Famous heroes of the ancient world. Agamemnon (Αγαμέμνονας), one of the main heroes of the ancient Greek national epic

Agamemnon(Αγαμέμνονας), one of the main heroes of the ancient Greek national epic, the son of the Mycenaean king Atreus and Aeropa, leader of the Greek army during the Trojan War. After the murder of Atreus by Aegisthus, Agamemnon and Menelaus were forced to flee to Aetolia, but the king of Sparta Tyndareus, going on a campaign against Mycenae, forced Thyestes to cede power to the sons of Atreus. Agamemnon reigned in Mycenae (he later expanded his domain and became the most powerful ruler in all of Greece) and married Tyndareus’ daughter Clytaemestra. From this marriage Agamemnon had three daughters and a son, Orestes. When Paris kidnapped Helen and all her former suitors united in a campaign against Troy, Agamemnon, as the elder brother of Menelaus and the most powerful of the Greek kings, was elected head of the entire army.

Amphitryon(Αμφιτρύωνας), in Greek mythology, the son of the Tiryns king Alcaeus and the daughter of Pelops Astydamia, the grandson of Perseus. Amphitryon took part in the war against the TV fighters who lived on the island of Taphos, which was waged by his uncle, the Mycenaean king Electryon. The sons of Electrion died in this war. Going on a campaign, Electryon entrusted Amphitryon with the management of the state and his daughter Alcmene. During the farewell, Amphitryon accidentally killed the king with a club thrown at a cow, and he had to flee from Mycenae, taking Alcmene and her younger brother (Apollodorus, II 4.6). They found shelter with the Theban king Creon, who cleansed Amphitryon from the sin of accidental murder. Alcmene agreed to become his wife only after he took revenge on the TV fighters for the death of her brothers. Creon promised Amphitryon help in the war against the TV fighters if he destroyed the ferocious Teumes fox, which was ravaging the surroundings of Thebes, and was escaping from all its pursuers. The famous Athenian hunter Cephalus lent Amphitryon a wonderful dog that could catch any animal. The competition between the beast, which no one could catch, and the dog, from which no one could escape, ended with the decision of Zeus to turn both animals into stones (Pausanias, IX 19.1).

Achilles, in Greek mythology, one of the greatest heroes, the son of King Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis. Zeus and Poseidon wanted to have a son from the beautiful Thetis, but the Titan Prometheus warned them that the child would surpass his father in greatness. And the gods wisely arranged the marriage of Thetis with a mortal. Love for Achilles, as well as the desire to make him invulnerable and give him immortality, forced Thetis to bathe the child in the River Styx, which flowed through Hades, the land of the dead. Since Thetis was forced to hold her son by the heel, this part of the body remained defenseless.

Achilles' mentor was the centaur Chiron, who fed him the entrails of lions, bears and wild boars, and taught him to play the cithara and sing. Achilles grew up to be a fearless warrior, but his immortal mother, knowing that participation in the campaign against Troy would bring death to her son, dressed him up as a girl and hid him among the women in the palace of King Lycomedes.

When the leaders of the Greeks became aware of the prediction of the priest Kalkhant, the grandson of Apollo, that without Achilles the campaign against Troy was doomed to failure, they sent the cunning Odysseus to him. Arriving at the king disguised as a merchant, Odysseus laid out women's jewelry mixed with weapons in front of those gathered. The inhabitants of the palace began to look at the jewelry, but suddenly, at a sign from Odysseus, an alarm sounded - the girls ran away in fear, and the hero grabbed his sword, giving himself away completely.

After exposure, Achilles, willy-nilly, had to sail to Troy, where he soon quarreled with the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon. According to one version of the myth, this happened because, wanting to provide a favorable wind for the Greek fleet, Agamemnon, secretly from the hero, under the pretext of marrying Achilles, summoned his daughter Iphigenia to Aulis and sacrificed her to the goddess Artemis.

The angry Achilles retired to his tent, refusing to fight. However, the death of his faithful friend and brother-in-arms Patroclus at the hands of the Trojan Hector forced Achilles to immediate action.

Having received armor as a gift from the blacksmith god Hephaestus, Achilles defeated Hector with a spear and mocked his body for twelve days near the grave of Patroclus. Only Thetis was able to convince her son to give Hector’s remains to the Trojans for the funeral rite - the sacred duty of the living to the dead.

Returning to the battlefield, Achilles defeated hundreds of enemies. But his own life was coming to an end. Paris's arrow, accurately directed by Apollo, inflicted a mortal wound on Achilles' heel, the only vulnerable spot on the hero's body. This is how the valiant and arrogant Achilles, the ideal of the great commander of antiquity, Alexander the Great, died.

