Bellerophon, the son of the Corinthian king Glaucus, having killed one Corinthian, was forced to flee from hometown to the king of Tiryns Proyt. But, unfortunately, Proytes' wife, Anthea, fell in love with Bellerophoites. When he rejected her, she became furious and told her husband that Bellerophon had allegedly molested her. In anger, Proyt wanted to kill Bellerophon, but did not dare to raise his hand against the guest. Proyt sent him with a letter to the king of Lycia, Iobates, in which he asked him to take revenge on the young man for the insult. Iobates, having read the letter, sent Bellerophon to certain death, ordering him 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 boys and girls 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 along with the doomed Athenians to kill the Minotaur. He told his father that if they were successful, their ship would have white sails on its way home. Ordinary black sails will be a signal that Theseus is dead. 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

Famous and interesting ancient greek myths and legends. All the labors of Hercules. History of the Gods of Ancient Greece.

Agamemnon, saddened by the victory of the Trojans, sent heralds to convene a council of leaders. The leaders gathered, and Agamemnon began to say sadly that he now had to flee from Troad to Greece, since this, apparently, pleased Zeus. But Diomedes angrily objected to Agamemnon that he could alone, if he so desired, leave the Troad, while the other leaders would remain and fight until Troy was taken. Nestor did not advise to run either. The elder advised Agamemnon to arrange a feast and discuss what to do at it, and to set up guards to protect the camp.

The myth of Adonis and Aphrodite was borrowed by the Greeks from the Phoenicians. The name Adonis is not Greek, but Phoenician and means "lord." The Phoenicians borrowed this myth from the Babylonians.

But the goddess of love, who so punished Narcissus, knew the torments of love herself, and she had to mourn her beloved Adonis. She loved the son of the king of Cyprus, Adonis. None of the mortals was equal to him in beauty, he was even more beautiful than the Olympian gods. Forgotten for him Aphrodite and Patmos, and blooming Cythera.

Once Actaeon was hunting with his comrades in the forests of Cithaeron. It's a hot afternoon. The tired hunters settled down to rest in the shade of a dense forest, and the young Actaeon, having separated from them, went to look for coolness in the valleys of Cithaeron. He went out to the green, flowering valley of Gargafia, dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Sycamores, myrtle and firs grew luxuriantly in the valley; slender cypress trees rose on it like dark arrows, and green grass full of flowers.

Returning from a campaign against Thebes, Alcmaeon fulfilled the will of his father Amphiaraus and avenged his mother for the death of his father. Alcmeon killed his mother with his own hand. Dying, she cursed the mother of her murderer son and cursed the country that would give him shelter.

The avenging goddess Erinia was angry with Alcmaeon and pursued him wherever he tried to hide. The unfortunate Alcmaeon wandered for a long time, trying everywhere to find shelter and purification from the filth of spilled blood. Finally, he came to the city of Psophida, in Arcadia. There, King Fegey cleansed him of the filth of murder. Alcmaeon married Arsinoe, the daughter of Thegeus, and thought to live in peace in Psophida. But fate did not promise him this. The curse of his mother haunted him. Terrible famine and pestilence spread in Psophis. Death reigned everywhere. Alcmeon turned to the Delphic oracle, and the soothsayer Pythia answered him that he should leave Psophida and go to the god of the river, Aheloy; there only he will be cleansed from the murder of his mother and find peace in a country that did not yet exist when his mother cursed him. Leaving the house of Fegeus, his wife Arsinoe and son Clytius, Alcmaeon went to Achelous. On the way, he visited Oinea in Calydon, who hospitably received him.

After the victory over the Argos, the Thebans arranged a luxurious funeral for Eteocles and all the fallen soldiers, and Polynices decided to deprive Creon and the Thebans of the burial as having led a foreign army against Thebes. His corpse lay near the city walls in a field, left to be torn to pieces by predatory animals and birds. The soul of Polynices was doomed to eternal wandering, she could not find peace in the kingdom of the souls of the dead.

