Ancient Greek tragedy Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides. Report on the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides

Ancient tragedians most often took ancient myths as the basis for their works, which each of the authors interpreted exclusively in their own way. The same myth could be interpreted so differently by different authors that the heroes of this myth in some works could appear as positive, while in others - as negative. An example of such a phenomenon can be considered a complex of tragedies, which are based on the “myth of the Atrids.” The three greatest ancient Greek tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - created a series dramatic works, in which mythological events were interpreted in their own way, the conventional chronological framework of which is considered to be the first decade after Trojan War.

Directly myth

1) The Atrid family begins with Tantalus - the son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto. Tantalus, who ruled the city of Sipila, was a mortal, but considered himself equal to the gods. Because Since he was their favorite, he more than once had to attend their divine feasts, from where he dared to deliver the food of the gods to earth to treat mortals. He tried more than once to deceive the gods, and, in the end, their patience ran out. One day Tantalus decided to test the gods to see how omniscient they were. He killed his son Pelops and decided to treat him to the meat of the gods invited to his feast. The gods, of course, did not succumb to deception, with the exception of Demeter alone. Pelops was resurrected, and Tantalus was punished by the gods, and was the first to bring a curse on his descendants.
2) Pelops, the son of Tantalus, decided to marry the daughter of King Oenomaus - Hippodamia. However, for this he needed to defeat Oenomaus in the races, since he was the best rider at that time. Pelops used cunning to defeat Oenomaus. Before the competition, he turned to Mithril, the son of Hermes, who was watching the horses of Oenomaus, with a request to provide Oenomaus with a chariot that was not ready for the competition. As a result, Pelops won solely thanks to this trick, but did not want to reward Mithril as expected, but simply killed him, receiving a family curse as Mithril’s dying cry. Thus, Pelops brought upon himself and his entire family the wrath of the gods.
3) Atreus and Thyestes are the sons of Pelops. They initially find themselves doomed to commit atrocities: Atreus received power in Mycenae, which is why his brother began to envy him. Thyestes stole his brother's son and instilled in him hatred of his father; as a result, the young man himself fell at the hands of his father, who did not know who he was killing. Atreus, in revenge, prepared Thyestes a meal from his own sons. The gods cursed Atreus and sent a crop failure to his lands. To rectify the situation, it was necessary to return Thyestes to Mycenae, but Atreus found only his little son, Aegisthus, whom he raised himself. Then the sons of Atreus, Menelaus and Agamemnon, found Thyestes and called him to Mycenae. The brothers - Thyestes and Atreus - never made peace. Atreus ordered Aegisthus to kill Thyestes, who was imprisoned. However, Aegisthus learned that Thyestes was his father. Aegisthus killed Atreus's uncle. And he and his father began to rule together in Mycenae, and Agamemnon and Menelaus were forced to flee. Subsequently, Agamemnon overthrows Thyestes and takes the throne in Mycenae.
4) Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter to Artemis so that she will change her anger to mercy and allow Agamemnon’s ships to reach Troy. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, takes revenge on her husband when he returns from Troy for the death of his daughter. Together with Aegisthus, they seize power in Mycenae.
5) Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, almost suffered a terrible fate while still a child. He was the only heir of Agamemnon, so Clytemnestra was interested in him not being there. However, Orestes escapes and is raised for a long time by King Strophius in Phocis. At a conscious age, Orestes returns with his friend Pylades to Mycenae and kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus as revenge for the death of Agamemnon. Orestes, as a matricide, is pursued by Erinyes, the goddess of revenge. The hero seeks salvation in the temple of Apollo, but Apollo sends him to Athens to the temple of Athena, where Athena institutes a trial over Orestes, during which Orestes is acquitted.
7) Orestes’ wanderings do not end there, and he is forced to go to Taurida for the sacred figurine of Artemis. On the island, he was almost sacrificed to the gods by his own sister Iphigenia, who turns out alive, despite the fact that Agamemnon sacrificed her to the gods (at the last moment, the gods, in order to prevent bloodshed, instead of Iphigenia put a doe on the altar, and Iphigenia is sent to Tauris as a priestess of the temple of Artemis). Orestes and Iphigenia recognize each other, flee Taurida and return to their homeland together.

The last episodes of the Atrid myth are reflected in Aeschylus' trilogy "Oresteia", consisting of parts "Agamemnon", "The Mourner" and "Eumenides", and in the tragedies of Sophocles "Electra" and Euripides "Iphigenia in Aulis", "Electra", "Orestes" ", "Iphigenia in Tauris". A direct comparison of the three author's points of view is possible at the level of Aeschylus's Oresteia and the two tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides.

Aeschylus
In order to understand Aeschylus' point of view, it is necessary to trace how the myth of the Atrids develops, starting with the first part of the trilogy.
The main characters of the first tragedy “Agamemnon” are King Agamemnon himself and his wife Clytemnestra. The events are tied to the tenth year of the Trojan War. Clytemnestra is plotting an evil plan against her husband, wanting to take revenge on him for the murder of her daughter Iphigenia, whom Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice in order to appease Artemis, by whose will his fleet could not go on a campaign against Troy. The king pursued public interests:
In the yoke of fate - once he harnessed his neck,
And a dark thought - once unfortunately,
Having become embittered, he declined, -
He became bold, began to breathe courage.
Having intended evil, a mortal dares: he will gain
The sick spirit is one rage.
This is the seed of sin and punishment!
Daughter condemned to execution by father
Avenger of the brotherly bed, -
If only we could start a war! (replica of the choir, reflecting author's position)
Clytemnestra could not come to terms with the death of her daughter and the injustice of fate. Judging by the text of Aeschylus’s tragedy, she was a willful and free woman; she did not want to wait for her husband’s return from many years of war, and she took a lover in the person of Aegisthus, who was Agamemnon’s cousin. The heroine skillfully hides her feelings under the guise of external chastity.
The house is intact: the Tsarev’s seal has not been removed anywhere.
I wouldn’t be able to tint a copper alloy,
I don’t know such betrayal. Temptation is alien to me.
The slander goes numb. To an honest woman
With this truth, it seems, boasting is not shame.
Gradually, the author’s vision of the problem of the Atrid family is introduced into the tragedy; Aeschylus points to fate as an inevitably and eternally dominant force over all representatives of this family. The motif of fate appears in Aeschylus' tragedy at different levels. In particular, it appears in the remarks of the chorus of the first stasim, where it is said that the war with Troy was also inevitable, since Helen - the main culprit of the famous events - belonged to the Atrid family, since she was the wife of Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother.
She left, the gift of swords to her homeland
And the forest of spears, the sea path, leaving military work,
Bringing destruction to the Trojans as a dowry.
A bird fluttered from the towers! Threshold
The impenetrable has crossed...
It turns out that, through the prism of the author’s vision, the events taking place are dictated by fate and the gods, whom Aeschylus portrays as supreme beings with enormous influence on people. The narration is conducted in such a way that the representatives of the choir know in advance the whole situation unfolding before the reader; in their remarks, hints periodically arise of the terrible ending of the unfolding events:
Herald
Why were the citizens so destroyed? Is there fear for the army?
Leader of the choir
To avoid causing trouble, I’m used to being silent.
Herald
Without a king, did the people begin to fear the strong?
Leader of the choir
Like you, I will say: now even death is red to me.
So, Clytemnestra, as a cunning and dexterous woman, meets her husband with great pomp, skillfully playing the role of a happy wife who rejoiced at the return of her husband. The meeting turns out to be so magnificent that even Agamemnon himself becomes embarrassed in front of the gods for such a luxurious reception in his honor. Clytemnestra clouds his mind with her sweet speeches, and tells him that she sent their son Orestes away from Argos in order to avoid the terrible danger that seemed to await him, although the whole story was invented personally by Clytemnestra herself in order to be able to carry out her insidious plan.
Clytemnestra's true intentions are directly expressed only at the end of the second stasim, when she lures Agamemnon alone into the palace to fulfill her intention.
O supreme Zeus, Zeus the executor, accomplish it yourself,
What I pray for! Remember what you were destined to do!
The feeling of inevitability and tragedy is heightened by the introduction of another significant character into the tragedy - Cassandra, whom Agamemnon brings with him from Troy as a concubine. According to myth, Cassandra had the exceptional gift of seeing the future, but by the will of Apollo, no one believed her words. Thus, the heroine becomes an exponent of the true order of things in the tragedy:
A godless shelter, a concealer of evil deeds!
The house is a knacker! Executioners
Platform! Human slaughter, where you slide in blood.
<…>
Here they are, standing here, witnesses of blood!
Babies cry: "The body is for us
They cut us open and boiled us, and my father ate us."
The speeches of the choir representatives reach an emotional climax at the moment of the murder of Agamemnon, when it becomes clear that even the hero exalted by the gods in numerous battles will not escape the terrible fate of the entire Atrid family:
Exalted by the gods, he came home.
If the king is destined to atone with blood
Ancient blood and, saturating the shadows,
Bequeath blood vengeance to descendants:
Who will boast, hearing the legend that he himself
Is the original untouched by the infection? (remark from the choir leader)
Immediately after the murder, the reader learns about the internal state of Clytemnestra, who in the first hours after the terrible deed felt completely right and spotless before the gods; She justifies herself by saying that she was taking revenge on her husband for the death of her daughter. However, gradually Clytemnestra comes to the realization that her will was subordinated to the force of fate beyond her control:
Now you have found a fair word:
Navi is a demon in his family.
Weaned by blood drinking, but the stomach gnaws
A family infected with an insatiable worm.
And the festering sore in the groin did not heal,
How new ulcers have opened up.
The heroine awakens to fear for what she has done, she is already losing confidence in her rightness, although she is trying to convince herself and reassure herself that she did everything right. However, her remarks about the fate hanging over the family remain key:
It's none of my business, even if my hands are
They brought an ax.
Just think, old man: Agamemnon is my husband!
No! the evil spirit of the ancestral spirit has killed the fatal one,
An ancient ghoul - under the features of his wife -
For Atreev's massacre, parental sin,
Agamemnon as a gift
He gave it to the babies who were martyred.
At the end of the fourth stasim, Clytemnestra herself calls her act an obsession; she sees no way to correct what happened.
The tragedy "Agamemnon" ends on neither a sad nor a happy note, which indicates that main question trilogy has not yet been resolved; further development events take place in the tragedy "The Mourners".

The tragedy of “The Mourner,” unlike the previous one, reveals the images of two more heroes belonging to the Atride family - Electra and her brother Orestes. The action begins when Orestes arrives with his friend Pylades to his homeland to honor the memory of his father. At the same time, a choir of mourners led by Electra approaches the grave. The heroine complains about her unhappy fate, condemns her mother in every possible way for her actions: the murder of her legal husband, her new husband Aegisthus, cruel treatment, etc.
We were sold. We are homeless, without shelter.
Our mother drives us out of the doorway. I took my husband into the house.
Aegisthus is our stepfather, your enemy and destroyer.
I serve for a slave. Brother in a foreign land,
Robbed, disgraced. For luxury
Screw their arrogance that you have acquired through your labors. (Electra's speech)
Miraculously, a scene of recognition of brother and sister occurs, during which Electra for a long time did not want to believe the words of Orestes, and only indirect evidence managed to convince her, heartbroken, that her brother was really standing in front of her:
Orestes
Didn’t you recognize my cloak that you wove it yourself?
And who wove patterns of these animals on it?
Electra
My desired one, my beloved! you four times
My stronghold and hope; rock and happiness!
Brother and sister unite in their desire to avenge their father. On the one hand, the mourners of the choir convince the heroine of the need for revenge, on the other hand, the god Apollo calls on Orestes to pay tribute to his husband-killer mother. The decisive attitude and hatred of the mother, which grew over time, is passed on from Electra to Orestes. And the heroine’s complaints heat up the atmosphere:
Oh my mother, my evil mother,
You dared to turn the removal into dishonor!
Without citizens, without friends,
No crying, no prayers,
Atheist, bury the ruler in the dust!
Despite the fact that the heroes, at first glance, themselves take responsibility for everything that is destined to happen according to their plans, Aeschylus does not cease to include his key position in the chorus’s remarks, which is that all members of the Atrid family are doomed from the beginning to suffering and misfortune. Despite the apparent freedom of the heroes in making decisions, the motif of fate comes to the fore:
Choir
The destination has been waiting for a long time:
May Rock come to the challenge.
The chorus members are initially aware of how the events connecting Electra, Orestes and Clytemnestra will develop, however, in order to maintain intrigue and emotional intensity that arises almost from the very beginning of the tragedy, the chorus’s remarks are often not direct and sometimes ambiguous. Thus, thanks to the dialogue between the leader of the choir and Orestes, the reader learns that fate haunts Clytemnestra even in her dreams, because she saw a bad omen regarding her own death. In front of the false guest in the person of Orestes, she expresses artificial regret about the death of her son, while we learn about her true thoughts only from the speech of the maid:
...In front of the servants
She is heartbroken, but there is laughter in her eyes
Hiding under a frowning brow. Good luck to her
And at home there is mourning and final destruction, -
What the guests announced with clear speech. (Kilissa)
Meanwhile, a deception is being committed, which turns into another tragedy for the Atrid family in a series of terrible murders. The author, through replicas of the choir, continues to explain the events taking place by fate and divine will:
Destroy the enemy's power!
When the time comes to lower the sword
And the mother will cry out: “Have mercy, son!” -
Just remember your father
And don’t be afraid to strike: dare
The burden of accepting the curse!
And indeed, nothing stops Orestes from committing two murders - first of Aegisthus, and then of Clytemnestra’s mother. Orestes himself understands that he is to some extent weak-willed and, by killing his mother, shows an inability to resist the power of fate and divine influence, and completely refuses to think independently. At the moment of the murder, the hero utters the phrase: “I am not the murderer: you execute yourself,” which reflects the hero’s internal state, shows that the hero either does not think or does not worry about the fact that the murder will be followed by punishment from above. In addition, in Exod, the leader of the choir, among her final remarks, says:
You did the truth. Forbid your lips
To defame your sword. Evil will call forth a slander.
You freed the entire Argive people by cutting down
In one fell swoop, two dragon heads.
However, immediately after the crime, the hero is punished in the form of the terrible Erinyes pursuing him, who want to punish him for the bloody murder he committed. The work ends on a tragic note with a remark from the choir, which includes a question, the answer to which remains unclear:
Calm again - how long? And where will it lead?
And will the curse of the family die out?

The Oresteia trilogy ends with the tragedy of the Eumenides, where the main character is one of the few living descendants of the Atride family, Orestes. The central problem tragedy turns out to be not so much a problem of fate as a problem of fair punishment.
Orestes, pursued by the Erinyes, does not find protection in the temple of his patron Apollo, who only briefly puts the Erinyes to sleep, thereby allowing Orestes to flee to Athens to the temple of Pallas Athena and seek protection there. Apollo takes responsibility for the crime committed, but this does not remove the guilt from the main character.
Apollo
I won't change you; your guardian to the end,
Representative and intercessor, am I approaching,
If I stand at a distance, I am threatening to your enemies.
Erinyes and Clytemnetstra, who appears in the tragedy in the form of a shadow coming from the underworld of Hades, thirst for revenge. Their main argument against Orestes is that he killed his mother, committed a blood crime, which cannot be compared with Clytemnestra’s crime - murder of husbands.
Accordingly, a confrontation arises between Apollo, who puts above all else “the oath that Zeus established / With the family Hero...”, and Erinyes, for whom “Manicide is not murder of blood.”
Wise Athena decides to arrange a fair trial of Orestes and convenes judges and honorary citizens.
Aeschylus expresses his position in such a way as if he distances himself from what is happening in the tragedy and allows the heroes to solve problems on their own:
The old system has been overthrown,
The century has come - new truths,
If the court now decides:
Killing a mother is no sin,
Orestes is right.
At the trial, the votes are distributed equally, which allows the author to skillfully introduce into the work his vision of the problem of punishment, this time expressed in the remarks of Apollo and Athena:

Apollo
Not the mother of the child born from her,
Parent: no, she is a wet nurse
The perceived seed. Sower
Direct parent. Mother is like a gift, a pledge
Taken for safekeeping from a guest friend, -
What is conceived will flourish, unless God destroys it.

