Legends and myths for children. Nikolai kun - legends and myths of ancient greece

Myths of Ancient Greece- ancient legends, which reflect the idea of ​​the ancient Greeks about the structure of the world, about all the processes taking place in society and in nature. In a word, their worldview and understanding of the world.

Why do we need to know myths?

After all, you can decide that this is useless, second-rate knowledge. In our time of exact knowledge, the most important thing seems to be the ability to create machines and control them. And myths are a ballast that I impose on us out of habit, according to an outdated tradition that has lost all meaning. This knowledge cannot be put into practice. The myth of Hercules will not help build high-rise buildings, factories, hydroelectric power stations, and the Odyssey will not tell you where to look for oil. But such reasoning, in the end, will lead to the rejection of literature and art in general. Literature and art originated in the depths of mythology and simultaneously with mythology. Man, creating legends about gods and heroes, performed the first act of creativity and took the first step towards self-knowledge. Literature and art have come a long way since those ancient times. In order to understand this path and its results, each person must go through it again: it is impossible to take the next steps without taking the first step.

And therefore "every educated European should have a sufficient understanding of the immortal creations of majestic antiquity."

This is exactly what A. S. Pushkin thinks.

In ancient Rome, slaves were called "instrumentum vocals" - "talking tool". The slave knew nothing but his wheelbarrow or oar. He did not become this way of his own free will; violence made him that way. In our time, a person who is content only with utilitarian, technological knowledge, voluntarily becomes a "talking instrument", and the fact that he chains himself not to a wheelbarrow, but to a computer, does not change anything. The computer is just a sign of the new times. Such a "techie" remains convinced that Hercules is just oatmeal, Orpheus is the name of cigarettes, and Orion is a hardware store.

Why is ancient Greek mythology the best?

We call myths fairy tales. However, for the ancients, they were the most serious attempts to explain the world, its origin, place and role of man in it. Every nation has and had myths, but it was Greek mythology, like no other, that had a deep, formative and enduring influence on the development of European culture, literature and art.

Why did it happen?

Greek mythology was not the most ancient. The myths of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Hurrians were much older.

Greek mythology was not the most common. The Greeks never tried to spread it, to impose their beliefs on other peoples. Their gods were primarily hearth gods, hostile to all outsiders. At the same time, non-aggressive, completely non-belligerent Greek mythology makes amazing and completely bloodless conquests. With good will, they will submit to it, the Romans will recognize it as their own and will smash it to the most remote borders of the vast Roman Empire. But even later, after a thousand years of oblivion, it will be revived and will conquer not just one people, but the whole of Europe.

Greek mythology was called the most beautiful, but after all, for each nation, their myths are still closer and more understandable. Aesthetic virtues, of course, played a big role in the spread of ancient Greek mythology, but they were not decisive, but ethical and moral qualities.

Man in antiquity could not yet explain and understand with his still poor mind all the phenomena of nature, all the events of the surrounding world. He did not know how to think in abstractions, and everything he saw and knew was beaten either by objects of dead nature, or by plants and animals, or by himself. Therefore, all mythical monsters are formed either by arithmetic building up of body parts (Cerberus the dog with three heads, the Lernaean hydra already has nine heads, and the hecantocheirs have a whole hundred hands), or by combining several creatures together: a man and a snake, a man and a bird, a man and a horse .

Man already knew that he was stronger and smarter than objects and animals, and if so, then all dangerous and beneficent forces must have the appearance of a man.

The Hellenes likened the gods to people because they learned that no one can be so kind, noble and beautiful as a person; they likened the gods to people because they saw that no one can be so cruel and terrible as a man; they likened the gods to people because no one can be as complex, contradictory and unsolved as a person.

Almost all mythologies come to anthropomorphism. But in no other does it reach such amazing realism, concreteness, almost naturalism.

“There are many amazing things in the world, but there is nothing more amazing than a person.” Sophocles will say so in his Antigone only in the 5th century BC. e. But the Hellenes, many centuries before Sophocles, still not being able to express this thought with such force and accuracy, put it into their first creation - mythology, which was a reflection of the relations that had developed on earth.

The greatness of the Greeks is not that they likened the gods to people, but that they fearlessly peered into the nature of man, transferred to God.

The ancient Hellenic is an unconditional realist. His thinking is purely concrete. And although he worships his gods, he is inquisitive, curious to the point of indiscretion, impudent and self-willed in his relations with the Olympians, not to mention the gods of secondary importance. Having made the gods like people, he goes in this likeness to the end and endows the gods with all human qualities.

