Chapter 2 Mycenaean Epic 800 BC

The first stop is Mycenae, the junction where history bifurcates. When looking for European history, the first question in my mind is why European civilization is different from ours. In the 19th century, when two civilizations collided and blew up into chaos, we could take into account the technological differences between advanced and backward, but it was difficult to take into account more.Now that the war has dissipated, history is not so urgent. Looking back through the dust and smoke, we can see that the two civilizations have been different for the entire 3,000 years.They were very similar 3,000 years ago, but have diverged since then.

The peak of European civilization 3000 years ago was in Mycenae.The Mycenaean civilization was the flourishing age of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece. It has many similarities with our Shang Dynasty in terms of time span and civilization customs.Mycenae is the origin of ancient Greece, and ancient Greece is the origin of Europe.Mycenae has declined, but it has never disappeared, it has always existed, and has become a legend in the hearts of generations. Every civilization has its own ancient golden age. We have Yao, Shun and Yu, and Europeans have Troy.If you don't understand Troy and Mycenae, you will not understand many ideals in Europe after the eighteenth century.We use two thousand years to interpret the memory of the three generations, and Europe uses two thousand years to interpret the memory of the age of mythology.

The myth begins with the beginning of the world. According to legend, the first thing in the universe was chaos, from which came the earth Gaia, and she gave birth to the starry sky, the sky is called Uranus, and Uranus and Gaia intersected to give birth to the gods in the world. Among the gods, some were hated by his father Uranus and hid in the secret places of the earth.Uranus called them Titans, which means tense ones.Mother Gaia felt dissatisfied and encouraged them to rebel, but they were all terrified, and only the youngest son named Cronus dared to take on this task.Kronos quietly lay in ambush, holding a sickle, and when the father of the gods and the mother of the earth had intercourse, he reached out from the ambush and cut off the genitals of the gods and threw them into the sea.Goddess of love and sex born of the waves.

Cronus became the god of the second generation. He bound his father's brothers, married Gaia and Rhea, a daughter of Uranus, and gave birth to many children.Fearing that he would suffer the same fate as his father, he ate his children one by one.Rhea took pity on her children, so she secretly discussed with heaven and earth, hid the youngest son Zeus, and gave Cronus a stone to swallow.When Zeus grew up, he released his great-uncle, so he gained great power.He eventually overthrew his father's rule and became the third generation of God of Dominion. His power is the strongest in the universe, and he has since become the king of gods.

Zeus and the gods live on Mount Olympus, drink in the clouds, and watch the joys and sorrows of the world.There are already human beings living on the earth, and human beings are fragile and pitiful little creatures.Prometheus stole fire from humans and taught them to live. Zeus was angry because of this and punished him to be pecked by eagles.Zeus would not grant immortal fire to mortal humans who dwell on the earth. Zeus gave birth to the gods on earth.He combined with Metis and gave birth to Athena, the goddess of wisdom; combined with Themis, he gave birth to the goddesses of order, justice, peace and fate.Eurynome gave birth to the three goddesses of grace to Zeus, Mnemosyne gave birth to nine muses to Zeus, Leto gave birth to Apollo, the sun god, and Hera gave birth to Ares, the god of war.

These gods constitute the masters of the world.They live on the top of the mountain, come and go in the world, and can whisper to people, but ordinary people can't see their appearance.The affairs of the world are quietly influenced by the gods, and their divine power can determine the survival of the war.Gods and humans can intermarry, and the children they give birth to are half-human, half-god heroes.The difference between gods and heroes is that gods will not die, and heroes will die even though they are full of divine power. The team of gods and heroes is constantly expanding, and the more time passes, the bigger and more spectacular it becomes.The gods shuttle between the heaven and the earth, and the heroes complete their missions on the earth.Hermes became the messenger of the gods, and Hercules completed the twelve most difficult tasks in the world.Heroes are fearless and heroic. They are the children of God and the bridge between God and man.They are destined to live vigorously from birth, and they are born to live for bravery and glory, to fight until death, and to die with glory.

