Legends and myths of ancient Greece. Myths about Hercules

In the beginning there was nothing, neither Heaven nor Earth. Only Chaos - dark and boundless - filled everything with itself. He was the source and beginning of life. Everything came from him: the world, and the Earth, and the immortal gods.

Initially, Gaia emerged from Chaos, the goddess of the Earth, a safe universal shelter, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. In the bowels of the deep earth, in its darkest core, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss full of darkness. As far from the earth to the bright Sky, so far lies Tartarus. Tartarus is fenced off from the world with a copper fence, the night reigns in his kingdom, the roots of the earth entwine him and washes the bitter-salty sea.

From Chaos, the most beautiful Eros was also born, which, with the power of Love, poured into the world forever, can conquer hearts.

Boundless Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the Black Night - Nyukta, they, combined, gave life to the eternal Light - Ether and bright Day - Hemera. Light spread over the world, and night and day began to replace each other.

The foremother of the gods, Gaia, gave birth to an equal Starry Sky - Uranus, which, like an endless cover, envelops the Earth. Gaia-Earth reaches out to him, raising sharp mountain peaks, giving birth to the world, not yet united with Uranus, the ever-noisy Sea.

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

Uranus took the fruitful Gaia as his wife, and six sons and daughters - mighty titans - were born to divine couple. Their firstborn, the son of Oceanus, deep, whose waters gently wash the Earth, shared a bed with Tethys, giving life to all the rivers that rush to the sea. Three thousand sons - river gods - and three thousand daughters-oceanids - gave birth to a gray-haired Ocean, so that they would give joy and prosperity to all living things, filling it with moisture.

Another pair of titans - Hyperion and Theia - gave birth to the Sun-Helios, Selena-Moon and the beautiful Eos-Dawn. From Eos came the stars that sparkle in the sky at night, and the winds are the swift north wind Boreas, the east wind Eurus, the moist southern Note and the gentle west wind Zephyr, bringing white-foam clouds of rain.

Three more giants - the Cyclopes - were also born by Mother Gaia, who are similar to the titans in everything, but having only one eye in their forehead. Gaia also gave birth to three hundred-armed and fifty-headed hecatoncheir giants, possessing immeasurable strength. Nothing could stand against them. They were so strong and terrible that Father Uranus hated them at first sight, and imprisoned them in the bowels of the Earth so that they could not be born again.

Mother Gaia suffered, crushed by her terrible burden, enclosed in her depths. And then she called her children, telling them that the first lord Uranus planned villainy, and punishment should fall on him. However, the titans were afraid to go against their father, only the cunning Kronus, the youngest of the titan children born by Gaia, agreed to help the Mother overthrow Uranus. With the iron sickle that Gaia handed over, Cronus cut off his father's genital member. From the drops of blood that spilled onto the ground, the terrible Erinyes were born, knowing no mercy. From the foam of the sea, which washed a piece of divine flesh for a long time, the beautiful Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born.

The crippled Uranus was angry, cursing his children. Terrible deities born by the Goddess of the Night became punishment for villainy: Tanata - death, Eridu - discord, Apatu - deceit, Ker - destruction, Hypnos - a dream with a swarm of gloomy, heavy visions, Nemesis who knows no mercy - revenge for crimes. Many deities that bring suffering to the world, Nyukta gave birth.

Horror, discord and misfortune were brought into the world by these gods, where Kron reigned on the throne of his father.

1. Pelasgic creation myth

In the beginning, Eurynome, goddess of all things, rose naked from Chaos and found herself with nothing to lean on. So she separated the sky from the sea and began her lonely dance over its waves. In her dance she moved towards the south, and behind her a wind arose, which seemed to her quite suitable to begin creation. Turning around, she caught this north wind, squeezed it in her palms - and the great serpent Ophion appeared before her eyes. To keep warm, Eurynome danced more and more furiously, until desire arose in Ophion, and he wrapped his divine loins around her to possess her. That is why the north wind, which is also called Boreas, fertilizes: that is why mares, turning their backs to this wind, give birth to foals without the help of a stallion 1 . In the same way, Eurynome conceived a child.

B. Then she turned into a dove, sat like a mother hen on the waves, and after the lapse of the allotted time laid the World Egg. At her request, Ophion wrapped himself seven times around this egg and hatched it until it split in two. And everything that only exists in the world appeared from it: the sun, the moon, planets, stars, the earth and its mountains, rivers, trees, grasses and living beings.

C. Eurynome and Ophion settled on Olympus, but he offended her by declaring himself the creator of the universe. For this, she hit him on the head with her heel, knocked out all his teeth and banished him to gloomy underground caves 2 .

D. After that, the goddess created seven planetary forces, placing a titanide and a titan at the head of each. Theia and Hyperion owned the Sun; Phoebe and Atlas - by the Moon; Dione and Crius - the planet Mars; Metis and Coy - the planet Mercury; Themis and Eurymedon - the planet Jupiter; Tethys and the Ocean - by the planet Venus; Rhea and Kron - the planet Saturn 3. But the first man was Pelasg, the ancestor of all the Pelasgians; he came out of the land of Arcadia, and others came after him, whom he taught to make huts and eat acorns, and also to make clothes from pigskins, in which the poor Euboea and Phokis still walk 4.

1 Pliny. Natural History VIII.67; Homer. Iliad XX. 223-224.

2 Only scattered fragments of this pre-Hellenic myth survive in Greek literature. The largest of them can be found in Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica, I. 496-505) and Tsetsa (scholia to Lycophron, 1191); however, this myth cannot be overlooked in the Orphic mysteries. The above version can be reconstructed on the basis of the Berossian fragment and the Phoenician cosmogony, which are quoted by Philo of Byblos and Damascus; on the basis of Canaanite elements in the Hebrew version of the myth of creation, on the basis of Gigin (Myths 197 - see 62a); based on the Boeotian legend of the dragon's teeth (see 58.5); as well as on the basis of ancient ritual art. Evidence that all the Pelasgians considered their progenitor Ophion are their collective sacrifices, peloria (Atenaeus. XIV.45.639-640), i.e. Ophion in their view is Pelor, or "great serpent".

3 Apollodorus. I.3; Hesiod, Theogony, 133ff.; Stephen of Byzantium under the word Adana; Aristophanes. Birds, 692ff.; Clement of Rome, Sermons, VI.4.72; Prokl. Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, III, p.183, 26-189, 12 Diehl.

