Chapter 2 Section 2 World Heroic Epic Classics

This is an outstanding epic of ancient Babylon, and it is also the world's first epic that has been discovered. It has had a profound impact on the culture of West Asia.The protagonist Gilgamesh is a real person in history. Before entering the epic, he has already been legendary among the people.Legend has it that he had two major achievements. The first achievement was to conquer the forest monster Humbaba. The stories of heroes from all over the world are very similar to him in nature.The second achievement is that he and his good friend Enqidu killed the beetle that harmed people. The story of "Noah's Ark" in the "Bible" originated from the flood myths and legends of the epic.

A "Mahabharata" Before the "Gesar" of the Tibetan people in our country was deeply excavated, the "Mahabharata" was recognized as the longest epic, about 100,000.The content is very complex, describing the stories of the rise and fall of many clans, tribes and countries. It is a collection of ancient Indian traditional culture and is called "the encyclopedia of poetry".The central story describes a large-scale war that broke out between the Pandu tribe, the descendant of Bharata, the king of the Moon tribe, and the Kuru tribe.After 18 days of fierce fighting, the five Pandu brothers won, and all 100 sons of the Julu tribe were killed.The epic created hundreds of characters, except for the central story, there are more than two hundred episodes, all of which can be written independently.Among them, "Nara and Dharma Yanti" and "Shakundala" are famous works. The former was introduced to Europe in 1819, translated into many languages, and became very popular for a while.

B "Ramayana" This is another famous Indian epic with 24,000 verses and is called India's "first poem".It describes the life of Rama, the successor of the ten chariot kings in Ayodhya, who was born, got married, exiled, and returned to the country.This epic has an influence on the culture of the Tibetan, Dai and other ethnic groups who believe in Buddhism in Southeast Asia and my country.Hanuman, the god monkey in the epic, can be found in the Sun Wukong in our country's classical novels. Understanding these two epics will give you a deeper understanding of the people of India, their life and culture, and their 3,000-year history.

Located at the southern tip of the Caucasus, Armenia is a channel for east-west traffic. Although it has a history of four or five thousand years and ancient culture, it has been invaded by Persians, Arabs, and Turks. From the 7th century to the 10th century, it was ruled by the Arabs. , was brutally killed and plundered, and the Armenian people rose up four times to resist. "David of Sassoon" reflects this nation's struggle against foreign nations. Through the heroic deeds of four generations of the Sassoon family, it shows the spirit of the Armenian people's heroic struggle for peace, freedom and independence from generation to generation.Each chapter is named after a generation of heroes.The whole book is named after the third-generation hero David, because David's deeds are more prominent.This epic has been circulated among the people for more than a thousand years. It was not until 1938 that the Institute of Literary and Linguistics of the Armenian Academy of Sciences formed an editorial committee, edited and published it, with about 11,000 lines. The 1,000th anniversary of the epic was celebrated in September throughout the pre-1939 Soviet Union and translated into Russian and national languages.This epic is also a reference for the study of "Manas" of the Kyrgyz people in our country.

A Greek Homer epic, "Odyssey" These are well known as the two great epics of ancient Greece.It was probably formed on the basis of the heroic short songs circulated in Asia Minor from the 9th to the 8th centuries BC, and was formed by folk singers for a long time.When troubadours entered the court, in order to cater to the tastes of the upper nobility, the epic became the hymn of the emerging ruler.Around the 6th century BC, these two epics entered into writing one after another. It was not until the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC that they were finally compiled by Alexandrian scholars. There are traces of literati adaptation. Therefore, the structure is rigorous, the text is concise, and the novel has begun to take shape. Its prototype is very different from the oriental epic.

It narrates the story of the Greek expedition to the city of Troy (also translated as Troy) in Asia Minor. Through the fierce battle of besieging the city and seizing the fortress, it extols the might and feats of the Greeks.According to archaeological discoveries, Troy was located on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, with prosperous commerce and rich city-states.In the early 12th century BC, some tribes on the Greek peninsula, coveting its property, jointly attacked and destroyed the city.This epic focuses on the last few days of the war, and it retains the scene and atmosphere of the war at that time brilliantly, which cannot be reproduced in any later works describing the war.The later poets could not have the life experience of the Greek heroic period, and could only express wars different from Homer's epics.The epic reflects the period when "the war of tribes against tribes had begun to degenerate into a continual robbery on land and sea for cattle, slaves, and treasure, and into a normal business."

"Odyssey" is the sequel.It narrates the strange experience of the 10-year journey of the Greek hero Odysseus when he returned home after the Trojan War, and the story of how he punished the wicked and rectified his homeland after returning to his hometown. Hegel (Hegel, 1770-1831 AD), the master of German classical philosophy, spoke highly of Homer's epic.He said: "We see that Homer has described the world situation of this heroic age with the most beautiful poetry and rich and colorful characters." A history of the world. B Kalevala, Finland "Kalevala" literally translates to "hero country".The central story of the epic is the struggle between the heroes of Kalevala and Lucy, mistress of Boyola, the Dark Kingdom of the North.The focus of the struggle is to snatch the "Three Treasures". "Three Treasures" is a god mill that automatically produces grain, salt and gold coins.This is an epic gradually formed with the development of the Finnish nation, from the clan commune to the emergence of Christianity, every historical stage is represented.This epic plays a positive role in inheriting and developing Finnish national culture.

C Medieval saga European medieval epics can be divided into three major series according to the region: the first is the series of the European continent and the Germanic people who immigrated to the UK, and the representative works are the British "Belwulf" and the German "Song of the Nibelungen"; the second It is a later epic in northern France, also known as "Song of Martial Arts", and its representative work is "Song of Roland"; the third is the Nordic epic, with its representative works "Eda" and "Sakya".There are roughly two categories in terms of content: the first category reflects the life of the barbarians at the end of the clan society, and "Belwuf", "Eda", and "Sakya" all belong to this category.The second category is based on the legends of historical figures, produced after the high feudalization of various European nations, such as "Song of Roland", "Song of the Nibelungen" and "Song of the Cid" (Spain). Epic, and known as the three classical epics of the European Middle Ages.

No cultural phenomenon is isolated. Human beings have had cultural exchanges between clans since ancient times.At present, the collision and convergence of Eastern and Western cultures has broken through the closed floodgate.When a great country that has not known that there are epics in China for thousands of years, while admiring foreign epics, a question will inevitably arise: Does China have heroic epics?

---

Notes: