The heroes of Ancient Hellas, whose names have not been forgotten to this day, occupied a special place in mythology, visual arts and the life of the ancient Greek people. They were role models and the ideal of physical beauty. Legends and poems were composed about these brave men, statues were created in honor of the heroes and they were called by the names of the constellation.

Legends and myths of ancient Greece: heroes of Hellas, gods and monsters

The mythology of ancient Greek society is divided into three parts:

1. Pre-Olympic period - legends about titans and giants. At that time, man felt himself defenseless in front of the formidable forces of nature, about which he still knew very little. Therefore, the world around him seemed to him chaos, in which there are terrifying uncontrollable forces and entities - titans, giants and monsters. They were generated by the earth as the main active force of nature.

At this time, Cerberus, the chimera, the serpent Typhon, the hundred-armed giants-Hecatoncheira, the goddess of vengeance Erinia appear, appearing in the guise of terrible old women, and many others.

2. Gradually, a pantheon of deities of a different character began to develop. The humanoid higher powers - the Olympic gods - began to resist the abstract monsters. This is a new, third generation of deities who entered the battle against the titans and giants and defeated them. Not all opponents were imprisoned in a terrible dungeon - Tartarus. Many were included in the number of the new Ocean, Mnemosyne, Themis, Atlas, Helios, Prometheus, Selene, Eos. Traditionally, there were 12 main deities, but over the centuries their composition was constantly replenished.

3. With the development of ancient Greek society and the rise of economic forces, man's faith in his own strength was strengthened more and more. This bold view of the world gave birth to a new representative of mythology - the hero. He is the conqueror of monsters and at the same time the founder of states. At this time, great feats are accomplished and victories are gained over ancient entities. Typhon is killed by Apollo, the hero of ancient Hellas Cadmus founds the famous Thebes in the habitat of the dragon he killed, Bellerophon destroys the chimera.

Historical sources of Greek myths

We can judge the exploits of heroes and gods by the few written testimonies. The largest of them are the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by the great Homer, "Metamorphoses" by Ovid (they formed the basis of N. Kuhn's famous book "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece"), as well as the works of Hesiod.

Around the 5th century BC. collectors of legends about gods and great defenders of Greece appear. The heroes of Ancient Hellas, whose names we now know, have not been forgotten due to their painstaking work. These are historians and philosophers Apollodorus of Athens, Heraclides of Pontic, Palefat and many others.

The origin of the heroes

First, let's find out who this is - the hero of Ancient Greece. The Greeks themselves have several interpretations. This is usually a descendant of some deity and mortal woman. Hesiod, for example, called the heroes demigods, whose ancestor was Zeus.

It takes more than one generation to create a truly invincible warrior and protector. Hercules is the thirtieth in the family of descendants of the main one and all the power of the previous heroes of his family is concentrated in him.

For Homer, this is a strong and courageous warrior or a man of noble birth with famous ancestors.

Modern etymologists also interpret the meaning of the word in question in different ways, highlighting the general - the function of the protector.

The heroes of Ancient Hellas often have similar biographies. Many of them did not know the name of their father, were brought up either by one mother, or were adopted children. All of them, in the end, were sent to accomplish feats.

Heroes are called to fulfill the will of the Olympian gods and give protection to people. They bring order and justice to the earth. There is also a contradiction in them. On the one hand, they are endowed with superhuman strength, but on the other, they are deprived of immortality. The gods themselves sometimes try to correct this injustice. Thetis stabs the son of Achilles, trying to make him immortal. The goddess Demeter, in gratitude to the Athenian king, puts his son Demophon in the fire in order to burn out everything mortal in him. Usually, these attempts end in failure due to the intervention of parents who fear for the lives of their children.

The hero's fate is usually tragic. Unable to live forever, he tries to immortalize himself in the memory of people by exploits. He is often persecuted by malevolent gods. Hercules tries to destroy Hera, Odysseus is haunted by Poseidon's wrath.

Heroes of Ancient Greece: a list of names and deeds

The titan Prometheus became the first defender of people. He is conventionally called a hero, since he is not a man or a demigod, but a real deity. According to Hesiod's version, it was he who created the first people, molded them from clay or earth, and patronized them, protecting them from the arbitrariness of other gods.

Bellerophon is one of the first heroes of the older generation. As a gift from the Olympian gods, he received the wonderful winged horse Pegasus, with the help of which he defeated the terrible fire-breathing chimera.

Theseus is a hero who lived before the great Trojan War. Its origin is unusual. He is a descendant of many gods, and his ancestors were even wise half-snakes, half-humans. The hero has two fathers at once - King Aegeus and Poseidon. Before his greatest feat - the victory over the monstrous Minotaur - he managed to accomplish many good deeds: he destroyed the robbers trapping travelers on the Athenian road, killed the monster - the Krommion pig. Also Theseus, together with Hercules, participated in the campaign against the Amazons.

Achilles is the greatest hero of Hellas, the son of King Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis. Wanting to make her son invulnerable, she put him in the oven of Hephaestus (according to other versions, in or boiling water). He was destined to die in the Trojan War, but before that, he would perform many feats on the battlefield. His mother tried to hide him with the ruler Lycomedes, dressing him up in women's clothes and passing him off as one of the royal daughters. But the cunning Odysseus, sent to search for Achilles, was able to expose him. The hero was forced to come to terms with his fate and went to the Trojan War. On it, he performed many feats. His mere appearance on the battlefield put enemies to flight. Achilles was killed by Paris with an arrow from a bow directed by the god Apollo. She hit the only vulnerable spot on the hero's body - the heel. revered Achilles. In honor of him, temples were built in Sparta and Elis.

The life stories of some of the heroes are so interesting and tragic that it is worth telling about them separately.

Perseus

The heroes of Ancient Greece, their exploits and life stories are known to many. One of the most popular representatives of the great defenders of antiquity is Perseus. He performed several feats that forever glorified his name: he cut off his head and saved the beautiful Andromeda from the sea monster.

To do this, he had to get Ares' helmet, which makes everyone invisible, and Hermes sandals, which make it possible to fly. Athena, the patroness of the hero, gave him a sword and a magic bag in which to hide the severed head, because even looking at a dead Gorgon turned any living creature to stone. After the death of Perseus and his wife Andromeda, they were both placed by the gods in the sky and turned into constellations.

Odysseus

The heroes of ancient Hellas were not only extraordinarily strong and courageous. Many of them were distinguished by their wisdom. The most cunning of them all was Odysseus. More than once, his sharp mind helped out the hero and his companions. Homer dedicated his famous "Odyssey" to the long-term journey of the king of Ithaca home.

Greatest of the Greeks

The hero of Hellas (Ancient Greece), the myths about which are most famous, is Hercules. and a descendant of Perseus, he performed many feats and became famous for centuries. All his life he was haunted by Hera's hatred. Under the influence of the madness sent by her, he killed his children and the two sons of his brother Iphicles.

