Western literature has two major sources, namely ancient Greco-Roman literature and Hebrew Christian literature, these two sources of mutual penetration constitute the foundation of Western literature, and ancient Greek literature can be seen as the beginning of Western literature, and the "Iliad" to be interpreted today is the first monument of Western literature.
As we all know, "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are Homer epics, before talking about these two works, we must first explain the complete story line of Greek mythology and the battle of Troy, because Homeric epics and later ancient Greek tragicomedies are mostly taken from the Battle of Troy, and I will narrate this war as completely and clearly as possible from beginning to end.
Let's take a brief look at the twelve main gods in ancient Greek mythology, which is necessary to understand, several of which are directly related to the Battle of Troy, but these need not be remembered, because a few people just played soy sauce. After getting to know them, the story of the Battle of Troy begins, and I will make a special explanation for some details.
The story begins at the wedding of Achilles' parents, Achilles is the protagonist of the Iliad, and when his parents forgot to invite Eris, the god of discord, when they got married, Eris threw down a golden apple engraved with "To the most beautiful goddess".
The goddesses fought, and finally the queen of heaven, Hera, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fought, and Zeus also felt that things were tricky, so he led the three goddesses to the mountains outside Troy, where the Trojan prince Paris grazed sheep, and the three goddesses let Paris judge.
The Queen of Heaven, Hera, promised him supreme power, Athena promised to give him clever minds and martial arts, Aphrodite promised to give him the most beautiful woman, and Paris gave him the apple to Aphrodite.
So Eros helped Paris to abduct Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, who was the most beautiful woman in the world, and her beauty was described many times in the epic, and her beauty was so beautiful that it was often used as a synonym for beauty in Western literature.
The wife of the Spartan king Menelaus was abducted, and naturally he refused to give up, so he found his brother Agamemnon, united with the heroes, and formed a Greek coalition to attack Troy and retake Helen.
Agamemnon is the commander of the Greek coalition army, these heroes are also well-known characters, as we all know, the main characters must give a close-up, two important figures in the Greek coalition army to participate in the coalition army is very dramatic, first of all, Odysseus, is the protagonist of Homer's epic "Odyssey", Odysseus just got married, gave birth to a son, he is not willing to leave home, nor do he want to fight for a woman, so he thought of a tried-and-true way in the future, pretending to be crazy and stupid, he wore an ox cart to cultivate the land and grow salt, The emissaries who came to gather him put his son on the field, and Odysseus was reluctant to crush his son, but could only stop and admit that he was pretending to be crazy, and then joined the Greek coalition. It is worth mentioning that Odysseus had a grudge against this messenger and later found an opportunity to kill him.
The other is the protagonist of "The Iliad", Achilles, his mother foresaw that he would die in this war, so she let Achilles men dress as women and mix into the pile of women, Odysseus thought of a way, he disguised himself as a businessman, put the jewelry in front of all the women, the women were attracted, only Achilles saw the weapon and was eager to try, so he showed his horse's feet, and could only follow him on the expedition, from these places it can be seen that the Greek coalition army is not monolithic, which also lays the groundwork for the infighting of the coalition forces behind.
When the commander of the coalition army, Agamemnon, once hunted, he accidentally injured the deer of the goddess of hunting, the goddess of hunting did not let the wind rise on the sea, the Greek ship could not set sail, Agamemnon wanted to give up, but could not resist the repeated requests of his brother, he killed his own daughter, as a sacrifice to the goddess of hunting, the Greek coalition army set sail, this incident later led to the tragedy of Agamemnon, this wait until we talk about the tragedy writer Aeschylus to talk about in detail, his trilogy is based on this theme.
After the war began, the two sides fought for nearly a decade, and the Greek coalition army still did not attack Troy, and after a long time, a conflict broke out within the Greek coalition army, and the two sides of the conflict were the commander Agamemnon and the premier hero Achilles, and the story of the Iliad began here.
The Iliad begins with a quarrel between the two men, and Achilles' anger is caused by the fact that the Greek coalition army has obtained a batch of booty, including the daughter of the Trojan sacrifice, the commander Agamemnon took the woman for himself, the Trojan sacrifice came to ask for his daughter to be released, Agamemnon refused, and the priest prayed that the Greek coalition would be infected with the plague.
