(or their descendants) and mortal people. Heroes differed from gods in that they were mortal. More often these were the descendants of a god and a mortal woman, less often - of a goddess and a mortal man. Heroes, as a rule, had exceptional or supernatural physical abilities, creative gifts, etc., but did not have immortality. Heroes were supposed to carry out the will of the gods on earth and bring order and justice into people's lives. With the help of their divine parents, they performed all kinds of feats. Heroes were highly revered, legends about them were passed down from generation to generation.
Heroes of ancient times Greek myths there were Achilles, Hercules, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, Jason, Hector, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Pelops, Phoroneus, Aeneas.
Let's talk about some of them.

Achilles

Achilles was the bravest of heroes. He took part in the campaign against Troy led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon.

Achilles. Greek antique bas-relief
Author: Jastrow (2007), from Wikipedia
Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the sea goddess Thetis.
There are several legends about the childhood of Achilles. One of them is as follows: Thetis, wanting to make her son immortal, immersed him in the waters of the Styx (according to another version - in the fire), so that only one heel by which she held him remained vulnerable; hence the saying “Achilles’ heel” that still exists today. This saying refers to someone's weak side.
As a child, Achilles was called Pirrisius ("Ice"), but when fire burned his lips, he was called Achilles ("lipless").
Achilles was raised by the centaur Chiron.

Chiron teaches Achilles how to play the lyre
Another teacher of Achilles was Phoenix, a friend of his father Peleus. The centaur Chiron restored Phoenix's sight, which was taken from him by his father, who was falsely accused by his concubine.
Achilles joined the campaign against Troy at the head of 50 or even 60 ships, taking with him his tutor Phoenix and childhood friend Patroclus.

Achilles bandages the hand of Patroclus (image on the bowl)
The first shield of Achilles was made by Hephaestus; this scene is also depicted on vases.
During the long siege of Ilium, Achilles repeatedly launched raids on various neighboring cities. According to the existing version, he wandered the Scythian land for five years in search of Iphigenia.
Achilles is the main character of Homer's Iliad.
Having defeated many enemies, Achilles in the last battle reached the Scaean Gate of Ilion, but here an arrow shot from the bow of Paris by the hand of Apollo himself struck him in the heel, and the hero died.

Death of Achilles
But there are also later legends about the death of Achilles: he appeared in the temple of Apollo in Thimbra, near Troy, to marry Polyxena, youngest daughter Priam, where he was killed by Paris and Deiphobus.
Greek writer of the first half of the 2nd century AD. e. Ptolemy Hephaestion tells that Achilles was killed by Helen or Penthesilea, after which Thetis resurrected him, he killed Penthesilea and returned to Hades (the god of the underworld of the dead).
The Greeks erected a mausoleum for Achilles on the banks of the Hellespont, and here, in order to pacify the shadow of the hero, they sacrificed Polyxena to him. According to Homer's story, Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus Laertides argued for the armor of Achilles. Agamemnon awarded them to the latter. In the Odyssey, Achilles is in the underworld, where Odysseus meets him.
Achilles was buried in a golden amphora, which Dionysus gave to Thetis.

Hercules

A. Canova “Hercules”
Author: LuciusCommons – foto scattata da me., from Wikipedia
Hercules is the son of the god Zeus and Alcmene, the daughter of the Mycenaean king.
Numerous myths have been created about Hercules; the most famous is the cycle of tales about the 12 labors performed by Hercules when he was in the service of the Mycenaean king Eurystheus.
The cult of Hercules was very popular in Greece, from where it spread to Italy, where it is known by the name of Hercules.
The constellation Hercules is located in the northern hemisphere of the sky.
Zeus took the form of Amphitryon (Alcmene’s husband), stopped the sun, and their night lasted three days. On the night he was to be born, Hera made Zeus swear that today's newborn would be the supreme king. Hercules was from the Perseid family, but Hera delayed the birth of his mother, and his cousin Eurystheus was born first (premature). Zeus made an agreement with Hera that Hercules would not be under the power of Eurystheus all his life: after ten labors performed on behalf of Eurystheus, Hercules would not only be freed from his power, but would even receive immortality.
Athena tricks Hera into breastfeeding Hercules: after tasting this milk, Hercules becomes immortal. The baby hurts the goddess, and she tears him from her breast; the splashing stream of milk turns into the Milky Way. Hera turned out to be the adoptive mother of Hercules.
In his youth, Hercules accidentally killed Linus, the brother of Orpheus, with a lyre, so he was forced to retire to the wooded Kytheron, into exile. There, two nymphs appear to him (Depravity and Virtue), who offer him a choice between the easy road of pleasures and the thorny path of labors and exploits. Virtue convinced Hercules to follow his own path.

Annibale Carracci "The Choice of Hercules"

12 labors of Hercules

1. Strangulation of the Nemean Lion
2. Killing the Lernaean Hydra
3. Extermination of Stymphalian birds
4. Capture of the Kerynean fallow deer
5. Taming the Erymanthian boar and the battle with the centaurs
6. Cleaning Augean Stables.
7. Taming the Cretan bull
8. Theft of Diomedes' horses, victory over King Diomedes (who threw strangers to be devoured by his horses)
9. The theft of the belt of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
10. The abduction of the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon
11. The theft of golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides
12. Taming the guard of Hades - the dog Cerberus

Antoine Bourdelle "Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds"
Stymphalian birds are birds of prey that lived near the Arcadian city of Stymphalus. They had copper beaks, wings and claws. They attacked people and animals. Their most formidable weapons were feathers, which the birds scattered on the ground like arrows. They devoured crops in the area or ate people.
Hercules performed many other feats: with the consent of Zeus, he freed one of the titans - Prometheus, to whom the centaur Chiron gave his gift of immortality for the sake of freedom from torment.

G. Füger “Prometheus brings fire to people”
During his tenth labor, he places the Pillars of Hercules on the sides of Gibraltar.

Pillars of Hercules - Rock of Gibraltar (foreground) and North African Mountains (background)
Author: Hansvandervliet – own work, from Wikipedia
Participated in the campaign of the Argonauts. He defeated the king of Elis, Augeas, and established the Olympic Games. On Olympic Games won in pankration. Some authors describe the struggle of Hercules with Zeus himself - their competition ended in a draw. Established an Olympic stadium length of 600 of his feet. While running, he covered stages without taking a breath. He accomplished many other feats.
There are also many legends about the death of Hercules. According to Ptolemy Hephaestion, having reached the age of 50 and finding that he could no longer draw his bow, he threw himself into the fire. Hercules ascended to heaven, was accepted among the gods, and Hera, who had reconciled with him, marries her daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth, to him. Happily lives on Olympus, and his ghost is in Hades.

Hector

The bravest leader of the Trojan army, the main Trojan hero in the Iliad. He was the son of the last Trojan king Priam and Hecuba (the second wife of King Priam). According to other sources, he was the son of Apollo.

Return of Hector's body to Troy

Perseus

Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of the Argive king Acrisius. He defeated the monster Gorgon Medusa and was the savior of Princess Andromeda. Perseus is mentioned in Homer's Iliad.

A. Canova “Perseus with the head of the gorgon Medusa.” Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
Author: Yucatan - own work, from Wikipedia
Gorgon Medusa is the most famous of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with a woman's face and snakes instead of hair. Her gaze turned a person to stone.
Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Kepheus and Cassiopeia (had divine ancestors). Cassiopeia once boasted that she was superior in beauty to the Nereids (sea deities, daughters of Nereus and the oceanids Doris, according to appearance reminiscent of Slavic mermaids), the angry goddesses turned to Poseidon with a request for revenge, and he sent a sea monster that threatened the death of Kepheus’ subjects. The oracle of Ammon announced that the wrath of the deity would be tamed only when Cepheus sacrificed Andromeda to the monster, and the inhabitants of the country forced the king to make this sacrifice. Chained to the cliff, Andromeda was left to the mercy of the monster.

Gustave Dore "Andromeda Chained to the Rock"
Perseus saw her in this position. He was struck by her beauty and promised to kill the monster if she agreed to marry him (Perseus). Andromeda's father Cepheus happily agreed to this, and Perseus accomplished his feat by showing the face of the Gorgon Medusa to the monster, thereby turning him into stone.

Perseus and Andromeda
Not wanting to reign in Argos after the accidental murder of his grandfather, Perseus left the throne to his relative Megapenths, and he himself went to Tiryns ( ancient city on the Peloponnese Peninsula). Founded Mycenae. The city got its name due to the fact that Perseus lost the tip (mykes) of his sword in the surrounding area. It is believed that the underground spring of Perseus has been preserved among the ruins of Mycenae.
Andromeda gave birth to Perseus a daughter, Gorgophon, and six sons: Persus, Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Eleus, Mestor and Electryon. The eldest of them, Persian, was considered the ancestor of the Persian people.

HEROES

Ancient mythology

Achilles
Hector
Hercules
Odysseus
Orpheus
Perseus
Theseus
Oedipus
Aeneas
Jason

ACHILLES -
V Greek mythology one of the greatest heroes,
son of King Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis.
Zeus and Poseidon wanted to have a son from the beautiful Thetis,
but the titan Prometheus warned them,
that the child will surpass his father in greatness.
And the gods wisely arranged the marriage of Thetis with a mortal.
Love for Achilles, as well as the desire to make him invulnerable and
to give immortality they forced Thetis to bathe the child in the River Styx,
flowing through Hades, the land of the dead.
Since Thetis was forced to hold her son by the heel, t
This part of the body remained defenseless.
Achilles' mentor was the centaur Chiron, who fed him
the entrails of lions, bears and wild boars, taught him to play the cithara and sing.
Achilles grew up to be a fearless warrior, but his immortal mother, knowing
that participation in the campaign against Troy would bring death to his son,
dressed him up as a girl and hid him among the women in the palace of King Lycomedes.
When the leaders of the Greeks became aware of the prediction of the priest Kalkhant,
grandson of Apollo, that without Achilles the campaign against Troy is doomed to failure,
they sent the cunning Odysseus to him.
Arriving at the king disguised as a merchant, Odysseus laid out in front of those gathered
women's jewelry mixed with weapons.
The inhabitants of the palace began to look at the jewelry,
but suddenly, at a sign from Odysseus, an alarm sounded -
the girls ran away in fright, and the hero grabbed his sword, giving himself away completely.
After being exposed, Achilles, willy-nilly, had to sail to Troy,
where he soon quarreled with the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon.
According to one version of the myth, this happened because,
wanting to provide the Greek fleet
favorable wind, Agamemnon secretly from the hero,
under the pretext of marriage with Achilles, summoned to Aulis
his daughter Iphigenia and sacrificed her to the goddess Artemis.
The angry Achilles retired to his tent, refusing to fight.
However, the death of his faithful friend and brother-in-arms Patroclus
forced by the Trojan Hector
Achilles to immediate action.
Having received armor as a gift from the blacksmith god Hephaestus,
Achilles killed Hector with a spear and twelve days
mocked his body near the grave of Patroclus.
Only Thetis was able to convince her son to give the remains of Hector to the Trojans
for funeral rites -
sacred duty of the living towards the dead.
Returning to the battlefield, Achilles defeated hundreds of enemies.
But him own life was coming to an end.
The arrow of Paris, well aimed by Apollo,
inflicted a mortal wound on Achilles' heel,
the only weak spot on the hero's body.
Thus died the valiant and arrogant Achilles,
the ideal of the great ancient commander Alexander the Great.

