Anger, oh goddess, sing of Achilles, Peleev's son!
His irrepressible anger caused many calamities to the Achaeans:
Thousands of souls he ruined mighty and glorious heroes, Send them to gloomy Hades! And he left the bodies around
Birds and dogs! This was the will of the immortal Zeus
Ever since the day discord turned into violent enmity
Between Atrid the king and the war hero Achilles.
(Homer. Iliad. Song one. Ulcer, anger. Translation by A. Salnikov)
Not so long ago, not one, but several visitors to the VO site spoke out in the sense that Japanese culture, of course, is good, but they get confused in difficult-to-pronounce names and it is too exotic. In response to the offer to write what they wanted, they received answers that something from Greco-Roman history and ancient civilization, and the era of its decline, was desirable. But how to write about sunset without describing its heyday? Without referring to her historiography? No, I, for example, cannot do that. Therefore, let's do this, a cycle of materials on the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome will be prepared, well, and at the beginning of this topic, we simply ask for a story about such important historical sources as Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".
Details of a helmet made from boar tusks described in the Iliad and dating back to the 14th century. BC. from Aigios Vasillios, near the village of Hirokambi in Lakonia.
Well, we will begin by emphasizing once again that a person does not know anything about the world around him beyond what his eyes see and his ears hear. That is, roughly speaking, there was neither Ancient Greece nor Rome, by the way, they do not exist even today - after all, I was not there. There was no RI, VOSR and WWII - who participated in them from your and my peers? True, the veterans of the Great Patriotic War are still alive, and they can tell us from mouth to mouth how it was. Yes … But that's all! Therefore, we must constantly remember that everything, absolutely everything that we know, we know thanks to written sources of information - handwritten and printed, well, and now also the LCD screen of a computer monitor connected to the Internet. Books, newspapers, magazines containing subjective, so to speak "journalistic information" - these are the sources of our information in the first place. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that you, again, receive subjective information, like, "but I see it that way." This information is supplied to society by reporters. But there are also journalists who write “as I understand it,” but whether he understands at least something - you need to find out. And this is not easy to do. Don't you know any languages? So you have to take their word for it, that you seem to know them. But … he should and knows - things are different. And there is also - "I was and was not", "I saw - I did not see", "I understood - I did not understand," and also … "I write to order" and I see what "must be seen." Therefore, it is very difficult to obtain real information about some events, especially long-standing ones.
"Boar's helmet" from tomb no. 515 in Mycenae. (National Archaeological Museum in Athens)
However, what helps us in their study is that historical artifacts that have come down to us are also superimposed on the written sources at our disposal. In the same poem by Homer, The Iliad, the heroes fight with copper-sharp spears, that is, spears tipped with copper. And archaeologists find such! So this is not an invention. In the poem, the Achaeans, the warriors who sailed to fight in the fortified Troy, are described, for example, as "beautiful-legged", that is, shod in beautiful leggings and … archaeologists actually find beautiful "orthopedic" copper leggings, made exactly on the leg. So it happened!
And here is the complete Achaean armor and helmet (circa 1400 BC). (Nafplion Museum). Running in such armor would be clearly difficult, but fighting from a chariot is just right.
So the presence of writing is a huge cultural achievement. And we were very lucky that the Greeks already had it, that they recorded the creation of Homer, thanks to which we have a pretty good idea of the history and culture of this ancient country and the first, in fact, European civilization.
And their modern reconstruction is remarkable in its quality.
Well, now you can talk about the actual poem "Iliad" and why it is remarkable. And it is remarkable, in addition to its artistic merits, primarily because, like the poem "Eugene Onegin", rightly considered an encyclopedia of Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century, it is an encyclopedia of an ancient society that existed during the catastrophe of the Bronze Age, dating back to the beginning of the 12th century BC NS. True, Homer himself is about 400 years away from the events he describes. The period was not short, but life then flowed slowly, there were few changes in it. Therefore, although the debate about how truthfully Homer portrayed the Mycenaean era, living in completely different times, can be considered proven that they are close to reality. For example, in the list of ships given in the poem, there is clear evidence that the Iliad describes the era of the Iron Age, in which Homer already lived, and the one that existed in Greece even before the invasion of the Dorian tribes.