The noble daughter of Oedipus, Antigone, who was ready for any self-sacrifice, suffered, seeing the dishonor to which her brother was doomed. In spite of everything, she herself decided to bury the body of Polynices. The death that Creon threatened to anyone who dares to bury Polynices, having performed all the funeral rites, did not frighten her. Antigone called her sister Ismene to go with her, but the timid sister did not dare to help her sister, fearing the wrath of Creon. She even tried to persuade Antigone not to go against the will of the king of Thebes, she reminded her of the fate that befell their mother and brothers. Does Antigone want to destroy herself and her? Ismena Antigone did not obey: she is ready to fulfill her duty to her brother alone, ready to meekly endure everything, so long as Polynices does not remain unburied. And Antigone fulfilled her decision.

Persecuted by the vengeful Erinyes, exhausted by wanderings and grief, Orestes finally came to sacred Delphi and sat there in the temple of Apollo near the omphalos. Terrible goddesses followed him even to the temple of Apollo, but there the arrow god put them to sleep, and their terrible eyes closed in sleep.

Apollo, secretly from Erinyes, appeared to Orestes and ordered him to go to Athens and there pray for protection from the ancient image of the goddess Pallas Athena. God promised his help to the unfortunate Orestes, and gave him his brother, the god Hermes, as guides. Orestes got up, quietly left the temple and went with Hermes to Athens.

He had just left when the shadow of Clytemnestra rose from the earth in the temple of Apollo. Seeing the sleeping Erinyes, she began to wake them up and reproach them for the fact that they had ceased to pursue the murderer who had shed the blood of their mother. She hurried them to chase the hidden Orestes as soon as possible and not give him a moment's rest. But the Erinyes slept in a sound, heavy sleep, in their sleep they moaned, at times screaming, as if pursuing a murderer fleeing from them. Finally, with great difficulty, one of the Erinyes woke up and woke the others. The Erinyes were furious when they saw that Orestes had disappeared. They began to reproach Apollo for wresting the murderer from their hands, but Apollo, threatening with his bow, drove them out of his temple. Full of furious anger, the goddesses rushed in a discordant crowd in the footsteps of Orestes.

In spring and summer, on the slopes of the wooded Helikon, where mysteriously murmur sacred waters source of Hippocrene, and on high Parnassus, at clean waters Kastalsky spring, Apollo leads a round dance with nine muses. The young, beautiful Muses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, are the constant companions of Apollo. He leads the choir of muses and accompanies their singing by playing on his golden cithara.

Apollo had to be cleansed from the sin of the spilled blood of Python. After all, he himself cleanses the people who committed the murder. By the decision of Zeus, he retired to Thessaly to the beautiful and noble king Admet. There he pastured the flocks of the king, and by this service atoned for his sin. When Apollo played in the middle of the pasture on a reed flute or on a golden cithara, wild animals came out of the forest thicket, fascinated by his game. Panthers and ferocious lions walked peacefully among the herds. Deer and chamois ran to the sound of the flute.

Arachne was famous throughout Lydia for her art. Nymphs often gathered from the slopes of Tmol and from the banks of the gold-bearing Paktol to admire her work. Arachne spun from threads like fog, fabrics as transparent as air. She was proud that she had no equal in the world in the art of weaving. One day she exclaimed:

“Let Pallas Athena herself come to compete with me!” Do not defeat me; I'm not afraid of this.

The next morning, the Argonauts landed on the coast of Bithynia. They were not met there as hospitably as in Cyzicus. In Bithynia, the Bebriki lived on the seashore, ruled by King Amik. He was proud of his gigantic strength and fame as an invincible fist fighter. The cruel king forced all strangers to fight with himself and mercilessly killed them with a mighty blow of his fist. Amik met the Argonauts with ridicule, he called the great heroes vagabonds and challenged the strongest of them to battle, if only one of them dared to measure his strength with him. The heroes are angry. From their midst came the young son of Zeus and Leda, Polydeuces.

