Greek legends and myths are short. Nikolai kunlegends and myths of ancient greece

The beginning of the world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These were terrible deities of death, discord, revenge and deceit.

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

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

Gods war

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This terrible and cruel battle of the gods lasted for ten years. No one could win, but no one wanted to give up either. Then Zeus decided to call for help from the mighty hundred-armed giants who were still sitting in a deep and gloomy dungeon. Huge terrible giants came to the surface of the Earth and rushed into battle. They tore off entire rocks from the mountain ranges and threw them at the titans besieging Olympus. The air was torn apart by a wild roar, the Earth groaned in pain, and even distant Tartarus shuddered from what was happening above. From the heights of Olympus, Zeus threw fiery lightning down, and everything around blazed with a terrible flame, the water in the rivers and seas boiled from the heat.

Finally, the Titans wavered and retreated. The Olympians chained them up and threw them into the gloomy Tartarus, into the deaf eternal darkness. And at the gates of Tartarus, formidable hundred-armed giants stood guard so that the mighty titans could never break free from their terrible captivity.

But the young gods did not have to celebrate the victory. The goddess Gaia was angry with Zeus because he treated her sons-titans so cruelly. As punishment for him, she gave birth to the terrible monster Typhon and sent him to Zeus.

The Earth itself trembled, and huge mountains reared up when the huge Typhon emerged into the light. All his hundred dragon heads howled, roared, barked, shouted to different voices. Even the gods shuddered in horror when they saw such a monster. Only Zeus was not taken aback. He waved his mighty right hand - and hundreds of fiery lightning fell on Typhon. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed with an unbearable brilliance, water boiled in the seas - a real hell was happening on Earth at that time.

But here the lightnings sent by Zeus reached the goal, and one after another flashed with a bright flame of the head of Typhon. He fell heavily to the wounded Earth. Zeus raised a huge monster and threw it into Tartarus. But even there Typhon did not calm down. From time to time he begins to run amok in his terrible dungeon, and then terrible earthquakes happen, cities collapse, mountains split, cruel storms sweep away all life from the face of the earth. True, Typhon's rampage is now short-lived, he will throw out his wild forces - and calm down for a while, and again everything on earth and in heaven goes on as usual.

This is how the great battle of the gods ended, after which new gods reigned in the world.

Poseidon, lord of the seas

Deep at the very bottom of the sea, the brother of the mighty Zeus Poseidon now lives in his luxurious palace. After that great battle, when the young gods defeated the old ones, the sons of Kron cast lots, and Poseidon got power over all the elements of the sea. He went down to the bottom of the sea, and so he remained there to live forever. But every day Poseidon rises to the surface of the sea to go around his boundless possessions.

Majestic and beautiful, he rushes on his mighty green-maned horses, and obedient waves part before their master. Zeus himself is not inferior to Poseidon in power. Still would! After all, as soon as he waves his formidable trident, a violent storm rises on the sea, huge waves rise to the sky itself and with a deafening roar fall down into the very abyss.

The mighty Poseidon is terrible in anger, and woe to the one who finds himself at such a time at sea. Like weightless chips, huge ships rush along the raging waves until, completely broken and mangled, they collapse into the depths of the sea. Even marine life - fish and dolphins - try to get deeper into the sea in order to wait out the wrath of Poseidon there in safety.

But now his anger passes, majestically he raises his sparkling trident, and the sea calms down. Unprecedented fish rise from the depths of the sea, attach themselves to the chariot of the great god from behind, and cheerful dolphins rush after them. They tumble in the waves of the sea, entertain their mighty master. The beautiful daughters of the sea elder Nereus are splashing in merry flocks in the coastal waves.

One day, Poseidon, as always, raced across the sea in his fleeting chariot and saw a beautiful goddess on the coast of the island of Naxos. It was Amphitrite, the daughter of the sea elder Nereus, who knows all the secrets of the future and gives wise advice. Together with her Nereid sisters, she rested in a green meadow. They ran and frolicked, holding hands, led cheerful round dances.

Poseidon immediately fell in love with the beautiful Amphitrite. He had already sent mighty horses to the shore and wanted to take her away in his chariot. But Amphitrite was frightened by the frantic Poseidon and eluded him. Slowly she made her way to the titan Atlas, who holds the vault of heaven on his powerful shoulders, and asked him to hide her somewhere. Atlas took pity on the beautiful Amphitrite and hid her in a deep cave at the bottom of the Ocean.

