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Names of myths. Ancient myths and legends of the peoples of the world

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

Are the heroes still alive?

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

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

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

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

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

What does self-love lead to?

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

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

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

About love conquering stone

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

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

The dream of immortality, or how the deception ends

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

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

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

About excessive curiosity

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

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

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

Myths and modernity

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

In the general religious understanding of the ancient Hellenes, there was a variety of cult representations. All this is confirmed by numerous archeological excavations and artifacts. It is proved in what area these or those gods were extolled. For example, Apollo - in Delphi and Delos, the capital of Greece is named after Athena, the god of healing Asclepius (son of Apollo) - in Epidaurus, Poseidon was respected by the Ionians in the Peloponnese, and so on.

Greek shrines were opened in honor of this: Delphic, Dodonian and Delian. Almost all of them are covered with some kind of mystery, it is deciphered in myths and legends. Most interesting myths Ancient Greece(short) we will describe below.

Cult of Apollo in Greece and Rome

He was called "four-armed" and "four-eared". Apollo had about a hundred sons. He himself was either five or seven. There are countless monuments in honor of the saint, huge temples of his name too - located in Greece, Italy, Turkey. And it's all about HIM: about Apollo, the mythical hero and god of Hellas.

The ancient gods did not have surnames, but Apollo had several of them: Delphic, Rhodes, Belvedere, Pythian. This happened in the territories where his cult grew the most.

Two millennia have passed since the birth of the cult, and the fairy tale about this handsome man is still believed today. How did he enter "naive mythology" and why is he invented in the souls and hearts of the Greeks and inhabitants of other countries?

The veneration of the son of Zeus originated in Asia Minor two thousand years before our era. Initially, the myths depicted Apollo not as a man, but as a zoomorphic creature (the influence of pre-religious totemism) - a ram. A Dorian version of origin is also possible. But, as before, an important center of the cult is the Sanctuary at Delphi. In it, the soothsayer uttered all kinds of predictions, according to her instructions, twelve mythical labors of Apollo's brother Hercules took place. From the Hellenic colonies in Italy, the cult of the Greek god gained a foothold in Rome.

Myths about Apollo

God is not alone. Archaeological sources provide information about the various sources of its origin. Who were the Apollos: the son of the guardian of Athens, Corybant, Zeus the third and several other fathers. Mythology attributes to Apollo thirty heroes killed by him (Achilles), dragons (including Python), and a cyclops. They said about him that he could destroy, but he could also help and predict the future.

Mythology spread about Apollo even before his birth, when the supreme goddess Hera learned that Leto (Laton) should give birth to a boy (Apollo) from her husband Zeus. With the help of a dragon, she drove the expectant mother to a deserted island. Both Apollo and his sister Artemis were born there. They grew up on this island (Delos), where he swore to destroy the dragon for persecuting his mother.

As described with ancient myth, Apollo, who quickly matured, picked up a bow and arrows and flew away to where Python lived. The beast crawled out of the terrible gorge and attacked the young man.

It looked like an octopus with a large scaly body. Even the rocks were moving away from him. The disturbed monster attacked the young man. But the arrows did their job.

Python died, Apollo buried it, and the real Temple of Apollo was built here. In his room was a real priestess-soothsayer from peasant women. She uttered prophecies allegedly through the mouth of Apollo. Questions were written on tablets and passed to the temple. They were not fictitious, but from real earthly people from different centuries of the existence of this temple. They were found by archaeologists. As the priestess commented on the questions, no one knows.

Narcissus - a mythical hero and a real flower

To paraphrase an ancient sage, we can say: if you have extra money, then do not buy bread beyond what you can eat; buy a narcissus flower - bread for the body, and he - for the soul.

So the mythical short story about the narcissistic youth Narcissus from Ancient Hellas grew into the name of a beautiful spring flower.

The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, took cruel revenge on those who rejected her gifts, who did not submit to her power. Mythology knows several such victims of it. Among them is the young man Narcissus. Proud, he could not love anyone, only himself.

Wrath found on the goddess. Once in the spring, while hunting, Narcissus came up to the stream - he simply fascinated him with the purity of the water, its specularity. But the stream was really special, perhaps also enchanted by Aphrodite. The goddess did not forgive anyone if they did not pay attention to her.

No one drank from the stream of water, not even a branch or flower petals could fall into it. Here Narcissus looked at himself. Leaning down to kiss his reflection. But there is only cold water.

He forgot about the hunt, and the desire to drink water. Everyone admires, forgot about food, sleep. And suddenly he woke up: “I really fell in love with myself so much, but we can’t be together?” He began to suffer so much that his strength left him. He feels that he will go into the realm of darkness. But already the young man believes that death will end his pangs of love. He is crying.

The head of Narcissus drooped completely to the ground. He died. The nymphs wept in the forest. They dug up a grave, went for the body, but he was gone. On the grass where the young man's head fell, a flower grew. They named him Narcissus.

And the nymph Echo remained forever to suffer in that forest. And she never spoke to anyone else.

Poseidon - lord of the seas

Zeus sits in all divine majesty on Mount Olympus, and his brother Poseidon went into the depths of the sea and from there the water boiled, inviting misfortune on sailors. If he wants to do this, he takes his main weapon in his hand - a club with a trident.

He has a better palace than his brother on land. And he reigns there with his charming wife Amphitrite, the daughter of the sea god. Together with Poseidon, she rushes through the waters on a chariot with horses harnessed to it or zoomorphic creatures - tritons.

Poseidon looked after his wife from the waters on the coast of the island of Naxos. But she ran away from him to the handsome Atlas. Poseidon could not find the fugitive himself. He was helped by dolphins, who delivered her to the palace at the bottom of the sea. For this, the sea lord gave the dolphins a constellation in the sky.

Perseus: almost like a good person

Perseus is perhaps one of the few sons of Zeus who did not have negative character traits. Like the drunken Hercules with his bouts of inexplicable anger or Achilles, who did not consider the interests of others and admired only his own "I".

Perseus was handsome, like a god, bold and dexterous. Always tried to be successful. The mythology of Perseus is as follows. His grandfather, one of the earthly kings, dreamed that his grandson would bring death to him. Therefore, he hid his daughter in a dungeon behind stones, bronze and castles, away from men. But all the obstacles for Zeus, who liked Danae, were nothing. He penetrated to her through the roof in the form of rain. And a son was born, named Perseus. But the malicious grandfather nailed the mother and child into a box and sent them to swim in the box on the sea.

The captives nevertheless managed to escape on one of the islands, where the waves washed the box ashore, the fishermen arrived in time to rescue the mother and son. But a man reigned on the island, no better than Danae's father. He began to approach the woman. And so years passed, now Perseus could stand up for his mother.

The king decided to get rid of the young man, but in such a way as not to incur the wrath of the god Zeus. He cheated by accusing Perseus of a non-divine origin. To do this, it was necessary to perform a heroic deed, for example, to kill the malicious medusa Gorgon and drag her head to the king's palace.