The gods did not arise on their own, from an empty place, they are born. They get tired and sleep, they need to eat and drink, they suffer from pain. The gods are immortal, they cannot be killed, but they can be injured. They are consumed by the same passions and vices: they are envious and vain, they fall in love and are jealous. The Greek gods are boastful and vindictive, on occasion they can lie and deceive, they are cowardly and simply cowardly.

How did the Greek gods differ from people? Are they stronger? Yes, of course, but they are far from omnipotent. More than once it happened that people let them feel their strength. Hercules wounds Pluto, enters the fight with Apollo, and it was enough for him to squeeze the god of death Thanatos tighter and intimidate him to retreat. Diomedes wounds Aphrodite and Ares himself so that he, howling in a voice that is not his own, hides on Olympus. Are they prettier? But even among mortals there were those who could compare with the gods in their beauty.

The gods of the ancient Greeks were far from ideal. But even from people the Greeks did not invent ideal heroes, models and role models. They were not afraid of the truth, and the truth is that a person can be great and insignificant, lofty aspirations and shameful weaknesses, a heroic spirit and vices, the noblest and the most base, contemptible traits coexist in him.

And if a man, an ordinary mortal, with all his shortcomings and weaknesses, is capable of nobility and self-sacrifice, of breathtaking heroism, which are unknown to either the gods or other living beings except man, if he relies less and less on a miracle, and more on himself himself, if a person's thought is fearless and unstoppable, if he is able to rebel even against the gods - for him there are no limits to progress, his self-improvement is limitless.

This mythology, loving man, believing in man, glorifying man, could not but be reborn to a new life, cleansed of religious content in the Renaissance. It has become an organic part of humanism (from the Latin "humanus" - human). Since then, century after century, artists, composers, sculptors, playwrights, poets and even politicians have been falling for this inexhaustible source, drawing inspiration from it, finding inaccessible samples.

Myths of the ancient Greeks

The myths of Ancient Greece are myths about the pantheon of gods, about the life of titans and giants, about the exploits of other mythical (and often historical) heroes.
Traditionally, there are two main types of myths:

• cosmogonic;
• heroic.

