Ancient greece myths orxe post. Legends and myths of ancient greece

A brief excursion into history

Greece was not always called that. Historians, in particular Herodotus, distinguish even more ancient times in those territories that were later called Hellas - the so-called Pelasgian.

This term comes from the name of the Pelasgians ("storks") tribe who came to the mainland from the Greek island of Lemnos. According to the conclusions of the historiographer, the then Hellas was called Pelasgia. There were primitive beliefs in something unearthly, saving for people - the cults of invented creatures.

The Pelasgians united with a small Greek tribe and adopted their language, although they never grew from barbarians to a nationality.

Where did the Greek gods and myths about them come from?

Herodotus assumed that the Greeks adopted the names of many gods and their cults from the Pelasgians. At least, the veneration of lower deities and kabirs - great gods who, with their unearthly power, saved the earth from troubles and dangers. The Sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona (a city near today's Ioannina) was built much earlier than the still famous Delphic. From those times came the famous "troika" of cabirs - Demeter (Axieros), Persephone (Axiokers, in Italy - Ceres) and her husband Hades (Axiokersos).

In the Papal Museum in the Vatican, there is a marble statue of these three cabirs in the form of a triangular pillar by the sculptor Scopas, who lived and worked in the 4th century BC. e. At the bottom of the pillar, miniature images of Mitra-Helios, Aphrodite-Urania and Eros-Dionysus are carved as symbols of an unbreakable chain of mythology.

From there also the names of Hermes (Camilla, lat. "Minister"). In The History of Athos, Hades (Hell) is the god of the other world, and his wife Persephone gave life on earth. Artemis was called Kaleagra.

The new gods of Ancient Hellas descended from the "storks" and took away their right to reign. But they already had a human appearance, albeit with some exceptions left over from zoomorphism.

The goddess, patroness of the city named after her, was born from the brain of Zeus, the main god of the third stage. Consequently, before him, the heavens and the earthly firmament were ruled by others.

The first ruler of the earth was the god Poseidon. During the capture of Troy, he was the main deity.

According to mythology, he ruled both seas and oceans. Since Greece has a lot of island territories, the influence of Poseidon and his cult belonged to them. Poseidon was the brother of many new gods and goddesses, including such famous ones as Zeus, Hades and others.

Then Poseidon began to stare at the continental territory of Hellas, for example, at Attica, a huge part south of the central mountain range of the Balkan Peninsula and up to the Peloponnese. He had a reason for this: in the Balkans there was a cult of Poseidon in the form of a fertility demon. Athena wanted to deprive him of that influence.

The goddess won the dispute over the land. Its essence is as follows. Once there was a new alignment of the influence of the gods. At the same time, Poseidon lost his right to land, he was left with the seas. The sky was intercepted by the god of thunder and lightning thrower. Poseidon began to challenge the rights to certain territories. He hit the ground during a dispute on Olympus, and water came from there, and

Athena gave Attica an olive tree. The gods judged the dispute in favor of the goddess, believing that the trees would be more useful. The city was named after her.

Aphrodite

When the name of Aphrodite is pronounced in modern times, it is mainly her beauty that is revered. In ancient times, she was the goddess of love. The cult of the goddess first originated in the colonies of Greece, its current islands, founded by the Phoenicians. Worship similar to Aphrodite was then reserved for two other goddesses - Ashera and Astarte. In the Greek pantheon of gods

Aphrodite was more suited to the mythical role of Ashera, a lover of gardens, flowers, a resident of groves, the goddess of spring awakening and voluptuousness in pleasure with Adonis.

Reincarnating as Astarte, "the goddess of heights", Aphrodite became impregnable, always with a spear in her hand. In this guise, she guarded family loyalty and doomed her priestesses to eternal virginity.

Unfortunately, in later times, the cult of Aphrodite bifurcated, so to speak, the differences between the various Aphrodites.

Ancient Greece myths about the gods of Olympus

They are the most common and most cultivated in both Greece and Italy. This supreme pantheon of Mount Olympus included six gods - the children of Kronos and Hera (the thunderer himself, Poseidon and others) and nine descendants of the god Zeus. Among them, the most famous are Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite and others like them.