Heroes, myths and legends about them. So it's important to know them. summary. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece, the entire Greek culture, especially of the late time, when both philosophy and democracy were developed, had a strong influence on the formation of the entire European civilization as a whole. Mythology has evolved over time. Tales, legends became known, 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 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 scholars, seeking to streamline everything, began to work on the classification of myths, and turned the scattered stories into a harmonious series.

Major Greek gods

The very first myths are devoted to the struggle of various gods among themselves. Some of them did not have human features - these are the offspring of the goddess Gaia-Earth and Uranus-Heaven - twelve titans and six more monsters that terrified their father, and he plunged them into the abyss - Tartarus. But Gaia persuaded the remaining titans to overthrow her father.

This was done by the insidious Kronos - Time. But, having married his sister, he was afraid of 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 could not swallow the baby. And Zeus was safely hidden in Crete. This is just a summary. The legends and myths of ancient Greece scary describe the events taking place.

Zeus' war for power

Zeus grew up, matured and forced Kronos to return to White light their swallowed sisters and brothers. He called them to fight the cruel father. In addition, part of the titans, giants and cyclops took part in the struggle. The struggle has been going on for ten years. The fire raged, the seas boiled, nothing could be seen from the smoke. But the victory went to Zeus. Enemies were overthrown in Tartarus and taken into custody.

Gods on Olympus

Zeus, whom the Cyclopes forged with lightning, became the supreme god, Poseidon obeyed all the waters on earth, Hades - the underworld of the dead. This was already the third generation of gods, from which all the other gods and heroes originated, about whom stories and legends will begin to tell.

The ancients refer to the cycle of Dionysus, and winemaking, fertility, the patron of the night mysteries, which were held in the darkest places. The mysteries were terrible and mysterious. So the struggle of the dark gods with the light ones began to take shape. There were no real wars, but they gradually began to give way to the bright sun god Phoebus with his rational principle, with his cult of reason, science and art.

And the irrational, the ecstatic, the sensuous receded. 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 - artisans. Their relationship between themselves and people are the legends of the Hellenes. They were fully studied in pre-revolutionary gymnasiums in Russia. Only now, when people are mostly concerned with earthly concerns, do they, if necessary, pay attention to their summary. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece are becoming more and more a thing of the past.

Who was patronized by the gods

They don't like people very much. Often they envied them or lusted after women, they were jealous, they 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 a very contradictory way. “Nothing pleases the gods so much as the collapse of human hopes,” said Euripides. And Sophocles echoed him: "The gods most willingly help a man when he goes towards his death."

All the gods obeyed Zeus, but for people he mattered as a guarantor of justice. It was when the judge judged unrighteously that a person turned to Zeus for help. In matters of war, only Mars dominated. Wise Athena patronized Attica.

To Poseidon, all the sailors, going to sea, made sacrifices. In Delphi, one could ask for mercy from Phoebus and Artemis.

Myths about heroes

One of the favorite myths was about Theseus, the son of the king of Athens, Aegeus. 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 paid tribute in girls and boys to Crete. Together with another batch of slaves, under mourning sails, he went to the island 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 was dead, and out of unbearable grief threw himself into the depths of the waters over which his palace stood. The Athenians rejoiced that they were forever freed from tribute, but also wept when they learned of the tragic death of Aegeus. The myth of Theseus is long and colorful. This is his summary. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece (Kun) will give an exhaustive description of him.

Epos - the second part of the book by Nikolai Albertovich Kuhn

The legends of the Argonauts, the travels of Odysseus, the revenge of Orestes for the death of his father, and the misadventures of Oedipus in the Theban cycle make up the second half of the book that Kuhn wrote, Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece. A summary of the chapters is given above.

Returning from Troy to his native Ithaca, Odysseus spent many long years in dangerous wanderings. It was difficult for him to get home on the stormy sea.

God Poseidon could not forgive Odysseus that, saving his life and the lives of his friends, he blinded the Cyclops and sent unheard of storms. On the way, they died from the sirens, who carried away with their unearthly voices and sweet-sounding singing.