The greatest heroes are Achilles - the lion-like warrior who killed countless people, the son of the goddesses Thetis and Paleus; Aeneas - the founder of Rome, the goddess Cytria and the hero Ankh Son of Seth; Odysseus - strong warrior and traveler, beloved lover of the goddesses Circe and Calypso. They are the people we are looking for. It was Hesiod, the first poet and singer in Europe, who recorded all this. Hesiod lived from the 9th century BC to the 8th century BC. In his era, poets were singers, and singers were poets. The long poem "Theogony" written by Hesiod is one of the earliest long poems in history.He weaves the stories of the gods into songs and sings to the crowd on Apollo's harp.He said everything came from the apocalypse.At the beginning of Theogony he writes: "There was a day when Hesiod was tending his flocks under the holy Helicon, and the Muse taught him a glorious song."

According to legend, the Muses are the goddesses in charge of art. They are the daughters of Zeus. The nine Muses are in charge of music, dance, poetry and astronomy.They appeared on the mountain, inspired poets, and sang the history of gods and people.The poet's poems include everything in the world, from the prehistoric universe, the creation of the world to the birth of human beings, from the sky and the earth to the overlooking of Mount Olympus.Later generations have drawn inspiration from these stories countless times, and Greek dramas have all come from these myths and legends. The 8th century BC was the century when Greek civilization began to shine.Prior to this, the earliest traces of civilization belonged to the Greek island of Crete in the Aegean Sea - the Minoan civilization, 3000 BC to 1450 BC.The ruins of the Knossos palace can still be seen today on the island of Crete - the legendary maze-like palace.After the decline of the Minoan civilization, the glory of civilization transferred to the continent of Mycenae. The time was from 1600 BC to 1200 BC. After the demise of the Mycenaean civilization, there was a "dark period" for nearly 4 centuries-the loss of writing , the number of remains, the lack of artifacts, and the emptiness and bleakness in the history of archaeology.The disappearance of this 400-year interval remains an archaeological mystery.The civilization of the dark age has been greatly degraded, and there are no relics beyond time, only sporadic artifacts remain.And the re-explosion of civilization after that is still mysterious.People only know that with the vigorous emergence of artifacts and works of art, civilization began to shine again, and poetry began to emerge in time and space.

The 8th century BC was the flowering period of poetry.The blooming of poetry means the blooming of history. If there is no poetry record, the civilization of the heroic age is doomed to be lost and will never be remembered.The poets lived in the eighth century BC, but they sang of an earlier heroic age. Mythology is the summary of everything. In the pure early days of human beings, mythology is history, politics, nature, art, and the source of beauty and goodness.The poet sang, the audience listened, everything was explained, and the world was not as fragmented as it was later.The gods are in the sky, in the mountains and palaces, and humans cannot see them, but believe in them.

Without mythology, there would be no Europe.There are multiple reasons for saying that European civilization began with Greece.On the one hand, it is the measurement of time: the civilization site discovered in Crete is the earliest trace of civilization in Europe; on the other hand, it is spiritual inheritance: modern European philosophy and art are all inherited from Greece; on the other hand, it is the name of Europe: Europe, Europa, It was originally the name of a princess in Phoenicia, an Asian country. The princess was favored by Zeus and abducted to Crete. Since then, she has been called European.

