Biography
Homer is an ancient Greek poet - the narrator, a collector legend, the author of the ancient literary works of "Iliad" and "Odyssey".
The exact data on the date of birth of the story of the historian does not have. It remains a mystery and place of birth of the poet. Historians believe that the most likely period of life of Homer is the X-VIII century to our era. One of the six cities are considered the place of the Possible Motherland: Athens, Rhodes, Chios, Salamin, Smyrna, Argos.
More than more dozens of other settlements of ancient Greece were mentioned in different authors at different times, due to the advent of Homer. Most often, the narrator is considered a native of Smirns. The works of Homer are addressed to the ancient history of the world, there are no references to contemporaries, which complicates the dating of the author's life period. There is a legend that Homer himself did not know the place of his birth. From Oracle, the teacher found out that the iso island was the birthplace of his mother.
The biographical data on the life of the narrator, presented in medieval works, cause doubt historians. In the works of life of the poet, it is mentioned that Homer is the name that the poet received because of his acquired blindness. Translated, it may mean "blind" or "slave". At birth, the mother was made by Meszigen, which means "born at the Melesa River." According to one of the legends, Homer Oplex when he saw the sword of Achilles. In the consolation of the goddess Fetida put him in the gift of chants.
There is a version that the poet was not "slave", but "leading". Homer ordered him not after the teacher is blind, but on the contrary - it turned out and began to talk wisely. According to the majority of antique biographers, Melzigen was born by a woman named Crylfid.
The narrator spoke on the feasts of noble people, at urban meetings, in the markets. According to historians, the ancient Greece in the time of life of Homer worried his flourishing. The poet recited individual parts from his works, traveling from the city to the city. He used the reverence, had a stay, food and was not a dirty wanderer who sometimes depicts biographers.
There is a version that "Odyssey", "Iliad" and "Homeric hymns" is the work of different authors, and Homer was only the performer. Historians consider the version that the poet belonged to the family of singers. In ancient Greece, handicraft and other professions were often transmitted from generation to generation. In this case, any member of the family could play under the name of Homer. From generation to the generation of history and manner of execution were transmitted from a relative to a relative. This fact would explain the different period of the creation of poems, and would clarify the question with the dates of the story of the narrator.
Formation of the poet
One of the most detailed stories about the formation of Homer as a poet belongs to Peru Herodotus Galicarnas, whom Cicero called the "Father of History". According to an ancient historian, the poet was at birth be called Mulezigen. He lived with his mother in Smyrna, where he became a student of the owner of the school of the femeny. Melzigen was very smart and fought well science.
The teacher died, leaving his best school pupil. Having worked for some time by the mentor, Melziegn decided to deepen his knowledge about the world. Help him volunteered a man named Mentes, who was coming from Lefkad Island. Melzigen closed school and went on a ship of a friend in the maritime journey to see new cities and countries.
During the journey, the former teacher collected history, legends, asked about the customs of local peoples. Arriving in Itaca, Melzigen felt ailments. MENTES left the satellite under the supervision of a reliable person and swam to his homeland. In a further journey, Melzigen went on foot. On the way, he recited stories collected by him during the journey.
According to Herodota Galicarnas, finally the landing of the teacher in the city of Kolofon. There he took a new name. Modern researchers tend to question the history of Herodot, as well as the writings of other ancient authors about the life of Homer.
Homer's question
In 1795, Friedrich August Wolf in the preface to publish the text to the poems of the ancient Greek patron put forward the theory that was called the "Homeric question". The main meaning of the opinion of the scientist was that poetry at the time of Homer was oral art. The blind, the wonderful storyteller could not be the author of a complex artwork.
Homer composed songs, hymns, musical epos, which formed the basis of "Iliad" and "Odyssey." According to Wolf, the finished look of the poem received, thanks to other authors. Since then, scientists engaged in the works of Homer were divided into two camps: "Analysts" support Wolf's theory, and the "Unitaria" adhere to opinions about the strict unity of the epic.
Blindness
Some Homer's creativity researchers say that the poet was in vain. In favor of the absence of a teacher, the aless says the fact that the philosophers and thinkers were considered in ancient Greece by people deprived of common vision, but having a gift to look into the essence of things. The blindness could be synonymous with wisdom. Homer was considered one of the creators of a comprehensive picture of the world, the author of the pedigree gods. Wisdom it was for everyone obvious.
Antique biographers brought out the exact portrait of Homer-blind in their works, but they composed their works in many centuries after the death of the poet. Since reliable data about the life of the poet was not preserved, the interpretation of ancient biographers could not be quite correct. In favor of this version, the fact of the presence in all biographies of fictional events involving mythical characters is.
Work
The preserved ancient testimonies give an idea that in the era of the antiquity of the work of Homer was considered a source of wisdom. The poems gave knowledge about all spheres of life - from universal morality to the basics of military art.
Plutarch wrote that Alexander Macedonsky's great commander always kept a copy of "Iliad" with him. Greek children were taught to read the Odyssee, and some excerpts from the works of Homer Philosophers-Pythagoreans were prescribed as a means for correcting the soul.
Homer is considered the author not only "Iliad" and "Odyssey." The teacher could be the creator of the comic poem "Margit" and "Homeric Hymf". Among other works attributed to the ancient Greek Speaker, there is a cycle of texts about the return of the heroes of the Trojan War in Greece: "Cyprusa", "Taking Ilion", "Ethiopide", "Small Iliad", "Returns". The poems of Homer distinguishes a special language that did not have an analogue in colloquial speech. The manner of the story did the legends memorable and interesting.
Death
There is a legend that describes the death of Homer. In old age, the blind teacher went to the iso island. Traveling, Homer met two young fishermen, who guess him a riddle: "We have something that we did not catch, and what we caught, we thrown out." The poet reflected on the decision of the puzzle for a long time, but never could find the right answer. Boys caught lice, not fish. Homer was so annoyed by the fact that he could not solve the riddle, which slipped and hit his head.According to another version, the teacher committed suicide with him, since death was not as terrible for him as the loss of acuteness of the mind.
Interesting Facts
- There is about a dozen biographies of the teacher, which came to our time from antiquity, but they all contain fabulous elements and mentioning the participation of the ancient Greek gods in the events of the life of Homer.
- The poet distributed his works outside of ancient Greece with the help of students. They were called Homerida. They wandered in different cities, fulfilling on the squares of the work of their teacher.
- Homer's creativity was very popular in ancient Greece. About half of all found papyrus ancient Greek scrolls are excerpts from different works of the poet.
- The writer's compositions were transmitted orally. The poems that we know today were collected and structured into holistic works from the scattered songs of the Army of Poets of the Athenian Tirana of Pissistrat. Some parts of the texts have been edited taking into account the wishes of the customer.
- Soviet Prose Masip Mandelstam in 1915 wrote the poem "insomnia. Homer. Tight sails ", in which I whale" Iliad "called to the narrator and heroes.
- Until the mid-seventies of the twentieth century, the events described in Homer's poems were considered a clean fiction. But the archaeological expedition of Heinrich Schliman, who found Troy, proved that the creativity of an ancient Greek poet is based on real events. After such a discovery, Plato's fans have strengthened in the hope that one day archaeologists will find and Atlantis.