Athena
Everything masculine is kind, only marriage is alien to me;
I am courageous in heart, I am a desperate daughter.
Holier than my husband's blood, as I can honor
The wife who killed the landlord, blood?

Thus, Aeschylus' trilogy has a happy ending, although throughout the three tragedies the heroes had to experience many difficulties and face intractable tasks.
The author offers the reader his interpretation of the myth of the Atrids, the main feature of which is the belief in inevitable fate, in the virtual complete absence of a personal principle in the hero at the time of committing terrible crimes, as for Clytemnestra, within whom doubts quickly arose about her rightness, as soon as she committed a crime, whereas at the time of the murder she had no doubt at all that her act was justified, as well as Orestes, fulfilling the will of the gods in committing the murder of his own mother.

Sophocles
Sophocles also proposed his own dramatic interpretation of the myth of the Atrids in the tragedy “Electra”. From the title alone one can judge that the author’s embodiment of the ancient myth in this work will differ from that proposed by Aeschylus. Sophocles brings out the main character of the tragedy in the title, but from the plays of Aeschylus we know that Electra was not the main character even in the second part of the Oresteia - in The Mourners.
The tragedy opens with a prologue containing monologues of Orestes, Mentor and Electra. Already from the first speech of Orestes, the reader can understand what basic principles Sophocles was guided by when transposing the famous myth in his own way. The heroes of the tragedy are endowed with a large number of individual traits; they are free to make decisions themselves, and do not blindly obey the orders of the gods:
I visited the sanctuary of Python,
Trying to find out how I should take revenge
For the death of the father, how to repay the murderers -
And so the most luminous Phoebus answered me,
That by cunning, without troops, without weapons,
I must take righteous revenge myself. (Orestes speech)
Electra's speeches are not only full of tragedy, but also emotionally rich. Even at the level of purely visual perception of the text, it is difficult not to notice that the heroine’s remarks consist of a large number of exclamatory sentences and unfinished sentences that convey fluctuations in Electra’s internal state:
Ah, noble at heart
Girls! You console my sorrow...
I see and feel, believe me, it’s noticeable to me
Your participation... But no, I'm still
I will begin to moan about what was unfortunately lost
Father... Oh, let it be
We are bound by friendly tenderness in everything,
Leave it, give it to me
Grieve, I pray!..
Sophocles often resorted to the use of contrasts, which were a distinctive feature of his work, and therefore in Electra he uses this technique on many levels.
Thus, to embody the image of Electra, Sophocles introduces another female image into the work - Chrysothemis, Electra’s sister. Both girls experienced the same tragedy, but Chrysothemis accepted her bitter fate, while Electra did not. One sister thirsts for revenge, while the other urges her to calm down and silently endure the state of the humiliated, while the behavior of their mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus only aggravates the situation, forcing Chrysothemis to suffer even more, and Electra to thirst for cruel revenge.
Chrysothemis
Why try to strike
When you have no strength? Live like me too...
However, I can only give advice,
And the choice is yours... To be free,
I submit, sister, to those in power.

Electra
Disgrace! Having forgotten such a father,
You please a criminal mother!
After all, all your admonitions are her
Prompted, the advice is not yours.

Sophocles brings to the fore not the problem of fate, as Aeschylus does, but the problem of the internal experience of murder, which seems unfair to Electra. Electra practically never leaves the stage, and the author conducts the entire course of the tragedy through her remarks. She is the only heroine, before whom the full horror of what is happening is revealed, because she experiences not only the death of her father at the hands of her own mother, but also the lack of human conditions for life, which is caused by the will of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. However, the heroine is too weak to dare to take revenge on her own, and she does not find support in her sister.
In the tragedy “Electra,” Sophocles uses a number of traditional elements that go back to the works of Aeschylus: the prophetic dream of Clytemnestra, the false death of Orestes, the scene of recognition by a lock of hair, which, as we will see later, will be interpreted in a completely different way by Euripides.
As for the image of Clytemnestra, the author depicted her in a new way. The heroine is fully aware of the crime committed, but she does not experience pangs of conscience:
That's right
Killed, I don't deny it. But she killed
Not only me: Truth killed him.
If you were smart, you would help her.
Electra cannot agree with her mother’s point of view, but not only because she is heartbroken, but also because she believes that her mother did not have the slightest right to raise a hand against her husband, that in addition to murder, she also committed betrayal of her entire family when placed Aegisthus, an unworthy husband, next to her.
Orestes and the Mentor come up with a tragic story about the alleged death of Orestes in order to lure Clytemnestra and Aegisthus into a trap. Electra has to go through another shock, but even after the news and death of her brother, it cannot be said that she is broken in spirit. She invites Chrysothemis to take just revenge with her, but the sister continues to stand in her position and urge Electra to abandon thoughts of revenge and obey the will of “those in power.”
Electra’s numerous dialogues with her sister, with Orestes (when she did not yet know that her brother was standing in front of her), reflect the emotional state main character, her unabating rebellious spirit, which became the key to understanding the author’s interpretation of the myth of Atrid. Sophocles allows the viewer to look into the soul of his heroine - he makes her lines so alive. It becomes clear that for the author of “Electra” it is not so much the twisted and complex plot how detailed the images of the characters are, their believability. The main subject of Sophocles' depiction is feelings.
The scene of recognition of the heroes occurs not so magnificently, but more vitally - Electra recognizes her brother by her father’s ring. They agree on how they will take revenge, but even here, despite the similarities storylines With the tragedy of Aeschylus, Sophocles introduces a number of his own elements. An interesting detail is that Orestes asks his sister not to reveal her joyful feelings to others for the time being, so that no one - and mainly Clytemnestra and Aegisthus - would suspect something was wrong while Orestes prepares revenge on them. Ultimately, Orestes kills his mother and then Aegisthus. And the final conclusion sounded in the last replica of the choir is this:
O Atreev, who has known all calamities, O race!
Finally you have achieved the desired freedom, -
Happy with the current situation.
It must be said that such a sequence of murders (first Clytemnestra, and then Aegisthus) is found only in Sophocles. It can be assumed that such a rejection of the traditional arrangement of plot elements reflects the author’s desire to show that for him this order does not play such a major role, that for him it is much more important to reveal the image of Electra.
Thus, apparently, Sophocles does not consider it necessary to continue further development of the plot, as Aeschylus did, because he achieved his main goal - the multifaceted and complex character of the main character was revealed. The myth itself acquires a more everyday and reduced sound in contrast to the work of Aeschylus, however, the wealth of images and artistic techniques allows us to call Sophocles a great Greek tragedian.

Euripides
Another ancient Greek tragedy dedicated to the theme of the Atrid family is rightfully considered “Electra” by Euripides, written in a fundamentally different manner compared to the previously discussed works. It is obvious that Euripides relied on the experience of his predecessors, but he also showed a lot of originality in his interpretation of the myth of Atrid. Mainly, in his interpretation, the author enters into polemics with Aeschylus. In addition, the question of which “Electra” was written earlier - Sophocles or Euripides - remains open.
The images of characters already known to us are unique. Electra especially stands out from the general background, who in the tragedy of Euripides unexpectedly turns out to be the wife of a simple plowman. Aegisthus, afraid of revenge from his new “relatives,” comes up with a very specific way to protect himself from danger from Electra - he passes her off as a simple person without family or name, assuming that he will not take revenge, since, as a simple person from the people, will not be filled with high feelings, will not strive to restore the honor and nobility of his wife.
Aegisthus
He hoped that by betrothing the princess
Insignificant, it will reduce to nothing
And the danger itself. After all, perhaps
A noble son-in-law would give wings to the rumor,
He would threaten the murderer of his father-in-law with punishment... (chorus response)
In a unique way, Euripides introduces the motif of recognition of heroes into the work: the author enters into a polemic with Aeschylus, emphasizing the naivety and frivolity of the depiction of the meeting of recognition in the tragedy “The Mourners”. In Aeschylus, Electra recognizes Orestes by the clothes that he himself once wove. According to the myth, we remember that brother and sister separated a long time ago, so it would be unreasonable to assume that since then Orestes has not grown up or worn out his clothes. Aeschylus allows for artistic convention, because focuses his attention on other aspects of the work, but on the basis of this, the following lines appear in Euripides’ Electra:

Old man
And if you compare the footprint of the sandal
With your leg, child, can we find similarities?
<…>
Say again: the work of children's hands,
Do you recognize Orest's clothes?
which you wove for him
Before I carry it to Phocis?
Ultimately, Orestes is recognized by a scar received as a child. Perhaps in this case we are dealing with a connection between the motive of recognition in Euripides and a similar one in Homer, because Odysseus is also recognized by his scar. Thus, we can say that in some ways Euripides, entering into polemics with Aeschylus and Sophocles, turned to an ancient perfect model - the Homeric epic.
In Euripides' tragedy, Electra shows cruelty towards her mother, although she does not provide specific arguments in defense of her point of view. She evaluates her with contempt:
What do she care about children, if only she had husbands...
Together with Orestes, they embark on a cruel plan of reprisal, and Orestes, not yet being recognized, finds out the position of his sister, and she directly expresses her readiness with the words: “The ax is ready, and the blood of the father is not washed away.”
Unlike previous dramas, in Euripides it turns out that all responsibility for the future murders falls on the shoulders of Orestes and Electra, because There are not enough arguments to find Clytemnestra guilty of all the troubles of the Atrid family.
O our father, who has seen the underground darkness,
Killed by misfortune, oh earth -
Lady, my hands are stretched out to you,
Save the king's children - he loved us. (replica of Orestes)
The scene of Orestes killing Aegisthus is depicted with amazing accuracy and with a large amount of detail:
And just above the heart
He bowed attentively, Orestes
The knife also rose on tiptoe
He hit the Tsar in the scruff of the neck, and with a blow
It breaks his back. The enemy has collapsed
And he tossed about in agony, dying. (replica of the Herald)
Electra, with genuine interest, finds out the details of the murder of Aegisthus. Only the mother remains - Clytemnestra. Before committing the murder, feelings awaken in Orestes, he begins to doubt whether he is really right in committing a terrible blood murder. Those. it is implied that Euripides' hero acted not according to the will of the gods, but according to his own conviction.
In this case, Clytemnestra is portrayed as the most sensible person, capable of explaining the reason for her actions:
Oh, I would forgive everything if the city
Otherwise they wouldn’t have taken it if the house
Or did he save the children with this sacrifice,
But he killed the little one for his wife
Depraved, because her husband didn’t understand
The traitor deserves to be punished.
Oh, I kept silent then - I'm heading towards oblivion
I was already preparing my heart to execute
Atrida did not get ready. But from Troy
The king brought a mad maenad
On the wedding bed and stood in the chamber
Keep two wives. O wives, our destiny is
Blind passion. Even if careless
My husband will show us coldness, now
To spite him we take a lover,
And then everyone blames us for everything,
Forgetting the instigators of the offense...
The exponent of the truth, which reflects the author’s point of view, is Corypheus, who responds to Clytemnestra’s speech in the following way:
Yes, you're right, but the truth is your shame:
No, women, if they are mentally healthy,
Submit to your husbands in everything, O sick people
I won't say - those from the accounts...
Clytemnestra sincerely regrets what she did, but Electra remains implacable, as if there was nothing alive in her. “She is in the hands of children - oh, a bitter lot!” - this is how the author characterizes her situation. The author focuses on the fact that all the misfortunes of the Atrid family are connected not so much with fate, but with the personal will of representatives of the same family. That is why the phrase in the exode reads:
There is no home, no one is more unhappy than you,
House of Tantalus... it couldn't be more unfortunate...
Orestes experiences internal disagreements after committing a murder and is put on trial. The author only briefly introduces the story of Orestes' trial and forgiveness, whereas for Aeschylus this topic is the theme of an entire tragedy. Thus, it is obvious that Euripides’ dramatic interpretation of the myth of Atrid differs significantly from the interpretations of Aeschylus and Sophocles, which allows us to talk about the development of a theatrical tradition and the emergence of a wide variety of heroes.
The problems that Euripides raises are embodied, at first glance, as everyday ones (which is facilitated by the specific manner of narration and the images of the heroes), although, of course, such simplicity hides the author’s deep vision of how life works, what place is assigned to fate and fate in it , and what about the heroes’ own decisions.

Conclusions:
1) Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, who lived in the same era, used similar material to create their works. However, each of the authors has their own interpretation of various myths, in this case using the example of the myth of Atrid, and it is determined by the author’s vision of the problems raised in their works and the artistic preferences of each of them.

2) For Aeschylus, the key concept was fate, although the author cannot completely deny the author’s attempts to individualize the characters, but nevertheless, mainly the heroes act not according to their own will, but according to what fate is destined for them, or according to what order they received from the gods . It can also be assumed with considerable probability that in the third part of the Oresteia trilogy, the author sought to express his socio-political views, giving a significant role to the Areopagus in his tragedy. Here we can also talk about the expression moral position author: Orestes is acquitted if the votes are equal; we can talk about the entry of a court of conscience, in which the decision on the issue of “shed blood” is given to the Areopagus. The tragedy of Aeschylus was in tune with the time in which it was created. Thus, the author’s interpretation allows him, in addition to directly mythological elements, to bring a lot of personality into the work.

3) For Sophocles, the key element of the tragedy of Electra is the detailed depiction of one image, which practically does not disappear from the stage throughout the entire action of the tragedy. The play of contrasts allows Sophocles to introduce new techniques for depicting images into literature, to show that myth does not at all limit the scope of the work and the breadth of disclosure of images.

4) Euripides is most characterized by an innovative approach to the interpretation of myth, because he is the furthest away from the traditional interpretation of the Atrid myth. But at the same time, he brings a lot of new things to the tragedy as a whole, because even at the level of the tragedy “Electra” one can notice an increased interest not so much in social problems, how much to the problems of a specific individual. The concept of fate and fate fades into the background, the heroes become more independent.

The following translations of works were used in the work:
Aeschylus "Oresteia" - Vyach. Ivanov.
Sophocles “Electra” - S. Shervinsky.
Euripides "Electra" - I. Annensky

Ancient Greek theater. In the ancient theater, the play was staged only once - its repetition was the greatest rarity, and the performances themselves were given only three times a year - during holidays in honor of the god Dionysus. In early spring, the Great Dionysius coped, in late December - early January - the Lesser Dionysia, and Lenya fell on the horses of January - early February. The ancient theater resembled an open stadium: its rows rose around the orchestra - the platform where the action took place. Behind it, the ring of spectator seats was opened by a skena - a small tent where theatrical props were stored and actors changed clothes. Later, the skene began to be used as an element of decoration - it depicted a house or palace, as required by the plot.

