Read stories from ancient Greece. Myths of Ancient Greece about the gods of Olympus. Myths about the god Hermes

Myths about the gods and their struggle with giants and titans are presented mainly based on Hesiod’s poem “Theogony” (The Origin of the Gods). Some legends are also borrowed from Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” and the poem “Metamorphoses” (Transformations) by the Roman poet Ovid.

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

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

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

Uranus - Heaven - reigned in the world. He took the fertile Earth as his wife. Uranus and Gaia had six sons and six daughters - powerful, formidable titans. Their son, the Titan Ocean, flowing around the entire earth like a boundless river, and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and the sea goddesses - the Oceanids. Titan Hipperion and Theia gave the world children: the Sun - Helios, the Moon - Selene and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astraeus and Eos came all the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and all the winds: the stormy northern wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Notus and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds heavy with rain.

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

Uranus hated his giant children; he imprisoned them in deep darkness in the bowels of the Earth goddess and did not allow them to come into the light. Their mother Earth suffered. She was oppressed by this terrible burden contained in her depths. She summoned her children, the Titans, and convinced them to rebel against their father Uranus, but they were afraid to raise their hands against their father. Only the youngest of them, the treacherous Kron, overthrew his father by cunning and took away his power.

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

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

Birth of Zeus

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

Rhea did not want to lose her last child. On the advice of her parents, Uranus-Heaven and Gaia-Earth, she retired to the island of Crete, and there, in a deep cave, her youngest son Zeus was born. In this cave, Rhea hid her son from her cruel father, and instead of her son she gave him a long stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow. Krohn had no idea that he had been deceived by his wife.

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished little Zeus; they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. The bees brought honey to little Zeus from the slopes high mountain Dictations. At the entrance to the cave, the young Kuretes struck their shields with their swords every time little Zeus cried, so that Kronus would not hear him cry and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

Zeus overthrows Cronus. The fight of the Olympian gods with the titans

The beautiful and powerful god Zeus grew up and matured. He rebelled against his father and forced him to bring back into the world the children he had absorbed. One after another, Kron spewed out his children-gods, beautiful and bright, from the mouth. They began to fight with Kron and the Titans for power over the world.

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

Zeus threw fiery lightning and deafeningly roaring thunder one after another. Fire engulfed the entire earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench covered everything with a thick veil.

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

The fight between Zeus and Typhon

But the struggle did not end there. Gaia-Earth was angry with the Olympian Zeus for treating her defeated titan children so harshly. She married the gloomy Tartarus and gave birth to the terrible hundred-headed monster Typhon. Huge, with a hundred dragon heads, Typhon rose from the bowels of the earth. He shook the air with a wild howl. The barking of dogs, human voices, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion were heard in this howl. Turbulent flames swirled around Typhon, and the earth shook under his heavy steps. The gods shuddered with horror, but Zeus the Thunderer boldly rushed at him, and the battle broke out. Lightning flashed again in the hands of Zeus, and thunder rumbled. The earth and the firmament were shaken to the core. The earth flared up again with a bright flame, just as during the fight with the titans. The seas were boiling at the mere approach of Typhon. Hundreds of fiery lightning arrows rained down from the thunderer Zeus; it seemed as if their fire was making the very air burn and the dark thunderclouds were burning. Zeus incinerated all of Typhon's hundred heads. Typhon collapsed to the ground; such heat emanated from his body that everything around him melted. Zeus raised Typhon's body and threw it into the gloomy Tartarus, which gave birth to him. But even in Tartarus, Typhon also threatens the gods and all living things. It causes storms and eruptions; he gave birth to the terrible two-headed dog Orff with Echidna, half-woman, half-snake, hellhound Kerbera, Lernaean Hydra and Chimera; Typhon often shakes the earth.

Nikolay Kun

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

Part one. Gods and heroes

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

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

Birth of Zeus

Meanwhile, Zeus grew up in Crete. The nymphs Adrastea and Idea cherished little Zeus; they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. The bees brought honey to little Zeus from the slopes of the high mountain Dikta. At the entrance to the cave, the young Kuretes struck their shields with their swords every time little Zeus cried, so that Kronus would not hear him cry and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.

Zeus overthrows Cronus. The fight of the Olympian gods with the titans

Zeus threw fiery lightning and deafeningly roaring thunder one after another. Fire engulfed the entire earth, the seas boiled, smoke and stench covered everything with a thick veil.

The most ancient gods of Ancient Greece, known to us from myths, were personifications of those forces of nature, whose activity determines physical life and arouses in the human heart either fear and horror, or hope and trust - personifications of forces mysterious to man, but obviously dominating his fate, which were the first objects of idolization among all peoples. But the gods of Ancient Greece were not only symbols of the forces of external nature; At the same time, they were the creators and guardians of all moral goods, personifications of all the forces of moral life. All those forces of the human spirit that create cultural life, and the development of which among the Greek people gave him such important in the history of mankind, were invested by him in myths about the gods. The gods of Greece are personifications of all the great and beautiful forces of the Greek people; world of the gods of ancient Greece - total reflection Greek civilization. The Greeks made their gods in myths similar to people, therefore they felt obliged to become like gods; caring about improving was for them religious obligation. Greek culture has a close connection with the Greek religion.

