CYCLE OF STALIN Two "people" of one country Usually any, including the human community, is in a certain environment. In order to exist in it, it must be able, on the one hand, to preserve information (experience) accumulated in the past that is useful for its development, and with

Cretan myth cycle: Zeus, Minos, Minotaur.

For the Greeks, Crete has always been a place shrouded in legends, telling about amazing events that once took place here. According to myths, in Crete in a cave on a mountain Dikty (or Dict) 1 the baby was covered Zeuswhom his mother Rhea hid from her cruel father Crown... Subsequently Zeus, having become the lord of the Olympian gods, brought the daughter of the Phoenician king to Crete Agenora Europethat he kidnapped by turning into a bull. Europe gave birth to 3 sons - Radamanta, Sarpedona and Minos.

Having matured, Minos gained supreme power over all of Crete and gave the inhabitants of the island the first laws. Despite the favor of his divine parent, Minos failures constantly followed. Sea god Poseidonangry with deception Minos, forced the wife of the Cretan king to enter into an unnatural relationship with the bull, from the union with which he was born Minotaur - a man with a bull's head. By command Minos Athenian architect and sculptor Daedalus built in Knossos 2 Labyrinth, where forever and concluded Minotaur... When one of the sons died in Athens Minos, the Cretan king sailed to the shores of Attica and devastated the country. Desperate Athenians concluded with Minos an agreement under which they pledged to send a kind of tax to Crete - 14 young men and women selected by lot, doomed to die in the Labyrinth at the hands Minotaur... A few years later, the young hero Theseus decided to save his compatriots from the terrible burden by voluntarily going to Crete with another party of youth. Having conquered the heart of the daughter of the Cretan king with his nobility Ariadne, Theseus got on the advice Daedalus from his beloved a ball of long thread, with the help of which he got out of the Labyrinth after defeating Minotaur.

Tradition about the family of the Atrides.

Pelops, who deceived the driver Myrtilus, to whom he promised half a kingdom for help in the victory over the king Enomai, and cunningly killed his companion, was cursed by him, and his sons Atreus and Fiestes spent their lives in mutual enmity. Atreus, by a misunderstanding, killed his own son, sent by Fiestos, for which he treated his brother to the fried meat of his own children. Atreus threw his wife Aeropa, intriguing in favor of Fiesta, into the sea and sent his son Fiesta to kill his own father. But, having figured out his plan, the nephew killed Atreus. One of the Atrids, Agamemnon, died at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and cousin Aegisthus, who were tortured by the son of the hero of the Trojan War, Orestes, for which the goddesses of vengeance Erinia began to persecute him. The curse of the Atrians - the descendants of the Mycenaean king Atreus - was supposed to fade away only when Orestes, the last representative of the dynasty, exhausted the punishment by committing murder and receiving cleansing in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi and in the Athenian Areopagus (court), where Pallas Athena presided. Legends about Tantalus, Pelops, brothers Atreus and Fiesta, as well as Atrids have become the subjects of many tragedies. Homer and Pausanias, Diodorus of Siculus and Euripides, Aeschylus and Pindar, Thucydides and Sophocles, Seneca and Ovid and, of course, the classics of other eras turned to the bloody myth.

Theban cycle.

Oedipus. His childhood. Youth and return to Thebes

Oedipus in Thebes

Death of Oedipus

Seven against Thebes

Antigone

Epigones' campaign

Seven against Thebes.

In mythical Greece there were two of the most powerful kingdoms: Thebes in Central Greece and Argos in Southern Greece. There was once a king named Lai in Thebes. He received a prophecy: "Do not give birth to a son - you will destroy the kingdom!" Lai did not obey and gave birth to a son named Oedipus. He wanted to destroy the baby; but Oedipus escaped, grew up on the wrong side, and then accidentally killed Laia, not knowing that it was his father, and married his widow, not knowing that it was his mother. How it happened, and how it was discovered, and how Oedipus suffered for it, another playwright, Sophocles, will tell us. But the most terrible thing - the death of the kingdom - was still ahead.

Oedipus had two sons and two daughters from an incestuous marriage with his own mother: Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone and Yemen. When Oedipus abdicated power, the sons turned away from him, reproaching him with sin. Oedipus cursed them, promising them to share power with the sword. And so it happened. The brothers agreed to rule alternately, each for a year. But after the first year, Eteocles refused to leave and expelled Polynices from Thebes. Polynices fled to the southern kingdom - to Argos. There he gathered his allies, and they went to seven-fold Thebes in seven ways. In the decisive battle, the two brothers came together and killed each other: Eteocles wounded Polynices with a spear, he fell to his knee, Eteocles hung over him, and then Polynices struck him from below with his sword. Enemies wavered, Thebes were saved this time. Only a generation later, the sons of the seven leaders came to Thebes in a campaign and for a long time wiped out Thebes from the face of the earth: the prophecy came true.

Aeschylus wrote a trilogy about this, three tragedies: "Laia" - about the guilty tsar, "Oedipus" - about the sinner tsar and "Seven Against Thebes" - about Eteocles, the hero-king, who gave his life for his city. Only the last one has survived.

Swimming of the Argonauts.