The civilization of the Heroic Age belonged to the Mycenaean civilization, the oldest civilization after the Minoan civilization on Crete.Scholars believe that the Mycenaean palaces were inhabited by the heroes of the poem. Today's Mycenae is just a small village, not far from Athens, but it is not convenient to search for it.It takes nearly two hours to take a long-distance bus from the long-distance bus station in Athens to a small town next to it.Walk another two kilometers to reach the edge of the ruins on the mountain.The town is quiet and pleasant. There is a long and narrow road leading to the ruins through the fields. In the midday sun, there is no one on the road. Mycenae is in the Peloponnese, Greece, where the ancient highway entered the plain of Argolis.Stationed near the sea, on a high hill, overlooking the entire plain continent, and located on the edge of a deep valley, the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The surviving Mycenae today is in ruins, unable to see the glory of the day.There is almost nothing waist-high in the palace wall. Looking up from the bottom of the mountain, you can only see circles of ruins going up the mountain. Girdle armor.The wind blows through the grass, and the wilderness is silent.Occasional tourists are scattered around the broken wall, and their figures are hidden by the stone piles, appearing and disappearing from time to time.The thin and carefree grass swayed against the sun, they did not know the ruins, which had been sleeping for 3,200 years. Only from a distance can one see the corner of the black cloak exposed in the wind. Mycenaean civilization is the end of the heroic age in ancient Greek legends.In the ancient history described by Plato, mankind has passed through several ages: gold, silver, bronze, heroes and black iron.People in the Golden Age are carefree, never grow old, and become benevolent patron saints after death; people in the Silver Age are pampered, unable to control their emotions, and become roaming devils after disappearing; people in the Bronze Age are cruel and brutal, fighting each other, tall and tall. Terrible, they fall into the gloomy underworld after death; the people of the heroic age are the legendary Mycenaean heroes. Depraved and vulgar, distressed by life, hostile to each other, and run rampant on the earth by deception. The heroes of Mycenae lived in the Age of Heroes, and since then we have belonged to the Iron Age.People in the iron age lived and died, and they could not be compared with the heroes described in the great epics.People in the age of heroes live for glory.They fought with honor and died with honor. The heroes of Mycenae waged a war that will go down in history at the end of the Bronze Age.They traveled across the ocean and attacked Troy, a city-state in Asia.This is a tragic war, and it is also the last swan song of a hero.According to ancient Greek legends, the Trojan War was a doomed disaster.Prince Paris of Troy was invited by the three goddesses to arbitrate the ownership of the golden apples. He pointed the golden apples to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and she gave him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as a thank you.The other two goddesses, Hera and Athena, did not get the golden apples, and they were angry in their hearts, and they became enemies of Troy ever since.The beauty Helen is the wife of the younger brother of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. The Mycenaeans could not bear to be bullied, so they called on all the Greek city-states to attack Troy with a large army and set sail. The war lasted ten years and ended with the fall of Troy.Thus ended the glory of Asia Minor, and thus the glory of Mycenae.As the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon personally commanded the war and did not return for ten years. In the end, his country was beyond recognition.His greatest warrior, Achilles, died on the battlefield, while the resourceful Odysseus was adrift in the sea, and returned home after experiencing countless obstacles.Hector, the prince of Troy, was killed under the city wall under the watchful eyes of his mother and lover, and the priest Laocoon was surrounded by poisonous snakes in the final fire.Troy was burned, and countless outstanding warriors of Mycenae were gone.Nobody gets happiness.When Agamemnon led his army to the final triumphant return, he was confronted with things that were different from others.He died within the palace walls, and his dynasty sank into the dust and smoke of history, becoming an ancient legend that future generations can't wait to reach. The Mycenae ruins were discovered by the German Heinrich Schleimann between 1874 and 1876.He was a classical Germanic scholar, self-made millionaire, legendary amateur archaeologist, intellectually interested businessman who taught himself 18 languages.Driven by the prosperity of archaeology in the 19th century, Schleimann excavated here with his intuition and accurate understanding of Homer's epic poems, opening up this unknown and sleeping world.While Greek scholars had previously excavated the magnificent Lion's Gate, it was Schleimann's discovery of the rich man's burial that gave important confirmation