All his companions perished in their voyages across the seas. All were destroyed by an evil fate. In captivity at the nymph Calypso, Odysseus languished for many years. He begged to let him 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 in his poems by Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey, the myths about the campaign for the Golden Fleece to the shores of the Pontus Eusinsky are described in the poem of Apollonius of Rhodes. Sophocles wrote the tragedy "Oedipus the King", the tragedy of the Arrest - the playwright Aeschylus. They are given by a summary of "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece" (Nikolai Kun).

Myths and legends about gods, titans, numerous heroes disturb the imagination of artists of the word, brush and cinematography of our days. Standing in a museum near a picture painted on a mythological theme, or hearing the name of the beautiful Helen, it would be nice to have at least a little idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat is behind this name (a huge war), and to know the details of the plot depicted on the canvas. This can be helped by "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece." The summary of the book will reveal the meaning of what he saw and heard.

The Stymphalian birds were the last offspring 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 mighty force 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 king of Elis, Avgius, from manure in one day."

King Perseus and Queen Andromeda ruled the golden Mycenae for a long time and gloriously, and the gods sent them many 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 Mycenae. But once the country was attacked by the Tafians - ferocious 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, breathed into their faces with a wide-noisy rumble. It stretched out like a blue desert before them, mysterious and formidable, deserted and stern.

They knew: somewhere out 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 they bark along the banks of the full-flowing Istra scary people with dog muzzles - kinokephaly, psoglavy. There, beautiful and ferocious Amazon warriors rush along the free steppes. There, eternal darkness thickens further, and in it, like wild animals, inhabitants of the night and cold - Hyperboreans roam. But where is it all?

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

In Bithynia, the country of the Bebriks, their invincible fist fighter, King Amik, a terrible murderer, detained them; without pity and shame, he threw every foreigner to the ground with a blow of his fist. He also challenged these new aliens to battle, but the young Polideuces, brother of Castor, son of Leda, defeated the mighty one, breaking his temple in a fair fight.

Moving away from the familiar shores, the ship "Argo" for many days cut the waves of the calm Propontis, that sea, which people now call the Sea of ​​Marmara.

The new moon had already come, and the nights turned black, like pitch, with which the ship's sides would be pitched, when the vigilant Linkei was the first to point out to his comrades the mountain towering ahead. Soon a low shore glimmered in the fog, fishing nets appeared on the shore, a town at the entrance to the bay. Deciding to rest on the way, Typhius sent the ship to 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 harbor of Theakia. Tall ships stood in countless rows everywhere. Dropping anchor at the pier, the heroes went to the palace to Alcinous.

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

It must be Ares with his militant 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 doomed the whole family of Pelops with his curse to great atrocities and death. The curse of Myrtilus also weighed on Atreus and Fiesta. They have committed a number of evil deeds. 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 Chrysippus to kill. Having committed this atrocity, they fled from the kingdom of their father, fearing his wrath, and took refuge with the king of Mycenae Sthenelus, the son of Perseus, who was married to their sister Nikippe. When Sthenel died and his son Eurystheus, captured by Iolaus, died at the hands of the mother of Hercules Alcmene, began to rule over the Mycenaean kingdom of Atreus, since Eurystheus left no heirs. Atreus was jealous of his brother Fiesta and decided to take away power from him by any means.

