Who saved Odysseus on the island of brave sailors. Odysseus and the Sirens

11.02.2022

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

History of creation

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

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

Biography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Further fate The hero is described in different ways in different sources. Odysseus either died in foreign lands (in different versions - in Aetolia, Etruria, Arcadia, etc.), not returning home, or returned after the expiration of the exile to Ithaca, where he was mistakenly killed by his own son, born of the sorceress Circe. There is even a version according to which Odysseus was turned into a horse and died in this guise from old age.

legends

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

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

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

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

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

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

The image of Odysseus also penetrated the cinema. In 2013, the Franco-Italian TV series Odysseus was released, which is not about the hero’s wanderings, but about the family that is waiting for his return, about the intrigues and conspiracies of suitors who want to seize the throne, and about the events that take place after The king returns to the island. In 2008, Terry Ingram's adventure film Odysseus: A Journey into underworld”, where the actor played the hero.
Odysseus is one of the characters in the Age of Mythology strategy game released in 2002.

The intended location is the Galli Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the travelers were departing from the island of Eya, Circe warned of the danger awaiting the heroes near the island of the Sirens. These creatures enchant mortals with their wonderful singing, and they remain forever in their power. Sailing to the island, Odysseus ordered his companions to plug their ears with wax, and tied himself to the mast. As soon as he heard the singing of the sirens, Odysseus tried to free himself, but the companions did not allow him to do so. The ship safely passed the dangerous island.

Homer was the first to mention sirens. But in the Odyssey it is only said about them that the sailors should be wary of the singing of the “wonderful voices”, otherwise they will not return to their homeland. This barely outlined image inflamed the imagination of the listeners of the poem. In ancient Greece, the myth of the sirens acquired more and more details. First, they have a pedigree. The voice of the siren was inherited from the mother muse and at first was no different from ordinary women. But the aunts-muses, fearing for their position on Parnassus, disfigured the newly-minted songsters, turning them into a hybrid of a man and a bird.

According to another version, the Sirens became friends with Persephone, whom Hades dragged into the realm of the dead. The friends did not suspect this and begged the gods to give them the opportunity to look for the missing on earth, in the sky and under water. So the sirens were divided into half-birds and half-fishes. The next string of myths explained why sirens are dangerous to people. Mortals refused to help them look for Persephone, and then the Sirens decided to take revenge. The fish-maidens, singing, dragged the sailors into the abyss of the sea. The winged maidens sucked the blood of those who stopped to listen to them.

On this, the plot suggested by Homer was exhausted. And then the myth of the death of the sirens was born. Odysseus was declared the savior from this scourge. He was the only one who did not land on the island, the songstresses blundered for the first time. Out of desperation, the bird-maidens rushed into the sea and turned into rocks. At first, fish maidens were forgotten, but in the Middle Ages, the peoples of Europe borrowed this image in legends about insidious mermaids and undines. Sirens-birds also resurrected, turning, for example, into characters of Slavic legends - the birds Sirin and Phoenix.

Where did the events that initiated the myths about the sirens take place? You can, of course, look for their "graves" in the Mediterranean Sea - rocks sticking out of the water alone. But much more interesting is the version that Homer could consider the singing of sirens to be sounds associated with the natural features of a certain place on the coast. For example, in the Gulf of Salerno there is the Galli archipelago. The configuration of the coastal rocks here is such that they amplify the sounds coming towards the sea. The cries of the seals that have chosen the islands, passing through this mouthpiece, can be easily mistaken for the sounds of a human voice...

Homer did not specify how many sirens were on the island. The Greeks usually depicted three. The myth says that they drowned themselves after their failure with Odysseus. The body of one of them washed ashore where Naples is now located.

As soon as Odysseus passed the ominous island of sirens, trouble began again. It was necessary to swim between the rocks, where the bloodthirsty monster Scylla lived with six dog heads and the goddess Charybdis, drawing in and then spewing sea waters. The ancient Greeks believed that these creatures lie in wait for sailors on both sides of the Strait of Messina: Scylla off the coast of the Apennine Peninsula, Charybdis off the island of Sicily.

Homer's poem "The Odyssey"

Lesson plan.

2. On the island of the Cyclopes.
3. Meeting with sirens.
4. Between Scylla and Charybdis.
5. Return to Ithaca.
6. Massacre with the Bridegrooms.

Assignment for the lesson

Prove that the Odyssey can be used as a historical source?

1. Odysseus finds shelter at Alcinous.

Homer's second poem, "The Odyssey", is dedicated to the wanderings of Odysseus, who was returning home to about. Ithaca, from under Troy.

1. Odysseus finds shelter at Alcinous.

After 10 years, Odysseus ended up on the island where Alkinoy ruled. Odysseus found Nausicaa, the daughter of the king. Alkinoy affectionately received the travelers.

2. On the island of the Cyclopes.

Once he got lost, he landed on the island of the Cyclopes. The Greeks entered the cave where Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon, lived. He drove sheep into the cave, blocked the exit with stones and ate 2 people. Odysseus gave Polyphemus wine to drink and blinded him .

2. On the island of the Cyclopes.

The Greeks tied the rams in threes, hid under them, and when Polyphemus felt those leaving, they went unnoticed. They boarded the ship and sailed away. Odysseus shouted and gave his name, and then Polyphemus asked Poseidon to punish Odysseus.

3. Meeting with sirens.

One day, Odysseus sailed near Siren Island. These half-birds, half-women, with their singing, filled up the travelers and ate them. Odysseus ordered the rowers to plug their ears and tie him to the mast. In this way he heard beautiful singing and was able to stay alive.

