Ancient mythology read online. Myths of Ancient Greece

Nikolai Kun

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 the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the dark Night - Nyukta. And from Night and Darkness came the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful bright Day - Hemera. 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 - Cyclopes with one eye in the forehead - and three huge, like mountains, fifty-headed giants - hundred-armed (hekatoncheirs), 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 gloomy, 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.

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 much higher than 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.

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, was born to her younger son Zeus. 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 of the high mountain Dikty. 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.

Part one. gods and heroes

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.

Gods

Zeus

Birth of Zeus

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.

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

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.

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 gave birth with Echidna, a half-woman half-snake, the terrible two-headed dog Orff, the hellish dog Cerberus, the Lernean hydra and the 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 bright there 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 her beauty, in a magnificent outfit, the great Hera enters the banquet hall, all the gods stand up and bow before the wife of the Thunderer Zeus. And she, proud of her power, goes to the golden throne and sits next to the king of 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 Kronos will menacingly move his thick eyebrows, then black clouds will cloud the sky. The great Zeus will be angry, and the hair on his head will rise terribly, his eyes will light up with an unbearable brilliance; he will wave his right hand - 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 horn of plenty, 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 the goddess of happiness Tyukhe on his life path; 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, the great king of 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, the waves of the sea roar. 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 all the innermost secrets of the 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 to mortals. The gods of the sea are mighty, their power is great, but the great brother of Zeus Poseidon rules over all of them.

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. The joyful rays of the bright sun never penetrate there. Bottomless abysses lead from the surface of the earth to the sad kingdom of Hades. Dark rivers flow 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 with pale flowers of asphodel, ethereal 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.

The most ancient gods of Ancient Greece, known to us from myths, were the personifications of those forces of nature, whose activity determines physical life and arouses fear and horror, now hope and trust in the human heart - the personifications of forces mysterious to man, 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 forces. external nature; they were at the same time the creators and keepers of all moral blessings, the personifications of all the forces of moral life. All those forces of the human spirit by which cultural life is created, and the development of which among the Greek people gave it such importance in the history of mankind, were invested by them in the myths about the gods. The gods of Greece are the personifications of all the great and beautiful 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 men, so they felt obliged to become like gods; concern for perfection was a religious duty for them. Greek culture has a close relationship with the Greek religion.

Gods of Ancient Greece. video film

Different generations of the gods of ancient Greece

The basis of the religion of ancient Greece in Pelasgian times 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 heaven were overthrown by a series of catastrophes, the legends of 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 dominion from the former, descended from them, but already had a completely human image.

Zeus and Hera

So, new anthropoid gods began to rule the world, the main of which was Zeus, the son of Kron, in myths; but the former gods, personified by the forces of nature, have retained their mysterious effectiveness, which even the omnipotent Zeus cannot overcome. As almighty 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, fate.

Zeus, the main god in the myths of Ancient Greece, is the collector of clouds, sitting on a throne at the height of the ether, stunning with his lightning shield, Aegis (thundercloud), life-giving and fertilizing the earth, at the same time he is also the establisher, guardian of the lawful order. Under his protection are all rights, and especially family rights and the custom of hospitality. He tells rulers to be concerned about the welfare of those who are ruled. He gives prosperity to kings and peoples, cities and families; he is justice. He is the source of all that is good and noble. He is the father of the goddesses of hours (Or), 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 quarrelsome goddess of the atmosphere, who has a rainbow (Iris) and clouds (the Greek name for the cloud, nephele, a feminine word) as her servants, at the same time she is the establisher of the sacred marriage union, in honor of which the Greeks performed on feast of abundant flowers spring 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 guards children. Hera relieves women of the suffering of childbirth; she is assisted in this care by her daughter Eileithyia.

Athena Pallas

The virgin goddess Pallas Athena, 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 disperses gloomy clouds with her spear, and the personification of victorious energy in any struggle. Athena was always 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, fair social and state orders. The image of the goddess Athena personified wise balance, a calm, penetrating mind, necessary for the creators of works of mental activity and art.

Statue of Athena the Virgin 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. Athena was connected with the famous ancient Greek city by many myths. The most famous of these was the myth of the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. The goddess Athena won it, giving the region the basis of its agriculture - the olive tree. Ancient Athens made many holidays in honor of the beloved goddess. The main of them were two Panathenaic holidays - Great and Small. Both of them, according to the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, were established by one of the oldest progenitors of Athens - Erechtheus. Small Panathenaic was celebrated annually, and the Great - once every four years. On the great Panathenaia, all the inhabitants of Attica gathered in Athens and staged 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 through the main streets, which were crowded with people in white robes.