Sisyphus had a son, the hero Glaucus, who ruled in Corinth after his father's death. Glaucus also had a son, Bellerophon, one of the great heroes of Greece. Beautiful as a god was Bellerophon and courage equal to the immortal gods. Bellerophon, when he was still a youth, suffered a misfortune: he accidentally killed a citizen of Corinth and had to flee from his native city. He fled to the king of Tiryns, Proyt. With great honor, the king of Tiryns accepted the hero and cleansed him of the filth of the blood shed by him. Bellerophon did not stay long in Tiryns. Captivated by his beauty, the wife of Proyta, the goddess Anteia. But Bellerophon rejected her love. Then Queen Anteia flared up with hatred for Bellerophon and decided to destroy him. She went to her husband and said to him:

Oh king! Bellerophon heavily offends you. 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. He frantically rushes over the lands and seas, causing with his flight all-destroying storms. Once Boreas, flying over Attica, saw the daughter of Erechtheus Orithyia and fell in love with her. Boreas begged Orithyia 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 a formidable, stern god. Denied Boreas and Orithyia's father, Erechtheus. No requests, no pleas from Boreas helped. The terrible god was angry and exclaimed:

I deserve such humiliation myself! I forgot about my formidable, violent power! Is it proper for me to humbly beg anyone? Only force should I act! I drive thunderclouds across the sky, I raise waves on the sea like mountains, I uproot, like dry blades of grass, centuries-old oaks, I scourge the earth with hail and turn water into ice, hard as a stone - and I pray, as if powerless mortal. When I fly in a furious flight above the earth, the whole earth trembles and trembles even the underworld of Hades. And I pray to Erechtheus as if I were his servant. I must not beg to give me Orithia as a wife, but take her away by force!

Freed from the service of King Eurystheus, Hercules returned to Thebes. Here he gave his wife Megara true friend Iolaus, explaining his act by saying 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 were the shadows of their common children, whom Hercules killed many years ago in a fit of insanity.

Hoping to get family happiness, Hercules began to look for himself new wife. He heard that Eurytus, the same one who taught the young Hercules the art of owning a bow, offers his daughter Iola as a wife to someone who will surpass him in accuracy.

Hercules went to Eurytus and easily defeated him in the competition. This outcome annoyed Evrit immensely. Having drunk a fair amount of wine for greater confidence, he said to Hercules: “I won’t trust my daughter to such a villain as you. Or didn’t you kill your children from Megara? In addition, you are a slave of Eurystheus and deserve only beatings from free man".

Ancient myths and legends of Ancient Greece

They were created more than two thousand centuries ago and the famous scientist Nikolai Kuhn 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 cultural heritage all over the world. The moralizing 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 express in brief 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 enter into an argument or even fight with them. Sometimes short and simple myths express very deep meaning and can explain to the child the rules of life in an accessible way.

Part one. gods and heroes

Myths about the gods and their struggle with giants and titans are set out mainly in Hesiod's poem "Theogony" (The Origin of the Gods). Some legends are also borrowed from the poems of Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey" and the poem of the Roman poet Ovid "Metamorphoses" (Transformations).

In the beginning, there was only eternal, boundless, dark Chaos. In it was the source of the life of the world. Everything arose from the boundless Chaos - the whole world and the immortal gods. From Chaos came the goddess Earth - Gaia. It spread wide, mighty, 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 the immeasurable depth, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss, full of eternal darkness. From Chaos, the source of life, a mighty force was born, all animating Love - Eros. The world began to form. Boundless Chaos gave birth to Eternal Darkness - Erebus and dark night- Nyuktu. And from Night and Darkness came the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful bright Day - Hemera. Light spread over 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, proudly rose to him, and the eternally noisy Sea spread wide.

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

Uranus - Sky - reigned in the world. He took the blessed Earth as his wife. Six sons and six daughters - mighty, formidable titans - were Uranus and Gaia. Their son, the titan Ocean, flowing around like a boundless river, the whole earth, and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and sea goddesses - oceanides. Titan Gipperion and Theia gave children to the world: the Sun - Helios, the Moon - Selena and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astrea and Eos came all the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and all the winds: the stormy north wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Noth and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds abundant 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 (hecatoncheirs), so named because each of them had one hundred hands. Nothing can stand against their terrible strength, their elemental strength knows no limit.

Uranus hated his giant children, he imprisoned them in deep darkness in the bowels of the goddess Earth and did not allow them to come out into the light. Their mother Earth suffered. She was crushed by this terrible burden, enclosed in her depths. She called her children, the titans, and urged 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 Kronos, overthrew his father by cunning and took power away from him.