1.Training Achilles
Pompeo Batoni, 1770

2. Achilles at Lycomedes
Pompeo Batoni, 1745

3.Agamemnon's ambassadors to Achilles
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
1801, Louvre, Paris

4. Centaur Chiron returns the body
Achilles to his mother Thetis
Pompeo Batoni, 1770

HECTOR -
V ancient greek mythology one of the main heroes of the Trojan War.
The hero was the son of Hecuba and Priam, the king of Troy.
Hector had 49 brothers and sisters, but among the sons of Priam it was he who was famous
with your strength and courage. According to legend, Hector struck the first Greek to death,
who set foot on the land of Troy - Protesilaus.
The hero became especially famous in the ninth year of the Trojan War,
challenging Ajax Telamonides to battle.
Hector promised his enemy not to desecrate his body
in case of defeat and not to remove his armor and demanded the same from Ajax.
After a long struggle, they decided to stop the fight and, as a sign
gifts were exchanged of mutual respect.
Hector hoped to defeat the Greeks, despite Cassandra's prediction.
It was under his leadership that the Trojans broke into the fortified camp of the Achaeans,
approached the navy and even managed to set fire to one of the ships.
The legends also describe the battle between Hector and the Greek Patroclus.
The hero defeated his opponent and took off Achilles' armor.
The gods were very accepting Active participation in war. They split into two camps
and each helped their favorites.
Hector was patronized by Apollo himself.
When Patroclus died, Achilles, obsessed with revenge for his death,
tied the defeated dead Hector to his chariot and
dragged him around the walls of Troy, but the hero’s body was not touched by any ashes,
not a bird, since Apollo protected him in gratitude for
that Hector helped him several times during his lifetime.
Based on this circumstance, the ancient Greeks concluded that
that Hector was the son of Apollo.
According to myths, Apollo persuaded Zeus at the council of the gods
hand over Hector's body to the Trojans,
to be buried with honor.
The Supreme God ordered Achilles to give the body of the deceased to his father Priam.
Since, according to legend, Hector's grave was in Thebes,
researchers have suggested that the image of the hero is of Boeotian origin.
Hector was a highly revered hero in Ancient Greece,
which proves the fact of the presence of his image
on antique vases and in antique plastic.
They usually depicted scenes of Hector’s farewell to his wife Andromache,
the battle with Achilles and many other episodes.

1. Andromache at Hector’s body
Jacques Louis David
1783, Louvre, Paris

]

HERCULES -
in ancient Greek mythology, the greatest of heroes,
son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene.
Zeus needed a mortal hero to defeat the giants,
and he decided to give birth to Hercules.
The best mentors taught Hercules various arts, wrestling, archery.
Zeus wanted Hercules to become the ruler of Mycenae or Tiryns, key fortresses on the approaches to Argos,
but jealous Hera upset his plans.
She struck Hercules with madness, in a fit of which he killed
wife and his three sons.
To atone for his grave guilt, the hero had to serve Eurystheus for twelve years,
king of Tiryns and Mycenae, after which he was granted immortality.
The most famous is the cycle of tales about the twelve labors of Hercules.
The first feat was to obtain the skin of the Nemean lion,
whom Hercules had to strangle with his bare hands.
Having defeated the lion, the hero tanned its skin and wore it as a trophy.
The next feat was the victory over the Hydra, the sacred nine-headed snake of Hera.
The monster lived in a swamp near Lerna, not far from Argos.
The difficulty was that instead of the hero’s severed head, the hydra
two new ones immediately grew.
With the help of his nephew Iolaus, Hercules overpowered the ferocious Lernaean hydra -
the young man burned the neck of each head severed by the hero.
True, the feat was not counted by Eurystheus, since Hercules was helped by his nephew.
The next feat was not so bloody.
Hercules had to catch the Cerynean doe, the sacred animal of Artemis.
Then the hero caught the Erymanthian boar, which was devastating the fields of Arcadia.
In this case, the wise centaur Chiron accidentally died.
The fifth feat was cleaning the Augean stables from manure,
what the hero did in one day, sending the waters of the nearest river into them.
The last of the labors performed by Hercules in the Peloponnese was
expulsion of Stymphalian birds with pointed iron feathers.
The ominous birds were afraid of the copper rattles,
made by Hephaestus and given to Hercules
the goddess Athena, who was favorable to him.
The seventh labor was the capture of a fierce bull, which Minos, king of Crete,
refused to sacrifice to the god of the sea Poseidon.
The bull copulated with Minos' wife Pasiphae, who gave birth to the Minotaur, a man with a bull's head.
Hercules performed the eighth labor in Thrace,
where he subjugated the man-eating mares of King Diomedes to his power.
The remaining four feats were of a different kind.
Eurystheus ordered Hercules to obtain the belt of the queen of the warlike Amazons, Hippolyta.
Then the hero kidnapped and delivered the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon to Mycenae.
After this, Hercules brought Eurystheus the golden apples of the Hesperides, for which he had to
strangle the giant Antaeus and deceive Atlas, who holds the firmament on his shoulders.
The last labor of Hercules - the journey to the kingdom of the dead - was the most difficult.
With the assistance of the queen of the underworld Persephone, the hero was able to bring
and deliver to Tiryns the three-headed dog Kerberus (Cerberus), the guardian of the underworld.
The end of Hercules was terrible.
The hero died in terrible agony, wearing the shirt that his wife Deianira,
on the advice of the centaur Nessus, dying at the hands of Hercules,
soaked this half-man, half-horse with the poisonous blood.
When the hero, with his last strength, ascended the funeral pyre,
crimson lightning struck from the sky and
Zeus accepted his son into the host of immortals.
Some of the labors of Hercules are immortalized in the names of constellations.
For example, the constellation Leo - in memory of the Nemean lion,
the constellation Cancer is reminiscent of the huge cancer Karkina,
sent by Hera to help the Lernaean hydra.
In Roman mythology, Hercules corresponds to Hercules.

