The theme of Iliad is to praise the strength, wit and courage of ancient heroes, and to eulogize their great achievements, heroism and collectivism in the struggle against other nations.

The Iliad created a series of ancient heroic images. In them, it not only condenses the excellent moral character required by the tribal collective, but also highlights everyone's personality characteristics. Achilles is brave and good at fighting, and every time he goes into battle, he makes the enemy look invincible. He cherished friendship, was heartbroken at the news of his friend's death, and went to the battlefield to avenge his friend. He also sympathized with the old man and promised the white-haired Pharaoh of Troy to return Hecktor's body. However, he was arrogant and willful, fell out with the commander-in-chief for a female prisoner and withdrew from the battle, which led to a fiasco of the Coalition forces. He is violent and fierce. To vent his anger, he tied Hecktor's body to a chariot and circled the city three times. In contrast, Hecktor, the commander-in-chief of Troy, is a more perfect image of an ancient hero. He took the lead, was mature and conscientious, and consciously shouldered the heavy responsibility of defending his homeland and tribal collectives. He pursues honor and is not afraid of strong enemies. At the critical juncture of the disparity between the enemy and ourselves, he was still fearless and went out of the city to meet the enemy and fought bravely. He respected his parents, loved his wife and children, and said goodbye to his relatives before the decisive battle, which was full of human feelings and touching tragic colors.

The era reflected in Iliad is in a period of great change from primitive clan society to slavery society. In primitive clan society, clans and tribes are characterized by blood relationship, that is, phratries, families and tribes exist. People's moral concept is also based on this blood relationship, with leaders loyal to the family blood relatives as the standard, and everything that safeguards the family interests is correct. In addition, in the process of ancient Greece's transformation from clan commune to slavery country, it was not disturbed by any external and internal violence. This change is mainly caused by two reasons: on the one hand, the emergence of people's private ideas, on the other hand, the progress of social productive forces leads to excess products. This made the state organization in ancient Greece directly emerge from the clan commune through the production of private property and class differentiation, which were all reflected in the epic Iliad.

The main line of the epic is "The Anger of Achilles". In the epic, Achilles was angry twice. The first time Achilles was angry because Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greek Coalition forces, took away his favorite female prisoner and angrily withdrew from the war. It can be seen that slavery in ancient Greek society has begun to prevail in this period. And the surplus products produced by slave labor are also quite rich. Gold and silver ornaments, ivory amber, slave owners enjoy all kinds of luxury goods. They live a life of wine pool and meat forest all day long, as described in the epic: "They either snatch their own sheep and goats or snatch the laurels on the dance floor", and it is slaves and soldiers who provide them with this life. In primitive clan society, its political system is primitive democracy, and the family leader only acts as the convener, without decision-making power and command power. Moreover, in the distribution of products and property, the way of average distribution is also adopted. In the Iliad, Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greek allied forces, owns many trophies and female slaves, which ordinary soldiers fought for him desperately on the battlefield. The quarrel between him and Achilles was caused by the struggle for female prisoners, which shows that people at this time already have the consciousness of "I", that is, the emergence of people's private ideas. In the struggle of specific property distribution, it reflects the conflict between primitive clan society and slavery society.

Plato thinks that Homer's epic belongs to the category of tragedy, and Homer is "the first tragic poet". The Iliad describes the most tragic page in a fierce war. It shows the violence of war and the value of peace; Expressed the joy of victory and the pain of failure; Described the hero's performance and the difficulty of fighting. It explains the relationship between man and God, and examines the attributes and values of man. It evaluates people's gains and losses in the war and explores the internal and external factors that prompt people to act; In a literary plane where gods and people are mixed, facts and imagination coexist, and the past and the present blend, a series of major issues affecting people's lives, determining people's thoughts and guiding people's behavior are seriously, seriously and deeply discussed. One of the most fundamental problems touched by the Iliad is the finiteness of life and the pursuit of life and existence value in this limited life. Life in peacetime is beautiful. Cattle and sheep walk on the hillside, and girls wash by the spring; Young people shuttled through laughter and happily picked high-yield grapes. The poet played the harp and sang emotionally; Girls and boys are wearing beautiful clothes and dancing happily. However, even a happy life in a typical sense inevitably contains the seeds of sadness, and the human genus makes him unable to get rid of the threat of death. Man will die, whether he wants to see it or not. Life is too short to make people shudder: God of Cracks, you will think that my mind is hot. If I fight with you, it is for poor mortals. Like leaves, it blooms for a time, like the vitality of fire, eating the fruit of oxytocin on the earth; However, the good times did not last long. They dried up and aged, and their bodies were destroyed. Life is like the rush and death of leaves; In the sixth volume, line 145-49, Homer has expressed this idea.

