Kun myths of ancient Greece table of contents. Legends and myths of ancient Greece

LEGENDS AND MYTHS OF ANCIENT GREECE

From the book of the Russian Soviet scientist N. A. Kun "Legends and Myths Ancient Greece» (M., 1975) we place some of the myths of the Trojan cycle. They tell about the events that preceded those set out in the Iliad, as well as about subsequent events.

In the book of N. A. Kun, the names of some gods and heroes have a spelling that is not traditional for modern science (see the texts of the Iliad, Odyssey and comments).

FROM THE "TROJAN CYCLE"

The myths of the Trojan cycle are expounded on the basis of Homer's poem "Iliad", the tragedies of Sophocles "Ajax the Beaten-Bearer", "Philoctetes", Euripides "Iphigenia in Aulis", "Andromache", "Hecuba", the poems of Virgil "Aeneid", Ovid's "Heroines" and excerpts from other works.

HELENA, DAUGHTER OF ZEUS AND LEDA

The once glorious hero Tyndareus was expelled from his kingdom by Hippocoopt. After long wanderings, he found shelter with the king of Aetolia, Thestius. The king of Festius fell in love with the hero and gave him his beautiful, like a goddess, daughter Leda as a wife. When the son of Zeus Hercules defeated Hippocoon and

killed him and all his sons, Tyndareus returned with his beautiful wife to Sparta and began to rule there.

Leda had four children. The beautiful Helen and Polydeuces were the children of Leda and Zeus the Thunderer, while Clytemnestra and Castor were the children of Leda and Tyndareus.

Elena was wonderful. None of the mortal women could compare with her beauty. Even the goddesses envied her. Throughout Greece, the fame of Elena thundered. Knowing about her divine beauty, he kidnapped Elena great hero Attica Theseus, but Helen's brothers, Polideuces and Castor, freed their sister and returned her to their father's house. One after another, suitors came to the palace of Tyndareus to woo the beautiful Elena, each wanted to call her his wife. Tyndareus did not dare

to give Elena to one of the heroes who came to him as his wife: he was afraid that other heroes, out of envy of the lucky one, would start a fight with him and a great strife would arise. Finally, the cunning hero Odysseus gave this advice to Tyndareus:

Let the beautifully curly Elena decide for herself whose wife she wants to become. And let all the suitors take an oath that they will never take up arms against the one whom Elena chooses as her husband, but will help him with all their might if he calls them in case of trouble for help.

Tyndareus obeyed the advice of Odysseus. All the suitors took an oath, and Elena chose one of them, the beautiful son of Atreus, Menelaus.

He married Helen Menelaus. After the death of Tyndareus, he became king of Sparta. He lived quietly in the palace of Tyndareus,

suspecting how much trouble marriage with the beautiful Elena promises him.

Peleus and Thetis

The famous hero Peleus was the son of the wise Aeacus, the son of Zeus and the daughter of the river god Asopus, Aegina. The brother of Peleus was the hero Telamon, a friend of the greatest of heroes, Hercules. Peleus and Telamon had to leave their homeland, as they killed their half-brother out of envy. Peleus retired to rich Phthia.

There the hero Eurytion received him and gave him a third of his possessions, and his daughter Antigone as his wife. But Peleus did not stay long in Phthia. During the Calydonian hunt, he accidentally killed

Eurytion. Saddened by this, he left Peleus Phthia and went to Iolk. And in Iolka the misfortune of Peleus awaited. In Iolka, the wife of King Akast was captivated by him and persuaded him to forget about his friendship with Akast. Peleus rejected the wife of his friend, and she, in revenge, slandered him in front of her husband. Akast believed his wife and decided to destroy Pelis. Once, during a hunt on the wooded slopes of Pelion, when Peleus, tired of hunting, fell asleep, Akaet hid the wonderful sword of Peleus, which the gods gave him. No one could resist Peleus when he fought with this sword. Acastus was sure that, having lost his wonderful sword, Peleus would die, torn to pieces by wild centaurs. But the wise centaur Chiron came to the aid of Peleus. He helped the hero find a wonderful sword. Wild centaurs rushed at Peleus, ready

tear him to pieces, but he easily repelled them with his wonderful sword. Saved Peleus from inevitable death. Peleus took revenge on the traitor Acastus. With the help of the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces, he took the rich Iolk and killed Acastus and his wife.

When the titan Prometheus discovered the great secret that from the marriage of Zeus with the goddess Thetis a son should be born who would be more powerful than his father and overthrow him from the throne, he advised the gods to give Thetis to Peleus' wife, since a great hero would be born from this marriage. So the gods decided to do; one

they only set a condition: Peleus had to defeat the goddess in single combat.