The death of the hero came prematurely. Putting on a poisoned cloak sent by his wife Deianira, who thought he was soaked in a love potion, Hercules realized that he was dying. He ordered to prepare a funeral pyre and ascended it. At the time of his death, the son of Zeus - the main character of Greek myths - was ascended to Olympus, where he became one of the gods.

Ancient Greek demigods and characters of myths in modern art

The heroes of Ancient Hellas, pictures of which can be seen in the article, have always been considered models of physical strength and health. There is not a single art form that does not use the plots of Greek mythology. And these days they do not lose popularity. Films such as "Clash of the Titans" and "Wrath of the Titans", with Perseus as the main character, aroused great interest among the audience. An excellent film of the same name is dedicated to the odyssey (directed by Andrey Konchalovsky). "Troy" told about the exploits and death of Achilles.

A huge number of films, TV series and cartoons have been shot about the great Hercules.

Conclusion

The heroes of Ancient Greece are still a remarkable example of masculinity, self-sacrifice and devotion. Not all of them are ideal, and many of them have negative traits - vanity, pride, lust for power. But they always stood up to defend Greece if the country or its people were in danger.

The mythology of Ancient Greece is based on myths about the pantheon of gods, about the life of titans and giants, as well as about the heroes' deeds. In the myths of Ancient Greece, the main acting force was the Earth, which gives rise to everything and gives everything a beginning.

What came first

So she gave birth to monsters personifying dark power, titans, cyclops, hecatoncheirs - hundred-handed monsters, the many-headed serpent Typhon, the terrible goddesses of Erinnia, the bloodthirsty dog \u200b\u200bCerberus and the Lernean hydra and three-headed chimeras.

The society developed and these monsters were replaced by the heroes of Ancient Greece. Most of the heroes had parents who were gods, they were people. The myths about the exploits of these heroes are part of the culture of Greece, and some of the names of the heroes of Ancient Greece are well known.

Hercules

Hercules - popular, strong, courageous, was the son of the god Zeus and Alcmene, a simple, earthly woman. He became famous for his twelve feats, accomplished throughout his life. For this Zeus gave him immortality.

Odysseus

Odysseus is the king of Ithaca, he became famous for his deadly risky travel from Troy to his homeland. Homer described these exploits in his poem "The Odyssey". Odysseus was smart, cunning and strong. He managed to escape not only from the nymph Calypso, but also from the sorceress Kirka.

He managed to defeat the Cyclops, blinding him, he survived a lightning strike, and when he returned to his homeland, he punished all the "suitors" of his wife Penelope.

Perseus

One cannot help but remember Perseus, if we talk about the names of the heroes of Ancient Greece. The son of Queen Danaus and Zeus is Perseus. He accomplished the feat by killing Medusa the Gorgon - a winged monster, from whose gaze everything around was turned to stone. He accomplished the next feat when he freed princess Andromeda from the clutches of the monster.

Achilles

Achilles became famous in the Trojan War. He was the son of the nymph Thetis and King Peleus. When he was a baby, his mother bought him in the waters of the river of the dead. Since then, he was invulnerable to enemies, the exception was his heel. Paris, the son of the Trojan king, hit him in the heel with an arrow.

Jason

The ancient Greek hero Jason became famous in Colchis. Jason set out for the golden fleece to distant Colchis on the ship "Argo" with a team of brave Argonauts, married Medea, the daughter of the king of this country. They had two sons. Medea killed him and her two sons when Jason was about to marry a second time.

Theseus

The ancient Greek hero Theseus was the son of the sea king Poseidon. He became famous for having killed the monster that lived in the Cretan labyrinth - the Minotaur. He got out of the labyrinth thanks to Ariadne, who gave him a ball of thread. In Greece, this hero is considered the founder of Athens.

The names of the heroes of Ancient Greece are also not forgotten thanks to the filmed animated films and feature films.

More articles in this section:

HEROES

HEROES

Ancient mythology

Achilles
Hector
Hercules
Odysseus
Orpheus
Perseus
Theseus
Oedipus
Aeneas
Jason

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

1.Training of Achilles
Pompeo Batoni, 1770

2.Achilles at Lycomedes
Pompeo Batoni, 1745

3 the ambassadors of Agamemnon at Achilles
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
1801, Louvre, Paris

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

HECTOR -
in ancient Greek mythology, one of the main heroes of the Trojan War.
The hero was the son of Hecuba and Priam, the king of Troy.
Hector had 49 brothers and sisters, but he was famous among the sons of Priam
with their strength and courage. According to legend, Hector struck to death the first Greek,
who set foot on the land of Troy - Protesilaya.
The hero became especially famous in the ninth year of the Trojan War,
challenging Ajax Telamonides to battle.
Hector promised his enemy not to desecrate his bodies
in case of defeat and not to take off his armor and demanded the same from Ajax.
After a long struggle, they decided to stop the fight and as a sign
mutual respect exchanged gifts.
Hector hoped to defeat the Greeks, despite Cassandra's prediction.
It was under his leadership that the Trojans broke into the fortified camp of the Achaeans,
approached the navy and even managed to set one of the ships on fire.
The legends also describe the battle of Hector with the Greek Patroclus.
The hero defeated his opponent and removed the armor of Achilles.
The gods took a very active part in the war. They split into two camps
and each helped his favorites.
Apollo himself patronized Hector.
When Patroclus died, Achilles, obsessed with revenge for his death,
tied the defeated dead Hector to his chariot and
dragged him around the walls of Troy, but the hero's body was not touched by decay,
nor a bird, since Apollo protected him in gratitude for
that Hector had helped him on several occasions during his lifetime.
Based on this circumstance, the ancient Greeks concluded that
that Hector was the son of Apollo.
According to myths, Apollo, on the advice of the gods, persuaded Zeus
hand over Hector's body to the Trojans,
to be buried with honor.
The supreme god ordered Achilles to give the body of the deceased to his father Priam.
Since, according to legend, the grave of Hector was in Thebes,
the researchers suggested that the image of the hero is of Boeotian origin.
Hector was a very revered hero in ancient Greece,
which proves the fact of his image
on old vases and antique plastic.
Usually they depicted scenes of Hector's farewell to his wife Andromache,
the battle with Achilles and many other episodes.

