M kun myths of ancient Greece. Nikolai kun legends and myths of ancient Greece

Part one
Olympian gods and legendary heroes

Origin of the world and gods

Myths about the gods and their struggle with giants and titans are set out mainly based on Hesiod’s poem “Theogony” (The Origin of the Gods). Some legends are also borrowed from Homer's poems « Iliad» And « Odyssey» and poems by the Roman poet Ovid « Metamorphoses» (Transformations).

In the beginning there was only eternal, boundless, dark Chaos. It contained the source of life of the world. Everything arose from boundless Chaos - the whole world and the immortal gods. The goddess Earth, Gaia, also came from Chaos. It spreads wide, powerful, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. Far under the Earth, as far as the vast, bright sky is far from us, in immeasurable depths, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss full of eternal darkness. From Chaos, the source of life, was born a powerful force that animates everything, Love - Eros. The world began to be created. Boundless Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the dark Night - Nyukta. And from Night and Darkness came the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful bright Day - Hemera. The light spread throughout the world, and night and day began to replace each other.

The mighty, fertile Earth gave birth to the boundless blue Sky - Uranus, and the Sky spread over the Earth. The high Mountains born of the Earth rose proudly towards him, and the ever-noisy Sea spread widely.

Mother Earth gave birth to the Sky, Mountains and Sea, and they have no father.

Uranus - Heaven - reigned in the world. He took the fertile Earth as his wife. Uranus and Gaia had six sons and six daughters - powerful, formidable titans. Their son, the Titan Ocean, flowing around the entire earth like a boundless river, and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and the sea goddesses - the Oceanids. Titan Hipperion and Theia gave the world children: the Sun - Helios, the Moon - Selene and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astraeus and Eos came all the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and all the winds: the stormy northern wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Notus and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds heavy with rain.

In addition to the titans, the mighty Earth gave birth to three giants - cyclops with one eye in the forehead - and three huge, like mountains, fifty-headed giants - hundred-armed (hecatoncheires), so named because each of them had a hundred hands. Nothing can resist their terrible power; their elemental power knows no bounds.

Uranus hated his giant children; he imprisoned them in deep darkness in the bowels of the Earth goddess and did not allow them to come into the light. Their mother Earth suffered. She was oppressed by this terrible burden contained in her depths. She summoned her children, the Titans, and convinced them to rebel against their father Uranus, but they were afraid to raise their hands against their father. Only the youngest of them, the treacherous Kron 1
Cron– all-consuming time (chronos – time).

By cunning he overthrew his father and took away his power.

Horror, strife, deception, struggle and misfortune brought these gods into the world where Cronus, his father, reigned on the throne.

Olympian gods

Zeus

Birth of Zeus

Kron was not sure that power would remain in his hands forever. He was afraid that his children would rebel against him and doom him to the same fate to which he doomed his father Uranus. He was afraid of his children. And Kron ordered his wife Rhea to bring him the children that were born and mercilessly swallowed them. Rhea was horrified when she saw the fate of her children. Cronus has already swallowed five: Hestia 2
Hestia- goddess of sacrificial fire and hearth fire, patroness of cities and the state.

Demeter 3
Demeter- the great goddess of the fertility of the earth, giving growth to everything that grows on the earth, giving fertility to the fields, blessing the work of the farmer.

Hera, Hades (Hades) and Poseidon.

Rhea did not want to lose her last child. On the advice of her parents, Uranus-Heaven and Gaia-Earth, she retired to the island of Crete, and there, in a deep cave, her youngest son Zeus was born. In this cave, Rhea hid her son from her cruel father, and instead of her son she gave him a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow. Krohn had no idea that he had been deceived by his wife.

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished little Zeus; they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. The bees brought honey to little Zeus from the slopes of the high mountain Dikta. At the entrance to the cave there are young Kuretes 4
Kurets- demigods, guardians and defenders of Zeus. Later, the priests of Zeus and Rhea were called curetes in Crete.

They struck the shields with swords every time little Zeus cried, so that Kronos would not hear him cry and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

Zeus overthrows Cronus. The fight of the Olympian gods with the titans

The beautiful and powerful god Zeus grew up and matured. He rebelled against his father and forced him to bring back into the world the children he had absorbed. One after another, Kron spewed out his children-gods, beautiful and bright, from the mouth. They began to fight with Kron and the Titans for power over the world.

This struggle was terrible and stubborn. The children of Kron established themselves on high Olympus. Some of the titans also took their side, and the first were the titan Ocean and his daughter Styx with their children Zeal, Power and Victory. This struggle was dangerous for the Olympian gods. Their opponents, the Titans, were powerful and formidable. But the Cyclopes came to the aid of Zeus. They forged thunder and lightning for him, Zeus threw them at the titans. The struggle had already lasted ten years, but victory did not lean on either side. Finally, Zeus decided to free the hundred-armed giants Hecatoncheires from the bowels of the earth; he called them to help. Terrible, huge as mountains, they emerged from the bowels of the earth and rushed into battle. They tore entire rocks from the mountains and threw them at the titans. Hundreds of rocks flew towards the titans when they approached Olympus. The earth groaned, a roar filled the air, everything around was shaking. Even Tartarus shuddered from this struggle. Zeus threw fiery lightning and deafeningly roaring thunder one after another. Fire engulfed the entire earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench covered everything with a thick veil.

Finally, the mighty titans wavered. Their strength was broken, they were defeated. The Olympians chained them and cast them into gloomy Tartarus, into eternal darkness. At the copper indestructible gates of Tartarus, the hundred-armed hecatoncheires stood guard, and they guard so that the mighty titans do not break free from Tartarus again. The power of the titans in the world has passed.

The fight between Zeus and Typhon

But the struggle did not end there. Gaia-Earth was angry with the Olympian Zeus for treating her defeated titan children so harshly. She married the gloomy Tartarus and gave birth to the terrible hundred-headed monster Typhon. Huge, with a hundred dragon heads, Typhon rose from the bowels of the earth. He shook the air with a wild howl. The barking of dogs, human voices, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion were heard in this howl. Turbulent flames swirled around Typhon, and the earth shook under his heavy steps. The gods shuddered in horror. But Zeus the Thunderer boldly rushed at him, and the battle broke out. Lightning flashed again in the hands of Zeus, and thunder rumbled. The earth and the firmament were shaken to the core. The earth flared up again with a bright flame, just as during the fight with the titans. The seas were boiling at the mere approach of Typhon. Hundreds of fiery lightning arrows rained down from the thunderer Zeus; it seemed as if their fire was making the very air burn and the dark thunderclouds were burning. Zeus incinerated all of Typhon's hundred heads. Typhon collapsed to the ground; such heat emanated from his body that everything around him melted. Zeus raised Typhon's body and threw it into the gloomy Tartarus, which gave birth to him. But even in Tartarus, Typhon also threatens the gods and all living things. It causes storms and eruptions; he gave birth to Echidna, half-woman, half-snake, the terrible two-headed dog Orph, the hellish dog Kerberus, the Lernaean Hydra and the Chimera; Typhon often shakes the earth.

The Olympian gods defeated their enemies. No one could resist their power anymore. They could now calmly rule the world. The most powerful of them, the thunderer Zeus, took the sky for himself, Poseidon took the sea, and Hades took the underground kingdom of the souls of the dead. The land remained in common possession. Although the sons of Kron divided the power over the world among themselves, the lord of the sky, Zeus, still reigns over them all; he rules people and gods, he knows everything in the world.

Olympus

Zeus reigns high on bright Olympus, surrounded by a host of gods. Here are his wife Hera, and golden-haired Apollo with his sister Artemis, and golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus Athena, and many other gods. Three beautiful Oras guard the entrance to high Olympus and raise a thick cloud covering the gates when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright halls of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky stretches wide, and golden light pours from it. There is no rain or snow in the kingdom of Zeus; There is always a bright, joyful summer there. And the clouds swirl below, sometimes covering the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, even the gods know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy reigns again on Olympus.