Ajax(Αίας), in Greek mythology the name of two participants in the Trojan War; both fought at Troy as suitors for Helen's hand. In the Iliad they often appear hand in hand, in the battle for the wall surrounding the Achaean camp, in the defense of ships, in the battle for the body of Patroclus and are compared to two mighty lions or bulls (Homer, Iliad, XIII 197-205; 701-708 ).

Ajax Oilid (Αίας Oιλνιος), son of Oileus and Eriopides (Eriope), king of Locris, leader of a forty-man militia from Locris, a region of central Greece. A skilled javelin thrower and an excellent runner, second only to Achilles in speed. His warriors are famous as archers and slingers. This so-called “little Ajax” is not so powerful and not so tall in stature compared to Ajax Telamonides (Homer, Iliad, II 527-535). He is known for his violent and impudent temperament. Thus, during the capture of Troy, he committed violence against Cassandra, who sought protection at the altar of Athena (Apollodorus, V 22; Virgil, Aeneid, II 403-406). On the advice of Odysseus, the Achaeans were going to stone Ajax for this sacrilege (Pausanias, X 31, 2), but he found refuge at the altar of the same Athena. However, when the fleet returned from Troy, the angry goddess destroyed the Achaean ships in a storm near the Cyclades Islands (including Ajax’s ship, throwing lightning at it). Ajax escaped and, clinging to a rock, boasted that he was alive despite the will of the gods. Then Poseidon split the rock with his trident, Ajax fell into the sea and died. His body was buried by Thetis on the island of Mykonos, near Delos (Higinus, Fab. 116). By decision of the oracle, the inhabitants of Locris atoned for the sacrilege of Ajax for a thousand years, sending two virgins to Troy every year, who served in the temple of Athena, never leaving it. According to Apollodorus and Polybius, this custom ceased to exist after the Phocis War in the 4th century BC.

Bellerophon(Βελλεροφόντης), in Greek mythology one of the main characters of the older generation, the son of the Corinthian king Glaucus (according to other sources, the god Poseidon), grandson of Sisyphus. Bellerophon's original name was Hipponou (Ἰππόνοος), but after he killed the Corinthian Beller, he began to be called the “killer of Beller” (according to some mythological versions, Beller was the brother of Hipponou). It is believed that the word Βελλερο is of pre-Greek origin and meant “monster”; subsequently, having become incomprehensible, it was, as is customary in etiological myths, interpreted as a proper name. Fearing blood feud, Bellerophon was forced to flee to Argolis, where he was hospitably greeted by the Tirinthian king Pretus. Pretus's wife Sthenebeia (according to some sources, Anthea) fell in love with Bellerophon, but was rejected by him, after which she accused the young man of an attempt on her honor. Believing his wife, but not wanting to break the laws of hospitality, Pret sends Bellerophon to his father-in-law, King Iobates of Lycia, handing him a letter containing an order to destroy Bellerophon. To carry out the order, Iobates gives Bellerophon one life-threatening assignment after another. First, he had to fight with a three-headed fire-breathing chimera that lived in the mountains of Lycia - a terrible monster, a combination of a lion, a goat and a snake. The gods who patronized Bellerophon gave him the winged horse Pegasus (Pindar, Olympian Odes, XIII, 63; Pausanias, II 4, 1). Having attacked the chimera from the air, Bellerophon defeated and, with the help of Pegasus, destroyed the monster that was devastating the country. Then he repelled the attack of the warlike Solim tribe and destroyed the invading Amazons (Homer, Iliad, VI 179). Iobates ambushed Bellerophon, who was returning from the war, but the hero killed all those who attacked him. Struck by the strength of the stranger, the Lycian king abandoned his plans, gave Bellerophon his daughter Philonoe as his wife and, dying, left him his kingdom (Apollodorus, II 3, 1 and 2). From this marriage were born Hippolochus, who inherited the Lycian kingdom, Isander, who died in the war with the Solims, and Laodamia, who gave birth to Sarpedon to Zeus.

Hector, in ancient Greek mythology, one of the main heroes of the Trojan War, the son of Hecuba and Priam, the king of Troy. Hector had 49 brothers and sisters, but among the sons of Priam he was famous for his strength and courage.

According to legend, Hector struck to death the first Greek to set foot on the soil of Troy, Protesilaus. The hero became especially famous in the ninth year of the Trojan War, challenging Ajax Telamonides to battle. Hector promised his enemy not to desecrate his body in case of defeat and not to remove his armor and demanded the same from Ajax. After a long struggle, they decided to stop the fight and exchanged gifts as a sign of mutual respect. Hector hoped to defeat the Greeks, despite Cassandra's prediction. It was under his leadership that the Trojans broke into the fortified camp of the Achaeans, approached the navy and even managed to set fire to one of the ships.