It really was not only a sea, but also a flying monster that turned those who looked at it into stone. The gods were indispensable here. Helped the son of Zeus. He was given a magic sword and a shield-mirror. In search of the monster, Perseus went through many countries and through many obstacles set up by opponents. The nymphs also gave him useful things on the road.

Finally, he reached an abandoned country where the sisters of that same Gorgon lived. Only they could lead the young man to her. The sisters had one eye and one tooth in three. While the younger gorgon with the eye was leading, the rest could not do anything. Further across the sky, he flew to the monster. And immediately came across a sleeping jellyfish. Before she woke up, the young man cut off her head and put it in a bag. And took a course through the sky to his island. So he proved his mission to the king and, taking his mother, returned to Argos.

Hercules marries

Many accomplished feats, slave labor from Queen Omphala took away the strength of Hercules. He wanted a quiet life at home. “Building a house is not difficult, but you need loving wife. Here it is necessary to find it, ”the hero made plans.

Somehow I remembered hunting for a boar near Calydon with a local prince and meeting with his sister Dejanira. And he went to South Aetolia to get married. At this time, Dejanira was already given in marriage, and many suitors gathered.

There was also a river god - a monster that the world had not seen. Dejanira's father said that he would give his daughter to the one who defeated the god. Only Hercules remained from the suitors, since the others, having seen a rival, changed their minds about marrying.

Hercules grabbed his opponent with his hands, but he stood like a rock. And so several times. The result for Hercules was almost ready, as the god turned into a snake. The son of Zeus, still in the cradle, strangled two snakes, and managed here. But the old man became a bull. The hero broke one horn, and he surrendered. The bride became the wife of Hercules.

These are the myths of Ancient Greece.

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The most interesting and instructive stories, fascinating stories and adventures gave the world Greek mythology. The narrative immerses us in a fairy-tale world where you can meet heroes and gods, scary monsters and unusual animals. The myths of Ancient Greece, written many centuries ago, are currently the greatest cultural heritage of all mankind.

What are myths

Mythology is an amazing separate world in which people opposed the deities of Olympus, fought for honor and resisted evil and destruction.

However, it is worth remembering that myths are works created exclusively by people using fantasy and fiction. These are stories about gods, heroes and exploits, unusual natural phenomena and mysterious creatures.

The origin of legends is no different from the origin of folk tales and legends. The Greeks invented and retold unusual stories that mixed truth and fiction.

It is possible that there was some truth in the stories - a life case or an example could be taken as a basis.

Source of the myths of ancient Greece

Where did modern people myths and their plots are known for certain? It turns out that Greek mythology was preserved on the tablets of the Aegean culture. They were written in Linear B, which was deciphered only in the 20th century.

The Crete-Mycenaean period, to which this type of writing belongs, knew most of the gods: Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and so on. However, due to the decline of civilization and the emergence of ancient Greek mythology, mythology could have its gaps: we know it only from the latest sources.

Various plots of the myths of Ancient Greece were often used by writers of that time. And before the onset of the Hellenistic era, it became popular to create their own legends based on them.

The largest and most famous sources are:

Homer, Iliad, Odyssey
Hesiod "Theogony"
Pseudo-Apollodorus, "Library"
Gigin, "Myths"
Ovid, "Metamorphoses"
Nonnus, "Acts of Dionysus"

Karl Marx believed that the mythology of Greece was a vast repository of art, and also created the ground for it, thus fulfilling a dual function.

ancient greek mythology

Myths did not appear overnight: they took shape over several centuries, passed from mouth to mouth. Thanks to the poetry of Hesiod and Homer, the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, we can get acquainted with the stories at the present time.

Each story has value, keeping in itself the atmosphere of antiquity. Specially trained people - mythographers - began to appear in Greece in the 4th century BC.

These include the sophist Hippias, Herodotus of Heracles, Heraclitus of Pontus and others. Dionysius of Samoia, in particular, was engaged in compiling genealogical tables and studied tragic myths.

There are many myths, but the most popular are stories related to Olympus and its inhabitants.

However, the complex hierarchy and history of the origin of the gods can confuse any reader, and therefore we propose to understand this in detail!

With the help of myths, it becomes possible to recreate the picture of the world in the view of the inhabitants of Ancient Greece: the world is inhabited by monsters and giants, among which are giants - one-eyed creatures and Titans.

Origin of the gods

Eternal, boundless Chaos enveloped the Earth. It contained the world source of life.

It was believed that it was Chaos that gave birth to everything around: the world, the immortal gods, the goddess of the Earth, Gaia, who gave life to everything growing and living, and the mighty force that animates everything - Love.

However, a birth also took place under the Earth: the gloomy Tartarus was born - an abyss of horror filled with eternal darkness.

In the process of creating the world, Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness, called Erebus, and the dark Night, named Nikta. As a result of the union of Nikta and Erebus, Ether was born - the eternal Light and Hemera - the bright Day. Thanks to their appearance, the light filled the whole world, and day and night began to replace each other.

Gaia, a powerful and gracious goddess, created the immense blue Sky - Uranus. Spread over the Earth, he reigned throughout the world. High Mountains proudly stretched towards him, and the noisy Sea spread over the whole Earth.

Goddess Gaia and her Titan children

After Mother Earth created the Sky, Mountains and Sea, Uranus decided to take Gaia as his wife. From the divine union came 6 sons and 6 daughters.

Titan Ocean and the goddess Thetis created all the rivers that rolled their waters to the sea, and the goddesses of the seas, called oceanides. Titan Gipperion and Theia gave the world Helios - the Sun, Selena - the Moon and Eos - the Dawn. Astrea and Eos gave birth to all the stars and all the winds: Boreas - the north, Eurus - the east, Notus - the south, Zephyr - the west.

The overthrow of Uranus - the beginning of a new era

The goddess Gaia - the mighty Earth - gave birth to 6 more sons: 3 cyclops - giants with one eye in the forehead, and 3 fifty-headed hundred-armed monsters called Hekantocheirs. They possessed boundless power that knew no limits.

Struck by the ugliness of his giant children, Uranus renounced them and ordered them to be imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth. Gaia, being a Mother, suffered, weighed down by a terrible burden: after all, her own children were imprisoned in her bowels. Unable to stand it, Gaia called her children-titans, persuading them to rebel against their father - Uranus.

Battle of the gods with the titans

Being great and powerful, the titans were still afraid of their father. And only Kronos, the youngest and most treacherous, accepted his mother's offer. Having outwitted Uranus, he overthrew him, seizing power.

As a punishment for the deed of Kronos, the goddess Night gave birth to death (Tanat), discord (Eris), deceit (Apata),

Kronos devouring his child

destruction (Ker), nightmare (Hypnos) and vengeance (Nemesis) and other terrible gods. All of them brought horror, discord, deceit, struggle and misfortune to the world of Kronos.

Despite his cunning, Kronos was afraid. His fear was built on personal experience: after all, the children could overthrow him, as he once overthrew Uranus - his father.

Fearing for his life, Kronos ordered his wife Rhea to bring him born children. To Rhea's horror, 5 of them were eaten: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.

