Adjective. Ancient Greek language

An adjective denotes a feature of an object. Properties of the item itself ( green, loud, young) can manifest itself to a greater or lesser extent and regardless of the relationship to other objects. Adjectives denoting these properties are called qualitative. Other properties manifested in relation to other objects ( rural, wooden) or actions ( official, printed) are expressed by relative adjectives. Those relative adjectives that indicate belonging ( paternal, Greek), are called possessive. In a figurative sense, relative adjectives can take on the meaning of qualitative ( iron will, golden age), speaking about the properties of the object itself metaphorically, with the help of characteristics taken from other objects. Adjectives reflect the animateness or inanimateness of beings or objects. All this is inherent in both Russian and Greek languages.

Unlike Russian, where adjectives change by gender only in the singular ( loud voice, loud melody, But loud voices, loud melodies, iron doors, iron knives, Greek men, Greek women), in Greek adjectives and in the plural retain the signs of their gender, changing in one of the 3 declensions. As in Russian, they also change according to cases and numbers. Many adjectives, as in Russian, are formed from the basis of nouns or verbs, being derivatives of them. This formation occurs with the help of suffixes, prefixes (prefixes), suffixes and prefixes at the same time, also by adding words.

The role of adjectives in a sentence most often comes down to definition. The same role is also played by participles, ordinal numbers and pronominal demonstrative words, which change like adjectives.

In feminine adjectives, alpha is only pure (that is, only after epsilon, iota and ro) - ἀndreῖoV, a, on - courageous; ἐcJrόV, a, on - hostile. In other words, it is not alpha that is written, but this one: ἙllhnikόV, h, on – Greek.

Degrees of comparison of adjectives are formed in two ways.

First way. The word mᾶllon (more) is placed before the adjective - a comparative degree is obtained; The word mάlista (most of all, in the highest degree) is placed before the adjective - it turns out to be a superlative degree.

Second way. The comparative degree is formed using a suffix (before it there is a connecting vowel, and after it there are case endings of the masculine, feminine and neuter gender of the I-II declension) - oteroV, a, on. The superlative degree is also formed with the help of a suffix (before it is a connecting vowel, and after it are the case endings of the masculine, feminine and neuter gender of the 1st-2nd declensions) -otatoV, h, on.

Sometimes the omicron falls out: FίloV - jίlteroV - jίltatoV. For some adjectives, the second method is not suitable; in them (as in English: good – better – best) degrees of comparison are formed from a special stem: good – best - ἀgaJόV - ἄristoV.

Adjectives of the third declension in upsilon. The feminine gender of such adjectives has the ending -eia and changes according to the first declension. According to the III declension, only the masculine and neuter gender changes.

Case endings (masculine)

Numerals from 1 to 4 are declined (the rest are not declined).

One - eἷV, one - mίa, one - ἕn

Three: masculine and feminine - treῖV, neuter - trίa

Four: masculine and feminine – tέttareV, middle gender – tέttara

Numerals starting from 200 are declined and changed according to gender.

200.		diakό sioi, ai, a	dlead
300.		triakό sioi, ai, a	three hundred
400.		tetrakό sioi, ai, a	couplesresta
500.		pentakό sioi, ai, a	five hundred
600.		ἑ xakό sioi, ai, a	six hundred
700.		ἑ ptakό sioi, ai, a	seven hundred
800.		ὀ ktakό sioi, ai, a	eight hundred
900.		ἐ nakό sioi, ai, a	nine hundred
1000.		cί lioi	thousand
2000.		discί lioi	two thousand
		mύ rioi	ten thousand

Adjectives of 2 endings of the III declension. Such adjectives have the same masculine and feminine endings, sigma between vowels is dropped, and after that happens merging vowels according to the rules:

Case endings (neuter gender)

58 important words that will help you understand the ancient Greeks

Prepared by Oksana Kulishova, Ekaterina Shumilina, Vladimir Fayer, Alena Chepel, Elizaveta Shcherbakova, Tatyana Ilyina, Nina Almazova, Ksenia Danilochkina

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Agon ἀγών

In the broadest sense of the word, agon in Ancient Greece was any competition or dispute. Most often, sports competitions were held (athletic competitions, horse racing or chariot races), as well as musical and poetic competitions in the city.

Chariot racing. Fragment of painting of a Panathenaic amphora. Around 520 BC e.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

In addition, the word "agon" was used in a narrower sense: in ancient Greek drama, especially in ancient Attic, it was the name of the part of the play during which an argument between the characters took place on stage. The agon could unfold either between and, or between two actors and two half-choirs, each of which supported the point of view of the antagonist or protagonist. Such an agon is, for example, the dispute between the poets Aeschylus and Euripides in the afterlife in Aristophanes’ comedy “Frogs”.

In classical Athens, the agon was an important component not only of the theatrical competition, but also of the debates about the structure of the universe that took place in. The structure of many of Plato's philosophical dialogues, where the opposing views of the symposium participants (mainly Socrates and his opponents) collide, resembles the structure of a theatrical agon.

Ancient Greek culture is often called “agonal”, since it is believed that the “spirit of competition” in Ancient Greece permeated all spheres of human activity: agonism was present in politics, on the battlefield, in court, and shaped everyday life. This term was first introduced in the 19th century by the scientist Jacob Burckhardt, who believed that it was customary for the Greeks to hold competitions in everything that included the possibility of fighting. Agonality indeed permeated all spheres of the life of the ancient Greek, but it is important to understand that not everyone: initially agonism was an important part of the life of the Greek aristocracy, and commoners could not participate in competitions. Therefore, Friedrich Nietzsche called the agon the highest achievement of the aristocratic spirit.

Agora and agora ἀγορά
Agora in Athens. Lithography. Around 1880

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

The Athenians elected special officials - agoranoms (market caretakers), who kept order in the square, collected trade duties from, and levied fines for improper trade; They were also subordinate to the market police, which consisted of slaves. There were also positions of metronomes, whose duty was to monitor the accuracy of weights and measures, and sitophilacs, who monitored the grain trade.