Argonauts - in ancient Greek mythology, participants in the campaign to Colchis (the Black Sea coast) on the ship "Argo".
The ship was built with the help of Athena, who inserted into its hull a piece of sacred century-old oak, transmitting the will of the gods with the rustle of leaves.
Argonauts led by Jason, among whom were the twins of Dioscuri - Castor and Pollux (Pollux), Hercules, Orpheus, Peleus, the soothsayer Pug, Eurytus (Ευρυτος, son of Hermes and Antianeira, brother of Echion), Gilas (favorite of Hercules, by his beauty, captive carried away into the abyss during the campaign) and Telamon, had to return to Greece the golden fleece of the magic ram, taken to Colchis.
Apollodorus lists 45 Argonauts. According to Diodorus, who does not give a list, there were 54 of them. According to Theocritus, there were 60 of them, according to a number of other authors, only 50. Since the lists contradict each other, there are more than ninety names of heroes in various lists.
Having experienced many adventures, the Argonauts fulfilled their mission and returned the fleece to Greece, while the sorceress Medea, the daughter of the Colchis king, who Jason later took as his wife, helped Jason to take possession of the golden fleece. On Hesiod, they sailed along Phasis to the ocean, then arrived in Libya.

8TH GRADE

CYCLES OF ANCIENT GREEK MYTHS

FIVAN CYCLE

(Abbreviated)

Oedipus. His childhood, youth and return to Thebes

The king of Thebes, the son of Cadmus, Polidor, and his wife Nyuktidi had a son Labdak, who inherited the power over Thebes. Lai was the son and successor of Labdak. Lai kidnapped the young son of Pelops, Chrysip, and took him to Thebes. The angry and saddened father cursed Lai, and in his curses he wished that the gods would punish the kidnapper of his son by the fact that his own Son would destroy him. Lai married Menokei's daughter, Jocasta. For a long time Lai lived quietly in Thebes, and only one thing worried him: he had no children. Finally Lai decided to ask the god Apollo about the reason for the childlessness. The terrible answer was given by the priestess of Apollo the Pythia Lai. She said:

Son of Labdak, will you have a son, but know that you will perish by the hand of your son.

Terror gripped Lai. For a long time he thought how to avoid him the command of inexorable fate; finally, he decided that he would kill his rash as soon as it was born.

Soon, Lai really had a son. The cruel father called the slave and ordered him to abandon the baby in the forest on the Kifero slope - well, so that wild animals would tear him to pieces there. But the slave took pity on the child and secretly handed over the little boy to the slave of the Corinthian king Po-lib. The slave took the boy to Tsar Polybus, who decided to raise him as his successor. King Polybus named the boy Oedipus because of his legs swollen from wounds.

So Oedipus grew up with Polybus and his wife Merope. Oedipus himself considered them to be his parents. But once Oedipus long persuaded them to reveal to him the secret of his birth. But neither Polybus nor Merope said anything to him. Then Oedipus decided to go to Delphi and there to find out the secret of his birth. The radiant Apollo answered him through the lips of the soothsayer of the Pythia:

Oedipus, your fate is terrible! You kill your father, marry your own mother, and from this marriage children will be born, damned by the gods and hated by all people.

Horror seized Oedipus. How can he avoid an evil fate? After all, the oracle did not name his parents. Oedipus decided to remain eternal blue - without clan, without tribe, without homeland.

A homeless wanderer, Oedipus left Delphi. On this road, Oedipus met a chariot in which a gray-haired, majestic old man was riding. The herald swung his whip at him. The angry Oedipus struck the herald and was about to pass the chariot, when the old man brandished his staff and hit Oedipus on the head. Oedipus got angry, in anger he hit the old man with his stick so that he fell dead on the ground. Oedipus threw himself on the escorts and interrupted them all. Oedipus killed, not knowing, his father Lai. After all, this old man was Lai.

Oedipus calmly walked on. He considered himself innocent of murder: after all, he was not the first to attack, because he was only defending himself. Great gloom reigned in Thebes. Two troubles struck the city of Cadmus. The terrible Sphinx, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, settled near Thebes on Mount Afingioni and demanded more and more sacrifices, and then the slave brought the news that King Lai was killed by some unknown person. Oedipus decided to get them out of trouble; he decided to go to the Sphinx himself.

The Sphinx was a terrible monster with the head of a woman, with the body of a huge lion, with paws armed with sharp lion's claws, and with huge wings. The gods decided that the Sphinx would remain with Thebes until then, until someone would solve its riddle. Many brave Thebans tried to save Thebes from the Sphinx, but all the Nones died.

Oedipus came to the Sphinx, he offered him his riddle:

Tell me, who walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening? None of all creatures on earth changes like he does. When he walks on four legs, then he has less strength and moves more slowly than at other times.

And for a single moment Oedipus did not think, but immediately replied:

This is a man! When she had, when it is still the morning of her age, she is weak and slowly crawls on all fours. During the day, that is, in adulthood, he walks on two legs, and in the evening, that is, in old age, she becomes decrepit and, in need of support, takes a crutch; then he walks on three legs.

This is how Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx. And the Sphinx, flapping its wings, threw itself off the cliff into the sea. It was decided by the gods that the Sphinx should die if someone guesses its riddle. This is how Kdip of Thebes freed from trouble.

When Oedipus returned to Thebes, the Thebans proclaimed him king, but even earlier it was set by Creon, who ruled instead of the murdered Lai, the king of Thebes must be the one who will save them from the Sphinx. Having reigned in Thebes, Oedipus married the widow Lai Jocasta and had two daughters and two sons by her. So the second command of fate was fulfilled: Oedipus became the husband of his own mother, and his children were born from her.

Oedipus in Thebes

Proclaimed king by the people, Oedipus wisely reigned in Thebes.

And now a great misfortune befell Thebes. The arrow god Apollo sent a terrible pestilence to Thebes. She was losing citizens, both old and small. Citizens came in a crowd to King Oedipus to ask him to help them, to teach them how to come true for those troubles that threaten destruction. Oedipus himself had already sent Jocasta's brother Creon to Delphi to ask Apollo how to get rid of troubles.