Most is known about the theatrical life of Athens. Famous authors of tragedies and comedies lived here: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander. The theater in Athens was located on the slope of the Acropolis hill and accommodated fifteen thousand spectators. The performances began early in the morning and continued until the evening, and so on for several days in a row. For each holiday, playwrights presented their works. A special jury chose the best drama. After each performance, the names of the authors, the titles of the plays and their assigned places were written on marble boards.

The Greeks did not have to work on the days of theatrical performances; on the contrary, visiting the theater was the responsibility of Athenian citizens. The poorest were even paid money to make up for losses. This respect for dramatic art is explained by the fact that the Athenians honored the god Dionysus with theatrical performances.

It was customary to write tragedies in fours - tetralogies: three tragedies on any mythological story and the fourth one is no longer a tragedy, but an entertaining play. It involved not only the heroes of the myth, but also forest demons, similar to people, but covered with hair, with goat horns or horse ears, with a tail and hooves - satyrs. The drama with their participation was called satyr drama.

Greek actors were limited in their capabilities compared to modern ones: their faces were covered with masks corresponding to one or another character. Tragic actors wore buskins - shoes with a high “platform” that interfered with movement. But the heroes seemed taller and more significant. Main expressive means voice and plasticity served. Firstly theatrical productions there was only one actor, and his partner was the choir or luminary, that is, the leader of the choir. Aeschylus suggested introducing a second actor, and Sophocles - a third. If there were more than three characters in the tragedy, then one actor played several roles, including female ones: only men were allowed to act in ancient Greece.

There was a lot of music in Greek plays. One of the most important roles necessarily belonged to the choir - a kind of collective character. The chorus did not take part in the action, but actively commented on it, assessed the characters, condemned them or praised them, entering into conversation with them, and sometimes indulged in philosophical reasoning. In tragedies, the choir was serious and thoughtful. Most often, as the author intended, he represented the respectable citizens of the city in which the action takes place. In comedies, the chorus was often made up of comic characters. In Aristophanes, for example, these are frogs, birds, clouds. His famous comedies have corresponding names. The performances were based on alternating singing and recitation.

The tragedy began with a singing choir emerging from the skena into the orchestra. The choral part performed in motion was called parod (translated from Greek as “passage”). After this, the choir remained in the orchestra until the end. The speeches of the actors were called episody (literally “incoming”, “extraneous”, “irrelevant”). This name caused scientists to assume that dramatic performances arose from choral parts and it was the choir that was initially the main “actor”. Each episodia was followed by a stasim (Greek: “motionless”, “standing”) - the choir part. Their alternation could be disrupted by kommos (Greek “blow”, “beat”) - a passionate or mournful song, lament for a hero; it was performed by a duet between a luminary and an actor. Exodus (Greek, “exodus”, “exit”) is the final part of the tragedy. Like the opening one, it was musical: leaving the orchestra, the choir performed its part together with the actor.

The Greek tragedy has lived short life- only 100 years. Its ancestor is considered to be Thespis, who lived in the 6th century. BC e., but only names and minor fragments have reached us from his tragedies. And in Euripides, tragedy gradually lost its original appearance; choral parts were replaced by acting parts, music by recitation. In essence, Euripides turned tragedy into everyday drama.

Greek comedy also changed its appearance. Comedies began to be staged in the 5th century. BC e. Comedy productions of this time had their own rules. The actors opened the performance; this scene was called prologue (Greek “preliminary word”); after Aeschylus, prologues also appeared in tragedies. Then the choir entered. The comedy also consisted of episodies, but there were no stasims in it, since the chorus did not freeze in one place, but directly intervened in the action. When the heroes argued, quarreled or fought, proving that they were right, the choir was divided into two half-choirs and added fuel to the fire with passionate comments. The comedy included a parabassa (Greek for “passing by”) - a choral part that had almost nothing to do with the plot. In the parabass, the choir seemed to speak on behalf of the author, who addressed the audience, characterizing his own work.

Over time, choral parts in comedy were reduced, and already in the 4th century. BC e. Greek comedy, like tragedy, came closer in form and content to everyday drama. Many words from the Greek theatrical lexicon have remained in modern European languages, often with different meanings. And the word “theater” comes from the Greek “theatron” - “a place where people gather to watch.”

Works of Aeschylus. Aeschylus (525-456 BC). His work is associated with the era of the formation of the Athenian democratic state. This state was formed during the Greco-Persian wars, which were fought with short interruptions from 500 to 449 BC. and had a liberating character for the Greek city-states. It is known that Aeschylus took part in the battles of Marathon and Salamis. He described the Battle of Salamis as an eyewitness to the tragedy of the Persians. The inscription on his tombstone, composed, according to legend, by himself, says nothing about him as a playwright, but says that he proved himself a courageous warrior in battles with the Persians. Aeschylus wrote about 80 tragedies and satyr dramas. Only seven tragedies have reached us in their entirety; Small fragments of other works have survived.

Aeschylus's tragedies reflect the main trends of his time, those huge changes in socio-economic and cultural life that were caused by the collapse of the clan system and the emergence of Athenian slave-owning democracy.

Aeschylus' worldview was basically religious and mythological. He believed that there is an eternal world order that is subject to the law of world justice. A person who voluntarily or unwittingly violates a fair order will be punished by the gods, and thereby balance will be restored. The idea of ​​the inevitability of retribution and the triumph of justice runs through all of Aeschylus’ tragedies. Aeschylus believes in fate-Moira, believes that even the gods obey her. However, this traditional worldview is also mixed with new views generated by the developing Athenian democracy. Thus, the heroes of Aeschylus are not weak-willed creatures who unconditionally carry out the will of the deity: his man is endowed with a free mind, thinks and acts completely independently. Almost every hero of Aeschylus faces the problem of choosing a line of behavior. A person’s moral responsibility for his actions is one of the main themes of the playwright’s tragedies.

Aeschylus introduced a second actor into his tragedies and thus opened up the possibility of deeper development tragic conflict, strengthened the effective side of theatrical performance. This was a real revolution in the theater: instead of the old tragedy, where the parts of a single actor and chorus filled the entire play, a new tragedy was born in which the characters collided with each other on stage and directly motivated their actions. The external structure of Aeschylus's tragedy retains traces of proximity to the dithyramb, where the lead singer's parts alternated with the choir's parts.

Of the tragedies of the great playwright that have survived to our time, the following stand out: ;"Prometheus Bound"- the most famous tragedy of Aeschylus, telling about the feat of the titan Prometheus, who gave fire to people and was severely punished for it. Nothing is known about the time of writing and production. Historical basis Only the evolution of primitive society, the transition to civilization, could have caused such a tragedy. Aeschylus convinces the viewer of the need to fight all tyranny and despotism. This struggle is only possible through constant progress. The benefits of civilization, according to Aeschylus, are primarily theoretical sciences: arithmetic. Grammar, astronomy, and practice: construction, mining, etc. In the tragedy, he paints the image of a fighter, a moral winner. The human spirit cannot be overcome by anything. This is a story about the struggle against the supreme deity Zeus (Zeus is depicted as a despot, traitor, coward and cunning). In general, the work is striking in its brevity and insignificant content of choral parts (it deprives the tragedy of the oratorical genre traditional for Aeschylus). The dramaturgy is also very weak, the genre of recitation. The characters are also monolithic and static as in other works of Aeschylus. There are no contradictions in the heroes; they each have one trait. Not characters, general schemes. There is no action, the tragedy consists exclusively of monologues and dialogues (artistic, but not dramatic at all). The style is monumental and pathetic (although the characters are only gods, pathetism is weakened - long conversations, philosophical content, rather calm character). The tone is a laudatory-rhetorical declamation addressed to the only hero of the tragedy, Prometheus. Everything exalts Prometheus. The development of the action is a gradual and steady intensification of the tragedy of Prometheus’s personality and a gradual increase in the monumental-pathetic style of the tragedy.

Aeschylus is known as the best exponent of the social aspirations of his time. In his tragedies he shows the victory of progressive principles in the development of society, in the state structure, in morality. The work of Aeschylus had a significant influence on the development of world poetry and drama. Aeschylus is a champion of enlightenment, this tragedy is educational, the attitude towards mythology is critical.

Works of Sophocles (496-406 BC) . Sophocles is a famous Athenian tragedian. Born in February 495 BC. e., in the Athenian suburb of Colon. The poet sang in tragedy the place of his birth, long glorified by the shrines and altars of Poseidon, Athena, Eumenides, Demeter, Prometheus "Oedipus at Colonus". He came from a wealthy Sofill family and received a good education.

After the Battle of Salamis (480 BC) he participated in national holiday as a choir director. He was twice elected to the position of military commander and once served as a member of the board in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as their military leader in 440 BC. e. during the Samian War, under the impression of his tragedy "Antigone", the production of which dates back to 441 BC. e.

His main occupation was composing tragedies for the Athenian theater. The first tetralogy, staged by Sophocles in 469 BC. e., brought him victory over Aeschylus and opened up a number of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The critic Aristophanes of Byzantium attributed it to Sophocles 123 tragedies.

Seven tragedies of Sophocles have come down to us, of which, in content, three belong to the Theban cycle of legends: “Oedipus”, “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone”; one to the Hercules cycle - "Dejanira", and three to the Trojan cycle: "Eant", the earliest of the tragedies of Sophocles, "Electra" and "Philoctetes". In addition, about 1000 fragments have been preserved by different writers. In addition to tragedies, antiquity attributed to Sophocles elegies, paeans and prosaic discourse on the choir.

Tragedy "Oedipus the King". Remaining true to the main lines of the Homeric myth, Sophocles subjects it to the finest psychological elaboration, and, preserving the details (known not from Homer) of the fatal fate of Laius and his offspring, makes his work not a “tragedy of fate” at all, but a genuine human drama with deep conflicts between Oedipus and Creon, Oedipus and Tiresias, with full life truth depicting the experiences of the characters. Following the rules of construction of Greek tragedy, Sophocles uses this construction in such a way that all events unfold naturally and truthfully. From the myth of Oedipus, which is known not only from the Odyssey, but also from other works. According to sources, Sophocles took the following main events for his tragedy:

1) saving the doomed infant Oedipus

2) departure of Oedipus from Corinth

3) Oedipus' murder of Laius

4) Oedipus' solution to the riddle of the Sphinx

5) proclamation of Oedipus as king of Thebes and marriage to Jocasta

6) revealing the crimes of Oedipus

7) the death of Jocasta.

If we limit ourselves only to these moments, then the dramatic action will turn out to be based only on the fatal fate of Oedipus, but no psychological tragedy (except for the despair of Oedipus and Jocasta) will result. Sophocles complicates the mythological outline by developing such moments that help him push into the background the fatal fate of his hero and make it possible to turn the mythological plot into a genuine human drama, where internal psychological conflicts and socio-political problems come first. This is the main and deep content of both “Oedipus the King” and “Antigone”. Jocasta's experiences give Sophocles a wide field for depicting female character in all its complexity. This can be judged by the images of Antigone and Electra, and by the images of Ismene. Sophocles uses the image of the soothsayer Tiresias to depict the conflict arising from the clash of everyday norms with religious norms (dialogue between Oedipus and Tiresias). In "E.-ts." Sophocles depicts mainly the personal struggle of Oedipus with forces hostile to him, personified in his mind by Creon and Tiresias. Both of them are formally right in Sophocles’ portrayal: Tiresias is also right, to whom the crimes of Oedipus are revealed; Creon is also right, in vain suspected of striving for royal power and reproaching Oedipus for his self-confidence and conceit, but sympathy is evoked only by Oedipus, who takes all measures to reveal the unknown the culprit of the murder of Lai and the tragedy of whose situation lies in the fact that, while looking for the criminal, he little by little learns that he is the criminal - himself.

This recognition of both his origin from Laius and Jocasta and the secret of the murder of Laius not only reveals to Oedipus the whole horror of his fate, but also leads to the consciousness of his own guilt. And so Oedipus, without waiting for any punishment from above, passes judgment on himself and blinds himself and condemns himself to expulsion from Thebes. In this verdict to himself, accompanied by a request to Creon:

Oh, drive me out quickly - there,
Wherever I would not hear human greetings, -

there is a deep meaning: a person himself must be responsible for his actions and place his own self-consciousness above the decisions of the gods; Mortals, according to Sophocles, are superior to the immortal and serene gods because their lives are spent in constant struggle, in an effort to overcome any obstacles.

The works of Euripides. Euripides (480 - 406 BC) - ancient Greek playwright, representative of the new Attic tragedy, in which psychology prevails over the idea of ​​​​divine fate. Of the 92 plays attributed to Euripides in antiquity, the titles of 80 can be reconstructed. Of these, 18 tragedies have come down to us, of which “Res” is believed to have been written by a later poet, and the satirical drama “Cyclops” is the only surviving example of this genre. The best ancient dramas of Euripides are lost to us; Of the survivors, only “Hippolytus” was crowned. Among the surviving plays, the earliest is Alceste, and the later ones include Iphigenia at Aulis and The Bacchae.

The preferential development of female roles in tragedy was an innovation of Euripides. Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Andromache, Macaria, Iphigenia, Helen, Electra, Medea, Phaedra, Creusa, Andromeda, Agave and many other heroines of the legends of Hellas are complete and vital types. Motives of the marital and mother's love, tender devotion, stormy passion, female vindictiveness alloyed with cunning, deceit and cruelty occupy a very prominent place in the dramas of Euripides. Euripides' women surpass his men in willpower and intensity of feelings. Also, slaves and slaves in his plays are not soulless extras, but have characters, human traits and show feelings like free citizens, forcing the audience to empathize. Only a few of the surviving tragedies satisfy the requirement of completeness and unity of action. The author's strength lies primarily in psychologism and deep elaboration of individual scenes and monologues. In a diligent portrayal states of mind, usually tense to the extreme, lies the main interest of Euripides' tragedies.

Tragedy "Hippolytus". The tragedy (428) is close in dynamics and character to the tragedy “Medea”. The depiction is of a young Athenian queen who fell in love with her stepson. Just like in Medea, the psychologism of a suffering soul is shown, which despises itself for its criminal passion, but at the same time only thinks about its beloved. There is also a conflict between duty and passion here (Phaedra commits suicide, accusing Hippolytus of attacking her honor; passion won). The secrets of the heroines' spiritual lives are realistically revealed. Reflected the thoughts and feelings of his contemporaries.

The works of Aristophanes. Aristophanes' literary activity took place between 427 and 388. In its main part it falls on the period of the Peloponnesian War and the crisis of the Athenian state. The intensified struggle around the political program of radical democracy, contradictions between city and countryside, issues of war and peace, the crisis of traditional ideology and new trends in philosophy and literature - all this was reflected in the work of Aristophanes. Comedy it, in addition to its artistic significance, is a valuable historical source reflecting the political and cultural life of Athens at the end of the fifth century. Aristophanes appears as an admirer of the state order of the times of the growth of Athenian democracy, an opponent of the oligarchy, Aristophanes’ comedy most often conveys the political sentiments of the Attic peasantry. Peacefully making fun of fans of antiquity, he turns the edge of his comedic talent against the leaders of the urban demos and representatives of new-fangled ideological movements.