Acropolis ἀκρόπολις
Athens Acropolis at the beginning of the 20th century

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Translated from ancient Greek, akropolis means “upper city.” This is a fortified part of an ancient Greek city, which, as a rule, was located on a hill and originally served as a refuge in times of war. On the acropolis there were city shrines, temples of the city’s patrons, and the city treasury was often kept.

The Acropolis of Athens became a symbol of ancient Greek culture and history. Its founder, according to mythological tradition, was the first king of Athens, Cecrops. Active development of the Acropolis as the center of the religious life of the city took place during the time of Pisistratus in the 6th century BC. e. In 480 it was destroyed by the Persians who captured Athens. In the middle of the 5th century BC. e., under the policy of Pericles, the Athenian Acropolis was rebuilt according to a single plan.

You could climb the Acropolis along a wide marble staircase that led to the propylaea, the main entrance built by the architect Mnesicles. At the top there was a view of the Parthenon - the temple of Athena the Virgin (the creation of the architects Ictinus and Kallicrates). In the central part of the temple stood a 12-meter statue of Athena Parthenos, made of gold and ivory by Phidias; her appearance is known to us only from descriptions and later imitations. But the sculptural decorations of the Parthenon have been preserved, a significant part of which was taken out by the British ambassador to Constantinople, Lord Elgin, at the beginning of the 19th century - and they are now kept in the British Museum.

On the Acropolis there was also the temple of Nike Apteros - the Wingless Victory (devoid of wings, she was always supposed to remain with the Athenians), the Erechtheion temple (with the famous portico of the caryatids), which included several independent sanctuaries to various deities, as well as other structures.

The Acropolis of Athens, heavily damaged during numerous wars in subsequent centuries, was restored as a result of restoration work that began at the end of the 19th century and especially intensified in the last decades of the 20th century.

Actor ὑποκριτής
Scene from Euripides' tragedy "Medea". Fragment of the painting of the red-figure crater. 5th century BC e.

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

In an ancient Greek play, lines were distributed among three or two actors. This rule was violated and the number of actors could reach up to five. It was believed that the first role was the most important, and only the actor who played the first role, the protagonist, could receive payment from the state and compete for an acting prize. The word "tritagonist", which refers to the third actor, took on the meaning of "third-rate" and was used almost as a curse word. Actors, like poets, were strictly divided into comic and.

Initially, only one actor was involved in the plays - and that was the playwright himself. According to legend, Aeschylus introduced a second actor, and Sophocles was the first to refuse to play in his tragedies because his voice was too weak. Since all roles in ancient Greek were performed in, the actor’s skill primarily lay in the art of controlling voice and speech. The actor also had to sing well in order to perform solo arias in tragedies. The separation of actors into a separate profession was completed by the 4th century BC. e.

In the IV-III centuries BC. e. acting troupes appeared, which were called “artisans of Dionysus”. Formally, they were considered religious organizations dedicated to the god of the theater. In addition to actors, they included costume designers, mask makers and dancers. The leaders of such troupes could achieve high positions in society.

The Greek word actor (hypokrites) in new European languages ​​acquired the meaning of “hypocrite” (for example, English hypocrite).

Apotropaic ἀποτρόπαιος

Apotropaia (from the ancient Greek verb apotrepo - “to turn away”) is a talisman that should ward off the evil eye and damage. Such a talisman can be an image, an amulet, or it can be a ritual or gesture. For example, a type of apotropaic magic that protects a person from harm is the familiar triple knocking on wood.

Gorgonion. Fragment of painting of a black-figure vase. End of the 6th century BC e.

Wikimedia Commons

Among the ancient Greeks, the most popular apotropaic sign was the image of the head of the gorgon Medusa with bulging eyes, protruding tongue and fangs: it was believed that a terrible face would scare away evil spirits. Such an image was called “Gorgoneion”, and it was, for example, an indispensable attribute of Athena’s shield.

The name could serve as a talisman: children were given “bad”, from our point of view, abusive names, because it was believed that this would make them unattractive to evil spirits and ward off the evil eye. Thus, the Greek name Eskhros comes from the adjective aiskhros - “ugly”, “ugly”. Apotropaic names were characteristic not only of ancient culture: probably the Slavic name Nekras (from which the common surname Nekrasov comes) was also apotropaic.

Swearing iambic poetry - the ritual swearing from which ancient Attic comedy grew - also performed an apotropaic function: to avert troubles from those whom it calls the last words.

God θεóς
Eros and Psyche before the Olympian gods. Drawing by Andrea Schiavone. Around 1540-1545

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The main gods of the ancient Greeks are called Olympian - after Mount Olympus in Northern Greece, which was considered their habitat. We learn about the origin of the Olympian gods, their functions, relationships and morals from the earliest works of ancient literature - poems and Hesiod.

The Olympian gods belonged to the third generation of gods. First, Gaia-Earth and Uranus-Sky emerged from Chaos, which gave birth to the Titans. One of them, Cronus, having overthrown his father, seized power, but, fearing that the children might threaten his throne, swallowed his newborn offspring. His wife Rhea managed to save only the last baby, Zeus. Having matured, he overthrew Cronus and established himself on Olympus as the supreme deity, sharing power with his brothers: Poseidon became the ruler of the sea, and Hades - the underworld. There were twelve main Olympian gods, but their list could differ in different parts of the Greek world. Most often, in addition to the already mentioned gods, the Olympic pantheon included Zeus's wife Hera - the patroness of marriage and family, as well as his children: Apollo - the god of divination and patron of the muses, Artemis - the goddess of the hunt, Athena - the patroness of crafts, Ares - the god of war, Hephaestus - the patron blacksmith's skill and the messenger of the gods Hermes. They were also joined by the goddess of love Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility Demeter, Dionysus - the patron of winemaking and Hestia - the goddess of the hearth.

In addition to the main gods, the Greeks also revered nymphs, satyrs and other mythological creatures that inhabited the entire surrounding world - forests, rivers, mountains. The Greeks imagined their gods as immortal, having the appearance of beautiful, physically perfect people, often living with the same feelings, passions and desires as mere mortals.