Hephaestus told Peleus the will of the gods. Peleus went to the grotto, in which Thetis often rested, swimming out of the depths

seas. Peleus hid in the grotto and waited. Here Thetis rose from the sea and entered the grotto. Peleus rushed at her and grabbed her with his mighty arms. Thetis tried to escape. She took the form of a lioness, a snake, turned into water, but Peleus did not let her out. Thetis was defeated, now she was to become the wife of Peleus.

In the vast cave of the centaur Chiron, the gods celebrated the wedding of Peleus with Thetis. The wedding feast was luxurious. All the gods of Olympus participated in it. The golden cithara of Apollo sounded loudly, under its sounds the muses sang about the great glory that would be the lot of the son of Peleus and the goddess Thetis. The gods feasted. Ores and Charites led a round dance to the singing of the muses and the game of Apollo, and among them the warrior goddess Athena and

the young goddess Artemis, but Aphrodite surpassed all the goddesses in beauty. Participated in the round dance and quick as a thought, the messenger of the gods Hermes, and the frantic god of war Ares, who had forgotten about the bloody battles. The gods bestowed richly on the newlyweds. Chiron gave Peleus his spear, the shaft of which was made of iron-hard ash, which grew on Mount Pelion; the ruler of the seas, Poseidon, gave him horses, and the other gods - wonderful armor.

The gods rejoiced. Only the goddess of discord, Eris, did not participate in the wedding feast. She wandered alone near the cave of Chiron, deep in her heart resentment that she was not invited to the feast. Finally, Eris figured out how to take revenge on the gods, how to stir up discord between them. She took a golden apple from the distant gardens of the Hesperides; just one

the word was written on this apple: "To the most beautiful." Eris quietly approached the banquet table and, invisible to everyone, threw a golden apple on the table. The gods saw the apple, raised it and read the inscription on it. But which of the goddesses is the most beautiful? Immediately a dispute arose between the three goddesses: the wife of Zeus Hera, the warrior Athena and the goddess of love, the golden Aphrodite. Each of them sought to get this apple, neither wanted to give it to the other. The goddesses turned to the king of the gods and people Zeus and demanded to resolve their dispute.

Zeus refused to be the judge. He gave the apple to Hermes and ordered him to lead the goddesses in the vicinity of Troy, on the slopes of high Ida. Paris, the son of the king of Troy, Priam, had to decide which of the goddesses should own the apple, which of them is the most beautiful. So ended

Nikolai Albertovich Kun

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

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Nikolai Albertovich Kun (1877–1940) -

Russian historian, writer, teacher, famous researcher of antiquity, author of numerous scientific and popular science works, the most famous of which is the book Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece (1922), which has gone through many editions in the languages of the peoples of the former USSR and the main European languages.

It was N.A. Kun made the world of gods and heroes familiar and close to us. He was the first to try to simplify, to state the Greek myths in his own language and made a lot of efforts to make as many of the most different people became acquainted with this important aspect of Greek culture.

Foreword

For each generation of reading people, there are certain “significant books”, symbols of normal childhood and natural entry into the world of spiritual culture. I think that I will not be mistaken if I name for Russia the 20th century. one of these publications is the book by N.A. Kuhn, Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece. Some incredible charm emanated for everyone who began to read it, from the stories about the deeds of the ancient Greeks, from the fabulous world of the Olympic gods and Greek heroes. Children and adolescents who were lucky enough to discover and fall in love with this book in a timely manner did not think that through myths they penetrate the world of one of the brightest pages of the "childhood of mankind", at least the European one.

The remarkable insight of Professor N.A. Kuna was that his retelling of ancient Greek mythology allowed and allows children to join the origins of the unfading ancient culture through fantastic images of myths and tales of heroes, perceived by the children's consciousness as a fairy tale.

It so happened that the Southern Mediterranean and, first of all, the island of Crete, Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea became the place of a very early flowering of civilization that originated at the turn of the III-II millennium BC. e., that is, about four thousand years ago, and reached at the zenith of what can be safely called perfection.

The well-known Swiss cultural historian A. Bonnard gave, for example, the following assessment of the “golden age of Greek culture” (5th century BC): “Greek civilization in its midday time is precisely a cry of joy to the light of ingenious creations. Having achieved a lot in various areas of life - navigation and trade, medicine and philosophy, mathematics and architecture - the ancient Greeks were absolutely inimitable and unsurpassed in the field of literary and visual creativity, which grew precisely on the cultural soil of mythology.

