Five centuries Nicholas Kun Based on Hesiod's poem "Works and Days" The poet Hesiod tells how the Greeks of his day viewed the origin of man and the change of centuries. In ancient times, everything was better, but life on earth was constantly deteriorating, and the worst of all was in the time of Hesiod. This is understandable for Hesiod, a representative of the peasantry, small landowners. During the time of Hesiod, the stratification into classes deepened and the exploitation of the poor by the rich intensified, so the poor peasantry really did not live well under the yoke of the rich large landowners. Of course, after Hesiod the life of the poor in Greece did not get any better; the rich continued to exploit them. Zeus and Hera. Relief from the sanctuary of Hera on the island. Samos. Wood. End of the 7th century BC e. Zeus and Hera. Relief from the sanctuary of Hera on the island. Samos. Wood. End of the 7th century BC e. The immortal gods living on the bright Olympus created the first human race to be happy; it was a golden age. God Cronus then ruled in heaven. As blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing no care, no work, no sorrow. Nor did they know weak old age; their legs and arms were always strong and strong. Their painless, happy life was an eternal feast. The death that followed their long life was like a calm, quiet sleep. They had everything in abundance during their lifetime. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to spend labor on cultivating fields and orchards. Their herds were numerous, and they quietly grazed on fat pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and no one was left of the people of this generation. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in mist, they rush across the earth, defending the truth and punishing evil. So Zeus rewarded them after their death. The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was the Silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal either in strength or reason to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up unreasonable in the homes of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw a lot of misfortunes and grief in their lives. The people of the Silver Age were disobedient. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn their sacrifices on the altars, the great son of Cronus Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them for not obeying the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the shadowy underground kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; they, too, are honored by people. Father Zeus created the third kind and the third century - the copper age. It does not look like silver. From the shaft of a spear, Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the copper age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the land that the gardens and arable lands give. Zeus gave them tremendous growth and unbreakable strength. Their heart was indomitable, courageous and their hands were irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were from copper, they worked with copper tools. They did not know dark iron in those days. The people of the copper age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. Strong as they were, the black death took them away, and they left the clear light of the sun. As soon as this family descended into the kingdom of shadows, immediately the great Zeus created on the earth feeding all the fourth century and a new human race, a more noble, fairer, equal to the gods race of demigods-heroes. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-fold Thebes, in the land of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell near Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Elena, and sailed across the wide sea in ships. When all of them were kidnapped by death, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The hero demigods live on the islands of the blessed by the stormy waters of the Ocean, a happy, carefree life. There the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey. The last, fifth century and the human race is iron. It continues now on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, people are ruined by sorrows and exhausting work. The gods send people heavy worries. True, gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not observe this oath, do not value truth and goodness. Each other's cities are being destroyed. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued. Goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white robes they flew up to the high Olympus to the immortal gods, and people were left with only grave troubles, and they have no protection from evil.
The first century of mankind was the golden age, when people directly communicated with the gods and ate with them at the same table, and mortal women gave birth to children from the gods. There was no need to work: people ate milk and honey, which at that time were in abundance throughout the earth. They didn't know sadness. Some argue that the golden age ended when people became too cocky with the gods, arrogant and arrogant. Some of the mortals even allegedly demanded equal wisdom and strength with the gods.
Then came the Silver Age, when people had to learn to cultivate the soil in order to get food for themselves. They began to eat bread. However, despite the fact that people then lived up to a hundred years, they were too effeminate and completely dependent on their mothers. They constantly complained about everything and quarreled among themselves. In the end, the great god Zeus got tired of looking at them, and he destroyed them.
The first Bronze Age followed. The first people of this kind fell from ash trees like seeds. People at that time ate bread and meat, and they were much more useful than the people of the Silver Age. But they were too belligerent and in the end they all killed each other.
The second Bronze Age was the era of glorious heroes. These people were born of gods and mortal women. Hercules and the heroes of the Trojan War lived in this century. People fought valiantly, lived a virtuous and honest life, and after death fell on the blessed Champs Elysees.