The Goddess Night gave birth to a whole host of terrible substances as punishment for Kron: Tanata - death, Eridu - discord, Apatu - deceit, 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, deceit, struggle and misfortune brought these gods into the world, where Kron reigned on the throne of his father.

Gods

The picture of the life of the gods on Olympus is given according to the works of Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey, glorifying the tribal aristocracy and the basileus leading it as the best people standing far above the rest of the population. The gods of Olympus differ from aristocrats and basileus only in that they are immortal, powerful and can work miracles.

Zeus

Birth of Zeus

Kron was not sure that power would forever remain in his hands. He was afraid that the children would rise up against him and find him the same fate that he condemned his father Uranus to. He was afraid of his children. And Kron ordered his wife Rhea to bring him newborn children and mercilessly swallowed them. Rhea was horrified when she saw the fate of her children. Cron 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 youngest son Zeus was born. In this cave, Rhea hid her son from a cruel father, and gave him a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow instead of his son. Kron did not suspect that he was deceived by his wife.

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished the little Zeus, they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Bees carried honey to little Zeus from the slopes high mountain Dictations. At the entrance to the cave, young Kuretes struck shields with swords whenever little Zeus cried, so that Kron would not hear his cry and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

Zeus overthrows Kron. The struggle of the Olympian gods with the titans

The beautiful and mighty god Zeus grew up and matured. He rebelled against his father and forced him to bring back the children he had devoured into the world. One by one, the monster from the mouth of Kron spewed his children-gods, beautiful and bright. 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 the high Olympus. Some of the titans also took their side, and the first were the titan Ocean and his daughter Styx and their children Zeal, Power and Victory. This struggle was dangerous for the Olympian gods. Mighty and formidable were their opponents the titans. But Zeus came to the aid of the Cyclopes. They forged thunder and lightning for him, Zeus threw them into the titans. The struggle had been going on for ten years, but the victory did not lean to either side. Finally, Zeus decided to free the hundred-armed hecatoncheir giants from the bowels of the earth; he called them for help. Terrible, huge as mountains, they came out of the bowels of the earth and rushed into battle. They tore off 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 shook around. Even Tartarus shuddered from this struggle.

Zeus threw one fiery lightning after another and deafening roaring thunders. Fire engulfed the whole earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench shrouded everything in a thick veil.

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

Zeus fighting Typhon

But the fight didn't end there. Gaia-Earth was angry with the Olympian Zeus because he acted so harshly with her defeated children-titans. 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. With a wild howl he shook the air. The barking of dogs, human voices, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion were heard in this howl. Stormy 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 caught fire. Again, lightning flashed in the hands of Zeus, thunder rumbled. The earth and the vault of heaven shook to their foundations. The earth flared up again with a bright flame, as it had during the struggle with the titans. The seas boiled at the mere approach of Typhon. Hundreds of fiery arrows-lightnings of the Thunderer Zeus rained down; it seemed that from their fire the very air was burning and dark thunderclouds were burning. Zeus burned all of Typhon's hundred heads to ashes. Typhon collapsed to the ground; such heat emanated from his body that everything around him melted. Zeus raised the body of Typhon and cast it into the gloomy Tartarus, which gave birth to him. But even in Tartarus, Typhon threatens the gods and all living things. He causes storms and eruptions; he begat with Echidna, half-woman, half-snake, the terrible two-headed dog Orff, hell hound Cerberus, Lernean Hydra and Chimera; Typhon often shakes the earth.

The Olympian gods defeated their enemies. No one else could resist their power. They could now safely rule the world. The most powerful of them, the Thunderer Zeus, took the sky, Poseidon - the sea, and Hades - the underworld of the souls of the dead. The land remained in common ownership. Although the sons of Kron divided power over the world among themselves, Zeus, the ruler of the sky, reigns over all of them; he rules over people and gods, he knows everything in the world.