Apollo ordered to expel the one who brought these troubles to Thebes by his crime. But how do you find the one who killed Lai? At any cost, Oedipus decided to find the killer. The blind soothsayer Tiresias is brought in. What can the predictor answer? Yes, he knows the killer, but he cannot name him. But Oedipus demanded an answer. For a long time Tiresias resists, for a long time he does not want to name the killer, but finally says:

You yourself, Oedipus, the murderer you are looking for! Not knowing, you married the one who is more dear to each of us, you married your mother.

Oedipus was terribly angry with Tiresias when he heard these words. Calmly listens to the wrathful things of King Tiresias. He knows that Oedipus, although he can see, still does not see all the evil that he, unwittingly, does. Do not fear any threats from Tiresias; he boldly tells Oedipus that the killer is here, in front of him. The citizens of Tiresias listened in horror.

And Oedipus, full of anger, accuses Creon of having taught Tiresias to speak so. Jocasta also comes; Oedipus asks Iocasta how Lai was killed and how Lai's only son was thrown in the forest on the slopes of Kiferon. Jocasta tells him everything.

Oh Zeus! exclaimed Oedipus. - Why did you decide to doom me!

Oh, was it really not I who saw, but the blind Tiresias!

Oedipus asks about the slave, that he was saved, where he is, is he still alive, and learns that this slave is herding the flocks on the slope of Kiferon. But he tells Oedipus that Polybus is not his father, that he himself brought Korin-fa to the king as his little child, and he was given by the shepherd of King Lai. With horror, Oedipus listens to the messenger, the terrible truth becomes clearer and clearer. In fear, the shepherd confesses that the boy whom he once gave to the messenger was the son of Lai, whom his father had condemned to death; and he felt sorry for the unfortunate child.<...>

In desperation, Oedipus goes to the palace. He is the killer of his father, the husband of his mother, his children are both children and brothers in their mothers. Jocasta could not bear all the horror, she caused herself death. Mad with grief, Oedipus tore off the buckles from Jocasta's clothes and gouged out his eyes with their points.

Death of Oedipus

Creon did not immediately expel Oedipus from Thebes.<...> Blind, decrepit Oedipus went into exile in a foreign land. After a long wandering, Oedipus finally came to Attica, to the city of Athens.<...>

And Oedipus, having learned that he was in the sacred grove of Eumenides, realized that his last hour was not far off, the end of all his suffering.<...> Meanwhile, the citizens of Colonna rush to the Eumenides grove to find out who has dared to enter it. Before them is Oedipus! No, the colonists cannot allow Oedipus to remain here, they are afraid of the wrath of the gods. Finally, Oedipus asks the citizens to wait at least until Theseus arrives. Let the king of Athens decide, Oedipus can stay here, he must be expelled from here too.

Ismena arrived. Oedipus is glad for the arrival of Ismena, now his daughters are with him, his faithful companion and assistant Antigone and Ismena, who never forgot her father and constantly sent him news from Thebes. And Ismene was looking for Oedipus to translate very sad news: the sons of Oedipus first ruled together in Thebes. But the younger son, Eteocles, seized one power and expelled the elder brother Polynices from Thebes.<...> Oedipus does not want to be on the side of either one or the other son; he is angry with his sons.

Not because they put the desire for power above the responsibilities of children in relation to the father.

Theseus greets Oedipus and promises him protection. Oedipus thanks Theseus and promises him his protection. And it is not Oedipus who is destined to find peace here for himself now. Creon tries to persuade Oedipus to go with him; he persuades him to go to Thebes and promises him that he will live there peacefully in the circle of his relatives, surrounded by their cares. But the will of Oedipus is indestructible. And he doesn't believe Creon.

Seeing the inflexibility of Oedipus, Creon begins to threaten him, which will force Oedipus to go with him to Thebes.<...> Theseus is outraged by Creon's violence. Theseus knows that lawlessness will not be tolerated in Thebes. Creon himself dishonors his city and his land; although he is old for years, he acts like a mad youth.<...> Creon obeyed the demand of Theseus, and soon the elder Oedipus hugged his daughters and thanked the magnanimous king of Athens, invoking the blessing of the gods on him.

Hearing that Polyneices is here, Antigone asks her father to listen to him, even though he was grievously guilty before him. Oedipus agrees to listen to his son, and Theseus follows him. Antigone asks her brother told her father why he came; she is sure that Oedipus will not leave her son unanswered. Polynices told how his young brother drove him out of Thebes, how he went to Argos, married the daughter of Adrastus there and found help to take away from his brother the power that belongs to him by right as an elder!<...>

Oedipus does not listen to his son. Please do not touch him.<...> Polynices left, not begging forgiveness and protection from his father, left, not listening to Antigone's requests to return to Argos and not start a war that threatens the death of him, his brother and Thebes.

Oedipus had been close lately. Hastily came to the grove Eumenides Theseus. Hearing his voice, Oedipus said:

Keep this secret and reveal it to your eldest son at your death, and let him pass it on to his successor. Let's go, Theseus, let's go, children! Now I, blind man, will be your guide, and Hermes and Persephone will lead me.

Children, from this day on you will no longer have a father. The god of death, Thanat, has already possessed me. It will not be your responsibility to take care of me.<...>

Seven against Thebes

When the blind Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, his sons with Creon shared power among themselves. Each of them had to rule in turns for a year. Eteocles did not want to share power with his older brother Polynicus, he expelled his brother from seven-fold Thebes and seized power in Thebes alone. And Polynices went to Argos, where King Adrastus ruled.