The gods feast in their golden palaces, built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus. King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, divinely beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and a proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne are the goddess of peace Eirene and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the beautiful, majestic goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife: all the gods of Olympus surround Hera, the patroness of marriage, with honor. When, shining with her beauty, in a magnificent outfit, the great Hera enters the banquet hall, all the gods stand up and bow before the wife of the thunderer Zeus. And she, proud of her power, goes to the golden throne and sits next to the king of gods and people - Zeus. Near the throne of Hera stands her messenger, the goddess of the rainbow, the light-winged Iris, always ready to quickly fly on rainbow wings to carry out the commands of Hera to the farthest ends of the earth.

The gods are feasting. The daughter of Zeus, young Hebe, and the son of the king of Troy, Ganymede, the favorite of Zeus, who received immortality from him, offer them ambrosia and nectar - the food and drink of the gods. Beautiful harites and muses delight them with singing and dancing. Holding hands, they dance in circles, and the gods admire their light movements and wondrous, eternally youthful beauty. The feast of the Olympians becomes more fun. At these feasts the gods decide all matters; at them they determine the fate of the world and people.

From Olympus, Zeus sends his gifts to people and establishes order and laws on earth. The fate of people is in the hands of Zeus; happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, life and death - everything is in his hands. Two large vessels stand at the gates of Zeus's palace. In one vessel there are gifts of good, in the other - evil. Zeus draws good and evil from them and sends them to people. Woe to the man to whom the Thunderer draws gifts only from a vessel of evil. Woe to those who violate the order established by Zeus on earth and do not comply with his laws. The son of Kron will move his thick eyebrows menacingly, then black clouds will cloud the sky. The great Zeus will be angry, and the hair on his head will rise terribly, his eyes will light up with an unbearable brilliance; he will wave his right hand - thunderclaps will roll across the entire sky, fiery lightning will flash, and high Olympus will shake.

Zeus is not the only one who keeps the laws. At his throne stands the goddess Themis, who preserves the laws. She convenes, at the command of the Thunderer, meetings of the gods on bright Olympus and popular meetings on earth, ensuring that order and law are not violated. On Olympus is also the daughter of Zeus, the goddess Dike, who oversees justice. Zeus severely punishes unrighteous judges when Dike informs him that they do not comply with the laws given by Zeus. Goddess Dike is the defender of truth and the enemy of deception.

Zeus maintains order and truth in the world and sends happiness and sorrow to people. But although Zeus sends happiness and misfortune to people, the fate of people is still determined by the inexorable goddesses of fate - the Moirai, who live on bright Olympus. The fate of Zeus himself is in their hands. Fate rules over mortals and gods. No one can escape the dictates of inexorable fate. There is no such force, such power that could change at least something in what is intended for gods and mortals. You can only humbly bow before fate and submit to it. Some Moirai know the dictates of fate. Moira Kyoto spins the life thread of a person, determining his lifespan. The thread will break and life will end. Moira Lachesis takes out, without looking, the lot that falls to a person in life. No one is able to change the fate determined by the moiras, since the third moira, Atropos, puts everything that her sisters have assigned in a person’s life into a long scroll, and what is included in the scroll of fate is inevitable. The great, harsh moiras are inexorable.

There is also a goddess of fate on Olympus - this is the goddess Tyukhe, the goddess of happiness and prosperity. From the cornucopia, the horn of the divine goat Amalthea, whose milk Zeus himself was fed, she pours gifts to people, and happy is the person who meets the goddess of happiness Tyukhe on his life’s path; but how rarely does this happen, and how unhappy is the person from whom the goddess Tyukhe, who has just given him her gifts, turns away!

Thus, surrounded by a host of bright gods, the great king of people and gods, Zeus, reigns on Olympus, protecting order and truth throughout the world.

Poseidon and the deities of the sea

Deep in the depths of the sea stands the wonderful palace of the great brother of the thunderer Zeus, the earth shaker Poseidon. Poseidon rules over the seas, and the waves of the sea are obedient to the slightest movement of his hand, armed with a formidable trident. There, in the depths of the sea, lives with Poseidon and his beautiful wife Amphitrite, the daughter of the prophetic sea elder Nereus, who was kidnapped by the great ruler of the sea depths Poseidon from her father. He once saw how she led a round dance with her Nereid sisters on the shore of the island of Naxos. The god of the sea was captivated by the beautiful Amphitrite and wanted to take her away in his chariot. But Amphitrite took refuge with the titan Atlas, who holds the vault of heaven on his mighty shoulders. For a long time Poseidon could not find the beautiful daughter of Nereus. Finally, a dolphin opened her hiding place to him; For this service, Poseidon placed the dolphin among the celestial constellations. Poseidon stole the beautiful daughter Nereus from Atlas and married her.

Since then, Amphitrite has lived with her husband Poseidon in an underwater palace. Sea waves roar high above the palace. A host of sea deities surround Poseidon, obedient to his will. Among them is Poseidon's son Triton, who with the thunderous sound of his shell trumpet causes menacing storms. Among the deities are Amphitrite’s beautiful sisters, the Nereids. Poseidon rules over the sea. When he rushes across the sea in his chariot drawn by wondrous horses, then the ever-noisy waves part and make way for the ruler Poseidon. Equal in beauty to Zeus himself, he quickly rushes across the boundless sea, and dolphins play around him, fish swim out of the depths of the sea and crowd around his chariot. When Poseidon waves his formidable trident, then sea waves, covered with white crests of foam, rise like mountains, and a fierce storm rages on the sea. Then the sea waves crash noisily against the coastal rocks and shake the earth. But Poseidon extends his trident over the waves, and they calm down. The storm subsides, the sea is calm again, smooth as a mirror, and barely audibly splashes along the shore - blue, boundless.

Many deities surround Zeus's great brother, Poseidon; among them is the prophetic sea elder, Nereus, who knows all the innermost secrets of the future. Nereus is alien to lies and deception; He reveals only the truth to gods and mortals. The advice given by the prophetic elder is wise. Nereus has fifty beautiful daughters. Young Nereids splash merrily in the waves of the sea, sparkling among them with their divine beauty. Holding hands, a line of them swim out of the depths of the sea and dance in a circle on the shore under the gentle splash of the waves of the calm sea quietly rushing onto the shore. The echo of the coastal rocks then repeats the sounds of their gentle singing, like the quiet roar of the sea. The Nereids patronize the sailor and give him a happy voyage.

Among the deities of the sea is the old man Proteus, who, like the sea, changes his image and turns, at will, into various animals and monsters. He is also a prophetic god, you just need to be able to catch him unexpectedly, master him and force him to reveal the secret of the future. Among the companions of the earth shaker Poseidon is the god Glaucus, the patron saint of sailors and fishermen, and he has the gift of divination. Often, emerging from the depths of the sea, he revealed the future and gave wise advice to mortals. The gods of the sea are mighty, their power is great, but the great brother of Zeus, Poseidon, rules over them all.

All seas and all lands flow around the gray Ocean 5
The Greeks claimed that a stream flows around the entire earth, rolling its waters in an eternal whirlpool.

- a titan god, equal to Zeus himself in honor and glory. He lives far on the borders of the world, and the affairs of the earth do not disturb his heart. Three thousand sons - river gods and three thousand daughters - Oceanids, goddesses of streams and springs, near the Ocean. The sons and daughters of the great god Ocean give prosperity and joy to mortals with their ever-rolling life-giving water; they water the whole earth and all living things with it.