of the land. The tombs of the rich are the two tombs on the lower side of the hill outside the city wall of the ruins.The tourists who visit come here first, and then climb up the stairs along the mountain road.Through a narrow door under the scorching sun, you can enter the tomb of Agamemnon. The tomb is named after the famous golden mask. is wearing a gold mask, covered with gold flakes.The tomb is high and forbidding. The conical tomb chamber has flat walls. The huge and rough stones are inclined to the top of the head and meet at a point on the top. It is compelling to look up and marvel.The tomb is empty, and the unearthed cultural relics have been stored in the museum, leaving only the empty cone here, dark and solemn.Even without considering the gold, silver and wealth in it, the extraordinary architectural technology itself is enough to amaze future generations. The Mycenaean civilization is a great palace civilization. Their palace construction is similar to the earlier Minoan civilization - huge and complex, surrounded by layers outside the king's room, extending from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, with various functions The entire palace is a complex complex of buildings on a hill, which can be used for living, trading, and fighting.The battle and banquet customs of the Mycenaean civilization are similar to those of the Shang Dynasty. They also have the habit of admiring martial arts and drinking, also have large-scale built cities, and the same gorgeous and thick bronzes give the two dynasties known for their battles an unparalleled luxury. The Mycenaean dynasty ruled the Greek peninsula for several centuries, and later seems to have invaded the Minoan civilization of Crete.There have been many famous kings here, and various legends or evil stories have been handed down to later generations.Agamemnon was their last famous monarch. When he was at the time when Mycenae was at its strongest, he quickly fell from the peak after taking the lead and died in his own palace, drawing an abrupt end to the mighty dynasty. stop.According to people's research, the Mycenaean civilization declined rapidly after the 12th century. The specific reasons are not clear. It may be the invasion of distant aliens, or it may be internal social struggles. In short, it entered the dark age after a long decline. . The Age of Heroes has since faded away. Except for archaeological artifacts and original written records, most of what we know about Mycenae today comes from Homer's epic poem, which is the greatest long narrative poem of all time.Our imagination of Mycenae comes from epic records. On the way of Odysseus's voyage, we followed him to the kingdom he passed, and saw that people of that era used gold to decorate utensils and palaces, had fine weaving, entertained guests with fine wine and silver seats.Those vivid and simple descriptions allow us to walk into history more than any textbook.Poetry is the eternal light of history. Homer's epic records the Trojan War and the last glory of Mycenaean civilization.Homer was born in the dawn after the end of the dark ages.In his time, ancient legends were a favorite subject of poets.Homer wasn't the only poem that recorded heroic legends, but it was the most outstanding poem of its time.In the Dark Ages, people had no written words, only oral history was continued through recitation, and poems suitable for memory were composed according to the rules.The blind poet has a superb memory, walks around the streets, holds a primitive harpsichord, and recites ancient history, which is fascinating and makes the audience sigh and cry.Epic is people's nostalgia for the ancient times in the dark age, and it is an incomparable retrospect and admiration. Homer is the pinnacle of the blind poet.Homer's epic is not only great in history, even from today's perspective, it is still a great epic. Homer's epic is divided into two parts and "Odyssey". They did not describe the entire ten-year long war of Troy, but only took two fragments: Achilles' revenge for his friends and Odysseus's adventure home. The story begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon.Achilles returned a handmaiden that Agamemnon had taken to her father, and Agamemnon took Achilles' handmaiden. Killed in the dark, he just sat alone on the boat by the sea, angry and sad.The situation on the battlefield was ups and downs, with the most outstanding warriors on both sides, and without Achilles, the Trojans, led by Prince Hector, slaughtered and gained the upper hand.Achilles refused to fight, and refused whoever persuaded him.Until his closest friend Patroclus went out in his armor and was killed by Hector on the battlefield, Achilles returned to the battlefield in great grief and unfolded his powerful power like crazy. , to hunt down Hector and avenge his friend.The long poem ends with a mournful funeral, in which the rosy-fingered Dawn ascends to the sky, and the Trojans bury Hector with wine by the fire. The end of the Trojan War is told in memory in the Odyssey.The final offensive was completed by the familiar Trojan horse. The Mycenaeans pretended to fail and built a Trojan horse to sneak into the city. The last fire ended the fate of Troy. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, one of the heroes, returning home after the victory at Mycenae.The other surviving heroes were able to leave the battlefield, cross the ocean, and return to their hometown. He was the only one. Although he missed his beloved wife, he was favored by the goddess Calypso and kept him as her husband. After a long time, he finally allowed him Return home.Odysseus once offended Poseidon, the god of the sea, and the sea was raging, and he almost died in the sea.After ten years of fierce fighting and ten years of wandering, before returning, Odysseus' son has grown up, and some suitors gather at Odysseus's house every day, hoping to win his wife and his rich family property .His son was overwhelmed and determined to travel far to find his father.In the end, Odysseus experienced the barriers of sea monsters, giants, goddesses, cliffs and waves, and finally returned to his hometown, where his family was reunited. In these two stories, the cause and effect and hundreds of heroes and gods all appear on the stage. The structure is exquisite, the scenes are magnificent and magnificent, and the reading makes people feel emotional.The most exciting thing is the battle between Achilles and Hector. From Achilles hearing the news of his friend's death to the end when the old king of Troy buried his son himself, it was deep and intense. End of grief.The most ingenious aspect of Homer's epic lies in its structural arrangement.In the ten years of the war, there are too many events worth describing. If it is an ordinary author, it may be narrated from the beginning to the end, which is lengthy and superficial.However, Homer only wrote about 51 days in the tenth year, which was short and concentrated with memories and comments mixed in.The journey of Odysseus is even more ingeniously arranged. The picture goes from the gods to Odysseus' home, and then from the gods to Odysseus himself. Many plots are told by many people separately, which are neither repetitive nor coherent. Homer's epic poems are written in iambic hexameter and read in the ancient Greek language. They have beautiful rhymes and rhythms, which are very suitable for singing. Si, probably the habit of the time, but also for the rhythm of singing. The beauty, virtuosity, and grace of Homer's epic can be regarded as masterpieces today. It writes a scene and can write emotional expression. The 18th century critic Lessing wrote the famous "Laocoon" for it and praised it highly.This pamphlet distinguishes between the art of poetry and the art of painting, the art of time and the art of space.The static state of painting can allow the description of details, but the dynamics of poetry does not allow such a stop. Poetry always needs to be promoted by action and write details with action.When Homer wrote a car, he wrote the assembly of each part with the action of God; when he wrote a shield, he used the dynamics of each story on the shield to write.This skill, this ability to achieve delicacy out of flowing rhythm, was possessed by few but Homer. Written more than 2,600 years after Homer's epic, Laocoon is a thin, pointed booklet that pioneered the aesthetics of the Enlightenment and the Sturm und Drang in the eighteenth century.This is Homer's call across time and space. A civilization's telling of history always includes its own beliefs, its intentions.The banquet culture of the Shang Dynasty and Mycenae are very similar, and the decline of the bronze civilization in the end is also very similar.It's just that the fate after the decline is quite different.Greek poets looked at the age of banquets and praised the heroism of the ancients.The philosophers of the Zhou Dynasty opposed the style of their predecessors, and banned alcohol and made laws from the beginning.After the Shang Dynasty, China experienced a more orderly Zhou Dynasty.The etiquette and law created by the Zhou Dynasty negated the Shang Dynasty, banned banquets, suppressed warriors, and activated the traditional virtues that every dynasty followed.This is the beginning of our divergence from Europe. In the sunlight, the ruins of Mycenae cannot see any of the former gold and silver magnificence.Magnificence is certainly magnificent, but it is more of a desolate magnificence connected with high mountains and deep valleys.The base of the high wall is built with stones, and the wall of the palace is made of gravel mixed with sand. At the bottom of the mountain is a reservoir, continuous residential buildings and fortifications. On the top of the mountain is the site of a wide palace.Everything seemed empty in the abandonment. Touring on such a site, there are not many programs, only the flickering wind.There are not many trees, and looking down from the valley, it is open.All around was silent, like a wilderness.Only occasionally when I heard the hustle and bustle and looked back, or when I looked up, my eyes were accidentally pierced by the sun, did I suddenly see the warrior with the long sword shuttle like a phantom, toasting and drinking, and the robe slipping across the corner.The phantom is fleeting, leaving only the empty wall.Today there are no heroes, no hero objects, no glory of heroic triumphs.Everything dies in the dust, everything