4 Pausanias. VIII.1.2.

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1. In this archaic religious system there were no gods or priests, but there were universal goddesses and their priestesses, with women being the dominant sex, and men their frightened victims. Paternity was not recognized, the causes of conception were considered to be the wind, eaten beans, or an accidentally swallowed insect; inheritance went through the maternal line, and snakes were considered the incarnation of the dead.

2. Ophion, or Boreas, is the demiurge serpent from ancient Hebrew and Egyptian myths; in the objects of ancient Mediterranean art, the goddess was constantly depicted with him. Pelasgians Pelasgians - the collective name of the ancient, pre-Greek, population of Greece. Obviously, the original area of ​​their settlement was northern Greece; in the east of Thessaly there is a region of Pelasgiotida, and Zeus of Dodona was called Pelasgian. But even in antiquity, this name began to be used more and more widely, covering the ancient population of all Greece, and over time it also passed to the ancient population of Italy. Therefore, it is hardly necessary to associate this name with any particular people, as Graves does. There are several variants of the genealogy of Pelasg - the mythical ancestor of the Pelasgians; in them he is most often associated with Arcadia or Argos. The difference between the Pelasgic creation myth and the following, the Orphic, is not very clear in Graves. In Apollo of Rhodes himself, it is Orpheus who narrates about Eurynomus and Ophion, albeit as a literary character, but nevertheless this is important evidence in favor of the fact that this is precisely the Orphic tradition of the origin of the world. And of course, Graves had no reason to rename this myth "Pelasgian." Generally speaking, both the Ophion Serpent and the egg are considered traditionally Orphic elements of myth influenced by the East., born from the earth and claiming to have arisen from the teeth of Ophion, were probably Neolithic people, carriers of the "painted pottery" culture. They came to mainland Greece around the middle of the fourth millennium BC. The population of the early Helladic culture According to the accepted chronology, the early Helladic period is ca. 2800 - ca. 2000 before. AD; Middle Helladic - ca. 2000 - ca. 1500s BC.; Late Helladic - ca. 1500 - ca. 1200s BC., migrating from Asia Minor through the Cyclades, discovered them in the Peloponnese seven centuries later. However, the Pelasgians easily began to call all the pre-Hellenic inhabitants of Greece in general. Thus, Euripides (according to Strabo V. II.4) indicates that the Pelasgians took the name of the Danaans after the arrival of Danae and his fifty daughters in Argos. The criticism of their promiscuity (Herodotus VI.137) probably concerns the pre-Hellenic custom of group marriage, Strabo in the same passage reports that the people who lived in Athens were known under the name of "pelargi" ("storks"); it is possible that it was their totem bird.

3. The titans and titanides had their counterparts in ancient Babylonian and Palestinian astrology in the form of deities ruling over the seven days of the sacred planetary week. They could get to Greece through the Canaanite or Hittite colony that existed on the Isthmus of Corinth at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. (see 67.2), or even through the ancient Hellads. But when Greece abandoned the cult of the titans and the seven-day week ceased to appear in the official calendar, the number of titans, according to some authors, reached twelve - perhaps according to the number of signs of the zodiac. Hesiod, Apollodorus, Stephen of Byzantium, Pausanias and others give conflicting lists of their names. In Babylonian myth, all the planetary rulers of the week, namely Shamash, Sin, Nergal, Bel, Beltis and Ninib, were male, with the exception of Beltis, the goddess of love. However, in the Germanic week, which the Celts borrowed from the eastern Mediterranean, Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday were run by the Titanides, not the Titans. On the basis of the divine status of the pairs of daughters and sons of Aeolus (see 43.4), as well as the myth of Niobe (see 77.1), it can be assumed that when this system first reached pre-Hellenic Greece, it was decided to pair the Titanides and the Titans in order to protect goddess interests. However, very soon only seven of the fourteen titans remained, and of both sexes. The following functions were assigned to the planets: the Sun - for lighting, the Moon - for witchcraft, Mars - for growth, Mercury - for wisdom, Jupiter - for laws, Venus - for love, Saturn - for the world. Astrologers classical greece, like the Babylonians, dedicated the planets to Helios, Selene, Ares, Hermes (or Apollo), Zeus, Aphrodite and Kronus, whose Latin names given above formed the basis for the names of the days of the week in French, Italian and Spanish.

4. In the end, following the logic of the myth, Zeus devoured all the titans, including the more ancient hypostasis of himself (cf. the worship of the Jews in Jerusalem to the transcendent god, which consisted of all the planetary Lords of the week, which was reflected in the creation of the Semicandlestick, as well as seven pillars of wisdom). The seven planetary pillars erected in Sparta near the monument to the horse, according to Pausanias (ІІІ.20.9), were decorated in the ancient manner and could be associated with the Egyptian rites introduced by the Pelasgians (Herodotus II.57). It is impossible to say with certainty who exactly - the Jews or the Egyptians - adopted this theory from each other, but the statue of the so-called Heliopolitan Zeus, which A. B. Cook considers in his work "Zeus" (I.570-576), was in its own way Egyptian nature. Its front part was decorated with busts of the seven rulers of the planets, and the busts of the other Olympians adorned the back of the statue. A bronze statuette of this god was found in the Spanish Tortosa, and the second is the same - in the Phoenician Byblos. A marble stele discovered in Marseilles depicts seven planetary busts, as well as a statue of Hermes the size of a human figure, whose importance as the creator of astronomy was probably emphasized in every possible way. In Rome, according to Quintus Valerius Soranus, Jupiter was considered a transcendent god, although in this city, unlike Marseilles, Byblos and, probably, Tortosa, the week was not observed. However, the Planetary Rulers were never allowed to influence the official Olympian cult, since their nature was always perceived as non-Greek (Herodotus I.131), and adherence to them was considered unpatriotic: Aristophanes (World, 403 et seq.) puts into the mouth of Trigaeus words about that the moon and the "fraudster Helios" were preparing a plot to treacherously give Greece into the hands of the barbarian Persians.

5. Pausanias' assertion that Pelasgus was the first man testifies to the continuity of the tradition of Neolithic culture in Arcadia up to the classical period.

2. Homeric and Orphic creation myths

It is said that all the gods and all living beings arose in the stream of the Ocean washing the whole world, and that the mother of all its children was Tethys 1 .

B. However, the Orphics claim that the black-winged Night, a goddess before whom even Zeus trembled 2 , responded to the courtship of the Wind and laid a silver egg in the womb of Darkness; and that Eros, sometimes called Phanet, was hatched from this egg and set the universe in motion. Eros was bisexual, behind his back were golden wings, and from four heads a bull roar or a lion's growl, a hiss of a snake or a bleating of a ram were sometimes heard. The night, which named him Erikepai and Phaeton-Protogon 3, settled with him in the cave, manifesting itself in the form of a triad: Night, Order and Justice. In front of the cave, Rhea's mother inevitably sat and beat her bronze tambourine, riveting people's attention to the oracles of the goddess. Phanet created the earth, sky, sun and moon, but the triad of goddesses continued to rule the universe until their scepter passed to Uranus 4 .