Bacchanalia βακχεíα

Bacchus, or Bacchus, is one of the names of Dionysus. The Greeks believed that he sent ritual madness to his followers, because of which they began to dance wildly and frantically. The Greeks called this Dionysian ecstasy the word “bacchanalia” (bakkheia). There was also a Greek verb with the same root - bakkheuo, “to bacchant,” that is, to participate in the Dionysian mysteries.

Usually women bacchanted, who were called “bacchantes” or “maenads” (from the word mania - madness). They united into religious communities - fias and went to the mountains. There they took off their shoes, let their hair down and put on non-breeds - animal skins. The rituals took place at night by torchlight and were accompanied by screams.

Heroes of myths often have close but conflictual relationships with the gods. For example, the name Hercules means “the glory of Hera”: Hera, the wife of Zeus and the queen of the gods, on the one hand, tormented Hercules all her life because she was jealous of Zeus for Alcmene, but she also became the indirect cause of his glory. Hera sent madness to Hercules, because of which the hero killed his wife and children, and then, in order to atone for his guilt, he was forced to carry out the orders of his cousin Eurystheus - it was in the service of Eurystheus that Hercules performed his twelve labors.

Despite their dubious moral character, many Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Perseus and Achilles, were objects of worship: people brought them gifts and prayed for health. It is difficult to say what appeared first - myths about the exploits of the hero or his cult; there is no consensus among scientists on this matter, but the connection between heroic myths and cults is obvious. The cults of heroes differed from the cult of ancestors: people who revered this or that hero did not always trace their ancestry back to him. Often the cult of a hero was tied to some ancient grave, the name of the person buried in which had already been forgotten: tradition turned it into the grave of a hero, and rituals and rituals began to be performed on it.

In some places, heroes quickly began to be revered at the state level: for example, the Athenians worshiped Theseus, who was considered the patron saint of the city; in Epidaurus there was a cult of Asclepius (originally a hero, the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, as a result of apotheosis - that is, deification - becoming the god of healing), since it was believed that he was born there; in Olympia, in the Peloponnese, Pelops was revered as the founder (Peloponnese literally means “Pelops’ island”). The cult of Hercules was state-owned in several countries at once.

Hybris ὕβρις

Hybris, translated from ancient Greek, literally means “insolence,” “out of the ordinary behavior.” When a character in a myth shows hybris in relation to, he certainly suffers punishment: the concept of “hybris” reflects the Greek idea that human arrogance and pride always lead to disaster.

Hercules frees Prometheus. Fragment of painting of a black-figure vase. 7th century BC e.

Hybris and the punishment for it are present, for example, in the myth about the titan Prometheus, who stole fire from Olympus and was chained to a rock for this, and about Sisyphus, who in the afterlife eternally rolls a heavy stone uphill for deceiving the gods (there are different versions of his hybrid, in the most common one he deceived and chained the god of death Thanatos, so that people stopped dying for a while).

The element of hybris is contained in almost every Greek myth and is an integral element of the behavior of heroes and: the tragic hero must experience several emotional stages: koros (koros - “excess”, “satiation”), hybris and ate (ate - “madness”, “grief” ).

We can say that without hybrid there is no hero: going beyond what is permitted is the main act of a heroic character. The duality of Greek myth and Greek tragedy lies precisely in the fact that the hero’s feat and his punished insolence are often one and the same thing.

The second meaning of the word “hybris” is recorded in legal practice. In the Athenian court, hybris was defined as "an attack on the Athenians." Hybris included any form of violence and trampling of boundaries, as well as unholy attitude towards deities.

Gymnasium γυμνάσιον
Athletes in the gymnasium. Athens, 6th century BC e.

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

Initially, this was the name given to places for physical exercise, where young men prepared for military service and sports, which were an indispensable attribute of most public ones. But pretty soon the gymnasiums turned into real educational centers, where physical education was combined with education and intellectual communication. Gradually, some of the gymnasiums (especially in Athens under the influence of Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes and others) became, in fact, prototypes of universities.

The word “gymnasium” apparently comes from the ancient Greek gymnos - “naked”, since they trained naked in gymnasiums. In ancient Greek culture, the athletic male body was perceived as aesthetically attractive; physical exercises were considered pleasing, gymnasiums were under their patronage (primarily Hercules and Hermes) and were often located next to sanctuaries.

At first, gymnasiums were simple courtyards surrounded by porticos, but over time they grew into entire complexes of covered premises (which contained changing rooms, baths, etc.), united by a courtyard. Gymnasiums formed an important part of the way of life of the ancient Greeks and were a matter of state concern; supervision over them was entrusted to a special official - the gymnasiarch.

Citizen πολίτης

A citizen was considered a member of the community who had full political, legal and other rights. We owe to the ancient Greeks the development of the very concept of “citizen” (in ancient Eastern monarchies there were only “subjects”, whose rights could be infringed at any time by the ruler).

In Athens, where the concept of citizenship was especially well developed in political thought, a full citizen, according to the law adopted under Pericles in the middle of the 5th century BC. e., there could only be a man (although the concept of citizenship, with various restrictions, extended to women), a resident of Attica, the son of Athenian citizens. Upon reaching the age of eighteen and after a thorough check of origin, his name was included in the list of citizens, which was maintained according to. However, in fact, the Athenian received full rights after completing his service.

An Athenian citizen had rights and duties closely related to each other, the most important of which were the following:

— the right to freedom and personal independence;

- the right to own a piece of land - associated with the obligation to cultivate it, since the community allocated each of its members with land so that he could feed himself and his family;

- the right to participate in the militia, while defending one’s loved one with arms in hand was also the duty of a citizen;

Athenian citizens valued their privileges, so it was very difficult to obtain citizenship: it was given only in exceptional cases, for some special services to the polis.