After Achilles knew about this, a fierce conflict broke out with the commander Agamemnon, who demanded that Agamemnon return the sacrificed daughter, originally, so many people were fighting this war for your brothers, and now you let the coalition army be in trouble for your own selfishness, Agamemnon was unwilling in his heart, but in front of such a person, there was no way to refuse, he could only endure the pain and love, and returned the sacrificed daughter. But he made a request, didn't Achilles ask me to return the maid, so give me his maid as compensation.
Achilles of course refused, the two fought each other, Achilles even took out a weapon to kill the commander, the heroes persuaded, only to persuade Achilles to go back, the relationship between the two broke down, Achilles vowed not to contribute to the coalition again, this is Achilles's first anger, but also the content of the first volume of the Iliad.
Achilles, resentful, asked his mother to ask Zeus to let the Greek allies suffer a little, and he himself breathed a bad breath. The next day was a duel between Helen's husband, Menelaus, and The Trojan Prince Paris, in which the two sides decided that whoever won would possess Helen, and the war would end. Prince Paris of Troy is a bit like a playboy, he seduced someone else's wife, feeling guilty and afraid to go to war. Ted's brother Hector, the first warrior of Troy, taught him a lesson, and Paris barely managed to fight, and the result can be imagined, the heroic Menelaus defeated Paris, and almost captured him alive, and the god of love, Aphrodite, saved Paris at a critical moment, and this Paris really did not judge the golden apple to her in vain.
By the way, in this war, the Greek gods are also helping each other, Aphrodite must have helped Troy, and Hera and Athena helped the Greek coalition, I made a table, you can refer to it.
While the Greek coalition was celebrating victory, the gods were unwilling to end the war so early, and a cold arrow flew in and wounded the newly victorious Menelaus, and the Greek coalition was furious, so the previously agreed conditions for who would win the duel and who had Helen were also invalidated.
At this time, the Greek coalition army appeared a fierce man, Diomedes, this hero's performance is very eye-catching, he injured the son of the god of love, when the god of love came out to save his son, he was also stabbed by Diomedes, and then the god of war Ares came out to intervene, Diomedes became more and more courageous with the help of Athena, even the god of war was defeated by him, and the god of war who did not come out could only run to the sky to cry to Zeus, and the battle was described very wonderfully. The fierce Diomedes later met an opponent, and after the two talked, they found that their grandfather had a deep friendship, so Theomedes did not want to fight again, and the two exchanged gifts and separated.
Hector, the first warrior of Troy, saw that the battlefield was being fought, so he personally came out to fight, and his wife advised him not to go out to meet the battle. Say that if there is a three long and two short, how will she survive. Hector knew that Troy was doomed, but he was afraid of humiliation, or decided to go to war, Hector and his wife this dialogue took a long time, I will also mention this part later, very can show Hector's character.
After hector's battle, the morale of the Trojan soldiers was boosted, and many people had died in the battle so far. The Greek coalition attaches great importance to Hector, because now Achilles refuses to fight, no one in the Greek coalition army can win Hector, an old man condemns the heroes of the coalition army, nine people are stimulated, volunteer to duel with Hector, including the commander Agamemnon Odysseus and others, and finally use the method of casting lots, he is drawn by a brave hero Aeas, he and Hector have a big battle, the two do not win or lose, and finally feel sorry for each other, exchange belts to show respect.
The great battle continued, Zeus agreed to Achilles' mother's request, allowing the Trojans to win a temporary victory, the Trojan army began to counterattack, the allied commander Agamemnon saw that the war was unfavorable, and could only apologize to Achilles and ask him to go out, but Achilles was still angry and still refused to fight.
At this time the battlefield situation was very unfavorable to the Greek coalition army, Hector with the help of several gods to move forward, he was almost like a hanging, after the wounded sun god Apollo immediately cured him, and then rushed into the Greek fortress to set fire to the ship, several heroes of the Greek coalition army fell into a bitter battle and could not get out, at this critical moment, Achilles' friend Patroclus put Achilles's armor on himself, pretending to be Achilles to fight, he was invincible, but in the end he was invincible, but in the end he was invincible, He was killed by Hector and his armor was used as a trophy, but his body was captured by several heroes of the Coalition.