Among the political comedies of Aristophanes, “The Riders” is notable for its acuteness, which is directed against the leader of the radical party Cleon. A number of Aristophanes' comedies are directed against the military party and are dedicated to praising peace. Thus, in the comedy “Akharnyan”, the peasant makes personal peace with neighboring communities and is blissful, while the boastful warrior suffers from the hardships of war. In the comedy Lysistrata, the women of the warring regions go on a “strike” and force the men to make peace.

Comedy "Frogs". Splits into two parts. The first depicts the journey of Dionysus to the kingdom of the dead. The god of tragic competitions, concerned about the emptiness on the tragic stage after the recent deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, goes to the underworld to bring out his favorite Euripides. This part of the comedy is filled with buffoonish scenes and spectacular effects. The cowardly Dionysus, who had stocked up on the lion skin of Hercules for the dangerous journey, and his slave find themselves in various comic situations, meeting with the figures with whom Greek folklore populated the kingdom of the dead. Dionysus, out of fear, changes roles with the slave and each time to his own detriment. The comedy got its name from the choir of frogs who sing their songs during the crossing of Dionysus to the underworld on Charon's shuttle. The choir parade is interesting to us because it represents a reproduction of cult songs in honor of Dionysus. The hymns and ridicule of the choir are preceded by an introductory speech by the leader - a prototype of a comedic parabass.

The problems of "Frogs" are concentrated in the second half of the comedy, in the agony of Aeschylus and Euripides. Euripides, who has recently arrived in the underworld, lays claim to the tragic throne, which until then undoubtedly belonged to Aeschylus, and Dionysus is invited as a competent person - the judge of the competition. Aeschylus turns out to be the winner, and Dionysus takes him with him to earth, contrary to the original plans. intention to take Euripides. Competition in "Frogs", partly parodying sophistical methods of evaluation literary work, is the oldest monument ancient literature criticism. The style of both rivals and their prologues are analyzed. The first part examines the main question of the tasks of poetic art, the tasks of tragedy. Euripides:

For truthful speeches, for good advice and for being smarter and better
They make citizens of their native land.

According to the precepts of Homer, in tragedies I created majestic heroes -
And Patroclus and Teucrov with a soul like a lion. I wanted to raise citizens to them,
So that they can stand on a par with the heroes when they hear the trumpets of battle.

The work of Aristophanes ends one of the most brilliant periods in the history of Greek culture. He provides a powerful, bold and truthful, often profound satire on the political and cultural state of Athens during a period of crisis of democracy and the coming decline of the polis. His comedy reflects the most diverse layers of society: statesmen and generals, poets and philosophers, peasants, city dwellers and slaves; caricatured typical masks take on the character of clear, generalizing images.

Literature of Ancient Rome. Literary heritage Cicero, Caesar, Publius Ovid Naso, Quintus Horace Flaccus (to choose from)

Literature of Ancient Rome. Periodization:

1. Preclassic period characterized first, as in Greece, by oral folk literature, as well as the beginning of writing. Until half of the 3rd century. BC this period is usually called Italic. Rome extended its power to all of Italy. From the middle of the 3rd century. BC written literature is developing.

Prepared by purely national works of literature and the sufficient development of writing, Roman literature, at the beginning of the 6th century in Rome, entered a completely new phase. The wars that Rome waged with Tarentum and other Greek cities of Southern Italy not only acquainted the mass of the Roman people with the high cultural development Hellenic life, but they also brought to Rome, as prisoners, many Greeks who had a literary education. One of them was Livius Andronicus from Tarentum, brought as a prisoner by M. Livius Salinator, from whom he received his Roman name. While teaching Greek and Latin in Rome, he translated Homer's Odyssey into Latin as a textbook and began writing plays for theatrical performances. He performed the first of these plays, translated or remade from Greek, in the second year after the end of the 1st Punic War, that is, in 514 from the founding of Rome (240 BC). This year, also noted by ancient writers, is considered the beginning of Roman literature in the strict sense of the word. The surviving minor fragments from the translation of the Odyssey and the dramatic works of Livy Andronicus show that he did not know enough Latin; judging by the reviews of him as a writer by Cicero and Livy, he was generally a bad writer. His “Odyssey” seemed to Cicero to be something antediluvian, opus aliquod Daedali, and the religious hymn he composed on the occasion of the favorable turn of the 2nd Punic War evokes in T. Livy the expression: abhorrens et inconditum carmen. However, it literary activity marked the beginning of a revolution, which, capturing more and more the spiritual activity of the Roman people, brought Roman literature to classical completeness and gave it worldwide significance.

2. Classical period Roman literature - the time of crisis and the end of the republic (from the 80s to the 30th year of the 1st century BC) and the era of the Principia of Augustus (until the 14th year of the 1st century AD). Comes to the fore satire, a completely Roman type of literature, subsequently brought to a wide and varied development. The ancestor of this satire, as a special literary type, was Gaius Lucilius (died 651 Rome, 103 BC).

At this time it had a very clear effect in comedy. Instead of the Greek imitative comedy of the previous century, the comedy of the cloak, is a comedy togas, with Latin names of the characters, with Roman costume, with Latin locations: all this was impossible in the previous century, under the strictness of aristocratic theatrical censorship. Representatives of this national comedy were Titinius, Atta and Afranius.

The movement towards national comedy went even further. The comedy of the toga, national in content, was still compiled in the form of Greek comedies. In the 2nd half of the 7th century they appeared on stage Atellans, a completely original comedy of characteristic masks, under which certain types were constantly presented (a fool, a glutton, an ambitious but narrow-minded old man, a learned charlatan), to which were added masks of monsters, which amused and frightened the audience in a ruder way than the masks of characteristic human types. It was a purely folk comedy, of Oscan origin in its name (Atella - the city of Campania).

The 7th century of Rome is also distinguished by extraordinary tension in the development of prose literature, namely in the field of history and eloquence of Cicero and Quintus. A particularly strong impetus was given to eloquence by the turbulent era of the struggle between democracy and oligarchy, begun by the Gracchi and lasting until the fall of the republic.

3. But already at the beginning of the 1st century AD. the features of the decline of the classical period are quite clearly outlined. This process continues until the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. This time can already be called the post-classical period of Roman literature. Here we should distinguish between the literature of the heyday of the empire (1st century) and the literature of the crisis, the fall of the empire (2-5 centuries AD). The same mythology is preserved as in Greece, but some of the names of the gods are changed (Juno, Venus).

The most prominent phenomenon in poetry silver age, camupa, having Persia and Juvenal as its representatives, also did not escape the pernicious influence of rhetorical schools, but, as a type of poetry that, being close to real life, did not need to resort to counterfeiting feelings, suffered much less from this influence. In view of the danger that threatened the writer for a bold word, satire was forced to scourge living people in the person of the dead and turn to the past, thinking about the present. She could not help but delve into abstract discussions about the heights of virtue and the baseness of vice and, feeling disgust for the latter, who triumphed amidst terrifying despotism and depravity, she could not help but deliberately exaggerate the colors and not use any artificial means of rhetoric in order to enhance the impression and thus somehow reward writer for constraint in the free expression of feelings. In satire, however, passionate indignation was caused by monstrous pictures of real life, and was not a pointless exercise in recitation, as in epic and tragedy; rhetorical means are here, therefore, like tools of literary art, more or less expedient. In any case, satire, with its proud and indignant verse, seems to be the most gratifying phenomenon in the poetic literature of the Silver Age, especially in view of the creeping poetry of epics and lyricists, who glorified in the most humiliating way not only Domitian, but also his rich and influential freedmen.

A particularly striking feature of the poetry of this period, so abundant in poets, is rhetorical color. This was due to both political circumstances and the new conditions of education in rhetoric schools. Constrained by political oppression in the freedom of movement, literary word begins to lose naturalness in expression and tries to replace the lack of serious content with a desire for a purely external effect, sophistication of turns, artificiality of pathos and the brilliance of witty maxims. These shortcomings were further aggravated by school education, which, in turn, was adapted to the requirements of the new time. Since great orators were not required, they began to prepare rhetoricians, training young people in recitation and at the same time choosing, in order to refine their talent, sometimes the most incredible and, in any case, pretentious or most alien to real life topics - about parricide, about doomed to prostitution priestess, etc.

Literary heritage of Cicero. In eloquence, two directions were known: Asian and Attic. The Asian style was distinguished by flowery language, aphorisms and metrical construction of the ends of the period and its parts. Atticism is characterized by a condensed, simple language.

Cicero (106-43 BC) developed a style that combined both Asian and Attic directions. His first speech that has come down to us, “In Defense of Quinctius,” about the return of illegally seized property to him, brought Cicero success. He achieved even greater success with his speech “In Defense of Roscius Amerinsky.” Defending Roscius, whom his relatives accused of murdering his own father, Cicero opposed the violence of the Sullan regime, Cicero achieved popularity among the people. In 66 he was elected praetor and gave a speech “On the appointment of Gnaeus Pompey as commander.” In this speech he defends the interests of money people and directs against the nobility. This speech ends Cicero's speeches against the Senate.

In 63 he became consul, began to speak out against the interests of the poor and democracy, and branded their leader Lucius Catiline with disgrace. Ketilina led a conspiracy whose goal was an armed uprising and the murder of Cicero. Cicero found out about this and in his 4 speeches against Catiline attributes all sorts of vices to him.

Marcus Tullius Cicero published more than a hundred speeches, political and judicial, of which 58 have survived completely or in significant fragments. 19 treatises on rhetoric, politics and philosophy have also reached us, from which many generations of lawyers studied oratory, studying, in particular, such techniques of Cicero , like lamentation. More than 800 letters from Cicero also survive, containing a wealth of biographical information and a wealth of valuable information about Roman society at the end of the republic.

His philosophical treatises, which do not contain new ideas, are valuable because they present, in detail and without distortion, the teachings of the leading philosophical schools of his time: the Stoics, Academicians and Epicureans.

Cicero's works had a strong influence on religious thinkers, in particular St. Augustine, representatives of the Renaissance and humanism (Petrarch, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Boccaccio), French educators (Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu) and many others.

Famous treatise “On the Orator”(a dialogue between two famous speakers, Licinius Crassus and Mark Antony, Crassus put his views into the mouth: the speaker must be a versatile person. It also concerns the structure and content of speech, its design, language, rhythm, periodicity.) was written after his return to Rome after exile, wrote treatises "Orator" (explains his opinion on the use of different styles depending on the content of speech and details the theory of rhythm, especially in the endings of members of the period) "Brutus" (talks about the history of Greek and Roman eloquence in order to show the superiority of Roman orators over Greek). In his speeches, he himself notes “an abundance of thoughts and words,” a desire to divert the attention of judges from unfavorable facts. He said that “the speaker should exaggerate the fact.” In theoretical works on eloquence, he summarized the principles that he followed in his practical activities.

Caesar's literary heritage. Politician and commander who laid the largest brick in the foundation of the Roman Empire.
An outstanding commander and statesman of Ancient Rome, Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 101 BC. and came from the patrician family of the Yulievs. Related to C. Marius and Cinna, during the reign of Sulla he was forced to leave Rome for Asia Minor. After Sulla's death in 78 BC. Julius Caesar returned to Rome and joined the political struggle, opposing Sulla's supporters. In 73, he was elected military tribune and, then going through all levels of public service, eventually became praetor in 62, and then for two years he was governor of the Roman province of Hispania Fara and displayed extraordinary administrative and military abilities in this post. To strengthen your political situation and to secure his election to the consulship of 59, Caesar entered into an alliance with the most influential political figures of the time, Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Crassus (the “first triumvirate”). After the end of his consulate, he achieved appointment as governor of Cisalpine and then of Narbonese Gaul with the right to recruit legions and wage war. During the war of 58-51, Caesar's troops conquered all of Gaul from Belgica to Aquitaine, the size of his army was increased to 10 legions, which was twice the number allowed to him by the Senate; the commander himself, although being in the province, continued to interfere in the political struggle in Rome. The death of Crassus in Parthia led to the collapse of the triumvirate, which was also facilitated by the aggravation of relations between Caesar and Pompey. This aggravation led to the outbreak of civil war in Rome: Pompey led the supporters of the Senate Republic, and Caesar led its opponents. Having defeated the Pompeian troops in several battles in 49-45, Caesar found himself at the head of the Roman state, and his power was expressed in traditional republican forms: he had the powers of a dictator (and from the age of 44 - for life), consular power (from the age of 47 - for five years). , and from 44 - for ten years), the permanent power of the tribune, etc. In 44, he received lifelong censorship, and all his orders were approved in advance by the Senate and the People's Assembly. Having concentrated all power in his hands, Caesar became practically a monarch, while at the same time maintaining the Roman republican forms of government. A conspiracy (more than 80 people) was organized against Caesar, led by G. Cassius and M. Yu. Brutus, and on the Ides of March, during a meeting of the Senate, he was killed.

Caesar's literary legacy compile "Notes on the Gallic War" and "Notes on civil wars ah", which are the most valuable military-historical and ethnographic sources. In addition, collections of Caesar’s speeches and letters, two pamphlets, a number of poetic works, and a treatise on grammar (unfortunately lost) are known. Until the 19th century, military leaders studied the art of war from Caesar, and A.V. Suvorov and Napoleon considered it obligatory for every officer to know the works of the ancient Roman commander.

The literary heritage of Publius Ovid Naso (March 20, 43 BC, Sulmo - 17 or 18 AD, Tomis). An ancient Roman poet who worked in many genres, but was most famous for his love elegies and two poems - “Metamorphoses” and “The Art of Love”. Due to the discrepancy between the ideals of love he promoted and the official policy of Emperor Augustus regarding family and marriage, he was exiled from Rome to the western Black Sea region, where he spent the last ten years of his life.

Ovid's first literary experiments, with the exception of those which he, in his own words, set on fire “for correction,” were "Heroids"(Heroides) and love elegies. The brightness of Ovid's poetic talent is also expressed in the "Heroids", but he attracted the greatest attention of Roman society to himself with love elegies, published under the title "Amores", first in five books, but subsequently, after excluding many works by the poet himself, who compiled the three books that have come down to us from 49 poems. These love elegies, the content of which, to one degree or another, may be based on love adventures experienced by the poet personally, are associated with the fictitious name of his girlfriend, Corinna, which thundered throughout

The reference to the shores of the Black Sea gave rise to a whole series of works caused exclusively by the new position of the poet. The immediate result was his "Sorrowful Elegies" or just "Sorrow"(Tristia), which he began to write while on the road and continued to write at the place of exile for three years, depicting his sad situation, complaining about fate and trying to persuade Augustus to pardon. These elegies, which fully correspond to their title, were published in five books and are addressed mainly to his wife, some to his daughter and friends, and one of them, the largest, which makes up the second book, to Augustus. This elegy cites a whole series of Greek and Roman poets, on whom the voluptuous content of their poems did not incur any punishment; It also points to Roman mimic performances, the extreme obscenity of which really served as a school of debauchery for the entire mass of the population.

The Mournful Elegies were followed by the Pontic Letters (Ex Ponto), in four books. The content of these letters addressed to Albinovan and other persons is essentially the same as the elegies, with the only difference being that, compared with the latter, the “Letters” reveal a noticeable decline in the poet’s talent.