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

]

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

1 Hercules and Kerber
Boris Vallejo, 1988

2 Hercules and Hydra
Gustave Moreau, 1876

3 hercules at a crossroads
Pompeo Batoni, 1745

4 Hercules and Omphale
Francois Lemoine, circa 1725

ODYSSEUS -
"angry", "angry" (Ulysses). In Greek mythology, the king of the island of Ithaca,
one of the leaders of the Achaeans in the Trojan War.
He is renowned for his cunning, agility and amazing adventures.
The brave Odysseus was sometimes considered the son of Sisyphus, who seduced Anticlea
even before marriage to Laertes,
and according to some versions, Odysseus is the grandson of Autolycus, "an oath-breaker and a thief", the son of the god Hermes,
inherited their intelligence, practicality and enterprise.
Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, had high hopes for the ingenuity and intelligence of Odysseus.
Together with the wise Nestor, Odysseus was instructed to persuade the great warrior
Achilles take part in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks,
and when their fleet got stuck in Aulis, it was Odysseus who tricked his wife into
Let Agamemnon Clytemnestra go to Aulis Iphigenia
under the pretext of her marriage to Achilles.
In reality, Iphigenia was intended as a sacrifice to Artemis,
who would not otherwise agree
to provide the Greek ships with a favorable wind.
It was Odysseus who came up with an idea with a Trojan horse, which brought victory to the Achaeans.
The Greeks pretended to lift the siege from the city and went out to sea,
leaving a huge hollow horse on the shore,
inside the body of which a detachment of warriors hid under the leadership of Odysseus.
The Trojans, rejoicing at the departure of the Achaeans, dragged the horse into the city.
They decided to present the statue as a gift to Athena and provide the city with the protection of the gods.
At night, armed Achaeans poured out of the horse through a secret door,
broke the guard and opened the gates of Troy.
Hence the ancient saying: "Fear the Achaeans (Danians), who bring gifts," and
the expression "Trojan horse".
Troy fell, but the cruel massacre by the Greeks
caused the strongest anger of the gods, especially Athens,
after all, the favorite of the gods Cassandra was raped in her sanctuary.
Odysseus's wanderings were the beloved stories of the Greeks and Romans,
who called him Ulysses.
From Troy, Odysseus headed for Thrace,
where he lost many people in the battle with the Kikons.
Then the storm carried him to the land of lotophages ("lotus-eating"),
whose food made the aliens forget about their homeland.
Later, Odysseus fell into the possession of the Cyclops (Cyclops),
being captured by the one-eyed Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon.
However, Odysseus and his companions managed to avoid imminent death.
On the island of the lord of the winds Aeolus, Odysseus received a gift - a fur,
filled with favorable winds,
but curious sailors untied their furs and the winds flew in all directions,
having stopped blowing in the same direction.
Then the ships of Odysseus were attacked by the Laestrigones, a tribe of man-eating giants,
but the hero managed to get to the island of Eya, the possession of the sorceress Circe (Kirka).
With the help of Hermes, Odysseus was able to make the sorceress return
human form to members of his team,
whom she turned into pigs.
Further, on the advice of Kirka, he visits the underworld of the dead,
where the shadow of the blind soothsayer Tiresias warns the brave Odysseus
about the dangers to come.
Leaving the island, Odysseus's ship sailed past the coast,
where are the sweet-voiced sirens with their wondrous singing
lured sailors to the sharp rocks.
The hero ordered the companions to cover up their ears with wax and tie themselves to the mast. Having happily passed the wandering rocks of Plankta,
Odysseus lost six people, who were dragged away and devoured by the six-headed Skete (Scylla).
On the island of Trinakia, as Tiresias predicted, hungry travelers
seduced by the fat flocks of the sun god Helios.
As punishment, these sailors died from a storm sent by Zeus at the request of Helios.
The surviving Odysseus was almost swallowed by the monstrous whirlpool of Charybdis.
Exhausted from exhaustion, he was nailed to the island of the sorceress Calypso,
who left him and offered to marry.
But even the prospect of immortality did not tempt Odysseus,
rushing to his homeland, and seven years later the gods forced
nymph in love to let go of the traveler.
After another shipwreck, Odysseus, with the help of Athena, took the form
poor old man, returned home, where his wife Penelope was waiting for him for many years.
Besieged by noble suitors, she was playing for time, announcing that she would marry,
when he finishes weaving a shroud for his father-in-law Laertes.
However, at night, Penelope unraveled what was woven in a day.
When the maids revealed her secret, she agreed to marry the one
who can draw the string of the battle bow belonging to Odysseus.
The test was passed by an unknown beggar old man who, throwing off his rags,
turned out to be a mighty Odysseus.
After twenty years of separation, the hero hugged his faithful Penelope,
which Athena awarded with rare beauty before the meeting.
According to some versions of the myth, Odysseus, unrecognized, fell at the hands of Telegon,
his son from Circe (Kirka), according to others -
peacefully rested being in old age.

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

2 Odysseus and the sirens
John William Waterhouse, 1891

3 Circe and Odysseus
John William Waterhouse 1891

4 Penelope Waiting for Odyssey
John William Waterhouse, 1890

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

1 Orpheus and Eurydice
Frederick Leighton, 1864

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

PERSEUS -
in Greek mythology, the ancestor of Hercules, the son of Zeus and Danae,
daughter of the king of Argos Acrisius.
Hoping to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy about the death of Acrisius by the hand of his grandson,
Danae was imprisoned in a copper chamber, but the almighty Zeus penetrated there,
turning into a golden rain, and conceived Perseus.
Frightened Acrisius planted a mother with a child
into a wooden box and threw it into the sea.
However, Zeus helped his beloved and son safely
get to Serif Island.
Matured Perseus was sent by the local ruler Polydect,
who fell in love with Danae, in search of the Gorgon Medusa,
with a look that turns all living things into stone.
Luckily for the hero, Athena hated Medusa and, according to one myth,
out of jealousy, she rewarded the once beautiful gorgon with deadly beauty.
Athena taught Perseus how to proceed.
First, the young man, following the advice of the goddess, went to the old women-grays,
which had one eye and one tooth for three.
By cunning seizing an eye and a tooth, Perseus returned them to the sides in exchange
to show the way to the nymphs who presented him with the invisibility hat,
winged sandals and a Medusa head bag.
Perseus flew to the western end of the world, to the gorgon's cave, and,
looking at the reflection of mortal Medusa in his copper shield, he chopped off her head.
Putting it in his bag, he dashed off wearing an invisible hat,
unnoticed by the serpentine sisters of the beast.
On the way home, Perseus saved the beautiful Andromeda from the sea monster
and married her.
Then the hero went to Argos, but Acrisius,
upon learning of the arrival of his grandson, he fled to Larisa.
And yet he did not escape his fate - during the festivities in Larissa,
participating in competitions, Perseus threw a heavy bronze disc,
hit Acrisius in the head and struck him to death.
The grief-stricken inconsolable hero did not want to rule in Argos
and moved to Tiryns.
After the death of Perseus and Andromeda, the goddess Athena lifted the spouses to heaven, turning them into constellations.