Olympus

Zeus reigns high on the bright Olympus, surrounded by a host of gods. Here is his wife Hera, and the golden-haired Apollo with his sister Artemis, and the golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus Athena, and many other gods. Three beautiful Horas guard the entrance to the high Olympus and raise a thick cloud that closes the gate when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright halls of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky spreads wide, and golden light pours from it. Neither rain nor snow occurs in the kingdom of Zeus; always there is a bright, joyful summer. And clouds swirl below, sometimes they close 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, the gods also know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy is again established 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 proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne is 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: Hera, the patroness of marriage, is honored by all the gods of Olympus. When, shining with its beauty, in a magnificent outfit, 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 the gods and people - Zeus. Near the throne of Hera stands her messenger, the goddess of the rainbow, the light-winged Irida, always ready to quickly rush on rainbow wings to fulfill Hera's orders to the farthest reaches of the earth.

The gods feast. The daughter of Zeus, the 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 charites and muses delight them with singing and dancing. Holding hands, they dance, and the gods admire their light movements and marvelous, eternally young 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 the palace of Zeus. In one vessel are gifts of good, in the other - of evil. Zeus draws good and evil from them and sends them to people. Woe to that person to whom the thunderer draws gifts only from a vessel with evil. Woe to the one who violates the order established by Zeus on earth and does not comply with his laws. The son of Kron will menacingly move his thick eyebrows, black clouds will then 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 - thunder will roll across the sky, fiery lightning will flash, and the high Olympus will shake.

Not only Zeus keeps the laws. At his throne stands the goddess Themis, who keeps the laws. She convenes, at the command of the Thunderer, meetings of the gods on the bright Olympus, people's meetings on earth, observing that order and law are not violated. On Olympus and the daughter of Zeus, the goddess Dike, who watches over 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 protector of truth and the enemy of deceit.

Zeus keeps order and truth in the world and sends people happiness and sorrow. But although Zeus sends happiness and misfortune to people, nevertheless the fate of people is determined by the inexorable goddesses of fate - moira, living on the bright Olympus. The fate of Zeus himself is in their hands. Doom rules over mortals and over the gods. No one can escape the dictates of inexorable fate. There is no such force, no such power that could change at least something in what is destined for the gods and mortals. You can only humbly bow before fate and submit to it. Some moira know the dictates of fate. Moira Klotho spins the life thread of a person, determining the duration of his life. The thread will break, and life will end. Moira Lachesis draws, without looking, the lot that falls to a person in life. No one is able to change the fate determined by moira, since the third moira, Atropos, puts everything that her sister’s person was assigned in life to a long scroll, and what is listed in the scroll of fate is inevitable. Great, severe moira 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 will send gifts to people, and happy is the person who meets on his life path the goddess of happiness Tyukhe; but how rarely does this happen, and how unfortunate is the person from whom the goddess Tyuhe, who has just given him her gifts, will turn away!

So reigns surrounded by a host of bright gods on Olympus great king people and gods zeus guarding order and truth throughout the world.

Poseidon and the gods of the sea

Deep in the abyss of the sea stands the wonderful palace of the great brother of the Thunderer Zeus, the shaker of the earth 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 sea prophetic elder Nereus, who was kidnapped by the great ruler sea ​​depth Poseidon with her father. He saw one day how she led a round dance with her Nereid sisters on the coast 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. At last the dolphin opened her hiding place to him; for this service, Poseidon placed the dolphin among the celestial constellations. Poseidon stole the beautiful daughter of Nereus from Atlas and married her.

Since then, Amphitrite lives with her husband Poseidon in an underwater palace. High above the palace they make noise sea ​​waves. A host of sea deities surrounds Poseidon, obedient to his will. Among them is the son of Poseidon, Triton, who causes terrible storms with the thunderous sound of his pipe from the shell. 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, then the ever-noisy waves part and give way to the lord 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, like mountains, the sea waves rise, covered with white ridges of foam, and a fierce storm rages on the sea. Then the sea waves beat with noise against the coastal rocks and shake the earth. But Poseidon stretches his trident over the waves, and they calm down. The storm subsides, the sea is calm again, exactly like a mirror, and splashes a little audibly near the shore - blue, boundless.