"Metamorphoses" ("Transformations"), a huge poetic work in 15 books, containing a presentation of myths related to transformations, Greek and Roman, starting from the chaotic state of the universe until the transformation of Julius Caesar into a star. “Metamorphoses” is Ovid’s most important work, in which the rich content, delivered to the poet mainly by Greek myths, is processed with such power of inexhaustible imagination, with such freshness of colors, with such ease of transition from one subject to another, not to mention the brilliance of verse and poetic turns, which cannot but be recognized in all this work as a true triumph of talent, causing amazement.

Another serious and also large not only in volume, but also in significance, work of Ovid is represented by “Fasti” - a calendar containing an explanation of the holidays or holy days of Rome. This learned poem, which provides a lot of data and explanations related to the Roman cult and therefore serves as an important source for the study of Roman religion, has reached us in only 6 books, covering the first half of the year. These are the books that Ovid managed to write and process in Rome. He could not continue this work in exile due to a lack of sources, although there is no doubt that he subjected what was written in Rome to some alteration in the Volumes: this is clearly indicated by the inclusion there of facts that occurred after the poet’s exile and even after the death of Augustus, such as for example. the triumph of Germanicus, dating back to 16. In poetic and literary terms, the Fasti are far inferior to the Metamorphoses, which is easily explained by the dryness of the plot, from which only Ovid could make poetic work; in the verse one can feel the hand of a master, familiar to us from other works of the gifted poet.

The literary heritage of Quintus Horace Flaccus. Quintus Horace Flaccus(December 8, 65 BC, Venusia - November 27, 8 BC, Rome) - ancient Roman poet of the “golden age” of Roman literature. His work dates back to the era of civil wars at the end of the Republic and the first decades of the new regime of Octavian Augustus.

Horace's poetic path began precisely with the publication of "Satires", the first book of which was published between 35 and 33 years, and the second - in the 30th year.

Satires Horace sought to impart a more integral character than that of his predecessors, not only in poetic meter, forever assigning them the dactylic hexameter, but also in content.
The most significant innovation introduced by Horace into his satires is that their author, studying and showing real life and people, uses mockery and benevolent jokes in every possible way. His artistic principle, stated in the initial satire, is “laughing to tell the truth,” that is, through laughter to lead to knowledge. To make his reader more receptive to criticism, Horace often conceives of satire as a friendly dialogue between the reader and himself. This one is tormented by stinginess, that one is tormented by ambition.

Horace calls his satires “Conversations” and subsequently defines them as “conversations in the style of Bion.” Indeed, some of the satires of the first book (1,2,3) are structured as discussions on moral and philosophical topics - about dissatisfaction with fate and greed, about treating friends, etc.
Some poems even have the character of mimic scenes in narrative form; such, for example, is a lively and dynamic meeting with a chatterbox, a weasel who wants to ingratiate himself into the environment of the Patron.

First epodes were created at a time when twenty-three-year-old Horace had just returned to Rome after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. e.; they “breathe the heat of the civil war that has not yet cooled down.” Others were created shortly before publication, at the end of the war between Octavian and Antony, on the eve of the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. e. and immediately after it. The collection also contains “youthfully ardent lines” addressed to the poet’s enemies and “elderly beauties” seeking “young love.”

Already in the Epodes the wide metric horizon of Horace is visible; but so far, unlike the lyrical odes, the meters of the epods are not logaedic, and go back not to the refined Aeolians Sappho and Alcaeus, but to the “straightforward” hot Archilochus. The first ten epodes are written in pure iambic; in Epodes XI to XVI, multipartite meters are combined - tripartite dactylic (hexameter) and bipartite iambic (iambic meter); Epode XVII consists of pure iambic trimeters.

Epodes XI, XIII, XIV, XV form a special group: there is no politics, no causticity, ridicule, or evil sarcasm characteristic of iambiography. They are distinguished by a special mood - Horace is clearly trying his hand at “pure lyricism”, and the epics are no longer written in pure iambic, but in quasi-logaedic verse. In the “love” Epodes XIV and XV, Horace already departs far from the lyrics of Archilochus. In terms of ardor and passion, Archilochus is closer to the lyrics of Catullus, the range of experiences and doubts of which is more complex and much more “disheveled” than that of Horace. Horace’s lyrics reveal a different feeling (one might say, more Roman) - restrained, non-superficial, felt equally “with the mind and the heart” - consistent with the polished, dispassionately elegant image of his poetry as a whole.

The short “Epodes,” strong and sonorous, full of fire and youthful ardor, contain a clear vision of the world, accessible to a true genius. We find here an extraordinary palette of images, thoughts and feelings, cast in a minted form, which was generally fresh and unusual for Latin poetry. The epics still lack that crystal clear sound, unique laconicism and thoughtful depth that will distinguish the best odes of Horace. But already with this small book of poems, Horace introduced himself as a “star of the first magnitude” in the literary firmament of Rome.

Odes distinguished by a high style, which is absent in the epics and which he refuses in the satires. Reproducing the metrical structure and general stylistic tone of the Aeolian lyric, Horace in all other respects follows his own path. As in the epics, he uses the artistic experience of different periods and often echoes Hellenistic poetry. The ancient Greek form serves as vestment for the Hellenistic-Roman content.

A special place is occupied by the so-called. “Roman Odes” (III, 1-6), in which Horace’s attitude to the ideological program of Augustus is most fully expressed. The odes are connected by a common theme and a single poetic meter (Horace's favorite Alcaeus stanza). The program of the “Roman Odes” is as follows: the sins of the fathers, committed by them during civil wars and like a curse weighing on their children, will be redeemed only by the return of the Romans to the ancient simplicity of morals and ancient veneration of the gods. The Roman Odes reflect the state of Roman society, which had entered the decisive stage of Hellenization, which gave the culture of the Empire a clear Greco-Roman character.

In general, the odes carry out the same morality of moderation and quietism. In the famous 30 Ode of the third book, Horace promises himself immortality as a poet; The ode gave rise to numerous imitations, of which the most famous are those of Derzhavin and Pushkin).

In form, content, artistic techniques and variety of topics "Messages" become closer to the “Satires”, with which Horace’s poetic career begins. Horace himself points out the connection between the epistles and satyrs, calling them, as before “Satires,” “conversations” (“sermones”); in them, as before in satires, Horace uses dactylic hexameter. Commentators of all periods consider the Epistles a significant advance in the art of depicting the inner life of man; Horace himself did not even classify them as poetry proper.

A special place is occupied by the famous “Epistle to the Pisons” (“Epistola ad Pisones”), later called “Ars poëtica”. Message belongs to the type of “normative” poetics containing “dogmatic prescriptions” from the standpoint of a certain literary movement. The message sounds a warning to Augustus, who intended to revive the ancient theater as an art of the masses and use it for political propaganda purposes. Horace believes that the princeps should not cater to the coarse tastes and whims of the uneducated public.

In the 17th century, the “centennial games”, a celebration of the “renewal of the century”, which was supposed to mark the end of the period of civil wars and the beginning of a new era of prosperity for Rome, were celebrated with unprecedented solemnity. It was supposed to be a complex, carefully designed ceremony, which, according to the official announcement, “no one has ever seen and will never see again” and in which the noblest people of Rome were supposed to take part. It was ending anthem, summing up the whole celebration. The hymn was entrusted to Horace. For the poet, this was state recognition of the leading position he occupied in Roman literature. Horace accepted the assignment and resolved this issue by turning the formulas of cult poetry into the glory of living nature and a manifesto of Roman patriotism. The solemn “Anniversary Hymn” was performed in the Temple of Apollo Palatine by a choir of 27 boys and 27 girls on June 3, 17 BC. e.

7. “Golden Age” of Roman literature. Publius Veriglius Maro, artistic features his "Aeneids"

Golden Age of Roman Literature- the era of Augustus; in the history of literature, it is customary to call this not the reign of the first Roman emperor (31 BC - 14 AD), but the period from the death of Cicero (43 BC) to the death of Ovid ( 17 or 18 AD). The main experience of Virgil, Horace and other writers of this generation was the horrors of civil wars, after which the restoration of peace under Augustus seemed a real miracle. The republic was also restored, but only as a cover for the sole rule of the emperor. It was poetry that was best able to tell both about the miraculous salvation of the Romans and about the unofficial autocracy established in the country.

In the era of Augustus, Roman literature transformed into an integral system, deliberately built by analogy with Greek. Titus Livia and Horace create what was to become and became a classic of Roman historiography and lyric poetry. The recently deceased Cicero is recognized as a classic of oratory. Roman literature finally acquires - while maintaining all connections with classical and modern Greek literature - independence. The era of Augustus serves as a reference point for the next generations of Roman writers - the “Augustus” classics are imitated, parodied, repelled from, and returned to earlier authors over their heads. After the victory of Christianity (from 313 this religion was officially allowed in Rome, and from 380 it was recognized as the only state religion) and the death of the empire, Roman literature became the main guardian of all ancient culture in Europe. Latin was the common language of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Classical texts written in Latin (primarily Virgil) formed the basis of school education.

Publius Veriglius Maro one of the most significant ancient Roman poets. Created a new type of epic poem. Legend has it that a poplar branch, traditionally planted in honor of a newborn child, grew rapidly and soon became as big as the other poplars; this promised the baby special luck and happiness; subsequently the “tree of Virgil” was revered as sacred.

"Aeneid"- Virgil's unfinished patriotic epic, consists of 12 books written between 29-19. After Virgil's death, the Aeneid was published by his friends Varius and Plotius without any changes, but with some abbreviations. In all likelihood, the Aeneid was designed, like the Iliad, for 24 songs; The 12th ends only with the victory over Turnus, while the poet wanted to talk about the hero’s very settlement in Latium and his death.

Virgil took up this subject at the request of Augustus in order to arouse national pride in the Romans with tales of the great destinies of their ancestors and, on the other hand, to protect the dynastic interests of Augustus, supposedly a descendant of Aeneas through his son Julius, or Ascanius. Virgil in the Aeneid closely aligns himself with Homer; in the Iliad, Aeneas is the hero of the future. The poem begins with the last part of Aeneas’s wanderings, his stay in Carthage, and then episodically tells the previous events, the destruction of Ilion (II paragraph), Aeneas’s wanderings after that (III paragraph), arrival in Carthage (I and IV paragraphs), travel through Sicily (V p.) to Italy (VI p.), where a new series of adventures of a romantic and warlike nature begins. The very execution of the plot suffers from a common shortcoming of Virgil's works - the lack of original creativity and strong characters. The hero, “pious Aeneas” (pius Aeneas), is especially unsuccessful, deprived of any initiative, controlled by fate and the decisions of the gods, who patronize him as the founder of a noble family and the executor of the divine mission - transferring Lar to a new homeland. In addition, the Aeneid bears the imprint of artificiality; in contrast to the Homeric epic, which emerged from the people, the Aeneid was created in the mind of the poet, without connections with folk life and beliefs; Greek elements are confused with Italic ones, mythical tales with history, and the reader constantly feels that the mythical world serves only as a poetic expression national idea. But Virgil used all the power of his verse to decorate psychological and purely poetic episodes, which constitute the immortal glory of the epic. Virgil is inimitable in his descriptions of tender shades of feelings. One has only to remember the pathetic, despite its simplicity, description of the friendship of Nisus and Erial, the love and suffering of Dido, the meeting of Aeneas with Dido in hell, in order to forgive the poet for his unsuccessful attempt to exalt the glory of Augustus at the expense of ancient legends. Of the 12 songs of the Aeneid, the sixth, which describes Aeneas’s descent into hell to see his father (Anchises), is considered the most remarkable philosophical depth and patriotic feeling. In it, the poet expounds the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the “soul of the universe” and remembers all the great people of Rome. The external structure of this song is taken from paragraph XI of the Odyssey. In other songs, borrowings from Homer are also quite numerous.

In the construction of the Aeneid, the desire to create a Roman parallel to the poems of Homer is emphasized. Virgil found most of the motifs of the Aeneid in previous adaptations of the legend about Aeneas, but their choice and arrangement belong to Virgil himself and are subordinated to his poetic task. Not only in general construction, but also in a whole series of plot details and in stylistic treatment (comparisons, metaphors, epithets, etc.) Virgil’s desire to “compete” with Homer is revealed.

The more profound differences become clearer. “Epic calm”, loving drawing out of details are alien to Virgil. The Aeneid presents a chain of narratives, full of dramatic movement, strictly concentrated, pathetically intense; the links of this chain are connected by skillful transitions and a common sense of purpose that creates the unity of the poem.

Its driving force is the will of fate, which leads Aeneas to the founding of a new kingdom in the Latin land, and the descendants of Aeneas to power over the world. The Aeneid is full of oracles, prophetic dreams, miracles and signs, guiding every action of Aeneas and foreshadowing the future greatness of the Roman people and the exploits of its leaders right up to Augustus himself.

Virgil avoids crowd scenes, usually highlighting several figures whose emotional experiences create dramatic movement. The drama is enhanced by stylistic treatment: Virgil is able to give the erased formulas of everyday speech greater expressiveness and emotional coloring through his masterful selection and arrangement of words.

In his depiction of gods and heroes, Virgil carefully avoids the rude and comic, which so often occurs in Homer, and strives for “noble” affects. In the clear division of the whole into parts and in the dramatization of parts, Virgil finds the middle path he needs between Homer and the “neoterics” and creates a new technique of epic storytelling, which for centuries served as a model for subsequent poets.

True, Virgil’s heroes are autonomous, they live outside the environment and are puppets in the hands of fate, but this was the life perception of the dispersed society of the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire. Main character Virgil, the “pious” Aeneas, with his peculiar passivity in voluntary submission to fate, embodies the ideal of stoicism, which has become almost an official ideology. And the poet himself acts as a preacher of Stoic ideas: the picture of the underworld in Canto 6, with the torment of sinners and the bliss of the righteous, is drawn in accordance with the ideas of the Stoics. The Aeneid was only finished in rough form. But even in this “draft” form, the Aeneid is distinguished by the high perfection of its verse, deepening the reform begun in the Bucolics.

The main directions and genres of literature of the European Middle Ages. Folk epic literature of the early Middle Ages. Poetry of the Vagants

Medieval literature- period in history European literature, which begins in late antiquity (IV-V centuries), and ends in the 15th century. The earliest works that had the greatest influence on subsequent medieval literature were the Christian Gospels (1st century), the religious hymns of Ambrose of Milan (340-397), the works of Augustine the Blessed (“Confession”, 400; “On the City of God”, 410-428). ), translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome (before 410) and other works of the Latin Church Fathers and early scholastic philosophers.

The origin and development of literature of the Middle Ages is determined by three main factors: traditions folk art, the cultural influence of the ancient world and Christianity.

Medieval art reached its culmination in the XII-XIII centuries. At this time, his most important achievements were Gothic architecture (Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris), chivalric literature, heroic epic. The extinction of medieval culture and its transition to a qualitatively new stage - the Renaissance (Renaissance) - took place in Italy in the 14th century, in other countries of Western Europe - in the 15th century. This transition was carried out through the so-called literature of the medieval city, which in aesthetic terms has a completely medieval character and experienced its heyday in the XIV-XV and XVI centuries.

Genres of literature. The emergence of written prose marked a profound shift in tradition. This shift can be considered the boundary between the archaic era and the New Time.

