The most ancient gods of Ancient Greece, known to us from myths, were personifications of those forces of nature, whose activity determines physical life and arouses in the heart of a person now fear and horror, now hope and trust - with personifications of forces mysterious for a person, but obviously dominating over his fate, which were the first objects of idolization among all peoples. But the gods of ancient Greece were not only symbols of the forces of external nature; they were at the same time the creators and keepers of all moral goods, the personification of all the forces of moral life. All those forces of the human spirit that create cultural life, and the development of which among the Greek people gave it such an important meaning in the history of mankind, were invested by him in the myths of the gods. The gods of Greece are the personification of all the great and wonderful forces of the Greek people; the world of the gods of Ancient Greece is a complete reflection of Greek civilization. The Greeks made their gods in myths like people, therefore they felt obliged to become like gods; the concern for cultivation was a religious duty for them. Greek culture has a close relationship with the Greek religion.

Gods of Ancient Greece. Video

Different generations of the gods of ancient Greece

The foundation of the religion of Ancient Greece in the Pelasgian time was the worship of the forces of nature, manifested in heaven, on earth, in the sea. Those gods, who were among the pre-Greek Pelasgians the most ancient personifications of the forces of earth and sky, were overthrown by a series of catastrophes, the legends about which were preserved in the ancient Greek myths about the struggle of the Olympians with the titans and giants. The new gods of Ancient Greece, who took the dominion from the previous ones, descended from them, but already had a completely human image.

Zeus and Hera

So, the world began to be ruled by new humanoid gods, the main of which was in myths of Zeus, son of Crohn; but the former gods, the personified forces of nature, retained their mysterious efficacy, which even the all-powerful Zeus cannot overcome. As the omnipotent kings are subject to the laws of the moral world, so Zeus and other new gods of Ancient Greece are subject to the laws of nature and fate.

Zeus, the main god in the myths of Ancient Greece, is a cloud collector, sitting on a throne in the height of the ether, shaking with his lightning shield, Aegis (thundercloud), life-giving and fertilizing the earth, at the same time the installer, the guardian of the legal order. All rights, especially family rights and the custom of hospitality, are under his protection. He tells rulers to be concerned about the welfare of the ruled. He gives prosperity to kings and peoples, cities and families; he is also justice. He is the source of all that is good and noble. He is the father of the goddesses of hours (Ohr), personifying the correct course of annual changes in nature and the correct order of human life; he is the father of the Muses who give joy to the heart of man.

His wife, Hera, in the myths of Ancient Greece, is a grumpy goddess of the atmosphere, who has as her servants a rainbow (Iris) and clouds (the Greek name for a cloud, nephele, a feminine word), at the same time she is the installer of the sacred marriage union, in honor of which the Greeks performed on the holiday of abundant spring flowers solemn ceremonies. The goddess Hera is a strict guardian of the sanctity of the marriage union and under her protection is a housewife faithful to her husband; she blesses marriage with children and protects children. Hera relieves women in childbirth; she is assisted in this care by her daughter Eileithyia.

Athena Pallas

Athena Pallas

The virgin goddess Athena Pallas, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, was born from the head of Zeus. Initially, she was considered the goddess of the clear sky, who scatters dark clouds with her spear, and the personification of victorious energy in any struggle. Athena has always been depicted with a shield, sword and spear. Her constant companion was the winged goddess of victory (Nika). Among the Greeks, Athena was the guardian of cities and fortresses, she also gave people correct, fair social and state orders... The image of the goddess Athena personified wise balance, calm, discerning mind, necessary for the creators of works of mental activity and art.

The Virgin Athena statue in the Parthenon. Sculptor Phidias

In ancient Greece, Pallas was most revered by the Athenians, the inhabitants of the city named after this goddess. The public life of Athens was imbued with the service of Pallas. A huge statue of Athena by Phidias stood in the magnificent temple of the Athenian Acropolis - the Parthenon. Many myths associated Athena with the famous ancient Greek city. The most famous of these was the myth of the dispute between Athena and Poseidon over the possession of Attica. The goddess Athena won it, giving the region the basis of her agriculture - an olive tree. Ancient Athens celebrated many festivals in honor of its beloved goddess. The main ones were two holidays of the Panathenes - Great and Small. Both, according to the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, were established by one of the most ancient progenitors of Athens - Erechtheus. The Lesser Panathenes were celebrated annually, and the Great ones - once every four years. For the great Panathenaea, all the inhabitants of Attica gathered in Athens and arranged a magnificent procession, during which a new mantle (peplos) for the ancient statue of the goddess Pallas was carried to the Acropolis. The procession marched from Keramik, along the main streets, where people in white robes crowded.

God Hephaestus in Greek myths

Hephaestus, the god of heavenly and earthly fire, was close to Pallas Athena, the goddess of the arts. The strongest activity of Hephaestus was manifested by volcanoes on the islands, especially on Lemnos and Sicily; but in the application of fire to the affairs of human life, Hephaestus greatly helped the development of culture. Prometheus also has a close relationship with the concept of Athena, who brought fire to people and taught them the arts of life. The Attic festival of running with torches was dedicated to these three gods, a competition in which the winner was the one who was the first to reach the goal with a burning torch. Pallas Athena was the inventor of the arts for women; lame Hephaestus, often joked about by poets, was the founder of blacksmithing and a master in metalwork. Like Athena, he was a god in ancient Greece hearth family life, therefore, under the auspices of Hephaestus and Athena, was performed in Athens wonderful holiday"State family", the holiday of Anaturiy, on which newborn children were carried around the steep hearth, and with this rite they were consecrated family union the state.

God Vulcan (Hephaestus). Statue by Thorvaldsen, 1838

Hestia

The value of the hearth as the center of family life and beneficial influence lasting home life for moral and social life They were personified in the myths of Ancient Greece by the virgin goddess Hestia, the representative of the concepts of a stable settled life, a comfortable home life, the symbol of which was the sacred fire of the hearth. Originally, Hestia was in the ancient Greek myths about the gods the personification of the earth, over which the ethereal fire of the sky burns; but after that it became a symbol of civil accomplishment, which receives strength on earth only through the union of earth with heaven, as a divine institution. Therefore, in every Greek home, the hearth was the religious center of the family. Whoever approached the hearth and sat on its ashes acquired the right to patronage. Each tribal union of ancient Greece had a common sanctuary of Hestia, in which they reverently performed symbolic rites. In ancient times, when there were kings and when the king offered sacrifices as a representative of the people, resolved litigations, gathered noble people and ancestors for a council, the hearth of the royal house was a symbol of the state connection of the people; after, the same meaning was given to pritania, the religious center of the state. An unquenchable fire burned on the state hearth of the pritanei, and the pritans, the elected rulers of the people, were to be in turn permanently at this hearth. The hearth was the connection of the earth with the sky; therefore Hestia was in ancient Greece and the goddess of sacrifice. Each solemn sacrifice began with the offering of a sacrifice to her. And all kinds of public prayers of the Greeks began with an appeal to Hestia.

Myths about the god Apollo

For more details, see the separate article God Apollo

The god of shining light, Apollo, was the son of Zeus from Latona (who was the personification of the dark night in ancient Greek myths). His cult was brought to Ancient Greece from Asia Minor, where the local god Apelyun existed. According to Greek myths, Apollo spends the winter in the distant land of the Hyperboreans, and in the spring he returns to Hellas, infusing life into nature, and into man - the joy and desire to sing. Apollo was therefore recognized as the god of singing - and in general of that inspiring power that gives rise to art. Thanks to the revitalizing qualities, the cult of this god was also associated with the idea of ​​healing, protection from evil. With his well-aimed arrows (sunbeams) Apollo destroys all filth. This idea was symbolically expressed by the ancient Greek myth of the killing of the terrible serpent Python by Apollo. The skillful shooter Apollo was considered the brother of the goddess of the hunt Artemis, with whom he killed the sons of the overly proud with arrows Niobe.