King Adrastus came from the Amifaonid family. When two heroes, the great soothsayer Melampus and Biante, the sons of the hero Amiphaon, married the daughters of the king Proyta.<...> In Melampoda there was a son Antifat, in Anti-Fata - Oykl, and in Oikla - Amphiarai. In Byanta there was a son, Tal, and his children were Adrast and Erifila. When the descendants of Melampodus and Bias, Adrast and Amphiarai, matured, strife broke out between them.<...>

Polynices arrived late at night to the palace of King Adrastus, hoping to find protection and help from him. At the palace Polyinices met the son of Oineus, the hero Tydeus, who, having killed his uncle and cousins \u200b\u200bin his homeland, also fled to Argos. A fierce dispute broke out between both heroes. The restless Tideus, did not tolerate anyone's objection, grabbed his weapon. Polynices also drew his sword, covering himself with a shield. The heroes rushed at each other. He remembered Adrastus the prediction given to him by the oracle that he would give his daughters for a lion and a boar. Hastily he separated the heroes and how he led the guests to his palace. Soon, King Adrastus gave his daughters: one, Deyila, for Polynices, the second, Argea, for Tydeus.

After becoming sons-in-law of Adrastus, Polynices and Tideus began asking him to return power to them in their homeland. Adrastus agreed to help them, but set a condition that Amphiarai, a mighty warrior and a great soothsayer, also took part in the campaign.

It was decided to move first to the seven-gate Thebes. Amfiarai decided to take part in this campaign, because he knew that heroes were starting this campaign against the will of the gods. He, the favorite of Zeus and Apollo, did not want to anger the gods by breaking their will. No matter how Tideus persuaded Amphiaraia, he stood firm on his decision. Tideus flared up with indomitable anger, heroes would have become enemies forever if Adrast had not reconciled them. To still force Amphiaraus to take part in the campaign, Polynices decided to resort to trick. He decided to persuade Erifila to his side so that she would force Amphiaraus to march against Thebes. Knowing Eryphila's greed, Polynices promised to give her a precious necklace of Harmony, the wife of the first king of Thebes, Cadmus. She was seduced by Erifil's precious gift and decided that her husband should participate in the campaign. Amphiarai could not refuse, because he himself once swore an oath that he would obey all the decisions of Erifila. So Erifil sent her husband to certain death, tempted by precious beads; she did not know that the necklace brings great misfortune to the one who owns it.

Many heroes agreed to participate in this campaign.<...>

The army set out on a campaign.<...> Nemea's army arrived happily.<...>

Having passed through the gorges of the wooded Kiferon, the army arrived to the banks of Asop, to the walls of the seven-fold Thebes. The leaders did not immediately begin the siege. They decided to send Tydeus to Thebes for negotiations and the besieged. Arriving in Thebes, Thedeus found noble Thebans at a feast in Eteocles. The Thebans did not listen to Tydeus, the nones, laughing, invited him to take part in the feast. Tideus became angry and, despite the fact that he was alone in the circle of enemies, challenged them to a duel and defeated one and all, because Athena Pallas helped her pet. Anger gripped the Thebans, they decided to destroy the great hero. They sent fifty youths, led by Meontes and Lycophon, to ambush Tydeus as he returned to the besieging camp. And here Tydeus did not die, he interrupted all the young men, only Meont was released at the behest of the gods, so that Meont could inform the Thebans about Tydeus' exploits.

After that, the enmity between the heroes who came from Argos and the Thebans flared up even more.<...>

The mighty Tydeus, who thirsted for blood like a fierce dragon, stood with his detachment against the Proytid Gate.<...> Amphiarai knew that the descendants would curse the participants in this campaign. Amphiaraus also knew that he himself would fall in battle and consume his corpse in the enemy land of Thebes. There was no emblem on the shield of Amphiarai. The last, seventh gate was besieged by Polynices. On his shield was a goddess who leads an armed hero, and the inscription on the shield read: "I am leading this man how to defeat this man back to his city and to the house of his parents." Everything was ready for the assault on the indestructible walls of Thebes.

The Thebans also prepared for battle.<...> Among the Theban heroes was the mighty son of Poseidon, the invincible Periklimenes.

Before starting the battle, Eteocles asked about the outcome of the battle of the soothsayer Tiresias. Tiresias promised victory only if Creon's son Menoikeus would be sacrificed to Ares (who is still angry at the killing of the serpent dedicated to him by Cadmus). The youth Menoikey himself pierced his chest with a sword. So the son of Creon died: he voluntarily sacrificed himself in order to save his relatives Thebes.

Everything promised victory to the Thebans. The wrathful Ares is merciful, the gods are on the side of the Thebans, who do the will and take into account the sign of the gods. And the victory did not immediately go to the Thebans.<...>

Fell besieging Thebes, and young Parthenopai; the mighty Periklimenes threw a huge stone the size of a rock from the wall onto his head. This stone broke the head of Parthenopaeva, he fell dead to the ground. The Argos retreated from under the walls: they made sure that they would not storm Thebes. Now the Thebans could rejoice: the walls of Thebes stood motionless.<...>

As two fierce lions fighting for prey, brothers clashed in a fierce duel. Covering themselves with shields, they fight, closely following each other's movements with hatred eyes. Here Eteocles stumbled, now he threw Polynices' spear at his brother and wounded him in the thigh.<...> Having closed their shields, the brothers fight; both of them are wounded, bloody with their weapons. Eteocles quickly retreated; Polynices, who had not expected this, raised his shield, and at that moment his brother sank his sword into his stomach. Polynices fell to the ground, blood gushed like a river from a terrible wound, his eyes clouded with the darkness of death. Eteocles celebrated the victory; he ran up to his murdered brother and wanted to remove his weapons. Collected the last of his strength Polynices, raised himself and struck his brother in the chest with his sword; with this blow, his soul flew into the dark kingdom of Hades. Like a felled oak, Eteocles fell dead on the corpse of his brother, and their blood mixed, flooding the earth around. The Thebans and the Argos looked with horror at the terrible end of the brothers' duel.