1.Hercules and Cerberus
Boris Vallejo, 1988

2.Hercules and Hydra
Gustave Moreau, 1876

3.Hercules at the crossroads
Pompeo Batoni, 1745

4.Hercules and Omphale
Francois Lemoine, About 1725

ODYSSEUS -
"angry", "wrathful" (Ulysses). In Greek mythology, the king of the island of Ithaca,
one of the leaders of the Achaeans in the Trojan War.
He is famous for his cunning, dexterity and amazing adventures.
The brave Odysseus was sometimes considered the son of Sisyphus, who seduced Anticlea
even before his marriage to Laertes,
and according to some versions, Odysseus is the grandson of Autolycus, “an oathbreaker and thief,” the son of the god Hermes,
inherited their intelligence, practicality and enterprise.
Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, laid big hopes on the ingenuity and intelligence of Odysseus.
Together with the wise Nestor, Odysseus was tasked with persuading the great warrior
Achilles to take part in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks,
and when their fleet got stuck in Aulis, it was Odysseus who tricked his wife into
Agamemnon releases Clytemnestra to Iphigenia in Aulis
under the pretext of her marriage to Achilles.
In reality, Iphigenia was intended to be sacrificed to Artemis,
who otherwise did not agree
provide the Greek ships with a fair wind.
It was Odysseus who came up with the idea of ​​the Trojan Horse, which brought victory to the Achaeans.
The Greeks pretended to lift the siege of the city and went out to sea,
leaving a huge hollow horse on the shore,
inside whose body a detachment of warriors led by Odysseus hid.
The Trojans, rejoicing at the departure of the Achaeans, dragged the horse into the city.
They decided to present the statue as a gift to Athena and provide the city with the patronage of the gods.
At night, armed Achaeans poured out of the horse through a secret door,
killed the guards and opened the gates of Troy.
Hence the ancient saying: “Fear the Achaeans (Danaans), who bring gifts,” and
expression "Trojan horse".
Troy fell, but the brutal massacre committed by the Greeks
caused the severe wrath of the gods, especially Athena,
after all, the favorite of the gods, Cassandra, was raped in her sanctuary.
The wanderings of Odysseus were a favorite story of the Greeks and Romans,
who called him Ulysses.
From Troy Odysseus headed for Thrace,
where he lost many people in the battle with the Kikons.
Then a storm carried him to the land of lotus eaters ("lotus eaters"),
whose food made the newcomers forget about their homeland.
Later Odysseus fell into the possession of the Cyclopes (Cyclopes),
finding himself a prisoner of the one-eyed Polyphemus, son of Poseidon.
However, Odysseus and his companions managed to avoid inevitable death.
On the island of the lord of the winds, Aeolus, Odysseus received a gift - fur,
filled with fair winds,
but the curious sailors untied the fur and the winds scattered in all directions,
stopped blowing in the same direction.
Then Odysseus' ships were attacked by the Laestrygonians, a tribe of cannibal giants,
but the hero managed to get to the island of Eya, the possession of the sorceress Circe (Kirka).
With the help of Hermes, Odysseus was able to force the sorceress to return
human form members of his team
which she turned into pigs.
Further, on the advice of Kirka, he visits the underground kingdom of the dead,
where the shadow of the blind soothsayer Tiresias warns the brave Odysseus
about upcoming dangers.
Having left the island, Odysseus's ship sailed past the coast,
where are the sweet-voiced sirens with their wondrous singing
lured sailors onto sharp rocks.
The hero ordered his companions to cover their ears with wax and tie himself to the mast. Having happily passed the wandering rocks of Plankta,
Odysseus lost six men, who were dragged away and devoured by the six-headed Scyta (Scylla).
On the island of Thrinacia, as Tiresias predicted, hungry travelers
were tempted by the fat herds of the sun god Helios.
As punishment, these sailors died from a storm sent by Zeus at the request of Helios.
The surviving Odysseus was almost swallowed by the monstrous whirlpool Charybdis.
Exhausted from exhaustion, he washed up on the island of the sorceress Calypso,
who came out to him and proposed marriage.
But even the prospect of immortality did not seduce Odysseus,
eager to return to his homeland, and seven years later the gods forced
the nymph in love to let the traveler go.
After another shipwreck, Odysseus, with the help of Athena, took on the form
a poor old man, returned home, where his wife Penelope had been waiting for him for many years.
Besieged by noble suitors, she played for time, announcing that she would get married,
when he finishes weaving a shroud for his father-in-law Laertes.
However, at night Penelope unraveled the day's woven fabric.
When the maids revealed her secret, she agreed to marry the one
who can string the bow of Odysseus?
The test was passed by an unknown beggar old man, who, throwing off his rags,
turned out to be the mighty Odysseus.
After twenty years of separation, the hero hugged his faithful Penelope,
whom Athena awarded with rare beauty before the meeting.
According to some versions of the myth, Odysseus, unrecognized, fell at the hands of Telegonus,
his son from Circe (Circa), according to others -
died peacefully in old age.

1.Odysseus in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus
Jacob Jordaens, 1630

2.Odysseus and the Sirens
John William Waterhouse, 1891

3.Circe and Odysseus
John William Waterhouse 1891

4.Penelope waiting for Odysseus
John William Waterhouse, 1890

ORPHEUS -
in ancient Greek mythology, a hero and traveler.
Orpheus was the son of the Thracian river god Eagra and the muse Calliope.
He was known as a talented singer and musician.
Orpheus took part in the campaign of the Argonauts, with his playing of the forming
and with prayers he calmed the waves and helped the rowers of the Argo ship.
The hero married the beautiful Eurydice and, when she suddenly died from a snake bite,
followed her to afterworld.
Guardian other world, evil dog Cerberus,
Persephone and Hades were enchanted by the young man's magical music.
Hades promised to return Eurydice to earth on condition that
that Orpheus will not look at his wife until he enters his house.
Orpheus could not restrain himself and looked at Eurydice,
As a result, she remained forever in the kingdom of the dead.
Orpheus did not treat Dionysus with due respect, but he revered Helios,
whom he called Apollo.
Dionysus decided to teach the young man a lesson and sent maenads to attack him,
who tore the musician to pieces and threw him into the river.
Parts of his body were collected by the muses, who mourned the death of the beautiful young man.
The head of Orpheus floated down the Hebrus River and was found by nymphs,
then she ended up on the island of Lesbos, where Apollo accepted her.
The musician's shadow fell into Hades, where the couple were reunited.