1 Homer, Iliad XIV.201.

2 Ibid XIV.261.

3 Orphic fragments 60, 61 and 70.

4 Ibid 86.

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1. The Homeric myth is a variant of the Pelasgian creation myth (see 1.2), since Tethys ascended over the sea like Eurynome, and the Ocean entwined the universe like Ophion.

2. The Orphic myth is another version influenced by the later mystical teachings about love (Eros) and theories about the actual relationship between the sexes. The silver egg of the night is the moon, since silver was considered the lunar metal. Like Erikepai, Phanet, the god of love, is a loudly buzzing celestial bee, the son of the Great Goddess (see 18.4). The Hive was considered the ideal republic; he also confirmed the myth of the Golden Age, when honey dripped directly from the trees (see 5. b). Rhea beat a bronze tambourine to prevent bees from swarming in the wrong place and scare away evil forces. In the mysteries, the imitation of the roar of a bull served to scare away evil forces. Like Phaethon-Protogon ("original shining"), Phanet was the sun, which the Orphics made a symbol of light (see 28. d), and his four heads corresponded to creatures that symbolized the four seasons. According to Macrobius, the Colophon oracle identified Phanet with the transcendent god Yao: Zeus (ram) - Spring; Helios (lion) - Summer; Hades (snake) - Winter; Dionysus (bull) - New Year.

With the establishment of patriarchy, the scepter of Night passed to Uranus.

3. Olympic Creation Myth

At the beginning of all things, Mother Earth arose from Chaos and in a dream gave birth to a son, Uranus. Looking tenderly at the sleeping mother from the height of the mountain peaks, he poured fertilizing rain on her crotch, and she gave birth to herbs, flowers and trees, as well as their corresponding animals and birds. From the same rain, rivers began to flow, and all the depressions were filled with water, forming lakes and rivers.

B. Her first children were half-humans - the hundred-armed giants Briareus, Gyes and Kott. Then three wild one-eyed Cyclopes appeared - the builders of giant walls and forges, first in Thrace, and then in Crete and Lycia 1 , whose sons Odysseus met in Sicily 2 . Their names were Bront, Sterop and Arg. When Apollo killed them in revenge for the death of Asclepius, their shadows settled in the gloomy caves of Mount Etna.

C. The Libyans, however, maintain that Garamantes was born before the hundred-armed, and that when he grew out of the valley, he made a sacrifice to mother earth in the form of a sweet acorn 3 .

1 Apollodorus I.1-2; Euripides, Chrysippus. Cit. by: Sextus Empiric. Against Physicists II.315; Lucretius I.250 and II.991 et seq.

2 Homer. Odyssey IX.106-566 ff.

3 Apollonius of Rhodes IV. 1493 et ​​seq.

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1. The patriarchal myth of Uranus has received official recognition within the Olympian religious system. Uranus, whose name came to mean "heaven," seems to have succeeded in winning the position of the first father, since he was identified with the shepherd god Varuna, who belongs to the Aryan male triad; Greek name god comes from the form male the words Ur-ana (“queen of the mountains”, “queen of summer”, “queen of the winds” or “queen of wild bulls”) is the goddess in her orgiastic incarnation of the solstice. The marriage of Uranus to the earth mother points to an early Hellenic invasion of northern Greece, which allowed the people who worshiped Varuna to claim that their god was the father of the local tribes, while recognizing that he is the son of the earth mother. The mention that the earth and sky parted from each other because of a deadly enmity, but then amicably united, can be found in Euripides ("The Wise Melanippe", fr. 484) and in Apollonius of Rhodes ("Argonautica" I. 496-498 ). Deadly enmity should be an indication of the clash of patriarchal and matriarchal principles as a result of the invasion of the Hellenes. Gies ("earth-born") had a different form of name - gigas ("giant"), and giants in myth are associated with the mountains of northern Greece. Briareus ("strong") was also called Egeon ("Iliad" I. 403), and the people who worshiped him could be the Livio-Thracians, whose goat-goddess Aegis (see 8.1) gave the name to the Aegean Sea. Kott may have been the eponym of the Kotts, who worshiped the orgiastic Kotitto, whose cult spread from Thrace throughout northeastern Europe.

2. The Cyclopes are probably reminiscent of the community of ancient Helladic bronze smiths. Cyclops means "round-eyed"; it is possible that they were tattooed on their foreheads in the form of concentric circles in honor of the sun, the source of fire in their furnaces; the Thracians continued to tattoo until the classical era (see 28.1). Concentric circles are part of blacksmithing mysteries: in order to forge a bowl, a helmet or a ritual mask, blacksmiths marked out the flat metal disk they were processing, drawing circles diverging from the center. The Cyclopes could also be one-eyed in the sense that blacksmiths often cover one eye with something to protect it from flying sparks. Later, these connections were forgotten and the mythographers, having shown enough imagination, made the Cyclopes the inhabitants of the caves of Mount Etna, possibly in order to explain the appearance of fire and smoke above the crater (see 35.1). There were close cultural ties between Thrace, Crete and Lycia, and everywhere in these regions the Cyclopes were well known. The early Helladic culture even spread to Sicily, but it is possible that the presence of the Cyclopes in Sicily (as S. Butler first suggested Butler S. (Butler, 1835-1902) - English scientist, creator of the theory according to which the author of the Odyssey is a woman, namely the heroine of the poem Nausicaa (see: The authoress of the Odyssey, 1897).) is explained by the Sicilian origin of the Odyssey (see 170.b). The names Bront, Sterop and Arg ("thunder", "lightning" and "perun") appeared later.