The legends also describe the battle between Hector and the Greek Patroclus. The hero defeated his opponent and took off Achilles' armor. The gods took a very active part in the war. They divided into two camps and each helped their favorites. Hector was patronized by Apollo himself. When Patroclus died, Achilles, obsessed with revenge for his death, tied the defeated dead Hector to his chariot and dragged him around the walls of Troy, but the hero’s body was not touched by either decay or birds, since Apollo protected him in gratitude for the fact that Hector during his lifetime he helped him several times. Based on this circumstance, the ancient Greeks concluded that Hector was the son of Apollo.

According to myths, Apollo, at a council of the gods, persuaded Zeus to give Hector’s body to the Trojans so that he could be buried with honor. The Supreme God ordered Achilles to give the body of the deceased to his father Priam. Since, according to legend, Hector’s grave was located in Thebes, researchers suggested that the image of the hero is of Boeotian origin. Hector was a very revered hero in Ancient Greece, which is proven by the presence of his image on ancient vases and in antique plastic. Usually they depicted scenes of Hector’s farewell to his wife Andromache, the battle with Achilles and many other episodes.

Hercules, in Greek mythology, the greatest of heroes, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus needed a mortal hero to defeat the giants, and he decided to give birth to Hercules. The best mentors taught Hercules various arts, wrestling, and archery. Zeus wanted Hercules to become the ruler of Mycenae or Tiryns, key fortresses on the approaches to Argos, but jealous Hera thwarted his plans. She struck Hercules with madness, in a fit of which he killed his wife and three of his sons. To atone for his grave guilt, the hero had to serve Eurystheus, king of Tiryns and Mycenae, for twelve years, after which he was granted immortality.

The most famous is the cycle of tales about the twelve labors of Hercules. The first feat was to obtain the skin of the Nemean lion, which Hercules had to strangle with his bare hands. Having defeated the lion, the hero tanned its skin and wore it as a trophy.

1. The king of Thrace, the son of Ares and Cyrene, who fed his wild, indomitable horses with the meat of captured foreigners. Hercules defeated Diomedes and threw him to be devoured by man-eating horses, which he then brought to King Eurystheus. According to other myth-making sources, horses fled from Mycenae to the mountains and were eaten by wild animals.

2. Son of the Aetolian king Tydeus and daughter Adrasta Deipila, husband of Aegialei. Diomedes, after the death of his father-in-law, Adrastus, became king of Argos. Together with Adrastus, he took part in the campaign and destruction of Thebes (Apollodorus, III 7.2). As one of Helen's suitors, Diomedes subsequently fought at Troy, leading a militia on 80 ships. In armor illuminated by a shining flame, he kills many Trojans and attacks Aeneas, who is saved from death by Aphrodite. Then Diomedes attacks the goddess, wounds her and forces her to leave the battlefield. Taking advantage of the patronage of Athena, Diomedes goes into battle against the god Ares himself and seriously wounds him (almost the entire V book of the Iliad is devoted to the exploits of Diomedes). Together with Odysseus, Diomedes goes on reconnaissance into the enemy camp; on the way they kill the Trojan scout Dolon, and then attack the Thracian king Res, who came to the aid of the Trojans, kill him and many of the soldiers of his retinue and take away the famous horses of Res (Homer, Iliad, X 203-514). Diomedes participates in funeral games in honor of Patroclus; Together with Odysseus, he penetrates besieged Troy and steals the statue of Athena (Palladion), the possession of which foreshadows victory over the Trojans. With Odysseus, Diomedes also goes to the island of Lemnos for Philoctetes. Diomedes has long been known (along with Nestor) as one of the few Achaean heroes who returned home safely from Troy (Apollodorus, V 8; 13); later sources introduce a version of the betrayal of Diomedes' wife Aegialia, as a result of which Diomedes was forced to flee from Argos to Apulia, where he married the daughter of King Daunus. According to legend, Diomedes founded Arpi (in Apulia) and other cities in Italy and then disappeared, and his companions were turned into birds.

Meleager(Μελέαγρος), in Greek mythology, the hero of Aetolia, the son of the Calydonian king Oeneus and Althea, the husband of Cleopatra (Apollodorus, I 8, 2). According to another version, Meleager’s father was Ares (Giginus, Fabula, 171). A participant in the campaign of the Argonauts (Apollodorus, I 9, 16), according to some versions of the myth, Meleager killed the Colchian king Aeetes (Diodorus, IV 48). Meleager was the winner in throwing the spear and javelin in the pan-Greek games. Meleager's greatest fame came from his participation in the Calydonian hunt.