lives only in poetry. Under the sun, Mycenae was so peaceful. It takes about two hours to get there by long-distance bus from Athens.It takes more than half an hour to walk to the ruins after getting off the bus, and you can take a taxi. There are few scenic spots in Mycenae, and there are only two major scenic spots: the tombs of the rich and the city ruins.The two scenic spots are at different heights on the hillside, not far apart, and can be walked.There is an archaeological museum in the city ruins area, which can be visited. The long-distance bus passes through the Strait of Corinth, and the scenery along the way is beautiful. Homer: and the Odyssey [Ancient Greece] Homer (8th century BC) translated by Luo Niansheng Although it is an ancient Greek work and a long poem, it is not as difficult to read as generally imagined.It is a fruitful thing to read. They are the most classic mythical characters, and they often appear in the literature of later generations.Homer's language is the most vivid, with rich and dynamic descriptions of actions, and characters with distinctive personalities. They fight happily, just like martial arts, and it is easy to create pictures and enter. Homer is full of heroes.These heroes are the consensus of Western culture.Understanding the deeds of these heroes is an important channel for us to understand ourselves and the world.From them, we know what is courage, what is honor, what is pride, what is commitment, what is friendship.The hero’s love for children is as rich as ours, but heroes are more open-minded than us, more open-minded than us, more daring than us to pursue, and more frank than us in great sorrow and great joy. Accurate, rich, dynamic, three-dimensional, full of emotion, always has a cruel and vivid beauty. "Zeus decreed that we shall live from youth to old age. Spent in a tough battle until one by one fell. We are a broad city for the streets of the Trojans How much suffering have you endured and you now want to leave it? " "Near at hand with the same longing, With sharp iron axes and broad axes, with bladed spears at both ends, The sharp long swords slashed at each other frantically. Many exquisite black-hilted longswords from warriors fall to the ground, or with their shoulders They were chopped down together, and the blood stained the soil black. " Theogony [Ancient Greece] Hesiod (8th century BC) translated by Zhang Zhuming and Jiang Ping According to legend, listening to the legends of the gods of Olympus is like a panacea to heal the pain of people's hearts.Zeus, Apollo, Athena, their names are full of magical power.On the one hand, they have love and hate, jealousy and desire like human beings, and on the other hand, they have the power of gods. In front of the balance of fate, they have the energy to call wind and rain.This makes their myths and legends infinitely rich and mysterious. The gods themselves cannot heal our inner wounds, but their strength lies in their actions, their strong hearts, their uniqueness Personality is the bright direction that human beings want to achieve but cannot. The Theogony is the best book that tells the legends of the gods. "Such is the divine gift of the Muses to mankind. It is through the teachings of the Muses and Apollo the long-range that there are singers and luthiers on the earth. If anyone is wounded in the heart, or frightened by a blow, as long as Pupil of the Muses—a singer who sings of the glorious deeds of the ancients and the happy gods who dwell in Olympus, he immediately forgets all sorrows, forgets all troubles. The gift of the Muses will make his Pain erased. "Glory to you, children of Zeus, sing sweet songs to the immortal race. They are the earth goddess Gaia, the children of the star Ulanus and the dark Nyx, and the salty and bitter ones. offspring raised by the Great Pontos." "Laocoon" [German] Lessing (1729～1781) Translated by Zhu Guangqian This is a masterpiece of 17th century aesthetics.At the center of the Enlightenment, a fierce debate unfolded about poetry and painting, form and subject matter, contemplation and movement.Lessing's language is always simple and direct, without deliberate ridicule, without showing off his arrogance, which is not easy for such arguments.Lessing's writing discusses the matter as it stands, with a clear context and concentrated viewpoints, making it very comfortable to read. Lessing disliked the abstraction, pomp and affectation of the Latin tradition, and liked the vivid nature of the earlier Greek classics. He said that in the fighting arena the Romans were "accustomed to the scene of pretending to die calmly", which made Roman tragedy "in the Mentally degraded to grandiosity". Lessing distinguished poetry and painting, movement and stillness, thus creating a precedent for literary theory. "Sequence in time belongs to the poet, and space to the painter. "Homer painted the shield not as a finished and complete work, but as a work in progress. "Because poetry especially wants to produce the illusion of reality, and the use of language to describe objects destroys this illusion of reality. The reason why this illusion is destroyed is because of the simultaneous coexistence of objects and the succession of language. Conflicts continued."