호메로스(Homeros)의 시 세계 고찰: 일리아스(Ilias) 읽기를 중심으로

Abstract

Ilias, along with Odysseia, also attributed to Homeros, is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version, usually dated to around the eighth century BC. Ilias was a standard work of great importance in classical Greece and remained so throughout the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. During the Renaissance, with the resurgence of interest in Greek antiquity, Homer also came to be of great influence in European culture. And The Ilias remains the first and most influential work of the Western canon till now, proving as a living influence to western literature and culture as the very origin of classical resources. Demonstrating the way force, The Ilias has served for the important resources of contemporary popular culture, through epic science fiction adaptations/tributes, or novels, or stage versions or film adaptations. What is the cause which hinders the access to this "classic of classics", despite of the approved necessity of reading it? Ironically, the very genius of Homeros, resulting in numberless commentators, has made the reading very difficult. Now is the time we should claim and restore our right to read and appreciate Ilias, as it is, as the epic poem composed by Homeros, ‘a conscious literary artist.’This paper purposes to examine the makeup of Homer’s verse, in order to survey what creates the supreme masterpiece that has been handed down to us over more than two and a half millennia. It focuses on the investigation of the structure, the use of formulae, the ryhme, the essential poetic qualities, and the similies, in Ilias as an oral poetry. And it also observes the portrayals of the major human characters, including Achilleus and Hector, the two opposing representative human types in us. Reading Ilias leads us to approve that Ilias is a work composed by an original conscious literary artist, Homeros, rather than a literary amalgam of itinerant rhapsode handed down by many unknown bards.