1.Orpheus and Eurydice
Frederic Leighton, 1864

2.Nymphs and the head of Orpheus
John Waterhouse, 1900

PERSEUS -
in Greek mythology, the ancestor of Hercules, the son of Zeus and Danae,
daughter of the Argive king Acrisius.
Hoping to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy about the death of Acrisius at the hands of his grandson,
Danae was imprisoned in a copper tower, but the almighty Zeus penetrated there,
turning into golden rain, and conceived Perseus.
Frightened Acrisius sat down the mother and child
into a wooden box and threw it into the sea.
However, Zeus helped his beloved and son safely
get to the island of Serif.
The matured Perseus was sent by the local ruler Polydectes,
who fell in love with Danae, in search of the gorgon Medusa,
with her gaze turning all living things into stone.
Fortunately for the hero, Athena hated Medusa and, according to one of the myths,
out of jealousy, she awarded the once beautiful gorgon with deadly beauty.
Athena taught Perseus what to do.
First, the young man, following the advice of the goddess, went to the old gray women,
who among the three had one eye and one tooth.
Having captured an eye and a tooth by cunning, Perseus returned them to the Grays in exchange
to indicate the way to the nymphs who gave him the invisibility cap,
winged sandals and a bag for Medusa's head.
Perseus flew to the western edge of the world, to the cave of the Gorgon, and
looking at the reflection of the mortal Medusa in his copper shield, he cut off her head.
Having put it in his bag, he rushed off wearing an invisibility cap,
unnoticed by the monster's snake-haired sisters.
On the way home, Perseus saved the beautiful Andromeda from a sea monster.
and married her.
Then the hero headed to Argos, but Acrisius,
Having learned about the arrival of his grandson, he fled to Larisa.
And yet he did not escape his fate - during the festivities in Larisa,
participating in the competition, Perseus threw a heavy bronze disk,
hit Acrisius in the head and killed him.
The inconsolable hero, stricken with grief, did not want to rule in Argos
and moved to Tiryns.
After the death of Perseus and Andromeda, the goddess Athena raised the spouses to heaven, turning them into constellations.

1.Perseus and Andromeda
Peter Paul Rubens, 1639

2.Ominous Gorgon Head
Edward Burne-Jones, 1887

THESEUS -
(“strong”), in Greek mythology, a hero, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus and Efra.
Childless Aegeus received advice from the Delphic oracle - when going from guests not to untie
your bottle of wine until you return home. Aegeus did not guess the prediction, but the Troezen king Pittheus,
with whom he was visiting, he realized that Aegeus was destined to conceive a hero. He gave the guest a drink and put him to bed
with his daughter Ephra. That same night Poseidon also became close to her.
This is how Theseus was born, great hero, son of two fathers.
Before leaving Efra, Aegeus led her to a boulder, under which he hid his sword and sandals.
If a son is born, he said, let him grow up, mature,
and when he can move the stone,
then send him to me. Theseus grew up, and Ephra discovered the secret of his birth.
The young man easily took out his sword and sandals, and on the way to Athens he dealt
with the robber Sinis and the Crommion pig.
Theseus was able to defeat the monstrous Minotaur, the man-bull,
only with the help of Princess Ariadne, who loved him, who gave him a guiding thread.
In Athens, Theseus learned that fifty of his sons were laying claim to the throne of Aegeus. cousin Pallanta,
and Aegeus himself fell under the power of the sorceress Medea,
abandoned by Jason, who hoped that her son Med would receive the throne.
Theseus hid his origin, but Medea, knowing who he was,
persuaded Aegeus to give the stranger a cup of poison.
Theseus was saved by the fact that his father recognized his sword, with which the hero cut meat.
Theseus performed the following feats for the benefit of Athens.
He dealt with the sons of Pallant and Marathon
with a bull that ravaged the fields, he defeated the man-bull Minotaur.
Young Athenians were given to the monster that lived in the labyrinth to be devoured.
as an atoning sacrifice for the death of the king's son in Athens.
When Theseus volunteered to fight the Minotaur, his old father became desperate.
They agreed that if Theseus escaped death, then, returning home,
will change the sail from black to white.
Theseus, having killed the monster, got out of the labyrinth thanks to the daughter of Minos, Ariadne, who fell in love with him,
following the thread tied at the entrance (Ariadne's guiding thread).
Theseus and Ariadne then fled secretly to the island of Naxos.
Here Theseus left the princess and fate punished him.
Returning home, Theseus forgot to change the sail as a sign of victory.
Theseus's father Aegeus, seeing the black cloth, threw himself off the cliff into the sea.
Theseus performed a number of other feats. He captured the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta,
who bore him a son, Hippolytus, gave shelter to the outcast Oedipus and his daughter Antigone.
True, Theseus was not among the Argonauts;
at this time he helped the Lapith king Pirithous
kidnap the queen of Hades, Persephone.
For this, the gods decided to leave the daredevil in Hades forever,
but Theseus was saved by Hercules.
However, grief came knocking on his house again when his second wife, Phaedra,
she desired his son Hippolytus, who remained silent in horror about her passion.
Humiliated by the refusal, Phaedra hanged herself,
in a suicide note accusing her stepson of trying to dishonor her.
The young man was expelled from the city,
and he died before his father knew the truth.
In his old age, Theseus boldly abducted the twelve-year-old daughter of Zeus Helen,
declaring that only she is worthy to be his wife,
but Helen's brothers, the Dioscuri, rescued their sister and expelled Theseus.
The hero died on the island of Skyros at the hands of the local king, who,
fearing the still mighty Theseus, he pushed the guest off the cliff.

1.Theseus and the Minotaur
Vase 450g. BC.