Achilles learned of his friend's bad news and decided to kill Hector to avenge his friend, he shook hands with the commander Agamemnon, and then asked his mother to go to the Vulcan and forged a new set of weapons and armor for him, knowing that the volume of armor has always been praised by critics, from which the forging skills and life of ancient Greece can be seen.
Dressed in brand-new armor, Achilles was so powerful that he fought until he reached the edge of Troy's city, where almost all of the Trojan warriors retreated, leaving only Hector outside. Hector saw that Achilles was also not interested in fighting, and Ter kept running around the city three times, but did not find the opportunity to enter.
At this time he suddenly saw another brother standing next to him, so he threw the spear at Achilles with all his strength, and then turned back to ask for his brother's spear, but this brother was actually Athena in disguise, and now he was gone, and the spear that hit Achilles' shield was also bounced off, Hector saw that things were not good, and there was no weapon to take advantage of, so he could only pull out his short sword and rush to Achilles, so he died gloriously on the battlefield. Achilles still hated him for killing him, so he tied the body of his enemy under the car and ran around, insulting his body in front of the two armies, and the Trojans could only grit their teeth in the city.
Achilles avenged his friend, and went back with the coalition to hold a funeral for his friend, at which the heroes competed together, and Achilles dragged Hector's body around a few times, and the king of Troy, Hector's father, came to redeem Hector's body, and he was moved to make Achilles think of his poor father, and now he was more pitiful than Achilles's father. Achilles was touched when he heard this, and asked him to bring the body back.
The story of the "Iliad" ends here, and as for the later Trojan horse meter that is not mentioned at all in the "Iliad", I will briefly talk about it here, and then I will talk about it in detail later.
The fate of several heroes of the Greek coalition army is very lamentable, after Achilles killed Hector, he could not escape the doom of death, legend has it that Achilles' mother grabbed his heel with both hands when he was just born and immersed in the Styx, so Achilles was invincible, but because his heel was grabbed by his mother at that time, it was not soaked, so the heel became his fatal weakness, and later people often used "Achilles' heel to describe a person's death pit".
The Trojan prince Paris took advantage of Achilles' weakness and shot him in the heel with an arrow, and the invincible Achilles died, his body was recaptured by Odysseus and Aeas, both of whom wanted Achilles' armor, and as a result, the armor was given to Odysseus, Aes disobeyed, and wanted to kill Odysseus, only to be tricked by Athena, mistakenly slaughtering the sheep as an army, and when he woke up, he was humiliated, and he committed suicide by taking out the sword he had fought with Hector. Prince Paris of Troy was also shot by the Greek allies and died of his wounds, and his original wife was buried with him.
The city of Troy could not be conquered for a long time, and Odysseus came up with a clever plan, they built a tall wooden horse and hid the soldiers in it. They put the Trojan horse on the battlefield and pretended to sail back, and the Trojans saw it, thinking that the Greek allies had failed to withdraw, so they all went out of the city to watch, and pushed the Trojan horse into the city as a trophy; the priest Laocon said that this was a trick of the Greeks, and when he was about to stop it, Athena released two large snakes and entangled the old priest and his two sons. The famous sculpture "Laocoön" is based on this background, and Lessing's "Laocoön" that will be talked about later is also related to this.
The Trojans pushed the Trojan horse into the city, and that night, the warriors hidden inside sneaked out to open the city gates, and the Greek coalition forces that were ambushed outside the city took the opportunity to enter the city, and the unprepared Trojan warriors resisted by force, and the city of Troy was thus captured, and the Greek coalition army looted it, and it is said that Hector's son was also killed.
Coach Agamemnon returned home and was murdered by his wife, which is Aeschylus's Agamemnon, which will be talked about later. Odysseus went through many hardships at sea to reunite with his wife and children, which is the story of the next issue of "Odyssey", only Menelaos snatched Helen back and hugged her back.