The ancient Greeks considered poetry and music to be the gift of Apollo. Poems and songs were always performed at his holidays. According to legend, having defeated the monster of darkness, Python, Apollo composed the first paean (victory hymn). As the god of music, he was often depicted with a cithara in his hands. Since poetic inspiration is akin to prophetic inspiration, in the myths of Ancient Greece, Apollo was also recognized as the supreme patron of soothsayers, who gives them a prophetic gift. Almost all Greek oracles (including the main one - Delphic) were founded in the sanctuaries of Apollo.

Apollo Saurocton (killing a lizard). Roman copy of a statue of Praxiteles IV century. B.C.

The god of music, poetry, singing Apollo was in the myths of Ancient Greece the ruler of the goddesses of the arts - muses, nine daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory Mnemosyne. The groves of Parnassus and Helikon located in the vicinity of Delphi were considered the main abode of the muses. As the ruler of the muses, Apollo had the epithet "Muzageta". Clea was the muse of history, Calliope - epic poetry, Melpomene - tragedy, Thalia - comedy, Erato - love poetry, Euterpe - lyrics, Terpsichore - dances, Polyhymnia - hymns, Urania - astronomy.

The sacred plant of Apollo was laurel.

The god of light, purity and healing, Apollo in the myths of Ancient Greece not only heals people from ailments, but also cleanses from sins. From this side, his cult is even closer in contact with moral ideas... Even after the victory over the evil monster Python, Apollo found it necessary to cleanse himself of the filth of murder and, in redemption, went to serve as a shepherd for the Thessalian king Admet. By this, he gave people an example that the one who committed bloodshed must always repent, and became the god-purifier of murderers and criminals. In Greek myths, Apollo healed not only the body, but also the soul. Penitent sinners found forgiveness with him, but only with sincerity of repentance. According to ancient Greek customs, the murderer was supposed to earn forgiveness from the relatives of the murdered, who had the right to take revenge on him, and spend eight years in exile.

Apollo was the main tribal god of the Dorians, who celebrated two great holidays in his honor every year: Carnea and Iacinthia. The Carnean festival was celebrated in honor of the Warrior Apollo, in the month of Carneus (August). During this holiday, war games, singing and dancing competitions were held. Iakinthia, celebrated in July (nine days), were accompanied by sad ceremonies in memory of the death of the beautiful young man Iakinth (Hyacinth), the personification of flowers. According to the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, Apollo accidentally killed this pet while throwing a disc (a symbol of how the disc of the sun kills flowers with its heat). But Hyacinth was resurrected and taken to Olympus - and at the holiday of Iakinthy, following the sad rites, cheerful processions of young men and women with flowers passed. The death and resurrection of Iakinth personified the winter death and spring rebirth of plants. This episode of ancient Greek myth seems to have developed under strong Phoenician influence.

Myths about the goddess Artemis

Apollo's sister, Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon, hunted through the mountains and forests; bathed with nymphs, her companions, in cool streams; was the patroness of wild animals; at night she watered the thirsty land with life-giving dew. But at the same time, Artemis was in the myths of Ancient Greece and the goddess who destroyed seafarers, so in ancient times of Greece people were sacrificed to her to propitiate her. With the development of civilization, Artemis became the goddess of virgin integrity, the patroness of brides and girls. When they got married, they brought gifts to her. Artemis of Ephesus was the goddess of fertility, who gave crops to the land and children to women; in the idea of ​​it, eastern concepts probably joined the myths of Ancient Greece. Artemis was depicted as having many nipples on her chest; this meant that she was a generous nurse for the people. At the magnificent temple of Artemis there were many hierodules and many servants, dressed in men's clothing and armed; therefore, in ancient Greek myths, it was believed that this temple was founded by the Amazons.

Artemis. Statue in the Louvre

The original physical meaning of Apollo and Artemis in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods was more and more hidden by the moral. Therefore, Greek mythology created a special sun god, Helios, and a special moon goddess, Selene. - The representative of the healing power of Apollo was also made a special god, the son of Apollo, Asclepius.

Ares and Aphrodite

Ares, the son of Zeus and Hera, was originally a symbol of the stormy sky, and his homeland was Thrace, the land of winter storms. Among the ancient Greek poets, he became the god of war. Ares is always armed; he loves the noise of battles. Ares is furious. But he was also the founder of the sacred Athenian tribunal, which tried murder cases, which had a seat on the hill dedicated to Ares, the Areopagus, and was also called Areopagus by the name of this hill. And as the god of storms, and as the fierce god of battles, he is opposite to Pallas Athena, the goddess of the clear sky and the judicious conduct of battles. Therefore, in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, Pallas and Ares are hostile to each other.

In the concepts of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, a moral element was also added to the physical character of love in ancient Greek myths over time. The cult of Aphrodite passed to Ancient Greece from the colonies founded by the Phoenicians in Cyprus, Kythera, Thasos and other islands. In the myths of the Phoenicians, the concept of the perceiving and giving birth element of the forces of nature was personified by two goddesses, Ashera and Astarte, ideas about which were often mixed. Aphrodite was both Ashera and Astarte. In the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, she corresponded to Ashera when she was a goddess, loving gardens and flowers, living in the groves, the goddess of joyful spring and voluptuousness, enjoying the love of the beautiful youth Adonis in the forest on the mountain. She corresponded to Astarte, when she was revered as the "goddess of heights", as the stern, armed with a spear Aphrodite Urania (heavenly) or Aphrodite of Acreus, whose places of service were the tops of the mountains, who imposed a vow of eternal girlhood on her priestesses, guarded the chastity of conjugal love and family morality ... But the ancient Greeks knew how to combine these opposite ideas and from their combination they created in myths a wondrous image of a graceful, charming, physically beautiful and morally sweet goddess, who delights the heart with the beauty of her forms, arousing tender affection. This mythological combination of physical feelings with moral affection, giving sensual love its natural right, protected people from the rough vulgarity of oriental unbridled voluptuousness. Ideal female beauty and gracefulness, the sweetly smiling Aphrodite of ancient Greek myths and burdened with heavy and precious attire of the goddess of the East - these are completely different creatures. The difference between them is the same as between the joyful service to the goddess of love in better times Ancient Greece and noisy Syrian orgies, in which the goddess, surrounded by eunuchs, served with an unbridled revelry of rough sensuality. True, in later times, with the corruption of morals, vulgar sensuality also penetrated into the Greek service to the goddess of love. Aphrodite of Heaven (Urania), goddess honest love, the patroness of family life, was pushed aside in the myths of the gods by Aphrodite of the People (Pandemos), the goddess of voluptuousness, whose holidays in big cities turned into a rampant vulgar sensuality.

Aphrodite and her son Eros (Eros), turned by poets and artists into the oldest among the theogonic gods, into the youngest of the Olympian gods, and who became a young man accompanying his mother, later even a child, were favorite objects of ancient Greek art. Sculpture usually depicted Aphrodite naked, emerging from the waves of the sea; she was given all the charm of a beauty, whose soul is full of feelings of love. Eros was portrayed as a boy with soft, rounded body outlines.

Myths about the god Hermes

With the development of culture in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, the Pelasgian god of nature Hermes, to whom the Arcadian shepherds sacrificed on Mount Killene, also received moral significance; he was their personification of the power of the sky, which gives grass to their pastures, and the father of their ancestor, Arkas. According to their myths, Hermes, still a baby wrapped in a lullaby (in the fog of dawn), stole the flocks (bright clouds) of the sun god, Apollo, and hid them in a damp cave by the sea coast; pulling the strings on the shell of a turtle, he made a lyre and, giving it to Apollo, acquired the friendship of this more powerful god. Hermes also invented the shepherd's flute, with which he walks through the mountains of his homeland. Subsequently, Hermes became the guardian of roads, crossroads and travelers, the keeper of the streets, boundaries. Stones were placed on the latter, former symbols Hermes, and his images, which gave the boundaries of the sites holiness, strength.