1 Perseus and Andromeda
Peter Paul Rubens, 1639

2 sinister Gorgon head
Edward Burne-Jones, 1887

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

1 Theseus and the Minotaur
Vase 450g. BC.

2.Theses
with Ariadne and Phaedra
B. Jennari, 1702

3 Theseus and Efra
Lovren de la Hir, 1640

OEDIPUS -
descendant of Cadmus, from the Labdakid clan, son of the Theban king Laius and Jocasta, or Epicasta,
favorite hero of Greek folk tales and tragedies, due to the many
it is very difficult to imagine the myth of Oedipus in its original form.
According to the most common legend, the oracle predicted Lai
about the birth of a son who will kill him,
marries his own mother and shame the entire Labdakid house.
Therefore, when Lai's son was born, his parents pierced his legs
and tying them together (why they are swollen),
sent him to Cithaeron, where Oedipus was found by a shepherd,
who sheltered the boy and then brought him to Sikyon,
or Corinth, to the king Polybus, who raised the adopted child as his own son.
Having received once at a feast a reproach for the doubtful origin,
Oedipus asked for clarification
to the oracle and received advice from him - to beware of parricide and incest.
As a result, Oedipus, who considered Polybus as his father, left Sikion.
On the way, he met Lai, started a quarrel with him and, in a passion
killed him and his entourage.
At this time, the monster Sphinx was devastating in Thebes,
asking for several years in a row
to each a riddle and devoured all who did not guess it.
Oedipus solved this riddle.
(what kind of creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon,
and in the evening for three? The answer is man)
as a result of which the Sphinx threw himself off the cliff and died.
In gratitude for ridding the country of a prolonged calamity, Theban citizens
made Oedipus their king and gave him to wife Lai's widow, Jocasta -
his own mother.
Soon the double crime, committed by Oedipus out of ignorance, was revealed,
and Oedipus, in despair, gouged out his eyes, and Jocasta took her own life.
According to an ancient legend (Homer, Odyssey, XI, 271 et seq.)
Oedipus remained to reign in Thebes and died,
pursued by the Erinyes.
Sophocles tells about the end of Oedipus' life differently:
when the crimes of Oedipus were revealed, the Thebans with the sons of Oedipus:
Eteocles and Polynicus, at their head, expelled the aged and blind king from Thebes,
and he, accompanied by his faithful daughter Antigone, went to the town of Colon
(in Attica), where in the sanctuary of Erinius,
who finally, thanks to the intervention of Apollo, humbled their anger,
ended his painful life.
His memory was considered sacred, and his grave was one of the palladiums of Attica.
As a character, Oedipus is shown in the tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus the King" and
"Oedipus in Colon" (both tragedies are available in a poetic Russian translation
D. S. Merezhkovsky, St. Petersburg., 1902),
in the tragedy of Euripides "The Phoenicians"
(verse Russian translation by I. Annensky, "The World of God", 1898, no. 4)
and in Seneca's tragedy "Oedipus".
There were also quite a few other poetic works dealing with the fate of Oedipus.

1.Ex-libris of Sigmund Freud.
The ex-libris depicts King Oedipus talking to the Sphinx.

2.Oedipus and the Sphinx
J.O. Ingres

3.Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864
Gustave Moreau

4.Wanderer Oedipus, 1888
Gustave Moreau

AENEAS -
in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of a handsome shepherd Anchis and Aphrodite (Venus),
participant in the defense of Troy during the Trojan War, a glorious hero.
A brave warrior, Aeneas participated in decisive battles with Achilles and escaped death
only through the intercession of his divine mother.
After the fall of ruined Troy, he left the burning city at the behest of the gods
and together with the old man-father,
wife Creusa and young son Askania (Yul),
capturing images of Trojan gods,
accompanied by satellites on twenty ships, he set off in search of a new homeland.
After experiencing a series of adventures and a terrible storm, he reached the Italian city of Kuma,
and then came to Latius, a region in Central Italy.
The local king was ready to give his daughter Lavinia for Aeneas (on the way of the widowed)
and provide him with land to found a city.
Defeating Thurn, the leader of the warlike Rutul tribe in a duel
and a pretender to Lavinia's hand,
Aeneas settled in Italy, which became the successor to the glory of Troy.
His son Ascanius (Yul) was considered the progenitor of the Julian clan,
including the famous emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus.

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

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

3 Aeneas' battle with the harpies
Francois Perrier, 1647

JASON -
("healer"), in Greek mythology, the great-grandson of the god of the winds Aeolus, the son of Tsar Iolk Eson and Polymedes.
Hero, leader of the Argonauts.
When Pelius overthrew his brother Eson from the throne, he, fearing for the life of his son,
placed him under the care of the wise centaur Chiron, who lived in the Thessalian forests.
The Delphic oracle predicted to Pelias that a man in one sandal would destroy him.
This explains the fear of the king when the mature Jason returned to the city,
who lost his sandal on the way.
Pelius decided to get rid of the impending threat and promised to recognize Jason as the heir, if he risked his life to get the Golden Fleece in Colchis.
Jason and his crew on the ship "Argo", having experienced many adventures, returned home with a wonderful rune.
With his success - the victory over the dragon and formidable warriors,
growing out of his teeth, -
they owed much to the Colchian princess Medea, since Eros,
at the request of Athena and Hera, who patronized Jason,
instilled in the girl's heart love for the hero.
On their return to Iolk, the Argonauts learned
that Pelius killed Jason's father and all his relatives.
According to one version, Pelius dies from the spell of Medea, whose name means "insidious".
According to the other, Jason resigned himself to exile, for ten years he lived happily with Medea
and they had three children.
Then the hero married the princess Glavka; in
in retaliation, Medea destroyed her and killed her sons from Jason.
The years passed. The aged hero dragged out his days until one day he wandered onto the dock,
where the famous "Argo" stood.
Suddenly, the mast of the ship, rotten from time, broke
and fell upon Jason, who fell dead.

1 jason and medea
John William Waterhouse, 1890

2 jason and medea
Gustave Moreau, 1865

The myths of ancient Greece about heroes took shape 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 the children of gods who have married mortals.

Many noble Greek families traced their lineage to the divine ancestors, who were called heroes by the ancients. Ancient Greek heroes and their descendants were considered mediators between the people and their gods (originally a "hero" - a deceased who can help or harm the living).

In the pre-literary period of Ancient Greece, narratives about the exploits, sufferings, and wanderings of the heroes constituted the oral tradition of the history of the people.

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 had ascended to the level of deities (Hercules, Castor, Polideukos, etc.).

In ancient times of Greece, it was believed that the afterlife of heroes is 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 gave rise to the cult of heroes. Altars and even temples of heroes appeared; their tombs became the object of the cult.

Among the heroes of the myths of Ancient Greece, there are the names of the gods of the Cretan-Mycenaean era, ousted by the Olympic religion (Agamemnon, Elena, etc.).

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. Cartoon

The history of heroes, that is, the mythical history of Ancient Greece, can begin with the creation of people. Their ancestor was the son of Iapetus, the titan Prometheus, who made people out of clay. These first people were rude and wild, they did not have fire, without which crafts are impossible, you cannot cook food. God Zeus did not want to give people fire, as he foresaw the kind of arrogance and impiety that their enlightenment and dominion over nature would lead to. Prometheus, loving his creations, did not want to leave them completely dependent on the gods. Having stolen the spark from Zeus' lightning, Prometheus, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, transmitted fire to people and for this he was chained by Zeus's order to the Caucasian rock, on which he stayed for several centuries, and every day the eagle pecked out his liver, which grew anew at night. Hero Hercules, with the consent of Zeus, killed the eagle and freed Prometheus. Although the Greeks honored Prometheus as the creator of people and their assistant, Hesiod, who was the first to bring the myth of Prometheus to us, justifies the actions of Zeus, because he is confident in the gradual moral degradation of people.