Gods of Ancient Greece. Video

Different generations of gods of Ancient Greece

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

Zeus and Hera

So, new humanoid gods began to rule the world, the main one in the myths was Zeus, the son of Cronus; but the former gods, personified forces of nature, retained their mysterious effectiveness, which even the omnipotent Zeus could not overcome. Just as omnipotent kings are subject to the laws of the moral world, so Zeus and other new gods of Ancient Greece are subject to the laws of nature and fate.

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

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

Pallas Athena

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

Statue of Virgin Athena in the Parthenon. Sculptor Phidias

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

God Hephaestus in Greek myths

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

God Vulcan (Hephaestus). Statue by Thorvaldsen, 1838

Hestia

The importance of the hearth as the center of family life and beneficial influence sound home life on moral and social life were personified in the myths of Ancient Greece by the maiden goddess Hestia, a representative of the concepts of settled life and a comfortable home life, the symbol of which was the sacred fire of the hearth. Initially, Hestia was in ancient Greek myths about the gods the personification of the earth, above which the ethereal fire of the sky burns; but later it became a symbol of civil improvement, which gains strength on earth only through the union of earth with heaven, as a divine institution. Therefore, in every Greek home, the hearth was the religious center of the family. Whoever approached the hearth and sat on its ashes acquired the right to protection. Each clan union of Ancient Greece had a common sanctuary of Hestia, in which symbolic rites were reverently performed. In ancient times, when there were kings and when the king made sacrifices as a representative of the people, resolved litigation, gathered noble people and ancestors for council, the hearth of the royal house was a symbol of the state connection of the people; Afterwards, the prytanium, the religious center of the state, had the same significance. An unquenchable fire burned on the state hearth of the prytaneum, and the prytanes, the elected rulers of the people, had to take turns staying constantly at this hearth. The hearth was the connection between earth and heaven; therefore Hestia was also the goddess of sacrifice in Ancient Greece. Each solemn sacrifice began with a sacrifice to her. And all public prayers of the Greeks began with an appeal to Hestia.

Myths about the god Apollo

For more details, see the separate article God Apollo

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

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

Apollo Saurocton (killing the lizard). Roman copy of a 4th century statue of Praxiteles. BC

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

The sacred plant of Apollo was the laurel.

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

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

Myths about the goddess Artemis

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

Artemis. Statue in the Louvre

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

Ares and Aphrodite

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

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

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

Myths about the god Hermes

With the development of culture in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, the Pelasgian god of nature Hermes, to whom Arcadian shepherds made sacrifices on Mount Cyllene, also acquired moral significance; he was among them the personification of the power of the sky, which gives grass to their pastures, and the father of their ancestor, Arcas. According to their myths, Hermes, while still a baby, wrapped in a cradle linen (in the fog of dawn), stole the flocks (light clouds) of the sun god, Apollo, and hid them in a damp cave near the seashore; stretching the strings on the shell of a turtle, he made a lyre and, giving it to Apollo, acquired the friendship of this more powerful god. Hermes also invented the shepherd's pipe, with which he walks through the mountains of his homeland. Subsequently, Hermes became the guardian of roads, crossroads and travelers, the keeper of streets and boundaries. On the latter, stones were placed, which were symbols of Hermes, and his images, which gave the boundaries of the plots holiness and strength.

God Hermes. Sculpture of Phidias (?)

Herms (that is, symbols of Hermes) were originally just heaps of stones piled on boundaries, near roads and especially at crossroads; these were boundary and waymarks considered sacred. Passers-by threw stones back where they had been placed before. Sometimes oil was poured on these heaps of stones dedicated to the god Hermes, as on primitive altars; they were decorated with flowers, wreaths, and ribbons. Subsequently, the Greeks placed triangular or tetrahedral stone pillars as waymarks and boundary markers; over time, they began to give them more skillful decoration; they usually made a pillar with a head, sometimes with a phallus, a symbol of fertility. Such herms stood along the roads, streets, squares, at gates, at doors; They were also placed in palaestras and gymnasiums, because Hermes was the patron of gymnastic exercises in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods.