3. Garamant is the eponymous ancestor of the Libyan Garamantes who inhabited the Jado oasis south of Fezzan and in 19 BC. conquered by the Roman commander L. Balbom. They presumably belonged to the Cushito-Berbers. In the II century. AD they were subjugated by the matrilineal Berber tribe of the Lemta, and later mixed with the black population of the southern coast of the upper Niger, assimilating their language. Now the descendants of the Garamantes live in only one village called Koromance. Garamante comes from the words gara, man and te, meaning "people of the country of Gara". It is possible that Gara goes back to the name of the goddess Ker, K "re or Kar (see 82.6 and 86.2), after whom, in particular, the Carians called themselves and who was traditionally associated with beekeeping. Edible acorns (traditional food of the population ancient world before the advent of cereals) grew in Libya. The Garamantian settlement called "Ammon" united with the northern Greek settlement of Dodona into a religious league, which, according to F. Petri Petrie F. (Petrie, 1853-1942) - the famous English archaeologist. Studied Stonehenge, ancient metrology. Since 1880 long years conducted systematic excavations in Egypt, especially became famous for the excavations of Memphis. At the end of his life he led excavations in Palestine., could have existed as early as the third millennium BC. Both settlements had ancient oracle oaks (see 57. a). Herodotus characterizes the Garamantes as a peaceful but powerful people who grew bread and herded cattle (IV. 174 and 183).

4. Two Philosophical Creation Myths

It is said that Darkness was the first, and from Darkness Chaos arose. From the union of Darkness with Chaos, Night, Day, Erebus and Air arose.

Fate, Old Age, Death, Murder, Voluptuousness, Sleep, Dreams, Quarrel, Sorrow, Annoyance, Nemesis, Joy, Friendship, Compassion, Moirai and Hesperides arose from the union of Night with Erebus.

From the union of Air and Day arose Gaia-Earth, Sky and Sea.

From the union of Air and Gaia-Earth arose Fear, Tedious Labor, Fury, Enmity, Deception, Oaths, Blinding of the soul, Intemperance, Arguments, Oblivion, Sorrows, Pride, Battles, as well as the Ocean, Metis and the Titans, Tartarus and the three Erinyes, or furies.

Giants arose from the union of the Earth and Tartarus.

B. From the union of the Sea and its rivers came the Nereids. However, there were no mortal people until, with the permission of the goddess Athena, Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, blinded them in the image of the gods. For this purpose, he took land and water from Panopa (Phokis), and Athena breathed life into them 1 .

C. It is also said that the god of all things - whoever he was, for some call him "Nature" - suddenly appeared from Chaos, separated earth from heaven, water from earth, and upper air from lower. He brought the elements into the order that we see now. He divided the earth into zones: very hot, very cold and temperate; He created valleys and mountains on it and clothed them with grass and trees. Above the earth, he established a rotating firmament, strewn it with stars, and appointed abodes to the four winds. He also peopled the waters with fish, the earth with beasts, and put the sun, moon, and five planets into the sky. Finally, he created a man who - one of all animals - turned his gaze to heaven and saw the sun, moon and stars, unless it is true that Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, himself fashioned the first people from earth and water, and the soul in them appeared thanks to the wandering divine elements, preserved from the time of the first creation 2.

1 Hesiod. Theogony 211-232; Apollodorus I.7.1; Lucian. Prometheus or Caucasus 13; Pausanias X.4.3.

2 Ovid. Metamorphoses I.1-88.

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1. In the "Theogony" of Hesiod, on which the first of these philosophical myths is based, the list of abstractions for some reason suddenly contains Nereids, titans and giants, whom the author considered necessary to include here.

2. The second myth, which is found only in Ovid, was borrowed by the later Greeks from the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, in the introductory part of which it is said how the goddess Aruru created the first man Zabani from a piece of clay. However, although Zeus was a world god for many centuries, mythographers were forced to admit that the creature could well be the creator of all things. female. The ancient Jews, who inherited the creation myth from the "Pelasgians" or Canaanites, felt a similar bewilderment: in the book of Genesis, the feminine "spirit of God" sits like a hen on the surface of the waters, although the World Egg is not mentioned. Eve, "the mother of all living things," must strike the serpent on the head, although he is not sent to the underworld until the end of the world.

3. Similarly, in the Talmudic version of the creation myth, the archangel Michael - an analogue of Prometheus - creates Adam from the dust, not by order of the mother of all living things, but by order of Yahweh, who then breathes life into a person and gives him to Eve; she, like Pandora, becomes the cause of all the misfortunes of mankind (see 39. j).

4. Greek philosophers distinguished the man created by Prometheus from imperfect earthly creatures, partially destroyed by Zeus, and partially washed away by the deucalion flood (see 38. s). The same distinction can be found in the Bible (Gen. 6:2-4), where "sons of God" are contrasted with "daughters of men" whom they marry.

5. Tablets with the epic of Gilgamesh are of rather late date and are very uncertain. In them, the "Shining Mother of the Void" is declared the creator of everything, with Aruru being just one of the many titles of the goddess. The main theme of the myth is the disconcerting rebellion against the matriarchal goddess order by the gods of the new patriarchal order. Marduk - the main god of the city of Babylon - eventually defeats the goddess, the sea hydra in the form of Tiamat, after which he quite brazenly declares that it was he, and no one else, who created the grasses, lands, rivers, animals, birds and humanity. Marduk, this upstart god, was not the first to declare his victory over Tiamat and the creation of the world. Before him, a similar statement was made by the god Bel, whose name is the masculine form of Beleth-ili, the Sumerian mother goddess. The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy in Mesopotamia, as in a number of other places, probably took the form of a coup d'etat carried out by the co-ruler-husband of the queen, to whom she transferred executive power, allowing him to take her name, clothes and sacred objects (see 136.4).

5. Five centuries of mankind

Some deny that Prometheus created humans, or that humans grew from dragon's teeth. They say that the earth gave birth to people as the best of its fruits precisely in Attica 1 and that the first man was Alalkomeneus, who grew up near the Copaid lake in Boeotia even before the moon appeared. He gave advice to Zeus when he quarreled with Hera, and brought up Athena when she was still just a girl 2 .

B. These people were called the Golden Generation and worshiped Kron. They lived without worries and labors, eating acorns, wild fruits and honey, which dripped directly from the trees, they drank sheep and goat milk never grew old, danced and laughed a lot. Death for them was no more terrible than sleep. None of them are left, but their spirits still exist: they have become blissful demons, givers of good luck and defenders of justice.

C. Then there were the people of the Silver Age, who ate bread, also of divine origin. These people obeyed their mothers in everything and did not dare to disobey them, although they lived up to a hundred years. They were quarrelsome and ignorant and never made sacrifices to the gods, but they were good because they did not fight with each other. Zeus destroyed them all.

D. Then came the people of the Copper Age, in no way like the former; they were all armed with copper weapons. They ate meat and bread, loved to fight, were rude and cruel. The Black Death took them all.

E. The fourth people were also people of copper, but they differed from their predecessors in nobility and kindness, since they were the children of gods and mortal mothers. They covered themselves with glory at the siege of Thebes, during the journey of the Argonauts and during the Trojan War. They became heroes, and "the islands inhabit the Blessed."