Creation myths

Gods

In the beginning there was Chaos. No one can say exactly what Chaos is. Someone saw in him a divine being that did not have a specific form. Others (and they were the majority) represented Chaos as a great abyss, full of creative forces and divine seed. The abyss was seen as a single chaotic mass, dark and heavy, a mixture of water, earth, fire and air. It contained in itself all the germs of the future world, and from this filled abyss the first pair of gods appeared - Uranus - Heaven and Gaia - Earth. From their matrimonial connection came hundred-armed giants - hecantocheirs and one-eyed cyclops. Then Uranus and Gaia gave birth to a great race of titans. The eldest of them was Ocean, the god of the mighty river, which encircled the whole earth with a wide blue ring. The children of Uranus, who were either ugly or ferocious, caused fear and disgust in their father. Expecting neither respect for his paternal power nor gratitude from the children, Uron threw them into the bottomless abysses of Tartarus.
Gaia heard the groans of the titans coming from the bottomless depths of the earth. She plotted against the cruel power of the criminal father. The youngest of the titans - Kronos, who was still at large, succumbed to the persuasion of his mother. He lay in wait for Uranus, armed with a steel sickle, and shamefully mutilated him (castrated).
The blood flowing out of the wound of the defeated god gave birth to three terrible goddesses of revenge - Erinnius, with snakes instead of hair. Uranus, hidden by the azure sky, has left the stage of the history of the gods.
Together with the gods, the world was born. From Chaos, the earth stood out as a solid dry land. A young sun shone above her, and heavy rains fell from the clouds. Gradually, everything began to take on a familiar look. The first forests rose up, and now the earth was covered with a huge noisy thicket. A few roamed the unknown heights. Lakes have chosen convenient hollows, springs have found their grottoes, a snowy ridge has been outlined against the blue sky. In the dark expanses of the night the stars sparkled, and when they paled, the birds greeted the dawn with a salutatory song.
The world was ruled by Kronos together with his wife Rhea. He was afraid that his son would take power from him, so he swallowed every child that Rhea gave birth to him. So he swallowed five children. Instead of a sixth child, Rhea slipped a stone wrapped in diapers to her husband. Thinking it was a child, Kronos swallowed the stone, and Rhea descended to earth, where she left the baby in a cave in the care of mountain nymphs. The boy was named Zeus. The goat Amalthea nursed him with her milk. The child loved this goat very much. When Amalthea broke the horn, Zeus took it into his divine hands and blessed it. This is how the cornucopia appeared, which was filled with whatever its owner wished.
Time passed, Zeus grew up and came out of hiding. Now he had to fight with his father. He advised his mother to give Kronos an imperceptible emetic. In terrible agony, Kronos regurgitated the swallowed children. These were young beautiful gods: daughters - Hera, Demeter and Hestia and sons Hades and Poseidon.
At this time, the good goat Amalthea died. She did her pet another favor even in death. Zeus made a shield out of her skin that no weapon could penetrate. This is how the aegis appeared - a wonderful shield with which Zeus did not part in battles.
And the first was the battle with the father. Other titans took the side of Kronos. For ten years the war, which was called the Titanomachy, continued without any result. Finally, Zeus freed the Cyclopes and Hecantocheirs from Tartarus, whose help decided the outcome of the battle.
Like Uranus before, now Kronos fell into the abyss of oblivion. The new gods settled on Olympus.
The new generation of gods did not enjoy the fruits of their victory for long. A race of giants, the sons of Gaia - the Earth, rebelled against them. Some giants were like huge people, while others had monster bodies ending in coils of snakes. To get to Olympus, the giants, throwing mountains, erected barricades.
Zeus struck enemies with lightning, he was helped by other gods. The Giants didn't give up. The lightning didn't harm them. The rocks thrown by them fell like hail, and when they fell into the sea, they turned into islands. Zeus learned by looking into the Book of Predestinations that only a mortal man can defeat the giants. And then Athena brought Hercules.
The decisive day of the battle arrived. The gods and goddesses rallied around Hercules. The hero put an arrow into the bow every second and sent it into the midst of the attackers. Then Dionysus arrived in time with a detachment of his satyrs on donkeys. These animals, struck by the wild appearance of the gigantic figures and the noise of the battle itself, raised such a terrifying cry that a mad, overwhelming fear seized the enemy. It was already easy to finish off the fugitives in the confusion. Only one giant remained - the beautiful Alcyoneus. He was the son of the Earth and laughed at all the blows, because it was enough for him to touch the place where he was born, as the wounds instantly healed, and new forces poured into him. Hercules grabbed him, tore him off the ground - the source of strength, took him far beyond the borders of his homeland and killed him there.
The giants were the children of Gaia. The aged goddess could not forgive such cruel treatment of her offspring. Determined to take revenge, she gave birth to the most terrible monster that the sun has ever seen. It was Typhon.

He had a huge human body from head to hips, and coils of snakes coiled instead of legs. Bristle-like hair stuck out on the head and chin, the rest of the body was overgrown with feathers. He surpassed the height of the highest mountains and reached the stars. When he spread his arms, his right hand plunged into the darkness of the far west, and the fingers of his left hand touched the place from where the sun rises. Like balls, he threw giant rocks. Fire shot out of this monster's eyes, and boiling resin flowed from its mouth. It flew through the air, filling it with screams and hisses.

When the gods saw this monster at the heavenly gates, they were seized with fear. So that He would not recognize them, the gods fled to Egypt and there turned into animals. Only one Zeus entered the fight against Typhon, using a sickle as a weapon, with which Kronos once crippled his father Uranus. He managed to wound Typhon, and the wounded giant bled so much that the Thracian mountains turned red, and since that time they have been called Hemos - Bloody Mountains. Finally, Typhon was completely exhausted, and Zeus was able to pin him down with the island of Sicily. Whenever Typhon tries to break free from his imprisonment, the land of Sicily trembles, and fire erupts from the mouth of the defeated monster through the crater of Etna.

People

People were already on earth when Zeus entered the heavenly throne, and before their frightened eyes, the battles of the gods for dominance over the world took place. There were various legends about where people came from. Some argued that people came directly from the bosom of the earth, the common mother of all things; others believed that forests and mountains created people, like trees and rocks; still others thought that humans were descended from the gods. But the most popular was the legend of the four ages of mankind.

