Homer

Name: Odyssey

Genre: Poem

Duration:

Part 1: 8min 48sec

Part 2: 8min 28sec

Annotation:
The author asks the Muse to tell him about the wanderings of King Odysseus, which he endured when he returned to his native Ithaca after the Trojan War. The wanderings of Odysseus dragged on for 9 years.
The goddess Athena convinces the god Zeus that King Odysseus must return home from captivity. She advises Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, to look for Odysseus. Telemachus sails to the city of Pylos to King Nestor, who also participated in the Trojan War. Nestor sends Telemachus with his son Pisistratus to Sparta, to King Menelaus. Menelaus tells that Odysseus was taken prisoner and is on the island of the nymph Calypso.
At the request of Zeus, Calypso releases Odysseus home. He builds a raft and sets out under a false name. At one of the feasts they sing a song about the Trojan War. Odysseus is crying. They ask him who he is. Odysseus tells about his wanderings: how he visited the Cyclopes, how the giant lestrigons sank all the ships of Odysseus, how the sorceress Kirk turned his people into pigs. Then he visited the realm of the dead, where he met many dead, including his mother.
He sailed a lot on the sea, all his people died.
During the absence of Odysseus, his wife Penelope had suitors. Odysseus arrived in Ithaca in the form of an old man. Only to his son Telemachus does he reveal the truth. Together with Telemachus, they figure out how to outwit Penelope's suitors. Penelope announces an archery contest for Odysseus. She will marry the winner. Bridegrooms cannot string. Odysseus wins the competition. A battle ensues between Odysseus and the suitors. With the help of the goddess Athena, Odysseus emerges victorious. The suitors are killed. At first, Penelope does not believe that this is really Odysseus. But she asks him questions, to which he gives the right answers. Peace reigns.

Homer - Odyssey part 1. Listen summary online.

epic poetry grew out of the folk song tradition. Writing appeared in Greece no later than the second half of the 8th century, so that earlier it was not possible to fix the texts of the poems. The Odyssey has 12,083 verses. As far as is known, its text was first ordered in the middle of the 6th century BC. e., and in the II-III centuries BC. e. Alexandrian philologists divided the text into 24 books, according to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet. An antique "book" is 500-1000 lines placed on a papyrus scroll. Today, more than 250 papyri with fragments of the text of the Odyssey are known, and about 150 papyrus texts are taken into account in the latest editions of the poem. Poems were originally designed for oral performance. They were recited by rhapsodos singers (from the Greek rhapsodos - "song stitchers") in front of an unfamiliar audience or at folk festivals.

Scientists have proved that the first of the Homeric poems - "Iliad" - was created around 800 BC. e., and the Odyssey was written a century or two later. These are monuments of the era of transition from the communal-tribal to the slave-owning system, monuments of the earliest stage in the development of ancient Greek literature. Both poems were created in the most developed of the then Greek regions, in Ionia, that is, in the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor, and are connected by plot.

"Iliad" tells about a short episode during the Trojan War (the title of the poem comes from the Greek name for Troy - Ilion). In popular memory, the real campaign of the Achaean leaders against the rich city, which they destroyed around 1200, was transformed into a great nine-year war. According to the myth, the cause of the war was the abduction by the Trojan prince Paris of Helen the Beautiful, the wife of the Achaean king Menelaus. The plot of the Iliad is based on the great "wrath of Achilles", a quarrel over military booty between the two largest heroes of the Achaeans, the mighty Achilles and the brother of Menelaus, the main commander of the Achaeans, Agamemnon. The Iliad depicts bloody battles, valiant duels and military courage.

V "Odyssey" tells about the return home after the fall of Troy, one of the Greek kings - Odysseus, thanks to whose cunning with a wooden horse the Greeks eventually took Troy. This return lasted for a long ten years, and the story of them is not in chronological order, but, which is typical for the epic, with numerous digressions and slowdowns. The actual action in the "Odyssey" takes only 40 days - these are the last trials of Odysseus on the way to his native island of Ithaca: a story about how his faithful wife Penelope and son Telemak resist the excesses of impudent suitors, and about his revenge on the suitors. But in numerous episodes of the poem, Odysseus indulges in memories of Troy, then of various adventures that fell to his lot during the years of wandering, so that the actual span of time in the poem is 20 years. Compared to the Iliad, the Odyssey contains more descriptions of everyday life, and the adventure element in the plot is more represented.