God Hephaestus in Greek myths

To Pallas Athena, the goddess of the arts, Hephaestus, the god of heavenly and earthly fire, was close in meaning in ancient Greek myths. The activity of Hephaestus was most strongly manifested by volcanoes on the islands, especially on Lemnos and in Sicily; but in the application of fire to the affairs of human life, Hephaestus greatly helped the development of culture. Prometheus, who brought fire to people and taught them worldly arts, is also closely related to the concept of Athena. These three gods were dedicated to the Attic festival of running with torches, a competition in which the winner was the one who first ran with a burning torch to the goal. Athena Pallas was the inventor of those arts that women were engaged in; lame Hephaestus, who was often joked about by poets, was the founder of blacksmithing and a master in metal work. Like Athena, he was the god of the hearth in ancient Greece. family life, therefore, under the auspices of Hephaestus and Athena, a wonderful holiday of the “state family”, the feast of Anaturius, was celebrated in Athens, on which newborn children were surrounded by 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 importance of the hearth as the center of family life and beneficial effect durable home life on the moral and public life were personified in the myths of ancient Greece by the virgin goddess Hestia, a representative of the concepts of a strong settled way of life, a comfortable home life, the symbol of which was the sacred fire of the hearth. Initially, 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 later it became a symbol of civil well-being, which receives strength on earth only when the earth is in union with heaven, as a divine institution. Therefore, in every Greek house, the hearth was the religious center of the family. Whoever approached the hearth and sat on its ashes, he 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 made sacrifices as a representative of the people, settled litigations, gathered noble people and ancestors for advice, the hearth of the royal house was a symbol of the state connection of the people; after, the pritaney, the religious center of the state, had the same significance. An inextinguishable fire burned on the state hearth of the pritanei, and the pritanes, the elected rulers of the people, had to take turns being constantly at this hearth. The hearth was the link between earth and heaven; because Hestia was in ancient Greece and the goddess of sacrifice. Each solemn sacrifice began with a sacrifice to her. And all 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 Apelun existed. According to Greek myths, Apollo spends the winter in the distant country of the Hyperboreans, and in the spring he returns to Hellas, infusing life into nature, and joy and the desire to sing into man. Apollo was therefore recognized as the god of singing - and in general of that inspiring force that gives rise to art. Thanks to the life-giving qualities, the cult of this god was also associated with the idea of healing, protection from evil. With his well-aimed arrows (solar rays), Apollo destroys all filth. This idea was symbolically expressed by the ancient Greek myth about the murder of the terrible serpent Python by Apollo. The skilled shooter Apollo was considered the brother of the goddess of hunting Artemis, with whom he killed the sons of the excessively proud sons 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 kithara in his hands. Since poetic inspiration is akin to prophetic, 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 Saurokton (killing a lizard). Roman copy of a statue of Praxiteles, 4th c. BC

The god of music, poetry, singing, Apollo was in the myths of Ancient Greece the lord 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". Clio was the muse of history, Calliope of epic poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Thalia of comedy, Erato of love poetry, Euterpe of lyrics, Terpsichore of dances, Polyhymnia of hymns, Urania of 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 even closer contact with moral ideas. Even after the victory over the evil monster Python, Apollo considered it necessary to cleanse himself of the filth of the murder and, in his atonement, went to serve as a shepherd for the Thessalian king Admet. By this, he gave people an example that he who committed bloodshed should always repent, and became the god-purifier of murderers and criminals. In Greek myths, Apollo healed not only the body, but also the soul. He found forgiveness for penitent sinners, 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 every year celebrated two great holidays in honor of him: Karnei and Iakinthii. The Karney festival was held in honor of Apollo the Warrior, in the month of Karney (August). During this holiday, military games, competitions in singing and dancing were held. Iakinthia, celebrated in July (nine days), was accompanied by sad rites in memory of the death of the beautiful young man Iakinf (Hyacinth), the personification of flowers. According to the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, Apollo accidentally killed this favorite of his 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 festival of Iakinthius, after the sad rites, cheerful processions of young men and girls with flowers took place. The death and resurrection of Iakinf personified 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, walked the mountains and forests, hunting; bathed with nymphs, her companions, in cool streams; was the patroness of wild animals; at night she irrigated the thirsty earth with life-giving dew. But at the same time, in the myths of Ancient Greece, Artemis was also a goddess who destroyed sailors, so in ancient times of Greece, people were sacrificed to her to propitiate her. With the development of civilization, Artemis became the goddess of virginal purity, 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 harvest to the earth and children to women; in the idea of it, the myths of ancient Greece were probably joined by oriental concepts. Artemis was depicted as having many nipples on her chest; this signified that she was a generous breadwinner of the people. At the magnificent temple of Artemis there were many hierodula and many servants dressed in a man's dress 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 significance of Apollo and Artemis in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods was more and more obscured by the moral one. Therefore, Greek mythology created a special sun god, Helios, and a special moon goddess, Selene. - A special god, the son of Apollo, Asclepius, was also made a representative of the healing power of Apollo.