Homer Ὅμηρος
Homer (center) in Raphael's fresco "Parnassus". Vatican, 1511

Wikimedia Commons

They joke that the Iliad was not written by Homer, but by “another blind ancient Greek.” According to Herodotus, the author of the Iliad and Odyssey lived “no earlier than 400 years before me,” that is, in the 8th or even 9th century BC. e. The German philologist Friedrich August Wolf argued in 1795 that Homer's poems were created later, already in the written era, from scattered folk tales. It turned out that Homer is a conventional legendary figure like the Slavic Boyan, and the real author of masterpieces is a completely “different ancient Greek”, an editor-compiler from Athens at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC. e. The customer could have been Pisistratus, who arranged for singers to be the envy of others at the Athenian festivals. The problem of the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey was called the Homeric question, and Wolf's followers, who sought to identify heterogeneous elements in these poems, were called analysts.

The era of speculative theories about Homer ended in the 1930s, when the American philologist Milman Perry organized an expedition to compare the Iliad and Odyssey with the epic of Bosnian storytellers. It turned out that the art of illiterate Balkan singers is built on improvisation: the poem is created anew each time and is never repeated verbatim. Improvisation is made possible by formulas - repeated combinations that can be slightly changed on the fly, adapting to a changing context. Parry and his student Albert Lord showed that the formulaic structures of the Homeric text are very similar to the Balkan material, and, therefore, the Iliad and Odyssey should be considered oral poems that were dictated at the dawn of the invention of the Greek alphabet by one or two improvising narrators.

Greek
language ἑλληνικὴ γλῶσσα

It is believed that the Greek language is much more complex than Latin. This is true if only because it is divided into several dialects (from five to a dozen, depending on the purposes of the classification). Some works of art (Mycenaean and Arcado-Cypriot) have not survived; they are known from inscriptions. On the contrary, the dialect was never spoken: it was an artificial language of storytellers, combining the features of several regional variants of Greek. Other dialects in their literary dimension were also tied to genres and. For example, the poet Pindar, whose native dialect was Aeolian, wrote his works in the Dorian dialect. The recipients of his praise songs were winners from different parts of Greece, but their dialect, like his own, did not influence the language of the works.

Dem δῆμος
Plates with the full names of the citizens of Athens and the deme. IV century BC e.

Wikimedia Commons

Deme in Ancient Greece was the name given to a territorial district, and sometimes to the inhabitants who lived there. At the end of the 6th century BC. e., after the reforms of the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes, the deme became the most important economic, political and administrative unit in Attica. It is believed that the number of demos under Cleisthenes reached hundreds, and later increased significantly. Demes varied in population size; the largest Attic demes were Acharnes and Eleusis.

The Canon of Polykleitos dominated Greek art for about a hundred years. At the end of the 5th century BC. e., after the war with Sparta and the plague, a new attitude to the world was born - it ceased to seem so simple and clear. Then the figures created by Polykleitos began to seem too heavy, and the refined, individualistic works of the sculptors Praxiteles and Lysippus replaced the universal canon.

In the era of Hellenism (IV-I centuries BC), with the formation of the idea of ​​​​art in the 5th century BC. e. as an ideal, classical antiquity, the word “canon” began to mean, in principle, any set of immutable norms and rules.

Catharsis κάθαρσις

This term comes from the Greek verb kathairo ("to purify") and is one of the most important, but at the same time controversial and difficult to understand terms of Aristotelian aesthetics. It is traditionally believed that Aristotle sees the goal of the Greek precisely in catharsis, while he mentions this concept in the Poetics only once and does not give it any formal definition: according to Aristotle, tragedy “with the help of compassion and fear” carries out “catharsis ( purification) of such affects." Researchers and commentators have been struggling with this short phrase for hundreds of years: by affects, Aristotle means fear and compassion, but what does “purification” mean? Some believe that we are talking about the purification of the affects themselves, others - about the cleansing of the soul from them.

Those who believe that catharsis is the purification of affects explain that the viewer who experiences catharsis at the end of the tragedy experiences relief (and pleasure), since the fear and compassion experienced are cleared of the pain they inevitably bring. The most important objection to this interpretation is that fear and compassion are painful in nature, so their “impurity” cannot lie in pain.

Another - and perhaps the most influential - interpretation of catharsis belongs to the German classical philologist Jacob Bernays (1824-1881). He drew attention to the fact that the concept of “catharsis” is most often found in ancient medical literature and means cleansing in the physiological sense, that is, getting rid of pathogenic substances in the body. Thus, for Aristotle, catharsis is a medical metaphor, apparently of a psychotherapeutic nature, and we are not talking about the purification of fear and compassion itself, but about the cleansing of the soul from these experiences. In addition, Bernays found another mention of catharsis in Aristotle - in the Politics. There we are talking about a medical cleansing effect: sacred chants heal people prone to extreme religious excitement. A principle similar to homeopathic is at work here: people prone to strong affects (for example, fear) are healed by experiencing these affects in small, safe doses - for example, in, where they can feel fear while being completely safe.

Ceramics κεραμικός

The word "ceramics" comes from the ancient Greek keramos ("river clay"). This was the name for clay products made under high temperature followed by cooling: vessels (made by hand or on a potter's wheel), flat painted or relief ceramic slabs that lined the walls of buildings, sculpture, stamps, seals and sinkers.

Clay dishes were used for storing and eating food, as well as in rituals and; it was given as a gift to temples and invested in burials. Many vessels, in addition to figurative images, have inscriptions scratched or applied with liquid clay - this could be the name of the owner, a dedication to a deity, a trade mark, or the signature of the potter and vase painter.

In the 6th century BC. e. The most widespread was the so-called black-figure technique: the reddish surface of the vessel was painted with black varnish, and individual details were scratched or colored with white paint and purple. Around 530 BC e. red-figure vessels spread: all the figures and ornaments on them were left in the color of clay, and the background around was covered with black lacquer, which was used to make the internal drawing.

Since ceramic vessels are very resistant to environmental influences due to their strong firing, tens of thousands of their fragments have been preserved. Therefore, ancient Greek ceramics are indispensable in establishing the age of archaeological finds. In addition, in their work, vase painters reproduced common mythological and historical subjects, as well as genre and everyday scenes - which makes ceramics an important source on the history of life and ideas of the ancient Greeks.