Our time is the Iron Age. It is easy to see that with each new century the value of the corresponding metal decreases. The same happens with the character of mankind: in the Iron Age it is much worse than in all previous eras. People no longer communicate with gods; moreover, they have lost their piety altogether. Who, then, can blame the gods for indifference to man? The people of the Iron Age are treacherous, arrogant, lustful and cruel. The only reason the gods have not yet destroyed humanity is that there are still a few righteous people left.
Cit. Quoted from: J.F.Birlins. Parallel mythology
State Polar Academy
Department of Russian Language and Literature
Hesiod's myth of the five centuries. Origins and Parallels in Other Mythologies.
Completed by: Remizov Dmitry
Group: 211-A
Saint Petersburg 2002
The lifetime of Hesiod lends itself only to an approximate definition: the end of the VIII or the beginning of the VII century. BC. He is thus a younger contemporary of the Homeric epic. But while the question of the individual “creator” of the Iliad or the Odyssey is a complex and unsolved problem, Hesiod is the first clearly expressed personality in Greek literature. He gives his name himself or gives some biographical information about himself. Hesiod's father left Asia Minor due to severe need and settled in Boeotia, near the "Mount of Muses" of Helikon
Near Helikon he settled in the village of the joyless Askre,
"Works and days"
Boeotia was one of the relatively backward agricultural regions of Greece with a large number of small peasant farms, with a poor development of handicrafts and urban life. Monetary relations had already penetrated into this backward area, undermining a closed natural economy and traditional way of life, but the Boeotian peasantry defended its economic independence for a long time. Hesiod himself was a small landowner and at the same time a rhapsode (itinerant singer). As a rhapsodist, he probably performed heroic songs as well, but his own work belongs to the field of didactic (edifying) epic. In the era of breaking old social relations, Hesiod appears as a poet of peasant labor, a teacher of life, a moralist and a systematizer of mythological legends.
Two poems have survived from Hesiod: "Theogony" (The Origin of the Gods) and "Works and Days" ("Works and Days").
The reason for writing the poem "Works and Days" was the process of Hesiod with his brother Pers because of the division of the land after the death of his father. The poet considered himself offended by the judges from the tribal nobility; at the beginning of the poem, he complains about the venality of these "kings", "gift eaters"
... you praise the gift-eating kings,
Our dispute with you is completely, as you wished, judged.
In the main part, Hesiod describes the work of the farmer during the year; he calls on the bankrupt brother of Persus to honest labor, which alone can give wealth. The poem ends with a list of "happy and unlucky days." Hesiod is very observant; he introduces vivid descriptions of nature, genre paintings, knows how to rivet the reader's attention with vivid images.
Particular attention in the poem should be paid to the myth of the five centuries. According to Hesiod, all world history is divided into five periods: the golden age, the silver, copper, heroic and iron.
The immortal gods living on the bright Olympus created the first human race to be happy; it was golden age... God Cronus then ruled in heaven. As blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing no care, no work, no sorrow. Nor did they know weak old age; their legs and arms were always strong and strong. Their painless, happy life was an eternal feast. The death that followed after a long life was like a calm, quiet sleep. They had everything in abundance during their lifetime. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to spend labor on cultivating fields and orchards. Their herds were numerous, and they quietly grazed on fat pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and no one was left of the people of this generation. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in mist, they rush across the earth, defending the truth and punishing evil. So Zeus rewarded them after their death.
The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was silver Age... The people of the Silver Age were not equal either in strength or reason to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up unreasonable in the homes of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw a lot of misfortunes and grief in their lives. The people of the Silver Age were disobedient. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn their sacrifices on the altars, the great son of Cronus Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them for not obeying the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the shadowy underground kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; they, too, are honored by people.
Father Zeus created the third kind and the third century - copper age... It does not look like silver. From the shaft of a spear, Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the copper age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the land that the gardens and arable land give. Zeus gave them tremendous growth and unbreakable strength. Their heart was indomitable, courageous and their hands were irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were from copper, they worked with copper tools. They did not know dark iron in those days. The people of the copper age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. Strong as they were, the black death took them away, and they left the clear light of the sun.
As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, immediately the great Zeus created on the earth feeding all the fourth century and a new human race, a more noble, more just, equal to the gods race demigods heroes... And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-fold Thebes, in the land of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell near Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Elena, and sailed across the wide sea in ships. When all of them were kidnapped by death, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The hero demigods live on the islands of the blessed by the stormy waters of the Ocean, a happy, carefree life. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.