Prometheus. Painting by G. Moreau, 1868

Outlining the mythical tradition of Ancient Greece, Hesiod says that over time, people became more arrogant, less and less revered the gods. Then Zeus decided to send them tests that would make them remember the gods. At the behest of Zeus, the god Hephaestus created a female statue of extraordinary beauty from clay and revived it. Each of the gods gave this woman some gift that would increase her attractiveness. Aphrodite endowed her with charm, Athena - craftsmanship, Hermes - slyness and smooth speech. Pandora ("Gifted by all") the gods called the woman and sent her to earth to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. No matter how Prometheus warned his brother, Epimetheus, seduced by the beauty of Pandora, married her. Pandora brought to the house of Epimetheus as a dowry a large closed vessel given to her by the gods, but she was forbidden to look into it. One day, tormented by curiosity, Pandora opened the vessel, and from there all the diseases and disasters that humanity endure flew out. Frightened Pandora slammed the lid of the vessel: only hope remained in it, which could serve as a consolation for people in adversity.

Deucalion and Pyrrha

As time went on, mankind learned to overcome the hostile forces of nature, but at the same time, according to Greek myths, it increasingly turned away from the gods, became more and more arrogant and ungodly. Then Zeus sent a flood to earth, after which only the son of Prometheus Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, survived.

The mythical ancestor of the Greek tribes was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the hero Hellene, who is sometimes called the son of Zeus (after his name the ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes, and their country Hellas). His sons Aeolus and Dor became the progenitors of the Greek tribes - the Aeolians (inhabiting the island of Lesbos and the adjacent coast of Asia Minor) and the Dorians (the islands of Crete, Rhodes and the southeastern part of the Peloponnese). The grandsons of Ellin (from the third son, Xuf) Ion and Achaeus became the progenitors of the Ionians and Achaeans, who inhabited the eastern part of mainland Greece, Attica, the central part of the Peloponnese, the southwestern part of the coast of Asia Minor and part of the Aegean islands.

In addition to common Greek myths about heroes, there were local ones that developed in such regions and cities of Greece as Argolis, Corinth, Boeotia, Crete, Elis, Attica, etc.

Myths about the heroes of Argolis - Io and Danaida

The ancestor of the mythical heroes of Argolis (a country located on the Peloponnese peninsula) was the river god Inah, the father of Io, the beloved of Zeus, which was mentioned above in the story of Hermes. After Hermes freed her from Argus, Io wandered all over Greece, fleeing the gadfly sent by the Goddess Hero, and only in Egypt (in the Hellenistic era, Io was identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis) again acquired a human form and gave birth to a son, Epaph, to whose offspring belong the brothers Egypt and Danai, who owned the African lands of Egypt and Libya, located west of Egypt.

But Danai left his possessions and returned to Argolis with his 50 daughters, whom he wanted to save from the marriage claims of 50 sons of his brother Egypt. Danai became king of Argolis. When the sons of Egypt, having arrived in his country, forced him to give Danaids to them as wives, Danai gave his daughters a knife, ordering them to kill their husbands on their wedding night, which they did. Only one of the Danaids, Hypermnestra, who fell in love with her husband Linkey, disobeyed her father. Everything Danaids they remarried, and from these marriages there were generations of many heroic families.

Heroes of Ancient Greece - Perseus

As for Linkey and Hypernestra, the descendants of heroes descended from them were especially famous in the myths of Ancient Greece. Their grandson, Acrisius, was predicted that his daughter Danae would give birth to a son who would destroy her grandfather, Acrisius. Therefore, the father locked Danae in an underground grotto, but Zeus, who fell in love with her, entered the underground in the form of a golden rain, and Danae gave birth to a son, the hero Perseus.

Upon learning of the birth of his grandson, Acrisius, according to myth, ordered to put Danae and Perseus in a wooden box and throw him into the sea. However, Danae and her son managed to escape. The waves drove the box to Serifu Island. At that time, the fisherman Diktis was fishing on the shore. The box is entangled in its webs. Dictis pulled it ashore, opened it and took the woman and the boy to his brother, the king of Serif, Polydect. Perseus grew up at the king's court, became a strong and slender youth. This hero of ancient Greek myths became famous for many feats: he beheaded Medusa, one of the Gorgons who turned everyone who looked at them to stone. Perseus freed Andromeda, the daughter of Kefei and Cassiopeia, chained to a cliff to be torn apart by the sea monster, and made her his wife.

Perseus saves Andromeda from the sea monster. Ancient greek amphora

Broken by the calamities that befell his family, the hero Cadmus, along with Harmony, left Thebes and moved to Illyria. In extreme old age, both of them were turned into dragons, but after their death Zeus settled them in the Champs Elysees.

Zeta and Amphion

Gemini heroes Zeta and Amphion were, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, born Antiope, the daughter of one of the subsequent Theban kings, the beloved of Zeus. They were raised by shepherds and knew nothing of their origins. Antiope, fleeing from her father's wrath, fled to Sikyon. Only after the death of her father, Antiope finally returned to her homeland to her brother Likus, who became the Theban king. But the jealous wife of Lika Dirk turned her into her slave and treated her so cruelly that Antiope again fled from her home, to Mount Kiferon, where her sons lived. Zeta and Amphion took her in, not knowing that Antiope was their mother. She did not recognize her sons either.

At the festival of Dionysus, Antiope and Dirk met again, and Dirka decided to betray Antiope to a terrible execution as her escaped slave. She ordered Zeta and Amphion to tie Antiope to the horns of a wild bull so that he would tear her to pieces. But, having learned from the old shepherd that Aitiopa is their mother, and hearing about the bullying she suffered from the queen, the twin heroes did to Dirka what she wanted to do to Antiope. After Dirk's death, it turned into a source named after her.

Lai, the son of Labdak (grandson of Cadmus), having married Jocasta, received, according to ancient Greek myths, a terrible prophecy: his son was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. In an effort to save himself from such a terrible fate, Lai ordered the slave to take the boy who was born to the wooded slope of Kiferon and leave there to be eaten by wild animals. But the slave took pity on the baby and gave him to the Corinthian shepherd, who took him to the childless king of Corinth, Polybus, where the boy named Oedipus grew up, considering himself the son of Polybus and Merope. Becoming a young man, he learned from the oracle about the terrible fate destined for him and, not wanting to commit a double crime, left Corinth and went to Thebes. On the way, the hero Oedipus met Lai, but did not recognize him as his father. Having quarreled with his entourage, he interrupted everyone. Lai was among those killed. Thus, the first part of the prophecy came true.