Until the end of the 12th century, only legal documents were written in prose in vernacular languages. All “fiction” literature is poetic, which is associated with performance to music. Starting from the middle of the 12th century, the octosyllabic, assigned to narrative genres, gradually became autonomous from the melody and began to be perceived as a poetic convention. Baudouin VIII orders the chronicle of the pseudo-Turpin to be translated into prose for him, and the first works written or dictated in prose are the chronicles and “Memoirs” of Villehardouin and Robert de Clary. The novel immediately seized on the prose.

However, verse has by no means faded into the background in all genres. Throughout the XIII-XIV centuries, prose remained a relatively marginal phenomenon. In the 14th-15th centuries, a mixture of poetry and prose is often found - from Machaut’s “True Story” to Jean Marot’s “Textbook of Princesses and Noble Ladies.”

In the lyrics of Walter von der Vogelweide and Dante Alighieri, the greatest lyric poets of the Middle Ages, we find a fully formed new poetry. The vocabulary has been completely updated. Thought was enriched with abstract concepts. Poetic comparisons refer us not to the everyday, as in Homer, but to the meaning of the infinite, ideal, “romantic.” Although the abstract does not absorb the real, and in the knightly epic the element of low reality is revealed quite expressively (Tristan and Isolde), a new technique is discovered: reality finds its hidden content.

Folk epic literature of the early Middle Ages. Medieval civilization in the first centuries of its existence largely belonged to the repeatedly described type of culture with an oral dominant. Even when in the 12th and especially in the 13th centuries this feature began to gradually disappear, poetic forms still bore its imprint. The text was addressed to a public brought up on fine arts and rituals - in glance and gesture; the voice created a third dimension of this space in a practically illiterate society. The method of circulation of a poetic product presupposed the presence of two factors in it: on the one hand, sound (singing or simply voice modulations), and on the other, gesture and facial expressions.

The epic was sung or recited; lyrical inserts found in a number of novels were intended for singing; Music played some role in the theater.

The separation of poetry from music was completed by the end of the 14th century, and in 1392 this gap was recorded by Eustache Deschamps in his Art de dictier(“Poetic art” - dictier here refers to the rhetorical operation, from lat. dictari): he distinguishes between the “natural” music of poetic language and the “artificial” music of instruments and singing.

Folk epic literature embodied mythological ideas and the concept of the historical past, ethical ideals and collectivist (mainly tribal) pathos. Moreover, in the earliest, archaic monuments, the mythological worldview dominates and is only gradually replaced by historical ideas (and images). Folk epic literature, which arose during the period of decomposition of the primitive communal system, reflected the formation of class society among young peoples who had just appeared on the European stage. There was a transition from ancient heroic tales, from legends about heroic ancestors to heroic legends about tribal clashes and then to epic tales with a broad historical background and a complex set of social ideas, which reflected the diverse processes of ethnic (and then political) consolidation. During Early Middle Ages this transformation of epic traditions was only just beginning; it was fully realized only during the High Middle Ages, i.e. not earlier than the 11th century.

The origins of folk epic tales of the young peoples of Europe go back to the prehistoric phase of their evolution. Along with their adoption of Christianity, contacts emerged between folk oral literature and written Latin literature. Gradually, the latter begins to include individual motifs and images of folklore, significantly enriching it. Thus, among the monuments of Latin literature, works colored by national characteristics begin to appear.

If at the dawn of the Middle Ages artistic literature was represented only by Latin literature and the emerging folk heroic epic, then from the 8th century written monuments began to appear in new languages. Initially, these monuments were of a specifically applied nature. These were grammatical reference books and dictionaries, all kinds of legal and diplomatic documents. The latter include, for example, the so-called “Strasbourg Oaths” - one of the first monuments of French and German languages(842). This was an agreement between Charles the Bald and Louis the German, with the French king swearing the oath in German, and the German king in French.

Poetry of the Vagants.Vagantas(from lat. clerici vagantes- wandering clerics) - “wandering people” in the Middle Ages (XI-XIV centuries) in Western Europe, capable of writing and performing songs or, less commonly, prose works.

In the wide use of the word, the concept of vagants will include such socially heterogeneous and undefined groups as French jugglers (jongleur, jogleor - from the Latin joculator - “joker”), German spielmans (Spielman), English minstrels (minstral - from the Latin ministerialis - “servant” ) etc.

Vagants use in their satire elements of religious literature - they parody its basic forms (vision, hymn, sequence, etc.), going so far as to parody the liturgy and the Gospel.

Poetry vagants has reached us in several handwritten collections
XII - XIII centuries. - Latin and German; the main one containing more
two hundred songs and poems of various nature - moral teaching
esky, satirical, love - “Carmina Burana” (Beiren songs
from the Latinized name of the monastery Benedict Beiren, where it was first
This manuscript was found in the 13th century). Most of the poems in this
collection, as well as the texts of other manuscripts of Cambridge, Oxford
skaya, Watpkapskaya and others, named after their location in those
or other libraries, belongs to unknown poets.

The creativity of vagants is anonymous. Among the famous names: Gautier from Lille - aka Walter of Chatillon (second half of the 12th century), who wrote “Contra ecclesiasticos juxta visionem apocalypsis”; Primate of Orleans (early 12th century); a German vagant, known by his nickname “Archipoeta” (second half of the 12th century) and some others.

The first great Greek playwright was Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BC). A participant in the battle between the Greeks and the Persians at Marathon, he showed the tragic defeat of the Greeks in this war in the drama “Perstus”.

Aeschylus performed for the first time at the competition of tragic poets in 500 BC. e., won his first victory in 484 BC. e. Subsequently, he took 1st place 12 more times, and after the death of Aeschylus (in Sicily), it was allowed to resume his tragedies as new dramas. By introducing a second actor and reducing the role of the chorus, Aeschylus turned the tragedy-cantata, as Phrynichus had it, into a tragedy - a dramatic action, which was based on a vital clash of personalities and their worldview. The introduction of Aeschylus into the Oresteia, following the example of Sophocles, contributed to an even greater deepening of the conflict. In total, Aeschylus wrote over 80 works (tragedies and satyr dramas), most of them combined into coherent tetralogies. 7 tragedies and a significant number of fragments have reached us in their entirety. The tragedies "Persians" (472 BC), "Seven Against Thebes" (467 BC) and the Oresteia trilogy (458 BC), consisting of the tragedies "Agamemnon", are reliably dated ", "Choephori" ("Mourners", "Victim at the Tomb") and "Eumenides". Tragedy. “The Suppliants” (“Suppliants”) were usually attributed to the early period of Aeschylus’s work.

After the discovery in 1952 of a papyrus fragment of the didascalium to the trilogy “Danaids” (which included “The Praying Ones”), most researchers tend to date it to 463 BC. e., however, the artistic features of “The Prayers” are more consistent with our understanding of the work of Aeschylus in the middle. 70s, and didascalia could refer to a posthumous production. There is also no unanimity in determining the date of “Prometheus Bound”; Its stylistic features speak rather in favor of a later dating.

In his dramas, Aeschylus develops the theme of man's responsibility before the gods. Whether a person violates the plans and will of the gods, or whether pride prevents him from humbling himself before them, in any case inevitable retribution awaits him. The immortal gods do not forgive man's freedom-loving impulses. You just need to resign yourself to fate. And the man accepted the inevitable verdict of fate. This was not a call for submission and passivity. It was a call to courageously realize one's inevitable destiny. The dramas and tragedies of Aeschylus are imbued with heroism, and not at all with humility. In Prometheus, the playwright showed a daring rebellion against God: Prometheus stole fire from the gods to bring it to mortal people; Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock, where an eagle pecked at his liver every day. But neither Zeus nor the eagle can defeat the resistance of Prometheus: after all, people mastered fire in their earthly life. The Oresteia occupies a special place in the work of Aeschylus. This is a trilogy about revenge and redemption: the Homeric hero Agamemnon is killed by his wife and her lover; son and daughter take revenge on the murderers. Crime must be punished; murderers cannot escape their inevitable fate.

Sophocles (496 - 406 BC) - ancient Greek playwright, author of tragedies. He came from the family of a wealthy owner of a weapons workshop in the Athens suburb of Kolone. Received an excellent general and artistic education. He was close to Pericles and people from his circle, including Herodotus and Phidias. He was elected to important positions - keeper of the treasury of the Athenian Maritime League (c. 444 BC), one of the strategists (442). Sophocles did not have any special talent for government, but due to his honesty and decency, he enjoyed deep respect from his compatriots all his life. Sophocles first took part in the competition of tragic poets in 470 BC. e.; wrote over 120 dramas, that is, he performed with his tetralogies more than 30 times, winning a total of 24 victories and never falling below 2nd place. 7 tragedies have reached us in their entirety, about half of the satyr drama “The Pathfinders” and a significant number of fragments, including papyrus ones.

The surviving tragedies are arranged roughly in chronological order: “Ajax” (mid 450s), “Antigone” (442 BC), “The Trachinian Women” (2nd half of the 30s), “Rex Oedipus” (429 -- 425 BC), "Electra" (420 -- 410 BC), "Philoctetes" (409 BC), "Oedipus in Colone" (posthumously in 401 BC).

Sophocles poses eternal problems in his tragedies: the attitude towards religion (“Electra”), the free will of man and the will of the gods (“Oedipus the King”), the interests of the individual and the state (“Philoctetes”). If for Aeschylus the spring of action was the clash of divine forces that determine human destiny Sophocles looks for it inside a person - in the motives of his actions, in the movement of the human spirit. He pays special attention to the psychological development of his characters' characters. Sophocles does not question the divine institution and its significance for man. He, like Aeschylus, emphasizes that everything happens to the will of Zeus, or fate. But human participation in the implementation of the will is more actively expressed here. A person himself looks for ways to fulfill it. In the tragedies of Euripides (c. 480-406 BC), a critical view of mythology as the basis of Greek religion appears. They are full of philippines against the gods, and the gods are assigned for the most part an unseemly role: they are heartless, vengeful, envious, deceitful, they steal, commit perjuries, they allow the suffering and death of the innocent. Euripides is not interested in the structure of the universe, but in the fate of man, his moral path. Among the works of Euripides, the famous tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the playwright’s interest in the human personality with all its contradictions and passions (“Medea”, “Electra”), especially stand out.

Euripides (c. 484 - 406 BC) - Ancient Greek playwright. Born and often lived on the island of Salamis. He first performed at the Athenian theater in 455 BC. e., won his first victory in the competition of tragic poets in 441 BC. e.. Later he did not enjoy the recognition of his contemporaries: during his lifetime he won 1st place only 4 times, the last, 5th victory was awarded to him posthumously. After 408, Euripides moved to Macedonia, to the court of King Archelaus, where he died.

Euripides wrote 92 dramas; 17 tragedies have reached us, the satyr drama “Cyclops” and many fragments, including papyrus ones, indicating the enormous popularity of Euripides in the Hellenistic era. 8 tragedies of Euripides can be dated quite reliably: “Alcestis” (438 BC), “Medea” (431 BC), “Hippolytus” (428 BC), Trojan Women "(415 BC), "Helen" (412 BC), "Orestes" (408 BC), "The Bacchae" and "Iphigenia at Aulis", delivered in 405 BC. e. posthumously. The rest are based on indirect evidence (historical hints, features of style and verse): “Heraclides” (430 BC), “Andromache” (425 - 423 BC), “Hecuba” . (424 BC), “Petitioners” (422 – 420 BC), “Hercules” (around 420 BC), “Iphigenia in Tauris” "(414 BC), "Electra" (413 BC, Phoenicians" (411 - 409 BC).

In the tragedies of Euripides, a critical view of mythology as the basis of Greek religion appears. They are full of philippines against the gods, and the gods are assigned for the most part an unseemly role: they are heartless, vengeful, envious, deceitful, they steal, commit perjuries, they allow the suffering and death of the innocent. Euripides is not interested in the structure of the universe, but in the fate of man, his moral path. Among the works of Euripides, the famous tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the playwright’s interest in the human personality with all its contradictions and passions (“Medea”, “Electra”), especially stand out.

The origin of the tragedy.

Aristotle "Poetics":

“Having originally emerged from improvisations... from the initiators of ditherambs, the tragedy grew little by little... and, having undergone many changes, stopped, having reached what lay in its nature. The speech, from being humorous, became serious late, because... tragedy arose from the performances of satyrs.”

The dithyramb is a choral song from the cult of Dionysus.

Then the soloist is highlighted. Thespis is considered the first tragic poet, whose soloist not only sang, but also spoke, and put on various masks and dresses.

Dialogue between choir and soloist.

Initially (at Arion) the choir members were dressed as satyrs, wearing goat skins, horns, and special shoes. - the song of the goat is a tragedy.

Sophocles(c. 496–406 BC)

"Oedipus the King", "Antigone". The theme of fate and tragic irony in Sophocles: the problem of the impossibility of foresight, unfortunate delusion. Sophocles as a master of peripeteia. The catastrophe associated with the acquisition of true knowledge. "Pessimism" by Sophocles. Oedipus's duel with fate. The motive of the powerlessness of the human mind. The collision of two equal impulses in Antigone. Internal conflict human soul. Theme of madness.

"Antigone"(about 442). The plot of “Antigone” belongs to the Theban cycle and is a direct continuation of the legend about the war of the “Seven against Thebes” and the duel between Eteocles and Polyneices (cf. p. 70). After the death of both brothers, the new ruler of Thebes, Creon, buried Eteocles with due honors, and forbade the body of Polyneices, who went to war against Thebes, to be buried, threatening the disobedient with death. The sister of the victims, Antigone, violated the ban and buried the politician. Sophocles developed this plot from the angle of the conflict between human laws and the “unwritten laws” of religion and morality. The question was relevant: defenders of polis traditions considered “unwritten laws” to be “divinely established” and inviolable, in contrast to the changeable laws of people. Conservative in religious matters, Athenian democracy also demanded respect for “unwritten laws.” “We especially listen to all those laws,” says the speech of Pericles in Thucydides (p. 100), “which exist for the benefit of the offended and which, being unwritten, entail generally recognized shame for breaking them.”

In the prologue of the tragedy, Antigone informs her sister Ismene about Creon’s ban and her intention to bury her brother, despite the ban. Sophocles' dramas are usually structured in such a way that the hero, already in the first scenes, makes a firm decision, with a plan of action that determines the entire further course of the play. Prologues serve this expositional purpose; The prologue to Antigone also contains another feature that is very common in Sophocles - the opposition of harsh and soft characters: the adamant Antigone is contrasted with the timid Ismene, who sympathizes with her sister, but does not dare to act with her. Antigone puts her plan into action; she covers Polynices' body with a thin layer of earth, that is, she performs a symbolic burial, which, according to Greek ideas, was sufficient to calm the soul of the deceased. As soon as Creon had time to outline the program of his rule to the choir of Theban elders, he learned that his order had been violated. Creon sees this as the machinations of citizens dissatisfied with his power, but in the next scene Antigone is brought in, captured upon her second appearance at the corpse of Polyneices. Antigone confidently defends the correctness of her action, citing blood debt and the inviolability of divine laws. Antigone's active heroism, her straightforwardness and love of truth are shaded by the passive heroism of Ismene; Ismene is ready to admit that she is an accomplice to the crime and share her sister’s fate. In vain, Haemon, Creon's son and Antigone's fiancé, points out to his father that the moral sympathy of the Theban people is on Antigone's side. Creon condemns her to death in a stone crypt. IN last time Antigone passes in front of the viewer as the guards lead her to the place of execution; she performs the funeral lament on her own, but remains convinced that she has acted piously. This is the highest point in the development of the tragedy, then a turning point occurs. The blind soothsayer Tiresias tells Creon that the gods are angry with his behavior and predicts terrible disasters for him. Creon's resistance is broken, he goes to bury Polyneices and then free Antigone. However, it's too late. From the messenger’s message to the choir and Creon’s wife Eurydice, we learn that Antigone hanged herself in the crypt, and Haemon, in front of his father’s eyes, pierced himself with a sword near the body of his bride. And when Creon, overwhelmed by grief, returns with the labor of Haemon, he receives news of a new misfortune: Eurydice took her own life, cursing her husband as a child killer. The chorus concludes the tragedy with a brief maxim that the gods do not leave wickedness unavenged. Divine justice thus triumphs, but it triumphs in the natural course of the drama, without any direct participation of divine forces. The heroes of Antigone are people with a pronounced individuality, and their behavior is entirely determined by their personal qualities. It would be very easy to present the death of Oedipus’s daughter as the fulfillment of a family curse, but Sophocles mentions this traditional motive only in passing. In Sophocles, the driving forces of tragedy are human characters. However, motives of a subjective nature, for example, Haemon’s love for Antigone, occupy a secondary place; Sophocles characterizes the main characters by showing their behavior in the conflict over the essential issue of polis ethics. Antigone and Ismene's attitude towards their sister's duty, and the way Creon understands and carries out his duties as a ruler, reveals the individual character of each of these figures.