The last, fifth century and the human race - iron... It continues now on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, people are ruined by sorrows and exhausting work. The gods send people heavy worries. True, gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not observe this oath, do not value truth and goodness. Each other's cities are being destroyed. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued. Goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white clothes, they flew up to the high Olympus to the immortal gods, and people were left with only grave troubles, and they have no protection from evil.
From a socio - historical point of view, this passage is extremely important, since it depicts the disintegration of family ties and the beginning of a class society, where indeed everyone is enemies to each other.
The picture of the turn of the century is of absolutely exceptional importance in world literature. The poet for the first time captured in it the idea of \u200b\u200bantiquity about continuous regression in the spiritual and material spheres. It is the development of a more general worldly wisdom in Homer (Od. II, 276):
Sons are rarely like fathers, but for the most part
The parts are all worse than the fathers, only a few are better.
The transfer to the distant, immemorial antiquity of the state of earthly perfection - the doctrine of the "golden age" - is characteristic of folk ideas and is known among many peoples (ethnologist Fritz Grebner notes it, for example, among the Indians of Central America). The biblical teaching about an earthly paradise, based on Babylonian myths, should also be referred to it. Similar moments are found in Indian philosophy. But this general idea was developed by Hesiod into a whole system of the stepwise fall of humanity. Later literary forms of the same idea are found, for example, in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, a Roman poet who lived from 43 BC. to 18 AD
Ovid presents four centuries: gold, silver, copper and iron. A golden age in which people lived without judges. There were no wars. Nobody tried to conquer foreign lands. There was no need to work - the earth brought everything by itself. It was spring forever. Rivers of milk and nectar flowed.
Then came the Silver Age, when Saturn was overthrown and Jupiter took over the world. Summer, winter and autumn appeared. There were houses, people began to work to get their own food. Then came the copper age
He was a harsher spirit, prone to terrible abuse,
But not criminal yet. The latter is all made of iron.
Instead of shame, truth and fidelity, deception and deceit, intrigue, violence and a passion for possession appeared. People began to travel to foreign lands. They began to divide the land, to fight with each other. Everyone began to fear each other: the guest is the owner, the husband is the wife, the brother is the brother, the son-in-law is the father-in-law, etc.
However, there are differences between the ideas of Ovid and Hesiod: in Ovid there is a continuous fall, figuratively expressed in a decrease in the value of the metal, which designates the "age": gold, silver, copper, iron. With Hesiod, the descent is temporarily delayed: the fourth generation is the heroes, heroes of the Trojan and Theban wars; the lifetime of this generation is not determined by any metal. The scheme itself is undoubtedly older than the time of Hesiod. Heroes are outside her. This complication is probably a tribute to the authority of the heroic epic, although the opposition of the class to which Hesiod belongs is directed against its ideology. The authority of Homeric heroes forced the author to take them beyond the gloomy picture of the third ("copper") generation.
Also in ancient literature we find a legend about the change of centuries, besides Ovid, at Aratus, partly Yergil, Horace, Juvenal and Babriy.
List of used literature:
1. THEM. Tronsky. History of Ancient Literature. Leningrad 1951
2. N.F. Deratani, N.A. Timofeeva. Reader on Ancient Literature. Volume I. Moscow 1958
3. Losev A.F., Taho-Godi A.A. and other Antique literature: Textbook for higher education. Moscow 1997.
4. ON. Kuhn. Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. Kaliningrad 2000
5. History of Greek Literature, vol. 1. Epic, lyrics, drama of the classical period. M.-L., 1947.
6. Hesiod. Works and days. Per V. Veresaev. 1940
THEN AND NOW
(The material is designed for 2 - 3 academic hours)
The main humanistic idea of \u200b\u200bthe section:
- humanity naturally went to the need to create rules that would organize the coexistence of different individuals. Respect for rules, including those that would limit the manifestation of violence in conflicts between people, is a prerequisite for the preservation of humanity.
Ethical purpose of the section:
Lead students to understand the meaning of the rules governing people's behavior in general and limiting violence in their power rivalry in particular.