2.Theseus
with Ariadne and Phaedra
B. Zhennari, 1702

3.Theseus and Ephra
Lovren de la Hire, 1640

OEDIPUS -
descendant of Cadmus, from the Labdacid family, son of the Theban king Laius and Jocasta, or Epicasta,
favorite hero of Greek folk tales and tragedies, due to the multitude of which
it is very difficult to imagine the myth of Oedipus in its original form.
According to the most common legend, the oracle predicted Laius
about the birth of a son who will kill himself,
marries his own mother and covers the entire house of Labdacids with shame.
Therefore, when Lai's son was born, his parents pierced his legs
and tying them together (which made them swollen),
they sent him to Kiferon, where Oedipus was found by a shepherd,
sheltered the boy and then brought him to Sicyon,
or Corinth, to King Polybus, who raised his adopted son as his own son.
Having once received a reproach at a feast for his dubious origins,
Oedipus asked for clarification
to the oracle and received advice from him - to beware of parricide and incest.
As a result, Oedipus, who considered Polybus his father, left Sicyon.
On the road he met Lai, started a quarrel with him and, in a temper,
killed him and his retinue.
At this time, the Sphinx monster was wreaking havoc in Thebes,
asked for several years in a row
a riddle for everyone and devouring everyone who did not guess it.
Oedipus managed to solve this riddle
(what creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon,
and in the evening at three? The answer is man)
as a result of which the Sphinx threw itself from a cliff and died.
In gratitude for delivering the country from a prolonged disaster, the Theban citizens
made Oedipus their king and gave him Laius's widow, Jocasta, as his wife -
his own mother.
Soon the double crime committed by Oedipus out of ignorance was revealed,
and Oedipus, in despair, gouged out his eyes, and Jocasta took her own life.
According to an ancient legend (Homer, Odyssey, XI, 271 et seq.)
Oedipus remained to reign in Thebes and died,
pursued by the Erinyes.
Sophocles tells about the end of Oedipus' life differently:
When the crimes of Oedipus were revealed, the Thebans with the sons of Oedipus:
Eteocles and Polyneices led the expulsion of the aged and blind king from Thebes,
and he, accompanied by his faithful daughter Antigone, went to the town of Colon
(in Attica), where in the sanctuary of Erinyes,
who finally, thanks to the intervention of Apollo, subdued their anger,
ended his life full of suffering.
His memory was considered sacred, and his grave was one of the palladiums of Attica.
How actor, Oedipus is depicted in Sophocles' tragedies "Oedipus Rex" and
"Oedipus at Colonus" (both tragedies are available in Russian poetic translation
D. S. Merezhkovsky, St. Petersburg, 1902),
in Euripides' tragedy "The Phoenician Women"
(poetic Russian translation by I. Annensky, “The World of God”, 1898, No. 4)
and in Seneca's tragedy "Oedipus".
There were many other poetic works that dealt with the fate of Oedipus.

1. Bookplate of Sigmund Freud.
The bookplate depicts King Oedipus talking to the Sphinx.

2.Oedipus and the Sphinx
J.O.Ingres

3.Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864
Gustave Moreau

4. Oedipus the Wanderer, 1888
Gustave Moreau

AENEAS -
in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of the handsome shepherd Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus),
participant in the defense of Troy during the Trojan War, a most glorious hero.
A brave warrior, Aeneas took part in decisive battles with Achilles and escaped death
only through the intercession of his divine mother.
After the fall of devastated Troy, at the behest of the gods, he left the burning city
and together with the old father,
wife Kreusa and young son Askanius (Yul),
capturing images of the Trojan gods,
accompanied by companions on twenty ships, went in search of new homeland.
Having survived a series of adventures and a terrible storm, he reached the Italian city of Cuma,
and then came to Latium, a region in Central Italy.
The local king was ready to give his daughter Lavinia for Aeneas (who was widowed along the way)
and provide him with land to found a city.
Having defeated Turnus, the leader of the warlike Rutul tribe, in a duel
and a contender for Lavinia's hand,
Aeneas settled in Italy, which became the successor to the glory of Troy.
His son Askanius (Yul) was considered the progenitor of the Julius family,
including the famous emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus.

1.Venus giving Aeneas armor made by Vulcan, 1748
Pompeo Batoni

2.Mercury appearing to Aeneas (fresco), 1757
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

3. Battle of Aeneas with the harpies
Francois Perrier, 1647

JASON -
("healer"), in Greek mythology, the great-grandson of the god of the winds Aeolus, the son of King Iolcus Aeson and Polymede.
Hero, leader of the Argonauts.
When Pelias overthrew his brother Aeson from the throne, he, fearing for the life of his son,
gave him under the tutelage of the wise centaur Chiron, who lived in the Thessalian forests.
The Delphic oracle predicted to Pelias that he would be killed by a man wearing only one sandal.
This explains the king’s fear when the matured Jason returned to the city,
lost a sandal on the way.
Pelias decided to get rid of the impending threat and promised to recognize Jason as heir if he, risking his life, obtained the Golden Fleece in Colchis.
Jason and his crew on the ship "Argo", having experienced many adventures, returned to their homeland with a wonderful fleece.
With his success - victory over the dragon and formidable warriors,
growing from his teeth -
they owed a lot to the Colchian princess Medea, since Eros,
at the request of Athena and Hera, who patronized Jason,
instilled love for the hero in the girl’s heart.
Upon returning to Iolcus, the Argonauts learned
that Pelias killed Jason's father and all his relatives.
According to one version, Pelias dies from the spell of Medea, whose name means “insidious.”
According to another, Jason resigned himself to exile and lived happily with Medea for ten years
and they had three children.
Then the hero married Princess Glavka; V
In revenge, Medea killed her and killed her sons by Jason.
Years passed. The elderly hero dragged out his days until one day he wandered onto the pier,
where the famous Argo stood.
Suddenly the mast of the ship, rotten from time to time, broke.
and fell on Jason, who fell dead.

1. Jason and Medea
John William Waterhouse, 1890

2. Jason and Medea
Gustave Moreau, 1865

PREFACE

Many, many centuries ago, a people settled on the Balkan Peninsula who later became known as the Greeks. Unlike modern Greeks, we call that people by the ancient Greeks, or Hellenes, and their country Hellas.

The Hellenes left a rich legacy to the peoples of the world: majestic buildings that are still considered the most beautiful in the world, beautiful marble and bronze statues and great works of literature that people still read today, although they were written in a language that no one has spoken on earth for a long time. . These are the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” - heroic poems about how the Greeks besieged the city of Troy, and about the wanderings and adventures of one of the participants in this war - Odysseus. These poems were sung by wandering singers, and they were created about three thousand years ago.

The ancient Greeks left us with their legends, their ancient tales - myths.

The Greeks have come a long way in history; it took centuries before they became the most educated, most cultured people ancient world. Their ideas about the structure of the world, their attempts to explain everything that happens in nature and in human society are reflected in myths.

Myths were created when the Hellenes did not yet know how to read and write; developed gradually over several centuries, passed on from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, and were never written down as a single, solid book. We already know them from the works of the ancient poets Hesiod and Homer, the great Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and writers of later eras.

This is why the myths of the ancient Greeks have to be collected from a variety of sources and retold.