God Hermes. Sculpture Phidias (?)

The Herms (that is, the symbols of Hermes) were originally just heaps of stones piled on the borders, along the roads, and especially at the intersections; these were boundary and track signs that were considered sacred. Passers-by threw stones to those laid before. Sometimes oil was poured on these heaps of stones dedicated to the god Hermes, as on primitive altars; they were decorated with flowers, wreaths, ribbons. Subsequently, the Greeks put triangular or tetrahedral stone pillars with track and boundary marks; over time, they began to give them a more skillful finish, they usually made a pillar with a head, sometimes with a phallus, a symbol of fertility. Such herms stood on the roads, and along the streets, squares, at the gates, at the doors; put them in palaestrah, in gymnasiums, because Hermes was in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods the patron saint of gymnastic exercises.

From the concept of the god of rain penetrating the earth, the concept of mediation between heaven, earth and the underworld developed, and Hermes became in the myths of Ancient Greece a god who escorted the souls of the dead to the underworld (Hermes Psychopompos). Thus, he was put in close connection with the gods living in the earth (chthonic gods). These ideas came from the concept of the relationship between the emergence and death of plants in the cycle of life in nature and from the concept of Hermes as the messenger of the gods; they served as the source of many ancient Greek myths that put Hermes in a very diverse relationship to the everyday affairs of people. The original myth already made him cunning: he deftly stole the cows of Apollo and managed to make peace with this god; with clever inventions, Hermes was able to extricate himself from difficult situations. This trait remained an invariable attribute of the character of the god Hermes in the later ancient Greek myths about him: he was the personification of everyday dexterity, the patron saint of all occupations in which success is given by the ability to speak cleverly and the ability to be silent, hide the truth, pretend, deceive. In particular, Hermes was the patron god of trade, oratory, embassies and diplomatic affairs in general. With the development of civilization, the concepts of these activities became predominant in the concept of Hermes, and its original pastoral meaning was transferred to one of the minor gods, Pan, the "god of the pastures", just as the physical meaning of Apollo and Artemis was transferred to less important gods. Helios and Selene.

God pan

Pan was in ancient Greek myths the god of goat herds that grazed on the wooded mountains of Arcadia; there he was born. His father was Hermes, his mother was the daughter of Driopa ("the forest god"). Pan walks through the shady valleys; caves serve as his shelter; he has fun with the nymphs of the forest and mountain springs, dancing to the sounds of his shepherd's flute (syringa, syrinx), an instrument that he invented; sometimes he himself dances with the nymphs. Pan is sometimes kind to the shepherds and enters into friendship with us; but sometimes he does trouble to them, raising a sudden fright in the herd ("panic" fear), so that the whole herd scatters. God Pan remained forever in Ancient Greece as a merry shepherd's holidays, a master of playing the reed pipe, funny for the townspeople; later art characterized Pan's closeness to nature, giving his figure goat legs, or even horns and other features of animals.

God Pan and Daphnis, the hero of the ancient Greek novel. Antique statue

Poseidon in the myths of ancient Greece

For more details, see the separate article God Poseidon

The gods of the sea and flowing waters and the gods living under the earth, more than the deities of heaven and air, retained the original meaning of the personified forces of nature: but they also received human features. Poseidon - in the myths of Ancient Greece, the divine power of all waters, the god of the sea and all rivers, streams, sources that fertilize the earth. Therefore, he was the main god on the seashore and on the capes. Poseidon is strong, broad-shouldered, and has an indomitable character. When he strikes the sea with his trident, a storm rises, waves beat against the cliffs of the shores so that the earth trembles, the cliffs crack and collapse. But Poseidon is a good god: he brings springs out of the cracks of the rocks to fertilize the valleys; he created and tamed the horse; he is the patron saint of horse racing and all war games, the patron saint of all daring trips, whether on horseback, in chariots, over land, or by sea in ships. In ancient Greek myths, Poseidon is a mighty builder who established the land and its islands, who laid the solid boundaries of the sea. He raises storms, but he also gives a favorable wind; at his beck, the sea swallows up the ships; but he also conducts the ships in the pier. Poseidon is the patron saint of navigation; he guards the maritime trade and rule the course of the naval war.

God of ships and horses, Poseidon played, according to the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, important role on all campaigns and sea expeditions of the heroic age. The homeland of his cult was Thessaly, the land of the Neptune formation, herds of horses and navigation; then his service spread to Boeotia, Attica, across the Peloponnese, and his holidays early began to be accompanied by war games. The most famous of these games in honor of the god Poseidon took place in the Boeotian city of Onhest and on Isthma. In Onheste, his sanctuaries and their grove stood picturesquely on a beautiful and fertile hill above Lake Kopai. The terrain of the Isthmian Games was a hill near Shin (Schoinos, "Reeds", a lowland overgrown with reeds), shaded by a pine grove. Symbolic rituals borrowed from the legend of the death of Melikert, that is, from the Phoenician service to Melkart, were introduced into the worship of Poseidon on Isthma. - The horses of the heroic age, fast as the wind, were created by the god Poseidon; in particular, Pegasus was created by him. - Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite, was the personification of the rustling sea.

Like Zeus, Poseidon had many love affairs in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, many sea gods and goddesses, and many heroes were his children. Newts belonged to Poseidon's retinue, the number of which was innumerable. They were cheerful creatures of the most varied forms, the personification of noisy, ringing, sliding waves and mysterious forces of the depths of the sea, fantastically transformed sea animals. They played on pipes made of shells, frolicked, trailed after the Nereids. They were one of my favorite pieces of art. Proteus, the sea god, the soothsayer of the future, who, according to ancient Greek myths, had the ability to take all kinds of forms, also belonged to the numerous retinue of Poseidon. When the Greek sailors began to sail far away, then, returning, they astonished their people with myths about the wonders of the western sea: about sirens, beautiful sea girls who live there on underwater islands under the bright surface of the waters and with seductive singing insidiously lure sailors into destruction, about the good Glaucus , the sea god predicting the future, about the terrible monsters Scylla and Charybdis (personifications of a dangerous rock and whirlpool), about the wicked cyclops, one-eyed giants, the sons of Poseidon, living on the island of Trinacria, where Mount Etna is, about the beautiful Galatea, surrounded by a rocky, rocky , on which the god of the winds Aeolus lives cheerfully in a magnificent palace with his airy sons and daughters.

Underground Gods - Hades, Persephone

In the myths of Ancient Greece, the worship of those gods of nature who acted both in the bowels of the earth and on the surface of it had the greatest similarity with eastern religions. Human life is in such close connection with the development and withering of vegetation, with the growth and ripening of bread and grapes, that divine services, folk beliefs, art, religious theories and myths about the gods combined their deepest ideas with the mysterious activities of the gods of the earth. Circle of phenomena plant life was a symbol of human life: luxurious vegetation quickly fades from the heat of the sun or from the cold; dies at the onset of winter, and is reborn in the spring from the earth, in which its seeds were hidden in the fall. It was easy to draw a parallel to ancient Greek mythology: so a person, after a short life under the joyful light of the sun, descends into a dark underworld, where instead of the radiant Apollo and the bright Pallas Athena, the gloomy, stern Hades (Hades, Hades) and the strict beauty, his wife, reign in a magnificent palace , the formidable Persephone. Thoughts about how close birth and death are, about the fact that the earth is both the mother's womb and the coffin, served in the myths of Ancient Greece as the basis for the cult of the underground gods and gave it a dual character: there was a joyful side in it, and there was a sad side. And in Hellas, as in the East, the service to the gods of the earth was exalted; his rituals consisted in the expression of feelings of joy and sadness, and those who performed them had to indulge in the action of the emotional disturbances they caused. But in the East, this exaltation led to the perversion of natural feelings, to the fact that people mutilated themselves; and in ancient Greece, the cult of the gods of the earth developed the arts, aroused thinking about religious issues, led people to acquire lofty ideas about the deity. The feasts of the gods of the earth, especially Dionysus, contributed a lot to the development of poetry, music, dancing; plastic loved to take objects for their works from the circle of ancient Greek myths about funny fantastic creatures accompanying Pan and Dionysus. And the Eleusinian mysteries, the teachings of which spread throughout the Greek world, gave deep interpretations to the myths about the "earth-mother", the goddess Demeter, about the abduction of her daughter (Cora) Persephone by the harsh ruler of the underworld, about the fact that Persephone's life goes on earth, then under the ground. These teachings inspired a person that death is not terrible, that the soul experiences the body. The powers that reign in the bowels of the earth aroused awe in the ancient Greeks; one could not speak of these forces fearlessly; thoughts about them were transmitted in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods under the guise of symbols, were not expressed directly, had only to be guessed under allegories. Mysterious teachings surrounded with solemn mystery these formidable gods, in the treasure of darkness creating life and perceiving the dead, ruling the earthly and afterlife of man.