Mycenaean warriors of the XII century. BC NS. c. Artist J. Rava
As for the name "Iliad", it literally means "Trojan Poem", since Troy also had a second name - "Ilion", and it is used quite often in the poem. For a long time, historians and writers have been arguing about whether this poem describes events that took place in reality, or whether the Trojan War is just a literary, albeit brilliantly conceived fiction. However, the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann in Troy showed that the culture, which almost completely corresponded to the description in the Iliad and related to the end of the II millennium BC. e., really was there.
"Odysseus". Reconstruction of the armor was carried out by American specialist Matt Potras.
Confirm the existence of a mighty Achaean state in the XIII century BC. NS. and recently deciphered Hittite texts, and they even contain a number of names previously known only from this Greek poem.
The matter, however, is far from being limited only to Homer's poems. A whole cycle of legends about the Trojan War is known, the so-called "Trojan Cycle" or "Epic Cycle". Something has come down to us in separate fragments, such as, for example, "Cypriot", something only in synopsis and retellings of later authors. But Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are valuable primarily because they have survived to our time almost completely and without alien insertions.
Dipylon Crater, circa 750 - 735 BC. Homer is believed to have lived around this time. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The helmet and armor of this time. (Archaeological Museum in Argos)
Today it is generally accepted that the Iliad appeared in the 9th-8th centuries. BC NS. in the Greek Ionian cities located in Asia Minor, and it was written on the basis of the traditions of the Cretan-Mycenaean era that have survived by that time. It contains about 15,700 verses (that is, written in a hexameter) and is divided into 24 songs. The action of the poem itself is rather short-lived. However, it contains a lot of exceptionally vivid images and descriptions that allow us to at least roughly imagine everyday life and, most importantly, the spirit of that era that is far from our "today".
It is hardly worth describing the vicissitudes of events that led to the righteous anger of Achilles, Peleev's son and the intervention of the Olympian gods in earthly affairs. It is important that in the second song of the Iliad, Homer describes the forces of the opposing sides and reports that under the leadership of Agamemnon, 1186 ships arrived under the walls of Troy, while the Achaean army itself numbers more than 130 thousand soldiers. Is this figure real? Most likely no. But it is important to note that detachments to help Agamemnon were sent from different regions of Hellas.
Helmets. (Archaeological Museum in Olympia)
The Dardans (under Aeneas), as well as the Carians, Lycians, Meons, Mizas, Paphlagonians (under Pilemen), Pelasgians, Thracians and Phrygians, are fighting along with the Trojans under the leadership of the "shining helmet" Hector.
Here, for example, is the description given in the Iliad of how the legendary Achilles is equipped for a duel with Hector:
First of all, he put leggings on his quick legs
Marvelous in appearance, he closed them tightly with a silver buckle;
After that, he put on the most skillful armor on his powerful chest;
He threw his sword on his shoulder with a silver-nail hilt, With a copper blade; and the shield finally took on a huge and sturdy one.
The light from the shield, as far away as from the moon at night, spread.
As if in the sea to seafarers at night shines in the darkness, Light from the fire that burns far away on the rocky peak
In a deserted house, and against their will, the waves and the storm
Away from loved ones they carry far along the boiling pontus, -
So the shield of Achilles shone, magnificent, wondrous to the eyes, over the ether
He poured light everywhere. Then Pelid took the helmet, Cleverly put it on, - the horse-haired and strong star shone
Above his head, and above him a golden mane sways, That so skillfully Hephaestus strengthened along the ridge, thick.
(Homer. Iliad. Canto nineteenth. Renunciation of anger. Translation by A. Salnikov)
Any literary source can be used with great care as an object of historical knowledge, and the Iliad is no exception. What are, for example, the messages of the "self-seeker who saw the regiment of God in the air", the vision of Boris and Gleb who helped the Russian soldiers beat the "nasty" and similar statements about the miraculous, which, nevertheless, entered the national historical and literary fund. And we find the same thing in Homer: his gods behave just like people, only even … much worse! Socrates drew attention to this, arguing that the Greek gods are a collection of vices, from which no citizen can follow an example. But we, in this case, are not at all interested in “divine morality”. We are interested in "shining copper helmets", the description of the shield of Achilles "(albeit forged by Hephaestus, but containing in his description many interesting details about the life of that time), copper armor, broken swords (breaking from a blow to the helmet!). The heroes of the poem do not hesitate to fight with stones, that's even how when they are deprived of their copper weapons. And their combat formation is … a phalanx, which is just typical for the era of Homer. But the frescoes tell us that in the Cretan-Mycenaean era there was a phalanx, otherwise why would the soldiers depicted on the Cretan frescoes need large rectangular shields and long spears. With such weapons, it is completely inconvenient to fight alone.