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 battle. Ares is furious. But he was also the founder of the sacred Athenian tribunal that judged cases of murder, which had its meeting place on a hill dedicated to Ares, the Areopagus, and was also called the Areopagus after this hill. And as the god of storms, and as a furious god of battles, he is the opposite of Pallas Athena, the goddess of the clear sky and judicious conduct of battles. Therefore, in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, Pallas and Ares are hostile to each other.

In the concept of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, the physical nature of love in ancient Greek myths was also joined over time by a moral element. The cult of Aphrodite passed to Ancient Greece from the colonies founded by the Phoenicians in Cyprus, Cythera, 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 Asherah 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, lives in groves, a goddess of joyful spring and voluptuousness, enjoying the love of the beautiful young man Adonis in the forest on the mountain. She corresponded to Astarte, when she was honored as the "goddess of heights", as a stern Aphrodite Urania (heavenly) armed with a spear or Aphrodite of Akreia, whose places of service were the tops of the mountains, who imposed a vow of eternal girlhood on her priestesses, guarded the chastity of conjugal love and family morality . But the ancient Greeks knew how to combine these opposing ideas and from their combination created in myths a wondrous image of a graceful, charming, physically beautiful and morally sweet goddess, admiring the heart with the beauty of her forms, arousing tender affection. This mythological combination of physical feeling with moral affection, giving sensual love its natural right, protected people from the coarse vulgarity of unbridled oriental voluptuousness. The ideal of female beauty and grace, the sweetly smiling Aphrodite of ancient Greek myths, and the goddesses of the east, burdened with heavy and precious attire, are completely different creatures. Between them there is the same difference as between the joyful service of the goddess of love in the best times of ancient Greece and the noisy Syrian orgies, in which the goddess, surrounded by eunuchs, was served with an unbridled revelry of gross sensuality. True, in later times, with the corruption of morals, vulgar sensuality also penetrated into the Greek service to the goddess of love. Heavenly Aphrodite (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 are in big cities turned into rampant vulgar sensuality.

Aphrodite and her son Eros (Eros), turned by poets and artists into the oldest among theogonic gods, into the youngest of Olympic gods, and who became a young man accompanying his mother, later even a child, were favorite subjects of ancient Greek art. The 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 also received moral significance, to whom the Arcadian shepherds made sacrifices on Mount Kyllene; he was with them the personification of the power of heaven, giving grass to their pastures, and the father of their ancestor, Arkas. According to their myths, Hermes, while still a baby, wrapped in a lullaby (in the fog of dawn), stole the herds (bright clouds) of the sun god, Apollo, and hid them in a damp cave near the seashore; stringing strings on a tortoise shell, he made a lyre, and by presenting it to Apollo, gained 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 guardian of streets, boundaries. Stones were placed on the latter, former symbols Hermes, and his images, which gave the boundaries of the plots holiness, strength.

God Hermes. Sculpture of Phidias (?)

Hermes (that is, the symbols of Hermes) were originally just heaps of stones, poured on the boundaries, along the roads and especially at the crossroads; these were landmarks and road signs, 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 placed trihedral or tetrahedral stone pillars as travel and boundary signs; 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 germs stood along the roads, and along the streets, squares, at the gates, at the doors; they were also placed in palestras, in gymnasiums, because Hermes was the patron of gymnastic exercises in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods.

From the concept of the god of rain penetrating the earth, the idea of mediation between heaven, earth and the underworld developed, and Hermes became in the myths of ancient Greece a god who escorts the souls of the dead to the underworld (Hermes Psychopompos). Thus, he was put in close connection with the gods living in the earth (the chthonic gods). These ideas came from the concept of the connection between the emergence and death of plants in the cycle of life of nature and from the concept of Hermes as the messenger of the gods; they served as the source of many ancient Greek myths that placed Hermes in very diverse relationships 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 deft inventions, Hermes knew how 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 worldly dexterity, the patron of all activities in which success is given by the ability to speak deftly and the ability to remain 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 concept of these activities became predominant in the idea of Hermes, and his original shepherd meaning was transferred to one of the minor gods, Pan, "the god of pastures", just as the physical meaning of Apollo and Artemis was transferred to less important gods, Helios and Selena.