Zeus and his reign

Heeding the advice of her father Uranus and her mother Gaia, Rhea fled to the island of Crete. There, in a deep cave, she gave birth to her youngest son, Zeus.

Hiding the newborn in it, Rhea tricked the hard Kronos into swallowing a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of her son.

As time went. Kronos did not figure out his wife's deceit. Zeus grew up while in Crete. His nannies were nymphs - Adrastea and Idea, instead of mother's milk, he was fed with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea, and industrious bees carried honey to baby Zeus from Mount Dikta.

If Zeus began to cry, the young Curetes, who stood at the entrance to the cave, struck their shields with their swords. Loud sounds drowned out the crying so that Kronos would not hear it.

The myth of the birth of Zeus: feeding the milk of the divine goat Amalthea

Zeus grew up. Having defeated Kronos in battle with the help of the Titans and the Cyclopes, he became the supreme deity of the Olympian Pantheon. Lord heavenly powers commanded thunder, lightning, clouds and showers. He dominated the universe, giving people laws and protecting order.

Views of the Ancient Greeks

The Greeks believed that the gods of Olympus are like people, and the relationship between them is comparable to human. Their lives were also filled with quarrels and reconciliations, envy and interference, resentment and forgiveness, joy, fun and love.

In the views of the ancient Greeks, each deity had its own occupation and sphere of influence:

Zeus - lord of the sky, father of gods and people
Hera - the wife of Zeus, the patroness of the family
Poseidon - the sea
Hestia - family hearth
Demeter - agriculture
Apollo - light and music
Athena - wisdom
Hermes - trade and messenger of the gods
Hephaestus - fire
Aphrodite - beauty
Ares - war
Artemis - hunting

From the earth, people each turned to their god, according to their destiny. Temples were built everywhere to propitiate them, and gifts were offered instead of sacrifices.

In Greek mythology, not only Chaos, the Titans and the Olympian Pantheon mattered, there were other gods.

Nymphs Naiads who lived in streams and rivers
Nereids - nymphs of the seas
Dryads and Satyrs - nymphs of the forests
Echo - nymph of mountains
Goddesses of fate: Lachesis, Clotho and Atropos.

The rich world of myths gave us ancient greece. It's filled deep meaning and instructive stories. Thanks to them, people can learn ancient wisdom and knowledge.

How many different legends exist at the moment, do not count. But believe me, every person should get acquainted with them after spending time with Apollo, Hephaestus, Hercules, Narcissus, Poseidon and others. Welcome to the ancient world of the ancient Greeks!

The most ancient gods of Ancient Greece, known to us from myths, were the personifications of those forces of nature, whose activity determines physical life and arouses fear and horror, now hope and trust in the human heart - the personifications of forces mysterious to man, but obviously dominating his fate, which were the first objects of worship among all peoples. But the gods of ancient Greece were not only symbols of the forces of external nature; they were at the same time the creators and keepers of all moral blessings, the personifications of all the forces of moral life. All those forces human spirit, by which cultural life is created, and the development of which among the Greek people gave it such importance in the history of mankind, were invested by him in the myths of the gods. The gods of Greece are the personifications of all the great and beautiful forces of the Greek people; the world of the gods of Ancient Greece is a complete reflection of Greek civilization. The Greeks made their gods in myths like men, so they felt obliged to become like gods; concern for perfection was a religious duty for them. Greek culture has a close relationship with the Greek religion.

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. Cartoon

Different generations of the gods of ancient Greece

The basis of the religion of ancient Greece in Pelasgian times was the worship of the forces of nature, manifested in heaven, on earth, in the sea. Those gods who were among the pre-Greek Pelasgians the most ancient personifications of the forces of earth and sky, were overthrown by a series of catastrophes, the traditions of which have been preserved in ancient Greek myths about the struggle of the Olympians with the titans and giants. The new gods of Ancient Greece, who took dominion from the former, descended from them, but already had a completely human image.

Zeus and Hera

So, new anthropoid gods began to rule the world, the main of which was Zeus, the son of Kron, in myths; but the former gods, personified by the forces of nature, have retained their mysterious effectiveness, which even the omnipotent Zeus cannot overcome. As almighty kings are subject to the laws of the moral world, so Zeus and other new gods of ancient Greece are subject to the laws of nature, fate.

Zeus, chief god in the myths of Ancient Greece - the collector of clouds, sitting on a throne in the height of the ether, stunning with his lightning shield, the Aegis (thundercloud), life-giving and fertilizing the earth, at the same time he is also the establisher, guardian of the lawful order. Under his protection are all rights, and especially family rights and the custom of hospitality. He tells rulers to be concerned about the welfare of those who are ruled. He gives prosperity to kings and peoples, cities and families; he is justice. He is the source of all that is good and noble. He is the father of the goddesses of hours (Or), personifying the correct course of annual changes in nature and the correct order of human life; he is the father of the Muses, who give joy to the heart of man.

His wife, Hera, in the myths of Ancient Greece, is a quarrelsome goddess of the atmosphere, who has a rainbow (Iris) and clouds (the Greek name for the cloud, nephele, a feminine word) as her servants, at the same time she is the establisher of the sacred marriage union, in honor of which the Greeks performed on feast of abundant flowers spring solemn ceremonies. The goddess Hera is a strict guardian of the sanctity of the marriage union and under her protection is a housewife faithful to her husband; she blesses marriage with children and guards children. Hera relieves women of the suffering of childbirth; she is assisted in this care by her daughter Eileithyia.

Athena Pallas

The virgin goddess Pallas Athena, according to the myths of ancient Greece, was born from the head of Zeus. Initially, she was considered the goddess of the clear sky, who disperses gloomy clouds with her spear, and the personification of victorious energy in any struggle. Athena was always depicted with a shield, sword and spear. Her constant companion was the winged goddess of victory (Nika). Among the Greeks, Athena was the guardian of cities and fortresses, she also gave people the correct, fair social and state orders. The image of the goddess Athena personified wise balance, a calm, penetrating mind, necessary for the creators of works of mental activity and art.

Statue of Athena the Virgin in the Parthenon. Sculptor Phidias

In ancient Greece, Pallas was most revered by the Athenians, the inhabitants of the city named after this goddess. The public life of Athens was imbued with the service of Pallas. A huge statue of Athena by Phidias stood in the magnificent temple of the Athenian Acropolis - the Parthenon. Athena was connected with the famous ancient Greek city by many myths. The most famous of these was the myth of the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. The goddess Athena won it, giving the region the basis of its agriculture - the olive tree. Ancient Athens made many holidays in honor of the beloved goddess. The main of them were two Panathenaic holidays - Great and Small. Both of them, according to the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, were established by one of the oldest progenitors of Athens - Erechtheus. Small Panathenaic was celebrated annually, and the Great - once every four years. On the great Panathenaia, all the inhabitants of Attica gathered in Athens and staged a magnificent procession, during which a new mantle (peplos) was carried to the Acropolis for the ancient statue of the goddess Pallas. The procession marched from Keramik through the main streets, which were crowded with people in white robes.