Kingdom of Dark Hades

Deep underground reigns the inexorable, gloomy brother of Zeus, Hades. 6
The ancient Greeks imagined the kingdom of Hades, the kingdom of the souls of the dead, as gloomy and terrible, and the “afterlife” as misfortune.

His kingdom is full of darkness and horror. The joyful rays of the bright sun never penetrate there. Bottomless abysses lead from the surface of the earth to the sad kingdom of Hades. Dark rivers flow through it. The chilling sacred river Styx flows there, the gods themselves swear by its waters.

Cocytus and Acheron roll their waves there; the souls of the dead resound with their groaning, full of sadness, on their gloomy shores. In the underground kingdom the waters of the spring of Lethe flow and give oblivion to all earthly 7
Hence the expression: “sank into oblivion,” that is, forgotten forever.

Through the gloomy fields of the kingdom of Hades, overgrown with pale asphodel flowers 8
Asphodel- wild tulip.

The ethereal light shadows of the dead float about. They complain about their joyless life without light and without desires. Their moans are heard quietly, barely perceptible, like the rustling of withered leaves driven by the autumn wind. There is no return for anyone from this kingdom of sadness. Three-headed hellhound Kerberus 9
Otherwise - Cerberus.

On whose neck snakes move with a menacing hiss, guard the exit. The stern, old Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, will not carry a single soul through the gloomy waters of Acheron back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The souls of the dead in the dark kingdom of Hades are doomed to an eternal, joyless existence.

In this kingdom, to which neither the light, nor the joy, nor the sorrows of earthly life reach, Zeus’s brother, Hades, rules. He sits on a golden throne with his wife Persephone. He is served by the inexorable goddesses of vengeance, Erinyes. Menacing, with whips and snakes, they pursue the criminal; they do not give him a minute of peace and torment him with remorse; You can’t hide from them anywhere, they find their prey everywhere. The judges of the kingdom of the dead, Minos and Rhadamanthus, sit at the throne of Hades. Here, at the throne, is the god of death Tanat with a sword in his hands, in a black cloak, with huge black wings. These wings blow with grave cold when Tanat flies to the bed of a dying man to cut off a strand of hair from his head with her sword and tear out his soul. Next to Tanat are the gloomy Kera. On their wings they rush, frantic, across the battlefield. The Kers rejoice as they see the slain heroes fall one after another; With their blood-red lips they fall on the wounds, greedily drink the hot blood of the slain and tear out their souls from the body.

Here, at the throne of Hades, is the beautiful, young god of sleep Hypnos. He silently flies on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands and pours a sleeping pill from the horn. He gently touches people's eyes with his wonderful rod, quietly closes his eyelids and plunges mortals into a sweet sleep. The god Hypnos is powerful; neither mortals, nor gods, nor even the thunderer Zeus himself can resist him: and Hypnos closes his menacing eyes to him and plunges him into deep sleep.

The gods of dreams also rush about in the dark kingdom of Hades. Among them there are gods who give prophetic and joyful dreams, but there are also gods who give terrible, depressing dreams that frighten and torment people. There are gods of false dreams, they mislead a person and often lead him to death.

The kingdom of the inexorable Hades is full of darkness and horror. There the terrible ghost of Epmus with donkey legs wanders in the darkness; it, having lured people into a secluded place in the darkness of the night by cunning, drinks all the blood and devours their still trembling bodies. The monstrous Lamia also wanders there; she sneaks into the bedrooms of happy mothers at night and steals their children to drink their blood. The great goddess Hecate rules over all ghosts and monsters. She has three bodies and three heads. On a moonless night she wanders in deep darkness along the roads and at the graves with all her terrible retinue, surrounded by Stygian dogs 10
Stygian dogs- monstrous dogs of the underground kingdom of Hades, from the banks of the underground river Styx.

She sends horrors and painful dreams to the earth and destroys people. Hecate is called upon as an assistant in witchcraft, but she is also the only assistant against witchcraft for those who honor her and sacrifice dogs to her at the crossroads, where three roads diverge.

The kingdom of Hades is terrible, and people hate it.

Greece and myths- the concept is inseparable. It seems that everything in this country - every plant, river or mountain - has its own fabulous story, passed down from generation to generation. And this is no coincidence, since myths reflect in allegorical form the entire structure of the world and the philosophy of life of the ancient Greeks.

And the name Hellas () itself also has a mythological origin, because The mythical patriarch Hellenes is considered the ancestor of all Hellenes (Greeks). The names of the mountain ranges crossing Greece, the seas washing its shores, the islands scattered in these seas, lakes and rivers are associated with myths. As well as the names of regions, cities and villages. I’ll tell you about some stories that I really want to believe. It should be added that there are so many myths that even for the same toponym there are several versions. Since myths are oral creations, they have come down to us already written down by ancient writers and historians, the most famous of whom is Homer. I'll start with the name Balkan Peninsula, on which Greece is located. The current "Balkan" is of Turkish origin, meaning simply "mountain range". But earlier the peninsula was named after Amos, the son of the god Boreas and the nymph Orifinas. The sister and at the same time the wife of Emos was called Rodopi. Their love was so strong that they addressed each other by the names of the supreme gods, Zeus and Hera. For their insolence they were punished by being turned into mountains.

History of the origin of the toponym Peloponnese, peninsulas on peninsulas, no less cruel. According to legend, the ruler of this part of Greece was Pelops, the son of Tantalus, who in his youth was offered by his bloodthirsty father as a dinner to the gods. But the gods did not eat his body, and, having resurrected the young man, left him on Olympus. And Tantalus was doomed to eternal (tantalum) torment. Further, Pelops himself either descends to live among the people, or is forced to flee, but subsequently becomes the king of Olympia, Arcadia and the entire peninsula, which was named in his honor. By the way, his descendant was the famous Homeric king Agamemnon, the leader of the troops that besieged Troy.

One of the most beautiful islands in Greece Kerkyra(or Corfu) has a romantic history of the origin of its name: Poseidon, the god of the seas, fell in love with the young beauty Corcyra, daughter of Asopus and the nymph Metope, kidnapped her and hid her on a hitherto unknown island, which he named after her. Corkyra eventually turned into Kerkyra. Another story about lovers remains in the myths about the island Rhodes. This name was borne by the daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite (or Aphrodite), who was the beloved of the Sun god Helios. It was on this island, freshly born from the foam, that the nymph Rhodes united in marriage with her beloved.

Origin of the name Aegean Sea Many people know it thanks to the good Soviet cartoon. The story is this: Theseus, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus, went to Crete to fight the monster there - the Minotaur. In case of victory, he promised his father to raise white sails on his ship, and in case of defeat, black ones. With the help of the Cretan princess, he defeated the Minotaur and went home, forgetting to change the sails. Seeing his son's mourning ship in the distance, Aegeus, out of grief, threw himself off a cliff into the sea, which was named after him.

Ionian Sea bears the name of the princess and at the same time priestess Io, who was seduced by the supreme god Zeus. However, his wife Hera decided to take revenge on the girl by turning her into a white cow and then killing her at the hands of the giant Argos. With the help of the god Hermes, Io managed to escape. She found refuge and human form in Egypt, for which she had to swim across the sea, which is called the Ionian.

Myths of Ancient Greece They also tell about the origin of the universe, the relationship to the divine and human passions. They are of interest to us, primarily because they give us an understanding of how European culture was formed.

The Stymphalian birds were the last generation of monsters in the Peloponnese, and since the power of Eurystheus did not extend beyond the Peloponnese, Hercules decided that his service to the king was over.

But the mighty strength of Hercules did not allow him to live in idleness. He longed for exploits and even rejoiced when Koprey appeared to him.

“Eurystheus,” said the herald, “orders you to clear the stables of the Elisian king Augeas of manure in one day.”