God Pan

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

God Pan and Daphnis, the hero of an 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 underground, 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 divine power all waters, the god of the sea and all rivers, streams, springs that fertilize the earth. Therefore, he was the main god on the coasts and capes. Poseidon is strong, broad-shouldered, and his character is indomitable. When he strikes the sea with his trident, a storm rises, the waves beat against the rocks of the coast so that the earth trembles, the cliffs crack and collapse. But Poseidon is also a good god: he draws springs from the cracks of the rocks to fertilize the valleys; he created and tamed the horse; he is the patron of horseback riding and all military games, the patron of all daring journeys, whether on horseback, in chariots, by land or by sea in ships. In ancient Greek myths, Poseidon is a mighty builder who approved the earth and its islands, laying firm boundaries for the sea. He stirs up storms, but he also gives a favorable wind; at his beckon, the sea swallows up the ships; but he also sees the ships in the pier. Poseidon is the patron saint of navigation; he guards maritime trade and governs the course of maritime warfare.

The god of ships and horses, Poseidon played, according to the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, an important role in all campaigns and sea expeditions of the heroic age. The birthplace of his cult was Thessaly, a country of Neptunian formation, horse herds and seafaring; then the service to him spread to Boeotia, Attica, the Peloponnese, and his holidays early began to be accompanied by military games. The most famous of these games in honor of the god Poseidon took place in the Boeotian city of Onchest and on Isthma. In Onhest, his sanctuaries and their grove picturesquely stood on a beautiful and fertile hill above Kopai Lake. The terrain of the Isthmian games was a hill near Skhina (Schoinos, "Reeds", a lowland overgrown with reeds), overshadowed by a pine grove. Symbolic rites 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 the Isthm. - Fast as the wind, the horses of the heroic age were created by the god Poseidon; in particular, Pegasus was created by him. - The wife of Poseidon, Amphitrite, was the personification of the noisy sea.

Like Zeus, Poseidon had a lot of myths about the gods in ancient Greece. love affairs, many sea gods and goddesses and many heroes were his children. Tritons belonged to the retinue of Poseidon, the number of which was innumerable. They were cheerful creatures of the most diverse forms, personifications of noisy, ringing, sliding waves and the mysterious forces of the depths of the sea, fantastically transformed sea animals. They played pipes made of shells, frolicked, dragged 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 on all kinds of forms, also belonged to the numerous retinue of Poseidon. When the Greek sailors began to sail far, then, returning, they surprised their people with myths about miracles. western sea: about sirens, beautiful sea girls who live there on underwater islands under the bright surface of the waters and seductively lure sailors into death with seductive singing, about the good Glaucus, the sea god who predicts 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, about the beautiful Galatea, about the rocky, walled island, on which the god of the winds Eol 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 that acted both in the depths of the earth and on its surface had the greatest similarity with Eastern religions. Human life is in such close connection with the development and withering of vegetation, with the growth and ripening of bread and grapes, that divine services, popular beliefs, art, religious theories and myths about the gods combined their most profound ideas with the mysterious activity of the gods of the earth. The circle 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; perishes at the onset of winter, and is reborn in the spring from the ground in which its seeds hid in the fall. It was easy to draw a parallel with ancient Greek mythology: so a person, after a short life under the joyful light of the sun, descends into the dark underworld, where instead of the radiant Apollo and the bright Athena Pallas, the gloomy, stern Hades (Hades, Aidoneus) and the strict beauty, his wife, reign in the magnificent palace , formidable Persephone. Thoughts about how close birth and death are to each other, about the fact that the earth - 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: it had a joyful side, and there was a sad side. And in Hellas, as in the East, the service to the gods of the earth was exalted; its rites consisted in expressing feelings of joy and sadness, and those who performed them had to indulge in boundless action of the emotional disturbances they caused. But in the East, this exaltation led to a 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 reflection on religious questions, led people to acquire sublime ideas about the deity. The holidays of the gods of the earth, especially Dionysus, greatly contributed to the development of poetry, music, dances; plastics liked to take subjects for their works from the circle of ancient Greek myths about funny fantastic creatures that accompany Pan and Dionysus. And the Eleusinian mysteries, whose teachings spread throughout the Greek world, gave thoughtful interpretations of the myths about the “mother earth”, the goddess Demeter, about the abduction of her daughter (Cora) Persephone by the harsh ruler of the underworld, that Persephone’s life goes on on earth, then underground. These teachings inspired man that death is not terrible, that the soul survives the body. The forces ruling in the bowels of the earth aroused reverent caution in the ancient Greeks; these forces could not be spoken of fearlessly; thoughts about them were conveyed 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 concealment 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", rules in the depths of the earth; there are sources of wealth and fertility; hence 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 can freely enter them; their guardian, the three-headed dog Cerberus, kindly lets those in, but does not allow them to return. weeping willows and barren poplars surround the vast palace of Hades. The shadows of the dead hover over gloomy fields overgrown with weeds, or nest in the crevices of underground rocks. Some of the heroes of ancient Greece (Hercules, Theseus) went to the underworld of Hades. The entrance to it was according to various myths in different countries but always in the wilderness, where rivers flow through deep gorges, the water of which seems dark, where caves, hot springs and vapors show the proximity of the realm of the dead. Thus, for example, there was an entrance to the underworld at the Thesprotian Gulf in southern Epirus, where the Acheron River and Lake Acheruz infected their surroundings with miasma; at Cape Tenar; in Italy, in a volcanic area near the city of Cum. In the same areas were those oracles whose answers were given by the souls of the dead.