Poseidon searched for Amphitrite for a long time and could not find her in any way. Like a fiery whirlwind he rushed across the sea; all this time the fierce storm did not subside on the sea. All the inhabitants of the sea: both fish, and dolphins, and all underwater monsters - went in search of the beautiful Amphitrite in order to calm their raging master.

Finally, the dolphin managed to find her in one of the remote caves. He sailed quickly to Poseidon and showed him the refuge of Amphitrite. Poseidon rushed to the cave and took his beloved with him. He did not forget to thank the dolphin who helped him. He placed it among the constellations in the sky. Since then, the dolphin has been living there, and everyone knows that there is a constellation Dolphin in the sky, but not everyone knows how it got there.

And the beautiful Amphitrite became the wife of the powerful Poseidon and lived happily with him in his luxurious underwater castle. Since then, fierce storms rarely occur at sea, because gentle Amphitrite is very good at taming the wrath of her powerful husband.

The time has come, and a son, the handsome Triton, was born to the divine beauty Amphitrite and the ruler of the seas, Poseidon. How handsome the son of the ruler of the seas, so playful. As soon as he blows into the shell, the sea will immediately become agitated, the waves will rustle, a formidable storm will fall on the unlucky sailors. But Poseidon, seeing the pranks of his son, immediately raises his trident, and the waves subside as if by magic and, gently whispering, serenely splashing, caressing the transparent, clean sea sand on the shore.

The sea elder Nereus often visits his daughter, and her cheerful sisters sail to her. Sometimes Amphitrite goes with them to play on the seashore, and Poseidon is no longer worried. He knows that she will no longer hide from him and will definitely return to their wonderful underwater palace.

dark kingdom

Deep underground lives and reigns the third brother of the great Zeus, severe Hades. He got the underworld by lot, and since then he has been the sovereign master there.

Dark and gloomy in the kingdom of Hades, not a single ray of sunlight breaks through the thickness there. Not a single living voice breaks the sad silence of this gloomy kingdom, only the plaintive groans of the dead fill the entire dungeon with a quiet, indistinct rustle. There are more dead here than living on earth. And they keep coming and coming.

The sacred river Styx flows on the borders of the underworld, on its banks and the souls of the dead fly after death. Patiently and meekly they wait for the carrier Charon to sail for them. He loads his boat with silent shadows and carries them to the other side. He only carries everyone in one direction, his boat always sails back empty.

And there, at the entrance to the realm of the dead, a formidable guard sits - the three-headed dog Kerberos, the son of the terrible Typhon, vicious snakes hiss and writhe on his neck. Only he guards the exit more than the entrance. Without delay, he passes the souls of the dead, but not one of them will come back.

And then their path lies to the throne of Hades. In the middle of his underworld, he sits on a golden throne with his wife Persephone. Once he kidnapped her from the earth, and since then Persephone lives here, in this luxurious, but gloomy and bleak underground palace.

Every now and then Charon brings new souls. Frightened and trembling, they flock together in front of the formidable ruler. Feel sorry for them Persephone, she is ready to help them all, to calm them down and console them. But no, she can't! Here, the inexorable judges Minos and Rhadamanth sit next to each other. They weigh unfortunate souls on their terrible scales, and it immediately becomes clear how much a person has sinned in his life and what fate awaits him here. It is bad for sinners, and especially for those who themselves spared no one during their lifetime, robbed and killed, mocked the defenseless. The inexorable goddesses of vengeance Erinia will not give them a moment of peace now. They rush all over the dungeon after criminal souls, chasing them, waving formidable scourges, hideous snakes writhing on their heads. There is nowhere for sinners to hide from them. How they would like, at least for a second, to find themselves on earth and say to their loved ones: “Be kinder to each other. Don't repeat our mistakes. A terrible retribution awaits everyone after death. But from here there is no way to land. There is only here from the earth.

Leaning on his formidable smashing sword, in a wide black cloak, the terrible god of death Tanat stands near the throne. As soon as Hades waved his hand, Tanat took off from his place and on his huge black wings flies to the bed of the dying man for a new victim.

But now, as if a bright beam swept through a gloomy dungeon. This is the beautiful young Hypnos, the god who brings sleep. He came down here to greet Hades, his master. And then he will rush to the ground again, where people are waiting for him. It happens badly for them if Hypnos lingers somewhere.