At the same time, Homer's epic, as the "Bible of the ancient Greeks", is known as the "heroic epic" because of its praise of heroism. Among these heroic qualities, "courage" occupies an important position. Fate is an inescapable tragedy. Achilles can't escape his fate. Although he is called "the fastest runner" and "the bravest man", he will eventually die young, which is why his mother thetis laments sadly at the beginning of the Iliad: "My child, why did I unfortunately give birth to you? ..... Your fate is short, and you won't live many years. You are doomed to die early, which is more painful than ordinary people. " So is Hector. Because the balance has fallen to Hades' side, although he is still fighting bravely on earth, the shadow of death has been buckled. The hero is reduced to a mortal, Goethe once lamented. Throughout the epic, all he tells us is: "Human beings are doomed to a hellish tragedy." Moreover, they have distinctive Greek characteristics. Even as superior and manipulative gods, they can't control the balance of fate, and God's affection and sympathy are of no help. When Zeus, the greatest god, foresaw that his son Salpeidong, the leader of Lv Xian, would be killed by Patroclus and wanted to take him out of the battlefield and send him back to his hometown, Hera scolded him: "What did you say? A mortal who has long been just and doomed to death, but you want to save him from a tragic death? " Zeus had to watch his parents and children become ghosts by the sword, leaving nothing to sigh. In Homer's most widely quoted epic, this view of fate and a brief lament for life are rendered: "Just like leaves wither, so do human generations. Autumn wind blows the leaves to the ground, and when spring comes, the forest will sprout and grow new green leaves. Humans are also born and sick. " So in the eyes of the ancient Greeks, was there only passive escape and waiting for death under the concept of destiny? On the contrary, the mortal's reaction is a challenge to fate. Since a person's life has been doomed to the final destination, how to exert his greatest potential in a limited time and become a respected hero instead of a mediocre mortal has become the first problem that heroes should consider. The whole Iliad doesn't care about how many benefits the protagonist gets. "What's more important is the way they do things and their performance in the face of suffering and death."

Heroes rely on "courage" to sublimate the dignity of life in battle; Rely on the fearless spirit, from "person" to "hero". In the face of any opponent, whether mortal or divine, or even fate itself, they have the courage to meet the challenge. So Diomedes faced Agamemnon with awe and said, "He gave you a scepter to be respected, but he didn't give you courage. Courage is the most powerful. " There are two forms of life, one is the life of a hero, which is short and brilliant, and the other is the life of an ordinary person, which is long and declining but not brilliant; To be a hero, you must be brave and tenacious. It is based on this understanding that "courage" has become an important tool for seeking progress under the concept of destiny, which shows the spiritual world of ancient Greece from another side. Therefore, heroes would rather die gloriously than live miserably. "Don't let me hear people say that the hero's blood is in vain, which poses a majestic challenge to generations."

The "courage" praised everywhere in Homer's epic not only shows the mental state at that time, but also reflects the background of that time. As Marx said, the growth of Greek epic "is the result of a certain social stage, which is inseparable from the fact that the immature social conditions it produces and can only be produced in it can never be returned." Here, we might as well start with "courage" and dig out the brand of the times.

In the heroic era, behind the admiration and praise of "courage" is the reflection of social productive forces at a certain stage. Due to the limitation of the times and the manufacture of tools, the war at that time had the characteristics of Othismos, that is, pushing and colliding with each other, and hand-to-hand combat became the main means, which naturally required a high degree of "courage." At the same time, the level of "courage" is directly related to the trophy, and the number of trophies is closely related to social status. There has been a distinction between rich and poor and class in the heroic age. At that time, the Greeks bartered things, including utensils, livestock and people, and the possession of livestock became the main difference between the rich and the poor. If the upper class wants to maintain its position, it needs to reward its followers, which requires corresponding land and material sources. As the grain trade was still very scarce at that time, looting became the main means. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, "plunder is a way of life. Obtaining trophies can not only enrich the leaders and their followers, but also test their masculinity, skills and courage, thus bringing honor and glory. " Behind wealth is not only material, but also honor, so they are more of a "shame culture" than a "sin culture" for war. Soldiers should exert their greatest energy to realize their self-worth, and those who make meritorious deeds become "heroes" praised by future generations.

Of course, the struggle is not only reflected in the confrontation with foreign enemies, but also in the country, such as the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, and the divisions and contradictions within the Greek system have begun to appear. In the heroic age, if people want to live a better life, they must be brave and good at fighting. This is the background of the times reflected in Courage. As the book "Ancient Myths of the World" said: "Without art, sacrifice and social context, the mythical epic will have no vitality and lose any meaning."