Comedy κωμῳδία
Comedy actor. Fragment of the crater painting. Around 350-325 BC. e. A crater is a vessel with a wide neck, two handles on the sides and a stem. Used to mix wine with water.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The word "comedy" consists of two parts: komos ("merry procession"), and ode ("song"). In Greece, this was the name for the genre of dramatic productions, which took place in Athens annually in honor of Dionysus. From three to five comedians took part in the competition, each of whom presented one play. The most famous comic poets of Athens were Aristophanes, Cratinus and Eupolis.

The plot of the ancient Athenian comedy is a mixture of fairy tale, bawdy farce and political satire. The action usually takes place in Athens and/or some fantastic place where the protagonist goes to realize his grandiose idea: for example, an Athenian flies on a huge dung beetle (a parody of Pegasus) into the sky to free and bring back to the city a goddess peace (such a comedy was staged in the year when a truce was concluded in the Peloponnesian War); or the god of the theater Dionysus goes to the underworld and judges a duel there between the playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides - whose tragedies are parodied in the text.

The genre of ancient comedy has been compared to the Carnival culture, in which everything is inverted: women engage in politics, seize the Acropolis” and refuse to have sex, demanding an end to the war; Dionysus dresses up in the lion skin of Hercules; the father instead of the son goes to study with Socrates; the gods send envoys to people to negotiate the resumption of interruptions. Jokes about genitals and feces sit alongside subtle allusions to scientific ideas and intellectual debates of the time. Comedy makes fun of everyday life, political, social and religious institutions, as well as literature, especially high style and symbolism. The characters in the comedy can be historical figures: politicians, generals, poets, philosophers, musicians, priests, and in general any notable figures of Athenian society. The comic consists of twenty-four people and often depicts animals (“Birds”, “Frogs”), personified natural phenomena (“Clouds”, “Islands”) or geographical objects (“Cities”, “Demes”).

In comedy, the so-called fourth wall is easily broken: the performers on stage can come into direct contact with the audience. For this purpose, in the middle of the play there is a special moment - a parabase - when the chorus, on behalf of the poet, addresses the audience and the jury, explaining why this comedy is the best and needs to be voted for.

Space κόσμος

The word “cosmos” among the ancient Greeks meant “creation”, “world order”, “universe”, as well as “decoration”, “beauty”: space was opposed to chaos and was closely associated with the idea of ​​harmony, order and beauty.

The cosmos consists of the upper (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underground) worlds. live on Olympus, a mountain that in real geography is located in Northern Greece, but in mythology is often synonymous with the sky. On Olympus, according to the Greeks, there is the throne of Zeus, as well as the palaces of the gods, built and decorated by the god Hephaestus. There the gods spend their time enjoying feasts and eating nectar and ambrosia - the drink and food of the gods.

The Oikumene, a part of the earth inhabited by humans, is washed on all sides by a single river, the Ocean, at the borders of the inhabited world. The center of the inhabited world is located in Delphi, in the sanctuary of Apollo Pythian; this place is marked by the sacred stone omphalus (“navel of the earth”) - to determine this point, Zeus sent two eagles from different ends of the earth, and they met exactly there. Another myth was associated with the Delphic omphalos: Rhea gave this stone to Cronus, who was devouring his offspring, instead of the baby Zeus, and it was Zeus who placed it at Delphi, thus marking the center of the earth. Mythological ideas about Delphi as the center of the world were also reflected in the first geographical maps.

In the bowels of the earth there is a kingdom where the god Hades rules (after his name the kingdom was called Hades) and the shadows of the dead live, over whom the sons of Zeus, distinguished by their special wisdom and justice - Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthus, judge.

The entrance to the underworld, guarded by the terrible three-headed dog Cerberus, is located in the far west, beyond the Ocean River. Several rivers flow in Hades itself. The most important among them are Lethe, whose waters give the souls of the dead oblivion of their earthly life, the Styx, whose waters the gods swear by, the Acheron, through which Charon transports the souls of the dead, the “river of tears” Cocytus and the fiery Pyriphlegethon (or Phlegethon).

Mask πρόσωπον
Comedian Menander with comedy masks. Roman copy of an ancient Greek relief. 1st century BC e.

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

We know that in Ancient Greece they played in masks (in Greek prosopon - literally “face”), although the masks themselves were from the 5th century BC. e. was not found in any excavations. From the images it can be assumed that the masks depicted human faces, distorted for comic effect; in Aristophanes' comedies "Wasps", "Birds" and "Frogs" animal masks could have been used. By changing masks, an actor could appear on stage in different roles in the same play. The actors were only men, but the masks allowed them to play female roles.

The masks were shaped like helmets with holes for the eyes and mouth - so that when the actor put on the mask, his entire head was hidden. Masks were made from light materials: starched linen, cork, leather; they came with wigs.

Meter μέτρον

Modern Russian versification is usually built on the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Greek verse looked different: it alternated long and short syllables. For example, the dactyl was not the sequence “stressed - unstressed - unstressed”, but “long - short - short”. The first meaning of the word daktylos is “finger” (cf. “fingerprint”), and the index finger consists of one long phalange and two shorter ones. The most common size, the hexameter (“six-meter”), consisted of six dactyls. The main meter of the drama was iambic - a two-syllable foot with a short first syllable and a long second. At the same time, substitutions were possible in most meters: for example, in a hexameter, instead of two short syllables, a long one was often found.

Mimesis μίμησις

The word "mimesis" (from the Greek verb mimeomai - "to imitate") is usually translated as "imitation", but this translation is not entirely correct; in most cases it would be more accurate to say not “imitation” or “imitation”, but “image” or “representation” - in particular, it is important that in most Greek texts the word “mimesis” does not have the negative connotation that the word “imitation” has "

The concept of "mimesis" is usually associated with the aesthetic theories of Plato and Aristotle, but, apparently, it originally arose in the context of early Greek cosmological theories based on the parallelism of microcosm and macrocosm: it was assumed that the processes in and processes in the human body are in mimetic similarity relations. By the 5th century BC. e. this concept is firmly rooted in the field of art and aesthetics - to such an extent that any educated Greek would most likely answer the question “What is a work of art?” - mimemata, that is, “images”. Nevertheless, it retained—particularly in Plato and Aristotle—some metaphysical connotations.