Texts
for reading followed by analysis or discussion
myth "Five centuries"(retelling by the historian N.A.Kun of a fragment of Hesiod's poem "Works and days"), which reflects the idea of \u200b\u200bthe ancient Greek poet about the tendency of the development of human society towards disrespect for the established rules;
R. Kipling's tale "A cat that walked by itself"
, which allows you to discuss the possibility of a reasonable coexistence of different individuals who are able to respect the rights and obligations of each other.
Glossary of concepts:
Custom - a generally accepted order that has traditionally established the rules of social behavior.
The rule - position, setting, principle, serving as a guide to something; the way of thinking and acting adopted by someone.
Contract - written or oral agreement, a condition of mutual obligations.
If the teacher considers it possible to begin work on assimilating the concepts "humane", "humanistic", "humanitarian" already at the first lessons on this teaching material, he can refer to the definitions of these concepts on page 70 of the guidelines.
TO THE LESSON ON THE MYTH "FIVE CENTURIES"
Objectives:
are common - to acquaint students with the ideas of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod about the logic of the development of human society; discuss the problem reflected in the myth: "Which way is humanity moving: towards respecting generally accepted rules or disregarding them";
private - to acquaint with a new type of mythological storytelling; continue the formation of vocabulary skills; to enrich students' ideas about such artistic means as epithet, allegory, metonymy.
Possible course of the lesson
"The affairs of bygone days ..."
The teacher prepares in advance on the blackboard a record of the conventional name of the lesson.
Deeds of days gone by
Legends of deep antiquity ...
These lines from Pushkin will allow us to start a conversation about a really distant time, about matters so old that now seem to us to be mythical ...
However, a little later I will ask you to turn to these lines again and answer the question: "The questions that we will discuss after getting acquainted with the works created a long time ago are really" things of bygone days "that were important and interesting THEN ? Or are they still worried about us, living NOW? "
Preparation for the perception of the text
On the blackboard, the teacher writes down the words "silver, iron, gold, copper". He then asks the students to arrange these words in a logical sequence and explain why they are suggesting this particular arrangement of words. The following chains are possible: gold-silver-copper-iron or vice versa - in this case the words are arranged in descending or increasing order of the value of natural materials.
Further, the teacher can address the students with the words:
- Today we have to get acquainted with the ancient Greek myth - it is called "Five centuries"... It was retold by the historian N.A. Kuhn based on the poem of Hesiod "Works and days".
(You can recall the content of the term "myth": it should be presented as a "prelogical" and not "alogical" awareness of the world. There are more emotions than logic in myths. They reflect the original ideas of people about the universe and connections in it, based on behavior gods with human properties - emotions first of all.All the narration of Hesiod, with which children will get acquainted a little later, is based on the emotional comprehension of the world and its changes.This type of narration is close to a fairy tale in that there is no exact dating in the presentation of events (time in the myth indefinite) and evidence.However, it differs from a fairy tale by focusing on the most important events, problems in people's lives.)
In this myth, the words, from which you built logical chains, are arranged in a special way, "played out". Can you guess by the name of the myth how exactly the words gold, silver, copper, iron will be played out in it? (Students are given the opportunity to express their guesses; the teacher can briefly record their guesses on the chalkboard.) Read the text to make sure your guesses are correct or wrong.
Hesiod (end of VIII-VII centuries BC) - the founder of the didactic epic in ancient Greek literature. Basic information about Hesiod is drawn from his poem "Works and days"... Despite the bitterness that pervades the poem, her mood is not hopeless. The poet seeks to find traits of good in his century, to indicate the source of hope. First of all, he believes in gods and human labor. Another poem "Theogony", Hesiod affirms the idea of \u200b\u200bthe power and glory of Zeus, not only the most powerful, but also the wise ruler of the world. The order of the universe is helped to maintain Zeus by his spouses: the goddess of fertility Demeter and the personification of the natural order of things Themis, who, in turn, gives birth to three Ohr - goddesses of the changing seasons: Eunomia, Dika, Irina (Law, Justice, Peace), denoting the foundations of ethical social norms. These names are significant: they indicate precisely those phenomena, the observance of which, according to Hesiod, was threatened.