In the modern interpretation of the word "Olympian", besides the athletes participating in the Olympics, it means "calmness, self-confidence, external greatness." And earlier there was also Olympus of the gods. But at that time, these epithets referred only to the head of the pantheon - Zeus, because he fully corresponded to them. We talked about Athena and Poseidon in detail above. They also mentioned other gods of the pantheon - Hades, Helios, Hermes, Dionysus, Artemis, Persephone.

The oldest 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 either fear and horror, then hope and trust - personifications of forces mysterious for a person, but obviously dominating his fate, which were the first objects of worship 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.

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. Cartoon

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 Zeus, the son of Cronus in the myths; 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 the correct, just social and state order. 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) was carried to the Acropolis for the ancient statue of the goddess Pallas. 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 in ancient Greece the god of the hearth family life therefore, under the auspices of Hephaestus and Athena, a wonderful holiday of the "state family" was celebrated in Athens, the holiday of Anaturia, at which newborn children were carried around with a steep hearth, and this rite consecrated their acceptance into the family union of the state.

God Vulcan (Hephaestus). Statue by Thorvaldsen, 1838

Hestia

The significance of the hearth as the center of family life and the beneficial effect of a solid domestic life on moral and social life were personified in the myths of Ancient Greece by the virgin goddess Hestia, a representative of the concepts of a solid 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 comes into closer 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 named after this hill Areopagus. 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 who loves gardens and flowers, living in 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 on her priestesses the vow of eternal girlhood, 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 marvelous image of a graceful, charming, physically beautiful and morally sweet goddess, who delights the heart with the beauty of her forms, arouses 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. The ideal of feminine beauty and grace, the sweetly smiling Aphrodite of ancient Greek myths and the goddess of the East burdened with heavy and precious attire - these are completely different creatures. The difference between them is the same as between the joyful service to the goddess of love in the best times of Ancient Greece and the 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), the goddess of honest love, the patroness of family life, was pushed aside in the myths about 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 seashore; 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. On the latter, stones were placed, which were symbols of Hermes, and his images, giving the boundaries of the sites holiness and 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, an important role in all the 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 maturation of bread and grapes, that divine services, popular beliefs, art, religious theories and myths about gods combined their most profound ideas with the mysterious activities of the gods of the earth. The range of phenomena of 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. According to different myths in different countries, the entrance to it was always in the wilderness, where rivers flow through deep gorges, the water of which seems to be 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 of moral laws, inexorably avenging every violation of the requirements of moral feeling, and countless evil spirits, in the invention of which Greek fantasy showed the same inexhaustibility as 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 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, "mother earth", was in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods the personification of that power of nature, which, with the assistance of sunlight, dew and rain, gives rise and ripeness 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 also the goddess of married life, giving birth to 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 by 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.

Myth translated from Greek means - word,conversation,legend,news etc.
V myths reality has always been portrayed in a fantastic or fairytale form. During the first civilizations, mythology combined philosophy,history,ethics and poetry There are still many popular expressions in society that came from myths : Achilles' heel,flour Tantalus,Sisyphean labor etc. There is myths about creation Of the world, but there is about the life of the gods. Creation of the world in myths is described as follows: at first there was a primary Chaos- an endless abyss ... from it arose Dark and Light,Day and Night,Sky (Uranus) and Land (Gaia), as well as the underworld - Tartarus.Uranus With Gay got married and Gaia began to give birth to children. First, a hundred-handed monsters with 50 heads were born. Uranus got angry and threw them into the bowels of the earth. Then one-eyed cyclops - giants were born, Uranus got rid of them too.

Then came titans We know such as: Ocean- lord of the seas, children of the titan Iapeta: Atlant- titanium holding the firmament and Prometheus - titanium who gave people fire, Mnemosyne - memory, Themis- Justice , Kronos- all consuming time. Afraid of losing power, Uranus decided to destroy them. Gaia persuaded the titans to rebel against her father. Kronos won Uranus and began to rule The world Here, myths say, the golden age began.