Approaching Thebes, the myth of Oedipus continues, the hero met the monster Sphinx (half-woman, half-lion), who asked a riddle to everyone passing by him. A person who could not solve the riddle of the Sphinx died immediately. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx threw himself into the abyss. The Theban citizens, grateful to Oedipus for getting rid of the Sphinx, married him to the widow Queen Jocasta, and thus the second part of the oracle came to pass: Oedipus became the king of Thebes and the husband of his mother.

How Oedipus learned about what happened and what followed is told in the tragedy of Sophocles "Oedipus the King".

Myths about the heroes of Crete

In Crete, from the union of Zeus with Europe, the hero Minos was born, famous for his wise legislation and justice, for which, after his death, he became, along with Eak and Radamant (his brother), one of the judges in the kingdom of Hades.

The hero-king Minos was, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, married to Pasiphae, who, along with other children (including Phaedra and Ariadne), gave birth, falling in love with a bull, a terrible monster of the Minotaur (Minos bull), who devoured people. To separate the Minotaur from the people, Minos ordered the Athenian architect Daedalus to build the Labyrinth - a building in which there would be such intricate passages that neither the Minotaur nor anyone else who got into it could get out of there. The labyrinth was built, and the Minotaur was placed in this building together with the architect - the hero Daedalus and his son Icarus. Daedalus was punished for helping the killer of the Minotaur, Theseus to escape from Crete. But Daedalus made himself and his son wings of feathers fastened with wax, and both flew away from the Labyrinth. On the way to Sicily, Icarus died: despite the warnings of his father, he flew too close to the sun. The wax that held the wings of Icarus melted and the boy fell into the sea.

The Pelops myth

In the myths of the ancient Greek region of Elis (on the Peloponnese), a hero, the son of Tantalus, was revered. Tantalus incurred the punishment of the gods with a terrible crime. He planned to test the omniscience of the gods and prepared a terrible meal for them. According to myths, Tantalus killed his son Pelops and served his meat under the guise of an exquisite dish to the gods during a feast. The gods at once comprehended the evil intent of Tantalus, and no one touched the terrible dish. The gods revived the boy. He appeared before the gods even more beautiful than he was before. And the gods threw Tantalus into the kingdom of Hades, where he endures terrible torments. When the hero Pelops became king of Elis, southern Greece was named after him the Peloponnese. According to the myths of Ancient Greece, Pelops married Hippodamia, the daughter of the local king Enomai, defeating her father in a chariot race with the help of Myrtilus, the driver of Enomai, who did not fix the check on the chariot of his master. During the competition, the chariot broke and Enomai died. In order not to give Myrtila the promised half of the kingdom, Pelops threw him off a cliff into the sea.

Pelops takes away Hippodamia

Atreus and Atrida

Before his death, Mirtil cursed the house of Pelops. This curse brought many troubles to the Tantalus family, and primarily to the sons of Pelops, Atreus and Fiesta. Atreus became the founder of a new dynasty of kings in Argos and Mycenae. His sons Agamemnon and Menelaus ("Atrias", that is, the children of Atreus) became heroes of the Trojan War. Fiestes was expelled by his brother from Mycenae for seducing his wife. To take revenge on Atreus, Fiestes tricked him into killing his own son, Playsfen. But Atreus surpassed Fiesta in villainy. Pretending that he did not remember evil, Atreus invited his brother along with his three sons, killed the boys, and Fiesta treated them to meat. After Thiesus had his fill, Atreus showed him the heads of the children. Fiestos fled in terror from his brother's house; subsequently son of Fiesta Aegisthus during the sacrifice, in revenge for the brothers, he killed his uncle.

After the death of Atreus, his son Agamemnon became king of Argos. Menelaus, having married Elena, received Sparta in possession.

Myths about the exploits of Hercules

Hercules (in Rome - Hercules) is one of the most beloved heroes in the myths of Ancient Greece.

The parents of the hero Hercules were Zeus and Alcmene, the wife of King Amphitryon. Amphitryon is the grandson of Perseus and the son of Alkeus, therefore Hercules is called Alcides.

According to ancient Greek myths, Zeus, foreseeing the birth of Hercules, vowed that whoever was born on the day appointed by him would rule the surrounding nations. Having learned about this and about the connection between Zeus and Alcmene, Zeus's wife Hera delayed Alcmene's birth and accelerated the birth of Eurystheus, the son of Sfenel. Then Zeus decided to give his son immortality. At his command, Hermes brought the baby Hercules to Hera, without telling her who it was. Delighted with the beauty of the child, Hera raised him to her breast, but, having learned who she was feeding, the goddess tore him from her breast and threw him aside. Milk splashed from her breast formed the Milky Way in the sky, and the future hero gained immortality: a few drops of the divine drink was enough for this.

The myths of ancient Greece about heroes tell that Hera pursued Hercules all his life, starting from infancy. When he and his brother Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, lay in the cradle, Hera sent two snakes at him: Iphicles wept, and Hercules with a smile grabbed them by the necks and squeezed them with such force that he strangled them.

Amphitryon, knowing that he was raising the son of Zeus, invited mentors to Hercules so that they would teach him military affairs and noble arts. The ardor with which the hero Hercules devoted himself to his studies, led to the fact that he killed his teacher with a hit of the cithara. Out of fear lest Hercules did something else of the same kind, Amphitryon sent him to Kiferon to graze the flock. There Hercules killed the Citheron lion, who was destroying the herds of King Thespius. Since then, the protagonist of ancient Greek myths wore the skin of a lion as clothing, and used his head as a helmet.

Learning from the oracle Apollo that he was destined to serve Eurystheus for twelve years, Hercules came to Tiryns, ruled by Eurystheus, and, following his orders, performed 12 labors.

Even before serving Omphale, Hercules again married Deianira, the daughter of the Calydonian king. Once, having gone Perseus saves Andromeda on a campaign against his enemy Eurytus, he took Eurytus's daughter Iola prisoner and returned home with her to Trakhin, where Deianira remained with her children. Having learned about Iola taken prisoner by him, Deianira decided that Hercules had cheated on her and sent him a cloak soaked, as she thought, with a love potion. In reality, it was poison, presented to Deianira under the guise of a love potion by the centaur Nessus, who was once killed by Hercules. Putting on the poisoned clothes, Hercules felt unbearable pain. Realizing that this is death, Hercules ordered to transfer himself to Mount Etu and build a fire. He passed his arrows, striking to death, to his friend Philoctetus, and he himself went up to the fire and, engulfed in fire, ascended into heaven. Deianira, on learning about her mistake and the death of her husband, committed suicide. This ancient Greek myth forms the basis of Sophocles' tragedy "The Trakhine girls".

After death, when Hera reconciled with him, Hercules in ancient Greek myths joined the host of gods, becoming the spouse of the eternally young Hebe.

The protagonist of myths, Hercules was revered in Ancient Greece everywhere, but most of all in Argos and Thebes.