According to M. Nikola
Reading text
At the stage of preparation for the lesson, the teacher may find additional information about Hesiod useful.
In the book for the student, not all the words that name the ancient Greek realities are explained, since some of them are already familiar to students from the history course. In addition to those indicated in the children's book, the following words may also need explanation:
Cadmus - the hero of ancient Greek myths, the founder of Thebes. After the abduction of Europa by Zeus, her brothers, including Cadmus, were sent by their father in search of their sister. The Delphic Oracle ordered K. to stop searching, follow the cow he meets, and build a city where she stops. Fulfilling this command, K. arrived in Boeotia (along with Attica, the most significant region of Ancient Greece), where he founded Cadmea - a citadel, around which later grew Thebes - the largest city of Boeotia, Homer - "sevenfold" Thebes.
Oedipus - the son of the Theban king Lai. The Delphic oracle predicted that in the future Oedipus would become the murderer of his father and the wife of his mother, therefore, by order of his father, he was thrown to be devoured by animals as a child. Found by the shepherds, Oedipus was handed over to the childless Corinthian king Poliv, who raised him as his son. Growing up, Oedipus met his father Lai at a crossroads and killed him, not knowing that it was his father. Oedipus freed Thebes from the Sphinx, solving its riddle, became king there and, suspecting nothing, married his mother. Having learned the truth, he blinded himself.
Kronos (Cronus) - one of the most ancient pre-Olympic gods, the son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth), the youngest of the Titans, who overthrew and maimed his father. Kronos's mother predicted that, like his father, he would be overthrown by one of his children. Therefore, Kronos swallowed all his newborn children. Only the youngest son of Kronos Zeus escaped this fate, instead of whom a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes was swallowed. Subsequently, Zeus overthrew his father and forced him to vomit all the children he swallowed. Under the leadership of Zeus, the children of Kronos declared war on the Titans, which lasted ten years. Together with the other defeated Titans, Kronos was thrown into Tartarus.
Initially, Kronos, apparently, was the god of agriculture, harvest (in some myths, the sickle was considered a weapon and attribute of Kronos). Kronos is associated with a legend about the golden age, during which Kronos ruled the world.
Folk etymology brought the name of Kronos closer to the Greek designation of time - chronos, and Kronos began to be considered as the god of time.
Ocean. 1. According to Hesiod - the son of Uranus and Gaia, the titan, the brother of Kronos, the husband of Tephis, who bore him three thousand sons - river deities and three thousand daughters - oceanids. The ocean lives in solitude in an underwater palace and does not appear at the gathering of the gods. In later myths, it is supplanted by Poseidon. 2. The mythical river surrounding the earth. In the Ocean, according to the ideas of the ancients, all sea currents, rivers and springs originate. From the Ocean, the sun, moon and stars rise and descend into it (except for the constellation Ursa Major).
1.
Name the five centuries in the order in which they are listed in the myth. (Gold, silver, copper, age of heroes, iron.) What is the name of the century for the first time (Age of heroes.) Do you know myths that would tell about the life of people and gods in the age of heroes? (Some myths about Achilles, Hercules, Argonauts.)
Write down the names of all five centuries. Find a word for a capacious, summarizing characteristics of each century. (Happy, cruel, heroic, tragic, noble, joyful, difficult, etc.)
2.
What do you think, in the description of the centuries, is drawn our attention with the appearance in the logical chain of the name of the age of heroes? Find words and expressions in the description of each century that characterize the life of people in each century. Write them down.
(Gold: painless and happy life; people lived serenely.
Silver: "unreasonable" people ...
Copper: terrible and powerful people; loved the war, plentiful with groans; destroyed each other.
Age of Heroes: the human race is more noble, more just, however, they also died in wars and bloody battles.
Iron: exhausting work, heavy worries; people do not honor each other, the guest does not find hospitality, do not keep the given oath, do not value truth and goodness; cities destroy each other, violence reigns everywhere; they have no protection from evil ...).
How, according to Hesiod, did the life of people on Earth change with the change of centuries? Why? What technique helps to draw such a conclusion? How do you think the emotional coloring of words characterizing the life of people of different ages is changing? (The names of the ages are given by analogy with metals, the comparative value of which is different: gold is more expensive than silver, silver is more expensive than copper, copper is more expensive than iron.)