In the Homeric epic, along with people, gods and other mythological creatures act. Odysseus is patronized by the beloved daughter of Zeus, the bright-eyed goddess of wisdom Athena, and the sea god Poseidon acts as his persecutor. Odysseus communicates with the messenger of the gods Hermes, is captured by the evil sorceress Circe, who turns his companions into pigs, spends seven long years on the island of the beautiful nymph Calypso, who promises him immortality if he stays with her. He descends into the realm of the dead, gloomy Hades, where he communicates with the souls of the dead - Achilles, Agamemnon and the soothsayer Tiresias - that is, the mythological plan constantly intrudes into reality. Simultaneously with the events that came from the folklore fairy tale, there are socially pointed episodes in the poem, in particular, Odysseus is shown as a zealous owner who takes care of his property. This heterogeneity of the poem is explained by the fact that the Homeric epic absorbed and reflected a whole millennium of epic knowledge of the world. The poem highlights the most ancient basis, the historical "grain" of the legend about the Trojan War, which refers to the so-called Mycenaean era of Greek history; the everyday realities of the poem belong to the "dark time" that followed the fall of the Mycenaean culture; by the time of the Ionian archaic - the social conflicts outlined in it - and all this is presented from the point of view of epic syncretism, that is, holistically, unanimously and at the same time heterogeneous, diverse. "Odyssey" captured the evolution of the epic consciousness from the original solidity, integrity to the splitting of the unity of the world, to multi-layeredness. The gods play an incomparably smaller role in this poem than in the Iliad; the relationship between the Olympians, who explained the relationship between people in the first poem, faded into the background in the Odyssey, and the conflicts of private and public life came to the fore.

"Odyssey" is not only a journey of the protagonist, but also a journey through different levels epic consciousness. The most ancient is represented by a terrible archaism - these are the Cyclopes giants, the children of the gods (for the blinding of one of them, his son Polyphemus, Poseidon takes revenge on Odysseus); these are the chthonic (from the Greek chtonos - earth) gods of the underworld Hades and Persephone; these are the fantastic mysterious monsters Scylla and Charybdis; these are cannibals-lestrigons; these are sirens, destroying careless sailors with their mellifluous singing. Of all the meetings with these incomprehensible primitive horrors, Odysseus emerges victorious thanks to the presence of mind and ingenuity. The second level of epic consciousness reflects the harmony of the golden age: the feasts of the gods on Olympus, the serene life of people on the happy island of the feacs. The third level is the beginning of the destruction of harmony, as evidenced by the impudence of the suitors of Penelope, the infidelity of individual slaves and slaves of Odysseus.

The following fragment from the introductory article by Professor A.A. Takho-Godi to the books of Homer tells about storyline poem "Odyssey" (about the plot of "Iliad").

The Odyssey, which refers to the poems about the return of heroes from Troy, unlike the Iliad, does not have a through line of plot development, but is divided into four songs.

Songs I-IV tell about the decision of the gods to return Odysseus to his homeland in the tenth year of his wanderings, as well as about the trip of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, to his father's friends, Menelaus and Nestor, in the hope of learning any news about him, since in the house for many years, the so-called suitors of Penelope have been outrageous, claiming her hand, ready to seize Odysseus' property and even kill Telemachus. Clever and strong-willed Penelope is not able to restrain suitors with more ingenious tricks.

In songs V-VIII, the messenger of the gods Hermes arrives on the island of the nymph Calypso, where Odysseus has been languishing for the seventh year, with a command to release the hero. Odysseus, having built a raft with his own hands, goes to sea on it, where he falls into a storm sent by the lord of the seas, Poseidon. So God avenges the blinding of his son Polyphemus by Odysseus. The hero, barely escaping from death, ends up on the island of Scheria, where the feacs live, meets with the royal daughter Nausicaa and her parents Alcinous and Areta. At the feast during the performance of a song about the events of the Trojan War, Odysseus gives himself away, reveals his name and, at the request of his companions, tells about his wanderings in the first three years after the fall of Troy.

Songs IX-XII - Odysseus's story about adventures after his sailing from Troy (the lands of kikons and lotophages, the blinding of Polyphemus, the god of the winds Aeol, the lestrigon giants, the sorceress Kirk, or Circe, the kingdom of death - Hades, where Odysseus meets his comrades, killed in the war). Odysseus tells how he passed the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, arrived on the island of Trinacria, lost all his companions in a storm, and finally ended up with the nymph Calypso. Feaki, feeling a sense of surprise and compassion, endow the hero with rich gifts and send him to his homeland.