In the Republic, Plato argues that art should be banished from the ideal state, particularly because it is based on mimesis. His first argument is that every object existing in the sensory world is only an imperfect likeness of its ideal prototype located in the world of ideas. Plato's argument goes like this: the carpenter creates a bed by turning his attention to the idea of ​​a bed; but every bed he makes will always be only an imperfect imitation of its ideal prototype. Consequently, any representation of this bed - for example, a painting or sculpture - will only be an imperfect copy of an imperfect likeness. That is, art that imitates the sensory world further distances us from true knowledge (which can only be about ideas, but not about their likenesses) and, therefore, does harm. Plato's second argument is that art (such as ancient theater) uses mimesis to make audiences identify with and sympathize with characters. , moreover, caused not by a real event, but by mimesis, stimulates the irrational part of the soul and removes the soul from the control of reason. Such an experience is harmful for the entire collective: Plato’s ideal state is based on a rigid caste system, where the social role and occupation of everyone is strictly defined. The fact that in the theater the spectator identifies himself with different characters, often “socially alien”, undermines this system, where everyone should know their place.

Aristotle responded to Plato in his work “Poetics” (or “On the Poetic Art”). Firstly, man as a biological species is by nature prone to mimesis, therefore art cannot be expelled from an ideal state - this would be violence against human nature. Mimesis is the most important way of knowing and mastering the world around us: for example, with the help of mimesis in its simplest form, a child masters language. The painful sensations experienced by the viewer while watching lead to psychological release and, therefore, have a psychotherapeutic effect. The emotions that art evokes also contribute to knowledge: “poetry is more philosophical than history,” since the former addresses universals, while the latter considers only particular cases. Thus, a tragic poet, in order to believably portray his heroes and evoke in the viewer emotions appropriate to the occasion, must always reflect on how this or that character would behave in certain circumstances; Thus, the tragedy is a reflection on human character and human nature in general. Consequently, one of the most important goals of mimetic art is intellectual: it is the study of human nature.

Mysteries μυστήρια

Mysteries are religious with rites of initiation or mystical union with. They were also called orgies. The most famous mysteries - Eleusinian - took place in the temple of Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis, not far from Athens.

The Eleusinian mysteries were associated with the myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, whom Hades took to the underworld and made his wife. The inconsolable Demeter achieved the return of her daughter - but temporary: Persephone spends part of the year on earth, and part - in the underworld. The story of how Demeter, in search of Persephone, reached Eleusis and herself established the mysteries there, is described in detail in a hymn to Demeter. Since the myth tells of a journey leading to and returning from there, the mysteries associated with it were supposed to provide the initiates with a more favorable afterlife than that that awaited the uninitiated:

“Happy are those of earth-born people who have seen the sacrament. / The one who is not involved in them, after death will never be / Have a share like this in the many-gloomy kingdom of the underworld, ”the hymn says. What exactly is meant by “similar share” is not very clear.

The main thing that is known about the Eleusinian Mysteries themselves is their secrecy: initiates were strictly forbidden to disclose what exactly happened during the sacred actions. However, Aristotle tells something about the mysteries. According to him, initiates, or mystai, “gained experience” during the Mysteries. At the beginning of the ritual, the participants were somehow deprived of their ability to see. The word "myst" (literally "closed") can be understood as "with closed eyes" - perhaps the "experience" gained was associated with the feeling of being blind and being in darkness. During the second stage of initiation, the participants were already called “epopts,” that is, “those who saw.”

The Eleusinian Mysteries were incredibly popular among the Greeks and attracted numerous devotees to Athens. In The Frog, the god Dionysus meets the initiates in the underworld, who spend their time in blissful fun on the Champs Elysees.

The ancient theory of music is well known from special treatises that have come down to us. Some of them also describe the notation system (which was owned only by a narrow circle of professionals). In addition, there are several monuments with musical notations. But, firstly, we are talking about brief and often poorly preserved passages. Secondly, we lack a lot of details necessary for performance, concerning intonation, tempo, method of sound production, accompaniment. Thirdly, the musical language itself has changed, certain melodic moves do not evoke in us the same associations that the Greeks had. Therefore, existing musical fragments are hardly capable of resurrecting ancient Greek music as an aesthetic phenomenon.

Not a citizen Slaves picking olives. Black-figure amphora. Attica, around 520 BC. e.

The Trustees of the British Museum

The basis of the order is a column standing on three levels of the foundation. Its trunk ends in a capital supporting an entablature. The entablature consists of three parts: a stone beam - an architrave; above it is a frieze decorated with sculpture or painting, and, finally, a cornice - an overhanging slab that protects the building from rain. The dimensions of these parts are strictly consistent with each other. The unit of measure is the radius of the column - therefore, knowing it, you can restore the dimensions of the entire temple.

According to myths, the simple and courageous Doric order was designed by the architect Ion during the construction of the temple of Apollo Panionian. The Ionian type, lighter in proportions, appeared at the end of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. e. in Asia Minor. All elements of such a building are richerly decorated, and the capital is decorated with spiral curls - volutes. The Corinthian order was first used in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (second half of the 5th century BC). His invention is associated with a sad legend about a nurse who brought a basket with her favorite things to the grave of her pupil. After some time, the basket sprouted the leaves of a plant called acanthus. This view inspired the Athenian artist Callimachus to create an elegant capital with floral decoration.

Ostracism ὀστρακισμός
Ostracons for voting. Athens, around 482 BC. e.

Wikimedia Commons

The word "ostracism" comes from the Greek ostrakon - a shard, a fragment used for recording. In classical Athens, this was the name for a special vote of the people's assembly, with the help of which a decision was made to expel a person who posed a threat to the foundations of the state structure.

Most researchers believe that the law on ostracism was adopted in Athens under Cleisthenes, a statesman who in 508-507 BC. e., after the overthrow, he carried out a number of reforms in the city. However, the first known act of ostracism occurred only in 487 BC. e. - then Hipparchus, the son of Charm, a relative, was expelled from Athens.