3. In the lives of people of almost every century, which Hesiod spoke about, there were light and dark sides: joy and sorrow. Which of the ages is estimated by Hesiod as the most cloudless, the happiest for the people living in it? Why? Reread the description of their life. Based on this description, what synonyms could you choose for the word "happy"? (Serene, calm, quiet.) Find metonyms and comparisons in the text that help create a feeling of a happy, calm life for people in the golden age. ("Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast"; "death ... a calm, quiet sleep"; "The gods themselves came to them for advice.")
4. Can the life of subsequent human genera be called calm, serene? In what centuries, according to the worldview of the ancient Greeks, by the gods of Olympus, did people have the opportunity to choose one or another line of behavior? What choice did they make? What were the consequences of this choice?
5. How does the story of the life of the people of the Iron Age end? Who or what could have changed their lives? (In the Iron Age, violence reigns on earth, because people themselves do not behave as they should. Conscience and Justice have left the Earth. Consequently, positive changes depend primarily on the people themselves: they will begin to respect established, generally accepted rules - Conscience and Justice will be able to return.)
7. Imagine that you have been asked to describe the past centuries and the time in which you live now. Come up with, if you like, your names for the centuries and their time limits. Describe the life of people living in these centuries. Try to describe "your age" (that is, the time in which you live) from the most different sides, not missing either its bright sides or any problems that concern you.
Lesson conclusions do the students themselves, answering the teacher's questions:
Today we talked about organizing people's lives according to the rules. Can this topic be classified as an "eternal" topic? Why?
Explanation of homework
Read this myth to your family or friends who are older than you. Ask them about that "century", that is, the time in which they lived, being at your age. How does it seem to them now? And how do they characterize the time in which they live now? Write down the definitions, epithets that they will use to describe the past and present. Prepare a story about your conversation.
TO THE LESSON ON THE TALE OF R. KIPLING "THE CAT WALKING ON ITSELF"
(The material is designed for 1-2 academic hours)
Objectives:
general - encourage students to think about the meaning of the rules and laws that allow different individuals to coexist;
private - to deepen the idea of \u200b\u200bschoolchildren about the genre of literary fairy tales; continue work on the formation of skills of lexical analysis of the text; to draw the attention of schoolchildren to the role of lexical and compositional repetitions.
Possible course of the lesson
Preparing to discuss the central problem of the work (2 min.)
Fast forward from Ancient Greece to another time - the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. It was during this period that the English writer Rudyard Kipling created his works. Along with the most varied problems, he was also interested in the question of the possibility of a reasonable coexistence of various individuals capable of respecting the rights and obligations of each other. Reflections on this matter were reflected in his tale " A cat that walked by itself. "
During the lesson preparation phase, the teacher may need additional information about the writer.
Rudyard Kipling- English writer (1865-1936). He was born and spent his early childhood in India. At that time, India was dependent on Great Britain, it was its colony. In an ancient beautiful country, English officials were in charge. Rudyard Kipling's father also served in India. He was the director of the Bombay Museum of Art. The childhood years of the future writer passed in this large Indian city. And when Rudyard Kipling grew up and it was time to go to school, he was sent to England ...
In England, Kipling did not live with relatives, but with strangers who were found through an ad. Soon the boy's life became unbearable: the mistress of the house completely persecuted him: she beat him, locked him in a dark room, humiliated him in every possible way ... He learned to read very late and with great difficulty, and when he got bad marks, he tried to hide them. The hostess found, as it seemed to her, a way to deal with this. Once, when Kipling threw away his diary with monthly marks, she pasted a sheet of paper with the words "liar" on the boy's back and sent him to school in this form. But that didn't help either ...
The only thing in which he eventually found salvation was reading. Rudyard read voraciously everything, every printed page he came across. But his tormentor began to take books away from him.
The boy began to suffer from nervous exhaustion, he quickly lost his sight.
Upon learning of what was happening, his mother came to England, and when she entered her son's room and bent over to kiss him goodnight, he instinctively barred himself from the blow. This settled the matter. The boy was sent to another school, after which he returned to India.