In songs XIII-XVI - the arrival of Odysseus on the island of Ithaca, home, where he hides the treasures of the feacs in the cave of the nymphs, and then, under the guise of a wanderer, comes to the swineherd Eumeus, meets Telemachus there, opens himself to him and prepares the death of the suitors.

In songs XVII-XX, Odysseus, turned by Athena into a beggar old man, is present at the feast of suitors in his own house, sees their impudent antics, remembers the most daring and strengthens in the idea of ​​exterminating them with the help of faithful servants. In the form of a wanderer, he talks with Penelope, supports her confidence in the imminent arrival of her husband. The old nanny of Eurycleia, washing his feet, recognizes Odysseus by the scar on his leg, but he forces her to be silent.

In cantos XX-XXIV, Penelope, at the instigation of Athena, arranges an archery contest, the winner of which will become her husband. Odysseus stocks up weapons the night before to attack the suitors. He is also a competitor. Odysseus is among the laughing and mocking rivals, but he knows that he alone will be able to pull the bowstring. The arrow he shoots catches the suitors by surprise. Telemachus and faithful servants rush at them with weapons. The beating begins, where all suitors are expected to die. Odysseus administers judgment on the servants and maids who betrayed him. The banquet hall is put in order, Odysseus himself is washed from blood and dust and appears before Penelope. However, he has to face the relatives of the dead suitors, and only the goddess Athena saves everyone from bloodshed and establishes peace in Ithaca.

And here in the Odyssey, as well as in the Iliad, many events in the vast expanse of the text are limited by tight time frames, and it is noticeable that the story about them is conducted at a different pace, creating the impression of either a calm flow of time, or its extraordinary conciseness. Therefore, if we trace at least some ratios of the distribution of plot episodes by songs and days (and the action of the Odyssey, as mentioned above, takes 40 days), then curious details become clear.

Telemachus' visit to his father's friends (p. I-IV) is a secondary line of development and, taking six days, flows slowly and calmly, in unhurried conversations and memories of the past. The stay of Odysseus on the island of the nymph Calypso for 7 years is briefly mentioned, as is his journey to the island of the feacs from the seventh to the thirty-third day. But three days of a sea storm are drawn in all details.

Interestingly, the story of Odysseus at the feast of the feacs about the first three years of his wanderings takes only one evening of the thirty-third day, but covers four songs (IX-XII). Before the listeners - a memory, passionately experienced by the narrator, it is conducted at a dynamic pace, time, as it were, is compressed to the limit - it must fit in one evening.

In subsequent songs, the real connection between the songs and the days of the events is more noticeable. By the end of the poem, the drama builds up, and events proceed at an accelerated pace. If songs XIII-XVI take four days (from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-seventh), then the next four (points XVII-XX) fit into two days (thirty-eighth - thirty-ninth). Such important events as preparing for the beating of suitors, archery competitions, reprisals against enemies (n. XXI-XXIII) are concentrated on the thirty-ninth day, so that only one remains for the denouement (n. XXIV) - the fortieth day, when Athena reconciles enemies.

The story in the Odyssey is much more whimsical than in the Iliad. Some events are depicted in detail, others are barely mentioned, others are bypassed, earlier events are presented in later songs (IX-XII), and even in the form of a memory. Nine days are enough for the hero of the poem to decide (albeit not without the help of the gods) his fate: for three days Odysseus is with King Alcinous, for three days in the hut of the shepherd Eumeus and for three days in his own house.

The hero of the mythology of the ancient Greeks, the king of the island of Ithaca, a participant in the Trojan War, a brave warrior and a skilled speaker. In the Iliad, he is present as a key character. In the poem "Odyssey" - main character. A feature of Odysseus is a dodgy character, the ability to cunningly get out of dangerous situations, saving himself and his comrades. Therefore, "cunning" has become one of the constant epithets of the hero.

History of creation

The image of Odysseus became a reflection of the era of the development of the sea by the Greeks. The situations when the warriors set sail on their ships and their connection with their relatives was cut off for a long time found their mythological embodiment in the story of the wanderings of Odysseus. Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Hecuba, Cyclops, Ajax, Philoctetes and other authors wrote about the adventures of the hero and his journey home to his wife Penelope.

Various episodes from the life of the hero are captured in the form of drawings on Greek vases. According to them, you can restore the alleged appearance of the hero. Odysseus is a mature bearded man often depicted wearing the oval cap worn by Greek sailors.