Every year the people's assembly decided whether ostracism should be carried out. If it was recognized that there was such a need, each voting participant arrived at a specially fenced part of the agora, where ten entrances led - one for each Athenian phyle (after the reforms of Cleisthenes in the 6th century BC, this was the name of the territorial districts) , - and left there the shard he brought with him, on which was written the name of the person whom, in his opinion, should have been sent into exile. The one who received the majority of votes was sent into exile for ten years. His property was not confiscated, he was not deprived, but was temporarily excluded from political life (although sometimes an exile could be returned to his homeland ahead of schedule).

Initially, ostracism was intended to prevent the revival of tyrannical power, but it soon turned into a means of struggle for power and eventually ceased to be used. The last time ostracism was carried out was in 415 BC. e. Then the rival politicians Nicias and Alcibiades managed to come to an agreement with each other and the demagogue Hyperbolus was sent into exile.

Policy πόλις

The Greek polis could be relatively small in territory and population, although exceptions are known, for example Athens or Sparta. The formation of the polis occurred in the archaic era (VIII-VI centuries BC), V century BC. e. is considered the heyday of the Greek city-states, and in the first half of the 4th century BC. e. the classical Greek polis experienced a crisis - which, however, did not prevent it from continuing to remain one of the most important forms of organization of life.

Holiday ἑορτή

All holidays in Ancient Greece were associated with worship. Most holidays were held on certain dates, which formed the basis of the calendar of the ancient Greeks.

In addition to local holidays, there were Panhellenic holidays, common to all Greeks - they originated in the archaic era (that is, in the 8th-6th centuries BC) and played a crucial role in the formation of the idea of ​​pan-Greek unity, which in one form or another existed in throughout the history of independent Greece, despite the political independence of the poleis. All these holidays were accompanied by various kinds. In the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia (in the Peloponnese) they took place every four years. In the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (in Phocis), the Pythian Games were also held once every four years, the central event of which was the so-called musical agons - competitions. In the area of ​​the Isthmian Isthmus near Corinth, the Isthmian Games were held in honor of Poseidon and Melicert, and in the Nemean Valley in Argolis, the Nemean Games were held, at which Zeus was revered; both - once every two years.

Prose πεζὸς λόγος

Initially, prose did not exist: only one type of artistic speech was opposed to spoken language - poetry. However, with the advent of writing in the 8th century BC. e. stories began to appear about distant countries or events of the past. Social conditions were favorable to the development of eloquence: speakers sought not only to convince, but also to please their listeners. Already the first surviving books of historians and rhetoricians (History by Herodotus and the speeches of Lysias in the 5th century BC) can be called artistic prose. Unfortunately, from Russian translations it is difficult to understand how aesthetically perfect the philosophical dialogues of Plato or the historical works of Xenophon (IV century BC) were. Greek prose of this period is striking in its discrepancy with modern genres: there is no novel, no short story, no essay; however, later, in the Hellenistic era, an ancient novel appeared. A common name for prose did not appear immediately: Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the 1st century BC. e. uses the expression “walking speech” - the adjective “foot” could also mean “(most) ordinary.”

Satyr drama δρα̃μα σατυρικόν
Dionysus and the satyr. Painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, around 430-420 BC. e.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

A dramatic genre that consists of satyrs, mythological characters from the retinue of Dionysus. In the tragic competitions held on, each tragedian presented three, which ended with a short and funny satyr play.

Sphinx Σφίγξ
Two sphinxes. Ceramic pixida. Around 590-570 BC. e. Pixida is a round box or casket with a lid.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

We find this mythological creature among many peoples, but its image was especially widespread in the beliefs and art of the ancient Egyptians. In ancient Greek mythology, the sphinx (or “sphinx”, because the ancient Greek word “sphinx” is feminine) is the creation of Typhon and Echidna, a monster with the face and breasts of a woman, the paws and body of a lion, and the wings of a bird. Among the Greeks, the Sphinx is most often a bloodthirsty monster.

Among the legends associated with the Sphinx, the myth of the Sphinx was especially popular in antiquity. The Sphinx lay in wait for travelers near Thebes in Boeotia, asked them an unsolvable riddle and, without receiving an answer, killed them - according to different versions, either devoured them or threw them off a cliff. The riddle of the Sphinx was as follows: “Who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two, and in the evening on three?” Oedipus was able to give the correct answer to this riddle: this is a man who crawls in infancy, walks on two legs in his prime, and leans on a stick in old age. After this, as the myth tells, the Sphinx threw itself from the cliff and fell to its death.

A riddle and the ability to solve it are important attributes and a frequent designation in ancient literature. This is exactly what the image of Oedipus turns out to be in ancient Greek mythology. Another example is the sayings of the Pythia, a servant of the famous Apollo in Delphi: Delphic prophecies often contained riddles, hints and ambiguities, which, according to many ancient writers, are characteristic of the speech of prophets and sages.

Theater θέατρον
Theater in Epidaurus. Built around 360 BC. e.

According to some researchers, the rule of returning money was introduced by the politician Pericles in the 5th century BC. e., others associate it with the name Aguirria and date it back to the beginning of the 4th century BC. e. In the middle of the 4th century, “show money” constituted a special fund, to which the state attached great importance: in Athens for some time there was a law on the death penalty for proposing to use the money from the show fund for other needs (it is associated with the name of Eubulus, who had been in charge of this fund since 354 BC.).

Tyranny τυραννίς

The word “tyranny” is not of Greek origin; in the ancient tradition it was first found by the poet Archilochus in the 7th century BC. e. This was the name of one-man rule, established illegally and, as a rule, by force.

Tyranny first arose among the Greeks during the era of the formation of Greek - this period was called early, or older, tyranny (VII-V centuries BC). Some of the older tyrants became famous as outstanding and wise rulers - and Periander of Corinth and Peisistratus of Athens were even named among the "". But basically, the ancient tradition has preserved evidence of the ambition, cruelty and arbitrariness of tyrants. Particularly noteworthy is the example of Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragant, who was said to have roasted people in a copper bull as punishment. The tyrants brutally dealt with the clan nobility, destroying its most active leaders - their rivals in the struggle for power.

