"The Iliad" - Content introduction "The Iliad" (Iliad, also translated as "Iliad", "The Iliad".) was produced when primitive society transitioned to slave society, that is, A war broke out between ancient Greece and Troy in Asia Minor at the end of the 12th century BC. Many heroic legends and myths were born in it, which were widely spread among the people. According to legend, there was a blind poet Homer in ancient Greece in the 9th century BC. He organized the legends and ballads about Troy into long poems with a complete structure, namely "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", which later generations called "Homer's Epic". ", is an important ancient Greek literary work and one of the classics of the entire West.
"The Iliad" has a total of 15,693 lines of poetry and is divided into 24 volumes. The main content is the story of the Greek expedition to Troy. Through the description of the Trojan War, it praises heroes who fought bravely, safeguarded collective interests, and established meritorious deeds for the collective, and condemned cowards in the war and behaviors that betrayed or harmed the collective. The Iliad recounts the events of several weeks during the tenth (final) year of the Trojan War. The epic begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon and ends with Hector's funeral. Neither the background nor the final outcome of the story is directly stated. The myth of the golden apple that caused the war is mentioned in its description of Helen and Paris, and the Trojan horse plot and the fall of Troy are found in Odysseus' memories of the past in The Odyssey.
The first sentence of "The Iliad" is "The wrath of Achilles is my theme." Achilles, the general of the Greek coalition, had a fiery temperament, and he showed his anger twice. The epic poem writes that the war has been going on for nine years and ten months, and the outcome is still uncertain. At this time, internal strife broke out among the Greek coalition forces due to the plague. The plague was caused by Agamemnon, the commander of the coalition forces, who refused to return a female prisoner because she was the daughter of the priest Apollo, the sun god. The priest of Apollo asked Agamemnon to return his daughter but was refused, so he prayed to Apollo. Punish the Greek coalition. If the plague continues to spread, it will make the Greek coalition unstoppable, so Achilles asks Agamemnon to return the female prisoner to prevent the plague from spreading further. Agamemnon reluctantly returned the female prisoner, but unfairly took away another female prisoner originally assigned to Achilles as compensation for his own loss. Achilles was angry In anger, he refused to join the war. Among the Greek coalition forces, only Achilles was Hector's opponent, so his refusal to participate in the war would inevitably lead to the defeat of the Greek coalition forces. In this case, the Greek coalition forces could not resist the counterattack of the Trojan army, so they had to retreat and stick to the warships on the seaside, where they built defensive barriers. Agamemnon now regretted his injustice to Achilles and had to send Odysseus and another Greek general to seek peace with him. However, his anger remained and he refused to return to the war. Achilles only lent his armor and horses to his friend Patroclus when the Trojan army broke through the barriers of the Greek coalition and set fire to their warships. Ross went to meet the enemy. Although Patroclus repelled the attack of the Trojan army, he was eventually killed by Hector, so the armor lent to him by Achilles was also thrown away. This armor originally belonged to his mother, the goddess Thetis. Please ask the craftsman to make it. The death of his comrades and the loss of his armor caused Achilles' second wrath, which led to his reconciliation with Agamemnon and his return to war after his mother asked the god of craftsmen to make him a new suit of armor. , finally killed Hector and achieved a decisive victory. This book depicts a series of ancient heroic images. In them, they not only concentrated the good moral qualities required by the tribal collective, but also highlighted the personality characteristics of each person. Achilles was brave and good at fighting, and he was invincible to his enemies every time he went into battle. He cherished friendship, and when he heard the bad news that his friend had died in battle, he was heartbroken and angrily ran to the battlefield to avenge his friend. He also had sympathy for the old man and agreed to the request of the gray-haired old king of Troy to return Hector's body. However, he was arrogant and willful. He fell out with the commander over a female prisoner and withdrew from the battle, causing a disastrous defeat for the coalition forces. He was violent and violent, and in order to vent his anger, he tied Hector's body to a chariot and circled the city three times. In contrast, Hector, the Trojan commander, is a more perfect image of an ancient hero. He takes the lead, is mature and prudent, and consciously takes on the important task of defending his homeland and tribal collectives. He pursues honor and is not afraid of strong enemies. At critical moments when the enemy's strength is vastly different from ours, he still has no fear. He goes out of the city to meet the enemy and fights bravely. He respects his parents, loves his wife and children, and the touching scene of bidding farewell to his relatives before the decisive battle is full of strong human touch and touching tragic color. Let's take Achilles as an example to understand how "The Iliad" shaped the image of the ancient Greek hero. Achilles, also often translated as Achilles, is a heroic figure in ancient Greek mythology and literature. He participated in the Trojan War and was called the "first warrior of Greece." Achilles is the son of the sea goddess Thetis and King Peleus. He is the most dazzling hero in "Homer's Epic" and is famous for his courage, beauty and physical strength. Homer spent a lot of space in "The Iliad" describing his brave and invincible heroic image. Achilles' mother was an immortal god, so she also wanted her children to be immortal. Every time Thetis gave birth to a child, she put her child into the fire of heaven to be refined, but she always failed.
After Achilles was born, Thetis still held his ankles and soaked him in Styx (some say heavenly fire), making him invulnerable except for his ankles (held by Thetis's hand). (not immersed in the River Styx), which is the origin of the Western proverb "Achilles' heel". "The Iliad" - Literary Evaluation Exquisitely laid out. It uses "Achilles' wrath" as the main line of the book, and other characters and events revolve around this main line, forming a rigorous whole. Epic poems are good at using animal movements, natural landscapes, and life phenomena as metaphors to form interesting "Homeric metaphors." For example, it is written in the book that Achilles withdrew from the battle, and Hector beat the Greek troops to flee in all directions. The epic uses this metaphor: "Like a savage lion attacking a herd of cattle, eating one and frightening the rest." They fled one after another." The epic has a strong rhythm and a high-spirited tone, which is suitable for expressing major events and is easy to recite orally. The superb artistic techniques of "The Iliad" are often praised by future generations. "The Iliad" - Writing Style Since the writing system was not yet mature at the time, and it was believed that Homer was performing to illiterate commoners, a lot of singing techniques were used in the poem. For example, he used many repeated words, and after subsequent embellishments, he gradually formed a "Homeric style". Some classic scenes and actions are also described in similar words, but in non-Greek translations, the translators choose different words to describe those scenes in order to avoid monotony, and do not retain the characteristics of this chorale. Homer also pioneered the very rare complex simile rhetorical method in his epic poem, which is characterized by describing an image in detail in more than ten lines of poetry, and using the idiom "just like this" at the end of the stanza. It is used to modify the object of metaphor. For example: "Paris walked at the head of the procession with long strides, like a lion that encounters a huge carcass. Hungry, he pounces on the body of an antlered stag or ibex, and gnaws at it. Although in front of him, running hounds and young and strong hunters are pouncing——..." "The Iliad" - Artistic Perception "The Iliad" is a magical work in the world! Its rich imagination and twists and turns can always inspire people's extraordinary thinking. People often go to the Grand Canyon, as if they have entered Mount Olympus described in "The Iliad", as if heroes such as Foxipus are still alive. This often makes people lament the greatness of Homer!
Italian poet Dante: "Standing next to "The Iliad", I feel that this book is 10 feet high and I can't help but be amazed."
"The Iliad" 》 – Historical Allusions Put this work into the historical background of the Homeric era - the 11th to 9th centuries BC, and learn about the history of ancient Greek civilization and the charming scenery along the Mediterranean coast. Master the allusions such as "The Golden Apples of Discord", "Trojan Horse", "Achilles' Heel", and "Apollo Project".