F. The fifth are the current iron people, unworthy descendants of the fourth generation. They hardened, became unjust, vicious, wicked towards their parents and deceitful 3 .

1 Plato. Menexen 237d-238a.

2 Ippolit. Refutation of all heresies V.6.3.; Eusebius, On the Gospel preparation III.1.3.

3 Hesiod. Works and days 109-201 and scholia.

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1. Although the myth of the Golden Age is traced back to the tradition of tribal worship of the bee-goddess, the savagery of this period, which preceded the rise of agriculture, had already been forgotten by the time of Hesiod, only one idealistic conviction remained that people once lived in harmony, as bees (see, 2.2). Hesiod was a peasant and had a small allotment, and a difficult life made him gloomy and pessimistic. Myth about silver age bears traces of a matriarchy, similar to those that existed among the Picts and Black Sea Mossiniks in the classical era (see 151. e), as well as among individual tribes on the Balearic Islands and on the coast of the Gulf of Sirte. Men were still considered the despicable sex, but agriculture had already arrived and wars were infrequent. The third people were the ancient Hellenes: shepherds bronze age, who worshiped the goddess and her son Poseidon, and their cult tree was ash (see 6.4 and 57.1). The fourth people were the warrior-kings of the Mycenae era. The fifth people were the Dorians of the 12th century. BC, who used iron tools and destroyed the Mycenaean civilization.

Alalkomeneus is a fictitious character whose name is the masculine form of Alalkomen - the epithet of Athena ("Iliad" IV.8) as the patroness of Boeotia. He planted a patriarchal dogma that no woman, even a goddess, is capable of rational action without male advice.

Will rule over all relatives. Hera, having learned about this, hastened the birth of Perseid's wife Sthenelus, who gave birth to the weak and cowardly Eurystheus. Zeus involuntarily had to agree that Heracles, born after this Alcmene, obey Eurystheus - but not all his life, but only until he performs 12 great feats in his service.

Heracles with early childhood was of great strength. Already in the cradle, he strangled two huge snakes sent by the Hero to destroy the baby. Hercules spent his childhood in the Boeotian Thebes. He freed this city from the power of neighboring Orchomenus, and in gratitude the Theban king Creon gave his daughter, Megara, to Hercules. Soon Hera sent a fit of madness to Hercules, during which he killed his children and the children of his half-brother Iphicles (according to the tragedies of Euripides ("") and Seneca, Hercules killed his wife Megara as well). The Delphic oracle, in atonement for this sin, ordered Hercules to go to Eurystheus and perform, on his orders, those 12 feats that were destined for him by fate.

The first feat of Hercules (summary)

Hercules kills the Nemean Lion. Copy from the statue of Lysippus

The second feat of Hercules (summary)

The second feat of Hercules is the fight against the Lernean Hydra. Painting by A. Pollaiolo, ca. 1475

The third feat of Hercules (summary)

Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds. Statue of A. Bourdelle, 1909

The fourth feat of Hercules (summary)

The fourth feat of Hercules - Keriney doe

The fifth feat of Hercules (summary)

Hercules and the Erymanthian boar. Statue of L. Tuyon, 1904

The sixth feat of Hercules (summary)

The king of Elis, Avgiy, the son of the sun god Helios, received from his father numerous herds of white and red bulls. His huge barnyard has not been cleared for 30 years. Hercules offered to clear the stall for a day for Augeas, asking for a tenth of his herds in return. Considering that the hero could not cope with the work in one day, Avgiy agreed. Hercules blocked the rivers Alpheus and Peneus with a dam and diverted their water to the barnyard of Avgii - all the manure was washed away from it in a day.

The sixth feat - Hercules cleans the stables of Augius. Roman mosaic of the 3rd century. according to R. H. from Valencia

The seventh feat of Hercules (summary)

The seventh feat - Hercules and the Cretan bull. Roman mosaic of the 3rd century. according to R. H. from Valencia

The eighth feat of Hercules (summary)

The Thracian king Diomedes owned horses of marvelous beauty and strength, which could only be kept in a stall with iron chains. Diomedes fed his horses with human meat, killing strangers who came to him. Hercules led the horses by force and defeated Diomedes, who rushed in pursuit, in battle. During this time, the horses tore to pieces the companion of Hercules, Abder, who guarded them on the ships.

The ninth feat of Hercules (summary)

The queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, wore a belt given to her by the god Ares as a sign of her power. The daughter of Eurystheus, Admet, wished to have this belt. Hercules with a detachment of heroes sailed to the kingdom of the Amazons, to the shores of Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea). Hippolyta, at the request of Hercules, wanted to give the belt voluntarily, but other Amazons attacked the hero and killed several of his companions. Hercules slew the seven strongest warriors in battle and put their army to flight. Hippolyta gave him the belt as a ransom for the captured Amazon Melanippe.

On the way back from the country of the Amazons, Hercules saved Hesion at the walls of Troy, the daughter of the Trojan king Laomendont, doomed, like Andromeda, to sacrifice to the sea monster. Hercules killed the monster, but Laomedon did not give him the promised reward - the horses of Zeus belonging to the Trojans. For this, Hercules a few years later made a trip to Troy, took it and killed the whole family of Laomedont, leaving only one of his sons, Priam, alive. Priam ruled Troy during the glorious Trojan War.

The tenth feat of Hercules (summary)

At the very western edge of the earth, the giant Gerion, who had three bodies, three heads, six arms and six legs, grazed cows. By order of Eurystheus, Hercules went after these cows. The long journey to the west itself was already a feat, and in memory of him Hercules erected two stone (Hercules) pillars on both sides of a narrow strait near the shores of the Ocean (modern Gibraltar). Geryon lived on the island of Erithia. So that Hercules could reach him, the solar god Helios gave him his horses and a golden boat, on which he himself swims daily through the sky.

Having killed the guards of Geryon - the giant Eurytion and the two-headed dog Orfo - Hercules captured the cows and drove them to the sea. But then Gerion himself rushed at him, covering his three bodies with three shields and throwing three spears at once. However, Hercules shot him with a bow and finished him off with a club, and he transported the cows on the boat of Helios across the Ocean. On the way to Greece, one of the cows ran away from Hercules to Sicily. To free her, the hero had to kill the Sicilian king Eriks in a duel. Then Hera, hostile to Hercules, sent rabies to the herd, and the cows that fled from the shores of the Ionian Sea were barely caught in Thrace. Eurystheus, having received the cows of Geryon, sacrificed them to Hera.