Prometheus

But history repeats itself, now Kronos afraid that his children will take power from him. Uranus,Kronos decides to get rid of his children, he swallows Hestia,Demeter,Heru,Pluto,Poseidon and others. And philosophically it sounds like this: Time swallows everything born. Wife Kronos,Rhea, saves the last son- Zeus.She flees to the island Crete and gives birth there Zeus,and when Zeus grew up then defeated his father and forced him to return all those he swallowed.

Statue of ZEUS

And here the fight of the gods begins against titans.Titanium only Prometheus helps Zeus,a Zeus offended that Prometheus having stolen fire from the gods, gave it to people, chained Prometheus to the rock and sent an eagle to peck at the titan's liver, thanked him.

Statue of hera

And the era of the Olympian gods began. Gods live on the mountain Olympus, own the whole world. The most powerful of them are twelve: Zeus -lord of gods and people,his wife Hera- guarding marriage, his daughter Athena- goddesswisdom, crafts and science,brother Zeus,Poseidon- god of the seas, Hades(or Pluto) - the god of the kingdom of the dead, Aphrodite- the goddess of beauty and love, Ares- god of War, Gefes- god-blacksmith, Apollo- patron god of arts, Demeter- the goddess of agriculture, Hermes- patron of animal husbandry, Artemis- the goddess of the hunt, they are all relatives.

Statue of poseidon

The gods appear before us in the form of beautiful people, but sometimes they can turn into animals. This we can see in the example of how Zeus turned into white bull and took away the princess Europe to the island Crete. Also, the gods can turn into fire, rain, clouds, etc. Sometimes the gods are identified.

So the sun god Helios identified with Apollo, a Artemis- With Selenium- the goddess of the moon. Gods often combine opposites: good and evil, life and death. Pluto- the god of the kingdom of the dead and the god of wealth. Apollo - God sun and resurrects and kills (his arrows bring death). The sun's rays bring both life and death. Land- a huge cemetery and the mother of all living things. Sometimes the gods can perform the same functions: Artemis- the goddess of the hunt helps women during childbirth and does the same Hera- wife Zeus, the messenger of the gods is Hermes, and the messenger - Iris.On the Olympus there were also gods - strangers, for example Dionysus- patron saint of viticulture and winemaking from Thrace The myths tell that the gods take care of the cities that they themselves founded. The gods patronized certain geographic locations. According to legend during the reign of the king Laomedont gods Poseidon and Apollo built an unbreakable wall around Troy... Myths say that the goddess Hera was the patroness Mycenae and Argos, and later became also the patroness Samosa. Aphrodite bala patroness of the island Cyprus and her middle name Cypris, by the way, near this island, she appeared once from the foam of the sea. Athena has always been considered the patroness of the city Athens. Zeus patronized the family Crete and Thessaly. Apollo and Artemis were born in Delos and therefore were his patrons. Artemis originated in Asia Minor, and its main temple was in Ephesus.
In the heart Greece, on the sacred Olympic ground, was the fourth wonder of the world.
The creator of this masterpiece was Phidias- great sculptor Ancient Greece.Father Zeus was in the sky Crown while on earth Olympia -Phidias.Phidias created a magnificent statue Zeus in the temple Zeus... At the end of the 4th century A.D. e. devout emperor Theodosius ordered to take this "pagan idol" out of Olympia v Constantinople,where the statueZeus Olympic disappeared without a trace. ancient greece a lot, I will introduce you to them in the following articles.

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Around mythology in general, and myths in particular, there are many scientific and pseudo-scientific disputes. Moreover, mythology is not only ancient Greek, but also classical European. So what are these myths? Some attribute them to culture, others to religion, and still others to both the first and the second, as it were, in a mix, in modern terms. Still others consider myths to be almost historical knowledge.

Why are myths needed?

One thing is undeniable and proven by facts and artifacts: mythology is the most ancient human essence. The time of the appearance of mythological images is difficult to identify, but it is associated with the origin of language and human consciousness. Mythology arose not with gods and other mythical creatures, but to justify and display them from the point of view and thinking that were inherent in humanity at a particular stage of its development. Myths are rituals of life, an excuse to search for the meaning of life.

But back to our topic - the myths of Ancient Greece and the list of names. In Hellas, mythology gave a strong impetus to the development of culture and art (sculpture), even the religion of polytheism and a single god. Even then, genres of contemporary theatrical and cinematic art emerged - tragedy and comedy.