Theseus and Athens

According to ancient Greek myth, Jason and Medea were expelled from Iolcus for this crime and lived in Corinth for ten years. But when the king of Corinth expressed his consent to give his daughter Glauca (according to another version of the Creusu myth) to Jason, Jason left Medea and entered into a new marriage.

After the events described in the tragedies of Euripides and Seneca, Medea lived for some time in Athens, then she returned to her homeland, where she returned power to her father by killing his brother, the usurper Persus. Jason once passed through Isthm past the place where the ship "Argo", dedicated to the god of the sea Poseidon, stood. Tired, he lay down in the shade of the Argo under its stern to rest and fell asleep. When Iason slept, the stern of the dilapidated Argo collapsed and buried the hero Iason under its wreckage.

Campaign of the Seven against Thebes

Towards the end of the heroic period, the myths of Ancient Greece coincide with the two greatest myth cycles: the Theban and the Trojan. Both legends are based on historical facts, colored by mythical fiction.

The first amazing events in the house of Theban kings have already been described - this is the mythical story of his daughters and the tragic story of King Oedipus. After the voluntary expulsion of Oedipus, his sons Eteocles and Polynices remained in Thebes, where Creon, Jocasta's brother, ruled until their majority. As adults, the brothers decided to reign in turn, one year at a time. Eteocles was the first to ascend the throne, but after the expiration of the term he did not transfer power to Polynicus.

According to myths, the offended hero Polynices, who by that time had become the son-in-law of the Sikion king Adrastus, gathered a large army in order to go to war against his brother. Adrast himself agreed to take part in the campaign. Together with Tydeus, heir to the throne of Argos, Polynices traveled all over Greece, inviting heroes to his army who wanted to participate in the campaign against Thebes. In addition to Adrastus and Tideus, Capaneus, Hippomedont, Parthenopaeus and Amphiarai responded to his call. In total, including Polynices, the army was led by seven generals (according to another myth about the Campaign of seven against Thebes, Eteocles, the son of Iphys from Argos, entered this number instead of Adrastus). While the army was preparing for the campaign, blind Oedipus, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, wandered through Greece. When he was in Attica, the oracle announced to him the imminent end of suffering. Polynices also asked the oracle about the outcome of the struggle with his brother; the oracle replied that the winner will be the one on whose side Oedipus will be and to whom he will appear in Thebes. Then Polynices himself found his father and asked him to go to Thebes with his troops. But Oedipus cursed the fratricidal war conceived by Polynicus and refused to go to Thebes. Eteocles, having learned about the oracle's prediction, sent his uncle Creon to Oedipus with an order to bring his father to Thebes at any cost. But the Athenian king Theseus stood up for Oedipus, driving the embassy out of his city. Oedipus cursed both sons and predicted their death in internecine war. He himself withdrew to the Eumenides grove near Colon, not far from Athens, and died there. Antigone returned to Thebes.

Meanwhile, the ancient Greek myth continues, an army of seven heroes approached Thebes. Theideus was sent to Eteocles, who made an attempt to peacefully extinguish the conflict between the brothers. Not heeding the voice of reason, Eteocles imprisoned Tydeus in prison. However, the hero interrupted his guard of 50 people (only one of them escaped) and returned to his army. Seven heroes are stationed, each with his own soldiers, at the seven Theban gates. The battles began. The attackers were lucky at first; the valiant Argive Capaneus had already climbed the city wall, but at that moment he was struck by the lightning of Zeus.

Episode of the storming of Thebes by the Seven: Capaneus climbs the stairs to the city walls. Antique amphora, approx. 340 BC

Confusion gripped the besieging heroes. The Thebans, encouraged by the sign, rushed to the attack. According to the myths of Ancient Greece, Eteocles entered into a duel with Polynikos, but although both of them were mortally wounded and died, the Thebans did not lose their presence of mind and continued to advance until they scattered the troops of seven generals, of whom only Adrastus survived. Power in Thebes passed to Creon, who considered Polynices a traitor and forbade his body to be buried.

It formed the basis of Homeric poems. In Ilion, or Troy, the main city of Troas, located near the Hellespont, reigned Priam and Hecuba... Before the birth of their youngest son Paris, they received a prophecy that this son of theirs would destroy their hometown. To avoid trouble, Paris was carried away from home and thrown on the slope of Mount Ida to be devoured by wild animals. The shepherds found and raised him. The hero Paris grew up on Ida and became a shepherd himself. Already in his youth, he showed such courage that he was named Alexander - the protector of husbands.

At this very time, Zeus became aware that he could not enter into a love union with the sea goddess Thetis, since from this union a son could be born who would surpass his father in power. At the council of the gods, it was decided to marry Thetis off to a mortal. The choice of the gods fell on the king of the Thessalian city of Phthias Peleus, known for his piety.

According to the myths of Ancient Greece, all the gods gathered at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, except for the goddess of discord Eris, whom they forgot to invite. Eris avenged her neglect by throwing a golden apple with the inscription "fairest" on the table during the feast, which immediately sparked an argument between the three goddesses: Hero, Athena and Aphrodite. To resolve this dispute, Zeus sent the goddesses to Ida to Paris. Each of them secretly tried to win him over to their side: Hera promised him power and might, Athena - military glory, and Aphrodite - the possession of the most beautiful of women. Paris awarded the "apple of discord" to Aphrodite, for which Hera and Athena forever hated both him and his hometown of Troy.

Shortly thereafter, Paris came to Troy for the lambs taken from his flock by Priam's eldest sons Hector and Helen. Paris was recognized by his sister, a prophetess Cassandra... Priam and Hecuba were glad to meet their son, forgot the fateful prediction, and Paris began to live in the royal house.

Aphrodite, fulfilling her promise, ordered Paris to equip a ship and go to Greece to the king of Greek Sparta, the hero Menelaus.

According to myths, Menelaus was married to Elena, daughter of Zeus and Ice, wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus. Zeus appeared to Leda in the guise of a swan, and she bore him Elena and Polidevka, at the same time with whom she had children from Tyndareus Clytemnestra and Castor (according to the later myths, Elena and Dioscuri - Castor and Polidevk hatched from the eggs laid by Leda). Elena was distinguished by such extraordinary beauty that the most glorious heroes of Ancient Greece wooed her. Tyndareus gave preference to Menelaus, having taken an oath from the others not only not to take revenge on his chosen one, but also to provide assistance if any trouble befalls the future spouses.

Menelaus welcomed the Trojan Paris cordially, but Paris, seized by a passion for his wife Elena, misused the trust of the hospitable host: having seduced Elena and stolen part of Menelaus's treasures, he secretly boarded a ship at night and sailed to Troy with the kidnapped Elena, taking away the riches king.

The kidnapping of Elena. Red-figured Attic amphora of the late 6th century B.C.