He flies above the earth on his light, openwork wings and pours sleeping oil from his horn. He gently touches the eyelashes with his magic wand, and everything sinks into a sweet dream. Neither people nor immortal gods can resist the will of Hypnos - he is so powerful and omnipotent. Even the great Zeus obediently closes his menacing eyes when the beautiful Hypnos waves his wonderful wand.

Hypnos is often accompanied in flights by the gods of dreams. They are very different, these gods, like people. There are kind and cheerful, and there are gloomy and unfriendly. And so it turns out: to whom which god flies, a person will see such a dream. Someone will have a joyful and happy dream, and someone will have an anxious, joyless dream.

Also, the terrible ghost of Empusa with donkey legs and the monstrous Lamia roam the underworld, who likes to sneak into children's bedrooms at night and drag little children away. The terrible goddess Hecate rules over all these monsters and ghosts. As soon as night falls, this whole terrible company comes out to earth, and God forbid anyone to meet them at this time. But with the dawn they again hide in their gloomy dungeon and sit there until dark.

This is what it is - the kingdom of Hades, terrible and bleak.

Olympians

The most powerful of all the sons of Cronus - Zeus - remained on Olympus, he got the sky by lot, and from here he began to reign over the whole world.

Below, on Earth, hurricanes and wars rage, people grow old and die, but here, on Olympus, peace and tranquility reign. There is never winter and frost here, it does not rain and winds do not blow. Golden radiance spreads around day and night. In the luxurious golden palaces that the master Hephaestus built for them, the immortal gods live here. They feast and rejoice in their golden halls. But do not forget about the cases, because each of them has its own responsibilities. And now Themis, the goddess of law, has called everyone to the council of the gods. Zeus wanted to discuss how best to manage people.

The great Zeus sits on a golden throne, and in front of him in a spacious hall are all the other gods. Near his throne, as always, is the goddess of peace, Eirene, and the constant companion of Zeus, winged Nike, the goddess of victory. Here is the fleet-footed Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, and the great warrior goddess Pallas Athena. The beautiful Aphrodite shines with her heavenly beauty.

Late always busy Apollo. But here he flies up to Olympus. The three beautiful Horas that guard the entrance to the high Olympus have already opened a thick cloud in front of him to clear the way for him. And he, shining with beauty, strong and powerful, throwing his silver bow over his shoulders, enters the hall. Joyfully rises to meet him his sister - the beautiful goddess Artemis, a tireless hunter.

And then the majestic Hera enters the hall, in luxurious clothes, a beautiful, fair-haired goddess, the wife of Zeus. All the gods rise and respectfully greet the great Hera. She sits next to Zeus on her luxurious golden throne and listens to what the immortal gods are talking about. She also has her own constant companion. This is the light-winged Irida, the goddess of the rainbow. At the first word of her mistress, Irida is ready to fly to the most remote corners of the Earth in order to fulfill any of her orders.

Today Zeus is calm and peaceful. Calm and other gods. So, everything is in order on Olympus, and things are going well on Earth. Therefore, today the immortals have no grief. They joke and have fun. But it also happens differently. If the mighty Zeus gets angry, he will wave his formidable right hand, and immediately a deafening thunder will shake the whole Earth. One after another, he throws dazzling fiery lightning. It is bad for someone who somehow did not please the great Zeus. It happens that the innocent becomes at such moments an unwitting victim of the unbridled anger of the ruler. But there's nothing you can do about it!

And there are two mysterious vessels at the gates of his golden palace. Good is in one vessel, and evil is in the other. Zeus scoops up from one vessel, then from another and throws handfuls on the Earth. All people should get equally good and evil. But it also happens that someone gets more good, and only evil falls on someone. But no matter how much Zeus sends from his vessels of good and evil to Earth, he still cannot influence the fate of people. This is done by the goddesses of fate - moira, who also live on Olympus. The great Zeus himself depends on them and does not know his fate.

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

Why do we need to know myths?

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

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

This is exactly what A. S. Pushkin thinks.

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

Why is ancient Greek mythology the best?

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

Why did it happen?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Myths of the ancient Greeks

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

cosmogonic;
heroic.