An important point. Gods are not perfect creatures. Among them, like people, there were vices. This is envy, meanness and murder were committed, including children, as well as with the aim of eliminating competitors to advance in the hierarchy of the gods. Just one example. Gaia, the goddess of the earth, raised a rebellion against her husband, and after the victory of the Olympians over the titans with her sons, she attacked the pantheon of Olympus. She gave birth to a hundred-headed monster - Typhon, on whom she pinned hopes to destroy humanity.

Gods of Ancient Greece

Classified by three generations. Let's make a list of the gods of the third stage. Especially the squad known as the Olympians. Their family went from Kronos (Chronos - time) - the first divine leader of Greece. According to some reports, he is the last son of Gaia. And the long era of the Olympic masters of the sky and all life on earth began.

Zeus the Thunderer (Rom. Jupiter) is the son of the father of the gods and the father of the gods himself. Kronos learned the prediction of his mother, who became a Delphic soothsayer, that his children would overthrow him. To prevent this from happening, he swallowed them.

Rhea's wife saved only her last son, Zeus. When she was little, she gave him to be raised by nymphs on the still undeveloped island of Crete. When he grew up, he immediately overthrew his father from his ruled heavenly fiefdom.

The secret that helped the thunderer to avoid death was revealed by Prometheus. He predicted who he shouldn't marry. So Zeus became immortal, and his power on Olympus - eternal.

All ancient Greek gods and their areas of responsibility.

Poseidon (Neptune), brother of the leader of the pantheon on Mount Olympus, personified physical strength and character - courage and unbridled disposition. He created the elements on the water, sank ships, caused hunger on the ground. He was personified with earthquakes then incomprehensible. Poseidon compensated for his sabotage with generous gifts, but then he again got into trouble.

Hera (Juno)

The sister and wife of the Thunderer, therefore, was the main one among the female group of deities. She supervised the strength of marriage and marital fidelity. She was very jealous, did not forgive betrayal even to Zeus. She tried in every possible way to harm his illegitimate son - Hercules (Hercules).

Apollo (Phoebus)

God of the brightest light. Later the cult expanded to the ideas of creative grace and healing (father of the god of doctors Asclepius). Aristocratic features are borrowed from the images of Asia Minor. The cult spread widely in Italy after the Roman conquests of Greece.

Artemis (Diana)

Sister of Apollo. Like the cult of her brother, respect for her is brought to Greece from the outside. Artemis is associated with forests, in general, she patronizes everything that grows and bears fruit. Welcomed birth and sexual intercourse.

Athena (Minerva)

The goddess, in which it is not clear how spiritual comfort and wisdom, belligerence and amazing femininity coexisted. According to mythology, she was born to Zeus (from his curly head) already armed with a spear. And only she, as a goddess, was allowed to wage so-called just wars. Apparently, the Olympians believed that such military seizures could be justified.

It is difficult to list everything that Athena patronized: from agriculture to sciences and arts, and her influence spread even further. Cities were created on her behalf. It is not for nothing that the capital of Greece is named after this goddess. The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias portrayed it in all its glory.

Hermes (Mercury).

If you collect in one list everything that fell under the protection of the gods, it becomes clear what the ancient Greeks were concerned about. After all, the gods were created, to put it bluntly, they. So in connection with Hermes, it is clear that the Greeks were worried about the construction of roads, merchant trade within the country and with neighbors, since they endowed Hermes with these powers of patronage.

He was known as a dodgy god, capable of cunning when necessary, but also possessed knowledge of foreign languages. Obviously, in earthly life there should have been such specialists, since God was placed above them.

Aphrodite (Venus or Cypride)

Keeper of love and feminine beauty. There is an epic about her and Adonis, taken from the myths of the Ancient East. Her son Eros (Cupid) was portrayed in paintings where he lights the flame of love in people with arrows.

Hephaestus (Volcano).

Already from the Roman name it is clear what God was doing: he created fire and roar. This is shown in the myths. But as is generally known, the activity of the volcano is beyond the control of either people or gods. Later, Hephaestus "retrained" and became the patron saint of artisans, in blacksmithing. After all, there, too, there is always a fire to melt the metal. Although he was lame, he became the spouse of Aphrodite.