The gloomy husband of Persephone, Hades (Hades), "Zeus of the underworld," reigns supreme in the depths of the earth; there are sources of wealth and fertility; therefore he is also called Pluto, the "enricher." But there are all the horrors of death. According to ancient Greek myths, wide gates lead to the vast dwelling of the king of the dead, Hades. Everyone is free to enter them; their guard, the three-headed dog Cerberus, gently lets in those who come in, but does not allow them to go back. Weeping willows and barren poplars surround the vast palace of Hades. The shadows of the dead sweep over gloomy fields overgrown with weeds, or nest in the crevices of underground rocks. Some of the heroes of Ancient Greece (Hercules, Theseus) went to the underworld of Hades. The entrance to it was different myths in different countries, but always in wilderness, where rivers flow through deep gorges, the waters of which seem dark, where caves, hot springs and vapors show the proximity of the kingdom of the dead. For example, there was an entrance to the underworld at Thesprotia Gulf in southern Epirus, where the Acheron River and Lake Acherus infected their surroundings with miasma; at Cape Tenar; in Italy, in the volcanic area near the city of Qom. In the same areas there were also those oracles, whose answers were given by the souls of the dead.

Ancient Greek myths and poetry talked a lot about the kingdom of the dead. Fantasy sought to give curiosity accurate information, which science did not give, to penetrate into the darkness surrounding the afterlife, and inexhaustily created new images belonging to the underworld.

The two main rivers of the underworld, according to the myths of the Greeks, are Styx and Acheron, "a dull rustling river of eternal sorrow." In addition to them, there were three more rivers in the kingdom of the dead: Lethe, whose water destroyed the memory of the past, Piriflegeton ("River of Fire") and Cocytus ("Sobbing"). The souls of the dead were taken to the underground kingdom of Hades by Hermes. Stern old man Charon transported in his boat through the surrounding Styx under the earthly kingdom those souls whose bodies were buried with an obol placed in a coffin to pay him for the transportation. The souls of the unburied people were to wander homelessly along the river bank, not accepted into Charon's boat. Therefore, whoever found an unburied body was obliged to cover it with earth.

The ideas of the ancient Greeks about the life of the dead in the kingdom of Hades changed with the development of civilization. In the oldest myths, the dead are ghosts, unconscious, but these ghosts instinctively do what they did when they were alive; - these are the shadows of living people. Their existence in the kingdom of Hades was dreary and sad. The shadow of Achilles tells Odysseus that she would like to live better on earth as a day laborer with a poor man than to be the king of the dead in the underworld. But offering sacrifices to the dead improved their miserable lot. The improvement consisted either in the fact that the severity of the underground gods was softened by these sacrifices, or in the fact that the shadows of the dead drank the blood of the sacrifices, and this drink restored their consciousness. The Greeks sacrificed the dead on their tombs. Turning their faces to the west, they cut the sacrificial animal over a deep pit, purposely dug in the ground, and the animal's blood flowed into this pit. Later, when the idea of ​​the afterlife was more fully developed in the Eleusinian mysteries, the myths of Ancient Greece began to divide the underworld of Hades into two parts, Tartarus and Elysium. In Tartarus, villains, condemned by the judges of the dead, led a miserable existence; they were tormented by Erinias, strict guardians moral laws who inexorably avenged every violation of the requirements of moral feeling, and countless evil spirits, in the invention of which the Greek fantasy showed the same inexhaustibility as the Egyptian, Indian and medieval European. Elysium, lying, according to ancient Greek myths, by the ocean (or an archipelago on the ocean, called the Islands of the Blessed), was the area of ​​the afterlife of the heroes of ancient times and the righteous. There the wind is always soft, there is no snow, no heat, no rain; there, in the myths of the gods, the good Cronus reigns; the land yields there three times a year, the meadows there bloom forever. The heroes and the righteous lead a blissful life there; they have wreaths on their heads, garlands of the most beautiful flowers and branches of beautiful trees near their hands; they enjoy singing, horseback riding, gymnastic games.

The wisest kings, the legislators of the mythical Cretan-Carian time, also live there, Minos both Radamant and the pious ancestor of the Eakids Eak, who according to the later myth became the judges of the dead. Under the chairmanship of Hades and Persephone, they investigated the feelings and deeds of people and decided on the merits of the deceased person whether his soul should go to Tartarus or Elysium. - Both they and other pious heroes of ancient Greek myths were rewarded for their beneficial activities on earth for continuing their studies in the afterlife, so the great lawless people of mythical stories were subjected to divine justice to punishments consistent with their crimes. The myths about their fate in the underworld showed the Greeks what bad inclinations and passions lead to; this fate was only a continuation, development of the deeds they committed in life and gave rise to the torment of their conscience, the symbols of which were the pictures of their material torment. So, the impudent Titius, who wanted to rape the mother of Apollo and Artemis, lies thrown to the ground; two kites constantly torment his liver, an organ that, according to the Greeks, was a repository of sensual passions (an obvious reworking of the myth of Prometheus). The punishment for another hero of myths, Tantalus, for his former lawlessness was that the cliff hanging over his head constantly threatened to crush him, and besides this fear he was tormented by thirst and hunger: he stood in the water, but when he bent down to drink, the water moved away from his lips and went down "to a black bottom"; fruits hung before his eyes; but when he stretched out his hands to pluck them, the wind lifted the branches upward. Sisyphus, the treacherous king of Ether (Corinth), was condemned to roll a stone up the mountain, constantly rolling down; - the personification of waves constantly running on the banks of Isthm, and escaping from them. The eternal vain labor of Sisyphus symbolized unsuccessful cunning in ancient Greek myths, and the cunning of Sisyphus was the mythical personification of the quality developed in merchants and sailors by the riskiness of their affairs. Ixion, king of the Lapiths, "the first murderer", was tied to a fiery, ever-turning wheel; this was a punishment to him for the fact that, while visiting Zeus, he violated the rights of hospitality, wanted to rape the chaste Hera. - The Danaids always carried water and poured it into a bottomless barrel.

Myths, poetry, art of Ancient Greece taught people good, turned them away from vices and evil passions, depicting the bliss of the righteous and the torment of the wicked in the afterlife. There were episodes in the myths showing that, having descended into the underworld, one can return from there to earth. So, for example, about Hercules it was said that he overcame the forces of the underworld; Orpheus, by the power of his singing and his love for his wife, softened the harsh gods of death, and they agreed to return Eurydice to him. In the Eleusinian mysteries, these legends served as symbols of the thought that the power of death should not be considered irresistible. The concepts of the underworld of Hades were interpreted in new myths and sacraments, which reduced the fear of death; the gratifying hope of bliss in the afterlife was manifested in ancient Greece under the influence of the Eleusinian mysteries, and in works of art.