Creation myths

Gods

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

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

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

People

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

Here is what she says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gods in the myths of ancient Greece

	Olympic gods
	Greek goddesses
	Muses
	Names of gods alphabetically

	Hades
	Apollo
	Ares
	Artemis
	Asclepius
	Asteria
	Astray
	Atlant or Atlas
	Athena
	Aphrodite
	Biya
	Harmony
	Hecate
	Helios
	Hemera
	Hera
	Geras
	Hermes
	Hestia
	Hephaestus
	Gaia
	Hypnos
	hyperion
	Deimos
	Demeter
	Dionysus
	Zeus
	Zel
	Iapetus
	calliope
	Kay
	Kera
	Keto
	Clio
	Kratos
	Crius
	Kronos
	Summer
	Melpomene
	Menetius
	Metis
	Mnemosyne
	moira
	Nemesis
	Nika
	Nikta
	nymphs
	Ocean (mythology)
	Ora
	Pallant
	Pan
	Persian (mythology)
	Persephone
	Plutus
	polyhymnia
	Pont
	Poseidon
	Prometheus
	Rhea
	Selene
	Styx
	Waist
	Thanatos
	Tartarus
	Theia
	Terpsichore
	Tethys
	Titans
	Uranus
	Urania
	Phoebe
	Themis
	Thetis
	Phobos
	Forky
	Charites
	Euterpe
	Enyo
	Eos
	Epimetheus
	Erato
	Erebus
	Eris
	Erinyes
	Eros
	Ether

Heroes of Ancient Greece

Characters of Greek myths

	Automedont
	Agave
	Agamemnon
	Admet
	Andromeda
	Antigone (wife of Peleus)
	Antilochus
	Ariadne
	Acheron
	Bellerophon
	Hecatoncheires
	Hector
	Hecuba
	Geryon
	Hesperides

The myths about the gods and their struggle with the giants and titans are set out mainly in Hesiod's poem "Theogony" (The Origin of the Gods). Some legends are also borrowed from the poems of Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey" and the poem of the Roman poet Ovid "Metamorphoses" (Transformations).

In the beginning, there was only eternal, boundless, dark Chaos. In it was the source of the life of the world. Everything arose from the boundless Chaos - the whole world and the immortal gods. From Chaos came the goddess Earth - Gaia. It spread wide, mighty, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. Far under the Earth, as far as the vast, bright sky is from us, in the immeasurable depth, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss, full of eternal darkness. From Chaos, the source of life, a mighty force was born, all animating Love - Eros. The world began to form. Boundless Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the dark Night - Nyukta. And from Night and Darkness came the eternal Light - Ether and the joyful bright Day - Hemera. Light spread over the world, and night and day began to replace each other.

The mighty, fertile Earth gave birth to the boundless blue Sky - Uranus, and the Sky spread over the Earth. The high Mountains, born of the Earth, proudly rose to him, and the eternally noisy Sea spread wide.

Mother Earth gave birth to Heaven, Mountains and the Sea, and they have no father.

Uranus - Sky - reigned in the world. He took the blessed Earth as his wife. Six sons and six daughters - mighty, formidable titans - were Uranus and Gaia. Their son, the titan Ocean, flowing around like a boundless river, the whole earth, and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and sea goddesses - oceanides. Titan Gipperion and Theia gave children to the world: the Sun - Helios, the Moon - Selena and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astrea and Eos came all the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and all the winds: the stormy north wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Noth and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds abundant with rain.

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

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

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

The picture of the life of the gods on Olympus is given according to the works of Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey, glorifying the tribal aristocracy and the basileus who lead it as the best people, standing much higher than the rest of the population. The gods of Olympus differ from aristocrats and basileus only in that they are immortal, powerful and can work miracles.

Birth of Zeus

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

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

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished the little Zeus, they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Bees carried honey to little Zeus from the slopes of the high mountain Dikty. At the entrance to the cave, young Kuretes struck shields with swords whenever little Zeus cried, so that Kron would not hear his cry and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

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

The beautiful and mighty god Zeus grew up and matured. He rebelled against his father and forced him to bring back the children he had devoured into the world. One by one, the monster from the mouth of Kron spewed his children-gods, beautiful and bright. They began to fight with Kron and the titans for power over the world.