Here is what she says:

First there was a golden age. Kronos ruled the world. The earth gave birth to everything in abundance, not forced to do so by the work of the farmer. The rivers flowed with milk, the sweetest honey oozed from the trees. People lived like celestials - without labor, without worries, without sorrow. Their body never aged, and they spent their lives in endless fun and conversations. The golden age ended with the fall of Kronos, and the then people turned into divine spirits.

The next century was silver, which means much worse. People developed very slowly, their childhood lasted for a hundred years, in adulthood their life was short and full of hardships. They were swaggering and evil, they did not want to honor the gods, as it was supposed to, and make sacrifices to them. Zeus destroyed them all.

A rude, war-loving tribe lived in the Bronze Age. People with the strength of giants had hearts like stone. They did not know iron and made everything from bronze - utensils, weapons, houses, and city walls. It was a heroic period. Then lived the brave Theseus and the great Hercules, the heroes of Troy and Thebes. They performed such extraordinary feats that were not repeated in the next Iron Age, and the Iron Age continues to this day.

Other legends said that one of the titans, Prometheus, created people, molding them from clay mixed with tears. He gave them a soul from heavenly fire by stealing a few sparks from the solar forge.

The man created by Prometheus was naked and weak. In figure he was like the image of the gods, but he lacked their strength. The fragile nails of people could not withstand the claws of predatory animals. People wandered like sleepy ghosts, helpless before the forces of nature, which they did not understand. All their actions were disorderly and meaningless.

Taking pity on the people, Prometheus again crept into the treasury of heavenly fire and brought the first smoldering coals to the people on earth. Hearths blazed in the dwellings of people, scaring away predatory animals and warming the inhabitants. Prometheus taught people crafts and art.

Zeus didn't like it. He still kept the memory of the recent battle with the giants and was afraid of everything that comes from the earth. He ordered Hephaestus to create a woman of wonderful beauty on the model of the immortal goddesses. Each of the gods awarded this woman with some special quality - beauty, attractiveness, charm, the ability to persuade, flattering character. She was dressed in gold, crowned with flowers and named Pandora, which means "all gifted." As a dowry, she received a tightly sealed vessel, the contents of which no one knew.

The messenger of the gods Hermes brought Pandora to earth and left Prometheus in front of the house. But the wise titan immediately sensed a catch. He sent the woman away and advised everyone else to do the same. Only his brother Epimetheus did not obey the titan. He was captivated by the beauty of the woman and immediately married her. No longer able to fix this, Prometheus advised his brother not to open the vessel that the gods had given Pandora. But the curious woman could not resist and slightly opened the lid of the vessel. At the same moment, all sorrows, worries, need, illnesses flew out into the world and surrounded unfortunate humanity. And at the bottom of the vessel was hope. Pandora immediately slammed the lid shut, and hope remained inside. This is where the idiom "Pandora's box" came from.

Prometheus decided to repay the gods with a trick for a trick. He killed the bull and divided it into two parts: he wrapped the meat in a skin and put it separately, and in the other part he folded the bones, which he covered with fat on top. Then he turned to Zeus: "What part you take, that from then on will be dedicated to the gods." Of course, Zeus chose the part where there was a thick layer of fat, being sure that the most tender pieces of meat lay under the fat. When the supreme god realized his mistake, nothing could be changed. Since then, it is these parts of animals that have been sacrificed to the heavenly gods.

Zeus brutally took revenge on Prometheus. The titan was chained to a rock in the Caucasus mountains by his order. A hungry eagle flew every day and pecked out the liver of Prometheus, which grew back. The unanswered moans of the titanium burned by the hot rays of the sun fell into the mountain gaps like dead stones.

People, having lost the guidance of the wise Prometheus, became vicious and evil. Once on earth, the gods encountered neglect and insults. The gods believed that the criminal blood of the giants, which soaked the earth from which Prometheus molded people, was to blame for this. It was decided to destroy humanity with a flood.

From everywhere the winds drove the clouds. Big rains started. Rivers and seas burst their banks. The boundary between sky and sea has disappeared. The man floated through the fields, which he had recently walked behind the plow. Tired of flying, the birds, unable to find support for themselves, fell into the abyss. All living things turned into a disorderly flight. The land was engulfed in desolation and silence. On the heights of Mount Olympus, the gods heard only the breath of the boundless sea.

Hidden the highest mountains. Only the top of Parnassus in Boeotia towered above the waves. A single miserable boat swayed in the boundless ocean. In it, two old men trembled with fear - Deucalion and Pyrrha. Their boat landed after nine days and nights of wandering to the top of Parnassus. The water began to subside. Slowly, hills were exposed, then elevated plains, then lowlands filled with silt, in which the corpses of people and animals lay.