One of the most fundamental problems touched by the Iliad is the simple humanistic thought tendency of the ancient Greeks. Achilles, an absurd hero, embodies the finiteness of life and people's pursuit of life and existence value in this limited life. In the sixth volume of the epic, the poet Homer expressed this idea of the ancient Greeks. In the life-and-death strangulation, people screamed and fell to the ground, "hanging their heads" and "grasping the mud and dust". Even the brave and invincible Achilles can't escape the fate of dying in the battlefield, but even so, Achilles would rather choose to be a short-lived hero than live a mediocre life. This reflects the ancient Greeks' cognition of the value of life and their pursuit of self-realization of personal value, and the smallness and greatness of human beings are vividly displayed here. structure

Iliad is a heroic epic that directly describes the Trojan War in Homer's epic, with a rigorous structure and exquisite layout. It takes "the wrath of Achilles" as the main line of the book, and other characters and events are all around this main line, forming a rigorous whole. Epic is good at using animal movements or natural landscapes and life phenomena as metaphors to form an interesting Homeric metaphor. For example, it is written in the book that Achilles stopped fighting and Hecktor beat the Greek army to flee everywhere. This epic uses such a metaphor: "It's as if a fierce lion attacked the cattle, ate one, and scared the rest to escape." There is a famous saying, "My life can't be sold cheaply. I would rather fight to the death than have a disgraceful ending, so that my outstanding achievements can be passed on to the afterlife. " Epic has a strong sense of rhythm and high tone, which is suitable for expressing important events and is easy to recite orally. The superb artistic technique of Iliad is often praised by later generations.

Generally speaking, epic belongs to the category of narrative poetry. There are two kinds of narratives in the Iliad, one is the narrative made by the poet as the narrator, and the other is the expression, confession and dialogue made by the poet as a character. Aristotle called the first form "description" and the second form "expression". In the Iliad, direct speech accounts for about half. Direct speech is a narrative (including retelling) of the characters, which is similar to the spoken part of the people in the play. Undoubtedly, such a language form provides ready-made materials for performance narration. In this sense, the Iliad is a poetic form between pure narrative poetry (that is, the poet completely or basically narrates as a narrator) and drama (poetry).

Metric temperament

"Iliad" adopts the six-step short grid (that is, the upward and downward grid), taking the trend of its long front and short back. However, Homer's epic is not a "unified world" with long and short styles. In fact, in addition to the fifth step, other steps can also accept long squares (that is, Yangyang Pavilion); In addition, the sixth step is the "forbidden area" of long and short grids, which are generally replaced by long and short grids (that is, positive and negative grids). In this way, we can use the following symbols or symbol combinations to express the metrical or rhythmic form of Homer's epic (or short six-step narrative poems and heroic epics):-UUI-UUI-UUI-UUI-U Homer is a chanting poet, living in an era without written records, or an era in which written records have been lost, revived or re-entered (at least not widely popular). Therefore, the Iliad is first and foremost an oral literary work.

Language modification

A common and remarkable feature of oral epic is the adoption of a set of fixed or relatively fixed decorations, phrases and paragraphs. Obviously, this creative way is helpful to the construction of poets. Memories and difficulties improvise and inevitable improvise. In the Iliad, Agamemnon is the "commander in chief of the army" (or "leader of the soldiers"), and Menelaus is the "roaring battlefield" warrior; We read the story of Zeus, who spread in all directions through thunder. Hera has white arms, Odysseus is resourceful, hector has a shiny helmet, Achilles has agile feet, Arcaya has strong shin armor, the wine blue sea and Troy have fertile land. These stylized terms not only point out one or some characteristics, attributes and categories of the modified person (noun, person or thing), but also help to render and ink the dignified, grand and solemn poetic features of the epic. Heroes are "tall", "tall" and "heroes" After satisfying their desire to eat and drink, they talk eloquently, spit out "words with wings", or lie down and enjoy the sweetness of sleep. The hero dared to do something, glared at his opponent, and suddenly fell to the ground after being killed. "Bang, the armor clanged on his body." First armed to the teeth, then rushed to the battlefield, jumped out of the chariot, scolded each other, knocked down several war generals, and drove the enemy to flee. Then they were frustrated and injured, raised their hands and prayed for God's blessing, regained their courage and strength, continued to fight and killed the first leader of the enemy. Then, the two armies fought fiercely around the body, causing heavy casualties. With the help of God, they rescued the fallen general and his companions from the bullets. The Iliad describes five such "feats", using a similar pattern, although slightly different in some individual projects.

The retelling of long paragraphs is helpful to reduce the poet's labor intensity, lengthen the length of epic and deepen the audience's impression of some contents. The formation and development of stylized terms have gone through a long process. Some terms, especially some quotations from gods, such as Hermes and Athena, may have been "fossils" or "antiques" in Homer's life. As a decorative word, "bull's-eye" may have originated from the era of totem worship, and has lost its literal meaning in Homer's epic and become synonymous with "beauty" and "beauty". A god or hero often has more than one or even dozens of decorative or stylized terms. Poets can choose suitable decorations according to the needs of rhythm and pace. Take Zeus for example. In different contexts and metrical combinations, poets use different modifiers, including "resourceful, decisive", "dark clouds are gathering" and "sinking thunder and spreading far and wide". Similarly, according to the needs of rhythm and melody, poets sometimes use "long hair", sometimes "strong shin armor" and occasionally "wearing bronze armor" to decorate the Akaya people.