God Hephaestus in Greek myths

To Pallas Athena, the goddess of the arts, Hephaestus, the god of heavenly and earthly fire, was close in meaning in ancient Greek myths. The activity of Hephaestus was most strongly manifested by volcanoes on the islands, especially on Lemnos and in Sicily; but in the application of fire to the affairs of human life, Hephaestus greatly helped the development of culture. Prometheus, who brought fire to people and taught them worldly arts, is also closely related to the concept of Athena. These three gods were dedicated to the Attic festival of running with torches, a competition in which the winner was the one who first ran with a burning torch to the goal. Athena Pallas was the inventor of those arts that women were engaged in; lame Hephaestus, who was often joked about by poets, was the founder of blacksmithing and a master in metal work. Like Athena, he was the god of the hearth in ancient Greece. family life, therefore, under the auspices of Hephaestus and Athena, a wonderful holiday of the “state family”, the feast of Anaturius, was celebrated in Athens, on which newborn children were surrounded by a steep hearth, and this rite consecrated their acceptance into the family union of the state.

God Vulcan (Hephaestus). Statue by Thorvaldsen, 1838

Hestia

The significance of the hearth as the center of family life and the beneficial effect of a strong domestic life on moral and social life were personified in the myths of Ancient Greece by the virgin goddess Hestia, a representative of the concepts of a strong settled life, a comfortable home life, the symbol of which was the sacred fire of the hearth. Initially, Hestia was in the ancient Greek myths about the gods the personification of the earth, over which the ethereal fire of the sky burns; but later it became a symbol of civil well-being, which receives strength on earth only when the earth is in union with heaven, as a divine institution. Therefore, in every Greek house, the hearth was the religious center of the family. Whoever approached the hearth and sat on its ashes, he acquired the right to patronage. Each tribal union of Ancient Greece had a common sanctuary of Hestia, in which they reverently performed symbolic rites. In ancient times, when there were kings and when the king made sacrifices as a representative of the people, settled litigations, gathered noble people and ancestors for advice, the hearth of the royal house was a symbol of the state connection of the people; after, the pritaney, the religious center of the state, had the same significance. An inextinguishable fire burned on the state hearth of the pritanei, and the pritanes, the elected rulers of the people, had to take turns being constantly at this hearth. The hearth was the link between earth and heaven; because Hestia was in ancient Greece and the goddess of sacrifice. Each solemn sacrifice began with a sacrifice to her. And all public prayers of the Greeks began with an appeal to Hestia.

Myths about the god Apollo

For more details, see the separate article God Apollo

The god of shining light, Apollo, was the son of Zeus from Latona (who was the personification of the dark night in ancient Greek myths). His cult was brought to Ancient Greece from Asia Minor, where the local god Apelun existed. According to Greek myths, Apollo spends the winter in the distant country of the Hyperboreans, and in the spring he returns to Hellas, infusing life into nature, and joy and the desire to sing into man. Apollo was therefore recognized as the god of singing - and in general of that inspiring force that gives rise to art. Thanks to the life-giving qualities, the cult of this god was also associated with the idea of healing, protection from evil. With his well-aimed arrows (solar rays), Apollo destroys all filth. This idea was symbolically expressed by the ancient Greek myth about the murder of the terrible serpent Python by Apollo. The skilled shooter Apollo was considered the brother of the goddess of hunting Artemis, with whom he killed the sons of the excessively proud sons with arrows. Niobe.

The ancient Greeks considered poetry and music to be the gift of Apollo. Poems and songs were always performed at his holidays. According to legend, having defeated the monster of darkness, Python, Apollo composed the first paean (victory hymn). As the god of music, he was often depicted with a kithara in his hands. Since poetic inspiration is akin to prophetic, in the myths of ancient Greece, Apollo was also recognized as the supreme patron of soothsayers, who gives them a prophetic gift. Almost all Greek oracles (including the main one - Delphic) were founded in the sanctuaries of Apollo.

Apollo Saurokton (killing a lizard). Roman copy of a statue of Praxiteles, 4th c. BC

The god of music, poetry, singing, Apollo was in the myths of Ancient Greece the lord of the goddesses of the arts - muses, nine daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory Mnemosyne. The groves of Parnassus and Helikon located in the vicinity of Delphi were considered the main abode of the Muses. As the ruler of the Muses, Apollo had the epithet "Muzageta". Clio was the muse of history, Calliope of epic poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Thalia of comedy, Erato of love poetry, Euterpe of lyrics, Terpsichore of dances, Polyhymnia of hymns, Urania of astronomy.

The sacred plant of Apollo was laurel.

The god of light, purity and healing, Apollo in the myths of Ancient Greece not only heals people from ailments, but also cleanses from sins. From this side, his cult comes into even closer contact with moral ideas. Even after the victory over the evil monster Python, Apollo considered it necessary to cleanse himself of the filth of the murder and, in his atonement, went to serve as a shepherd for the Thessalian king Admet. By this, he gave people an example that he who committed bloodshed should always repent, and became the god-purifier of murderers and criminals. In Greek myths, Apollo healed not only the body, but also the soul. He found forgiveness for penitent sinners, but only with sincerity of repentance. According to ancient Greek customs, the murderer was supposed to earn forgiveness from the relatives of the murdered, who had the right to take revenge on him, and spend eight years in exile.

Apollo was the main tribal god of the Dorians, who every year celebrated two great holidays in honor of him: Karnei and Iakinthii. The Karney festival was held in honor of Apollo the Warrior, in the month of Karney (August). During this holiday, military games, competitions in singing and dancing were held. Iakinthia, celebrated in July (nine days), was accompanied by sad rites in memory of the death of the beautiful young man Iakinf (Hyacinth), the personification of flowers. According to the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, Apollo accidentally killed this favorite of his while throwing a disc (a symbol of how the disc of the sun kills flowers with its heat). But Hyacinth was resurrected and taken to Olympus - and at the festival of Iakinthius, after the sad rites, cheerful processions of young men and girls with flowers took place. The death and resurrection of Iakinf personified winter death and spring rebirth of plants. This episode of ancient Greek myth seems to have developed under strong Phoenician influence.

Myths about the goddess Artemis

Apollo's sister, Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon, walked the mountains and forests, hunting; bathed with nymphs, her companions, in cool streams; was the patroness of wild animals; at night she irrigated the thirsty earth with life-giving dew. But at the same time, in the myths of Ancient Greece, Artemis was also a goddess who destroyed sailors, so in ancient times of Greece, people were sacrificed to her to propitiate her. With the development of civilization, Artemis became the goddess of virginal purity, the patroness of brides and girls. When they got married, they brought gifts to her. Artemis of Ephesus was the goddess of fertility, who gave harvest to the earth and children to women; in the idea of it, the myths of ancient Greece were probably joined by oriental concepts. Artemis was depicted as having many nipples on her chest; this signified that she was a generous breadwinner of the people. At the magnificent temple of Artemis there were many hierodula and many servants dressed in a man's dress and armed; therefore, in ancient Greek myths, it was believed that this temple was founded by the Amazons.