The old people turned to the Delphic oracle to find out how to repopulate the earth. From the things of the cave, they received the answer: "Go, cover your face, and throw your mother's bones over your head." Pyrrha was horrified by the advice, but the wise Deucalion correctly understood the divination: the common mother of all living things is the earth, and the bones are its stones.

The couple covered their faces with veils and threw stones behind their backs in an open field, and the stones turned into people. From the stones thrown by Deucalion, men arose, from those thrown by Pyrrha, women. They worked for a long time, and tired, they sat down to rest.

The world around was reborn. Plants, animals and birds were born from the earth fertilized by heavy rains. Timidly and slowly, the first rare settlements appeared. They were built by a tribe born of stone, and this tribe was more viable, hardened in suffering and work.

Deucalion, as a patriarch, walked among his children and taught them the things necessary in life, planted the veneration of the gods and erected temples.

Zeus saw from the windows of the Olympic Palace as the world rises to new destinations. He soon became convinced that people did not remember the punishment that befell their predecessors, in any case, did not become better, but no longer sent a flood on them.

Ancient Greek society has come a long way of development from the darkest, archaic period to a developed civilization. Along with the development of society, the myths that expressed its worldview also changed.

The myths of Ancient Greece are myths about the pantheon of gods, about the life of titans and giants, about the exploits of other mythical (and often historical) heroes.

Gods in the myths of ancient Greece

Heroes of Ancient Greece

Characters of Greek myths

Once upon a time, there was nothing in the Universe but dark and gloomy Chaos. And then the Earth appeared from Chaos - the goddess Gaia, mighty and beautiful. She gave life to everything that lives and grows on it. And since then everyone calls her their mother.

The Great Chaos also gave birth to the gloomy Darkness - Erebus and the black Night - Nyukta and ordered them to guard the Earth. It was dark on Earth at that time and gloomy. So it was until Erebus and Nyukta got tired of their hard, permanent work. Then they gave birth to the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful shining Day - Hemera.

And so it went from then on. Night guards peace on Earth. As soon as she lowers her black veils, everything is plunged into darkness and silence. And then a cheerful, shining Day comes to replace it, and it becomes light and joyful around.

Deep under the Earth, as deep as one can imagine, the terrible Tartarus was formed. Tartarus was as far from the Earth as the sky, only on the other side. Eternal darkness and silence reigned there...

And above, high above the Earth, stretches the infinite Sky - Uranus. God Uranus began to reign over the whole world. He took as his wife the beautiful goddess Gaia - the Earth.

Gaia and Uranus had six daughters, beautiful and wise, and six sons, mighty and formidable titans, and among them the majestic titan Ocean and the youngest, the cunning Kron.

And then six terrible giants were born to Mother Earth at once. Three giants - Cyclopes with one eye in their foreheads - could frighten anyone who just looked at them. But the other three giants looked even scarier, real monsters. Each of them had 50 heads and 100 hands. And they were so terrible in appearance, these hundred-armed hecatoncheir giants, that even the father himself, mighty Uranus, feared and hated them. So he decided to get rid of his children. He imprisoned the giants deep in the bowels of their mother Earth and did not allow them to come out into the light.

Giants rushed about in deep darkness, they wanted to break out, but did not dare to disobey the order of their father. It was also hard for their mother Earth, she suffered greatly from such an unbearable burden and pain. Then she called her children-titans and asked them to help her.

“Rise up against your cruel father,” she urged them, “if you don’t take away his power over the world now, he will destroy us all.”

But no matter how Gaia persuaded her children, they did not agree to raise a hand against their father. Only the youngest of them, the ruthless Cronus, supported his mother, and they decided that Uranus should no longer reign in the world.

And then one day Kron attacked his father, wounded him with a sickle and took away his power over the world. Drops of the blood of Uranus that fell to the ground turned into monstrous giants with snake tails instead of legs and vile, disgusting Erinyes, who instead of hair on their heads snakes writhed, and in their hands they held lit torches. These were terrible deities of death, discord, revenge and deceit.

Now the mighty implacable Kron, the god of Time, reigned in the world. He took the goddess Rhea as his wife.

But in his kingdom, too, there was no peace and harmony. The gods quarreled among themselves and deceived each other.

