Abstract: "Odyssey". Homer and his epic

The great epic of ancient Greece came to us in the form of two works by Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Both poems are devoted to events of approximately the same time: the Trojan War and its consequences. The war has just ended. Odysseus showed himself to be an excellent warrior, a clever strategist. Thanks to his ingenious decisions, it was possible to win more than one battle. This is evidenced by his own story in the poem, more precisely, its brief content. The "Odyssey" of Homer (and his second poem "Iliad") not only beautifully depicts historical events, but also has a magnificent artistic exposition. The facts are decorated with the author's rich imagination. It is thanks to this that the story went beyond the ordinary chronicles or chronicles and became the property of world literature.

Poem Homer "Odyssey." Summary

After the war, Odysseus went home, to his native Ithaca, where he was the ruler. There he is waited by the old father Laertes, the wife of Penelope and the son of Telemachus. On the way, Odysseus is captured by the nymph Calypso. There he spends several years. And at this time in his kingdom there is a struggle for the throne. In place of Odysseus there are many contenders. They live in his palace and convince Penelope that her husband died and will not return, and she must decide for whom she will marry again. But Penelope is faithful to Odysseus and is ready to wait for him for many years. To cool the applicants to the throne and her hand, she comes up with various tricks. For example, she knits a shroud to the old Laertes, promising to make a decision as soon as the work is done. And she herself at night dissolves the already bound. Meanwhile, Telemach grew up. One day a stranger came to him and advised him to equip the ship and go in search of his father. In the image of the wanderer, the goddess Athena herself was hiding . She patronized Odysseus. Telemachus followed her advice. He gets to Pylos to Nestor. The elder says that Odysseus is alive and is at Calypso. Telemach decides to return home, to please his mother with good news and to discourage annoying pretenders to the royal place. The events of the poem convey a brief summary. Odyssey Homer draws as a fairy-tale hero, passed through terrible trials. Zeus at the request of Athena sends Hermes to Calypso and orders the release of Odysseus. He builds a raft and goes to sea. But the god of the sea Poseidon again hinders him: in a storm, the logs of the raft are broken. But Athena again saves him and brings him to the kingdom of Alkino. He is accepted as a guest, and at the feast Odysseus talks about his adventures. Nine fantastic stories create a homer. "Odyssey" (a summary and conveys these stories) is a fabulous frame of real historical events.

The Adventures of Odysseus

First, Odysseus and his companions were on the island with a magic lotus, which deprives the memory. Local residents, lotophagi, treated guests to the lotus, and they forgot about their Ithaca. Odysseus with difficulty led them to the ship and went on. The second adventure is a meeting with cyclops. With difficulty, the navigators manage to blind the main Cyclops of Polyphemus and, hiding under the skins of sheep, get out of the cave and escape from the island. You can find out about further events by reading the summary. The "Odyssey" of Homer leads the reader behind his hero, covering a large period of time - about twenty years. After the island of cyclops Odysseus landed on the island to the god of the winds Aeolus, who gave the visitor one fair wind and three more winds he hid in a sack, and tied and warned that it was possible to untie the sack only on Ithaca. But Odysseus' friends untied the sack when he slept, and the winds returned their ship back to Aeolus. Then there was a collision with giant cannibals, and Odyssey miraculously managed to escape. Then the travelers visited the queen Kirka, who turned everyone into beasts, in the realm of the dead, by cunning managed to pass by the seductive Sirens, to swim in the strait between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis on the island of the Sun. Such is the poem, its brief content. Odyssey Homer returns to his homeland, and he, along with Telemachom, expel all the "suitors" of Penelope. In Ithaca, peace reigns. An ancient poem is of interest to the modern reader both as a historical work and as a classic fiction.