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

God Pan

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

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

Poseidon in the myths of Ancient Greece

For more details, see the separate article God Poseidon

The gods of the sea and flowing waters and the gods living underground, more than the deities of the sky and air, retained the original meaning of the personified forces of nature: but they also received human traits. Poseidon - in the myths of Ancient Greece, the divine power of all waters, the god of the sea and all rivers, streams, springs that fertilize the earth. Therefore, he was the main god on the seaside and on the capes. Poseidon is strong, broad-shouldered, and has an indomitable character. When he strikes the sea with his trident, a storm arises, the waves crash against the rocks of the shores so that the earth trembles, the cliffs crack and collapse. But Poseidon is also a good god: he produces springs from the cracks of the rocks to fertilize the valleys; he created and tamed the horse; he is the patron of horse races and all war games, the patron of all daring journeys, whether on horseback, in chariots, by land, or by sea in ships. In ancient Greek myths, Poseidon is a mighty builder who established the earth and its islands, and laid strong boundaries for the sea. He raises storms, but he also gives favorable winds; at his command, the sea swallows ships; but he also guides the ships into the pier. Poseidon – patron of navigation; he protects maritime trade and controls the course of naval warfare.

The god of ships and horses, Poseidon played, according to the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, an important role in all campaigns and sea expeditions of the heroic age. The birthplace of his cult was Thessaly, the country of the Neptunian formation, horse herds and navigation; then his service spread to Boeotia, Attica, and throughout the Peloponnese, and his holidays early began to be accompanied by war games. The most famous of these games in honor of the god Poseidon took place in the Boeotian city of Onchest and on Isthmus. In Onkhest, his sanctuaries and their grove stood picturesquely on a beautiful and fertile hill above Lake Kopai. The location of the Isthmian Games was a hill near Schoinos, "Reeds", a lowland overgrown with reeds, shaded by a pine grove. Symbolic rituals were introduced into the worship of Poseidon on Isthmus, borrowed from the legend of the death of Melicert, that is, from the Phoenician service to Melqart. – The wind-fast horses of the heroic age were created by the god Poseidon; in particular, Pegasus was created by him. – Poseidon’s wife, Amphitrite, was the personification of the roaring sea.

Like Zeus, Poseidon had many love affairs in the myths of ancient Greece about the gods, many sea gods and goddesses, and many heroes were his children. Tritons, the number of which was countless, belonged to Poseidon's retinue. These were cheerful creatures of various forms, personifications of noisy, ringing, sliding waves and mysterious forces of the depths of the sea, fantastically transformed sea animals. They played on trumpets made from shells, frolicked, and trailed the Nereids. They were one of my favorite objects of art. Proteus, the sea god, prophet of the future, who, according to ancient Greek myths, had the ability to take all sorts of forms, also belonged to Poseidon’s large retinue. When the Greek sailors began to sail far away, then, returning, they amazed their people with myths about the wonders of the western sea: about the sirens, beautiful sea maidens who live there on underwater islands under the bright surface of the waters and with seductive singing insidiously lure sailors to destruction, about the good Glaucus , the sea god who predicts the future, about the terrible monsters Scylla and Charybdis (personifications of a dangerous rock and whirlpool), about the wicked Cyclops, one-eyed giants, the sons of Poseidon, living on the island of Trinacria, where Mount Etna is, about the beautiful Galatea, about a rocky, walled island , where the god of the winds Aeolus lives cheerfully in a magnificent palace with his airy sons and daughters.

Underground gods – Hades, Persephone

The greatest similarity with eastern religions in the myths of Ancient Greece was the worship of those gods of nature who acted both in the bowels of the earth and on its surface. Human life is in such close connection with the development and withering of vegetation, with the growth and ripening of bread and grapes, that worship, folk beliefs, art, religious theories and myths about the gods combined their most profound ideas with the mysterious activities of the gods of the earth. The circle of phenomena of plant life was a symbol of human life: luxurious vegetation quickly fades from the heat of the sun or from the cold; It dies with the onset of winter and is reborn in the spring from the ground in which its seeds hid in the fall. Ancient Greek mythology it was easy to draw a parallel: so a person, after a short life under the joyful light of the sun, descends into the dark underground kingdom, where instead of the radiant Apollo and the bright Pallas Athena, the gloomy, stern Hades (Hades, Aidoneus) and the stern beauty, his formidable wife, reign in a magnificent palace Persephone. Thoughts about how close birth and death are to each other, about the fact that the earth is both the mother’s womb and the coffin, served in the myths of Ancient Greece as the basis for the cult of the underground gods and gave it a dual character: there was a joyful side and a sad side. And in Hellas, as in the East, service to the gods of the earth was exalted; its rituals consisted of expressing feelings of joy and sadness, and those performing them had to endlessly indulge in the action of the emotional disturbances they caused. But in the East, this exaltation led to the perversion of natural feelings, to the fact that people mutilated themselves; and in Ancient Greece, the cult of the gods of the earth developed the arts, stimulated reflection on religious issues, and led people to acquire sublime ideas about divinity. The festivals of the gods of the earth, especially Dionysus, greatly contributed to the development of poetry, music, and dance; plastic artist loved to take objects for her works from the circle of ancient Greek myths about cheerful fantastic creatures accompanying Pan and Dionysus. And the Eleusinian mysteries, the teachings of which spread throughout the Greek world, gave profound interpretations to the myths about the “earth-mother,” the goddess Demeter, about the abduction of her daughter (Kore) Persephone by the harsh ruler of the underworld, about the fact that Persephone’s life goes on on earth, then underground. These teachings inspired people that death is not terrible, that the soul survives the body. The forces ruling in the bowels of the earth aroused reverent caution in the ancient Greeks; it was impossible to speak about these forces without fear; thoughts about them were conveyed in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods under the guise of symbols; they were not expressed directly, they had only to be unraveled under allegories. Mysterious teachings surrounded these formidable gods with solemn mystery, in the secrecy of darkness creating life and perceiving the dead, ruling the earthly and afterlife of man.