For a long time, the great and powerful Kron, the god of Time, reigned in the world, and people called his kingdom the golden age. The first people were then only born on Earth, and they lived without knowing any worries. The Fertile Land itself fed them. She gave bountiful harvests. Bread grew by itself in the fields, wonderful fruits ripened in the gardens. People only had to collect them, and they worked as much as they could and wanted.

But Kron himself was not calm. A long time ago, when he was just beginning to reign, his mother, the goddess Gaia, predicted to him that he, too, would lose power. And one of his sons will take it from Kron. That's Kron and worried. After all, everyone who has power wants to reign as long as possible.

Kron also did not want to lose power over the world. And he commanded his wife, the goddess Rhea, to bring her children to him as soon as they were born. And the father ruthlessly swallowed them. Rhea's heart was torn with grief and suffering, but she could not help it. It was impossible to persuade Kron. So he swallowed already five of his children. Another child was soon to be born, and the goddess Rhea, in desperation, turned to her parents, Gaia and Uranus.

“Help me save my last baby,” she begged them with tears. - You are wise and all-powerful, tell me what to do, where to hide my dear son so that he can grow up and avenge such villainy.

The immortal gods took pity on their beloved daughter and taught her what to do. And now Rhea brings to her husband, the ruthless Kron, a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.

“Here is your son Zeus,” she told him sadly. - He was just born. Do with him what you want.

Kron grabbed the bundle and, without unwrapping it, swallowed it. In the meantime, the delighted Rhea took her little son, crept into Dikta in the dead of black night and hid him in an inaccessible cave on the wooded Aegean mountain.

There, on the island of Crete, he grew up surrounded by kind and cheerful Kuret demons. They played with little Zeus, brought him milk from the sacred goat Amalthea. And when he cried, the demons began to rumble their spears against the shields, danced and drowned out his cry with loud cries. They were very afraid that the cruel Kron would hear the cry of the child and realize that he had been deceived. And then no one can save Zeus.

But Zeus grew very quickly, his muscles filled with extraordinary strength, and soon the time came when he, mighty and omnipotent, decided to fight with his father and take away his power over the world. Zeus turned to the titans and invited them to fight with him against Kron.

And a great dispute broke out among the titans. Some decided to stay with Kron, others sided with Zeus. Filled with courage, they rushed into battle. But Zeus stopped them. At first, he wanted to free his brothers and sisters from the womb of his father, so that later he would fight against Kron together with them. But how do you get Kron to let his kids go? Zeus understood that by force alone he could not defeat a powerful god. You have to think of something to outsmart him.

Then the great titan Ocean came to his aid, who in this struggle was on the side of Zeus. His daughter, the wise goddess Thetis, prepared a magic potion and brought it to Zeus.

“O mighty and all-powerful Zeus,” she told him, “this miraculous nectar will help you free your brothers and sisters. Just make Kron drink it.

The cunning Zeus figured out how to do it. He sent Kron a luxurious amphora with nectar as a gift, and Kron, suspecting nothing, accepted this insidious gift. He drank the magical nectar with pleasure and immediately spewed out of himself, first a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, and then all his children. One by one they came into the world, and his daughters, the beautiful goddesses Hestia, Demeter, Hera, and sons - Hades and Poseidon. During the time they sat in the womb of their father, they were already quite adults.

All the children of Kron united, and a long and terrible war began between them and their father Kron for power over all people and gods. New gods established themselves on Olympus. From here they waged their great battle.

Omnipotent and formidable were the young gods, the mighty titans supported them in this struggle. The Cyclopes forged for Zeus formidable rumbling thunders and fiery lightning. But on the other hand, there were powerful opponents. The powerful Kron was not at all going to give up his power to the young gods and also gathered formidable titans around him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 - cyclops with one eye in the forehead - and three huge, like mountains, fifty-headed giants - hundred-armed (hecatoncheirs), so named because each of them had one hundred hands. Nothing can stand against their terrible strength, their elemental strength knows no limit.

Uranus hated his giant children, he imprisoned them in deep darkness in the bowels of the goddess Earth and did not allow them to come out into the light. Their mother Earth suffered. She was crushed by this terrible burden, enclosed in her depths. She called her children, the Titans, and urged them to rebel against their father Uranus, but they were afraid to raise their hands against their father. Only the youngest of them, the treacherous Kronos, overthrew his father by cunning and took power away from him.

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

Gods

The picture of the life of the gods on Olympus is given according to the works of Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey, glorifying the tribal aristocracy and the basileus who lead 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.