Among many generations of people who have been reading N.A. Kuna, very few people know anything about its author. Personally, I remember only the mysterious-sounding word "Kun" as a child. Behind it unusual name in my mind, as well as in the minds of the vast majority of readers, the real image of Nikolai Albertovich Kuhn, an excellent scientist, an excellent connoisseur of antiquity with a “pre-revolutionary education” and a difficult fate in the turbulent 20th century, did not arise at all.

Readers of the book, which is preceded by this introduction, have the opportunity to imagine the appearance of the author of "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece." A brief story about his name, which I offer to readers, is based on materials from several prefaces written by different authors to previous editions of the book by N.A. Kuhn, as well as on documents kindly provided to me by his family.

ON THE. Kuhn was born on May 21, 1877 into a noble family. His father, Albert Frantsevich Kun, was not limited to the affairs and concerns of his own estate. Among his descendants, a rumor remained that he organized a kind of partnership that promoted the introduction of the use of electricity in Russian theaters. The mother of Nikolai Albertovich, Antonina Nikolaevna, nee Ignatieva, came from a count's family and was a pianist who studied with A.G. Rubinstein and P.I. Tchaikovsky. She did not perform concert activities due to health reasons.

In 1903, Nikolai Albertovich Kun graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Moscow state university. Already in his student years, Nikolai Albertovich showed an inclination to study antiquity and outstanding knowledge in the history of Ancient Greece. As a student, in 1901 he gave a report on the oligarchy of four hundred in Athens in 411 BC. e. Judging by the surviving newspaper clippings, this speech was associated with a rather important event for the university - the opening of the Historical and Philological Student Society. As the newspapers reported, the meeting took place "in a large auditorium of the new building of Moscow University." Professor V.O. Klyuchevsky, “the post of section chairman will be considered vacant until Professor P.G. Vinogradov, who will be invited to take this position at the unanimous desire of the members of the society.

As we can see, the students of Moscow University, fascinated by history, firmly connected their scientific activity with the names of the luminaries of the then Russian historical science. These were Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky and Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradov. It is indicative that the activity of the Student Scientific Society in the history section was opened by the report of the 4th year student N.A. Kuna. The theses of this scientific work were preserved in the family of Nikolai Albertovich. Written in exemplary handwriting intelligent person beginning of the 20th century, they begin with the characteristics of the sources. The author writes about Thucydides and Aristotle, reproducing the title of Aristotle's work "Athenian polity" in ancient Greek. This is followed by eleven theses, which analyze the event - the oligarchic coup in Athens in 411 BC. e. The content of the theses testifies to the excellent knowledge of ancient history by student N.A. Kuhn.

The family of Professor Kuhn preserved a detailed questionnaire compiled and signed by him with a detailed description of his scientific activities. In the first paragraph of this most interesting document, Nikolai Albertovich said that he received for this student scientific work prize to them. Sadikova, "usually issued to privatdocents." Among university teachers N.A. Kuna were such prominent historians as V.O. Klyuchevsky and V.I. Guerrier, better known as a specialist in the history of modern times, he also studied ancient history. With a brilliant linguist academician F.E. Korshem Nikolai Albertovich maintained good relations even after Korsh's departure in 1900 from the Department of Classical Philology of Moscow University.

It seemed that by the time he graduated from the university in 1903, a direct road to great science was open to the talented young man. However, his path to his beloved antiquity turned out to be quite long and ornate.

Graduate of Moscow University N.A. Kuhn was introduced by the faculty to leave at the university, which provided excellent opportunities for an academic career. However, this proposal was not approved by the trustee of the Moscow educational district, apparently due to some kind of participation of N.A. Kuhn in student unrest at the turn of the century. The path to academic science turned out to be closed for him virtually forever. Nikolai Albertovich had to prove himself a lot in other areas: in the field of teaching, education, organization educational institutions and most importantly - the popularization of scientific knowledge, primarily in the field of ancient culture.

In 1903–1905 ON THE. Kun taught in Tver at the women's teacher's school Maksimovich. An old postcard from the early 20th century has been preserved. with a photograph of the building of this Tver school and an inscription on the back, made by N.A. Kuhn: “In this school, I began teaching in 1903. In it, I also read the first lecture on the history of Ancient Greece for teachers in 1904.” Again Ancient Greece, the image of which, as we see, has not left the consciousness of its connoisseur and admirer.