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

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

The two main rivers of the underworld, according to Greek myths, are the Styx and Acheron, “the dully roaring river of eternal sorrow.” In addition to them, there were three more rivers in the kingdom of the dead: Lethe, whose water destroyed the memory of the past, Pyriphlegethon (“Fire River”) and Cocytus (“Sobbing”). The souls of the dead were taken to the underworld of Hades by Hermes. Stern old man Charon transported in his boat through the Styx, which surrounded the earthly kingdom, those souls whose bodies were buried with an obol placed in the coffin to pay him for the transportation. The souls of unburied people had to wander homeless along the river bank, not accepted into Charon’s boat. Therefore, whoever found an unburied body was obliged to cover it with earth.

The ideas of the ancient Greeks about the life of the dead in the kingdom of Hades changed with the development of civilization. In the oldest myths, the dead are ghosts without consciousness, but these ghosts instinctively do the same things they did when they were alive; – these are the shadows of living people. Their existence in the kingdom of Hades was dreary and sad. The shadow of Achilles tells Odysseus that she would rather live on earth as a day laborer for a poor man than to be the king of the dead in the underworld. But making sacrifices to the dead improved their miserable fate. The improvement consisted either in the fact that the severity of the underground gods was softened by these sacrifices, or in the fact that the shadows of the dead drank the blood of the sacrifices, and this drinking restored them to consciousness. The Greeks offered sacrifices to the dead at their tombs. Facing the west, they slaughtered the sacrificial animal over a deep hole deliberately dug in the ground, and the blood of the animal flowed into this hole. After, when ideas about afterlife received more complete development in the Eleusinian mysteries, the myths of Ancient Greece began to divide the underground kingdom of Hades into two parts, Tartarus and Elysium. In Tartarus, the villains, condemned by the judges of the dead, led a miserable existence; they were tormented by the Erinyes, strict guardians of moral laws, who inexorably took revenge for any violation of the requirements of moral feeling, and countless evil spirits, in the invention of which Greek fantasy showed the same inexhaustibility as Egyptian, Indian and medieval European. Elysium, which, according to ancient Greek myths, lay near the ocean (or an archipelago on the ocean called the Isles of the Blessed) was the region of the afterlife of heroes of ancient times and the righteous. There the wind is always soft, there is no snow, no heat, no rain; there, in the myths about the gods, the good Cronus reigns; the earth gives harvest there three times a year, the meadows there bloom forever. Heroes and the righteous lead a blissful life there; on their heads there are wreaths, near their hands there are garlands of the most beautiful flowers and branches of beautiful trees; they enjoy singing, horse riding, and gymnastic games.

The most just and wise kings-legislators of the mythical Cretan-Carian time live there, Minos and Rhadamanthus, and the pious ancestor of the Aeacides, Aeacus, who, according to later myth, became judges of the dead. Under the chairmanship of Hades and Persephone, they examined the feelings and affairs of people and decided, based on the merits of the deceased person, whether his soul should go to Tartarus or Elysium. – Just as they and other pious heroes of ancient Greek myths were rewarded for their beneficial activities on earth by continuing their activities in the afterlife, so the great lawless people of mythical stories were subjected by divine justice to punishments in accordance with their crimes. Myths about their fate in the underworld showed the Greeks what bad inclinations and passions lead to; this fate was only a continuation, a development of the deeds they had committed in life and which gave rise to the torment of their conscience, the symbols of which were pictures of their material torment. Thus, the daring Tityus, who wanted to rape the mother of Apollo and Artemis, lies thrown to the ground; two kites constantly torment his liver, an organ that, according to the Greeks, was the seat of sensual passions (an obvious alteration of the myth of Prometheus). The punishment for another mythical hero, Tantalus, for his former lawlessness was that the cliff hanging over his head constantly threatened to crush him, and besides this fear he was tormented by thirst and hunger: he stood in the water, but when he bent down to drink, the water moved away from his lips and dropped “to the black bottom”; fruits hung before his eyes; but when he stretched out his hands to pluck them, the wind lifted the branches upward. Sisyphus, the treacherous king of Ephyra (Corinth), was condemned to roll a stone up a mountain, which constantly rolled down; - the personification of the waves constantly running onto the shores of the Isthmus and running off them. The eternal futile labor of Sisyphus symbolized unsuccessful cunning in ancient Greek myths, and the cunning of Sisyphus was the mythical personification of the quality developed in merchants and sailors by the riskiness of their affairs. Ixion, king of the Lapiths, “the first murderer,” was tied to a fiery, ever-turning wheel; this was his punishment for the fact that, while visiting Zeus, he violated the rights of hospitality and wanted to rape the chaste Hera. – The Danaids always carried water and poured it into a bottomless barrel.