In the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, Hades gradually became the kind ruler of the kingdom of the dead and the giver of wealth; the trappings of horror were removed from the notion of him. The genius of death in the most ancient works of art was depicted as a dark-colored boy with twisted legs, symbolically denoting the idea that life is broken by death. Little by little, in ancient Greek myths, he assumed the form of a beautiful youth with a drooping head, holding an overturned and extinguished torch in his hand, and became completely like his meek brother, the Genius of sleep. They both live with their mother, night, in the west. From there every evening a winged dream flies in and, sweeping over people, sprinkles tranquility on them from a horn or from a poppy stalk; it is accompanied by the genius of dreams - Morpheus, Fantaz, bringing joy to the sleeping. Even the Erinias lost their ruthlessness in ancient Greek myths, they became Eumenides, "Well-wishers." So with the development of civilization, all the ideas of the ancient Greeks about the underground kingdom of Hades softened, ceased to be terrible, and its gods became beneficial, life-giving.

The goddess Gaia, who was the personification of the general concept of the earth, giving rise to everything and taking everything back into itself, did not appear in the myths of Ancient Greece in the foreground. Only in some of the sanctuaries that had oracles, and in the theogonic systems that set out the history of the development of the cosmos, was it mentioned as the mother of the gods. Even the ancient Greek oracles, which originally all belonged to her, passed almost all under the rule of the new gods. The life of nature, developing on earth, was produced from the activity of the deities who ruled over its various areas; the service of these gods, who had a more or less special character, is in very close connection with the development of Greek culture. The power of vegetation, producing forests and green meadows, grapevines and bread, even in Pelasgian times, was explained by the activities of Dionysus and Demeter. Later, when the influence of the East penetrated into Ancient Greece, a third, borrowed from Asia Minor, the goddess of the earth, Rhea Cybele, was added to these two gods.

Demeter in the myths of ancient Greece

Demeter, "earth-mother", was in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods the personification of the power of nature, which, with the assistance of sunlight, dew and rain gives growth and ripening to bread and other fruits of the fields. She was a "fair-haired" goddess, under whose patronage people plow, sow, reap, knit bread in sheaves, thresh. Demeter gives harvests. She sent Triptolemus to walk all over the earth and teach people about arable farming and good manners. Demeter combined with Yason, the sower, and bore him Plutos (wealth); she punished with insatiable hunger the wicked Erisichton, "spoiling the earth." But in the myths of ancient Greece, she is a goddess married life giving children. The goddess who taught people agriculture and proper family life, Demeter was the founder of civilization, morality, family virtues. Therefore, Demeter was the "law-governor" (Thesmophoros), and the five-day feast of Thesmophorii, the "statutes," was celebrated in her honor. The rites of this holiday, performed married women, were a symbolic glorification of agriculture and marriage. Demeter was the main goddess of the Eleusinian festival, the rituals of which had as their main content a symbolic glorification of the gifts received by people from the gods of the earth. The Union of Amphictyons, meeting at Thermopylae, was also under the auspices of Demeter, the goddess of civil amenities.

But the highest significance of the cult of the goddess Demeter was that it contained the doctrine of the relationship between life and death, the light heavenly world and the dark kingdom of the bowels of the earth. The symbolic expression of this teaching was the beautiful myth of the abduction of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, by the ruthless ruler of the underworld. Demeter "the Sorrowful" (Achaia) walked all over the earth, looking for her daughter; and in many cities the feast of Demeter the Sorrowful was celebrated, the sad rites of which were similar to the Phoenician cult of Adonis. The human heart longs for an explanation of the question of death; The Eleusinian mysteries were among the ancient Greeks an attempt to solve this riddle; they were not a philosophical presentation of concepts; they acted on the feeling with aesthetic means, consoled, aroused hope. Attic poets said that blessed are those dying who are initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter: they know the purpose of life and its divine principle; for them, the descent into the underworld is life, for the uninitiated it is horror. The daughter of Demeter, Persephone, was in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods as a link between the kingdom of the living and the underworld; she belonged to both.

Myths about the god Dionysus

For more details, see the separate article God Dionysus

Dionysus in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods originally personified the abundance of plant power. It was clearly manifested in the form of bunches of grapes, whose juice intoxicates people. The vine and wine became symbols of Dionysus, and he himself became the god of joy and brotherly rapprochement of people. Dionysus is a powerful god who overcomes everything hostile to him. Like Apollo, he gives inspiration, excites a person to sing, but not harmonious, but wild and violent songs, reaching exaltation - those that later formed the basis of the ancient Greek drama. In the myths of Ancient Greece about Dionysus and in the holiday of Dionysius, various and even opposite feelings were expressed: the fun of that time of the year when everything blooms, and sadness when the vegetation withers. Joyous and sad feelings later began to be expressed separately - in comedies and tragedies that arose from the cult of Dionysus. In ancient Greek myths, the symbol of the generative force of nature - the phallus - was closely related to the veneration of Dionysus. Dionysus was originally the rude god of the common people. But in the era of tyranny, its importance increased. The tyrants, who most often acted as the leaders of the lower classes in the struggle against the nobility, deliberately opposed the plebeian Dionysus to the refined gods of the aristocracy and gave the festivities in honor of him a wide, nationwide character.

Bellerophon, the son of the Corinthian king Glaucus, having killed one Corinthian, was forced to flee from hometown to the king of Tiryns Pass. But, unfortunately, Proit's wife, Anthea, fell in love with Bellerofoit. When he rejected her, she was furious and told her husband that Bellerophon allegedly harassed her. In anger, Proit wanted to kill Bellerophon, but did not dare raise his hand against the guest. Proytus sent him with a letter to the king of Lycia, Iobatus, in which he asked to take revenge on the young man for the insult inflicted. Iobath, having read the letter, sent Bellerophon to certain death, ordering to kill the Chimera - a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a snake instead of a tail.

Once every 9 years, the Athenians paid a heavy tribute to Minos - 14 young men and women went to Crete, where they were devoured by the Minotaur, a monster imprisoned in the Labyrinth built by Daedalus. Theseus, son of the Athenian king Aegeus. decided to sail to Crete with the doomed Athenians to kill the Minotaur. He told his father that if they succeeded, there would be white sails on the way home on their ship. Ordinary black sails will signal that Theseus died. In Crete, the daughter of King Minos Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. She gave him a sword to kill the Minotaur and a ball of thread to find his way out of

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

But mighty force Hercules did not allow him to live in idleness. He longed for exploits and was even delighted when Koprey appeared to him.

"Eurystheus," said the herald, "commands you to cleanse the stables of the Elid king Augean from the manure in one day."

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

It seemed that there was no kingdom in all Hellas more prosperous than the kingdom of Mycenaean. But one day the Tafians 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 sea, new to them, unknown to the Greeks, breathed into their faces with a wide noise. It stretched out before them in a blue desert, mysterious and formidable, deserted and stern.

They knew: somewhere out there, on the other side of its turbulent abyss, there are mysterious lands inhabited by wild peoples; their customs are cruel, their appearance is terrible. There, somewhere on the banks of the full-flowing Istra, scary people with dog-like faces are barking along the banks of the full-flowing Istra - kinocephalous, dog-headed ones. There, beautiful and ferocious Amazon warriors rush about the free steppes. There, eternal darkness thickens further, and in it, like wild animals, inhabitants of the night and the cold, the Hyperboreans, roam. But where is it all?

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

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

Having moved away from the familiar shores, the ship "Argo" for many days cut the waves of the calm Propontida, the sea that people now call the Marble Sea.

It was already a new moon, and the nights turned black, like pitch, with which the ship's sides would be tarred, when the sharp-sighted Linkey was the first to point out to his comrades the mountain towering in front. Soon a low shore dawned in the fog, fishing nets appeared on the shore, a town at the entrance to the bay. Deciding to rest on the way, Typhius 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. The Argo entered the Feakia harbor. Tall ships stood in countless rows everywhere. Having dropped anchor at the pier, the heroes went to the palace to Alkinoy.