King Perseus and Queen Andromeda ruled the gold-abundant Mycenae for a long time and gloriously, and the gods sent them many children. The eldest of the sons was called Electrion. Electryon was no longer young when he had to take his father’s throne. The gods did not offend Electryon with their offspring: Electryon had many sons, one better than the other, but only one daughter - the beautiful Alcmene.

It seemed that in all of Hellas there was no kingdom more prosperous than the kingdom of Mycenae. But one day the Taphians attacked the country - fierce sea robbers who lived on the islands at the very entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, where the Aheloy River flows into the sea.

This new sea, unknown to the Greeks, blew into their faces with a wide-ranging roar. It stretched out before them like a blue desert, mysterious and menacing, deserted and harsh.

They knew: somewhere there, on the other side of its seething abyss, lie mysterious lands inhabited by wild peoples; their customs are cruel, their appearance is terrible. There, somewhere along the banks of the deep-flowing Istra, terrible people with dog faces are barking - cynocephalus, dog-headed. There, beautiful and fierce Amazon warriors rush around the free steppes. There, further on, the eternal darkness thickens, and in it wander, looking like wild animals, the inhabitants of the night and the cold - the Hyperboreans. But where is all this?

Many misadventures awaited the brave travelers on the road, but they were destined to emerge from all of them with glory.

In Bithynia, the country of the Bebriks, they were detained by an invincible fist fighter, King Amik, a terrible killer; without pity or shame, he threw every foreigner to the ground with a blow of his fist. He challenged these new newcomers to battle, but young Polydeuces, brother of Castor, son of Leda, defeated the mighty one, breaking his temple in a fair fight.

Moving away from familiar shores, the Argo ship spent many days cutting through the waves of the calm Propontis, the sea that people now call Marmara.

The new moon had already arrived, and the nights became black, like the pitch with which they tar the sides of ships, when the sharp-sighted Lynceus was the first to point out to his comrades the mountain towering ahead. Soon the low shore began to appear in the fog, fishing nets appeared on the shore, and a town at the entrance to the bay appeared. Deciding to rest on the way, Tiphius directed the ship towards the city, and a little later the Argonauts stood on solid ground.

A well-deserved rest awaited the Argonauts on this island. "Argo" entered the Phaeacian harbor. Tall ships stood in countless rows everywhere. Having dropped anchor at the pier, the heroes went to the palace to Alcinous.

Looking at the Argonauts, at their heavy helmets, at the strong muscles of their legs in shiny greaves and at the tan of their brown faces, the peace-loving Phaeacians whispered to each other:

It must be Ares with his warlike retinue marching to the house of Alcinous.

The sons of the great hero Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes. Pelops was once cursed by the charioteer of King Oenomaus, Myrtilus, who was treacherously killed by Pelops, and with his curse doomed the entire family of Pelops to great atrocities and death. The curse of Myrtil weighed heavily on both Atreus and Thyestes. They committed a number of atrocities. Atreus and Thyestes killed Chrysippus, the son of the nymph Axione and their father Pelops. It was the mother of Atreus and Thyestes Hippodamia who persuaded them to kill Chrysippus. Having committed this atrocity, they fled from their father’s kingdom, fearing his wrath, and took refuge with the king of Mycenae Sthenel, son of Perseus, who was married to their sister Nikippa. When Sthenel died and his son Eurystheus, captured by Iolaus, died at the hands of Hercules’ mother Alcmene, Atreus began to rule over the Mycenaean kingdom, since Eurystheus did not leave behind heirs. His brother Thyestes was jealous of Atreus and decided to take away power from him in any way.

Sisyphus had a son, the hero Glaucus, who ruled in Corinth after the death of his father. Glaucus had a son, Bellerophon, one of the great heroes of Greece. Bellerophon was as beautiful as a god and equal in courage to the immortal gods. Bellerophon, when he was still a youth, suffered a misfortune: he accidentally killed one citizen of Corinth and had to flee from his hometown. He fled to the king of Tiryns, Proetus. The king of Tiryns received the hero with great honor and cleansed him of the filth of the blood he had shed. Bellerophon did not have to stay long in Tiryns. His wife Proyta, the godlike Antheia, was captivated by his beauty. But Bellerophon rejected her love. Then Queen Antheia was inflamed with hatred of Bellerophon and decided to destroy him. She went to her husband and told him:

O king! Bellerophon is seriously insulting you. You must kill him. He pursues me, your wife, with his love. This is how he thanked you for your hospitality!

Grozen Boreas, god of the indomitable, stormy north wind. He rushes frantically over the lands and seas, causing all-crushing storms with his flight. One day Boreas, flying over Attica, saw the daughter of Erechtheus Orithia and fell in love with her. Boreas begged Orithia to become his wife and allow him to take her with him to his kingdom in the far north. Orithia did not agree; she was afraid of the formidable, stern god. Boreas was also refused by Orithia's father, Erechtheus. No requests, no pleas from Boreas helped. The terrible god became angry and exclaimed:

I deserve this humiliation myself! I forgot about my formidable, frantic strength! Is it right for me to humbly beg someone? I must act only by force! I drive thunderclouds across the sky, I raise waves on the sea like mountains, I uproot ancient oak trees like dry blades of grass, I scourge the earth with hail and turn the water into ice as hard as stone - and I pray, as if powerless mortal. When I rush in a frantic flight over the earth, the whole earth shakes and even the underground kingdom of Hades trembles. And I pray to Erechtheus as if I were his servant. I must not beg to give Orithia to me as a wife, but take her away by force!

Freed from serving King Eurystheus, Hercules returned to Thebes. Here he gave his wife Megara to his faithful friend Iolaus, explaining his act by the fact that his marriage with Megara was accompanied by unfavorable omens. In fact, the reason that prompted Hercules to part with Megara was different: between the spouses stood the shadows of their common children, whom Hercules killed many years ago in a fit of insanity.

Hoping to find family happiness, Hercules began to look for a new wife. He heard that Eurytus, the same one who taught young Hercules the art of using a bow, was offering his daughter Iola as a wife to the one who surpassed him in accuracy.

Hercules went to Eurytus and easily defeated him in the competition. This outcome greatly annoyed Eurytus. Having drunk a fair amount of wine to be more confident, he said to Hercules: “I will not trust my daughter to such a villain as you. Or weren’t you the one who killed your children from Megara? Besides, you are a slave of Eurystheus and deserve only a beating from a free man.”

Works are divided into pages

Ancient myths and legends of Ancient Greece

They were created more than two thousand centuries ago and the famous scientist Nikolai Kun adapted them at the beginning of the 20th century, but the attention of young readers from all over the world does not fade even now. And it doesn’t matter if they study the myths of ancient Greece in the 4th, 5th or 6th grade - these works of ancient folklore are considered the cultural heritage of the whole world. Moral and vivid stories about the ancient Greek gods have been studied far and wide. And now we read online to our children about who the heroes of the legends and myths of Ancient Greece were and we try to briefly express the meaning of their actions.

This fantasy world is surprising in that, despite the horror of an ordinary mortal before the gods of Mount Olympus, sometimes ordinary residents of Greece could get into an argument or even fight with them. Sometimes short and simple myths express a very deep meaning and can clearly explain to a child the rules of life.

Nikolay Kun

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

Part one

Gods and heroes

Origin of the world and gods

Myths about the gods and their struggle with giants and titans are set out mainly based on Hesiod’s poem “Theogony” (“The Origin of the Gods”). Some legends are also borrowed from Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” and the poem “Metamorphoses” (“Metamorphoses”) by the Roman poet Ovid.