Ancient Greek myths and poetry spoke a lot about the realm of the dead. Fantasy strove to give curiosity exact information that science did not give, to penetrate into the darkness surrounding the afterlife, and inexhaustibly created new images belonging to the underworld.

The two main rivers of the underworld, according to the myths of the Greeks, are the Styx and Acheron, "a deafly noisy river of eternal sorrow." In addition to them, there were three more rivers in the realm of the dead: Lethe, whose water destroyed the memory of the past, Piriflegeton (“Fire River”) and Cocytus (“Sobbing”). The souls of the dead were taken to the underworld of Hades by Hermes. Stern old man Charon transported in his boat through the Styx surrounding the underworld 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 had to wander homelessly along the banks of the river, not taken into the boat of Charon. 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 the same things they did when they were alive; 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 rather live on earth as a day laborer for the poor 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 offered sacrifices to the dead in their tombs. Turning their faces to the west, they cut the sacrificial animal over a deep hole, purposely dug in the ground, and the blood of the animal flowed into this hole. After when ideas about afterlife received in the Eleusinian mysteries more full development, the myths of Ancient Greece began to divide the underground kingdom of Hades into two parts, Tartarus and Elysium. In Tartarus, villains led a miserable existence, condemned by the judges of the dead; they were tormented by Erinyes, strict guardians of moral laws, inexorably avenging any 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, which, according to ancient Greek myths, lay by the ocean (or an archipelago on the ocean, called the islands of the Blessed), was the area of the afterlife of the heroes of ancient times and the righteous. There the wind is always mild, there is no snow, no heat, no rain; there, in the myths of the gods, the good Cronus reigns; the earth gives harvest there three times a year, the meadows there are forever in bloom. Heroes and the righteous lead a blissful life there; on their heads are wreaths, near their hands are garlands of the most beautiful flowers and branches of beautiful trees; they enjoy singing, horseback riding, gymnastic games.

The most just and wise legislators of the mythical Cretan-Carian time also live there, Minos and Rhadamanthus, and the pious ancestor of the Aeacids, Aeacus, who, according to later myth, became judges of the dead. Under the chairmanship of Hades and Persephone, they examined the feelings and deeds of people and decided, according to the merits of a dead person, whether his soul should go to Tartarus or Elysium. - As they, and other pious heroes of ancient Greek myths, were rewarded for their beneficial activities on earth by continuing their studies in the afterlife, so the great transgressors of mythical stories were subjected to divine justice with punishments in accordance with their crimes. Myths about their fate in the underworld showed the Greeks what bad inclinations and passions lead to; this fate was only a continuation, a development of the deeds they committed in life and gave rise to the torments of their conscience, the symbols of which were the pictures of their material torments. 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 receptacle for sensual passions (an obvious alteration 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 the black bottom"; fruits hung before his eyes; but when he stretched out his hands to pluck them, the wind lifted the branches up. Sisyphus, the treacherous king of Ether (Corinth), was condemned to roll a stone up the mountain, constantly rolling down; - the personification of the waves, constantly running on the banks of the Isthm, and running away from them. The eternal vain labor of Sisyphus symbolized unsuccessful tricks 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, the king of the Lapiths, "the first killer", was tied to a fiery wheel that was always spinning; this was a punishment for him because, while visiting Zeus, he violated the rights of hospitality, he 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 goodness, turned them away from vices and evil passions, depicting the bliss of the righteous and the torment of the evil in the afterlife. There were episodes in the myths that showed that, having descended into the underworld, one could return from there to the earth. So, for example, it was said about Hercules that he defeated 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 idea that the power of death should not be considered irresistible. Ideas about the underground kingdom of Hades received an interpretation in new myths and sacraments that 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 good lord of the kingdom of the dead and the giver of wealth; the trappings of horror were eliminated from representations of him. The genius of death in the oldest 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 took on the form of a beautiful young man with a bowed head, holding an overturned and extinguished torch in his hand, and became completely similar to his meek brother, the Genius of sleep. Both of them live with their mother, night, in the west. From there every evening a winged dream arrives and, rushing over people, pours calmness on them from a horn or from a poppy stalk; he is accompanied by the geniuses of dreams - Morpheus, Phantaz, bringing joy to the sleeping. Even Erinyes 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 beneficent, life-giving.