Artemis. Statue in the Louvre

The original physical significance of Apollo and Artemis in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods was more and more obscured by the moral one. Therefore, Greek mythology created a special sun god, Helios, and a special moon goddess, Selene. - A special god, the son of Apollo, Asclepius, was also made a representative of the healing power of Apollo.

Ares and Aphrodite

Ares, the son of Zeus and Hera, was originally a symbol of the stormy sky, and his homeland was Thrace, the land of winter storms. Among the ancient Greek poets, he became the god of war. Ares is always armed; he loves the noise of battle. Ares is furious. But he was also the founder of the sacred Athenian tribunal that judged cases of murder, which had its meeting place on a hill dedicated to Ares, the Areopagus, and was also called the Areopagus after this hill. And as the god of storms, and as a furious god of battles, he is the opposite of Pallas Athena, the goddess of the clear sky and judicious conduct of battles. Therefore, in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, Pallas and Ares are hostile to each other.

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

Aphrodite and her son Eros (Eros), turned by poets and artists into the oldest among theogonic gods, into the youngest of Olympic gods, and who became a young man accompanying his mother, later even a child, were favorite subjects of ancient Greek art. The sculpture usually depicted Aphrodite naked, emerging from the waves of the sea; she was given all the charm of a beauty, whose soul is full of feelings of love. Eros was portrayed as a boy with soft, rounded body outlines.

Myths about the god Hermes

With the development of culture in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, the Pelasgian god of nature Hermes also received moral significance, to whom the Arcadian shepherds made sacrifices on Mount Kyllene; he was with them the personification of the power of heaven, giving grass to their pastures, and the father of their ancestor, Arkas. According to their myths, Hermes, while still a baby, wrapped in a lullaby (in the fog of dawn), stole the herds (bright clouds) of the sun god, Apollo, and hid them in a damp cave near the seashore; stringing strings on a tortoise shell, he made a lyre, and by presenting it to Apollo, gained the friendship of this more powerful god. Hermes also invented the shepherd's flute, with which he walks through the mountains of his homeland. Subsequently, Hermes became the guardian of roads, crossroads and travelers, the guardian of streets, boundaries. Stones were placed on the latter, former symbols Hermes, and his images, which gave the boundaries of the plots holiness, strength.

God Hermes. Sculpture of Phidias (?)

Hermes (that is, the symbols of Hermes) were originally just heaps of stones, poured on the boundaries, along the roads and especially at the crossroads; these were landmarks and road signs, considered sacred. Passers-by threw stones to those laid before. Sometimes oil was poured on these heaps of stones dedicated to the god Hermes, as on primitive altars; they were decorated with flowers, wreaths, ribbons. Subsequently, the Greeks placed trihedral or tetrahedral stone pillars as travel and boundary signs; over time, they began to give them a more skillful finish, they usually made a pillar with a head, sometimes with a phallus, a symbol of fertility. Such germs stood along the roads, and along the streets, squares, at the gates, at the doors; they were also placed in palestras, in gymnasiums, because Hermes was the patron of gymnastic exercises in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods.

From the concept of the god of rain penetrating the earth, the idea of mediation between heaven, earth and the underworld developed, and Hermes became in the myths of ancient Greece a god who escorts the souls of the dead to the underworld (Hermes Psychopompos). Thus, he was put in close connection with the gods living in the earth (the chthonic gods). These ideas came from the concept of the connection between the emergence and death of plants in the cycle of life of nature and from the concept of Hermes as the messenger of the gods; they served as the source of many ancient Greek myths that placed Hermes in very diverse relationships to the everyday affairs of people. The original myth already made him cunning: he deftly stole the cows of Apollo and managed to make peace with this god; with deft inventions, Hermes knew how to extricate himself from difficult situations. This trait remained an invariable attribute of the character of the god Hermes in the later ancient Greek myths about him: he was the personification of worldly dexterity, the patron of all activities in which success is given by the ability to speak deftly and the ability to remain silent, hide the truth, pretend, deceive. In particular, Hermes was the patron god of trade, oratory, embassies and diplomatic affairs in general. With the development of civilization, the concept of these activities became predominant in the idea of Hermes, and his original shepherd meaning was transferred to one of the minor gods, Pan, "the god of pastures", just as the physical meaning of Apollo and Artemis was transferred to less important gods, Helios and Selena.

God Pan

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

God Pan and Daphnis, the hero of an ancient Greek novel. antique statue

Poseidon in the myths of ancient Greece

For more details, see the separate article God Poseidon

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

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

Like Zeus, Poseidon had many love affairs in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, many sea gods and goddesses, and many heroes were his children. Tritons belonged to the retinue of Poseidon, the number of which was innumerable. They were cheerful creatures of the most diverse forms, personifications of noisy, ringing, sliding waves and the mysterious forces of the depths of the sea, fantastically transformed sea animals. They played pipes made of shells, frolicked, dragged after the Nereids. They were one of my favorite pieces of art. Proteus, the sea god, the soothsayer of the future, who, according to ancient Greek myths, had the ability to take on all kinds of forms, also belonged to the numerous retinue of Poseidon. When the Greek sailors began to sail far, then, returning, they amazed their people with myths about the wonders of the western sea: about sirens, beautiful sea girls who live there on underwater islands under the bright surface of the waters and seductively lure sailors into death with seductive singing, about the good Glaucus , a sea god who predicts the future, about the terrible monsters Scylla and Charybdis (personifications of a dangerous rock and whirlpool), about the wicked Cyclops, one-eyed giants, the sons of Poseidon living on the island of Trinacria, where Mount Etna, about the beautiful Galatea, about a rocky, walled island , where the god of the winds Eol lives cheerfully in a magnificent palace with his airy sons and daughters.

Underground gods - Hades, Persephone

Most similar to Eastern religions in the myths of Ancient Greece, the worship of those gods of nature, which acted both in the bowels of the earth and on its surface. Human life is in such close connection with the development and withering of vegetation, with the growth and ripening of bread and grapes, that divine services, popular beliefs, art, religious theories and myths about the gods combined their most profound ideas with the mysterious activity of the gods of the earth. The circle of phenomena of plant life was a symbol of human life: luxurious vegetation quickly fades from the heat of the sun or from the cold; perishes at the onset of winter, and is reborn in the spring from the ground in which its seeds hid in the fall. It was easy to draw a parallel with ancient Greek mythology: so a person, after a short life under the joyful light of the sun, descends into the dark underworld, where instead of the radiant Apollo and the bright Athena Pallas, the gloomy, stern Hades (Hades, Aidoneus) and the strict beauty, his wife, reign in the magnificent palace , formidable Persephone. Thoughts about how close birth and death are to each other, about the fact that the earth - both the mother's womb and the coffin, served in the myths of Ancient Greece as the basis for the cult of the underground gods and gave it a dual character: it had a joyful side, and there was a sad side. And in Hellas, as in the East, the service to the gods of the earth was exalted; its rites consisted in expressing feelings of joy and sadness, and those who performed them had to indulge in boundless action of the emotional disturbances they caused. But in the East, this exaltation led to a perversion of natural feelings, to the fact that people mutilated themselves; and in ancient Greece the cult of the gods of the earth developed the arts, aroused reflection on religious questions, led people to acquire sublime ideas about the deity. The holidays of the gods of the earth, especially Dionysus, greatly contributed to the development of poetry, music, dances; plastics liked to take subjects for their works from the circle of ancient Greek myths about funny fantastic creatures that accompany Pan and Dionysus. And the Eleusinian mysteries, whose teachings spread throughout the Greek world, gave thoughtful interpretations of the myths about the “mother earth”, the goddess Demeter, about the abduction of her daughter (Cora) Persephone by the harsh ruler of the underworld, that Persephone’s life goes on on earth, then underground. These teachings inspired man that death is not terrible, that the soul survives the body. The forces ruling in the bowels of the earth aroused reverent caution in the ancient Greeks; these forces could not be spoken of fearlessly; thoughts about them were conveyed in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods under the guise of symbols, were not expressed directly, had only to be guessed under allegories. Mysterious teachings surrounded with solemn mystery these formidable gods, in the concealment of darkness, creating life and perceiving the dead, ruling the earthly and afterlife of man.