This struggle was terrible and stubborn. The children of Kron established themselves on the high Olympus. Some of the titans also took their side, and the first were the titan Ocean and his daughter Styx and their children Zeal, Power and Victory. This struggle was dangerous for the Olympian gods. Mighty and formidable were their opponents the titans. But Zeus came to the aid of the Cyclopes. They forged thunder and lightning for him, Zeus threw them into the titans. The struggle had been going on for ten years, but the victory did not lean to either side. Finally, Zeus decided to free the hundred-armed hecatoncheir giants from the bowels of the earth; he called them for help. Terrible, huge as mountains, they came out of the bowels of the earth and rushed into battle. They tore off entire rocks from the mountains and threw them at the titans. Hundreds of rocks flew towards the titans when they approached Olympus. The earth groaned, a roar filled the air, everything shook around. Even Tartarus shuddered from this struggle.

Zeus threw one fiery lightning after another and deafening roaring thunders. Fire engulfed the whole earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench shrouded everything in a thick veil.

Finally, the mighty titans faltered. Their strength was broken, they were defeated. The Olympians bound them and cast them into the gloomy Tartarus, into eternal darkness. At the indestructible copper gates of Tartarus, hundred-armed hecatoncheirs stood guard, and they guard so that the mighty titans do not break free again from Tartarus. The power of the titans in the world has passed.

Zeus fighting Typhon

But the fight didn't end there. Gaia-Earth was angry with the Olympian Zeus because he acted so harshly with her defeated children-titans. She married the gloomy Tartarus and gave birth to the terrible hundred-headed monster Typhon. Huge, with a hundred dragon heads, Typhon rose from the bowels of the earth. With a wild howl he shook the air. The barking of dogs, human voices, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion were heard in this howl. Stormy flames swirled around Typhon, and the earth shook under his heavy steps. The gods shuddered in horror, but Zeus the Thunderer boldly rushed at him, and the battle caught fire. Again, lightning flashed in the hands of Zeus, thunder rumbled. The earth and the vault of heaven shook to their foundations. The earth flared up again with a bright flame, as it had during the struggle with the titans. The seas boiled at the mere approach of Typhon. Hundreds of fiery arrows-lightnings of the Thunderer Zeus rained down; it seemed that from their fire the very air was burning and dark thunderclouds were burning. Zeus burned all of Typhon's hundred heads to ashes. Typhon collapsed to the ground; such heat emanated from his body that everything around him melted. Zeus raised the body of Typhon and cast it into the gloomy Tartarus, which gave birth to him. But even in Tartarus, Typhon threatens the gods and all living things. He causes storms and eruptions; he gave birth with Echidna, a half-woman half-snake, the terrible two-headed dog Orff, the hellish dog Cerberus, the Lernean hydra and the Chimera; Typhon often shakes the earth.

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 elementary school. Interesting and exciting ancient Greek myths. Grade 3 should read short and entertaining, tragic and instructive stories according to the 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 appointed him a special punishment: to show the futility of all human efforts, he had to roll a huge stone up the mountain, and then this boulder rolled down 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.

The achievements of the ancient Greeks in art, science and politics had a significant impact on the development of European states. Mythology, one of the most well-studied in the world, also played an important role in this process. For many hundreds of years, it has been for many creators. The history and myths of ancient Greece have always been closely intertwined. The realities of the archaic era are known to us precisely thanks to the legends of that period.

Greek mythology took shape at the turn of the II-I millennium BC. e. Tales of gods and heroes spread throughout Hellas thanks to the aeds - wandering reciters, the most famous of which was Homer. Later, during the period of the Greek classics, mythological subjects were reflected in the works of art of the great playwrights - Euripides and Aeschylus. Even later, at the beginning of our era, Greek scientists began to classify myths, to compile genealogical trees of heroes, in other words, to study the heritage of their ancestors.

Origin of the gods

Ancient myths and legends of Greece are dedicated to gods and heroes. According to the ideas of the Hellenes, there were several generations of gods. The first couple to have anthropomorphic features were Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). They gave birth to 12 titans, as well as one-eyed cyclops and many-headed and many-armed hecatoncheir giants. The birth of monster children did not please Uranus, and he threw them into the great abyss - Tartarus. This, in turn, did not please Gaia, and she persuaded her children-titans to overthrow their father (myths about the ancient gods of Greece abound with similar motives). This was managed by the youngest of her sons - Kronos (Time). With the beginning of his reign, history repeated itself.