The goddess Gaia, who was the personification of the general concept of the earth, giving birth to everything and taking everything back into itself, did not come to the fore in the myths of Ancient Greece. 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, she was 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 regions; the worship of these gods, which 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, vines and bread, was explained even in Pelasgian times by the activity of Dionysus and Demeter. Later, when the influence of the East penetrated Ancient Greece, a third, borrowed from Asia Minor, the earth goddess Rhea Cybele, was added to these two gods.

Demeter in the myths of ancient Greece

Demeter, "earth-mother", was in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods the personification of that force of nature, which, with the assistance of sunlight, dew and rain gives growth and ripening to bread and other fruits of the fields. She was a "fair-haired" goddess, under whose patronage people plow, sow, reap, knit bread in sheaves, thresh. Demeter brings forth harvests. She sent Triptolemus to walk all over the earth and teach people arable farming and good morals. Demeter combined with Jasion, the sower, and bore him Plutos (wealth); she punished the impious Erysichthon, "corrupting the earth," with an insatiable hunger. But in the myths of ancient Greece, she and the goddess married life giving children. The goddess who taught people about agriculture and proper family life, Demeter was the founder of civilization, morality, and family virtues. Therefore, Demeter was the "law-setter" (Thesmophoros), and the five-day feast of Thesmophoria, "laws", was celebrated in her honor. The rites of this holiday, performed by married women, were a symbolic glorification of agriculture and married life. Demeter was the main goddess of the Eleusinian festival, the rites of which had as their main content the symbolic glorification of the gifts received by people from the gods of the earth. The Amphictyonic Union, which met at Thermopylae, was also under the auspices of Demeter, the goddess of civic 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 bright world under heaven 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 "Grieving" (Achaia) went 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 resembled the Phoenician cult of Adonis. The human heart yearns 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 exposition of concepts; they acted on the sense of aesthetic means, consoled, aroused hope. The Attic poets said that those dying are blessed who are initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter: they know the purpose of life and its divine beginning; 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 a link between the realm 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 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, overcoming 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 feast of Dionysius, various and even opposite feelings were expressed: fun at that time of the year when everything blooms, and sadness at the withering of vegetation. Joyful and sad feelings then 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 power of nature, the phallus, was closely related to the veneration of Dionysus. Initially, Dionysus was a rude god of the common people. But in the era of tyranny, its importance has increased. The tyrants, who most often acted as leaders of the lower classes in the struggle against the nobility, deliberately contrasted the plebeian Dionysus with the refined gods of the aristocracy and gave the festivities in honor of him a broad, nationwide character.

Myth, in its essence, is one of the forms of history that satisfies the inherent need of the human race for its own identification and answers emerging questions about the origin of life, culture, relations between people and nature. Thus, Greek mythology had a rather strong influence on the development ancient culture and in general on the formation Myths and legends of ancient Greece keep the past of mankind, being its history in all its manifestations.

Since ancient times, the Greeks formed an idea of the eternal, boundless and harmoniously united Cosmos. They were based on emotional and intuitive penetration into the mystery of this boundless Chaos, the source of the life of the world, and man was perceived as part of the cosmic unity. In the early stages of history, the legends and myths of Ancient Greece reflected ideas about the surrounding reality, played the role of a guide in everyday life. This fantastic reflection of reality, being the primary source of the formation of the worldview, expressed the impotence of man in front of nature, its elemental forces. However, the ancients were not afraid to explore a world filled with fear. Myths and legends of Ancient Greece testify that the boundless thirst for knowledge of the world around us prevailed over fear of an unknown danger. Suffice it to recall the numerous exploits of mythical heroes, the fearless adventures of the Argonauts, Odysseus and his team.