The gloomy husband of Persephone, Hades (Hades), "Zeus of the underworld", rules in the depths of the earth; there are sources of wealth and fertility; hence he is also called Pluto, "the enricher." But there are all the horrors of death. According to ancient Greek myths, wide gates lead to the vast dwelling of the king of the dead Hades. Everyone can freely enter them; their guardian, the three-headed dog Cerberus, kindly lets those in, but does not allow them to return. Weeping willows and barren poplars surround the vast palace of Hades. The shadows of the dead hover over gloomy fields overgrown with weeds, or nest in the crevices of underground rocks. Some of the heroes of ancient Greece (Hercules, Theseus) went to the underworld of Hades. The entrance to it was according to various myths in different countries but always in the wilderness, where rivers flow through deep gorges, the water of which seems dark, where caves, hot springs and vapors show the proximity of the realm of the dead. Thus, for example, there was an entrance to the underworld at the Thesprotian Gulf in southern Epirus, where the Acheron River and Lake Acheruz infected their surroundings with miasma; at Cape Tenar; in Italy, in a volcanic area near the city of Cum. In the same areas were those oracles whose answers were given by the souls of the dead.

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

The two main rivers of the underworld, according to the myths of the Greeks, are the Styx and Acheron, "a deafly noisy river of eternal sorrow." In addition to them, there were three more rivers in the realm of the dead: Lethe, whose water destroyed the memory of the past, Piriflegeton (“Fire River”) and Cocytus (“Sobbing”). The souls of the dead were taken to the underworld of Hades by Hermes. Stern old man Charon transported in his boat through the Styx surrounding the underworld kingdom those souls whose bodies were buried with an obol placed in a coffin to pay him for the transportation. The souls of the unburied people had to wander homelessly along the banks of the river, not taken into the boat of Charon. Therefore, whoever found an unburied body was obliged to cover it with earth.

The ideas of the ancient Greeks about the life of the dead in the kingdom of Hades changed with the development of civilization. In the oldest myths, the dead are ghosts, unconscious, but these ghosts instinctively do the same things they did when they were alive; are the shadows of living people. Their existence in the kingdom of Hades was dreary and sad. The shadow of Achilles tells Odysseus that she would rather live on earth as a day laborer for the poor than to be the king of the dead in the underworld. But offering sacrifices to the dead improved their miserable lot. The improvement consisted either in the fact that the severity of the underground gods was softened by these sacrifices, or in the fact that the shadows of the dead drank the blood of the sacrifices, and this drink restored their consciousness. The Greeks offered sacrifices to the dead in their tombs. Turning their faces to the west, they cut the sacrificial animal over a deep hole, purposely dug in the ground, and the blood of the animal flowed into this hole. After, when ideas about the afterlife were more fully developed in the Eleusinian mysteries, the myths of Ancient Greece began to divide the underworld of Hades into two parts, Tartarus and Elysius. In Tartarus, villains led a miserable existence, condemned by the judges of the dead; they were tormented by Erinyes, strict guardians of moral laws, inexorably avenging any violation of the requirements of moral feeling, and countless evil spirits, in the invention of which the Greek fantasy showed the same inexhaustibility as the Egyptian, Indian and medieval European. Elysium, which, according to ancient Greek myths, lay by the ocean (or an archipelago on the ocean, called the islands of the Blessed), was the area of the afterlife of the heroes of ancient times and the righteous. There the wind is always mild, there is no snow, no heat, no rain; there, in the myths of the gods, the good Cronus reigns; the earth gives harvest there three times a year, the meadows there are forever in bloom. Heroes and the righteous lead a blissful life there; on their heads are wreaths, near their hands are garlands of the most beautiful flowers and branches of beautiful trees; they enjoy singing, horseback riding, gymnastic games.

The most just and wise legislators of the mythical Cretan-Carian time also live there, Minos and Rhadamanthus, and the pious ancestor of the Aeacids, Aeacus, who, according to later myth, became judges of the dead. Under the chairmanship of Hades and Persephone, they examined the feelings and deeds of people and decided, according to the merits of a dead person, whether his soul should go to Tartarus or Elysium. - Both they and other pious heroes of ancient Greek myths were rewarded for their beneficial activities on earth by continuing their studies in afterlife so the great transgressors of the mythical tales were subjected by divine justice to punishments in proportion to their crimes. Myths about their fate in the underworld showed the Greeks what bad inclinations and passions lead to; this fate was only a continuation, a development of the deeds they committed in life and gave rise to the torments of their conscience, the symbols of which were the pictures of their material torments. So, the impudent Titius, who wanted to rape the mother of Apollo and Artemis, lies thrown to the ground; two kites constantly torment his liver, an organ that, according to the Greeks, was a receptacle for sensual passions (an obvious alteration of the myth of Prometheus). The punishment for another hero of myths, Tantalus, for his former lawlessness was that the cliff hanging over his head constantly threatened to crush him, and besides this fear, he was tormented by thirst and hunger: he stood in the water, but when he bent down to drink, the water moved away from his lips and went down "to the black bottom"; fruits hung before his eyes; but when he stretched out his hands to pluck them, the wind lifted the branches up. Sisyphus, the treacherous king of Ether (Corinth), was condemned to roll a stone up the mountain, constantly rolling down; - the personification of the waves, constantly running on the banks of the Isthm, and running away from them. The eternal vain labor of Sisyphus symbolized unsuccessful tricks in ancient Greek myths, and the cunning of Sisyphus was the mythical personification of the quality developed in merchants and sailors by the riskiness of their affairs. Ixion, the king of the Lapiths, "the first killer", was tied to a fiery wheel that was always spinning; this was a punishment for him because, while visiting Zeus, he violated the rights of hospitality, he wanted to rape the chaste Hera. - The Danaids always carried water and poured it into a bottomless barrel.