The truce between the besieged and the besieged did not last long. A bloody battle broke out between them again. The gods helped the Thebans in this battle.<...>

The Thebans defeated the Argos, all their army was killed at Thebes. Amphiarai also died. He hurried to escape in his chariot driven by Baton. He was pursued by the powerful Periklimenes. Pericles were already catching up with the great foreteller, he was already swinging his spear to strike him, when suddenly Zeus's lightning flashed and thunder struck, the earth opened and swallowed Amphiaraus with his war chariot. Of all the heroes, only Adrast was saved. He dashed off on his horse Areyon, fast as the wind, and took refuge in Athens, from where he returned to Argos.

The Thebans won, Thebes were saved. We learned that the heroes of Argos, their wives and mothers remained unburied. Full of sorrow, they came with Adrastus to Attica to plead with King Theseus to help their grief and force the Thebans to give them the bodies of the dead. In Eleusis, near the temple of Demeter, they met the mother of Tereus and begged her to beg her son to demand that the bodies of the Araigian soldiers be handed over.

Theseus got angry. Eleuther had seven bonfires, and the corpses of soldiers were burnt on them. And the corpses of the leaders were transferred to Eleusis and burned there, the ashes of their mother and wife were taken to their homeland, to Argos.

Only the ashes of Capaneus, killed by the lightning of Zeus, remained in Eleusis. The body of Capaneus was sacred, for he was killed by the Thunderer himself. The Athenians kindled a huge fire and laid the corpse of Capaneus on it. When the fire was already beginning to flare up and tongues of fire touched the hero's corpse, the wife of Capaneus, the beautiful daughter of Iphit Evadna, came to Eleusis. She could not bear the death of her beloved husband. Putting on luxurious funeral clothes, she climbed the rock that hung over the very fire, and threw herself from there into the flames. So Evadna perished, and her shadow descended along with the shadow of her husband into the dark kingdom of Hades.

Epigones' campaign

Ten years have passed since the campaign of the seven against Thebes. During this time, the sons of the heroes who died near Thebes matured. They decided to take revenge on the Thebans for the defeat of their fathers and went on a new campaign. This campaign was attended by: Aigialei, son of Adrast; Alcmeon, son of Amphiaraus: Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Thesander, son of Polynices; Slip, son of Parthenopai; Sfenel, son of Capaneus; Polydorus, son of Hippomedont, and Euryalus, son of Menesteus.

The Delphic oracle predicted victory for the epigones if Alcmeon, the son of Amphiaraus, took part in this campaign.

Thesander, son of Polynices, undertook to persuade Alcmeon not to refuse to participate in the campaign. Alcmeon hesitated for a long time. Like his father Polyneices, Thesander decided to seek the assistance of Erifila, the mother of Alkmeon. In dr he bribed her by giving her the precious clothes of the wife of Cadmus and Harmony, which Athena Pallas herself had woven for her. Eryphilus was seduced by clothes, as she had once been seduced by the necklace of Harmony, and insisted that Alcmaeon and his brother Amphilochus take part in the campaign.

An army of epigones from Argos set out. The leader of the army was chosen Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, equal to his father in his strength and courage. The joyful heroes went on a campaign, eager to avenge their parents.

In Potnia near Thebes they asked the oracle Amphiaraus about the consequences of the campaign. The oracle answered them that he saw Alcmeon, heir to the glory of Amphiaraus, who entered the gates of Thebes as a winner. The epigones will win. Only Aigialei, the son of Adrast, who escaped during the first campaign, will die.

Finally, the army of the epigones of the seven-fold Thebes reached. Having devastated all the surroundings, the epigones laid siege to the city. The Thebans went out into the field under the leadership of their king Laodamant, the violent son of Eteocles, to repel the besiegers from the walls. A bloody battle ensued. In this battle, killed by the spear of Laodamant, Aigiali, but Laodamant was also killed by Alcmeon. The defeated were the Thebans and took refuge behind the impregnable walls of Thebes.

The defeated Thebans began negotiations with the besiegers, and at night, on the advice of Tiresias, secretly from the besiegers, they evicted from Thebes with all the women and children. They went north to Thessaly. After a long journey, the Thebans reached Hestiotida in Thessaly and settled there.

Thebes, taken by the epigones, was destroyed. The epigones returned to their homeland happily. And Fersander, son of Polynices, began to rule in Thebes, restoring them.

The texts are based on M.A. Kuhn.

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

1. The concept of "ancient literature"

It is customary to call the literature of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome as antique literature. Antiquity (from the Latin word antiquus - ancient) was called by the Italian humanists of the Renaissance the Greco-Roman culture, as the earliest known to them. This name has been preserved for her to this day, although more ancient cultures have been discovered since then. It has survived as a synonym for classical antiquity, that is, the world that formed the basis for the formation of the entire European civilization.

Literature is a reflection of the life of the people. Having appeared, it, in turn, affects the life of the people in one direction or another. Consequently, in order to understand ancient literature, it is necessary to know and understand the life of those peoples who created it. These peoples are ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Geography and chronology. The ancient Greeks occupied the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The ancient Romans first inhabited a small area around Rome, in Central Italy (Latium), then captured all of Italy, the Mediterranean countries, including Greece, and, finally, all the then known countries in Europe and the states of Asia Minor. The first written records of Greek literature date back to the 8th century BC. e. , the very first written monuments of Russian literature - by the 3rd century BC. e. the fall of the Western Roman Empire and at the same time the end of Roman literature date back to the 5th century AD. e. , at the same time the end of the ancient Greek literature, passing further on the path of Byzantine literature, belongs. Thus, from its inception to medieval literature, antique literature takes a huge period of time - about 1200 years.