In the beginning there was only eternal, boundless, dark Chaos. It contained the source of life. Everything arose from boundless Chaos - the whole world and the immortal gods. The goddess Earth, Gaia, also came from Chaos. It spreads wide, powerful, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. Far under the Earth, as far as the vast bright sky is from us, in immeasurable depths the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss full of eternal darkness. From Chaos was born a mighty force that animates everything, Love - Eros. Boundless Chaos gave birth to the eternal Darkness - Erebus and the dark Night - Nyukta. And from Night and Darkness came the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful bright Day - Hemera. The light spread throughout the world, and night and day began to replace each other.

Uranus - Heaven - reigned in the world. He took the fertile Earth as his wife. Uranus and Gaia had six sons and six daughters - powerful, formidable titans. Their son, the Titan Ocean, flowing around the entire earth, and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and the sea goddesses - the Oceanids. Titan Hipperion and Theia gave the world children: the Sun - Helios, the Moon - Selene and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astraeus and Eos came the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and the winds: the stormy northern wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Notus and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds heavy with rain.

Uranus hated his giant children; he imprisoned them in deep darkness in the bowels of the Earth goddess and did not allow them to come into the light. Their mother Earth suffered. She was oppressed by the terrible burden contained in her depths. She summoned her children, the Titans, and convinced them to rebel against their father Uranus, but they were afraid to raise their hand against their father. Only the youngest of them, the treacherous Kron, overthrew his father by cunning and took away his power.

As punishment for Kron, the Goddess Night gave birth to a whole host of terrible deities: Tanata - death, Eris - discord, Apata - deception, Ker - destruction, Hypnos - a dream with a swarm of dark heavy visions, Nemesis who knows no mercy - revenge for crimes - and many others. Horror, strife, deception, struggle and misfortune brought these gods into the world where Cronus reigned on the throne of his father.

Birth of Zeus

Kron was not sure that power would remain in his hands forever. He was afraid that his children would rebel against him and doom him to the same fate to which he doomed his father Uranus. And Kron ordered his wife Rhea to bring him the children that were born and mercilessly swallowed them. Rhea was horrified when she saw the fate of her children. Cronus has already swallowed five: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades (Hades) and Poseidon.

Rhea did not want to lose her last child. On the advice of her parents, Uranus-Heaven and Gaia-Earth, she retired to the island of Crete, and there, in a deep cave, her son Zeus was born. In this cave, Rhea hid him from his cruel father, and gave Krona a long stone wrapped in swaddling to swallow instead of his son. Krohn had no idea that he had been deceived.

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished little Zeus. They fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Bees brought honey to Zeus from the slopes of the high mountain Dikta. Whenever little Zeus cried, the young Kuretes guarding the cave struck their shields with swords so that Kronos would not hear his crying and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

Zeus overthrows Cronus. The fight of the Olympian gods with the titans

Zeus grew up and matured. He rebelled against his father and forced him to bring back the children he had swallowed into the world. One by one, Kron spewed out his children-gods from the mouth. They began to fight with Kron and the Titans for power over the world.

This struggle was terrible and stubborn. The children of Kron established themselves on high Olympus. Some titans also took their side, and the first were the titan Ocean and his daughter Styx with their children Zeal, Power and Victory.

This struggle was dangerous for the Olympian gods. Their opponents were powerful and formidable. But the Cyclopes came to the aid of Zeus. They forged thunder and lightning for him, Zeus threw them at the titans. The struggle lasted ten years, but victory did not lean on either side. Finally, Zeus decided to free the hundred-armed giants Hecatoncheires from the bowels of the earth and call on them for help. Terrible, huge as mountains, they emerged from the bowels of the earth and rushed into battle. They tore entire rocks from the mountains and threw them at the titans. Hundreds of rocks flew towards the titans as they approached Olympus. The earth groaned, a roar filled the air, everything around was shaking. Even Tartarus shuddered from this struggle. Zeus threw fiery lightning and deafeningly roaring thunder one after another. Fire engulfed the entire earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench covered everything with a thick veil.

Finally the titans wavered. Their strength was broken, they were defeated. The Olympians chained them and cast them into gloomy Tartarus, into eternal darkness. At the copper indestructible gates of Tartarus, hundred-armed giants - Hecatoncheires - stood guard so that the mighty titans would not break free from Tartarus. The power of the titans in the world has passed.

The fight between Zeus and Typhon

But the struggle did not end there. Gaia-Earth was angry with the Olympian Zeus for treating her defeated titan children so harshly. She married the gloomy Tartarus and gave birth to the terrible hundred-headed monster Typhon. Huge, with a hundred dragon heads, Typhon rose from the bowels of the earth. He shook the air with a wild howl. The barking of dogs, human voices, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion were heard in this howl. Turbulent flames swirled around Typhon, and the earth shook under his heavy steps. The gods shuddered in horror. But Zeus the Thunderer boldly rushed towards Typhon, and the battle began. Lightning flashed again in the hands of Zeus, and thunder rumbled. The earth and the firmament shook to the ground. The earth burst into flames, just as during the fight against the titans. The seas were boiling at the mere approach of Typhon. Hundreds of fiery lightning arrows rained down from the thunderer Zeus; It seemed that even the air and dark thunderclouds were burning from their fire. Zeus incinerated all of Typhon's hundred heads. Typhon collapsed to the ground, such heat emanated from his body that everything around him melted. Zeus raised Typhon's body and threw it into the gloomy Tartarus, which gave birth to him. But even in Tartarus, Typhon also threatens the gods and all living things. It causes storms and eruptions; he gave birth to Echidna, half-woman, half-snake, the terrible two-headed dog Ortho, the hellish dog Kerberus (Cerberus), the Lernaean Hydra and the Chimera; Typhon often shakes the earth.

The Olympian gods defeated their enemies. No one could resist their power anymore. They could now calmly rule the world. The most powerful of them, the thunderer Zeus, took the sky for himself, Poseidon took the sea, and Hades took the underground kingdom of the souls of the dead. The land remained in common possession. Although the sons of Kron divided the power over the world among themselves, the lord of the sky, Zeus, still reigns over everyone; he rules people and gods, he knows everything in the world.

Zeus reigns high on bright Olympus, surrounded by a host of gods. Here are his wife Hera, and golden-haired Apollo with his sister Artemis, and golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus Athena, and many other gods. Three beautiful oras guard the entrance to high Olympus and raise a thick cloud covering the gates when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright halls of Zeus. High above Olympus the blue bottomless sky stretches, and golden light pours from it. There is no rain or snow in the kingdom of Zeus; There is always a bright, joyful summer there. And the clouds swirl below, sometimes covering the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, even the gods know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy reigns again on Olympus.

The gods feast in their golden palaces, built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus. King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and a proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At the throne are his goddess of the world, Eirene, and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the majestic goddess Hera, wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife; Hera, the patroness of marriage, is treated with honor by all the gods of Olympus. When, shining with her beauty, in a magnificent outfit, Hera enters the banquet hall, all the gods stand up and bow before the thunderer’s wife. And she goes to the golden throne and sits next to Zeus. Near the throne of Hera stands her messenger, the goddess of the rainbow, the light-winged Iris, always ready to quickly fly on rainbow wings to the farthest ends of the earth and carry out the commands of Hera.

From Olympus, Zeus sends his gifts to people and establishes order and laws on earth. The fate of people is in the hands of Zeus: happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, life and death. Two large vessels stand at the gates of Zeus's palace. In one vessel there are gifts of good, in the other - evil. Zeus draws good and evil from vessels and sends them to people. Woe to the man to whom the Thunderer draws gifts only from a vessel of evil. Woe to those who violate the order established by Zeus on earth and do not comply with his laws. The son of Kron will move his thick eyebrows menacingly, black clouds will cloud the sky. The great Zeus will be angry, and the hair on his head will rise terribly, his eyes will light up with an unbearable brilliance; he will wave his right hand - thunderclaps will roll across the entire sky, fiery lightning will flash and high Olympus will shake.