Myths, poetry, art of ancient Greece taught people goodness, turned them away from vices and evil passions, depicting the bliss of the righteous and the torment of the evil in the afterlife. There were episodes in the myths that showed that, having descended into the underworld, one could return from there to the earth. So, for example, it was said about Hercules that he defeated the forces of the underworld; Orpheus, by the power of his singing and his love for his wife, softened the harsh gods of death, and they agreed to return Eurydice to him. In the Eleusinian mysteries, these legends served as symbols of the idea that the power of death should not be considered irresistible. Ideas about the underground kingdom of Hades received an interpretation in new myths and sacraments that reduced the fear of death; the gratifying hope of bliss in the afterlife was manifested in ancient Greece under the influence of the Eleusinian mysteries, and in works of art.

In the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, Hades gradually became the good lord of the kingdom of the dead and the giver of wealth; the trappings of horror were eliminated from representations of him. The genius of death in the oldest works of art was depicted as a dark-colored boy with twisted legs, symbolically denoting the idea that life is broken by death. Little by little, in ancient Greek myths, he took on the form of a beautiful young man with a bowed head, holding an overturned and extinguished torch in his hand, and became completely similar to his meek brother, the Genius of sleep. Both of them live with their mother, night, in the west. From there every evening a winged dream arrives and, rushing over people, pours calmness on them from a horn or from a poppy stalk; he is accompanied by the geniuses of dreams - Morpheus, Phantaz, bringing joy to the sleeping. Even Erinyes lost their ruthlessness in ancient Greek myths, they became Eumenides, "Well-wishers". So with the development of civilization, all the ideas of the ancient Greeks about the underground kingdom of Hades softened, ceased to be terrible, and its gods became beneficent, life-giving.

Goddess Gaia, who was the personification general concept about the earth that gives birth to everything and perceives everything back into itself, did not come to the fore in the myths of ancient Greece. Only in some of the sanctuaries that had oracles, and in the theogonic systems that set out the history of the development of the cosmos, she was mentioned as the mother of the gods. Even the ancient Greek oracles, which originally all belonged to her, passed almost all under the rule of the new gods. The life of nature, developing on earth, was produced from the activity of the deities who ruled over its various regions; the worship of these gods, which had a more or less special character, is in very close connection with the development of Greek culture. The power of vegetation, producing forests and green meadows, vines and bread, was explained even in Pelasgian times by the activity of Dionysus and Demeter. Later, when the influence of the East penetrated Ancient Greece, a third, borrowed from Asia Minor, the earth goddess Rhea Cybele, was added to these two gods.

Demeter in the myths of ancient Greece

Demeter, "earth-mother", was in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods the personification of that force of nature, which, with the assistance of sunlight, dew and rain, gives rise and ripening to bread and other fruits of the fields. She was a "fair-haired" goddess, under whose patronage people plow, sow, reap, knit bread in sheaves, thresh. Demeter brings forth harvests. She sent Triptolemus to walk all over the earth and teach people arable farming and good morals. Demeter combined with Jasion, the sower, and bore him Plutos (wealth); she punished the impious Erysichthon, "corrupting the earth," with an insatiable hunger. But in the myths of Ancient Greece, she is also the goddess of married life, giving children. The goddess who taught people about agriculture and proper family life, Demeter was the founder of civilization, morality, and family virtues. Therefore, Demeter was the "law-setter" (Thesmophoros), and the five-day feast of Thesmophoria, "laws", was celebrated in her honor. The rites of this holiday, performed by married women, were a symbolic glorification of agriculture and married life. Demeter was the main goddess of the Eleusinian festival, the rites of which had as their main content the symbolic glorification of the gifts received by people from the gods of the earth. The Amphictyonic Union, which met at Thermopylae, was also under the auspices of Demeter, the goddess of civic amenities.

But the highest significance of the cult of the goddess Demeter was that it contained the doctrine of the relationship between life and death, the bright world under heaven and the dark kingdom of the bowels of the earth. The symbolic expression of this teaching was the beautiful myth of the abduction of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, by the ruthless ruler of the underworld. Demeter "Grieving" (Achaia) went all over the earth, looking for her daughter; and in many cities the feast of Demeter the Sorrowful was celebrated, the sad rites of which resembled the Phoenician cult of Adonis. The human heart yearns for an explanation of the question of death; The Eleusinian mysteries were among the ancient Greeks an attempt to solve this riddle; they were not a philosophical exposition of concepts; they acted on the sense of aesthetic means, consoled, aroused hope. The Attic poets said that those dying are blessed who are initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter: they know the purpose of life and its divine beginning; for them, the descent into the underworld is life, for the uninitiated it is horror. The daughter of Demeter, Persephone, was in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods the connection between the kingdom of the living and underworld; she belonged to both.

Myths about the god Dionysus

For more details, see the separate article God Dionysus

Dionysus in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods originally personified the abundance of plant power. It was clearly manifested in the form of grapes, whose juice intoxicates people. The vine and wine became symbols of Dionysus, and he himself became the god of joy and brotherly rapprochement of people. Dionysus is a powerful god, overcoming everything hostile to him. Like Apollo, he gives inspiration, excites a person to sing, but not harmonious, but wild and violent songs, reaching exaltation - those that later formed the basis of the ancient Greek drama. In the myths of Ancient Greece about Dionysus and in the feast of Dionysius, various and even opposite feelings were expressed: fun at that time of the year when everything blooms, and sadness at the withering of vegetation. Joyful and sad feelings then began to be expressed separately - in comedies and tragedies that arose from the cult of Dionysus. In ancient Greek myths, the symbol of the generative power of nature, the phallus, was closely related to the veneration of Dionysus. Initially, Dionysus was a rude god of the common people. But in the era of tyranny, its importance has increased. The tyrants, who most often acted as leaders of the lower classes in the struggle against the nobility, deliberately contrasted the plebeian Dionysus with the refined gods of the aristocracy and gave the festivities in honor of him a broad, nationwide character.

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We are sure that many of you still believe in unicorns. It seems wonderful to imagine that they still exist somewhere, and we just haven't found them yet. However, even the myth of such a magical creature has a very prosaic and even somewhat frightening explanation.

If it seems to you that website is very skeptical and no longer believes in magic, then at the end of the article a real miracle awaits you!

great flood

Scientists believe that the legend of the Great Flood was based on the memory of major flood, the epicenter of which was Mesopotamia. At the beginning of the last century, during the excavations of the tombs of Ur, a layer of clay was found that separated two cultural layers. Only a catastrophic flood of the Tigris and Euphrates could lead to the appearance of such a phenomenon.

According to other estimates, for 10-15 thousand years BC. e. an incredible flood happened in the Caspian, which spilled over an area of about 1 million square meters. km. The version was confirmed after scientists found sea shells in Western Siberia, the closest distribution area of \u200b\u200bwhich is located in the zone of the Caspian Sea. This flood was so powerful that there was a huge waterfall in the place of the Bosphorus, through which approximately 40 cubic meters were poured per day. km of water (200 times the volume of water passing through Niagara Falls). The flow of such power was at least for 300 days.

This version seems insane, but in this case, it is by no means possible to accuse the ancient people of exaggerating events!