Looking at the Argonauts, at their heavy helmets, at the strong leg muscles in shiny leggings and at the tanned brown faces, the peaceful Theacians whispered to each other:

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

The sons of the great hero Pelops were Atreus and Fiestes. Pelops was once cursed by the charioteer of King Aenomai Myrtil, who was treacherously killed by Pelops, and condemned the whole family of Pelops to great atrocities and death with his curse. The curse of Myrtilus also weighed upon Atreus and Fiestos. They committed a number of atrocities. Atreus and Thyestes killed Chrysippus, the son of the nymph Axion and their father Pelops. It was the mother of Atreus and Fiesta Hippodamia who persuaded to kill Chrysippus. Having committed this atrocity, they fled from the kingdom of their father, fearing his anger, and took refuge with the king of Mycenae Sfenelus, the son of Perseus, who was married to their sister Nikippa. When Sfenel died and his son Eurystheus, captured by Iolaus, died at the hands of the mother of Heracles Alcmene, began to rule over the Mycenaean kingdom of Atreus, since Eurystheus did not leave behind heirs. His brother Fiestos envied Atreus and decided in any way to take away his power.

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 beautiful as a god and equal to the immortal gods in courage. Bellerophon, when he was still a young man, suffered a misfortune: he accidentally killed one citizen of Corinth and had to flee his hometown. He fled to the king of Tiryns, Pass. 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. Captivated by his beauty, Proyta's wife, the godlike Antaea. But Bellerophon rejected her love. Then Queen Antheia was inflamed with hatred for Bellerophon and decided to destroy him. She went to her husband and said to him:

O king! Bellerophon insults you heavily. You must kill him. He haunts me, your wife, with his love. That's how he thanked you for your hospitality!

Grozen Borey, god of the indomitable, stormy north wind. Furious, he rushes over lands and seas, causing all-devastating storms with his flight. Once I saw Boreas, sweeping over Attica, the daughter of Erechtheus, Orifia, and fell in love with her. Boreas begged Orifia to become his wife and allow him to take her with him to his kingdom to the far north. Orifia did not agree, she was afraid of a formidable, harsh god. The father of Orifia, Erechtheus, also refused to Boreus. No requests, no pleas from Boreas helped. The formidable god was angry and exclaimed:

I deserve this humiliation myself! I forgot about my formidable, violent strength! Is it proper for me to humbly plead with someone? I must act only by force! I chase thunderclouds across the sky, I rise to the sea like mountains, waves, I uproot, like dry blades of grass, age-old oak trees, I scourge the earth with hail and turn water into solid, like stone, ice - and I pray, as if powerless mortal. When I fly in a frantic flight over the earth, the whole earth vibrates and shudders even the underworld of Hades. And I pray to Erechtheus, as if I were his servant. I must not beg to give Orifia to me as a wife, but take her away by force!

Freed from service to 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 to 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.

In the hope of finding family happiness, Hercules began to look for himself new wife... He heard that Eurytus, the one who taught the young Hercules the art of bowing, offers his daughter Iola as wife to someone who surpasses him in accuracy.

Hercules went to Eurytus and easily defeated him in the competition. Such an outcome annoyed Evryta immensely. After drinking a fair amount of wine for greater confidence, he said to Hercules: "I don't trust my daughter to such a villain like you. Or did you not kill your children from Megara? Besides, you are a slave of Eurystheus and deserve only beating from a free man."

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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 away even now. And it doesn't matter in the 4th, 5th or 6th grade they study the myths of ancient Greece - 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 up and down. And now we read online to our children about who the heroes of the legends and myths of Ancient Greece were and trying to express in summary the meaning of their actions.

This fantastic world is surprising in that, despite the horror of an ordinary mortal in front of the gods of Mount Olympus, sometimes ordinary inhabitants of Greece could get involved in a dispute or even in battle with them. Sometimes short and simple myths express a very deep meaning and can explain the rules of life to a child in an accessible way.

The achievements of the ancient Greeks in art, science and politics had a significant impact on the development European states... Not the least role in this process was played by mythology - one of the best studied in the world. For many hundreds of years, it has appeared for many creators. History, myths of Ancient Greece have always been closely intertwined. The realities of the archaic era are known to us precisely thanks to the legends of that period.

Greek mythology took shape at the turn II-I millennium BC NS. Legends of gods and heroes spread throughout the territory of Hellas thanks to the aedam - itinerant reciters, the most famous of whom was Homer. Later, during the period of the Greek classics, mythological plots were reflected in the works of art of the great playwrights - Euripides and Aeschylus. Even later, at the beginning of our era, Greek scientists began to classify myths, compile genealogical trees of heroes - in other words, study the heritage of their ancestors.

The origin of the gods

Ancient myths and legends of Greece are dedicated to gods and heroes. According to the ideas of the Greeks, there were several generations of gods. The first couple to have anthropomorphic features were Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). They gave birth to 12 titans, as well as one-eyed cyclops and multi-headed and multi-armed giants, the Hecatoncheires. The birth of monster children did not please Uranus, and he cast them into the great abyss - Tartarus. This, in turn, did not like Gaia, and she persuaded her children-titans to overthrow their father (myths about the ancient gods of Greece are replete with similar motives). The youngest of her sons, Kronos (Time), managed to do this. With the beginning of his reign, history repeated itself.

He, like his father, was afraid of his powerful children and therefore, as soon as his wife (and sister) Rhea gave birth to another child, he swallowed it. This fate befell Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera and Hades. But she could not part with the last son of Rhea: when Zeus was born, she hid him in a cave on the island of Crete and instructed the nymphs and kurets to raise the child, and brought a stone wrapped in diapers to her husband, which he swallowed.

War with the titans

Ancient Greek myths and legends were rife with bloody power wars. The first of them began after the grown-up Zeus forced Kronos to vomit the swallowed children. Enlisting the support of his brothers and sisters and calling for the help of the giants imprisoned in Tartarus, Zeus began to fight his father and other titans (some later went over to his side). The main weapons of Zeus were lightning and thunder, which were forged for him by the Cyclops. The war lasted a whole decade; Zeus and his allies defeated and imprisoned the enemies in Tartarus. I must say that Zeus also had the fate of his father (to fall by the hand of his son), but he managed to avoid it thanks to the help of the titan Prometheus.

Myths about the ancient gods of Greece - the Olympians. Descendants of Zeus

Power over the world was shared by three titans, representing the third generation of the gods. These were Zeus the Thunderer (he became the supreme god of the ancient Greeks), Poseidon (the lord of the seas) and Hades (the owner of the underworld of the dead).

They had numerous descendants. All the supreme gods, except for Hades and his family, lived on Mount Olympus (which exists in reality). In ancient Greek mythology, there were 12 main celestials. The wife of Zeus, Hera, was considered the patroness of marriage, and the goddess Hestia was considered the hearth. Demeter was in charge of agriculture, Apollo - light and arts, and his sister Artemis was revered as the goddess of the moon and the hunt. Zeus' daughter Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, was one of the most respected celestials. Sensitive to beauty, the Greeks also revered the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite and her husband Ares - a warlike god. Hephaestus, the god of fire, was praised by artisans (in particular, blacksmiths). The cunning Hermes also demanded respect for himself - an intermediary between gods and people and the patron of trade and livestock.

Divine geography

Ancient myths and legends of Greece create a very contradictory image of God in the minds of the modern reader. On the one hand, the Olympians were considered powerful, wise and beautiful, and on the other, they were characterized by all the weaknesses and vices of mortal people: envy, jealousy, greed and anger.

As already mentioned, Zeus ruled over the gods and people. He gave people laws and controlled their destiny. But not in all regions of Greece, the supreme Olympian was the most revered god. The Greeks lived in city-states and believed that each such city (polis) has its own divine patron. So, Athena favored Attica and its main city - Athens.

Aphrodite was glorified in Cyprus, on the coast of which she was born. Poseidon kept Troy, Artemis and Apollo - Delphi. Mycenae, Argos and Samos offered sacrifices to Hera.