The danger of tyranny - a regime of personal power - was soon understood by the Greek communities, and they got rid of the tyrants. Nevertheless, tyranny had an important historical significance: it weakened the aristocracy and thereby made it easier for the demos to fight for the future of political life and the triumph of the principles of the polis.

In the 5th century BC. e., in the era of the heyday of democracy, the attitude towards tyranny in Greek society was clearly negative. However, in the IV century BC. e., in an era of new social upheavals, Greece experienced a revival of tyranny, which is called late, or younger.

Tyrannicides τυραννοκτόνοι
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Fragment of the painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, around 400 BC. e.

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

The Athenian Harmodius and Aristogeiton were called tyrannicides, who, prompted by personal resentment, in 514 BC. e. led a conspiracy to overthrow the Peisistratids (sons of the tyrant Peisistratus) Hippias and Hipparchus. They managed to kill only the youngest of the brothers, Hipparchus. Harmodius died immediately at the hands of the bodyguards of the Pisistratids, and Aristogeiton was captured, tortured and executed.

In the 5th century BC. e., in the heyday of Athens, when anti-tyrannical sentiments were especially strong there, Harmodius and Aristogeiton began to be considered the greatest heroes and their images were surrounded with special honor. They had statues made by the sculptor Antenor installed, and their descendants received various privileges from the state. In 480 BC. e., during the Greco-Persian Wars, when Athens was captured by the army of the Persian king Xerxes, the statues of Antenor were taken to Persia. Some time later, new ones were installed in their place, the works of Critias and Nesiot, which have come down to us in Roman copies. The statues of tyrant fighters are believed to have influenced the ideological concept of the sculptural group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which belonged to the architect Boris Iofan; this sculpture was made by Vera Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.

Tragedy τραγῳδία

The word “tragedy” consists of two parts: “goat” (tragos) and “song” (ode), why - . In Athens, this was the name for the genre of dramatic productions, between which competitions were organized at other holidays. The festival, held in Dionysus, featured three tragic poets, each of whom had to present a tetralogy (three tragedies and one) - as a result, the audience watched nine tragedies in three days.

Most of the tragedies have not reached us - only their names and sometimes small fragments are known. The complete text of seven tragedies by Aeschylus (in total he wrote about 60), seven tragedies by Sophocles (out of 120) and nineteen tragedies by Euripides (out of 90) has been preserved. In addition to these three tragedians who entered the classical canon, approximately 30 other poets composed tragedies in 5th-century Athens.

Typically, tragedies in tetralogy were interconnected in meaning. The plots were based on the stories of heroes of the mythical past, from which the most shocking episodes were selected related to war, incest, cannibalism, murder and betrayal, often occurring within the same family: a wife kills her husband, and then she is killed by her own son (“Oresteia” Aeschylus), the son learns that he is married to his own mother (“Oedipus the King” by Sophocles), the mother kills her children to take revenge on her husband for betrayal (“Medea” by Euripides). Poets experimented with myths: they added new characters, changed the storyline, and introduced themes that were relevant to the Athenian society of their time.

All tragedies were necessarily written in verse. Some parts were sung as solo arias or lyrical parts of the choir with accompaniment, and could also be accompanied by dance. The maximum number on stage in a tragedy is three. Each of them played several roles during the production, since there were usually more characters.

Phalanx φάλαγξ
Phalanx. Modern illustration

Wikimedia Commons

The phalanx is a combat formation of the ancient Greek infantry, which was a dense formation of heavily armed infantrymen - hoplites in several ranks (from 8 to 25).

Hoplites were the most important part of the ancient Greek militia. The complete set of military equipment (panoplia) of the hoplites included armor, helmet, greaves, round shield, spear and sword. Hoplites fought in close formation. The shield that each phalanx warrior held in his hand covered the left side of his body and the right side of the warrior standing next to him, so the most important condition for success was the coordination of actions and the integrity of the phalanx. The flanks were the most vulnerable in such a battle formation, so cavalry was placed on the wings of the phalanx.

The phalanx is believed to have appeared in Greece in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. In the VI-V centuries BC. e. The phalanx was the main battle formation of the ancient Greeks. In the middle of the 4th century BC. e. King Philip II of Macedonia created the famous Macedonian phalanx, adding some innovations to it: he increased the number of ranks and adopted long spears - saris. Thanks to the successes of the army of his son Alexander the Great, the Macedonian phalanx was considered an invincible striking force.

Philosophical school σχολή

Any Athenian who had reached the age of twenty and had served could take part in the work of the Athenian ecclesia, including proposing laws and seeking their repeal. In Athens during its heyday, attendance at the national assembly, as well as the performance of public office, was paid; The amount of the payment has varied, but it is known that in Aristotle's time it was equal to the minimum daily wage. They usually voted by show of hands or (less often) with special stones, and in case of ostracism, with shards.

Initially, public meetings in Athens took place from the 5th century BC. e. - on the Pnyx hill 400 meters southeast of the agora, and somewhere after 300 BC. e. they were transferred to Dionysus.

Epic ἔπος

Speaking about the epic, we first of all remember the poems about and: “Iliad” and “Odyssey” or the poem about the campaign of the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes (III century BC). But along with the heroic epic there was a didactic one. The Greeks loved to put books of useful and educational content in the same sublimely poetic form. Hesiod wrote a poem about how to run a peasant farm (“Works and Days,” 7th century BC), Aratus devoted his work to astronomy (“Apparitions,” 3rd century BC), Nikander wrote about poisons (II century BC), and Oppian - about hunting and fishing (II-III centuries AD). In these works, the “Iliads” and “Odysseys” - hexameter - were strictly observed and signs of Homeric poetic language were present, although some of their authors were a thousand years removed from Homer.

Ephebe ἔφηβος
Ephebe with a hunting spear. Roman relief. Around 180 AD e.

Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

After 305 BC. e. The institution of ephebia was transformed: service was no longer compulsory, and its duration was reduced to a year. Now the ephebes included mainly noble and rich young people.