The goddess Themis, who preserves the laws, stands at the throne of Zeus. At the command of the Thunderer, she convenes meetings of the gods on Olympus and popular meetings on earth, and watches that order and law are not violated. On Olympus is also the daughter of Zeus, the goddess Dike, who oversees justice. Zeus severely punishes unrighteous judges when Dike informs him that they do not comply with the laws given by Zeus. Goddess Dike is the defender of truth and the enemy of deception.

But although Zeus sends happiness and misfortune to people, the fate of people is still determined by the inexorable goddesses of fate - the Moirai, who live on Olympus. The fate of Zeus himself is in their hands. Fate rules over mortals and gods. No one can escape the dictates of inexorable fate. There is no such force, such power that could change at least something in what is intended for gods and mortals. Some Moirai know the dictates of fate. Moira Clotho spins the life thread of a person, determining his lifespan. The thread breaks and life ends. Moira Lechesis takes out, without looking, the lot that falls to a person in life. No one is able to change the fate determined by the moiras, since the third moira, Atropos, puts everything that her sisters meant in a person’s life in a long scroll, and what is included in the scroll of fate is inevitable. The great, harsh moiras are inexorable.

There is also a goddess of fate on Olympus - Tyukhe, the goddess of happiness and prosperity. From the cornucopia, the horn of the divine goat Amalthea, whose milk Zeus was fed, she pours gifts to people, and happy is the person who meets the goddess of happiness Tyukhe on his life’s path. But how rarely does this happen, and how unhappy is the person from whom the goddess Tyukhe, who has just given him her gifts, turns away!

Thus, surrounded by a host of gods, Zeus reigns on Olympus, protecting order throughout the world.

Poseidon and the deities of the sea

Deep in the depths of the sea stands the wonderful palace of the brother of the thunderer Zeus, the earth shaker Poseidon. Poseidon rules over the seas, and the waves of the sea are obedient to the slightest movement of his hand, armed with a formidable trident. There, in the depths of the sea, lives with Poseidon and his beautiful wife Amphitrite, the daughter of the prophetic sea elder Nereus, who was kidnapped by Poseidon from her father. He once saw how she led a round dance with her Nereid sisters on the shore of the island of Naxos. The god of the sea was captivated by the beautiful Amphitrite and wanted to take her away in his chariot. But Amphitrite took refuge with the titan Atlas, who holds the vault of heaven on his mighty shoulders. For a long time Poseidon could not find the beautiful daughter of Nereus. Finally, a dolphin opened her hiding place to him; For this service, Poseidon placed the dolphin among the celestial constellations. Poseidon stole the beautiful daughter Nereus from Atlas and married her.

Since then, Amphitrite has lived with her husband Poseidon in an underwater palace. Sea waves roar high above the palace. A host of sea deities surround Poseidon, obedient to his will. Among them is Poseidon's son Triton, who with the thunderous sound of his shell trumpet causes menacing storms. Among the deities are the beautiful sisters of Amphitrite, the Nereids. Poseidon rules over the sea. When he rushes across the sea in his chariot drawn by marvelous horses, the ever-noisy waves part. Equal in beauty to Zeus himself, Poseidon quickly rushes across the boundless sea, and dolphins play around him, fish swim out of the depths of the sea and crowd around his chariot. When Poseidon waves his formidable trident, then sea waves, covered with white crests of foam, rise like mountains, and a fierce storm rages on the sea. The sea waves crash noisily against the coastal rocks and shake the earth. But Poseidon extends his trident over the waves - and they calm down. The storm subsides, the sea is calm again, smooth as a mirror, and barely audibly splashes along the shore - blue, boundless.

Among the deities surrounding Poseidon is the prophetic sea elder Nereus, who knows all the innermost secrets of the future. Nereus is alien to lies and deception; He reveals only the truth to gods and mortals. The advice given by the prophetic elder is wise. Nereus has fifty beautiful daughters. Young Nereids splash merrily in the waves of the sea, sparkling with beauty. Holding hands, a line of them swim out of the depths of the sea and dance in a circle on the shore under the gentle splash of the waves of the calm sea quietly rushing onto the shore. The echo of the coastal rocks repeats the sounds of their gentle singing, like the quiet roar of the sea. The Nereids patronize the sailor and give him a happy voyage.

Among the deities of the sea is the old man Proteus, who, like the sea, changes his image and turns, at will, into various animals and monsters. He is also a prophetic god, you just need to be able to catch him unexpectedly, master him and force him to reveal the secret of the future. Among the companions of the earth shaker Poseidon is the god Glaucus, the patron saint of sailors and fishermen, and he has the gift of divination. Often, emerging from the depths of the sea, he discovered the future and gave wise advice to people. The gods of the sea are mighty, their power is great, but the great brother of Zeus, Poseidon, rules over them all.

All seas and all lands flow around the gray Ocean - the titan god, equal to Zeus himself in honor and glory. He lives far on the borders of the world, and the affairs of the earth do not disturb his heart. Three thousand sons - river gods and three thousand daughters - Oceanids, goddesses of streams and springs, near the Ocean. The sons and daughters of the Ocean give prosperity and joy to mortals with their ever-rolling life-giving water; they water the whole earth and all living things with it.

Kingdom of Dark Hades

Deep underground, the inexorable, gloomy brother of Zeus, Hades, reigns. The rays of the bright sun never penetrate there. Bottomless abysses lead from the surface of the earth to the sad kingdom of Hades. Dark rivers flow through it. The chilling sacred river Styx flows there, the gods themselves swear by its waters.

Cocytus and Acheron roll their waves there; the souls of the dead resound with lamentations full of sadness on their gloomy shores. In the underground kingdom flow the waters of the Lethe River, giving oblivion of all earthly things. Across the gloomy fields of the kingdom of Hades, overgrown with pale asphodel flowers, ethereal light shadows of the dead rush. They complain about their joyless life without light and without desires. Their moans are heard quietly, barely perceptible, like the rustling of withered leaves driven by the autumn wind. There is no return for anyone from this kingdom of sadness. The three-headed dog Kerber, on whose neck snakes move with a menacing hiss, guards the exit. The stern old Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, will not carry a single soul through the gloomy waters of Acheron back to where the sun of life shines brightly.

Peter Paul Rubens. The Rape of Ganymede. 1611–1612

The ruler of this kingdom, Hades, sits on a golden throne with his wife Persephone. He is served by the inexorable goddesses of vengeance, Erinyes. Menacing, with whips and snakes, they pursue the criminal; they do not give him a minute of peace and torment him with remorse; You can’t hide from them anywhere, they find their prey everywhere. The judges of the kingdom of the dead, Minos and Rhadamanthus, sit at the throne of Hades.

Here, at the throne, is the god of death Tanat with a sword in his hands, in a black cloak, with huge black wings. These wings blow with grave cold when Tanat flies to the bed of a dying man to cut off a strand of hair from his head with her sword and tear out his soul. Next to Tanat are the gloomy Kera. On wings they rush, frantic, across the battlefield. The Kers rejoice as they see the slain warriors fall one after another; With their blood-red lips they fall on the wounds, greedily drink the hot blood of the slain and tear out their souls from the body. Here, at the throne of Hades, is the beautiful young god of sleep, Hypnos. He silently flies on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands and pours a sleeping pill from the horn. Hypnos gently touches the eyes of people with her wonderful rod, quietly closes her eyelids and plunges mortals into a sweet sleep. The god Hypnos is powerful; neither mortals, nor gods, nor even the thunderer Zeus himself can resist him: and Hypnos closes his menacing eyes to him and plunges him into deep sleep.