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

In the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods, Hades little by little became the good ruler of the kingdom of the dead and the giver of wealth; the attributes of horror were eliminated from ideas about it. The genius of death in the most ancient works of art was depicted as a dark-colored boy with crooked legs, symbolically denoting the idea that life is broken by death. Little by little, in ancient Greek myths, he took on the appearance of a beautiful young man with a bowed head, holding in his hand an overturned and extinguished torch, and became completely similar to his meek brother, the Genius of Sleep. They both live with their mother, Night, in the west. From there, every evening, a winged dream flies in and, sweeping over people, showers calm on them from a horn or from a poppy stalk; he is accompanied by the geniuses of dreams - Morpheus, Phantasm, bringing joy to the sleeping. Even the Erinyes lost their mercilessness in ancient Greek myths and became the Eumenides, “Well-wishers.” So, with the development of civilization, all the ideas of the ancient Greeks about the underground kingdom of Hades softened, ceased to be terrible, and its gods became beneficial, life-giving.

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

Demeter in the myths of Ancient Greece

Demeter, “earth-mother,” was in the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods the personification of that power of nature, which, with the assistance of sunlight, dew and rain, gives growth and ripening to bread and other fruits of the fields. She was a “blond” goddess, under whose protection people plow, sow, reap, knit bread into sheaves, and thresh. Demeter gives harvests. She sent Triptolemus to walk all over the earth and teach people arable farming and good morals. Demeter married Jasion, the sower, and bore him Plutos (wealth); she punished the wicked Erysichthon, who “spoils the earth,” with insatiable hunger. But in the myths of Ancient Greece she is also the goddess of married life, giving birth to children. The goddess who taught people agriculture and proper family life, Demeter was the founder of civilization, morality, and family virtues. Therefore, Demeter was the “giver of laws” (Thesmophoros), and the five-day festival of Thesmophoria, “laws,” was celebrated in her honor. The rituals of this holiday, performed by married women, were a symbolic glorification of agriculture and marriage. Demeter was the main goddess of the Eleusinian festival, the rites of which had as their main content the symbolic glorification of the gifts people received from the gods of the earth. The Amphictyon League, which met at Thermopylae, was also under the patronage of Demeter, the goddess of civil improvement.

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

Myths about the god Dionysus

For more details, see the separate article God Dionysus

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

Rhea, captured by Cronus, bore him bright children - the Virgin - Hestia, Demeter and the golden-shod Hera, the glorious might of Hades, who lives underground, and the provider - Zeus, the father of both immortals and mortals, whose thunder makes the wide earth tremble. Hesiod "Theogony"

Greek literature arose from mythology. Myth- This is an ancient man’s idea of the world around him. Myths were created at a very early stage in the development of society in various areas Greece. Later, all these myths merged into a single system.

With the help of myths, the ancient Greeks tried to explain all natural phenomena, presenting them in the form of living beings. At first, experiencing a strong fear of natural elements, people depicted the gods in a terrible animal form (Chimera, Gorgon Medusa, Sphinx, Lernaean Hydra).

However, later the gods become anthropomorphic, that is, they have a human appearance and are characterized by a variety of human qualities (jealousy, generosity, envy, generosity). The main difference between gods and people was their immortality, but for all their greatness, the gods communicated with mere mortals and even often entered into love relationships with them in order to give birth to a whole tribe of heroes on earth.

There are 2 types of ancient Greek mythology:

cosmogonic (cosmogony - the origin of the world) - ends with the birth of Kron
theogonic (theogony - the origin of gods and deities)

The mythology of Ancient Greece went through 3 main stages in its development:

pre-Olympic- This is mainly cosmogonic mythology. This stage begins with the idea of the ancient Greeks that everything came from Chaos, and ends with the murder of Cronus and the division of the world between the gods.
Olympic(early classic) – Zeus becomes the supreme deity and, with a retinue of 12 gods, settles on Olympus.
late heroism- heroes are born from gods and mortals who help the gods in establishing order and destroying monsters.

Poems were created on the basis of mythology, tragedies were written, and lyricists dedicated their odes and hymns to the gods.

There were two main groups of gods in Ancient Greece:

titans - gods of the second generation (six brothers - Ocean, Kay, Crius, Hipperion, Iapetus, Kronos and six sisters - Thetis, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, Theia, Themis, Rhea)
olympian gods - Olympians - gods of the third generation. The Olympians included the children of Kronos and Rhea - Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, as well as their descendants - Hephaestus, Hermes, Persephone, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Athena, Apollo and Artemis. The supreme god was Zeus, who deprived his father Kronos (the god of time) of power.