He, like his father, was afraid of his powerful children, and therefore, as soon as his wife (and sister) Rhea gave birth to another child, he swallowed it. This fate befell Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera and Hades. But Rhea could not part with her last son: when Zeus was born, she hid him in a cave on the island of Crete and instructed the nymphs and Kurets to raise the child, and brought her husband a stone wrapped in diapers, which he swallowed.

War with the titans

The ancient myths and legends of Greece were filled with bloody wars for power. The first of these began after the grown-up Zeus forced Kronos to regurgitate the swallowed children. Enlisting the support of his brothers and sisters and calling for help from the giants imprisoned in Tartarus, Zeus began to fight his father and other titans (some later went over to his side). The main weapons of Zeus were lightning and thunder, which were forged for him by the Cyclopes. The war lasted for a whole decade; Zeus and his allies defeated and imprisoned the enemies in Tartarus. I must say that Zeus was also destined for the fate of his father (fall at the hands of his son), but he managed to avoid it thanks to the help of the titan Prometheus.

Myths about the ancient gods of Greece - the Olympians. Descendants of Zeus

Power over the world was shared by three titans, representing the third generation of gods. These were Zeus the Thunderer (he became the supreme god of the ancient Greeks), Poseidon (the lord of the seas) and Hades (the owner of the underworld of the dead).

They had numerous descendants. All the supreme gods, except for Hades and his family, lived on Mount Olympus (which exists in reality). In ancient Greek mythology, there were 12 main celestials. The wife of Zeus, Hera, was considered the patroness of marriage, and the goddess Hestia was considered the patroness of the hearth. Demeter was in charge of agriculture, Apollo was in charge of light and the arts, and his sister Artemis was revered as the goddess of the moon and the hunt. The daughter of Zeus, Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, was one of the most respected celestials. Sensitive to beauty, the Greeks also revered the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, and her husband Ares, the warlike god. Hephaestus, the god of fire, was praised by craftsmen (in particular, blacksmiths). The cunning Hermes also demanded respect - an intermediary between gods and people and the patron of trade and livestock.

Divine geography

The ancient myths and legends of Greece create a very contradictory image of God in the mind of the modern reader. On the one hand, the Olympians were considered powerful, wise and beautiful, and on the other hand, they were characterized by all the weaknesses and vices of mortal people: envy, jealousy, greed and anger.

As already mentioned, Zeus dominated the gods and people. He gave people laws and controlled their destiny. But not in all areas of Greece, the supreme Olympian was the most revered god. The Greeks lived in city-states and believed that each such city (polis) had its own divine patron. So, Athena favored Attica and its main city - Athens.

Aphrodite was praised in Cyprus, off the coast of which she was born. Poseidon kept Troy, Artemis and Apollo - Delphi. Mycenae, Argos and Samos offered sacrifices to Hera.

Other divine entities

The ancient myths and legends of Greece would not be so intense if only people and gods acted in them. But the Greeks, like other peoples at that time, were inclined to deify the forces of nature, and therefore other powerful creatures are often mentioned in myths. These are, for example, naiads (patrons of rivers and streams), dryads (patrons of groves), oreads (mountain nymphs), nereids (daughters of the sea sage Nereus), as well as various magical creatures and monsters.

In addition, the goat-footed satyrs who accompanied the god Dionysus lived in the forests. Many legends featured wise and warlike centaurs. The goddesses of vengeance Erinnia stood at the throne of Hades, and on Olympus the gods were entertained by muses and charites, patrons of the arts. All these entities often argued with the gods or married with them or with people. Many great heroes and gods were born as a result of such marriages.

Myths of Ancient Greece: Hercules and his exploits

As for the heroes, in every region of Greece it was also customary to honor their own. But invented in the north of Hellas, in Epirus, Hercules became one of the most beloved characters of ancient myths. Hercules is known for the fact that, while in the service of his relative, King Eurystheus, he performed 12 labors (killing the Lernean Hydra, capturing the Kerinean fallow deer and the Erymanthian boar, bringing the belt of Hippolyta, delivering the people from the Stymphalian birds, taming the mares of Diomedes, going to the Kingdom of Hades and other).

Not everyone knows that these deeds were carried out by Hercules as an atonement for guilt (in a fit of madness, he destroyed his family). After the death of Hercules, the gods accepted him into their ranks: even Hera, who throughout the life of the hero plotted against him, was forced to recognize him.

Conclusion

Ancient myths were created many centuries ago. But they are by no means primitive. The myths of Ancient Greece are the key to understanding modern European culture.