Zeus

Birth of Zeus

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

Rhea did not want to lose her last child. On the advice of her parents, Uranus-Heaven and Gaia-Earth, she retired to the island of Crete, and there, in a deep cave, her youngest son Zeus was born. In this cave, Rhea hid her son from a cruel father, and gave him a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow instead of his son. Kron did not suspect that he was deceived by his wife.

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished the little Zeus, they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Bees carried honey to little Zeus from the slopes 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.

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 infernal 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 there is a bright, joyful summer. And clouds swirl below, sometimes they close the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, the gods also know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy is again established on Olympus.

The gods feast in their golden palaces built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus. King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, divinely beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne is the goddess of peace, Eirene, and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the beautiful, majestic goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife: Hera, the patroness of marriage, is honored by all the gods of Olympus. When, shining with her beauty, in a magnificent dress, 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 ends 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 people happiness and misfortune, 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 of the sea depths Poseidon from 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.

Rhea, christened by Kron, bore him light children, - the Virgin - Hestia, Demeter and the golden-shod Hera, the glorious power of Hades, who lives under the earth, And the providence - Zeus, the father of both immortals and mortals, whose thunders tremble the wide earth. Hesiod "Theogony"

Greek literature originated from mythology. Myth- this is the idea of ​​​​an ancient person about the world around him. Myths were created at a very early stage in the development of society in various areas of Greece. Later, all these myths merged into a single system.

With the help of myths, the ancient Greeks tried to explain all natural phenomena, presenting them in the form of living beings. At first, experiencing a strong fear of the elements, people portrayed the gods in a terrible animal form (Chimera, Gorgon Medusa, Sphinx, Lernean Hydra).

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

There are 2 types of ancient Greek mythology:

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

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

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

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

There were two main groups of gods in Ancient Greece:

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

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

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

divided the deities into three groups:

• Pantheon (great Olympian gods)
• Inferior deities
• monsters

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

v Odysseus

Supreme gods of Olympus

Minor Greek gods

In addition to Olympus, in Greece there was a sacred mountain Parnassus, where muses - 9 sisters, Greek deities who personified poetic and musical inspiration, patrons of the arts and sciences.

Greek Muses

Inferior deities in Greek mythology, these are satyrs, nymphs and ororas.

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

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

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

F. Schiller

Nymphs of the mountains oreads,

nymphs of forests and trees - dryads,

spring nymphs - naiads,

nymphs of the oceans oceanides,

nymphs of the sea nerids,

nymphs of the valleys sing,

meadow nymphs - limeades.

Ory - the goddess of the seasons, they were in charge of order in nature. Guardians of Olympus, now opening, then closing its cloudy gates. They are called gatekeepers of heaven. Harness the horses of Helios.

In many mythologies, there are numerous monsters. In ancient Greek mythology, there were also many of them: Chimera, Sphinx, Lernean Hydra, Echidna and many others.

In the same vestibule, the shadows of monsters crowd around:

Scylla biform here and herds of centaurs live,

Here Briares the hundred-handed lives, and the dragon from Lerna

The swamp hisses, and the Chimera intimidates enemies with fire,

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

Virgil, "Aeneid"

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

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

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

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

Scylla and Charybdis - These are sea monsters located at the distance of an arrow flight from each other. Charybdis is a sea whirlpool that absorbs and spews water three times a day. Scylla ("barking") - a monster in the form of a woman, whose lower body was turned into 6 dog heads. When the ship passed the rock where Scylla lived, the monster, opening all its mouths, abducted 6 people from the ship at once. The narrow strait between Scylla and Charybdis was a mortal danger to all who sailed through it.

Also in ancient Greece, there were other mythical characters.

Pegasus - a winged horse, a favorite of the muses. Flying at the speed of the wind. To ride a Pegasus meant to receive poetic inspiration. He was born at the origins of the Ocean, therefore he was named Pegasus (from the Greek "stormy current"). According to one version, he jumped out of the body of the Gorgon Medusa after Perseus cut off her head. Pegasus delivered thunder and lightning to Zeus on Olympus from Hephaestus, who made them.

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

Faster than an arrow and more beautiful than a string,

An amazing fairytale horse is flying

And easily catches heavenly fire!

He likes to splash in colored clouds,

And often walks in magic verses.

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

I saddle you, snow-white Pegasus!

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

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