Based on individual myths, it is possible to recreate a picture of the world as the ancient Greeks imagined it. Myths tell that at first the world was inhabited by monsters and giants: giants with huge snakes writhing instead of legs; hundred-armed, huge as mountains; the ferocious Cyclopes, or Cyclops, with one sparkling eye in the middle of the forehead; formidable children of Earth and Sky - mighty titans. In the images of giants and titans, the ancient Greeks personified the elemental powerful forces of nature. Myths say that subsequently these elemental forces of nature were curbed and subdued by Zeus - the deity of the sky, the Thunderer and the Cloudbreaker, who established order in the world and became the ruler of the universe. The Titans were replaced by the kingdom of Zeus.

In the minds of the ancient Greeks, the gods were similar to people and the relationships between them resembled the relationships between people. The Greek gods quarreled and made peace, constantly interfered in people's lives, and took part in wars. Each of the gods was engaged in some kind of business, “in charge” of a certain “economy” in the world. The Hellenes endowed their gods human characters and inclinations. From people - “mortals” - Greek gods differed only in immortality.

Just as each Greek tribe had its own leader, military leader, judge and master, so among the gods the Greeks considered Zeus to be the leader. According to the beliefs of the Greeks, the family of Zeus - his brothers, wife and children shared power over the world with him. Zeus's wife, Hera, was considered the guardian of the family, marriage, and home. Zeus' brother, Poseidon, ruled the seas; Hades, or Hades, ruled the underworld of the dead; Demeter, sister of Zeus, goddess of agriculture, was in charge of the harvest. Zeus had children: Apollo - the god of light, patron of sciences and arts, Artemis - goddess of forests and hunting, Pallas Athena, born from the head of Zeus, - goddess of wisdom, patroness of crafts and knowledge, lame Hephaestus - god of the blacksmith and mechanic, Aphrodite - goddess love and beauty, Ares - the god of war, Hermes - the messenger of the gods, the closest assistant and confidant of Zeus, the patron of trade and navigation. Myths say that these gods lived on Mount Olympus, always hidden from the eyes of people by clouds, ate the “food of the gods” - nectar and ambrosia, and decided all matters at feasts with Zeus.

People on earth turned to the gods - to each according to his “specialty”, erected separate temples for them and, in order to appease them, brought gifts - sacrifices.

Myths say that, in addition to these main gods, the entire earth was inhabited by gods and goddesses who personified the forces of nature.

The nymphs Naiads lived in rivers and streams, Nereids lived in the sea, Dryads and Satyrs with goat legs and horns on their heads lived in the forests; The nymph Echo lived in the mountains.

Helios reigned in the sky - the sun, who every day traveled around the whole world on his golden chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses; in the morning his departure was announced by the ruddy Eos - dawn; At night, Selena, the moon, was sad above the earth. The winds were personified different gods: northern menacing wind - Boreas, warm and soft - Zephyr. Three goddesses of fate controlled human life - the Moiras, they spun the thread human life from birth to death and could break it off whenever they wanted.

In addition to myths about gods, the ancient Greeks had myths about heroes. Ancient Greece was not a single state; it all consisted of small city-states, which often fought among themselves, and sometimes entered into an alliance against a common enemy. Every city, every region had its own hero. The hero of Athens was Theseus, a brave young man who defended hometown from the conquerors and defeated the monstrous bull Minotaur in a duel, to which the Athenian boys and girls were given to be devoured. The hero of Thrace was the famous singer Orpheus. Among the Argives, the hero was Perseus, who killed Medusa, whose one glance turned a person to stone.

Then, when the unification of the Greek tribes gradually took place and the Greeks began to recognize themselves as a single people - the Hellenes, the hero of all Greece appeared - Hercules. A myth was created about a journey in which heroes of different Greek cities and regions participated - about the campaign of the Argonauts.

The Greeks have been seafarers since ancient times. The sea washing the shores of Greece (Aegean) was convenient for swimming - it is dotted with islands, calm most of the year, and the Greeks quickly mastered it. Moving from island to island, the ancient Greeks soon reached Asia Minor. Gradually, Greek sailors began to explore the lands that lay north of Greece.

The myth of the Argonauts is based on memories of many attempts by Greek sailors to get into the Black Sea. Stormy and without a single island on the way, the Black Sea frightened Greek sailors for a long time.

The myth about the campaign of the Argonauts is also interesting for us because it talks about the Caucasus, Colchis; the river Phasis is the present-day Rion, and gold was actually found there in ancient times.

Myths say that together with the Argonauts, the great hero of Greece, Hercules, went on a campaign for the Golden Fleece.

Hercules is an image people's hero. In the myths about the twelve labors of Hercules, the ancient Greeks talk about the heroic struggle of man against the hostile forces of nature, about the liberation of the earth from the terrible domination of the elements, about the pacification of the country. The embodiment of indestructible physical strength, Hercules is at the same time a model of courage, fearlessness, and military courage.

In the myths about the Argonauts and Hercules, we are confronted with the heroes of Hellas - brave sailors, discoverers of new paths and new lands, fighters liberating the earth from the monsters with which the primitive mind populated it. The images of these heroes express the ideals of the ancient world.

The ancient Greek myths depict the “childhood of human society,” which in Hellas, according to Karl Marx, “developed most beautifully and has an eternal charm for us.” In their myths, the Hellenes showed a remarkable sense of beauty, an artistic understanding of nature and history. The myths of Ancient Greece have inspired poets and artists around the world for many centuries. In the poems of Pushkin and Tyutchev and even in the fables of Krylov we will more than once find images from the myths of Hellas. If we didn't know ancient greek myths, much in the art of the past - in sculpture, painting, poetry - would be incomprehensible to us.

The images of ancient Greek myths have been preserved in our language. We do not believe now that there ever existed mighty giants, whom the ancient Greeks called titans and giants, but we still call great things gigantic. We say: “the torment of Tantalus”, “the labor of Sisyphean” - and without knowledge of Greek myths these words are incomprehensible.

Heroes were born from marriages olympian gods with mortals. They were endowed with superhuman capabilities and enormous strength, but did not have immortality. Heroes performed all sorts of feats with the help of their divine parents. They were supposed to fulfill the will of the gods on earth, to bring justice and order into people's lives. Heroes were highly revered in Ancient Greece, legends about them were passed down from generation to generation.