The Greek pantheon of the Olympian gods traditionally included 12 gods, but the composition of the pantheon was not very stable and sometimes numbered 14-15 gods. Usually these were: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hestia, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Hades. The Olympian gods lived on the sacred Mount Olympus ( Olympos) in Olympia, off the coast of the Aegean Sea.

Translated from ancient Greek, the word pantheon means "all gods". Greeks

deities were divided into three groups:

Pantheon (great Olympian gods)
Lesser deities
Monsters

Heroes occupied a special place in Greek mythology. The most famous of them:

v Odysseus

Supreme gods of Olympus

Greek gods	Functions	Roman gods
	god of thunder and lightning, sky and weather, law and fate, attributes - lightning (three-pronged pitchfork with jagged edges), scepter, eagle or chariot drawn by eagles
	goddess of marriage and family, goddess of the sky and starry skies, attributes - diadem (crown), lotus, lion, cuckoo or hawk, peacock (two peacocks pulled her cart)
Aphrodite	“foam-born”, goddess of love and beauty, Athena, Artemis and Hestia were not subject to her, attributes - rose, apple, shell, mirror, lily, violet, belt and golden cup, bestowing eternal youth, retinue - sparrows, doves, dolphin, satellites - Eros, harites, nymphs, oras.
	god of the underworld of the dead, “generous” and “hospitable”, attribute – a magic invisibility hat and the three-headed dog Cerberus
	the god of treacherous war, military destruction and murder, he was accompanied by the goddess of discord Eris and the goddess of frantic war Enio, attributes - dogs, a torch and a spear, the chariot had 4 horses - Noise, Horror, Shine and Flame
	god of fire and blacksmithing, ugly and lame on both legs, attribute – blacksmith’s hammer
	goddess of wisdom, crafts and art, goddess of just war and military strategy, patroness of heroes, “owl-eyed”, used male attributes (helmet, shield - aegis made of Amalthea goat skin, decorated with the head of the Gorgon Medusa, spear, olive, owl and snake), appeared accompanied by Niki
	god of invention, theft, trickery, trade and eloquence, patron of heralds, ambassadors, shepherds and travelers, invented measures, numbers, taught people, attributes - a winged staff and winged sandals	Mercury
Poseidon	god of the seas and all bodies of water, floods, droughts and earthquakes, patron of sailors, attribute - trident, which causes storms, breaks rocks, knocks out springs, sacred animals - bull, dolphin, horse, sacred tree - pine
Artemis	goddess of hunting, fertility and female chastity, later - goddess of the Moon, patroness of forests and wild animals, forever young, she is accompanied by nymphs, attributes - a hunting bow and arrows, sacred animals - a doe and a bear
Apollo (Phoebus), Cyfared	“golden-haired”, “silver-haired”, god of light, harmony and beauty, patron of the arts and sciences, leader of the muses, predictor of the future, attributes - silver bow and golden arrows, golden cithara or lyre, symbols - olive, iron, laurel, palm tree, dolphin , swan, wolf
	goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire, virgin goddess. accompanied by 6 priestesses - vestals, who served the goddess for 30 years
	“Mother Earth”, goddess of fertility and agriculture, plowing and harvest, attributes – a sheaf of wheat and a torch
	god of fruitful forces, vegetation, viticulture, winemaking, inspiration and fun	Bacchus, Bacchus

Minor Greek gods

Greek gods	Functions	Roman gods
Asclepius	“opener”, god of healing and medicine, attribute – a staff entwined with snakes
Eros, Cupid	the god of love, the “winged boy”, was considered the product of a dark night and a bright day, Heaven and Earth, attributes - a flower and a lyre, later - arrows of love and a flaming torch
	“the sparkling eye of the night,” the moon goddess, queen of the starry sky, has wings and a golden crown
Persephone	goddess of the kingdom of the dead and fertility	Proserpina
	goddess of victory, depicted winged or in a pose of rapid movement, attributes - bandage, wreath, later - palm tree, then - weapons and trophy	Victoria
	goddess of eternal youth, depicted as a chaste girl pouring nectar
	“rose-fingered”, “beautiful-haired”, “golden-throned” goddess of the morning dawn
	goddess of happiness, chance and luck
	sun god, owner of seven herds of cows and seven herds of sheep
Kron (Chronos)	god of time, attribute – sickle
	goddess of furious war
Hypnos (Morpheus)
	goddess of flowers and gardens
	god of the west wind, messenger of the gods
Dike (Themis)	goddess of justice, justice, attributes - scales in the right hand, blindfold, cornucopia in the left hand; The Romans put a sword in the goddess's hand instead of a horn
	god of marriage, marital ties	Thalassius
Nemesis	winged goddess of revenge and retribution, punishing violations of social and moral norms, attributes - scales and bridle, sword or whip, chariot drawn by griffins	Adrastea
	"golden-winged", goddess of the rainbow
	goddess of the earth

In addition to Olympus in Greece, there was the sacred Mount Parnassus, where they lived muses – 9 sisters, Greek deities who personified poetic and musical inspiration, patroness of the arts and sciences.