Biography

Odysseus was born from the marriage of the Argonaut Laertes, king of Ithaca, and the granddaughter of the god Hermes - Anticlea. The hero's grandfather Autolycus bore the proud title of "the most thieving of men", was a clever swindler and personally from Hermes, his father, received permission to swear by the name of this god and break oaths. Odysseus himself is married to Penelope, who gave birth to the hero's son Telemachus.

Odysseus met his future wife Penelope in Sparta, where he arrived, among other suitors, to woo Elena the Beautiful. There were many who wanted to marry, but Elena's father was afraid to make a choice in favor of one person, so as not to incur the wrath of the others. The cunning Odysseus gave a fresh idea - to give the girl the right to vote, so that she chooses the groom herself, and bind the suitors with an oath that, if necessary, they will all help Elena's future husband.

Helen chose Menelaus, the son of the Mycenaean king. Odysseus laid eyes on Penelope. Penelope's father gave his word that he would give his daughter to the one who won the race. When Odysseus became the winner, his father tried to dissuade Penelope from this marriage and stay at home. Odysseus repeated his trick and let the bride choose herself - to stay with her father or go with him, and she, despite the persuasion of the parent, chose the hero. Having played the wedding, Odysseus and his young wife returned to Ithaca.

When Paris kidnapped Helen, the former suitors were gathering for the Trojan War. The oracle predicted to Odysseus that if he went under Troy, he would return home after 20 years, poor and without companions. The hero tried to "slope" from this event. Odysseus tried to pretend to be crazy, but was exposed.

The man began to sow the field with salt, harnessing a bull and a horse to the plow, but when his newborn son was thrown under the plow, he was forced to stop. So it became clear that Odysseus was fully aware of his actions, and the hero had to go to war. According to Homer, the hero was persuaded to go under Troy by King Agamemnon, who came to Ithaca for this.

Under Troy, Odysseus comes with 12 ships. When ships come ashore, no one wants to get off. Another prediction promises that the first person to set foot on the land of Troy will certainly perish. Nobody wants to be the first, so Odysseus jumps off the ship, and people follow him. The cunning hero performs a deceptive maneuver and throws a shield under his feet, so that it turns out that it was not he who first set foot on the Trojan land, but the one who jumped down next.

During the war, Odysseus manages to settle personal scores by exposing as a traitor the man who threw his son under the plow, thereby forcing the hero to go to war. A number of conditions are necessary for victory, and Odysseus fulfills them one by one. Produces a bow, which remained with Philoctetes, abandoned at the beginning of the war on the island and embittered at the others. Together with Diomedes, he steals a statue of the goddess Athena from Troy. Finally, Odysseus gives the idea with the famous Trojan horse, thanks to which, along with other warriors, he falls outside the walls of the city.

After the victory at Troy, the ships turn back and Odysseus's wanderings by sea begin. The hero experiences many misfortunes, during which he loses ships and crew, and returns to Ithaca 10 years after sailing from the coast of Troy. In Ithaca, meanwhile, the suitors are besieging Penelope, claiming that Odysseus died long ago and it would be necessary to remarry, choosing one of them. The hero, turned by Athena into an old man, comes to his own palace, where no one recognizes him, except for the old nanny and the dog.

Penelope offers the suitors a competition for their hand - to pull the bow of Odysseus and shoot an arrow through 12 rings. The grooms insult Odysseus in the guise of an old man, but none of them can cope with the bow. Then Odysseus himself shoots an arrow, thus revealing himself, and then, together with his grown-up son Telemachus, arranges a bloody battle and kills the suitors.

However, the hero's journey does not end there. The relatives of the suitors he killed are demanding trial. Odysseus, by decision of the arbitrator, is expelled from Ithaca for 10 years, where the son of the hero Telemachus remains king. In addition, the god is angry with the hero, whom the hero offended by blinding the son of the god Polyphemus, the giant Cyclops.

To appease the god, Odysseus, with an oar on his shoulders, must walk through the mountains to find a land where people have never heard of the sea. Odysseus finds land where his oar is mistaken for a shovel and stops there. Poseidon forgives the hero after he makes sacrifices, and Odysseus himself marries the local queen.