Not always a concept heroic act included military valor. Some heroes, indeed, are great warriors, others are healers, others are great travelers, others are just husbands of goddesses, others are ancestors of nations, others are prophets, etc. Greek heroes are not immortal, but their posthumous fate is unusual. Some heroes of Greece live after death on the Isles of the Blessed, others on the island of Levka or even on Olympus. It was believed that most heroes who fell in battle or died as a result of dramatic events were buried in the ground. The tombs of heroes - heroons - were places of their worship. Often, there were graves of the same hero in different places in Greece.

Read more about the characters from Mikhail Gasparov’s book “Entertaining Greece”

In Thebes they talked about the hero Cadmus, the founder of Cadmeia, the winner of the terrible cave dragon. In Argos they talked about the hero Perseus, who, at the end of the world, cut off the head of the monstrous Gorgon, from whose gaze people turned to stone, and then defeated the sea monster - Whale. In Athens they talked about the hero Theseus, who freed central Greece from evil robbers, and then in Crete killed the bull-headed cannibal Minotaur, who was sitting in a palace with intricate passages - the Labyrinth; he did not get lost in the Labyrinth because he held on to the thread that was given to him by the Cretan princess Ariadne, who later became the wife of the god Dionysus. In the Peloponnese (named after another hero, Pelops), they talked about the twin heroes Castor and Polydeuces, who later became the patron gods of horsemen and fighters. The hero Jason conquered the sea: on the ship “Argo” with his Argonaut friends, he brought to Greece from the eastern edge of the world the “golden fleece” - the skin of a golden ram that came down from heaven. The hero Daedalus, the builder of the Labyrinth, conquered the sky: on wings made of bird feathers, fastened with wax, he flew from captivity in Crete to his native Athens, although his son Icarus, flying with him, could not stay in the air and died.

The main hero, the real savior of the gods, was Hercules, the son of Zeus. He was not just a mortal man - he was a forced mortal man who served a weak and cowardly king for twelve years. On his orders, Hercules performed twelve famous labors. The first were victories over monsters from the outskirts of Argos - a stone lion and a multi-headed hydra snake, in which, instead of each severed head, several new ones grew. The last were victories over the dragon of the Far West, guarding the golden apples eternal youth(it was on the way to him that Hercules dug the Strait of Gibraltar, and the mountains on its sides began to be called the Pillars of Hercules), and above the three-headed dog Kerberus, who guarded the terrible kingdom of the dead. And after that he was called to his main task: he became a participant in the great war of the Olympians with the rebellious younger gods, the giants - in the Gigantomachy. The giants threw mountains at the gods, the gods struck the giants, some with lightning, some with a rod, some with a trident, the giants fell, but not killed, but only stunned. Then Hercules hit them with arrows from his bow, and they did not get up again. Thus, man helped the gods defeat their most terrible enemies.

But gigantomachy was only the penultimate danger that threatened the omnipotence of the Olympians. Hercules also saved them from the last danger. In his wanderings to the ends of the earth, he saw chained Prometheus on a Caucasian rock, tormented by Zeus's eagle, took pity on him and killed the eagle with an arrow. In gratitude for this, Prometheus opened to him the last secret fate: let Zeus not seek the love of the sea goddess Thetis, because the son that Thetis gives birth to will be stronger than his father - and if it is the son of Zeus, he will overthrow Zeus. Zeus obeyed: Thetis was married not to a god, but to a mortal hero, and they had a son, Achilles. And with this began the decline of the heroic age.

Greek myths, which tell of gods, goddesses and heroes, date back to the Bronze Age, a time of oral tradition. They were first recorded at the beginning of the 6th century. BC. and have continued to live in Western literature ever since. Myths were closely related to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks and interpreted the secrets of nature. They told about the creation of the world about the deeds of the deities, about the golden age of ancient Greek society, about the age of heroic demigods such as Theseus and Hercules, whose exploits inspired ordinary people. The Greeks represented the gods as ideal people possessing all the feelings characteristic of humans. The gods lived on Mount Olympus. The supreme god Zeus was considered the father of many Olympians. Each member of the Olympic family was assigned a divine role.

Zeus- the father of gods and people, ruled them from Mount Olympus.
Eris goddess of discord.
Klymene, mother Promethea who gave fire to people.
Hera Zeus's wife was very jealous.
Athena emerged from the head of Zeus in full battle garb, in Greek mythology she was the goddess of wisdom, strategy and war.
Poseidon, god of the seas, one of the brothers of Zeus. The symbol of his power is the trident. Myths bring to us stories about Poseidon's infidelity to his wife, the sea goddess Amphitrite, who was the goddess of the sea in Greek mythology. This statue is kept in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Paris must award Golden Apple the most beautiful of goddesses. Paris's dog helped him graze his flocks on Mount Ida, where the prince grew up.
Dionysus, the god of viticulture and wine, Zeus gave birth from his thigh.
Hades And Persephone ruled the kingdoms of the dead and the souls of the dead. Hades kidnapped Persephone from her mother Demeter, the goddess of fertility. Angry, Demeter sent a famine to the earth, and then Zeus decided that Persephone would live with her mother for part of the year.
Artemis, maiden goddess of the hunt, daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo. She is armed with a bow and arrows. The eternally young goddess is surrounded by dogs and nymphs. Having taken a vow of chastity, she was nevertheless also the goddess of childbirth.
Hermes was a messenger of the gods.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, was born from the foam of the sea.
Apollo, son of Zeus and brother of Artemis, god-healer and soothsayer, patron of the arts, was unusually handsome.

Labors of Hercules. Hercules(among the Romans - Hercules) - the greatest of the Greek heroes, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Endowed with superhuman strength, he achieved success and immortality by completing 12 tasks of the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, which seemed impossible.
First he defeated the Nemean Lion, whose skin he always wore on himself from then on.
The second labor of Hercules was the victory over the Lernaean Hydra. The severed heads of this poisonous monster, raised by Hera, immediately grew back. As in his other exploits, Hercules was helped by Athena.
Then the huge boar that was ravaging Mount Erymanth was caught. Hercules delivered him to King Eurystheus alive. The king was so frightened that he hid in a large jug.
The sixth feat was the extermination of the Stymphalian birds. Hercules saved Lake Stymphalia from man-eating birds with copper beaks: having scared the birds with bronze rattles, he killed them with stones fired from a sling.