The story about the Battle of Troy is first told here, and then other works involve us to continue to add, just now I also combed the plot of the "Iliad", of course, these are just myths and legends, the so-called war history caused by the golden apple can certainly not be regarded as an epic, the deeds may be about the 12th century BC Troy became powerful, threatening Greece, but also cut off the traffic between Greece and the Black Sea, the Greeks can no longer go to the north to buy and transport grain, so it triggered this war.
First of all, let's briefly talk about Homer, there is controversy about the existence of Homer, and now the mainstream view is that there is indeed such a person, the Iliad and the Odyssey are compiled and processed by him according to the oral literature circulated by the people, and the whole work of the Iliad is very harmonious, the text is also highly unified, and it is obvious that it is from one person. The famous scholar Zheng Zhenduo proposed a theory that the name Homer means "zero piece collector", but it has been refuted by Luo Niansheng.
Homer's epic is not only the greatest literary work of ancient Greece, but also an important source for the study of the 11th century BC to the 9th century BC and the Mycenaean civilization, he created a large number of heroic and good warriors who regarded death as a homecoming, and praised the characters of both sides of the war, showing the martial spirit of the ancient Greeks.
The artistic technique of "Iliad" is also praised by later generations, it depicts the war using a partial expression of the whole, condensing the war of more than ten years of the Battle of Troy into more than fifty days, the language is simple and fluent, the style is heroic and magnificent, whether it is the gods or those heroes are very distinct.
It is worth noting here that a very important feature in ancient Greek mythology is that gods and men are of the same sex, and those gods, like people, also have seven passions and six desires, often make mistakes, and the only difference between gods and people is that gods are immortal and can change their appearance.
The most successful character created in "The Iliad" is Achilles, whose personality is multi-faceted, and the work begins with his anger, and the reason for this anger can be said to be a personal grudge, he has a strong sense of honor, but also has a personality impulse, for his own selfish selfishness to ignore the big things.
Achilles has a cruel side, after he killed Hector, he wantonly abused Hector's body, but also has a kind side, he faced his father who had lost his son, and finally softened his heart, so that the father brought back his son's body. For the character of Achilles, Mr. Xu Baogeng summed it up very well:
Achilles' selfless and cruel fighting spirit, innocent and gentle and kind emotions, coupled with a sense of personal dignity and honor, these three points constitute the triangle of Achilles' character, and its core is the individual.
Feng Youlan also had a similar saying, saying that the Greeks admired knowledge and wisdom, had a surging personality like the sea, they valued struggle, liked adventure, and liked to enjoy the joys of this world, even if it would bring disaster to themselves.
If one admits this generalization, one feels that it is true that in Achilles it is the main character of the Greek national character that is embodied, and this manifestation is through his personality, which embodies the whole poetry of such a national character.
Compared with Achilles, Troy's hero Hector is more responsible and tragic, and he bid farewell to his wife and young son when he knew that Troy was going to lose the battle, and embarked on the road of no return to the decisive battle with Achilles, and his farewell to his wife is also a classic that has always been praised.
In fact, the concept of fate can be said to be the most important theme of ancient Greek literature, many of the protagonists' fate has been predicted, they already know their fate, some of them accept it calmly, some try to resist, these tragic works to be interpreted later have a more prominent performance, and then I will expand on the concept of fate in ancient Greek literature.
Odysseus is another major character, there is a very interesting saying, is to say that Odysseus is both literate and martial, both can fight, but also eloquent, good at giving advice, in addition to he can also repair ships, a person with a variety of skills, which is due to the imperfection of the social division of labor at that time, this character is the protagonist of "Odyssey", and when we talk about the Odyssey in the next issue, we will talk about it in detail.
There is also a lot to be explored in the details of the book "Iliad", such as in the second volume, when the commander Agamemnon was testing the hearts of the army, a soldier said in public that the commander of your tent is full of booty and female prisoners, we can no longer fight for your life, we should return to our respective countries, this soldier is a deliberately ugly character, his words are also regarded as a demon, he was beaten on the spot by Odysseus, if you look at it from the current point of view, this person can be seen as a representative of many oppressed civilians.
This issue will first talk about here, the next issue will continue to explain another homeric epic "Odyssey", carefully interpret the masterpiece, welcome everyone to continue to pay attention.