Eleventh feat of Hercules (summary)

By order of Eurystheus, Hercules descended through the abyss of Tenar into the gloomy kingdom of the god of the dead Hades, in order to take away his guard from there - the three-headed dog Cerberus, whose tail ended in the head of a dragon. At the very gates of the underworld, Hercules freed the Athenian hero Theseus, who, along with his friend Perifoy, was punished by the gods for trying to steal his wife Persephone from Hades. In the realm of the dead, Hercules met the shadow of the hero Meleager, whom he promised to become the protector of his lonely sister Dejanira and marry her. The lord of the underworld, Hades, himself allowed Hercules to take Cerberus away - but only if the hero manages to tame him. Finding Cerberus, Hercules began to fight him. He half strangled the dog, pulled him out of the ground and brought him to Mycenae. The cowardly Eurystheus, at one glance at the terrible dog, began to beg Hercules to take her back, which he did.

Eleventh Labor of Hercules - Cerberus

The twelfth feat of Hercules (summary)

Hercules had to find a way to the great titan Atlas (Atlanta), who holds the vault of heaven on his shoulders at the edge of the earth. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to take three golden apples from the golden tree of the Atlas garden. To find out the way to the Atlas, Hercules, on the advice of the nymphs, guarded the sea god Nereus on the seashore, grabbed him and held him until he showed the right way. On the way to the Atlas through Libya, Hercules had to fight the cruel giant Antaeus, who received new powers by touching his mother - Earth-Gaia. After a long fight, Hercules lifted Antaeus into the air and strangled him without lowering him to the ground. In Egypt, King Busiris wanted to sacrifice Hercules to the gods, but the angry hero killed Busiris along with his son.

Hercules fighting Antaeus. Artist O. Coudet, 1819

Photo - Jastrow

Atlas himself went to his garden for three golden apples, but Hercules at that time needed to hold the vault of heaven for him. Atlas wanted to deceive Hercules: he offered to personally take the apples to Eurystheus, provided that at that time Hercules would continue to hold the sky for him. But the hero, realizing that the cunning titan would not return, did not give in to deception. Hercules asked Atlas to change him under the sky for a short rest, and he took the apples and left.

The sequence of the 12 major labors of Hercules varies in different mythological sources. The eleventh and twelfth feats change places especially often: a number of ancient authors consider the descent to Hades after Cerberus the last accomplishment of Hercules, and the journey to the garden of the Hesperides - the penultimate one.

Other exploits of Hercules

After completing 12 feats, Heracles, freed from the power of Eurystheus, defeated the best archer of Greece, Eurytus, the king of the Euboean Oichalia, in a shooting competition. Eurytus did not give Hercules the promised reward for this - his daughter Iola. Hercules then married in the city of Calydon to Dejanira, the sister of Meleager, whom he met in the kingdom of Hades. Seeking the hand of Dejanira, Hercules endured a difficult duel with the river god Achelous, who during the fight turned into a snake and a bull.

Hercules and Dejanira went to Tiryns. On the way, Dejanira tried to kidnap the centaur Ness, who offered to transport married couple across the river. Hercules killed Nessus with arrows soaked in the bile of the Lernaean hydra. Before his death, Ness secretly from Hercules advised Dejanira to collect his blood poisoned by the poison of the hydra. The centaur assured that if Dejanira rubbed her clothes with Hercules, then no other woman would ever please him.

In Tiryns, during a fit of madness again sent by the Hero, Hercules killed his close friend, the son of Eurytus, Ifit. Zeus punished Hercules for this with a serious illness. Trying to find out a remedy for her, Hercules went on a rampage in the Delphic temple and fought with the god Apollo. Finally, it was revealed to him that he must sell himself for three years as a slave to the Lydian queen Omphale. For three years, Omphala subjected Hercules to terrible humiliations: she forced him to wear women's clothing and spin, and she herself wore a lion's skin and a hero's club. However, Omphale allowed Hercules to take part in the campaign of the Argonauts.

Freed from slavery by Omphale, Hercules took Troy and avenged his previous deception to its king, Laomedon. He then participated in the battle of the gods with the giants. The mother of giants, the goddess Gaia, made these children of hers invulnerable to the weapons of the gods. Only a mortal could kill giants. During the battle, the gods threw the giants to the ground with weapons and lightning, and Hercules finished them off with their arrows.

Death of Hercules

Following this, Hercules set off on a campaign against King Eurytus, who insulted him. Having defeated Eurytus, Hercules captured his daughter, the beautiful Iola, whom he was supposed to receive even after the previous competition with her father in archery. Upon learning that Hercules was going to marry Iola, Dejanira, in an attempt to return her husband's love, sent him a cloak soaked in the blood of the centaur Ness soaked in the poison of the Lernean hydra. As soon as Hercules put on this cloak, he stuck to his body. The poison penetrated the skin of the hero and began to cause terrible torment. Dejanira, having learned about her mistake, committed suicide. This myth became the plot of the tragedy of Sophocles "Trachinian"

Realizing that death was near, Hercules ordered that his eldest son, Gill, take him to the Thessalian mountain Eta and lay a funeral pyre there. Hercules gave his bow with poisoned arrows to the hero Philoctetes, a future participant in the Trojan War, who agreed to set fire to the flame.

As soon as the fire caught fire, the gods Athena and Hermes descended from the sky in thunder and lightning, who carried Hercules to Olympus in a golden chariot. Hercules married there the eternally young goddess Hebe and was accepted into the host of immortals.

After the death of Hercules, the cowardly Eurystheus began to persecute his children (Heraclides). They had to take refuge in Athens, with the son of Theseus, Demophon. The army of Eurystheus invaded the Athenian land, but was defeated by an army led by the eldest son of Hercules, Gill. The Heraclids became the ancestors of one of the four main branches of the Greek people - the Dorians. Three generations after Gylus, the Dorian invasion of the south culminated in the conquest of the Peloponnese, which the Heraclides considered the legitimate heritage of their father, treacherously taken from him by the cunning of the goddess Hera. In news of the captures of the Dorians, legends and myths are already mixed with memories of genuine historical events.

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Myths of Ancient Greece

MYTHS ABOUT HERCULES

The most beloved hero of the ancient Greeks was Hercules, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Traditionally, he was depicted as tall, powerful, muscular, dressed in a lion's skin and armed with a huge stick. The myths tell how the cowardly and conceited king Eurystheus, seeking the death of Hercules, gave him all sorts of incredible tasks. Performing them, Hercules performed twelve labors. In particular, he defeated a monster - a giant lion and a nine-headed hydra, caught a golden-horned doe and a cannibal boar. You will learn these and other victories of the famous hero of Hellas by reading the myths about Hercules.

