was Sirens - predators, seductive singing luring sailors to death. Odysseus outsmade them: he laid his ears with wax on his companions, and ordered himself to attach to the mast and not let go, in spite of everything. So they swam past unharmed, and Odysseus also heard singing, which is not sweeter.
The eighth adventure was the siege between the monster Skilla and Haribda: Skilla - six heads, each with three rows of teeth, and twelve legs; Chariber - on one of the larynx, but such that one whole body drags one sip. Odysseus chose Skill Haribert - and she was right: she grabbed from the ship and fed six of his comrades with six mouths, but the ship remained intact.
The ninth adventure was the island of Solnce-Helios, where its sacred flocks - seven flocks of red bulls, and seven herds of white rams - were grazed. Odysseus, remembering the covenant of Tirezia, took with his comrades a terrible oath not to touch them; but the winds were blowing, the ship was standing, the satellites were starving and, when Odysseus fell asleep, slaughtered and ate the best bulls. It was terrible: the hide-in hides moved, and the meat on the spitters rolled. The sun-Helios, who sees everything, hears everything, knows everything, prayed to Zeus: "Order the offenders, not that I will go down to the underground kingdom and shine among the dead." And as the winds fell off and the ship escaped from the shore, Zeus raised the storm, bursting with lightning, the ship collapsed, the satellites drowned in a whirlpool, and Odysseus alone on a piece of logs wore on the sea for nine days until he threw him to the shore of the island of Calypso.
So he ends his story with Odysseus.
Tsar Alkina fulfilled the promise: Odysseus climbed into a fairy-tale ship, plunged into a charmed dream, and woke up already on the foggy coast of Ithaca. Here he is greeted by the patroness of Athena. "It's time for your cunning," she says, "keep on guarding the grooms and wait for your Telemah son!" She touches on him, and he becomes unrecognizable: old, bald, beggars, with a staff and a sum. In this form, he goes deep into the island - to ask for a shelter from the old good birch ewemee. He tells Eve, that he was from Crete, fought under Troy, knew Odysseus, floated into Egypt, got into slavery, was a pirate, and barely escaped. Eumie calls him into a hut, sets it to a hearth, treats, mourns for the missing Odyssey, complains to violent grandsons, regrets Queen Penelope and Tsarevich Telemah. The next day, Telemachus himself, who came back from his journey, comes, of course. he also sent here Athens himself, before him, Athena returns to Odysseus his true appearance, powerful and proud. "Are not you god?" - asks Telemakh. "No, I am your father," replies Odysseus, and they, hugging themselves, cry for happiness,
The end is coming to an end. Telemons go to the city, to the palace; behind him are Ebus and Odysseus, again in the image of the beggar. At the palace threshold, the first recognition is made: a dumb Odysseyev, a dog, for twenty years not forgetting the voice of the owner, raises his ears, crashes to him from his last forces and dies at his feet. Odyssey enters the house, bypasses the room, begging at the grooms, endures mockery and beatings. The bridegroom tears him with another beggar, younger and stronger; Odyssey unexpectedly throws him at a single blow to everyone. The grooms laugh: "Let Zeus send you what you want!" - and they do not know that Odysseus wishes them an immediate death. Penelope calls a stranger to himself: Did he not hear the news about Odyssey? "I heard," says Odysseus, "he's in the near future and will soon arrive." Penelope is not believed, but she is grateful to the guest. She tells the old maid to wash the stranger before bedding his dusty legs, and invites him to be in the palace for tomorrow's feast. And here comes a second recognition: the maid enters a basin, touches at the feet of the guest and feels on the legs a scar, which was at Odysseus after a wild boar hunting in his young years. Her hands trembled, her leg slipped out: "You - Odysseus!" Odysseus clings to her mouth: "Yes, it's me, but keep silent - otherwise you will ruin everything!"
The last day comes. Penelope summons the grooms to the chamber of the feast: "Here is the bow of my lost Odyssey; Whoever tens it and launches the arrow through twelve rings on twelve axles in a row, he will become my husband! "One by one, one hundred and twenty grooms are tending to the bow - the only one can not even pull the string. They already want to postpone the contest until tomorrow - but then Odysseus stands in the form of his beggar: "Give me and I'll try: after all, I've once been strong!" The bridegrooms are indignant, but Telehome stands up for the guest:
"I am the heir to this bow, to whom I will - I give it; but you, mother, step into your female affairs. " Odysseus takes up the bow, easily bends it, raises the string, the arrow flies through twelve rings and sneaks into the wall. Zeus thunders a thunder over the house, Odysseus straightens up to all heroic growth, next to him Telemachus with a sword and spear. "No, I did not learn to shoot me: I'll try another goal now!" And the second arrow hits the most ugly and violent of the grooms. "And you thought that was dead Odyssey? No, he is alive for truth and revenge! "The bridegroom grabs the swords, Odyssey races them with arrows, and when the arrows are ended, with the spears that the faithful Evemeus brings. The bridegroom rages in the ward, the invisible Athena drowses their minds and takes away their blows from Odysseus, they fall one by one. The bosom of dead bodies is bombed in the middle of the house, loyal slaves and slave mobs around and rejoice,
Penelope did not hear anything: Athena had sent her a deep sleep in her tower. An old maid runs to her with a joyful message:
Odyssey is back. Odysseus punished the grooms! She does not believe: no, yesterday's beggar is not at all like Odysseus, as he was twenty years ago; and the grooms were punished, probably angry gods. "Well," says Odyssey, "if there is such a bad heart in the queen, let me bed the bed for me alone." And here comes the third, the main recognition. "Well," says Penelope, a maidservant, "bring the guest in his queen bed from the royal bedroom." "What do you say, woman?" - exclaims Odysseus, - this bed should not be moved from place, instead of the legs from it - the stump of an olive tree, I myself once clutched it on it and fitted it. " And in response, Penelope cries out of joy and throws himself at her husband: it was a secret, they had only one sight to do.
It's a victory, but it's not peace. The dead fellows have relatives, and they are ready to take revenge. They go to the Odyssey with an armed crowd, and he speaks to them with Telemah and several hand-holders. The first blows are already raging, the first blood is shedding, but Zeus's will puts an end to the emerging divide. Flames of lightning, striking the ground between the fighters, thunder thunder, is Athena with a loud shout: "... do not lie in vain and stop the evil enmity!" - and frightened avengers retreat. And then:
"The victim and the oath secured the union between the king and the people / Light girl of a thunder, goddess Athena Pallada."
These words end with the Odyssey.