The gods of dreams also rush about in the dark kingdom of Hades. Among them there are gods who give prophetic and joyful dreams, but there are also gods who give terrible, depressing dreams that frighten and torment people. There are gods of false dreams: they mislead a person and often lead him to death.

The kingdom of Hades is full of darkness and horror. There the terrible ghost of Empus with donkey legs wanders in the darkness; Having lured people into a secluded place in the darkness of the night by cunning, it drinks all the blood and devours their still trembling body. The monstrous Lamia also wanders there; she sneaks into the bedrooms of happy mothers at night and steals their children to drink their blood. The great goddess Hecate rules over all ghosts and monsters. She has three bodies and three heads. On a moonless night she wanders in deep darkness along the roads and at the graves with all her terrible retinue, surrounded by Stygian dogs. She sends horrors and painful dreams to the earth and destroys people. Hecate is called upon as an assistant in witchcraft, but she is also the only assistant against witchcraft for those who honor her and sacrifice dogs to her at the crossroads, where three roads diverge. The kingdom of Hades is terrible, and people hate it.

The goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, patronizes marriage and protects the holiness and inviolability of marriages. She sends the spouses numerous offspring and blesses the mother during the birth of the child.

After Hera and her brothers and sisters were spewed out of his mouth by Kronus, defeated by Zeus, Hera's mother Rhea carried her to the ends of the earth to the gray Ocean; Hera was raised there by Thetis. Hera lived for a long time away from Olympus, in peace and quiet. The Thunderer Zeus saw her, fell in love and kidnapped her from Thetis. The gods celebrated the wedding of Zeus and Hera magnificently. Iris and the Charites clothed Hera in luxurious clothes, and she shone with her majestic beauty among the gods of Olympus, sitting on a golden throne next to Zeus. All the gods presented gifts to the queen Hera, and the goddess Earth-Gaia grew from her bowels a wondrous apple tree with golden fruits as a gift to Hera. Everything in nature praised Hera and Zeus.

Hera reigns on high Olympus. She, like her husband Zeus, commands thunder and lightning, at her word the sky is covered with dark rain clouds, and with a wave of her hand she raises menacing storms.

Hera is beautiful, hair-eyed, lily-armed, from under her crown a wave of wondrous curls fall, her eyes glow with power and calm majesty. The gods honor Hera, and her husband, the cloud suppressor Zeus, honors her and consults with her. But quarrels between Zeus and Hera are also common. Hera often objects to Zeus and argues with him at the councils of the gods. Then the Thunderer gets angry and threatens his wife with punishment. Hera falls silent and holds back her anger. She remembers how Zeus bound her with golden chains, hung her between the earth and the sky, tied two heavy anvils to her feet, and subjected her to scourging.

Hera is powerful, there is no goddess equal to her in power. Majestic, in long luxurious clothes woven by Athena herself, in a chariot drawn by two immortal horses, she rides down from Olympus. The chariot is all made of silver, the wheels are made of pure gold, and their spokes sparkle with copper. Fragrance spreads across the ground where Hera passes. All living things bow before her, the great queen of Olympus.

Hera often suffers insults from her husband Zeus. This is what happened when Zeus fell in love with the beautiful Io and, in order to hide her from Hera, turned Io into a cow. But the Thunderer did not save Io. Hera saw the snow-white cow Io and demanded that Zeus give it to her. Zeus could not refuse Hera. Hera, having taken possession of Io, gave her under the protection of the stoic Argus. Unhappy Io could not tell anyone about her suffering: turned into a cow, she was speechless. Sleepless Argus guarded Io. Zeus saw her suffering. Calling on his son Hermes, he ordered him to kidnap Io.

Hermes quickly rushed to the top of the mountain where the steadfast guard Io stood guard. He put Argus to sleep with his speeches. As soon as his hundred eyes closed, Hermes drew his curved sword and cut off Argus’s head with one blow. Io was freed. But Zeus did not save Io from the wrath of Hera. She sent a monstrous gadfly. With its terrible sting, the gadfly drove the unfortunate sufferer Io from country to country, distraught with torment. She did not find peace anywhere. In a frantic run, Io rushed further and further, and the gadfly flew after her, constantly stabbing her body with a sting; the sting of the gadfly burned Io like a hot iron. Where did Io run, what countries did she visit! Finally, after long wanderings, she reached in the country of the Scythians, in the far north, the rock to which the Titan Prometheus was chained. He predicted to the unfortunate woman that only in Egypt would she get rid of her torment. Io rushed on, driven by the gadfly. She endured much torment and saw many dangers before she reached Egypt. There, on the banks of the blessed Nile, Zeus returned her to her former image, and her son Epaphus was born. He was the first king of Egypt and the founder of a generation of heroes, to which the greatest hero of Greece, Hercules, belonged.

Birth of Apollo

The god of light, golden-haired Apollo, was born on the island of Delos. His mother Latona, persecuted by the goddess Hera, could not find shelter anywhere. Pursued by the dragon Python sent by Hera, she wandered all over the world and finally took refuge in Delos, which at that time was rushing along the waves of a stormy sea. As soon as Latona entered Delos, huge pillars rose from the depths of the sea and stopped this deserted island. He became unshakable in the place where he still stands. The sea roared around Delos. The cliffs of Delos rose sadly, bare, without the slightest vegetation. Only sea gulls found shelter on these rocks and filled them with their sad cry. But then the god Apollo was born, and streams of bright light spread everywhere. They covered the rocks of Delos like gold. Everything around blossomed and sparkled: the coastal cliffs, Mount Kint, the valley, and the sea. The goddesses gathered on Delos loudly praised the born god, offering him ambrosia and nectar. All nature rejoiced along with the goddesses.

The struggle between Apollo and Python and the foundation of the Delphic Oracle

The young, radiant Apollo rushed across the azure sky with a cithara in his hands, with a silver bow over his shoulders; golden arrows rang loudly in his quiver. Proud, jubilant, Apollo rushed high above the earth, threatening everything evil, everything born of darkness. He strove to where Python lived, who was pursuing his mother Latona; he wanted to take revenge on him for all the evil that he caused her.

Apollo quickly reached the gloomy gorge, the home of Python. Rocks rose all around, reaching high into the sky. Darkness reigned in the gorge. A mountain stream, gray with foam, rushed rapidly along its bottom, and fog swirled above the stream. The terrible Python crawled out of his lair. His huge body, covered with scales, twisted between the rocks in countless rings. Rocks and mountains trembled from the weight of his body and moved from place. The furious Python brought devastation to everything, he spread death all around. The nymphs and all living things fled in horror. Python rose, powerful, furious, opened his terrible mouth and was ready to swallow Apollo. Then the ringing of the string of a silver bow was heard, as a spark flashed in the air of a golden arrow that could not miss, followed by another, a third; arrows rained down on Python, and he fell lifeless to the ground. The triumphant victory song (paean) of the golden-haired Apollo, the conqueror of Python, sounded loudly, and the golden strings of the god’s cithara echoed it. Apollo buried the body of Python in the ground where the sacred Delphi stands, and founded a sanctuary and an oracle in Delphi in order to prophesy the will of his father Zeus to people in it.

From a high shore far out to sea, Apollo saw a ship of Cretan sailors. Having turned into a dolphin, he rushed into the blue sea, overtook the ship and flew up from the sea waves to its stern like a radiant star. Apollo brought the ship to the pier of the city of Chris and led the Cretan sailors through a fertile valley to Delphi. He made them the first priests of his sanctuary.

Based on Ovid's poem "Metamorphoses".

The bright, joyful god Apollo knows sadness, and grief befell him. He experienced grief shortly after defeating Python. When Apollo, proud of his victory, stood over the monster killed by his arrows, he saw near him the young god of love Eros, pulling his golden bow. Laughing, Apollo said to him:

“What do you need, child, such a formidable weapon?” It’s better for me to send the smashing golden arrows with which I just killed Python. Can you be equal in glory to me, Arrowhead? Do you really want to achieve greater glory than me?