4. Between Scylla and Charybdis.

Soon the travelers survived the mortal danger. Their ship sailed between the cave where Scylla lived and on the other side was Charybdis, sucking water three times a day. But Odysseus was able to lead his ship past the monsters.

5. Return to Ithaca.

After listening to the story of Odysseus, the feacs equipped the ship and sent it to Itha-ku. At this time, in his house, the suitors pestered his wife Penelope. But she believed that Odysseus was alive and declared that she would marry when she weaves a shroud for Odysseus's father, who was dying. All day Penelope wove cloth, and at night she unraveled it.

6. Massacre with the Bridegrooms.

The maid revealed this deceit to the suitors. Penelope had to announce that she would marry the one who would win the shooting from the huge Bow of Odysseus. But none of the suitors could even bend the bow. Then Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, took his bow and shot and then killed all the suitors.

Told what further dangers lurk along the way:

First of all, you will meet the sirens who sing
Everyone is deceived by people, no matter who meets them.
Who, unknowingly approaching them, will hear their voice,
He will never return home. No spouse, no children
They will never run towards him with a joyful cry.
Sirens will enchant him with their sonorous song,
Sitting on a soft meadow. Around the same huge smolder
Piles of human bones covered in wrinkled skin.
Drive your ship past. Close up your comrades' ears
Softening honey-sweet wax, so that no one can hear them
Satellite. And if you wish, you can listen.
Let only comrades, hands and feet bind you tightly,
Standing, they will tie you to the base of the mast,
So that you can enjoy, listening to both sirens.
If you begin to ask and order them to untie yourself,
Let them put more belts on you.

(Homer "The Odyssey", song 12)

In ancient Greek mythology, sirens are demonic creatures born by the river Aheloy and one of the muses (they inherited a divine voice from their mother). Sirens were half-bird, half-woman (or half-fish, half-woman). The first ship that sailed safely past the island of the Sirens was the Argo with Argonauts, among whom was Laertes, the father of Odysseus. The Argonauts were saved by Orpheus, who sailed with them, who drowned out the singing of the sirens with his singing and playing the lyre.

To save himself from death, Odysseus did as Circe advised: he covered the ears of his companions with wax, and he ordered himself to be tied to the mast. Odysseus heard the siren song:

To us, Odysseus many-glorious, the great pride of the Achaeans!
Stop your ship to hear our singing.
For no one in his ship will pass us without it,
So as not to listen from the lips of our pouring sweet songs
And do not return home admiring and learning a lot.
We all know the works that are in Troy
By the will of the gods, the Argives suffered, as well as the Trojans.
We also know what is happening throughout the life-giving earth.

Odysseus ordered to untie himself, but his companions only tied him more tightly. After that, the ship of Odysseus sailed safely from the island of the Sirens.

After the island of the Sirens, there was a new danger on the way of Odysseus - Scylla and Charybdis, about which Circe also warned:

Two on the second road there is a cliff. One reaches
The sharp peak of the sky, the clouds crowd around it
Black. They never go away, at the top
The air is neither summer nor autumn there is transparent.
A mortal could not climb the cliff or descend back.
Even if he had twenty arms and legs,
So this smooth cliff, as if hewn by someone.
Gloomy there is a large cave in the middle of the cliff.
It is turned by the entrance to the darkness, to the west, to Erebus.
Direct your ship past it, noble Odysseus.
Even the strongest shooter, aiming from a bow from a ship,
The hollow cave could not have reached with his arrow.
A terribly growling Scylla lives in a rock cave.
Like a young puppy, her voice sounds. herself -
Evil monster. There is no one who would, seeing her,
I felt joy in my heart - even if God collided with it
Scylla has twelve legs, and they are all thin and liquid.
Long six wriggling necks on the shoulders, and on the necks
On the terrifying head, in each mouth in three rows
Abundant, frequent teeth full of black death.
In the lair she sits half of her body,
Six heads protrude out over the terrible abyss,
They rummage around a smooth rock and catch fish under it.
Here - dolphins, sea dogs; grab big ones
Monsters, such as Amphitrite herds in abundance.
Of the sailors, none could boast that past
He passed unharmed with the ship: missing her husband
With each one she drags her head into the cave.
There is another rock, Odysseus, you will see, lower,
Close to that one. It is only a shot from a bow from her.
A fig tree with lush foliage grows wildly on that rock.
Directly below it from Charybdis the divine black waters
They rage terribly. She swallows them three times a day
And vomits three times. Look, when it absorbs -
Don't get close! Even the Earthling himself would not have saved you here!
Closer to Scillina, keep close to the rock and as soon as possible
Drive a fast ship past. It's incomparably better
To lose six people from the ship than to lose them all.

Odysseus asked Circe if it was possible to repel the attack of Scylla so as not to lose six comrades, to which he received the answer:

Know this: not mortal evil, but immortal Scylla. ferocious,
Terribly strong and wild. It's impossible to fight her.
You can't take it by force. There is only one escape.

When the ship of Odysseus was not far from Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus told the helmsman to avoid the whirlpool generated by Charybdis, and ordered the rowers to row with all their might, while Odysseus hid the existence of Scylla from his comrades, fearing that, having learned the danger that awaited them, they would hide inside the ship and refuse row. When the ship sailed past the cave of Scylla, the monster grabbed six sailors, but the ship and the rest escaped.