Augean stables

Fifth feat

King Eurystheus could not come to his senses for a long time - it was not so much from fright as from despair: after all, Hercules again returned victorious from a difficult test, and also to trouble the king, he dragged that boar that was supposed to tear the hero to pieces.

"What should he think now?" - the unlucky king puzzled himself, and, apparently, he would not have thought of anything if it were not for his powerful ally Hera.

The recklessly goddess appeared to Eurystheus somehow in a dream and prompted the hero’s thoughts that were not only impossible, but also shameful, humiliating even for an ordinary person.

Even the light did not shine, how glad Eurystheus sent his herald Conrey to Hercules with a strict order: immediately go to Elis to King Avgiy and clean out all his stables in one day.

Hearing this strange order, Hercules burned down with resentment.

Clean out the stables! he shouted indignantly. - What are you, Kopreyu, carrying?

And suddenly the hero cut off his tongue, noticing the mocking smile of the royal herald. Hercules' face was full of anger, and he lowered his heavy forehead and did not even hear when Koprey went.

Heracles. Statue from the east pediment of the temple of Athena on the island of Aegina. Marble. Beginning 5th century n. e.

So, the punishment of the gods is terrible! But his own guilt, which is still an unbreakable burden on his heart, is even more terrible. Can he refuse even the worst, even the most shameful repentance? King Eurystheus laughs with his servants, so what? It is necessary not to pay attention to them, but to show Zeus's will.

In Elis, Hercules immediately went not to the palace of Avgius, but to numerous stables surrounded by a strong fence. Only now did the hero realize what a difficult task Eurystheus had set for him. The whole yard inside the wall was a solid swamp, and a breathtaking stench was drawn from it. After questioning people, Hercules learned that no one ever cleaned the stables. By evening, cattle were herded here, and she was just getting into that manure. And the nasty stench from the royal stables reached right up to the surrounding villages, poisoning people's air and life.

Of course, it is shameful for the hero to dig in the manure, but then people breathe freely and remember him with a kind word of gratitude. But how to do it in one day? Hercules thought for a long time, passing the circle of the wall, then leaned up to fast river Peney and sat down to rest a little.

King Eurystheus, apparently, consoles himself with the thought that Hercules, the illustrious hero, will wear stinking kosh with manure on his own shoulders and he himself will become nasty and smelly. No, Eurystheus will not wait for Hercules to dirty his hands. In addition, he himself gave only one day.

Augeas was sincerely surprised when he saw the famous Hercules in front of him, and especially when he heard that he undertook to clean all the stables in one day.

Is one person so weak? - asked, doubting whether to believe or not, the king of Elide. - If we were to gather people from all over my state, then they would not have coped in a day.

And I will do it myself, alone, ”Hercules calmly replied.

No, you won't! - stubbornly Augius. - I bet you won't.

And I'm betting, - the hero chuckled. - If I win, you will give me a tithe of your cattle, okay?

OK! - Without hesitation, the king agreed, determined that Hercules would certainly lose.

They called to witness the eldest son of August, Phileas. The prince broke their hands, and the owner said:

Today, Hercules, be my guest, and tomorrow morning you can get down to business.

The next morning, as soon as the golden rays of Eos appeared in the sky, Hercules left the palace, carrying pitchforks and shovels on his shoulders. He did not go to the stables, but into the forest, to the Peney River, its waves rushing violently from the mountain.

A few steps from the shore, Hercules stood up, threw off his lion skin and began to dig a large ditch down to the stables. It was hard work, only a mighty hero could do it - the hard, stony ground barely gave in, and once in a while shovels and picks broke.

The whole day, without unbending, Hercules dug that ditch, only glanced at the sun from time to time, and then he worked with might and main further. After digging the ditch right up to the very gates of the royal stables, Hercules finally stopped, went around the wall and knocked out a large hole in it from the opposite side. And then he ordered the servants not to let cattle near the stables, although the sun was already on the evening edge.

Augeus himself came out of the palace to see what Hercules was doing, and did not see him anywhere. The king smiled disdainfully, for the hero did not even think of cleaning the stables. And the day is gone...

And deaf powerful blows were heard from the forest - then Hercules was already connecting the ditch with Peneus. And then transparent, clean jets rushed down in a new channel, straight to the stables, swirled in the yard and carried away all the manure, straw, swamp through a hole punched in that side of the wall.

Hercules silently watched the water work for him. People fled from everywhere, exclamations of sincere delight, joyful laughter were heard from the crowd, and Prince Philei praised Hercules, his mind and hands aloud.

The water boiled for a long time, and then the hero leaned back to the river, filled up the stream with stones, and the water again went on as usual. All the stables were clean, washed with water, and the last rays of the setting sun were reflected in small transparent puddles.

And what, the king, lost? - Hercules shouted cheerfully to the gloomy Avgius. “Your shepherds will have to count the tithe of cattle for me in the morning, and I will drive it home tomorrow.

Why hurry, stay with me in Elis, - reluctantly said the king.

No, I can't delay. After all, Eurystheus has already thought up, apparently, some other job for me.

Did Eurystheus send you here? asked Augius briskly. - Why are you right with me cattle?

Didn't we bet? - offended said Hercules.

Yes, they were laid, I am a witness to this, a sonorous voice was heard, and Tsarevich Filey became the hero's side.

Stick your tongue! yelled furiously at his son. - Well, get out of my sight!

And the prince stood motionless at Hercules. And Avgiy started shouting:

Get out of here, both of you! Go away both!

So the couple of Elis lost both their guest and their son.

Prince Filey went to his relatives on the island of Dulihiy, and Hercules, as an obedient slave, went to Mycenae.

Translation by Ekaterina Glovatskaya

1. When Hercules realized what a difficult task Eurystheus had given him?

2. Determine what thoughts, feelings and moods of the characters need to be conveyed by reading the dialogue between Avgeas and Hercules. Read this piece of myth in faces.

3. Do you agree that getting rid of the dirt of the Augean stables can be called a feat? Justify your opinion.

4. Prepare a retelling of the myth on behalf of Hercules.

Interesting to know

From the myths came to us a lot popular expressions which have become permanent and frequently used. As if on wings, they flew from one language to another, from antiquity to modernity. Some of them are connected with the myths about Hercules. So when we are talking about pollution or an extremely neglected business, the expression “Augean stables” comes to the rescue. In our time, the phrase "strong as Hercules" is also used.