Myths and legends of ancient Greece are the oldest form of understanding natural phenomena. The appearance of the rebellious and wildlife personified in the form of animated and quite real beings. Fantasy populated the world with good and evil mythical creatures. So, dryads, satyrs, centaurs settled in the picturesque groves, oreads lived in the mountains, nymphs lived in the rivers, and oceanids lived in the seas and oceans.

The myths and legends of Ancient Greece are distinguished from the legends of other peoples by a characteristic feature, which consists in the humanization of divine beings. This made them closer and more understandable to ordinary people, most of whom perceived these legends as their ancient history. The mysterious, beyond the understanding and influence of a simple man in the street, the forces of nature became more understandable for the imagination of a simple person.

The people of Ancient Greece became the creator of unique and colorful legends about the life of people, immortal gods and heroes. In myths, memories of a distant and little-known past and poetic fiction are harmoniously intertwined. No other human creation is distinguished by such richness and fullness of images. This explains their invincibility. The myths and legends of ancient Greece gave images that are often used by art in various ways. Inexhaustible legendary subjects were often used and are still popular among historians and philosophers, sculptors and painters, poets and writers. In myths, they draw ideas for their own works and often bring something new to them, corresponding to a certain historical period.

reflecting the moral views of a person, his aesthetic attitude to reality, helped to shed light on the political and religious institutions of that time, to understand the nature of myth-making.

Recognized as a fundamental phenomenon of world history. It served as the basis for the culture of all of Europe. Many images of Greek mythology are firmly fixed in the language, consciousness, artistic images, and philosophy. Everyone understands and is familiar with such concepts as "Achilles' heel", "bonds of Hymen", "horn of plenty", "Augean stables", "Sword of Damocles", "Ariadne's thread", "apple of discord" and many others. But often, using data in speech idioms, people do not think about their true meaning and history of occurrence.

Ancient Greek mythology played an important role in the development of modern history. Her research provided important information about the life of ancient civilizations and the formation of religion.

An amazing people - the Hellenes (as they called themselves), came to the Peloponnese peninsula and settled it. In ancient times, all people tried to live near the river-breadwinner. There were no large rivers in Greece. So the Greeks became a seaside people - they were fed by the sea. Courageous, inquisitive, they built ships and sailed the stormy Mediterranean Sea, trading and creating settlements on its shores and islands. They were also pirates, and they profited not only from trade, but also from robbery. These people traveled a lot, saw the life of other nations, and they created myths and legends about gods and heroes. A short ancient Greek myth has become a national tradition of folklore. He usually told about some events that happened to those who behaved incorrectly, deviating from generally accepted norms. And usually such a story was very instructive.

Are the heroes still alive?

Yes and no. No one worships them, no one makes sacrifices, no one comes to their sanctuaries, asking for advice. But each short ancient Greek myth saved the life of both the gods and the heroes. In these stories, time is frozen and does not move, but the heroes are fighting, actively acting, hunting, fighting, trying to deceive the gods and talking among themselves. They live. The Greeks immediately began to represent the gods in the form of people, only more beautiful, more skillful and endowed with incredible qualities.

For example, a short ancient Greek for the most important deity can tell us how high on the bright Olympus, surrounded by his wayward, disobedient family, Zeus sits on a high golden throne and establishes order and his harsh laws on earth. While everything is calm, the gods feast. young Hebe, brings them ambrosia and nectar. Laughing, joking, offering food to the eagle, she can shed nectar on the ground, and then it will pour out in a short warm summer rain.

But suddenly Zeus got angry, frowned his thick eyebrows, and gray ones covered the clear sky. Thunder rumbled, fiery lightning flashed. Not only the earth is shaking, but also Olympus.

Zeus sends happiness and unhappiness to people, drawing them from two different jugs. His daughter Dike helps him. She watches over justice, defends the truth and does not tolerate deceit. Zeus is the guarantor of a fair trial. He is the last one to whom both gods and people go for justice. And Zeus never interferes in the affairs of war - there is no and cannot be justice in battles and bloodshed. But there is a goddess of a happy fate on Olympus - Tyukhe. From the goat Amalthea, which Zeus was fed, she pours gifts of happiness to people. But how rarely does that happen!