Particularly interesting is the first stasim, which glorifies the power and ingenuity of the human mind in conquering nature and organizing social life. The chorus ends with a warning: the power of reason attracts a person to both good and evil; therefore, traditional ethics should be followed. This song of the choir, extremely characteristic of Sophocles’ entire worldview, represents, as it were, the author’s commentary on the tragedy, explaining the poet’s position on the issue of the clash of “divine” and human law.

How is the conflict between Antigone and Creon resolved? There is an opinion that Sophocles shows the fallacy of the position of both opponents, that each of them defends a just cause, but defends it one-sidedly. From this point of view, Creon is wrong, issuing a decree in the interests of the state that contradicts the “unwritten” law, but Antigone is wrong, arbitrarily violating the state law in favor of the “unwritten” law. The death of Antigone and the unfortunate fate of Creon are the consequences of their one-sided behavior. This is how Hegel understood Antigone. According to another interpretation of the tragedy, Sophocles is entirely on the side of Antigone; the heroine consciously chooses the path that leads her to death, and the poet approves of this choice, showing how Antigone's death becomes her victory and entails the defeat of Creon. This latter interpretation is more consistent with the worldview of Sophocles.

Depicting the greatness of man, the wealth of his mental and moral powers, Sophocles at the same time depicts his powerlessness, the limitations of human capabilities. This problem was developed most clearly in the tragedy "Oedipus the King", which at all times was recognized, along with "Antigone", as a masterpiece dramatic skill Sophocles. Myth about Oedipus at one time already served as material for the Theban trilogy of Aeschylus (p. 119), built on the “ancestral curse.” Sophocles, as usual, abandoned the idea of ​​hereditary guilt; his interest is focused on the personal fate of Oedipus.

In the version that the myth received from Sophocles, the Theban king Laius, frightened by the prediction that promised him death at the hands of his “son,” ordered the legs of his newborn son to be pierced and thrown on Mount Cithaeron. The boy was adopted by the Corinthian king Polybus and named Oedipus.* Oedipus knew nothing about his origins, but when a drunken Corinthian called him the imaginary son of Polybus, he turned to the Delphic oracle for clarification. The oracle did not give a direct answer, but said that Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. In order not to be able to commit these crimes, Oedipus decided not to return to Corinth and headed to Thebes. On the way, he had a quarrel with an unknown old man he met, whom he killed; this old man was Lai. Then Oedipus freed Thebes from the winged monster Sphinx that oppressed them and, as a reward, received from the citizens the Theban throne, free after the death of Laius, married Laius's widow Jocasta, i.e., his own mother, had children from her and for many years calmly ruled Thebes . Thus, in Sophocles, the measures that Oedipus takes in order to avoid the fate predicted for him, in fact only lead to the fulfillment of this fate. This contradiction between the subjective intention of human words and actions and their objective meaning permeates the entire tragedy of Sophocles. Its immediate theme is not the hero’s crimes, but his subsequent self-exposure. The artistic effect of the tragedy is largely based on the fact that the truth, which is only gradually revealed to Oedipus himself, is already known in advance to the Greek audience familiar with the myth.

The tragedy opens with a solemn procession. Theban youths and elders pray to Oedipus, glorified by his victory over the Sphinx, to save the city a second time, to save it from the raging pestilence. The wise king, it turns out, had already sent his brother-in-law Creon to Delphi with a question to the oracle, and the returning Creon conveys the answer: the cause of the ulcer is “filth”, the presence of the murderer Laius in Thebes. This killer is unknown to anyone; from Lai's retinue only one person survived, who at one time announced to the citizens that the king and his other servants had been killed by a detachment of robbers. Oedipus energetically takes up the search for the unknown murderer and betrays him to a solemn curse.

The investigation undertaken by Oedipus initially takes the wrong path, and the openly expressed truth directs it onto this false path. Oedipus turns to the soothsayer Tiresias with a request to reveal the murderer; Tiresias at first wants to spare the king, but, irritated by Oedipus’s reproaches and suspicions, he angrily accuses him: “you are the murderer.” Oedipus, of course, becomes indignant; he believes that Creon, with the help of Tiresias, planned to become king of Thebes and obtained a false oracle. Creon calmly deflects the accusation, but faith in the soothsayer is undermined.

Jocasta is trying to undermine faith in the oracles themselves. In order to calm Oedipus, she talks about the unfulfilled oracle given to Laius, in her opinion, but it is this story that instills anxiety in Oedipus. The whole setting of Laius's death is reminiscent of his past adventure on the way from Delphi; Only one thing does not add up: Lai, according to an eyewitness, was killed not by one person, but by a whole group. Oedipus sends for this witness.

The scene with Jocasta marks a turning point in the development of the action. However, Sophocles usually prefaces the catastrophe with some further delay (“retardation”), which momentarily promises a more prosperous outcome. A messenger from Corinth reports the death of King Polybus; the Corinthians invite Oedipus to become his successor. Oedipus triumphs: the prediction of parricide was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, he is embarrassed by the second half of the oracle, threatening to marry his mother. The messenger, wanting to dispel his fears, reveals to Oedipus that he is not the son of Polybus and his wife; barking shepherds and handed over to Polybus the baby with pierced legs - this was Oedipus. Oedipus is faced with the question of whose son he really is. Jocasta, for whom everything has become clear, leaves the scene with a sorrowful exclamation.

Oedipus continues his investigation. The witness to the murder of Laius turns out to be the same shepherd who once gave the baby Oedipus to the Corinthian, taking pity on the newborn. It also turns out that the report about the band of robbers that attacked Lai was false. Oedipus learns that he is the son of Laius, the killer of his father and the husband of his mother. In a song full of deep sympathy for the former savior of Thebes, the choir sums up the fate of Oedipus, reflecting on the fragility of human happiness and the judgment of all-seeing time.

In the final part of the tragedy, after the messenger reports the suicide of Jocasta and the self-blinding of Oedipus, Oedipus appears again, curses his ill-fated life, demands exile for himself, and says goodbye to his daughters. However, Creon, into whose hands power is temporarily transferred, detains Oedipus, awaiting instructions from the oracle. Further fate Oedipa remains unclear to the viewer.

Sophocles emphasizes not so much the inevitability of fate as the variability of happiness and the inadequacy of human wisdom.

Woe, mortal childbirth, to you!
How insignificant in my eyes
Your life is great! the choir sings.

And the conscious actions of people, performed with a specific purpose, lead in “King Aedile” to results that are diametrically opposed to the intention of the actor.

Before us appears a man who, during the crisis he is experiencing, is faced with the riddle of the universe, and this riddle, putting to shame all human cunning and insight, inevitably brings upon him defeat, suffering and death. The typical hero of Sophocles at the beginning of the tragedy completely relies on his knowledge, and ends with an admission of complete ignorance or doubt. Human ignorance is a recurring theme of Sophocles. It finds its classic and most terrifying expression in King Oedipus, however, is also present in other plays; even Antigone’s heroic enthusiasm turns out to be poisoned by doubt in her final monologue. Human ignorance and suffering are opposed by the mystery of a deity who has full knowledge (his prophecies invariably come true). This deity represents a certain image of perfect order and, perhaps, even justice, incomprehensible to the human mind. The underlying motive of Sophocles' tragedies is humility before the incomprehensible forces that guide the fate of man in all its secrecy, grandeur and mystery.

Euripides.(480 BC – 406 BC)

“Medea”, “Hippolytus”, “Iphigenia in Aulis”. Cult and philosophical origins works of Euripides. The conflict between Aphrodite and Artemis in Hippolytus. A deus ex machina intervention. “The Philosopher on Stage”: sophistical devices in the speech of the characters. The problem of interaction between masculine and feminine principles. Women's images in Euripides. Strong passions and great suffering. Manifestations of instinctive, semi-conscious forces in man. "Confession" technique. Individualistic “declarations” in the tragedies of Euripides.

Almost all of Euripides' surviving plays were created during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, which had a huge impact on all aspects of life ancient Hellas. And the first feature of Euripides’ tragedies is the burning modernity: heroic-patriotic motives, hostile attitude towards Sparta, the crisis of ancient slave-owning democracy, the first crisis of religious consciousness associated with the rapid development of materialist philosophy, etc. In this regard, Euripides’ attitude to mythology is especially indicative: myth becomes for the playwright only material for reflecting modern events; he allows himself to change not only minor details of classical mythology, but also to give unexpected rational interpretations of well-known plots (say, in Iphigenia in Tauris human sacrifices are explained by the cruel customs of the barbarians). The gods in the works of Euripides often appear more cruel, insidious and vengeful than people ( Hippolytus,Hercules etc.). It is precisely because of this that the “dues ex machina” (“God from the machine”) technique became so widespread in the dramaturgy of Euripides, when at the end of the work a suddenly appearing God hastily administers justice. In Euripides' interpretation, divine providence could hardly consciously care about the restoration of justice.

However, the main innovation of Euripides, which caused rejection among most of his contemporaries, was the depiction of human characters. If in Aeschylus's tragedies the titans were the protagonists, and in Sophocles - ideal heroes, in the playwright's own words, “people as they should be”; then Euripides, as noted in his Poetics Aristotle already brought people onto the stage as they are in life. The heroes and especially the heroines of Euripides do not at all have integrity, their characters are complex and contradictory, and high feelings, passions, thoughts are closely intertwined with base ones. This gave tragic characters Euripides is multifaceted, evoking a complex range of feelings in the audience - from empathy to horror. Thus, the unbearable suffering of Medea from the tragedy of the same name leads her to a bloody crime; Moreover, having killed her own children, Medea does not experience the slightest remorse. Phaedra ( Hippolytus), who has a truly noble character and prefers death to the consciousness of her own fall, commits a low and cruel act, leaving a suicide letter with a false accusation of Hippolytus. Iphigenia ( Iphigenia in Aulis) goes through a very difficult psychological path from a naive teenage girl to conscious sacrifice for the good of her homeland.

Expanding the palette of theatrical and visual means, he widely used everyday vocabulary; along with the choir, increased the volume of the so-called. monody (solo singing by an actor in a tragedy). Monodies were introduced into theatrical use by Sophocles, but the widespread use of this technique is associated with the name of Euripides. The clash of opposing positions of characters in the so-called. Euripides aggravated agons (verbal competitions of characters) through the use of stichomythia, i.e. exchange of poems between participants in the dialogue.

Tragedy. The tragedy comes from ritual actions in honor of Dionysus. Participants in these actions wore masks with goat beards and horns, depicting Dionysus' companions - satyrs. Ritual performances took place during the Great and Lesser Dionysias. Songs in honor of Dionysus were called dithyrambs in Greece. The dithyramb, as Aristotle points out, is the basis of Greek tragedy, which at first retained all the features of the myth of Dionysus. The first tragedies set forth myths about Dionysus: about his suffering, death, resurrection, struggle and victory over his enemies. But then poets began to draw content for their works from other legends. In this regard, the choir began to portray not satyrs, but other mythical creatures or people, depending on the content of the play.

Origin and essence. The tragedy arose from solemn chants. She retained their majesty and seriousness; her heroes became strong personalities, endowed with a strong-willed character and great passions. Greek tragedy always depicted some particularly difficult moments in the life of an entire state or an individual, terrible Crimes, misfortunes and deep moral suffering. There was no place for jokes or laughter.

System. The tragedy begins with a (declamatory) prologue, followed by the entrance of the choir with a song (parod), then episodies (episodes), which are interrupted by the songs of the choir (stasims), the last part is the final stasim (usually solved in the genre of commos) and departure actors and choir - exod. Choral songs divided the tragedy in this way into parts, which in modern drama are called acts. The number of parts varied even among the same author. The three unities of Greek tragedy: place, action and time (the action could only take place from sunrise to sunset), which were supposed to strengthen the illusion of the reality of the action. The unity of time and place significantly limited the development of dramatic elements at the expense of epic ones, characteristic of the evolution of the genus. A number of events necessary in the drama, the depiction of which would violate unity, could only be reported to the viewer. The so-called “messengers” told about what was happening off stage.

Greek tragedy was greatly influenced by Homeric epic. Tragedians borrowed a lot of legends from him. Characters often used expressions borrowed from the Iliad. For dialogues and songs of the choir, playwrights (they are also melurgists, since the poems and music were written by the same person - the author of the tragedy) used iambic trimeter as a form close to living speech (for the differences in dialects in certain parts of the tragedy, see the ancient Greek language ). The tragedy reached its greatest flowering in the 5th century. BC e. in the works of three Athenian poets: Sophocles and Euripides.

Sophocles In Sophocles' tragedies, the main thing is not the external course of events, but the internal torment of the heroes. Sophocles usually explains the general meaning of the plot right away. The external outcome of his plot is almost always easy to predict. Sophocles carefully avoids complicated complications and surprises. His main feature is his tendency to portray people with all their inherent weaknesses, hesitations, mistakes, and sometimes crimes. Sophocles' characters are not general abstract embodiments of certain vices, virtues or ideas. Each of them has a bright personality. Sophocles almost deprives the legendary heroes of their mythical superhumanity. The catastrophes that befall Sophocles' heroes are prepared by the properties of their characters and circumstances, but they are always retribution for the guilt of the hero himself, as in Ajax, or his ancestors, as in Oedipus the King and Antigone. In accordance with the Athenian penchant for dialectics, Sophocles' tragedies develop in a verbal competition between two opponents. It helps the viewer become more aware of whether they are right or wrong. In Sophocles, verbal discussions are not the center of dramas. Scenes filled with deep pathos and at the same time devoid of Euripidean pomposity and rhetoric are found in all the tragedies of Sophocles that have come down to us. Sophocles' heroes experience severe mental anguish, but the positive characters even in them retain full consciousness of their rightness.