According to N.P. Mikhalskaya and Yu.I. Kagarlitsky
After leaving college, Kipling became a journalist in India, famed as a writer and poet. In our country, he received special fame "Jungle Books" and "Fairy tales just like that"
. "Fairy tales" were composed in the family circle, literally at the hearth. Therefore, probably, there is so much home warmth in them. Their first listeners were the Kipling children. Fairy tales were written for them and, in a sense, about them. "Fairy Tales" are imbued with the spirit of the home, or rather - the idea of \u200b\u200bthe House.
Over the years, the attitude towards the personality and work of Kipling has changed in his homeland and in our country. Nevertheless, time is the best critic. The British Empire has fallen, but the best of Kipling's writing lives on. It's not only " Jungle Books " and "Fairy tales just like that." T.S. Eliot, who sneered at Kipling on the eve of the First World War, published his selected poems during the second, accompanied by a large preface in which he recognized him as a great Master of the Word. S. Maugham publishes in the middle of the century an anthology of stories by R. Kipling and ends his essay about him with a categorical statement: "Rudyard Kipling is the only author in our country who can be put alongside Maupassant and Chekhov. He is our greatest master of story." This is how he will enter the 21st century.
According to G. Ionica
Reading text by role
There is a continuation in the text of the fairy tale - a poem translated by S. Marshak, which interested students can get acquainted with on their own by contacting the library.
Analytical work on the text:
After reading the tale, students are asked to answer questions that help to identify their perception, for example: "Did you like the tale? Which of the episodes, characters you remember most vividly?" etc.
1. Why is the word "wild" repeated so often in the text of the tale? Find synonyms for this word.
2. The Woman sets a condition for each of the newly arriving animals, the observance of which guarantees him certain benefits. Why do animals agree to abide by these conditions? In what way does a woman achieve this - peaceful or violent? (Each animal has a reason why it voluntarily accepts the offer of the Woman; each animal receives a reward for meeting the conditions. If time permits, you can ask the question: "Why exactly the Woman is forced by the author to change the life of this world and conclude an agreement?" with a comparison of male and female principles (matriarchal and patriarchal) in the organization of the life of human society.)
3. Several contracts are found in the tale: The Cat concludes contracts with the Woman, Man and Dog; A woman makes contracts with animals. What are the clauses of these agreements? How are they similar and how are they different? (It is important to identify the typological similarity of all contracts: they consist of the formulation of the rights and obligations of each of the contracting parties.)
4.
We have already watched the "transformations" of three characters - Dog, Horse. Cows. What is the role of a Cat in a fairy tale?
The cat "wanders wherever it pleases and walks by itself." How do you understand the expression "by itself"? What do you think: to be "on your own" is always good, always bad, or otherwise?
5. Why does the Cat, who values \u200b\u200bfreedom so much, seek to enter the cave? How does the Cat manage to get the right to sit by the fire and lap milk? Has the Cat changed after the conclusion of the contract with the Woman?
6. With the help of what artistic means does the author emphasize at the beginning of the tale the existence of animals and people according to the principle "each by himself"?
Possible work on the board or in notebooks:
How?
- the word "wild"
You can familiarize students with the meaning of this word:
" Wild: 1. Being in a primitive state (about people), uncultivated (about plants), untamed, not domesticated (about animals). 2. transfer. Rough, unbridled. 3. transfer. Ridiculous. 4. Not associated with any organizations, acting independently (colloquial) ".
But it is better to first listen to the statements of the students and rely on them in analytical work. Acquaintance with the dictionary entry generalizes, but does not replace the statements of schoolchildren. It is important to emphasize that "wild" is chaotic, disorganized;
Repetition of the word "wild": "The dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild ..." (lexical repeat);
The repetition of the word "wild" with epithets that reinforce the emotionally negative assessment: "The man, of course, was also wild, terribly wild, terribly wild"; "wild-predicate, the wildest";
The opposition "tame - wild" (antithesis).
To make the board appear complete, students are asked to answer the following question:
Is it possible to find a literary term that is common to all of these techniques? (Students will name an epithet.)
7. With the help of what artistic means does the author emphasize the transition from one level of relationships between people and animals to another level?