So, keeping order throughout the Greek world, ruling over evil and good, Zeus reigns forever. Is he alive? A short ancient Greek myth claims to be alive.

What does self-love lead to?

Modern man will never get bored of studying ancient Greek myths. Reading short stories, wondering what a deep meaning lies in them, is simply interesting and exciting. Let's move on to the next myth.

The handsome Narcissus considered only himself worthy of love. He paid no attention to anyone, only admired and admired himself. But is this the valor and virtue of man? His life should bring joy, not grief to many. And Narcissus cannot help but look at his reflection: a destructive passion for himself consumes him.

He does not notice the beauty of the world: the dew on the flowers, the hot rays of the sun, the beautiful nymphs yearning for friendship with him. The narcissist stops eating and drinking, and feels the approach of death. But he, so young and beautiful, is not afraid, but is waiting for her. And, leaning on the emerald carpet of grass, quietly dies. This is how Narcissus punished. According to the Greeks, the gods are most willing to help a person when he goes towards his death. Why should Narcissus live? He is not happy with anyone, he has done nothing good to anyone. But on the bank of the stream, where the selfish handsome man admired himself, a beautiful spring Flower that brings happiness to all people.

About love conquering stone

Our life is made up of love and mercy. Another short Greek myth tells the story of the brilliant sculptor Pygmalion, who carved a beautiful girl out of white ivory. She was so beautiful, so superior to the beauty of human daughters, that the creator admired her every minute and dreamed that she would become warm, alive from a cold stone.

Pygmalion wanted the girl to be able to talk to him. Oh, how long they would sit, bowing their heads to each other and confiding secrets. But the girl was cold. Then, at the feast of Aphrodite, Pygmalion decided to pray for mercy. And when he returned home, he saw that the blood flowed through the veins of the dead statue and life and kindness lit up in the eyes. So happiness entered the house of the creator. This short story says that true love overcomes all obstacles.

The dream of immortality, or how the deception ends

Myths and Greek legends begin to be studied already in primary school. Interesting and exciting ancient Greek myths. Read grade 3 short and entertaining, tragic and instructive stories should be school curriculum. These are myths about the proud Niobe, about the disobedient Icarus, about the unfortunate Adonis and about the deceiver Sisyphus.

All heroes yearn for immortality. But only the gods can give it, if they themselves want it. The gods are capricious and malevolent - every Greek knows this. And Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was very rich and cunning. He guessed that the deity of death would soon come for him, and ordered to seize him and put him in chains. The gods freed their messenger, and Sisyphus had to die. But he cheated: he did not order himself to be buried and to bring funeral sacrifices to the gods. His cunning soul asked for the wide world in order to persuade the living to make rich sacrifices. Sisyphus was believed again and released, but of his own free will he did not return to the underworld.

In the end, the gods became very angry and assigned him a special punishment: in order to show the futility of all human efforts, he had to roll a huge stone up the mountain, and then this boulder rolled down from the other side. This is repeated from day to day, for millennia and still today: no one can cope with divine institutions. And cheating is just not good.

About excessive curiosity

About disobedience and curiosity, ancient Greek myths are short for children and adults.

Zeus got angry with the people and decided to “bestow” them with evil. To do this, he ordered the craftsman-Hephaestus to create the most beautiful girl in the world. Aphrodite gave her an inexpressible charm, Hermes - a subtle dodgy mind. The gods revived her and called her Pandora, which translates as "endowed with all gifts." They gave her in marriage to a calm, worthy man. He had a tightly closed vessel in his house. Everyone knew that it was filled with sorrows and troubles. But Pandora didn't mind.

Slowly, when no one was looking, she removed the lid from it! And all the misfortunes of the world instantly flew out of it: diseases, poverty, stupidity, discord, unrest, wars. When Pandora saw what she had done, she was terribly frightened and waited in a daze until all the troubles were released. And then, as if in a fever, she slammed the lid shut. And what is left at the bottom? The last one is hope. This is exactly what Pandora deprived people of. Therefore, the human race has nothing to hope for. We just need to act and fight for good.

Myths and modernity

If anyone is well known to modern man, then these are the gods and heroes of Greece. The heritage of this people is multifaceted. One of the masterpieces is ancient Greek myths, short ones. The author Nikolay Albertovich Kun is a historian, professor, teacher, but how much he knew and loved Hellas! How many myths with all the details conveyed to our times! That's why we read a lot of Kuhn today. Greek myths- a source of inspiration for all generations of artists and creators.