1. Periodization of ancient Greek literature

1) Archaic period (2nd century BC - 5th century AD):

a) the period of formation of the classical slave society and the state of the 5-7th century. BC. (Lyrics of Archilochus)

b) Homeric period of the 8th century. BC. (epic poetry) 1. Homeric epic (Homer) 2. Didactic epic (Hesiod)

c) before the literary, before the Homeric period. (from the 2nd century BC - 8th century BC)

2) Attic or classical period (5th century BC) Center of Athens. This is the period of flourishing and formation of the polis. Drama emerges in the attic in two forms.

1) Tragedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles)

2) Comedy (Aristophanes). At the same time, the development of theater and drama took place.

3) Hellenistic period (3rd century BC) The period of the Greco-Macedonian wars. Epic poem ("Apollonius of Rhodes") Alexandrian poetry (Callimachus, Theocritus) Menander - the creator of the epic poem

4) Greek literature of the era of Roman rule (from 1st century BC - 5th century AD) This is the period when Greece became a province of the Roman Empire. But, nevertheless, they still came to study there. Genre of literary biography (Plutarch) Classical satire (Lucian) Roman (2nd sophistry, historiography, travel descriptions. The Greeks considered the novel a low form of literature. Lot and Heliodorus. They tried to bring the novel to a higher level)

1. Greek mythology. The main mythological cycles are Trojan, Theban and Argonautics

Greek mythology or mythology of ancient Greece arose much later than most of the ancient ideas of the Greek people about the world. The Greeks, like other peoples of antiquity, sought to somehow unravel the formidable and often incomprehensible natural phenomena, to know those mysterious unknown forces that govern human life. The fantasy of the ancient Greeks gave rise to ancient Greek mythology, inhabited the world around with good and evil fairy-tale creatures: dryads settled in groves and trees, nymphs in rivers, oraads in mountains, oceanids in oceans and seas. The face of nature, wild and rebellious, was personified by centaurs and satyrs. When studying Greek mythology, it becomes clear that the world at that time was ruled by immortal gods, good and wise. They lived on the top of the huge Mount Olympus and were presented as beautiful and perfect creatures, similar in appearance to people. They were a single family, headed by Zeus the Thunderer. The humanization of divine beings is a characteristic feature of Greek religion, which made it possible to bring Greek mythology closer to ordinary people. External beauty was considered the highest measure of perfection. So, the mighty forces of nature, previously not subject to either understanding a person, much less his influence, became understandable, became more explainable and understandable for the imagination of an ordinary person. The Greek people became the creator of myths and legends, unique in their brilliance, about the life of people, gods and heroes. In ancient Greek mythology, memories of the distant, long-forgotten past and poetic fiction merged together. Separate legends about the Greek gods were combined into complex cosmogonic legends (about the origin of man and the world). Greek mythology is a primitive attempt to comprehend reality, to give the whole natural picture expediency and harmony, to expand life experience. The forgetfulness of the myths and legends of Ancient Greece is explained extremely simply: no other human creation is distinguished by such richness and completeness of images. Later, philosophers and historians, poets and painters, sculptors and writers turned to ancient Greek mythology, drawing ideas of their own works from the inexhaustible sea of \u200b\u200blegendary plots, introducing a new mythological worldview into myths that corresponded to that historical period.

The famous cycles of ancient Greek myths are the Trojan cycle, the Theban cycle, and the cycle of the myths about the Argonauts.

The Trojan Cycle of Ancient Greece Mythstalks about the events associated with the city of Troy and the Trojan War. The war began due to the abduction of Helena the Beautiful by Paris, and ended with the destruction of Troy.

The cycle of myths about the Argonautstells about Jason and his family, about the journey on the ship "Argo" for the golden fleece, Jason's marriage to Medea, and about further events in the life of the Argonauts: Jason's betrayal and his attempt to marry again, about Medea's terrible revenge, about the end of Jason's life.

Theban cycle of mythstells about the founding of the city of Thebes in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, about the fate of Oedipus, the king of Thebes and his descendants.

A summary of the Theban cycle of myths:the founder of Thebes was the Phoenician prince Cadmus. His sister Europa was kidnapped by Zeus and carried her across the sea in the form of a bull. The brother, looking for his sister, ended up in Hellas and founded Thebes. The descendants of Cadmus began to rule in the city.

The next king, Lai, was predicted that his own son would kill him. This was the punishment for a crime: once Lai kidnapped a man's son. When a son was born to him and his wife Jocasta, the father ordered to throw the newborn into the abyss, to be devoured by beasts.

But the shepherds found the baby, raised him and named him Oedipus. Not knowing who his parents were, Oedipus came to Thebes and killed Lai in a street fight.

Then the city was threatened by the Sphinx, a monster. The Sphinx asked riddles, and when people did not guess them, devoured them. Oedipus guessed the riddle of the Sphinx: “Who walks at four in the morning, at two in the afternoon, and at three in the evening?” The answer was: “Man.” The Sphinx threw himself off a cliff, and Oedipus saved the city, became its king, married the widow Queen Jocasta, not knowing that she was his mother, and had children, several sons and a daughter, Antigone.

When the truth later became known, Jocasta hanged herself, unable to bear the shame. Oedipus gouged out his eyes and left Thebes. He became a beggar and traveled with his daughter Antigone, who was his guide. None of the children wanted to follow him anymore. Oedipus died in poverty, and Antigone returned to Thebes.