Many deities surround the great brother of Zeus, Poseidon; among them is the prophetic sea elder, Nereus, who knows everything hidden secrets future. Nereus is alien to lies and deceit; only the truth he reveals to the gods and mortals. Wise advice given by the prophetic elder. Nereus has fifty beautiful daughters. Young Nereids splash merrily in the waves of the sea, sparkling among them with their divine beauty. Holding hands, they swim out of the depths of the sea in a string and dance on the shore to the gentle splash of the waves of a calm sea quietly running ashore. The echo of the coastal rocks then repeats the sounds of their gentle singing, like the quiet roar of the sea. Nereids patronize the sailor and give him a happy voyage.

Among the deities of the sea is the elder 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, take possession of him and force him to reveal the secret of the future. Among the satellites of the oscillator of the earth 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 opened the future and gave wise advice mortals. Mighty are the gods of the sea, their power is great, but it rules over all of them great brother Zeus Poseidon.

All the seas and all the 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 sources, near the Ocean. The sons and daughters of the great god of the Ocean give prosperity and joy to mortals with their ever-rolling living water, they water the whole earth and all living things with it.

The kingdom of gloomy Hades (Pluto)

Deep underground reigns Zeus' unforgiving, grim brother, Hades. His kingdom is full of darkness and horrors. Joyful rays never penetrate there bright sun. Bottomless abysses lead from the surface of the earth to the sad kingdom of Hades. Dark rivers flow in it. There flows the ever-chilling sacred river Styx, by whose waters the gods themselves swear.

Cocytus and Acheron roll their waves there; the souls of the dead resound with their groaning, full of sorrow, their gloomy shores. In the underworld, the source of Lethe also flows, giving oblivion to all earthly water. Through the gloomy fields of the kingdom of Hades, overgrown pale flowers asphodel, disembodied light shadows of the dead are worn. They complain about their joyless life without light and without desires. Their moans are quietly heard, barely perceptible, like the rustle of withered leaves driven by the autumn wind. There is no return to anyone from this realm of sorrow. The three-headed hellish dog Kerberos, on whose neck snakes move with a formidable hiss, guards the exit. The stern, old Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, will not be lucky through the gloomy waters of Acheron not a single soul back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The souls of the dead in the gloomy kingdom of Hades are doomed to an eternal joyless existence.

In this kingdom, to which neither light, nor joy, nor sorrows of earthly life reach, the brother of Zeus, Hades, rules. He sits on a golden throne with his wife Persephone. He is served by the implacable goddesses of vengeance Erinyes. Terrible, with scourges and snakes, they pursue the criminal; do not give him a moment's rest and torment him with remorse; nowhere can you hide from them, everywhere they find their prey. At the throne of Hades sit the judges of the kingdom of the dead - Minos and Rhadamanthus. Here, at the throne, 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 in order to cut a strand of hair from his head with his sword and tear out his soul. Next to Tanat and gloomy Kera. On their wings they rush, furious, across the battlefield. The Keres rejoice as they see the slain heroes fall one by one; with their blood-red lips they fall to 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 rushes on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands and pours sleeping pills from his horn. He gently touches the eyes of people with his wonderful wand, quietly closes his eyelids and plunges mortals into a sweet dream. The god Hypnos is mighty, neither mortals, nor gods, nor even the Thunderer Zeus himself can resist him: and Hypnos closes his menacing eyes and plunges him into a deep sleep.

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

The kingdom of the inexorable Hades is full of darkness and horrors. There roams in the darkness the terrible ghost of Empusa with donkey's feet; it, having lured people into a secluded place in the darkness of the night, drinks all the blood and devours their still trembling bodies. The monstrous Lamia also roams there; she sneaks into the bedroom 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.