Other divine entities

The ancient myths and legends of Greece would not be so rich if only people and gods acted in them. But the Greeks, like other peoples in those days, were inclined to deify the forces of nature, and therefore other powerful creatures are often mentioned in myths. These are, for example, naiads (patrons of rivers and streams), dryads (patrons of groves), oreads (mountain nymphs), nereids (daughters of the sea sage Nereus), as well as various magical creatures and monsters.

In addition, goat-footed satyrs who accompanied the god Dionysus lived in the forests. Wise and warlike centaurs figured in many legends. The goddesses of vengeance Erinnia stood at the throne of Hades, and on Olympus the gods were entertained by muses and harites, patrons of the arts. All of these entities often argued with the gods or entered into marriage with them or with humans. Many great heroes and gods were born from such marriages.

Ancient Greece Myths: Hercules and His Exploits

As for the heroes, in every region of Greece it was also customary to honor their own. But invented in the north of Greece, in Epirus, Hercules became one of the most beloved characters in ancient myths. Hercules is known for the fact that, while in the service of his relative, King Eurystheus, he performed 12 feats (the murder of the Lernaean Hydra, the capture of the Kerinean fallow deer and the Erimanthian boar, bringing the belt of Hippolyta, ridding the people of the Stymphalian birds, taming the mares of Diomedes and a trip to the Kingdom of other).

Not everyone knows that these acts were carried out by Hercules as an atonement (in a fit of madness, he destroyed his family). After the death of Hercules, the gods took him into their ranks: even Hera, who throughout the hero's life intrigued him, was forced to admit him.

Conclusion

Ancient myths were created many centuries ago. But they have by no means primitive content. The myths of Ancient Greece are the key to understanding modern European culture.

Rhea, belted by Cronus, bore him bright children - the Virgin - Hestia, Demeter and the golden-haired Hera, the glorious power of Hades, who lives under the earth, And the Provider - Zeus, the father of both immortals and mortals, whose Thunders thrill the wide earth. Hesiod "Theogony"

Greek literature originated from mythology. Myth Is a performance ancient man about the world around him. Myths were created at a very early stage in the development of society in different areas Greece. Later, all these myths merged into a single system.

With the help of myths, the ancient Greeks tried to explain all natural phenomena, presenting them in the form of living beings. First, experiencing intense fear before the natural elements, people depicted the gods in a terrible animal form (Chimera, Medusa Gorgon, Sphinx, Lernean hydra).

However, later the gods become anthropomorphic, that is, they have a human appearance and they have a variety of human qualities (jealousy, generosity, envy, generosity). The main difference between the gods and people was their immortality, but for all their greatness, the gods communicated with ordinary mortals and even entered into love relationships with them, in order to give birth to a whole tribe of heroes on earth.

There are 2 types of ancient Greek mythology:

1. cosmogonic (cosmogony - the origin of the world) - ends with the birth of Crohn
2. theogonic (theogony - the origin of gods and deities)

The mythology of Ancient Greece went through 3 main stages in its development:

1. pre-olympic- it is basically a cosmogonic mythology. This stage begins with the idea of ​​the ancient Greeks that everything came from Chaos, and ends with the murder of Cronus and the division of the world between the gods.
2. Olympic(early classic) - Zeus becomes the supreme deity and with a retinue of 12 gods settles on Olympus.
3. late heroism- from gods and mortals heroes are born who help the gods in establishing order and in destroying monsters.

On the basis of mythology, poems were created, tragedies were written, and lyricists dedicated their odes and hymns to the gods.

In ancient Greece, there were two main groups of gods:

1. titans - gods of the second generation (six brothers - Ocean, Kei, Crius, Hiperion, Iapetus, Kronos and six sisters - Thetis, Phoebus, Mnemosyne, Theia, Themis, Rhea)
2. olympic gods - the Olympians are the gods of the third generation. The Olympians included the children of Kronos and Rhea - Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, as well as their descendants - Hephaestus, Hermes, Persephone, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Athena, Apollo and Artemis. The supreme god was Zeus, who deprived the power of the father of Kronos (god of time).

The Greek pantheon of the Olympian gods traditionally included 12 gods, but the composition of the pantheon was not very stable and sometimes consisted of 14-15 gods. Usually these were: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hestia, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Hades. The Olympian gods lived on the sacred Mount Olympus ( Olympos) in Olympia, off the coast of the Aegean Sea.

Translated from the ancient Greek language, the word pantheon means "all gods". Greeks

Divided the deities into three groups:

• Pantheon (great olympic gods)
• Lower deities
• Monsters

Heroes occupied a special place in Greek mythology. The most famous of them:

v Odysseus

The supreme gods of Olympus

Greek gods	Functions	Roman gods
	god of thunder and lightning, sky and weather, law and fate, attributes - lightning (three-pronged pitchfork with notches), scepter, eagle or chariot drawn by eagles
	goddess of marriage and family, goddess of the sky and starry skies, attributes - diadem (crown), lotus, lion, cuckoo or hawk, peacock (two peacocks were carrying her cart)
Aphrodite	"Froth-born", the goddess of love and beauty, Athena, Artemis and Hestia were not subject to her, attributes - a rose, an apple, a shell, a mirror, a lily, a violet, a belt and a golden bowl, giving eternal youth, retinue - sparrows, doves, a dolphin, satellites - Eros, charites, nymphs, ora.
	god of the underworld of the dead, "generous" and "hospitable", attribute - a magic invisible hat and three-headed dog Cerberus
	the god of insidious war, military destruction and murder, he was accompanied by the goddess of discord Eris and the goddess of violent war Enio, attributes - dogs, a torch and a spear, there were 4 horses in the chariot - Noise, Horror, Shine and Flame
	god of fire and blacksmithing, ugly and lame in both legs, attribute - blacksmith's hammer
	goddess of wisdom, crafts and arts, goddess of just war and military strategy, the patroness of heroes, "owl-eyed", used male attributes (helmet, shield - an aegis made of the skin of an amalfea goat, decorated with the head of Medusa the Gorgon, a spear, an olive, an owl and a snake), was accompanied by Nika
	god of invention, theft, trickery, trade and eloquence, patron saint of heralds, ambassadors, shepherds and travelers, invented measures, numbers, taught people, attributes - a winged rod and winged sandals	Mercury
Poseidon	god of the seas and all bodies of water, floods, droughts and earthquakes, patron saint of sailors, attribute - a trident that causes storms, breaks rocks, knocks out springs, sacred animals - bull, dolphin, horse, sacred tree - pine
Artemis	goddess of hunting, fertility and female chastity, later - the goddess of the moon, patroness of forests and wild animals, forever young, she is accompanied by nymphs, attributes - hunting bow and arrows, sacred animals - deer and bear
Apollo (Phoebus), Kifared	"Golden-haired", "silver-eyed", god of light, harmony and beauty, patron of arts and sciences, leader of muses, predictor of the future, attributes - silver bow and golden arrows, golden cithara or lyre, symbols - olive, iron, laurel, palm, dolphin , swan, wolf
	goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire, virgin goddess. accompanied by 6 priestesses - vestals who served the goddess for 30 years
	"Mother Earth", the goddess of fertility and agriculture, plowing and harvest, attributes - a sheaf of wheat and a torch
	god of fruitful forces, vegetation, viticulture, winemaking, inspiration and fun	Bacchus, Bacchus