The further fate of the hero in different sources described in different ways. Odysseus either died in foreign lands (in different versions - in Aetolia, Etruria, Arcadia, etc.), without returning home, or returned after the expiration of the exile to Ithaca, where he was mistakenly killed by his own son, born of the sorceress Circe. There is even a version according to which Odysseus was turned into a horse and died in this guise from old age.

legends

The most famous adventures of the hero happened on the way home from Troy and are described in Homer's poem "The Odyssey". Returning, the ships of Odysseus moor to one or another island inhabited by mythological creatures, and each time the hero loses some of the people. Lotuses grow on the island of lotophages, granting oblivion to those who eat them. On the island of the Cyclopes lives the one-eyed ogre Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon. The heroes try to find shelter for the night in Polyphemus' cave, and he eats some of Odysseus' men.

The hero and the surviving companions blind Polyphemus, gouging out the giant's only eye with a pointed stake, and then escape with the help of sheep. The blind giant examines the sheep by touch before releasing them from the cave, but does not find the heroes clinging to the animal's fur from below, and so they get out of the cave. However, Odysseus calls the giant his real name, and he turns to his father Poseidon with a cry for help. Since then, Poseidon has been angry with Odysseus, which does not make the hero's journey home by sea easier.

Having escaped from Polyphemus, the heroes end up on the island of the wind god Eol. He presents Odysseus with a fur, inside of which the winds are hidden. The hero must not untie this fur until he sees the shores of his native Ithaca. Odysseus and his team almost get home, but his people, thinking that there is a treasure hidden inside the fur, untie it while the hero is sleeping, release the winds into the wild, and the ship carries far into the sea.

On the island of the sorceress Circe, Odysseus's companions turn into animals after tasting treats, and the hero himself conceives a son with the sorceress, who, according to one version, will cause his death. With Circe, the hero spends a year, and then goes on and passes the island of sirens, who enchant and destroy sailors with singing, and then swims between the huge whirlpool Charybdis and the six-headed monster Scylla, which devours six more crew members.

Gradually, Odysseus loses all his companions and on the island of the nymph Calypso finds himself alone. The nymph falls in love with Odysseus, and the hero spends 7 years with her, because there is not a single ship on the island to sail away. In the end, Hermes appears to the nymph and orders the hero to be released. Odysseus is finally able to build a raft and sail away.

• The name of the hero has become a household name. The word "odyssey" means a long journey with many obstacles and adventures and is often found in contexts far removed from ancient Greek realities. For example, in the title of the film "Space Odyssey 2001", filmed in 1968 based on the story of Arthur C. Clarke, or in the title of the adventure novel "Odyssey".
• In the literature of the New Age, one can often find the image of Odysseus - reworked or taken "as is". In the book Eric, a character named Windrisseus appears - an ironically reimagined variation on the theme of Odysseus. In 2000, the two-volume novel Odysseus, son of Laertes by Henry Lion Oldie was released, where the story is told from the perspective of the hero.

• The image of Odysseus also penetrated the cinema. In 2013, the Franco-Italian TV series Odysseus was released, where we are talking not about the wanderings of the hero, but about the family that awaits his return, about the intrigues and conspiracies of suitors who want to seize the throne, and about the events that occur after the king returns to the island. In 2008, Terry Ingram's adventure film Odysseus: A Journey into underworld”, where the hero was played by an actor.
• Odysseus is one of the characters computer game in the strategy genre "Age of Mythology", released in 2002.

Odysseus

Aliases of Odysseus: ( No one; the son of the Cretan Castor, whom Athena gave the appearance of an old man; Efon the Cretan, son of Deucalion and brother of Idomeneo)

Satellites of Odysseus:

Antiph, eaten by Polyphemus

Elpenor, fell asleep drunk on the roof of Kirk's palace, fell and crashed

Perimed

Eurylochus, a relative of Odysseus, died along with the ship during a storm sent by Zeus at the request of Helios

The inhabitants of the islands along the path of Odysseus:

Alcinous, king of the feacians

Antifates, king of the Laestrigons

Arete, Queen of the Phaeacians

Demodocus, the blind haed in the house of Alcinous

Calypso

Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous

Polyphemus, Cyclops

The shadows of the dead that Odysseus communicates with in Hades: Agamemnon; Anticlea, mother of Odysseus; Antiope, mother of Zeta and Amphion; Epicaste, mother and wife of Oedipus; a large number of other famous women.