Greek muses

	What does it patronize?	Attributes
Calliope ("beautifully spoken")	muse of epic or heroic poetry	wax tablet and stylus (bronze writing rod)
(“glorifying”)	muse of history	papyrus scroll or scroll case
(“pleasant”)	muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics and marriage songs	kifara (plucked string musical instrument, a type of lyre)
(“beautifully pleasing”)	muse of music and lyric poetry	aulos (a wind musical instrument similar to a pipe with a double reed, the predecessor of the oboe) and syringa (a musical instrument, a type of longitudinal flute)
(“heavenly”)	muse of astronomy	spotting scope and sheet with celestial signs
Melpomene (“singing”)	muse of tragedy	wreath of grape leaves or ivy, theatrical robe, tragic mask, sword or club.
Terpsichore (“delightfully dancing”)	muse of dance	wreath on the head, lyre and plectrum (mediator)
Polyhymnia (“a lot of singing”)	muse of sacred song, eloquence, lyricism, chant and rhetoric
(“blooming”)	muse of comedy and bucolic poetry	comic mask in hands and wreath ivy on head

Lesser deities in Greek mythology they are satyrs, nymphs and oras.

Satires - (Greek satyroi) are forest deities (the same as in Rus' goblin), demons fertility, retinue of Dionysus. They were depicted as goat-legged, hairy, with horse tails and small horns. Satyrs are indifferent to people, mischievous and cheerful, they were interested in hunting, wine, and pursued forest nymphs. Their other hobby was music, but they only played wind instruments that produced sharp, piercing sounds - the flute and the pipe. In mythology, they personified the rude, base nature in nature and man, so they were represented with ugly faces - with blunt, wide noses, swollen nostrils, tousled hair.

Nymphs – (the name means “source”, among the Romans - “bride”) the personification of living elemental forces, noticed in the murmur of a stream, in the growth of trees, in the wild beauty of mountains and forests, spirits of the earth’s surface, manifestations of natural forces acting besides man in the solitude of grottoes , valleys, forests, far from cultural centers. They were depicted as beautiful young girls with wonderful hair, wearing wreaths and flowers, sometimes in a dancing pose, with bare legs and arms, and loose hair. They engage in yarn and weaving, sing songs, dance in the meadows to the flute of Pan, hunt with Artemis, participate in the noisy orgies of Dionysus, and constantly fight with annoying satyrs. In the minds of the ancient Greeks, the world of nymphs was very vast.

The azure pond was full of flying nymphs,
The garden was animated by dryads,
And the bright water spring sparkled from the urn
Laughing naiads.

F. Schiller

Nymphs of the mountains - oreads,

nymphs of forests and trees - dryads,

nymphs of springs – naiads,

nymphs of the oceans - oceanids,

nymphs of the sea - nerids,

nymphs of the valleys - drink,

nymphs of meadows - limnades.

Ory - goddesses of the seasons, were in charge of order in nature. Guardians of Olympus, now opening and then closing its cloud gates. They are called the gatekeepers of the sky. Harnessing the horses of Helios.

There are numerous monsters in many mythologies. There were a lot of them in ancient Greek mythology too: Chimera, Sphinx, Lernaean Hydra, Echidna and many others.

In the same vestibule, crowds of shadows of monsters crowd:

Two-shaped scylla and herds of centaurs live here,

Here Briareus the hundred-armed lives, and the dragon from Lernaean

The swamp hisses, and the Chimera frightens enemies with fire,

Harpies fly in a flock around three-body giants...

Virgil, "Aeneid"

Harpies are evil child abductors and human souls, suddenly swooping in and disappearing just as suddenly, like the wind, terrify people. Their number ranges from two to five; are depicted as wild half-women, half-birds of a disgusting appearance with the wings and paws of a vulture, with long sharp claws, but with the head and chest of a woman.

Gorgon Medusa - a monster with a woman’s face and snakes instead of hair, whose gaze turned a person to stone. According to legend, she was a beautiful girl with beautiful hair. Poseidon, seeing Medusa and falling in love, seduced her in the temple of Athena, for which the goddess of wisdom, in anger, turned the hair of the Gorgon Medusa into snakes. The Gorgon Medusa was defeated by Perseus, and her head was placed on the aegis of Athena.

Minotaur - a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. He was born from the unnatural love of Pasiphae (the wife of King Minos) and a bull. Minos hid the monster in the Knossos labyrinth. Every eight years, 7 boys and 7 girls descended into the labyrinth, destined for the Minotaur as victims. Theseus defeated the Minotaur, and with the help of Ariadne, who gave him a ball of thread, he got out of the labyrinth.

Cerberus (Kerberus) - this is a three-headed dog with a snake tail and snake heads on its back, guarding the exit from the kingdom of Hades, not allowing the dead to return to the kingdom of the living. He was defeated by Hercules during one of his labors.