Unlike Aphrodite, who personified the unbridled power of nature, the goddess directed nature to serve the farmers. Under the leadership of Demeter was the life of a person until death.

Ares (Mars).

Unlike Athena, this god acted by deception, treason and cunning. He loved bloody war and for the sake of war. Homer wrote as a warrior with a very dangerous weapon, but did not classify the weapon. Ares, like all members of the pantheon, was loved by ancient sculptors. The warrior was depicted naked, but with a helmet on his head and with a sword.

Hestia.

Her cult is the fire of the hearth. The altar of the goddess was supposed to be in every house where the hearth burned.

Heroes, myths and legends about them. Therefore, it is important to know their 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. Legends, legends became known, because the 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 loved, and what Homer created, it was customary for an educated person to know by heart and be able to quote from any place. Greek scholars, seeking to streamline everything, began to work on the classification of myths, and turned disparate stories into a coherent series.

The main 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.

It was done by the insidious Kronos - Time. But, having married his sister, he was afraid of the children being born and swallowed them immediately after birth: Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Aida. 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 terribly describe the events taking place.

Zeus' war for power

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

Gods on Olympus

Zeus, to whom the Cyclops were bound by 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 other gods and heroes descended, about whom stories and legends would begin to be told.

The oldest belong to the cycle about Dionysus, and winemaking, fertility, the patron saint of the night mysteries, which were carried out in the darkest places. The mysteries were terrible and mysterious. This is how the struggle of the dark gods with the light ones began to take shape. There were no real wars, but they began to gradually give way to the light god of the sun Phoebus with his rational beginning, with his cult of reason, science and art.

And the irrational, ecstatic, sensual 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 the hunt, Demeter - agriculture, Hermes - trade, Aphrodite - love and beauty.

Hephaestus to artisans. Their relationship between themselves and people is the legend of the Hellenes. They were fully studied in pre-revolutionary grammar schools in Russia. Only now, when people are mostly concerned with earthly concerns, do they, if necessary, pay attention to their brief content. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece are farther and farther into the past.

To whom the gods patronized

They are not very kind to people. They often envied them or lusted after women, were jealous, were greedy for praise and honors. That is, they were very similar to mortals, if you take their description. Legends (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 to meet his death."

All 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 sailors, going to sea, made sacrifices. In Delphi, one could ask for mercy from Phoebus and Artemis.

Hero myths

One of the favorite myths was about Theseus, the son of the king of Athens, Aegeus. He was born and raised in a royal family in Trezen. When he grew up and was able to get his father's sword, he went to meet him. On the way, he destroyed the robber Procrustes, who did not allow people to pass through his territory. When he got to his father, he learned that Athens was paying tribute by 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 go through the labyrinth in which the Minotaur was. Theseus fought the monster and destroyed it.

The Greeks happily, freed from tribute forever, returned to their homeland. But they forgot to change the black sails. Aegeus, who did not take his eyes off the sea, saw that his son had died, and from unbearable grief threw himself into the depths of the waters over which his palace stood. The Athenians rejoiced that they were forever freed from tribute, but they also wept when they learned of the tragic death of Aegeus. The myth of Theseus is long and colorful. This is its summary. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece (Kun) will give an exhaustive description about him.

Epic - 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 written by Kuhn, Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece. The chapters are summarized 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 Cyclops, and sent unheard of storms. On the way, they died from sirens, carried away by their unearthly voices and mellifluous singing.

All his companions died on their voyages across the seas. All were destroyed by an evil fate. In captivity with 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.

And about the campaigns of Odysseus created in his poems Homer - "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the myths of the campaign for the golden fleece to the shores of the Pontus Evsinsky are described in the poem of Apolonius of Rhodes. Sophocles wrote the tragedy "Oedipus the King", the tragedy about the Arrest - the playwright Aeschylus. They are given in a summary of "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece" (Nikolai Kun).

Myths and legends about gods, titans, numerous heroes disturb the imagination of the artists of word, brush and cinematography of our days. Standing in a museum near a painting painted on a mythological theme, or hearing the name of the beautiful Elena, it would be good to have at least a little idea of ​​what 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.