The sons of Oedipus disputed authority among themselves, and when one of them was killed, Antigone's sister buried him, according to custom, despite the harsh prohibition of the other brother. In ancient Greece, leaving a person without burial was considered the worst mockery of him. So that the shameful punishment promised by another brother would not fall on her, Antigone voluntarily committed suicide.

The famous cycles of ancient Greek myths are the Trojan cycle, the Theban cycle, and the cycle of the myths about the Argonauts.

The Trojan myth cycle of ancient Greece tells about the events associated with the city of Troy and the Trojan War. The war began due to the abduction of Helen the Beautiful by Paris, and ended with the destruction of Troy.

The cycle of myths about the Argonauts tells about Jason and his family, about the journey on the ship "Argo" for the golden fleece, Jason's marriage to Medea, and about further events in the life of the Argonauts: Jason's betrayal and his attempt to marry again, about Medea's terrible revenge, about the end Iason's life.

The Theban cycle of myths tells about the founding of the city of Thebes in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, about the fate of Oedipus, the king of Thebes and his descendants.

In the view of the ancient Greeks, the Olympian gods were like people and the relationship between them resembled the relationship between people: they quarreled and reconciled, envied and interfered in people's lives, took offense, took part in wars, rejoiced, had fun and fell in love. Each of the gods had a specific occupation, being responsible for a specific area of \u200b\u200blife:

1. Zeus (Diaz) - the ruler of the sky, the father of gods and people.

2. Hera (Ira) - wife of Zeus, patroness of the family.

3. Poseidon is the lord of the seas.

4.Hestia (Estia) - the protector of the family hearth.

5. Demeter (Dimitra) - the goddess of agriculture.

6. Apollo is the god of light and music.

7 Athena is the goddess of wisdom.

8. Hermes (Ermis) - god of trade and messenger of the gods.

9. Hephaestus (Ifestos) - the god of fire.

10.Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty.

11.Ares (Aris) - the god of war.

12 Artemis is the goddess of the hunt.

People on earth turned to the gods - to each according to his "specialty", erected temples for them and, in order to propitiate them, brought gifts as sacrifices. According to Greek mythology, in addition to the children of Chaos, the Titans and the Olympian gods, the earth was inhabited by many other deities who personified the forces of nature. So, in the rivers and streams lived the nymphs of Naiads, in the sea - the Nereids, in the forests - the Dryads and Satyrs, in the mountains - the nymph Echo. The life of a person was ruled by three goddesses-Fate - Moira (Lachesis, Cloto, Atropos). They were the ones who spun the thread of human life from birth to death and could cut it off when they wanted ...

The myths of ancient Greece about heroes were formed long before the appearance of written history. These are legends about the ancient life of the Greeks, and reliable information is intertwined in the legends about the heroes with fiction. Memories of people who performed civil deeds, being generals or rulers of the people, stories of their exploits make the ancient Greek people look at these ancestors of theirs as people chosen by the gods and even kindred to the gods. In the imagination of the people, such people turn out to be children of gods who have married mortals.

In accordance with their divine origin, the heroes of the myths of Ancient Greece possessed strength, courage, beauty, and wisdom. But unlike the gods, the heroes were mortal, with the exception of a few who rose to the level of deities (Hercules, Castor, Polideukos, etc.).

In ancient times of Greece, it was believed that the afterlife of heroes was no different from the afterlife of ordinary mortals. Only a few favorites of the gods move to the islands of the blessed. Later, Greek myths began to say that all heroes enjoy the blessings of the "golden age" under the auspices of Kronos and that their spirit is invisibly present on earth, protecting people, averting disasters from them. These performances sparked a cult of heroes

4. The concept of the epic. Homeric poems. Time and place of their creation, artistic features. The role of gods in the fate of the heroes of the poems. Homeric question.

Epic - Greek. "Word", "narration", "story". One of the three types of literature identified by Aristotle. It was born earlier than other genera. This is a story about events unfolding in space and time, regardless of the objective narrator. The epic tells the whole story of the past. Containing a complete picture of people's life.

Three parts: story, description, reasoning.

Homer has a strictly objective narrative.

In the communal-clan formation, a heroic epic was born - a heroic story about an event important for the clan, which reflected the harmonious unity of the people and heroes-heroes. The Iliad is a heroic military epic, the Odyssey is a fabulous everyday life.

Homer is a legendary ancient Greek poet-storyteller who is credited with creating the Iliad and The Odyssey.

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer. The Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the 6th century. BC, when their existence was reliably recorded.

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the “law of chronological incompatibility,” formulated by Faddem Frantsevich Zelinsky. It consists in the fact that “Homer's story never returns to its point of departure. Hence it follows that parallel actions cannot be depicted in Homer; Homer's poetic technique knows only a simple, linear, not a double, square dimension. " Thus, sometimes parallel events are portrayed as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even hushed up. This explains some of the alleged contradictions in the text of the poem.

Features of the Homeric style.

1. Objectivity.

2. Antipsychologism.

3. Monumentality.

4. Heroism.

5. Retarding technique.

6. Chronological incompatibility (actions taking place in parallel are depicted sequentially).

7. Humanism.

8. Lyrical, tragic and comic beginning in poems with the unity of the artistic style.

9. Constant formulas (like epithets, for example).

10. Hexameter.

Homer is characterized by compound epithets ("swift-footed", "rosy-fingered", "thunderer"); the meaning of these and other epithets should be considered not situationally, but within the framework of the traditional formulaic system. So, the Achaeans are "lush-footed" even if they are described not in armor, and Achilles is "swift-footed" even during rest.