Secondary Greek Gods

Greek gods	Functions	Roman gods
Asclepius	"Revealing", the god of healing and medicine, an attribute - a staff entwined with snakes
Eros, Cupid	the god of love, the "winged boy", was considered the offspring dark night and a bright day, Heaven and Earth, attributes - a flower and a lyre, later - arrows of love and a flaming torch
	"The sparkling eye of the night", the goddess of the moon, queen of the starry sky, has wings and a golden crown
Persephone	goddess of the realm of the dead and fertility	Proserpine
	the goddess of victory, depicted winged or in a pose of rapid movement, attributes - a bandage, a wreath, later - a palm tree, then - weapons and a trophy	Victoria
	goddess of eternal youth, portrayed as a chaste girl pouring nectar
	"Rosy-fingered", "beautiful-curled", "golden-blooded" goddess of the morning dawn
	goddess of happiness, chance and luck
	the sun god, owner of seven herds of cows and seven flocks of sheep
Cron (Chronos)	god of time, attribute - sickle
	goddess of violent war
Hypnos (Morpheus)
	goddess of flowers and gardens
	god of the west wind, messenger of the gods
Dike (Themis)	goddess of justice, justice, attributes - scales in right hand, blindfold, cornucopia in the left hand; the Romans put a sword in the goddess's hand instead of a horn
	god of marriage, conjugal bonds	Thalassius
Nemesis	the winged goddess of revenge and retribution, punishing violation of social and moral norms, attributes - scales and bridle, sword or whip, chariot drawn by griffins	Adrastea
	"Golden-winged", goddess of the rainbow
	goddess of the earth

In addition to Olympus in Greece, there was a sacred mountain Parnassus, where they lived muses - 9 sisters, Greek deities, personifying poetic and musical inspiration, patroness of arts and sciences.

Greek muses

	What patronizes	Attributes
Calliope ("beautifully speaking")	muse of epic or heroic poetry	wax tablet and stylos (bronze writing rod)
("Glorifying")	muse of history	papyrus scroll or scroll case
("Pleasant")	muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics and marriage songs	kifara (string plucked musical instrument, a kind of lyre)
("Perfectly enjoyable")	muse of music and lyric poetry	avlos (a wind instrument similar to a double-tongued pipe, the predecessor of the oboe) and siringa (a musical instrument, a kind of longitudinal flute)
("Heavenly")	muse of astronomy	telescope and sheet with celestial signs
Melpomene ("Singing")	muse of tragedy	a wreath of vine leaves or ivy, theatrical gown, tragic mask, sword or mace.
Terpsichore ("Delectable dancing")	muse of dance	wreath on the head, lyre and plectrum (mediator)
Polyhymnia ("Singing")	muse of sacred song, eloquence, lyric, melody and rhetoric
("Blooming")	muse of comedy and bucolic poetry	comic mask in hands and wreath ivy on my head

Lower deities in Greek mythology, these are satyrs, nymphs and ora.

Satyrs - (Greek satyroi) - these are forest deities (the same as in Russia devil), demons fertility, retinue of Dionysus. They were depicted as goat-footed, hairy, with horse tails and small horns. Satyrs are indifferent to people, mischievous and cheerful, they were interested in hunting, wine, and chased forest nymphs. Their other hobby is music, but they played only wind instruments that emit sharp, piercing sounds - flute and pipe. In mythology, they personified a coarse, base beginning in nature and man, therefore they were represented with ugly faces - with blunt, wide noses, swollen nostrils, tousled hair.

Nymphs - (the name means "source", among the Romans - "bride") the personification of living elemental forces, noticed in the murmur of a stream, in the growth of trees, in the wild beauty of mountains and forests, the spirits of the earth's surface, manifestations of natural forces acting in addition to humans in the solitude of grottoes , valleys, forests, away from cultural centers. They were portrayed as beautiful young girls with wonderful hair, with a dress of wreaths and flowers, sometimes in a dancing pose, with bare legs and arms, with loose hair. They do yarn, weaving, sing songs, dance in the meadows to the flute of Pan, hunt with Artemis, take part in noisy orgies of Dionysus, and are constantly fighting annoying satyrs. In the view of the ancient Greeks, the world of nymphs was very vast.

The azure pond was full of flying nymphs,
The garden was animated by dryads,
And the bright water spring sparkled from the urn
Laughing naiads.

F. Schiller

Nymphs of the mountains - oreads,

nymphs of forests and trees - dryads,

source nymphs - naiads,

nymphs of the oceans - oceanids,

nymphs of the sea - nerids,

the nymphs of the valleys - hum,

meadow nymphs - limnads.

Ora - the goddesses of the seasons, were in charge of order in nature. The guardians of Olympus, now opening and then closing its cloudy gates. They are called the gatekeepers of heaven. The horses of Helios are harnessed.

There are numerous monsters in many mythologies. In ancient Greek mythology, there were also a lot of them: Chimera, Sphinx, Lernean hydra, Echidna and many others.

In the same vestibule the shadows of monsters are crowded together:

Scyllas are two-shaped here and herds of centaurs live,

Here Briareus the hundred-handed lives, and the dragon from Lernaeus

Topi hisses, and the Chimera frightens enemies with fire,

Harpies in a flock around the three-body giants fly ...

Virgil, "Aeneid"

Harpies - these are evil kidnappers of children and human souls, suddenly flying in and just as suddenly disappearing like the wind, terrify people. Their number ranges from two to five; depicted as wild half-women, half-birds of a disgusting appearance with wings and paws of a vulture, with long sharp claws, but with the head and chest of a woman.

Gorgon Medusa - a monster with a woman's face and snakes instead of hair, whose gaze turned a person to stone. According to legend, she was a beautiful girl with wonderful hair. Poseidon, seeing Medusa and falling in love, seduced her in the temple of Athena, for which the goddess of wisdom, in anger, turned the hair of the Gorgon Medusa into a serpent. The Gorgon Medusa was defeated by Perseus, and her head was placed on the aegis of Athena.

Minotaur - a monster with a human body and a bull's head. Was born of the unnatural love of Pasiphai (wife of King Minos) and a bull. Minos hid a monster in the Knossos labyrinth. Every eight years, 7 young men and 7 girls descended into the labyrinth, intended for the Minotaur as victims. Theseus defeated the Minotaur, and with the help of Ariadne, who gave him a ball of thread, got out of the maze.

Cerberus (Cerberus) - this is a three-headed dog with a snake tail and snake heads on its back, it guarded the exit from the kingdom of Hades, not allowing the dead to return to the kingdom of the living. He was defeated by Hercules during one of his exploits.

Scylla and Charybdis Are sea monsters located at an arrow flight distance from each other. Charybdis is a sea whirlpool that absorbs and erupts water three times a day. Scylla ("barking") is a monster in the form of a woman, whose Bottom part the body was turned into 6 dog heads. When the ship passed the rock where Scylla lived, the monster, gaping all its jaws, kidnapped 6 people from the ship at once. The narrow strait between Scylla and Charybdis was a mortal danger to all who sailed along it.

Also in Ancient Greece, there were other mythical characters.

Pegasus - a winged horse, a favorite of the muses. He flew at the speed of the wind. Riding Pegasus meant getting poetic inspiration. Born at the headwaters of the Ocean, therefore he was named Pegasus (from the Greek. "Stormy current"). According to one version, he jumped out of the body of the gorgon Medusa after Perseus chopped off her head. Pegasus delivered thunder and lightning to Zeus to Olympus from Hephaestus, who made them.

From the foam of the sea, from the azure wave,

Faster than an arrow and more beautiful than a string,

An amazing fairy horse flies

And easily catches the heavenly fire!

He likes to splash in colored clouds

And often walks in magic poetry.

So that the ray of inspiration in the soul does not go out,

Saddle you, snow-white Pegasus!

Unicorn - a mythical creature symbolizing chastity. Usually depicted as a horse with one horn protruding from the forehead. The Greeks believed that the unicorn belongs to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Subsequently, in medieval legends, there was a version that only a virgin could tame him. Having caught a unicorn, it can only be restrained by a golden bridle.

Centaurs - wild mortal creatures with the head and torso of a man on the body of a horse, the inhabitants of the mountains and forest thickets, accompany Dionysus and are distinguished by their violent disposition and intemperance. Presumably, the centaurs were originally the embodiment of mountain rivers and stormy streams... In heroic myths, centaurs are the educators of heroes. For example, Achilles and Jason were raised by the centaur Chiron.