Dog Kerber

Feat twelfth

Now it remains for Hercules to serve King Eurystheus for the last time, and from this thought, joy, like the sun, illuminated the hero. True, the tsar thought of more and more difficult tasks, and now, in the end, he demanded from the hero an unheard-of, incredible thing. Eurystheus ordered that the guard dog Kerberus, a ferocious monster, the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, be brought from the underworld of the dead. Kerber had three heads on one long neck, a large mane of poisonous snakes, and instead of a tail, he had a dragon writhing.

This dog guarded the way out of the kingdom of the mighty god Hades, where the shadows of the dead wander in pitch darkness, and the grief was that unfortunate that was again torn to the ground, to sunlight. Kerberus rushed at her, shredded her, pulled her back into the black darkness. And then he returned to his place, and from there his ferocious barking was heard every now and then.

When people learned that Hercules was to bring that underground monster to King Eurystheus, screaming and crying took place in Mycenae: all because they felt sorry for their beloved hero. And the king did not pay attention to that crying and hurried Hercules. And the son of Zeus calmly listened to the capricious royal will and, as always, immediately got ready for a long journey.

Walking through the green fields and meadows, the hero rejoiced at the affectionate spring sun and often involuntarily smiled at him - after all, soon the sunshine will go out for him for a long time, and maybe forever.

The closer Hercules approached to the gorge of Tenara, then the sun's rays became dimmer and the surroundings became gloomy and unfriendly. The sky turned into mournful clouds that hid the clear sun, and a poisonous, dizzying spirit rose from the cracked earth.

Here at last is the black gorge that leads to the underground realm of the dead. For a moment, Hercules stopped, sighed heavily, and then decisively stepped forward.

1 Tenor - a rocky cape in the south of the Peloponnese (a peninsula in southern Greece); the ancient Greeks imagined that among its rocks was the entrance to the underworld.

Hades was terribly angry at first because some insolent mortal dared to descend into his kingdom and also approach the throne. But, recognizing the glorious son of Zeus, Hades only gloomily asked:

What do you want, hero?

Not for me, mighty Hades, but for King Evristheus, the Kerberos needed, I must bring him to Mycenae.

So, take Kerber when you master it, - said the insidious Hades. - I only put you the only condition: be able to overcome it without any weapons. And now you can go, look for Cerberus somewhere on the shore of Acheron. And don't come back here again.

Among the sheer black rocks, Acheron, the river of sorrow, quietly, slowly and difficultly walked. Hercules stood on the shore and watched. Suddenly, in the midst of the eerie silence, a furious growl was heard. And the beast was late: Hercules jumped first and squeezed the dog's neck with all his might. Three dog heads whirled and growled furiously, and could not reach the hero. The dragon that Kerberus had instead of a tail glared at Hercules, but he did not react to it. He squeezed harder and harder on the ugly neck until the exhausted dog fell at his feet.

Then Hercules dragged the chain around Kerberov's neck and dragged the beast to Charon. The old carrier, gloomy, frowning, apparently already knew the will of Aidov, therefore he silently transported both of them to the other side, and the hero trains the underground dog up the steep path up.

Slowly it grew lighter, the black darkness receded before the sunshine, and Kerber became worried, began to opinatisya that further, then stronger, but Hercules, and for a moment without stopping, pulled him up.

Here is the sun, brilliant, beautiful. The hero already laughed, such a violent joy understood him. And the underground dog turned its eyes away from the sun and barked furiously, only foam flew around its three mouths. Where shreds of that foam fell, the grass withered and became a terrible poison.

When the Mycenaeans saw the trigolovan monster that Hercules was on a chain of pulls, everyone rushed in all directions. No one warned King Eurystheus, and he did not have time to hide in his favorite barrel, he even left the palace with nothing to do just when Hercules appeared.

1 underground river Acheron of sorrow, through which the boatman Charon transported the souls of the dead to the kingdom of Hades.

Hercules, Kerberos and Eurystheus. Painting a vase. Around 525 BC e.

Seeing Cerberus, the king became pale, trembling, and could neither move nor get a word. Probably, then for the first time he realized how strong and courageous Hercules was. At least when the servants carried the half-conscious king to the palace, he barely spoke with three lips:

The hero is now free... Let him go...

Hercules went home to his native Thebes. And at first he opened the chain, and freed Kerberus instantly disappeared from sight - with one jump he found himself in the underworld ii, as before, near the exit from him on guard.

Translation by Ekaterina Glovatskaya

Strive to be creative readers

1. Retell the myth close to the text.

2. What gives the reader an idea of ​​the Kerberos dog?

3. What fantastic elements are present in the myth?

4. Which of the characters in Joan Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" reminds you of the dog Kerberos? What exactly?

5. Prepare a characterization of Hercules for reading myths.

Interesting to know

Many mythical heroes "appeared" in the sky in the form of constellations. Hercules was also awarded this honor, the conditional outlines of which can be found on the map of the starry sky called the constellation Hercules. However, the animals with which the hero had to fight also received their place in heaven. This is a lion and cancer (it was he who grabbed Hercules by the leg during his duel with the hydra). The constellations Leo and Cancer are located on the side of the sky opposite the constellation Hercules, as if they are afraid to be near the hero. According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, they, for special merits in their favor, were immortalized among the stars by Hera, who opposed Hercules in every possible way.

Summarizing what we learned during the journey "The Paths of Myths"

1. Continue the sentence: "Myths are ...".

2. Name the word that is missing in this scheme:

3. How did different peoples explain the origin of the world in myths?

4. Read an excerpt from Taras Shevchenko's poem "The Caucasus". Is the name of the mythical hero missing here? What is the greatness of his feat?

Behind the mountains are mountains shrouded in clouds,

Sown with grief, watered with blood.

From time immemorial...

There the eagle punishes

What a day good ribs

And the heart breaks.

5. Consider why artists different countries turned to the myth of Prometheus.

6. The name of the myth which is encrypted in the puzzle? explain figurative meaning this expression.

7. How do you understand the words in the epigraph of the section?

8. How do myths attract our contemporaries?

9. What performances, cartoons or films based on the plots of myths have you watched?

10. Compare information about ancient Greek mythology obtained in the lessons of the history of the ancient world and foreign literature.

11. What did the ancient Greeks value in a person? Give examples from the myths you read.

12. Write an essay on the topic "My favorite mythological hero."

Interesting to know

AT ancient Greek mythology sea ​​deity prophet Proteus, who has a lot of knowledge and has the ability to change his appearance. He can turn into someone and into something - various animals, fire, water, wood.

Consider why skilled translators are called Proteus talents.