The action of the poem takes place in two parallel planes, the human - under Troy and the divine - on Olympus.

Artistic features of the Iliad and Odyssey

The images of Homer's heroes are to some extent static, that is, their characters are illuminated somewhat one-sided and remain unchanged from the beginning to the end of the action of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", although each character has his own face, different from others: resourcefulness is emphasized in the Odyssey mind, in Agamemnon - arrogance and lust for power, in Paris - effeminacy, in Elena - beauty, in Penelope - the wisdom and constancy of his wife, in Hector - the courage of the defender of his city and the mood of doom, since both he and his father must perish, and his son, and Troy herself.

One-sidedness in the portrayal of heroes is due to the fact that most of them appear before us only in one situation - in battle, where all the features of their characters cannot manifest themselves. Achilles is a certain exception, since he is shown in a relationship with a friend, and in a battle with an enemy, and in a quarrel with Agamemnon, and in a conversation with Elder Priam, and in other situations.

The lack of psychological characteristics of the heroes of the Iliad and The Odyssey is partly explained by the tasks of the genre: the epic, which is based on folk art, usually tells about events, about the affairs of a group, and has little interest in an individual person.

Usually Homer resorts to the intervention of the gods to explain an important change in the line of behavior, the motivation for a conscious decision that replaced an instant impulse.

The stylistic means used in the poems The Iliad and The Odyssey testify to the organic connection between the Homeric epic and its folklore origins; by the abundance of epithets, Homer's poems can only be compared with works of folk art, where most of the nouns are accompanied by definitions. Only Achilles in the Iliad is endowed with 46 epithets. Among the epithets of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" there are a large number of "permanent", that is, intended for any one hero or subject. This is also a folklore trait. In Russian epics, for example, the sea is always blue, the hands are white, the good fellow is kind, the girl is red. Homer has a noisy sea, Zeus is a cloud-killer, Poseidon is a shaker of the earth, Apollo is a silver-bow, the maidens are thin-footed, Achilles is often swift, Odysseus is cunning, Hector is a flashing helmet.

Odyssey. After all, generations of heroes descend from Zeus (it is not for nothing that Homer calls him “the father of people and gods”) or his relatives, therefore the gods are concerned about the fate of heroes, and mortal people turn to their immortal patrons with sighs and prayers.

In the Odyssey, the wise goddess Athena and the wise hero Odysseus are inseparable. The goddess imperceptibly watches him and always in time comes across him on his way - both on the island of the Faeak, taking the form of a beautiful maiden, and on Ithaca as a young shepherd. She helps Odysseus and Telemac hide their weapons; she watches the slaughter of the suitors, turning into a swallow and sitting on the ceiling beam; she brings peace to Ithaca. And it is she, the wise daughter of Zeus, who, on the advice of the gods, decisively stands up for Odysseus.

The gods "put" sadness into the heart of a person, "throw" thought into him, "take out" his mind, "take away" fear, so that many mental acts are presented in Homer physically. Sometimes the dependence of a person's deed on the will of a deity is drawn by the poet with amazing visibility. So, in the first song of the Iliad, in the scene of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, an angry Achilles is already ready to pull the sword out of its scabbard and attack the enemy, but at that moment the goddess Athena, standing behind the hero's back, strongly pulls him by the blond curls and he instantly changes his intention.

But this direct connection with the deity does not at all prevent Homeric man from acting independently and creating life with his own hands. Moreover, in some cases, even the gods hesitate, making an important decision, since they do not know the word of fate, on which both mortals and immortals depend.

Obviously, these epithets (almost always adorning) were formed in poetic language long before the creation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and Homer often uses them as ready-made cliches, sometimes in accordance not with the plot situation, but with the poetic dimension. That is why Achilles, for example, is called swift-footed even when he is sitting, and the sea is noisy when it is calm.

The abundance of everyday details in the Iliad and Odyssey creates the impression of the realism of the described paintings, but this is the so-called spontaneous, primitive realism.

Gomrov's question. The historically characteristic image of the wandering singer Homer is intertwined in the legend preserved for us by ancient authors with all kinds of fantastic inventions. The Homeric question arose due to the absence of any reliable information about Homer already in ancient times. The interpretation of Homer's name was already occupied by the ancients. He was considered a household name, meaning "blind man." Researchers of the Homeric question interpreted this name in different ways: they saw in it both an indication of a closely knit class of singers, and the designation of a singer, and just the poet's own name.

The Greek folk epic exerted a tremendous influence on subsequent Greek literature and art, and later, especially through Virgil's Aeneid, served as a model for Western European epics.

The absence of any information about Homer's personality, as well as the presence of contradictions, stylistic inconsistencies and plot inconsistencies in the poems, gave rise to the Homeric question - a set of problems associated with the study of the Iliad and Odyssey, and primarily with the authorship of these poems.

In the Iliad and Odyssey, they began to see works created by the people in ancient times, and in the name of Homer - a certain collective name of the author of the Greek epic as a whole. This interpretation of the Homeric question gained popularity because it made it possible to explain the artistic excellence of the Iliad and the Odyssey by the nationality of these poems, thereby confirming the romantic view of folklore as the only source of truly pure poetry. In addition to the analytic and unitary, there were also various compromise theories of the Homer question. For example, supporters of the theory of the "main core" assumed that the original text was gradually overgrown with additions, insertions made by various poets; not one Homer, but three or four poets participated in the compilation of the epic, hence the first, second, third editions, etc. Representatives of another theory saw in Homer's poems a combination of several "minor epics".

There are other interpretations of the Homeric question and opinions on the origin of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but all of them in one way or another boil down to the question of the relationship between the personal and collective creativity of the authors of the Homeric epic.