The offended Eros answered Apollo:

- Your arrows, Phoebus-Apollo, do not miss, they strike everyone, but my arrow will strike you.

Eros flapped his golden wings and in the blink of an eye flew up to high Parnassus. There he took two arrows from his quiver. One, wounding the heart and evoking love, he pierced the heart of Apollo, the other - killing love - Eros sent into the heart of the nymph Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus.

Once he met the beautiful Daphne Apollo and fell in love with her. But as soon as Daphne saw the golden-haired Apollo, she began to run with the speed of the wind: after all, the arrow of Eros, killing love, pierced her heart. The silver-bowed god hurried after her.

“Stop, beautiful nymph,” cried Apollo, “why are you running from me, like a lamb pursued by a wolf?” Like a dove fleeing from an eagle, you rush! After all, I’m not your enemy! Look, you hurt your feet on the sharp thorns of the thorns. Oh wait, stop! After all, I am Apollo, the son of the thunderer Zeus, and not a mere mortal shepherd.

October 16, 2015

The basis and source of inspiration for European poets, playwrights and artists were the Greek gods and goddesses, Greek heroes, myths and legends about them. Therefore, it is important to know their brief content. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece, the entire Greek culture, especially of the late period, when both philosophy and democracy were developed, had a strong influence on the formation of the entire European civilization as a whole. The mythology evolved over a long period of time. Tales and legends became famous because reciters wandered along the paths and roads of Hellas. They carried more or less long stories about the heroic past. Some gave only a brief summary.

The legends and myths of Ancient Greece gradually became familiar and beloved, and what Homer created was customary for an educated person to know by heart and be able to quote from anywhere. Greek scientists, striving to put everything in order, began to work on the classification of myths, and turned disparate stories into an orderly series.

Main Greek gods

The very first myths are dedicated to the struggle of various gods among themselves. Some of them did not have human features - these were the offspring of the goddess Gaia-Earth and Uranus-Sky - twelve titans and six more monsters who horrified their father, and he plunged them into the abyss - Tartarus. But Gaia persuaded the remaining titans to overthrow their father. This was done by the insidious Kronos - Time. But, having married his sister, he was afraid of the children being born and swallowed them immediately after birth: Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Hades. Having given birth to the last child, Zeus, the wife deceived Kronos, and he was unable to swallow the baby. And Zeus was safely hidden in Crete. This is just a summary. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece terribly describe the events taking place.

Zeus's war for power

Zeus grew up, matured and forced Kronos to return his swallowed sisters and brothers to the world. He called them to fight their cruel father. In addition, some of the titans, giants and cyclops took part in the fight. The struggle lasted ten years. The fire raged, the seas boiled, nothing was visible from the smoke. But the victory went to Zeus. The enemies were overthrown into Tartarus and taken into custody.

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Gods on Olympus

Zeus, to whom the Cyclops bound lightning, became the supreme god, Poseidon controlled all the waters on earth, and Hades controlled the underground kingdom of the dead. This was already the third generation of gods, from which all the other gods and heroes descended, about whom stories and legends would begin to be told. The ancients refer to the cycle about Dionysus, the god of wine and winemaking, fertility, the patron of night mysteries that were held in the darkest places. The mysteries were terrible and mysterious. This is how the struggle between the dark gods and the light gods began to take shape. There were no real wars, but the dark gods began to gradually give way to the bright sun god Phoebus with his rational principle, with his cult of reason, science and art.
And the irrational, ecstatic, sensual retreated. But these are two sides of the same phenomenon. And one was impossible without the other. The goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, patronized the family. Ares - war, Athena - wisdom, Artemis - the moon and hunting, Demeter - agriculture, Hermes - trade, Aphrodite - love and beauty.
Hephaestus - to artisans. Their relationships between themselves and people make up the legends of the Hellenes. They were fully studied in pre-revolutionary gymnasiums in Russia. Only now, when people are concerned mostly with earthly concerns, do they, if necessary, pay attention to their brief content. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece are moving further into the past.

Who was patronized by the gods

They weren't very kind to people. They often envied them or lusted after women, were jealous, and were greedy for praise and honors. That is, they were very similar to mortals, if we take their description. Tales (summary), legends and myths of Ancient Greece (Kun) describe their gods in very contradictory ways. “Nothing pleases the gods more than the collapse of human hopes,” Euripides believed. And Sophocles echoed him: “The gods most willingly help a person when he goes towards his death.”

All gods obeyed Zeus, but for people he was important as a guarantor of justice. It was when the judge judged unjustly that man turned to Zeus for help. In matters of war, only Mars dominated. Wise Athena patronized Attica. All sailors made sacrifices to Poseidon when they went to sea. In Delphi one could ask for favors from Phoebus and Artemis.

Myths about heroes

One of the favorite myths was about Theseus, the son of King Aegeus of Athens. He was born and raised in the royal family in Troezen. When he grew up and was able to get his father's sword, he went to meet him. Along the way, he destroyed the robber Procrustes, who did not allow people to pass through his territory. When he got to his father, he learned that Athens was paying tribute to Crete with girls and boys. Together with another batch of slaves, under mourning sails, he went to the island to King Minos to kill the monstrous Minotaur. Princess Ariadne helped Theseus through the labyrinth in which the Minotaur was located. Theseus fought the monster and destroyed it. The Greeks joyfully, freed forever from tribute, returned to their homeland. But they forgot to change the black sails. Aegeus, who did not take his eyes off the sea, saw that his son had died, and from unbearable grief he threw himself into the abyss of the waters above which his palace stood. The Athenians rejoiced that they were freed from tribute forever, but they also cried when they learned about the tragic death of Aegeus. The myth of Theseus is long and colorful. This is its summary. Legends and myths of Ancient Greece (Kun) will give a comprehensive description of it.

The epic is the second part of the book by Nikolai Albertovich Kun

Legends of the Argonauts, the Trojan War, the voyages of Odysseus, Orestes' revenge for the death of his father, and the misadventures of Oedipus in the Theban cycle form the second half of the book that Kuhn wrote, Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece. A summary of the chapters is indicated above.

Returning from Troy to his native Ithaca, Odysseus spent many long years in dangerous wanderings. The way home through the stormy sea was difficult for him. God Poseidon could not forgive Odysseus for the fact that, saving his life and the lives of his friends, he blinded Cyclops, the son of Poseidon, and sent unheard-of storms. Along the way, they were killed by sirens, captivated by their unearthly voices and mellifluous singing. All his companions died while traveling across the seas. All were destroyed by evil fate. Odysseus languished in captivity with the nymph Calypso for many years. He begged to be allowed to go home, but the beautiful nymph refused. Only the requests of the goddess Athena softened the heart of Zeus, he took pity on Odysseus and returned him to his family.

The legends of the Trojan cycle and the campaigns of Odysseus were created by Homer in his poems - “The Iliad” and “Odyssey”; the myths about the campaign for the Golden Fleece to the shores of Pontus Evsinsky are described in the poem of Apollonius of Rhodes. Sophocles wrote the tragedy "Oedipus the King", the tragedy about the Arrest - the playwright Aeschylus. They are given in a summary of “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece” (Nikolai Kun).

Myths and legends about gods, titans, and numerous heroes disturb the imagination of artists of the word, brush and cinematography of our days. Standing in a museum near a painting painted on a mythological theme, or hearing the name of the beautiful Helen, it would be good to at least have a little idea of what is behind this name (a huge war) and to know the details of the plot depicted on the canvas. “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece” can help with this. A summary of the book will reveal the meaning of what you saw and heard.