As a result of work, the following entry appears on the board:
Wild Home
My enemy my friend
My Enemy's Wife My Friend's Wife
Wild Dog First Friend
Wild Horse First Servant
Wild Cow Giver of Good Food
8. Find in the text and write down all the words that name all participants in the events taking place.
The teacher writes down the words on the board following the students in such a way that the result is the following:
Cave
Woman Dog Curtain Fire
Man Cat Milk Pot Witchcraft
Child Horse Song
Cow
Bat
Would anything change in the fairy tale if these same words were written not with a capital, but with a lowercase letter? (The use of a capital letter reinforces the symbolic meaning of the tale.)
Why did the Wild Cat become simply called the Cat and did not receive a new name, like the rest of the wild animals after the conclusion of an agreement with the Woman?
9. Does this tale sound like the folk tales you know? Than? What effect does Kipling achieve by repeatedly using the technique of threefold compositional repetition, characteristic of the fairy tale genre?
Explanation of homework
1. Is this tale known to your family? If not, briefly summarize its content (remember to convey the main point). What episodes are you sure to include in your retelling? Find out the attitude of your listeners to the need to follow generally accepted rules in relationships between people, even if they are very different from each other. Ask what is more difficult for your interlocutors: to exercise their rights or to fulfill their duties.
2. Prepare an answer to the question: "Can the life of a human society be organized according to the principle" each by himself "?
Final work on the section
1.
You had the opportunity to get acquainted with the reflections of Hesiod and R. Kipling. These people lived for a long time, "then."
You yourself thought, heard the opinions of your classmates. It just happened, "now".
What in the old, “then” reflections of Hesiod and Kipling seems to you important, relevant in today's, “present” day?
2.
Discuss in writing about one of the topics:
My hypothesis about the reasons for the emergence of rules in people's lives. Why do people need rules?
Describe those situations in which the rules must be followed, and those situations in which they are not needed.
In the following lessons, you will get acquainted with those works (or fragments from them) in which various problems will be discussed, in particular, such as:
The role of rules in people's lives;
Vulnerable, defenseless situation of people who find themselves at the mercy of natural forces or at the mercy of arbitrary actions of other people (including during armed conflicts) and the need to protect victims of such circumstances;
Consequences of actions performed and responsibility for them and many others.
Prepare for the beginning of such a conversation and read excerpts from the novel by W. Scott "Ivanhoe", from the novel by A. Dumas " Three Musketeers", which you will find in the section "The eternal controversy: Who is better? Who is stronger?"
God Cronus then ruled in heaven. As blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing no care, no work, no sorrow. Nor did they know weak old age; their legs and arms were always strong and strong.
Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast. The death that followed their long life was like a calm, quiet sleep. They had everything in abundance during their lifetime. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to spend labor on cultivating fields and orchards.
Their herds were numerous, and they quietly grazed on fat pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and no one was left of the people of this generation. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in mist, they rush across the earth, defending the truth and punishing evil. So Zeus rewarded them after their death.
silver Age
The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was the Silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal either in strength or reason to the people of the Golden Age.
For a hundred years they grew up unreasonable in the homes of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw a lot of misfortunes and grief in their lives. The people of the Silver Age were disobedient.
They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn their sacrifices on the altars. The great son of Cronus Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them for not obeying the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the shadowy underground kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; they, too, are honored by people.
Copper Age
Father Zeus created the third kind and the third century - the copper age. It does not look like silver. From the shaft of a spear, Zeus created people - terrible and powerful.
The people of the copper age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the land that the gardens and arable land give. Zeus gave them tremendous growth and unbreakable strength. Their heart was indomitable, courageous and their hands were irresistible.
Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were from copper, they worked with copper tools. They did not know dark iron in those days. The people of the copper age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. Strong as they were, the black death took them away, and they left the clear light of the sun.
Age of the demigods
As soon as this family descended into the kingdom of shadows, immediately the great Zeus created on the earth feeding all the fourth century and a new human race, a more noble, more just, equal to the gods race of demigods-heroes.
And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-fold Thebes, in the land of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell near Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Elena, and sailed across the wide sea in ships.
When all of them were kidnapped by death, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The hero demigods live on the islands of the blessed by the stormy waters of the Ocean, a happy, carefree life. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.