Homer is a knowledgeable, imaginative and creative language master. The Iliad is full of gorgeous rhetoric, witty remarks, wonderful and vivid words and metaphors. Homer knows how to use metaphors, such as "the barrier of fighting" (showing the courage of fighting). Mother of the Sheep (Yushan), but he is more familiar with it and makes better use of similes. There are two kinds of similes in the Iliad, one is simple, and the other is complex based on simplicity. The structural characteristics of simple simile are that A is like B, Ajax's shield is like a wall, and soldiers are like wolves or lions. Apollo came down from Olympus, "like night"; Sethi came out of the sea, "like a fog". This simile is skillfully used by Homer, and its skills can be described as perfect. Another simile, complex simile, rarely appears in the early epics of other nations, but it is a common language phenomenon in Homer's epics, with many use cases. The structural feature of this simile is that a whole paragraph of complete content is attached to an image B. The object of its modification or explanation is not A who accepts simile, but B who is the object of metaphor. For example, a woman like Maionia or Caria painted ivory into a horse's cheek with bright red paint. Although many riders coveted it, it lay quietly in the back room. As the treasure of the king, cherish it. It is not only an ornament for horses, but also adds glory to riders. Usually, the poet ends the simile with "Just like this …" and continues the story: Just like this, Menelaus, your strong thighs, your calves and chiseled ankles are covered with blood.

God

God's participation runs through the whole process of the Iliad. God can go down to the earth whenever he or she needs (unless stopped by Zeus), find any mortal he or she wants, and talk about anything he or she wants. As a way of communication, mortals can ask God for help through prayer. God, like mortals, exists in the form of a family or clan, and Zeus is the parent or brigade commander of the divine world. The authority of the sacred world depends on pure and undisguised strength or physical strength, even more obvious than that of the human world. Zeus overthrew the rule of his father, kronos, with unparalleled divine power and gained the throne of the divine world. None of the gods of Russia and Persia dared to compete with him and dreamed of competing for hegemony with him, because Zeus's courage was beyond the reach of other gods. He once warned Hera, who was nosy, and what he said was quite rude and harsh: Shut your mouth and sit quietly. Do as I say-otherwise, when I go over, throw off my arms and show you my irresistible power, all the gods on Olympus can't help you! This is a naked power world.

Zeus in the Iliad is an expert who knows how to use politics and balance politics. Compared with happy gods, mortals are "poor" or "pathetic". A stylized expression of human beings is deiloisibrotoisi (tragic existence). God's life, because it transcends the prohibition of death, is neither difficult nor serious. According to the poet's point of view, the gods naturally have something that a few people want but are not so easy to get, and give it to poor mortals whose physical strength, mental strength and intelligence are greatly limited.

There is nothing in the Iliad that cannot be explained. Homer generally adopts the solution of "double motivation" in making major decisions about characters (from which we can also see the role of people; In Homer's epic, although people are troubled, they are by no means insignificant. Achilles made the decision to seize Achilles' female companion because he was just born and because he was driven by divine power. Similarly, Athena's dissuasion and Achilles' choice made him avoid the conflict with Agamemnon. In the ninth volume, diomedes predicted that Achilles would return to the battlefield driven by his own mind and urged by the gods. Homer often uses this method to deal with some major wars (and events). Patroclus died of a mixture of divine power and mortal combat power; Similarly, hector's death was attributed to Achilles' bravery and Athena's help. According to Homer's theological viewpoint, besides God, life is restricted and manipulated by another supernatural force, that is moira. Homer generally does not make a personalized description of fate; Besides, Moira has no genealogy. Unlike ordinary gods and spirits, Moira can find three generations of ancestors. Moira's strength mainly lies in limiting the length or limit of life; Everyone is born with the shadow of death. Ordinary people can't get rid of the bondage of fate by praying. At least in theory, fate can be broken or surpassed to some extent. In the twentieth volume, Zeus told the gods that with the rage caused by the death of Patroclus, Achilles might break through the shackles of fate and break the castle. As the "father of God", we must never follow force of nature of Zeus to break through our destiny. Before his beloved son Salpeidong died, Zeus thought about saving him from the battlefield, but because of Hera's strong opposition, he gave up: Are you going to save him from a tragic death, a mortal doomed to death? Do it, Zeus, but the gods won't agree. It can be seen that Zeus can rescue Salpeidong if he wants to, but doing so may arouse the disgust of the gods, bring out a series of chain reactions, destroy the harmony of celestial bodies and produce unpredictable results.