The Iliad is not merely a distillation of the whole protracted war against Troy but simultaneously an exploration of the heroic ideal in all its self-contradictoriness its insane and grasping pride, its magnificent but animal strength, its ultimate if obtuse humanity. The poem is, in truth, the story of the wrath of Achilles, the greatest warrior on the Greek side, that is announced in its very first words; yet for thousands of verses on end Achilles is an unseen presence as he broods among his Myrmidons, waiting for Zeus’s promise to be fulfilledthe promise that the Trojans will set fire to the Achaean ships and force King Agamemnon to beg him to return to the fight.

The battle poetry is based on typical and frequently recurring elements and motifs, but it is also subtly varied by highly individualized episodes and set pieces: the catalog of troop contingents, the formal duels between Paris and Menelaus and Ajax and Hector, Helen’s identifying of the Achaean princes, Agamemnon inspecting his troops, the triumph of Diomedes, Hector’s famous meeting back in Troy with his wife Andromache, the building of the Achaean wall, the unsuccessful embassy to Achilles, the night expedition, Hera’s seduction of Zeus and Poseidon’s subsequent invigoration of the Achaeans.

The Odyssey - Homer / Homeros

The Odyssey tends to be blander in expression and sometimes more diffuse in the progress of its action, but it presents an even more complex and harmonious structure than the Iliad. The main elements are the situation in Ithaca, where Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, and their young son, Telemachus, are powerless before her arrogant suitors as they despair of Odysseus’ return from the siege of Troy; Telemachus’ secret journey to the Peloponnese for news of his father, and his encounters there with Nestor, Menelaus, and Helen; Odysseus’ dangerous passage, opposed by the sea-god Poseidon himself, from Calypso’s island to that of the Phaeacians.

His arrival back in Ithaca, solitary and by night, at the poem’s halfway point, followed by his meeting with his protector-goddess Athena, his elaborate disguises, his self-revelation to the faithful swineherd Eumaeus and then to Telemachus, their complicated plan for disposing of the suitors, and its gory fulfillment. Finally comes the recognition by his faithful Penelope, his recounting to her of his adventures, his meeting with his aged father, Laertes, and the restitution, with Athena’s help, of stability in his island kingdom of Ithaca.

Yorumlar

Bu ürüne ilk yorumu siz yapın!

Yorum Yaz

Taksit Seçenekleri

The Iliad and The Odyssey (2 Kitap Takım)

Tavsiye Et