« Antigone" (about 442). The plot of "Antigone" belongs to the Theban cycle and is a direct continuation of the tale of the war of the "Seven against Thebes" and the duel between Eteocles and Polyneices. After the death of both brothers, the new ruler of Thebes, Creon, buried Eteocles with due honors, and forbade the body of Polyneices, who went to war against Thebes, to be buried, threatening the disobedient with death. The sister of the victims, Antigone, violated the ban and buried the politician. Sophocles developed this plot from the angle of the conflict between human laws and the “unwritten laws” of religion and morality. The question was relevant: defenders of polis traditions considered “unwritten laws” to be “divinely established” and inviolable, in contrast to the changeable laws of people. Conservative in religious matters, Athenian democracy also demanded respect for “unwritten laws.” The prologue to Antigone also contains another feature that is very common in Sophocles - the opposition of harsh and soft characters: the adamant Antigone is contrasted with the timid Ismene, who sympathizes with her sister, but does not dare to act with her. Antigone puts her plan into action; she covers Polynices' body with a thin layer of earth, that is, she performs a symbolic burial, which, according to Greek ideas, was sufficient to calm the soul of the deceased. The interpretation of Sophocles' Antigone remained for many years in the direction laid down by Hegel; it is still adhered to by many reputable researchers3. As is known, Hegel saw in Antigone an irreconcilable collision of the idea of ​​statehood with the demand that blood-related ties place on a person: Antigone, who dares to bury her brother in defiance of the royal decree, dies in an unequal struggle with the principle of statehood, but the king Creon, who personifies him, also loses in this clash only son and wife, coming to the end of the tragedy broken and devastated. If Antigone is physically dead, then Creon is crushed morally and awaits death as a blessing (1306-1311). The sacrifices made by the Theban king on the altar of statehood are so significant (let’s not forget that Antigone is his niece) that sometimes he is considered the main hero of the tragedy, who supposedly defends the interests of the state with such reckless determination. It is worth, however, carefully reading the text of Sophocles’ “Antigone” and imagining how it sounded in the specific historical setting of ancient Athens in the late 40s of the 5th century BC. e., so that the interpretation of Hegel loses all the power of evidence.

Analysis of "Antigone" in connection with the specific historical situation in Athens in the 40s of the 5th century BC. e. shows the complete inapplicability of modern concepts of state and individual morality to this tragedy. In Antigone there is no conflict between state and divine law, because for Sophocles the true state law was built on the basis of the divine. In Antigone there is no conflict between the state and the family, because for Sophocles the duty of the state was to protect the natural rights of the family, and no Greek state prohibited citizens from burying their relatives. Antigone reveals the conflict between natural, divine and therefore truly state law and an individual who takes upon himself the courage to represent the state contrary to natural and divine law. Who has the upper hand in this clash? In any case, not Creon, despite the desire of a number of researchers to make him the true hero of the tragedy; Creon's final moral collapse testifies to his complete failure. But can we consider Antigone the winner, alone in unrequited heroism and ingloriously ending her life in a dark dungeon? Here we need to take a closer look at what place her image occupies in the tragedy and by what means it was created. In quantitative terms, Antigone's role is very small - only about two hundred verses, almost two times less than Creon's. In addition, the entire last third of the tragedy, leading the action to the denouement, occurs without her participation. With all this, Sophocles not only convinces the viewer that Antigone is right, but also instills in him deep sympathy for the girl and admiration for her dedication, inflexibility, and fearlessness in the face of death. Antigone's unusually sincere, deeply touching complaints occupy a very important place in the structure of the tragedy. First of all, they deprive her image of any touch of sacrificial asceticism that might arise from the first scenes where she so often confirms her readiness for death. Antigone appears before the viewer as a full-blooded, living person, to whom nothing human is alien either in thoughts or feelings. The more saturated the image of Antigone is with such sensations, the more impressive is her unshakable loyalty to her moral duty. Sophocles quite consciously and purposefully creates an atmosphere of imaginary loneliness around his heroine, because in such an environment her heroic nature is fully manifested. Of course, it was not in vain that Sophocles forced his heroine to die, despite her obvious moral rightness - he saw what a threat to Athenian democracy, which stimulated the comprehensive development of the individual, was at the same time fraught with the hypertrophied self-determination of this individual in her desire to subjugate the natural rights of man. However, not everything in these laws seemed completely explicable to Sophocles, and the best evidence of this is the problematic nature of human knowledge, already emerging in Antigone. In his famous “hymn to man,” Sophocles ranked “thought as swift as the wind” (phronema) among the greatest achievements of the human race (353-355), joining his predecessor Aeschylus in assessing the capabilities of the mind. If Creon’s fall is not rooted in the unknowability of the world (his attitude towards the murdered Polyneices is in clear contradiction with generally known moral norms), then with Antigone the situation is more complicated. Like Yemena at the beginning of the tragedy, so subsequently Creon and the chorus consider her act a sign of recklessness22, and Antigone is aware that her behavior can be regarded in exactly this way (95, cf. 557). The essence of the problem is formulated in the couplet that ends Antigone’s first monologue: although her act seems stupid to Creon, it seems that the accusation of stupidity comes from a fool (469 ff.). The ending of the tragedy shows that Antigone was not mistaken: Creon pays for his foolishness, and we must give the girl’s feat the full measure of heroic “reasonableness,” since her behavior coincides with the objectively existing, eternal divine law. But since Antigone is awarded not glory but death for her fidelity to this law, she has to question the reasonableness of such an outcome. “What law of the gods did I break? - Antigone therefore asks. “Why should I, unfortunate one, still look to the gods, what allies should I call for help if, by acting piously, I have earned the accusation of impiety?” (921-924). “Look, elders of Thebes... what I endure - and from such a person! - although I revered heaven piously.” For the hero of Aeschylus, piety guaranteed final triumph, for Antigonus it leads to a shameful death; the subjective “reasonableness” of human behavior leads to an objectively tragic result - a contradiction arises between human and divine reason, the resolution of which is achieved at the cost of self-sacrifice of heroic individuality Euripides. (480 BC – 406 BC). Almost all of Euripides' surviving plays were created during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, which had a huge influence on all aspects of life in ancient Hellas. And the first feature of Euripides’ tragedies is the burning modernity: heroic-patriotic motives, hostile attitude towards Sparta, the crisis of ancient slave-owning democracy, the first crisis of religious consciousness associated with the rapid development of materialist philosophy, etc. In this regard, Euripides’ attitude to mythology is especially indicative: myth becomes for the playwright only material for reflecting modern events; he allows himself to change not only minor details of classical mythology, but also to give unexpected rational interpretations of well-known plots (for example, in Iphigenia in Tauris, human sacrifices are explained by the cruel customs of the barbarians). The gods in the works of Euripides often appear more cruel, insidious and vengeful than people (Hippolytus, Hercules, etc.). It is precisely because of this that the “dues ex machina” (“God from the machine”) technique became so widespread in the dramaturgy of Euripides, when at the end of the work a suddenly appearing God hastily administers justice. In Euripides' interpretation, divine providence could hardly consciously care about the restoration of justice. However, the main innovation of Euripides, which caused rejection among most of his contemporaries, was the depiction of human characters. Euripides, as Aristotle noted in his Poetics, brought people onto the stage as they are in life. The heroes and especially the heroines of Euripides do not at all have integrity, their characters are complex and contradictory, and high feelings, passions, thoughts are closely intertwined with base ones. This gave the tragic characters of Euripides versatility, evoking a complex range of feelings in the audience - from empathy to horror. Expanding the palette of theatrical and visual means, he widely used everyday vocabulary; along with the choir, increased the volume of the so-called. monody (solo singing by an actor in a tragedy). Monodies were introduced into theatrical use by Sophocles, but the widespread use of this technique is associated with the name of Euripides. The clash of opposing positions of characters in the so-called. Euripides aggravated agons (verbal competitions of characters) through the use of stichomythia, i.e. exchange of poems between participants in the dialogue.

Medea. The image of a suffering person is the most characteristic feature of Euripides's work. Man himself contains forces that can plunge him into the abyss of suffering. Such a person is, in particular, Medea - the heroine of the tragedy of the same name, staged in 431. The sorceress Medea, the daughter of the Colchis king, fell in love with Jason, who arrived in Colchis, and provided him with invaluable help, teaching him to overcome all obstacles and get the Golden Fleece. She sacrificed her homeland, maiden honor, and good name to Jason; the more difficult Medea now experiences Jason’s desire to leave her with two sons after several years of happy family life and marry the daughter of the Corinthian king, who also orders Medea and the children to get out of his country. An insulted and abandoned woman is concocting a terrible plan: not only to destroy her rival, but also to kill her own children; this way she can take full revenge on Jason. The first half of this plan is carried out without much difficulty: having supposedly resigned herself to her situation, Medea, through her children, sends Jason’s bride an expensive outfit soaked in poison. The gift was favorably accepted, and now Medea faces the most difficult test - she must kill the children. The thirst for revenge fights in her with her maternal feelings, and she changes her decision four times until a messenger appears with a menacing message: the princess and her father died in terrible agony from poison, and a crowd of angry Corinthians is rushing to Medea’s house to deal with her and her children. . Now, when the boys are facing imminent death, Medea finally decides to commit a terrible crime. Before Jason returning in anger and despair, Medea appears on a magic chariot floating in the air; on the mother's lap are the corpses of the children she killed. The atmosphere of magic surrounding the ending of the tragedy and, to some extent, the appearance of Medea herself, cannot hide the deeply human content of her image. Unlike the heroes of Sophocles, who never deviate from the path once chosen, Medea is shown in repeated transitions from furious anger to pleas, from indignation to imaginary humility, in the struggle of conflicting feelings and thoughts. The deepest tragedy of the image of Medea is also given by sad reflections on the lot of a woman, whose position in the Athenian family was indeed unenviable: being under the vigilant supervision of first her parents and then her husband, she was doomed to remain a recluse in the female half of the house all her life. In addition, when getting married, no one asked the girl about her feelings: marriages were concluded by parents who were striving for a deal beneficial to both parties. Medea sees the deep injustice of this state of affairs, which places a woman at the mercy of a stranger, a person unfamiliar to her, who is often not inclined to burden himself too much with marriage ties.

Yes, between those who breathe and those who think, We women are none more unhappy. We pay for our husbands, and not cheaply. And if you buy it, then he is your master, not a slave... After all, a husband, when he is tired of the hearth, On the side with love his heart is soothed, They have friends and peers, but we have to look into our eyes hateful. The everyday atmosphere of Euripides's contemporary Athens also affected the image of Jason, which was far from any idealization. A selfish careerist, a student of the sophists, who knows how to turn any argument in his favor, he either justifies his treachery with references to the well-being of the children, for whom his marriage should provide civil rights in Corinth, or explains the help he once received from Medea by the omnipotence of Cypris. The unusual interpretation of the mythological legend and the internally contradictory image of Medea were assessed by Euripides' contemporaries in a completely different way than by subsequent generations of viewers and readers. The ancient aesthetics of the classical period assumed that in the struggle for the marital bed, an offended woman has the right to take the most extreme measures against her husband who cheated on her and her rival. But the revenge to which one’s own children become victims did not fit into aesthetic norms that required internal integrity from the tragic hero. Therefore, the famous “Medea” ended up only in third place during its first production, i.e., in essence, it was a failure.

17. Ancient geocultural space. Phases of development of ancient civilization Cattle breeding, agriculture, metal mining in mines, crafts, and trade developed intensively. The patriarchal tribal organization of society was disintegrating. The wealth inequality of families grew. The clan nobility, which had increased its wealth through the widespread use of slave labor, fought for power. Public life proceeded rapidly - in social conflicts, wars, unrest, political upheavals. Ancient culture throughout its existence remained in the embrace of mythology. However, the dynamics of social life, the complication of social relations, and the growth of knowledge undermined the archaic forms of mythological thinking. Having learned from the Phoenicians the art of alphabetical writing and improved it by introducing letters denoting vowel sounds, the Greeks were able to record and accumulate historical, geographical, astronomical information, collect observations regarding natural phenomena, technical inventions, morals and customs of people. The need to maintain public order in the state demanded the replacement of unwritten tribal norms of behavior enshrined in myths with logically clear and orderly codes of laws. Public political life stimulated the development of oratory skills, the ability to persuade people, contributing to the growth of a culture of thinking and speech. The improvement of production and handicraft labor, urban construction, and military art increasingly went beyond the scope of ritual and ceremonial models consecrated by myth. Signs of civilization: *separation of physical and mental labor; *writing; *the emergence of cities as centers of cultural and economic life. Features of civilization: -the presence of a center with the concentration of all spheres of life and their weakening on the periphery (when urban residents of small towns are called “villages”); -ethnic core (people) - in Ancient Rome - the Romans, in Ancient Greece - the Hellenes (Greeks); -formed ideological system (religion); -tendency to expand (geographically, culturally); cities; -a single information field with language and writing; -formation of external trade relations and zones of influence; -stages of development (growth - peak of prosperity - decline, death or transformation). Features of ancient civilization: 1) Agricultural basis. Mediterranean triad - growing grains, grapes and olives without artificial irrigation. 2) Private property relations, the dominance of private commodity production, oriented primarily to the market, emerged. 3) “polis” - “city-state”, covering the city itself and the territory adjacent to it. Polis were the first republics in the history of all mankind. The ancient form of land ownership dominated in the polis community; it was used by those who were members of the civil community. Under the policy system, hoarding was condemned. In most policies, the supreme body of power was the people's assembly. He had the right to make final decisions on the most important policy issues. The polis represented an almost complete coincidence of political structure, military organization and civil society. 4) In the field of development of material culture, the emergence of new technology and material values ​​was noted, crafts developed, sea harbors were built and new cities arose, and maritime transport was built. Periodization of ancient culture: 1) Homeric era (XI-IX centuries BC) The main form of public control is the “culture of shame” - the immediate condemning reaction of the people to the deviation of the hero’s behavior from the norm. Gods are regarded as part of nature; man, while worshiping the gods, can and should build relationships with them rationally. The Homeric era demonstrates competition (agon) as the norm of cultural creativity and lays the agonistic foundation of the entire European culture 2) Archaic era (VIII-VI centuries BC) The result of a new type of social relations is the law “nomos” as an impersonal legal norm, equally binding for everyone. A society is being formed in which every full-fledged citizen is an owner and politician, expressing private interests through the maintenance of public ones, and peaceful virtues are brought to the fore. The gods protect and support a new social and natural order (cosmos), in which relationships are regulated by the principles of cosmic compensation and measures and are subject to rational comprehension in various natural philosophical systems. 3) The Classical Age (5th century BC) - the rise of the Greek genius in all areas of culture - art, literature, philosophy and science. On the initiative of Pericles, the Parthenon, the famous temple in honor of Athena the Virgin, was erected in the center of Athens on the acropolis. Tragedies, comedies and satyr dramas were staged in the Athenian theater. The victory of the Greeks over the Persians, the awareness of the advantages of law over arbitrariness and despotism contributed to the formation of the idea of ​​​​man as an independent (autarkic) personality. The law acquires the character of a rational legal idea, subject to discussion. During the era of Pericles social life serves the self-development of a person. At the same time, the problems of human individualism began to be realized, and the problem of the unconscious was revealed to the Greeks. 4) Hellenistic era (IV century BC) examples of Greek culture spread throughout the world as a result of the aggressive campaigns of Alexander the Great. But at the same time, the ancient city policies lost their former independence. Ancient Rome took up the cultural baton. The main cultural achievements of Rome date back to the era of the empire, when the cult of practicality, state, and law dominated. The main virtues were politics, war, governance.