Scylla and Charybdis - These are sea monsters located within an arrow's flight distance of each other. Charybdis is a sea whirlpool that absorbs water three times a day and spews it out the same number of times. Scylla (“barking”) is a monster in the form of a woman whose lower body was turned into 6 dog heads. When the ship passed by the rock where Scylla lived, the monster, with all its jaws open, abducted 6 people from the ship at once. The narrow strait between Scylla and Charybdis posed a mortal danger to everyone who sailed through it.

There were also other mythical characters in Ancient Greece.

Pegasus - winged horse, favorite of the muses. He flew at the speed of the wind. Riding Pegasus meant receiving poetic inspiration. He was born at the source of the Ocean, therefore he was named Pegasus (from Greek “stormy current”). According to one version, he jumped out of the body of the gorgon Medusa after Perseus cut off her head. Pegasus delivered thunder and lightning to Zeus on Olympus from Hephaestus, who made them.

From the foam of the sea, from the azure wave,

Faster than an arrow and more beautiful than a string,

An amazing fairy horse is flying

And easily catches the heavenly fire!

He loves to splash in colored clouds

And often walks in magical verses.

So that the ray of inspiration in the soul does not go out,

I saddle you, snow-white Pegasus!

Unicorn - a mythical creature symbolizing chastity. Usually depicted as a horse with one horn coming out of its forehead. The Greeks believed that the unicorn belonged to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Subsequently, in medieval legends there was a version that only a virgin could tame him. Once you catch a unicorn, you can only hold it with a golden bridle.

Centaurs - wild mortal creatures with the head and torso of a man on the body of a horse, inhabitants of mountains and forest thickets, accompany Dionysus and are distinguished by their violent temperament and intemperance. Presumably, centaurs were originally the embodiment of mountain rivers and stormy streams. In heroic myths, centaurs are the educators of heroes. For example, Achilles and Jason were raised by the centaur Chiron.

Myth, at its core, is one of the forms of history that satisfies the inherent need of the human race for its own identification and answers emerging questions about the origin of life, culture, relationships between people and nature. Thus, Greek mythology had a fairly strong impact on the development of ancient culture and, in general, on the formation of Myths and legends of Ancient Greece preserve the past of humanity, being its history in all its manifestations.

Since ancient times, the Greeks formed the idea of an eternal, limitless and harmoniously united Cosmos. They were based on emotional and intuitive penetration into the mystery of this boundless Chaos, the source of life in the world, and man was perceived as part of cosmic unity. In the early stages of history, the legends and myths of Ancient Greece reflected ideas about the surrounding reality and played the role of a guide in Everyday life. This fantastic reflection of reality, being the primary source of worldview formation, expressed man’s powerlessness before nature and its elemental forces. However, the ancients were not afraid to explore a world filled with fear-inspiring people. The myths and legends of Ancient Greece indicate that the boundless thirst for knowledge of the surrounding world prevailed over the fear of an unknown danger. It is enough to recall the numerous exploits of mythical heroes, the fearless adventures of the Argonauts, Odysseus and his team.

The myths and legends of Ancient Greece represent the oldest form of understanding natural phenomena. The appearance of rebellious and wild nature was personified in the form of animated and very real creatures. Fantasy has populated the world with good and evil mythical creatures. Thus, dryads, satyrs, and centaurs settled in picturesque groves, oreads lived in the mountains, nymphs lived in rivers, and oceanids lived in the seas and oceans.

The myths and legends of Ancient Greece are distinguished from the tales of other peoples by a characteristic feature that consists in the humanization of divine beings. This made them closer and more understandable ordinary people, most of whom perceived these legends as their ancient history. Mysterious, beyond the understanding and influence of the common man, the forces of nature became more understandable to the imagination of the common man.

The people of Ancient Greece became the creators of unique and colorful legends about the lives of people, immortal gods and heroes. Myths harmoniously intertwine memories of the distant and little-known past and poetic fiction. No other human creation is distinguished by such richness and completeness of images. This explains their unforgettableness. The myths and legends of Ancient Greece provided images that are often used in art in various ways. Inexhaustible legendary subjects have often been used and are still popular among historians and philosophers, sculptors and artists, poets and writers. From myths they draw ideas for their own works and often introduce into them something new that corresponds to a certain historical period.

reflecting a person’s moral views, his aesthetic attitude to reality, helped shed light on the political and religious institutions of that time and understand the nature of myth-making.

Recognized as a fundamental phenomenon in world history. It served as the basis for the culture of all of Europe. Many images of Greek mythology are firmly fixed in the language, consciousness, artistic images, philosophy. Everyone understands and is familiar with such concepts as “Achilles’ heel”, “Hymen’s bond”, “cornucopia”, “Augean stables”, “Sword of Damocles”, “Ariadne’s thread”, “apple of discord” and many others. But often, when using these popular expressions in speech, people do not think about them. true meaning and history of origin.

Ancient Greek mythology played an important role in the development of modern history. Her research has revealed important information about the life of ancient civilizations and the formation of religion.