A fresco depicting a warrior wearing a helmet from Pylos.
Artist Antimen: "Ajax carries away the body of the dead Achilles." Painting on a vase. We see the Dipylon shield, that is, a shield with lateral recesses, which once again suggests that they were common in the era of Homer. (Walters Museum of Art)
So, grain by grain, the text of the Iliad gives us the opportunity, if not to imagine the appearance of the soldiers, participants in the Trojan War, for example, from the text it is not clear how the helmets of Menelaus and Achilles were arranged, then in any case to have a textual description of them (without special details), and then … then expect confirmation from archaeologists, who fill in these gaps in the descriptions with their finds.
The Helm of Menelaus, as reconstructed by Katsikis Dimitrios of the Greek Historians' Association Korivantes, consists of three bronze plates, riveted together. Four horns - made of painted wood. They give it a characteristic intimidating look, but like the "horns" on knightly helmets in the Middle Ages, they were most likely not firmly fixed.
But they represent Menelaus himself as such …
However, we are used to seeing the heroes of the Trojan War all the same as they were portrayed later. This is how, for example, the Greek potter and painter Exekios, who worked in the style of black-figure ceramics, and depicted Achilles and Ajax playing dice, did it. This episode does not appear in the Iliad. But why shouldn't they play at their leisure? That is, Exeky simply invented this plot for his painting. And again … why shouldn't he invent it? By the way, Achilles and Ajax, dressed in armor, play dice with passion, which is the case with people accustomed to war.
Since the history of classical Greece is closer to us and we have many images of its warriors on the same black-figure and red-figure vessels, we often imagine the warriors of the Trojan War like this. The figure shows a Spartan warrior of 546 BC. NS. (Artist Steve Noone)
In the Iliad, the cunning Odysseus, the favorite of the goddess Athena, wears a helmet made of boar tusks, and he is described in great detail by Homer:
The helmet was made of leather; inside it was woven with straps and tied
Firmly; outside around it, like protection, sewn
The white boar's fangs, like the teeth of a dragon, glittered
In slender, beautiful rows; and the helmet was lined with thick cloth.
This ancient helmet was taken from the walls of Eleon by Autolycus long ago …
(Homer. Iliad. Canto ten. Dolonia. Translation by A. Salnikov)
One could wonder for a long time how and why such helmets were made from boar's tusks. After all, the Greeks already had metal in their disposition. And it is not for nothing that the Trojan Hector in the poem is constantly called "the shining helmet." However, when the remains of such helmets were found by archaeologists, their description given in the poem was fully confirmed.
Boar fang helmet. (Archaeological Museum of Athens)
Interestingly, the oldest manuscript containing the full text of the Iliad is an illuminated manuscript from the late 5th - early 6th centuries from Byzantium, which is called the Ambrosian Iliad after the name of the library in which it is located. The oldest manuscript containing the full text of the Iliad is Venetus A from the library of St. Mark, written in the 10th century. Well, the very first printed edition of the Iliad appeared in Florence in 1488.
"Triumph of Achilles over Hector". A fresco in the Achillion Palace on the island of Kerkyra in Greece. (1890)
Many authors tried to translate the Iliad and Odyssey into Russian, starting with Lomonosov. The Iliad, translated by N. I. Gnedich (1829) is still considered the best example of such a translation and accurately conveys the feeling of the original in terms of the strength and vivid imagery of the language, although it is replete with archaisms that are no longer characteristic of modern speech. Today there are four translators (and translations) of the Iliad: Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich - translation of 1829; Minsky Nikolai Maksimovich - translated in 1896; Veresaev Vikentiy Vikentievich - translation of 1949: Salnikov Alexander Arkadyevich - translation of 2011, and, accordingly, four translators (and translations) of the Odyssey: Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich - translation of 1849; Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich - translated in 1945; Shuisky Pavel Alexandrovich - translated in 1848; Salnikov Alexander Arkadyevich - translation 2015 According to the reviews of many readers, the translations of A. Salnikov's Iliad and Odyssey have already been noted as the best and most convenient for modern reading.
The reconstruction of the Dendra armor is, so to speak, in action. Association of Historical Studies KORYVANTES. Photo by Andreas Smaragdis.
The author is grateful to Katsikis Dimitrios (https://www.hellenicarmors.gr), as well as the Greek Koryvantes Association (koryvantes.org) and personally to Matt Potras for providing photographs of his reconstructions and information.