Meanwhile, in modern young N.A. The kun of Russia was approaching a terrible revolutionary storm long overdue. ON THE. Kuhn did not stand aside from the coming historical events. In 1904, he began lecturing in working classrooms, was one of the organizers of the Sunday school for workers, which in the same 1904 was closed by order of the Tver governor. The “unreliability” that the Moscow authorities saw in Kun was fully confirmed by the behavior of this educator-intellectual, and in early December 1905 (in the most terrible revolutionary time) he was expelled from Tver by order of the governor. Considering how close this city was to Moscow, the center of events of the first Russian revolution, the authorities “offered” N.A. Kun to go abroad.

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

Nikolai Kun
Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

Part one. gods and heroes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gods

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

Zeus

Birth of Zeus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Stymphalian birds were the last offspring of monsters in the Peloponnese, and since the power of Eurystheus did not extend beyond the Peloponnese, Hercules decided that his service to the king was over.

But the mighty strength of Hercules did not allow him to live in idleness. He longed for exploits and even rejoiced when Koprey appeared to him.

"Eurystheus," said the herald, "orders you to clear the stables of the king of Elis, Avgius, from manure in one day."

King Perseus and Queen Andromeda ruled the golden Mycenae for a long time and gloriously, and the gods sent them many children. The eldest of the sons was named Electrion. Electrion was no longer young when he had to take the throne of his father. The gods did not offend Electrion with their offspring: Electrion had many sons, one better than the other, and only one daughter - the beautiful Alcmene.

It seemed that there was no kingdom in all Hellas more prosperous than the kingdom of Mycenae. But one day the Tafians attacked the country - ferocious sea robbers, who lived on the islands at the very entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, where the Aheloy River flows into the sea.

This new sea, unknown to the Greeks, breathed into their faces with a wide-noisy rumble. It stretched out like a blue desert before them, mysterious and formidable, deserted and stern.

They knew: somewhere out there, on the other side of its seething abyss, lie mysterious lands inhabited by wild peoples; their customs are cruel, their appearance is terrible. There, somewhere along the banks of the full-flowing Istra, terrible people with dog-like muzzles are barking - cynocephals, dog-headed. There, beautiful and ferocious Amazon warriors rush along the free steppes. There, eternal darkness thickens further, and in it wander, like wild animals, inhabitants of the night and cold - Hyperboreans. But where is it all?

Many misadventures awaited brave travelers on the road, but they were destined to come out with glory from all of them.

In Bithynia, the country of the Bebriks, their invincible fist fighter, King Amik, a terrible murderer, detained them; without pity and shame, he threw every foreigner to the ground with a blow of his fist. He also challenged these new aliens to battle, but the young Polideuces, brother of Castor, son of Leda, defeated the mighty one, breaking his temple in a fair fight.

Moving away from the familiar shores, the ship "Argo" for many days cut the waves of the calm Propontis, that sea, which people now call the Sea of Marmara.

The new moon had already come, and the nights turned black, like pitch, which the ship's sides would pitch in, when the vigilant Linkei was the first to point out to his comrades the mountain towering ahead. Soon a low shore glimmered in the fog, fishing nets appeared on the shore, a town at the entrance to the bay. Deciding to rest on the way, Typhius sent the ship to the city, and a little later the Argonauts stood on solid ground.

A well-deserved rest awaited the Argonauts on this island. The Argo entered the harbor of Theakia. Tall ships stood in countless rows everywhere. Dropping anchor at the pier, the heroes went to the palace to Alcinous.

Looking at the Argonauts, at their heavy helmets, at the strong leg muscles in shiny greaves and at the tan of brown faces, the peace-loving Phaeacians whispered to each other:

It must be Ares with his militant retinue marching to the house of Alcinous.

The sons of the great hero Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes. Pelops was once cursed by the charioteer of King Oenomaus Myrtilus, who was treacherously killed by Pelops, and doomed the whole family of Pelops with his curse to great atrocities and death. The curse of Myrtilus also weighed on Atreus and Fiesta. They have committed a number of evil deeds. Atreus and Thyestes killed Chrysippus, the son of the nymph Axion and their father Pelops. It was the mother of Atreus and Fiesta Hippodamia who persuaded Chrysippus to kill. Having committed this atrocity, they fled from the kingdom of their father, fearing his wrath, and took refuge with the king of Mycenae Sthenelus, the son of Perseus, who was married to their sister Nikippe. When Sthenel died and his son Eurystheus, captured by Iolaus, died at the hands of the mother of Hercules Alcmene, began to rule over the Mycenaean kingdom of Atreus, since Eurystheus left no heirs. Atreus was jealous of his brother Fiesta and decided to take away power from him by any means.