Giants

In modern Ireland, legends are still told about gigantic people who can create an island by simply throwing a handful of earth into the sea. Endocrinologist Marta Korbonitz came up with the idea that ancient legends might have a scientific basis. Incredibly, the researchers found what they were looking for. Huge number of Irish people have mutations in the AIP gene. It was these mutations that caused the development of acromegaly and gigantism. If in the UK the carrier of the mutation is 1 per 2,000 people, then in the province of Mid-Ulster - every 150th.

One of the famous Irish giants was Charles Byrne (1761-1783), his height was over 230 cm.

Legends, of course, give giants huge force However, in reality, not everything is so rosy. People suffering from acromegaly and gigantism often suffer from cardiovascular diseases, they have vision problems and frequent joint pain. Without treatment, many giants may not live past the age of 30.

Werewolves

The legend of werewolves has several origins. Firstly, The life of people has always been connected with the forest. Rock carvings of hybrids of people and animals have come down to us from the deepest antiquity. People wanted to be stronger, they chose a totem animal and wore its skin. On the basis of these beliefs, narcotic drugs also worked, which the soldiers took before the battle and imagined themselves as invincible wolves.

Secondly, belief in the existence of werewolves was also supported by the presence in people of such a genetic disease as hypertrichosis- profuse growth of hair on the body and face, which was called the "werewolf syndrome". Only in 1963 did the doctor Lee Illis give the disease a medical justification. In addition to the genetic disease, there was also a mental disease, known as lycanthropy, during the attacks of which people lose their minds and lose their human qualities, considering themselves wolves. In addition, there is an exacerbation of the disease in certain lunar phases.

By the way, the wolf from the world famous Little Red Riding Hood, according to, was none other than a werewolf. And he didn’t eat his grandmother, but fed his granddaughter.

Vampires

The theory about the connection between the bones of dinosaurs and dragons is confirmed in Mongolia. There, in various geographical names, the word "dragon" is present. This is due to the fact that in some areas of the Gobi Desert, dinosaur bones can be easily found by anyone, because they lie on the surface of the earth's layers. There are many of them even now, so much so that all the time excavations are carried out illegally.
An important detail: there are no such myths in Africa, as well as access to the remains of dinosaurs.

However, why do dragons appear in the human mind as reptiles, with scales and claws? This question is explained by the observation of people. The appearance of the skeleton is similar to the bones of modern lizards., snakes, crocodiles. They enlarged these animals many times - and the result was a dragon. And by the way, it is lizards and snakes that sometimes form not one, but two heads, just like some fairy-tale dragons.

centaurs

The image of the centaur was known as early as the 2nd millennium BC. e. Presumably it originated in Greece as a figment of the imagination of representatives of civilized peoples who did not yet know horseback riding, who first encountered horse riders of some northern nomadic tribes: Scythians, Kassites or Taurians. This explains the ferocious disposition of the centaurs. The nomads really lived in the saddle, skillfully shot from the bow and galloped very quickly. The exaggerated fear of the farmer, who for the first time saw a man who rode so skillfully in the saddle, could well turn into a story about a hybrid of a man and a horse.

By ancient Greek legend, under the palace of King Minos there was a huge labyrinth in which a formidable monster, a half-bull-half-man Minotaur, was imprisoned. The thirst for blood torments the monster so much that its roar shakes the earth.

The island of Crete, where the monster lived, is very interesting for its seismic activity. Part of the island is on a continent called aegean plate, and the other part is oceanic Nubian Plate, which moves directly under the island. This geological phenomenon is called a subduction zone. It is in these areas that there is an increased risk of earthquakes. In Crete, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the African plate is pressing on the oceanic Nubian plate (and you can imagine how huge it is), and a phenomenal thing happens: under the interaction of the plates, the island is simply pushed to the surface. Since the dawn of civilization, Crete has experienced several such climbs, some of them up to 9 meters. It is not surprising that it seemed to ancient people that a furious monster lives in the depths, because every earthquake was accompanied by terrible destruction.

Cyclops

AT ancient Greek mythology cyclops are groups of characters, in different versions they are divine beings (children of Gaia and Uranus) or a separate people. The most prominent representative was Poseidon's son Polyphemus, whom Odysseus deprived of his only eye. The Scythian people of the Arimaspians were also considered one-eyed.

As for the scientific substantiation of these myths, in 1914 the paleontologist Otenio Abel suggested that the finds in antiquity of the skulls of pygmy elephants caused the birth of the myth of the Cyclopes, since the central nasal opening is easily mistaken for a giant eye socket. It is curious that these elephants were found precisely on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta, Crete.

Sodom and Gomorrah

We don't know about you, but we always thought that Sodom and Gomorrah is a very large-scale myth and more like a personification of vicious cities. However, this is quite a historical fact.

Excavations have been underway at Tell el-Hammam in Jordan for over a decade. ancient city. Archaeologists are sure they have found the biblical Sodom. The approximate location of the city has always been known - the Bible described the "Sodom pentagon" in the Jordan Valley. However, its exact location has always raised questions.

In 2006, excavations began, and scientists found a large ancient settlement surrounded by a powerful rampart. According to researchers, people lived here between 3500 and 1540 BC. e. There is no other option for the name of the city, otherwise the mention of such a large settlement would have remained in written sources.

kraken

The kraken is a legendary mythical sea monster of gigantic proportions, a cephalopod known from the descriptions of sailors. The first extensive description was made by Eric Pontoppidan - he wrote that the kraken is an animal "the size of a floating island." According to him, the monster is able to grab a large ship with its tentacles and drag it to the bottom, but the whirlpool that occurs when the kraken quickly sinks to the bottom is much more dangerous. It turns out that a sad end is inevitable - both in the case when the monster attacks, and when it runs away from you. Really creepy!

The rationale for the myth of the "creepy monster" is simple: giant squids still exist today and reach 16 meters in length.

When it comes to unicorns, we are immediately presented with a graceful creature with a rainbow horn in its forehead. Interestingly, they are found in the legends and myths of many cultures. The very first images were found in India and are over 4,000 years old. Later, the myth spread across the continent and reached ancient rome where they were considered absolutely real animals.

The main "candidate" for the role of the prototype of the unicorn are elasmotheria - rhinos of the Eurasian steppes that lived during the Ice Age. Elasmotherium was somewhat horse-like (albeit at a stretch) with an extremely long horn in its forehead. It became extinct at the same time as the main megafauna. However, according to the materials of the Swedish Encyclopedia and the arguments of the researcher Willy Ley, individual representatives could have existed for quite a long time to have time to get into the legends.

Bonus: Moses trail

Surely each of us has heard about the plot from the Bible, which tells how the sea parted before Moses. But few people know that such a phenomenon can be seen near the island of Jindo in South Korea. Here the waters between the islands part for an hour, opening a wide and long road! Scientists explain this miracle by the difference in the time of ebb and flow.

Of course, many tourists come there - in addition to simple walks, they have the opportunity to see the marine inhabitants who remained on the open land. The amazing thing about Moses' Path is that it leads from the mainland to the island.

26.11.2020

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