All of Ancient Greece was offended by the act of the Trojan prince. Fulfilling the oath given to Tyndareus, all the heroes - Helena's former suitors - gathered with their troops in the harbor of Aulis, a port city, from where, under the command of the Argos king Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, set off on a campaign against Troy - the Trojan War.

According to the story of ancient Greek myths, the Greeks (in the "Iliad" they are called Achaeans, Danians or Argives) laid siege to Troy for nine years, and only in the tenth year they managed to capture the city, thanks to the cunning of one of the most valiant Greek heroes Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. On the advice of Odysseus, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, hid their soldiers in it and, leaving it at the walls of Troy, pretended to lift the siege and set sail for their homeland. A relative of Odysseus, Sinon, under the guise of a defector, appeared in the city and told the Trojans that the Greeks had lost hope of victory in the Trojan War and were stopping the struggle, and the wooden horse was a gift to the goddess Athena, who was angry with Odysseus and Diomedes for the theft from Troy "Palladium" - the statue of Pallas Athena, which once fell from the sky, the shrine that defended the city. Sinon advised to introduce a horse to Troy as the most reliable guard of the gods.

In the narrative of Greek myths, Laocoon, a priest of Apollo, warned the Trojans against accepting a dubious gift. Athena, who was on the side of the Greeks, sent two huge snakes to Laocoon. The snakes rushed at Laocoon and his two sons and strangled all three.

In the death of Laocoon and his sons, the Trojans saw a manifestation of the discontent of the gods with the words of Laocoon and brought the horse into the city, for which it was necessary to dismantle part of the Trojan wall. For the rest of the day, the Trojans feasted and rejoiced, celebrating the end of the ten-year siege of the city. When the city fell asleep, the Greek heroes emerged from the wooden horse; by this time, the Greek army, at the signal fire of Sinon, left the ships ashore and burst into the city. Unprecedented bloodshed began. The Greeks set fire to Troy, attacked the sleeping people, killed the men, and enslaved the women.

That night, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, Elder Priam died, killed by the hand of Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Little Astianax, the son of Hector, the leader of the Trojan army, was thrown by the Greeks from the Trojan wall: the Greeks were afraid that he would take revenge on them for his relatives when he became an adult. Paris was wounded by the poisoned arrow of Philoctetes and died from this wound. The bravest of the Greek warriors, Achilles, died even before the capture of Troy from the hand of Paris. Only Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite and Anchises, escaped on Mount Ida, carrying his elderly father on his shoulders. With Aeneas, his son Ascanius left the city. After the end of the campaign, Menelaus returned with Elena to Sparta, Agamemnon to Argos, where he died at the hands of his wife, who betrayed him with his cousin Aegisthus. Neoptolemus returned to Phthia, taking away Hector's widow Andromache as a prisoner.

Thus ended the Trojan War. After her, the heroes of Greece experienced unprecedented labors on their way to Hellas. Odysseus could not return to his homeland for the longest time. He had to endure many adventures, and his return was delayed for ten years, as he was pursued by the wrath of Poseidon, the father of the Cyclops Polyphemus, blinded by Odysseus. The story of the wanderings of this long-suffering hero is the content of Homer's Odyssey.

Aeneas who escaped from Troy also underwent many disasters and adventures in his sea voyages until he reached the shores of Italy. His descendants later became the founders of Rome. The story of Aeneas formed the basis for the plot of Virgil's heroic poem "Aeneid"

We have briefly described here only the main figures of the myths of ancient Greece about the heroes and briefly outlined the most popular legends.

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

Achilles

Achilles was the bravest of heroes. He participated in the campaign against Troy under the leadership of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon.

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

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

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

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

Hercules

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

Annibale Carracci "The Choice of Hercules"

12 labors of Hercules

1. Strangulation of the Nemean lion
2. The murder of the Lernaean hydra
3. Extermination of Stymphalian birds
4. Capture of the Kerinean fallow deer
5. The taming of the Erymanth boar and the battle with the centaurs
6. Cleaning the Augean stables.
7. Taming the Cretan bull
8. The abduction of the horses of Diomedes, the victory over the king Diomedes (who threw foreigners to be devoured by his horses)
9. The abduction of the belt of Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons
10. Stealing the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon
11. Stealing golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides
12. The taming of the guardian of Hades - the dog of Cerberus

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

G. Fuger "Prometheus brings fire to people"
During his tenth feat, he places the Pillars of Hercules on the sides of Gibraltar.

Pillars of Hercules - Rock of Gibraltar (foreground) and North African mountains (background)
Author: Hansvandervliet - Own work, from Wikipedia
Participated in the campaign of the Argonauts. Defeated the king of Elis Augus and established the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, he won the pankration. Some authors describe the struggle of Hercules with Zeus himself - their competition ended in a draw. Established Olympic stadiums 600 feet long. In running, he overcame the stages without catching his breath. He performed many other feats.
There are also many legends about the death of Hercules. According to Ptolemy Hephaestion, when he lived to the age of 50 and found that he could no longer draw his bow, he threw himself into the fire. Hercules ascended to heaven, was accepted among the gods, and Hera, reconciled with him, marries her daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth. He happily lives on Olympus, and his ghost is in Hades.

Hector

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

Return of Hector's body to Troy

Perseus

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

A. Canova "Perseus with the head of the Gorgon Medusa." Metropolitan Museum (New York)
Author: Yucatan - Own work, from Wikipedia
Gorgona Medusa is the most famous of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with a female face and snakes for hair. Her gaze turned the person to stone.
Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Kefei and Cassiopeia (had divine progenitors). Cassiopeia once boasted that she was superior in beauty to the Nereids (sea deities, daughters of Nereus and the oceanids of Doris, in appearance resembling Slavic mermaids), angry goddesses turned to Poseidon with a request for revenge, and he sent a sea monster that threatened the death of Kefei's subjects. The oracle of Ammon announced that the anger of the deity would be tamed only when Kefey sacrificed Andromeda to the monster, and the inhabitants of the country forced the king to decide on this sacrifice. Chained to the cliff, Andromeda was left to the mercy of the monster.

Gustave Dore "Andromeda chained to the rock"
Perseus saw her in this position. He was amazed at her beauty and promised to kill the monster if she agreed to marry him (Perseus). Andromeda's father Kefey gladly agreed to this, and Perseus accomplished his feat, showing the face of the Gorgon Medusa to the monster, thereby turning it into stone.

Perseus and Andromeda
Not wishing to reign in Argos after the accidental murder of his grandfather, Perseus left the throne to his relative Megapenth, and he himself went to Tiryns (an ancient city on the Peloponnese peninsula). Founded Mycenae. The city got its name due to the fact that Perseus lost the tip (mikes) of the sword in the vicinity. It is believed that among the ruins of Mycenae, the underground source of Perseus has been preserved.
Andromeda gave birth to Perseus a daughter, Gorgophon, and six sons: Pers, Alcaeus, Sfenel, Eleus, Mestor and Electrion. The eldest of them, Pers, was considered the ancestor of the Persian people.