Ajax Telamonides

Elpenor, satellite of Odysseus

Patroclus

Tiresias

Inhabitants of Ithaca: Ir, a beggar; Laertes; Mentor ; Eumeus, the swineherd

Household of Odysseus:Argus, dog of Odysseus; Eurynome, housekeeper ; Melanthius, slave, goat herder; Melanfo, slave, mistress of Eurymachus, the groom; Penelope, wife of Odysseus; Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope ; Philoitius, cowshed ; Eurycleia

Suitors of Penelope:(a total of 116 people, but not all are named in the poem)

Antinous, Eurymachus, Eurynomus, son of Antifas; Leod, soothsayer; Ctesippus

Also: Medont, messenger ; Phemius, kifared

Gods: Athena

People whose image Athena takes: Mentor; Mentus, son of Anchialus, king of the Taphos; Iftima, Penelope's sister, who visits her as a ghost; daughter of the navigator Dimant, friend of Nausicaa; a water-carrying girl in the city of theacians; the herald of the king of the feacs Alcinous; shepherd in Ithaca)

Ino, daughter of Cadmus, sea goddess

Poseidon

Inhabitants of the islands along the route of Telemachus: Elena, Menelaus, Nestor, Peisistrat - the son of Nestor; Theoclymenes, soothsayer

In The Odyssey, the characters live in a peaceful environment. The poem describes their daily activities and worries.

Image of Odysseus. The central character Odysseus is a real hero, but he accomplishes his main feats not on the battlefield and not in the military council, but among wizards, monsters and enemies in his homeland. Therefore, he needs resourcefulness and cunning no less than strength and courage. Odyssey is distinguished primarily by dexterity, the ability to find a way out of any situation.

Image of Penelope. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus. In order to maintain love for her husband and loyalty to him during his long absence, she also endures a heroic struggle. Homer makes it clear that Penelope, in her feminine way, is as smart and resourceful as her husband.

Images of the Olympic gods.
The gods in the Odyssey are more majestic and peaceful.

11. Ancient Greek lyric poetry of the 7th-6th centuries. genre system. (according to Tronsky)

The term "lyric" was created at the time of the Alexandrian philologists, replacing the term "melika" (from melos - "song"). These are the types of songs that were sung to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument (seven-stringed lyre, according to myth Hermes invented it).

In Greek poetry, genres and their styles were indeed closely associated with certain metres, and with certain musical accompaniments.

Arising from a cult and ritual folklore song, Greek lyrics for a long time retained a close connection between song content and the traditional rhythmic-melodic type of song and the nature of its performance.

• Elegy
• Melika (lyrics) - monodic (performed by a singer), and choral.

The difference between them:

Emergence from different types of folk song

Liter. development in different areas of Greece + different class environment

By subject, stylistic and poetic features

Preservation of the dialect of the area in which it first took shape

(Yamb and Elegy - Ionian dialect, Melika monodic - Aeolian, choral (Dorian).

The genres developed independently and very rarely crossed with each other.

Elegy and iambic are the most important lyrical genres created in Ionia. Both genres are associated with folk ritual songs.

Elegy

• execution under avlos(double flute) - sharp sounds
• the ancient Ionian elegy does not have a mandatory mournful character:

This is a lyrical poem of instructive content, containing motivations and calls for important and serious action, reflections, aphorisms, etc.

• sang at feasts and folk gatherings

External sign- a special verse structure, regular alternation of a hexameter (6 dactylic feet) with a pentameter (the same hexameter, but with truncated 3rd and 6th feet - before censorship and at the end of the verse) = a stanza of two verses, elegiac distich (elegiac couplet).

The closest size to the epic. Origins - funeral mourning

Topics can be:

philosophical

love

Political

The elegiac meter was used for epigrams(inscription on tombstones) . Writing material - stone, clay, metal, wood → the main requirement for an epigram is brevity, accuracy, causticity.

Yamb (folk)- mocking and accusatory songs , directed against individuals or entire groups. They were performed at agricultural fertility festivals, which were characterized by revelry, squabbling and foul language. + folklore means of public. censure.

Satirical and diatribe

Personally pointed mockery

All this is left in literary iambic, BUT

He went beyond folklore

- "weapon" of expression of personal feelings and moods

A means of personal debate on public and private issues.

They performed under the shepherd's flute and percussion

Swear poetry

Outward sign - special verse. the size - iambs (͜͜ -)

or trochees (trochee: - ͜͜).

Of the iambic verses, the most common is trimeter ("three-dimensional") - from three metric units ("meters"),

two feet each. In this case, a long syllable can be replaced by two short ones.

The most common trocheic verse - tetrameter ("four-dimensional"), usually separated by a word division into two dimeters (“two-dimensional”);

Professional- it aeds(singers, narrators of folk songs) and rhapsody(traveling singers).