Sisyphus had a son, the hero Glaucus, who ruled in Corinth after his father's death. Glaucus also had a son, Bellerophon, one of the great heroes of Greece. Beautiful as a god was Bellerophon and courage equal to the immortal gods. Bellerophon, when he was still a youth, suffered a misfortune: he accidentally killed a citizen of Corinth and had to flee from his native city. He fled to the king of Tiryns, Proyt. With great honor, the king of Tiryns accepted the hero and cleansed him of the filth of the blood shed by him. Bellerophon did not stay long in Tiryns. Captivated by his beauty, the wife of Proyta, the goddess Anteia. But Bellerophon rejected her love. Then Queen Anteia flared up with hatred for Bellerophon and decided to destroy him. She went to her husband and said to him:

Oh king! Bellerophon heavily offends you. You must kill him. He haunts me, your wife, with his love. That's how he thanked you for your hospitality!

Grozen Borey, god of the indomitable, stormy north wind. He frantically rushes over the lands and seas, causing with his flight all-destroying storms. Once Boreas, flying over Attica, saw the daughter of Erechtheus Orithyia and fell in love with her. Boreas begged Orithyia to become his wife and allow him to take her with him to his kingdom in the far north. Orithia did not agree, she was afraid of a formidable, stern god. Denied Boreas and Orithyia's father, Erechtheus. No requests, no pleas from Boreas helped. The terrible god was angry and exclaimed:

I deserve such humiliation myself! I forgot about my formidable, violent power! Is it proper for me to humbly beg anyone? Only force should I act! I drive thunderclouds across the sky, I raise waves on the sea like mountains, I uproot, like dry blades of grass, centuries-old oaks, I scourge the earth with hail and turn water into ice, hard as a stone - and I pray, as if powerless mortal. When I fly in a furious flight above the earth, the whole earth trembles and trembles even the underworld of Hades. And I pray to Erechtheus as if I were his servant. I must not beg to give me Orithia as a wife, but take her away by force!

Freed from the service of King Eurystheus, Hercules returned to Thebes. Here he gave his wife Megara to his faithful friend Iolaus, explaining his act by saying that his marriage to Megara was accompanied by unfavorable omens. In fact, the reason that prompted Hercules to part with Megara was different: between the spouses stood the shadows of their common children, whom Hercules killed many years ago in a fit of insanity.

In the hope of finding family happiness, Hercules began to look for a new wife. He heard that Eurytus, the same one who taught the young Hercules the art of owning a bow, offers his daughter Iola as a wife to someone who will surpass him in accuracy.

Hercules went to Eurytus and easily defeated him in the competition. This outcome annoyed Evrit immensely. Having drunk a fair amount of wine for greater confidence, he said to Hercules: “I won’t trust my daughter to such a villain as you. Or didn’t you kill your children from Megara? In addition, you are a slave of Eurystheus and deserve only beatings from a free man.”

Works are divided into pages

Ancient myths and legends of Ancient Greece

They were created more than two thousand centuries ago and the famous scientist Nikolai Kuhn adapted them at the beginning of the 20th century, but the attention of young readers from all over the world does not fade away even now. And it doesn’t matter in the 4th, 5th or 6th grade they study the myths of ancient Greece - these works of ancient folklore are considered the cultural heritage of the whole world. The moralizing and vivid stories about the ancient Greek gods have been studied far and wide. And now we read online to our children about who the heroes of the legends and myths of Ancient Greece were and trying to express summary the meaning of their actions.

This fantastic world is surprising in that, despite the horror of an ordinary mortal in front of the gods of Mount Olympus, sometimes ordinary inhabitants of Greece could enter into an argument or even fight with them. Sometimes short and simple myths express a very deep meaning and can easily explain the rules of life to a child.

Nikolai Kun

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

Part one. gods and heroes

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

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

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

Zeus fighting Typhon

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

The Olympian gods defeated their enemies. No one else could resist their power. They could now safely rule the world. The most powerful of them, the Thunderer Zeus, took the sky, Poseidon - the sea, and Hades - the underworld of the souls of the dead. The land remained in common ownership. Although the sons of Kron divided power over the world among themselves, Zeus, the ruler of the sky, reigns over all of them; he rules over people and gods, he knows everything in the world.

Zeus reigns high on the bright Olympus, surrounded by a host of gods. Here is his wife Hera, and the golden-haired Apollo with his sister Artemis, and the golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus Athena, and many other gods. Three beautiful Horas guard the entrance to the high Olympus and raise a thick cloud that closes the gate when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright halls of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky spreads wide, and golden light pours from it. Neither rain nor snow occurs in the kingdom of Zeus; always there is a bright, joyful summer. And clouds swirl below, sometimes they close the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, the gods also know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy is again established on Olympus.

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