When Artemis, angry because Oeneus did not sacrifice to her, sent a wild boar to the country, Meleager gathered the most famous hunters in Greece, with the help of which he managed to kill the boar. Artemis aroused a dispute between the Curetes, who were participating in the hunt, and the Aetolians over the possession of the boar's head. While Meleager was engaged in the battle, the Aetolians had the advantage; but when he left the battlefield, upset by his mother’s hostility, the Curetes defeated the Aetolians and began to besiege their city. Meleager's parents, friends, and the whole city begged Meleager for a long time to help them in danger, until finally his wife convinced him to come out to help his people. The Aetolians won, but Meleager fell. This is the Homeric version of the myth (Iliad, IX, 529-599).

There are other tales about Meleager. On the seventh day after the birth of Meleager, the Moirai predicted to Althea that her son would die when the log burning in the altar burned out. She snatched the log from the fire, extinguished it and hid it in the chest. some of them say that he was killed by the gods at the prayer request of his mother, saddened by the death of his brothers who died on the Calydonian hunt. At the sight of the dead bodies of her brothers, Althea cursed her son. She returned to the house, pulled out the fateful log from the casket and threw it into the fire. As soon as the log burned down, Meleager felt an incredible burning sensation inside and died. After the death of her son, Althea, overcome by remorse, hanged herself, Cleopatra also committed suicide, and Meleager’s sisters, who wept inconsolably over their brother’s grave, were turned by Artemis into guinea fowl (μελεαγρίδες) and transferred to the island of Leros. The tragic element of the legend was used by Phrynichus when creating the tragedy "The Pleuronian Woman"; Sophocles and Euripides also used this myth.

Menelaus(Μενέλαος), in Greek mythology, the king of Sparta, the son of Atreus and Aerope, the husband of Helen, the younger brother of Agamemnon. The brothers expelled by Thyestes fled from Mycenae to Sparta, to Tyndareus, whose daughter, Helen, Menelaus married and inherited the throne of his father-in-law (Apollodorus, II 16). The serene life of Menelaus with Helen lasted about ten years; their daughter Hermione was nine years old when the Trojan prince Paris came to Sparta. Menelaus at this time went to Crete to participate in the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus. Having learned about the kidnapping of his wife and treasures by Paris, Menelaus and Odysseus went to Troy (Ilion) and demanded the extradition of the kidnapped wife, but to no avail. Returning home, Menelaus, with the help of Agamemnon, gathered friendly kings for the Ilion campaign, and he himself deployed sixty ships, recruiting warriors in Lacedaemon, Amyclae and other lands of Hellas. In addition, after the abduction of his wife by Paris, Menelaus gathered all her former suitors, bound by a vow of mutual assistance, and began preparations together with his brother Agamemnon for the Trojan War. In relation to Agamemnon, he considered himself subordinate and recognized his supreme power in everything.

Odysseus(Greek Οδυσσεύς, “angry”, “wrathful”), Ulysses (Latin Ulixes), in Greek mythology the king of the island of Ithaca, one of the leaders of the Achaeans in the Trojan War. He is famous for his cunning, dexterity and amazing adventures. The brave Odysseus was sometimes considered the son of Sisyphus, who seduced Anticlea even before his marriage to Laertes, and according to some versions, Odysseus is the grandson of Autolycus, the “oathbreaker and thief,” the son of the god Hermes, who inherited their intelligence, practicality and enterprise.

Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, had high hopes for the ingenuity and intelligence of Odysseus. Together with the wise Nestor, Odysseus was tasked with persuading the great warrior Achilles to take part in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and when their fleet was stuck in Aulis, it was Odysseus who tricked Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra into releasing Iphigenia to Aulis under the pretext of her marriage to Achilles. In reality, Iphigenia was intended as a sacrifice to Artemis, who otherwise did not agree to provide the Greek ships with a fair wind. It was Odysseus who came up with the idea of ​​the Trojan Horse, which brought victory to the Achaeans.

Orpheus, in ancient Greek mythology, a hero and traveler. Orpheus was the son of the Thracian river god Eagra and the muse Calliope. He was known as a talented singer and musician. Orpheus took part in the campaign of the Argonauts, with his playing on the forming and prayers he calmed the waves and helped the rowers of the ship "Argo".

The hero married the beautiful Eurydice and, when she suddenly died from a snake bite, he followed her into the afterlife. The guardian of the other world, the evil dog Cerberus, Persephone and Hades were enchanted by the young man’s magical music. Hades promised to return Eurydice to earth on the condition that Orpheus would not look at his wife until he entered his house. Orpheus could not restrain himself and looked at Eurydice, as a result of which she remained forever in the kingdom of the dead.

Orpheus did not treat Dionysus with due respect, but revered Helios, whom he called Apollo. Dionysus decided to teach the young man a lesson and sent maenads to attack him, who tore the musician to pieces and threw him into the river. Parts of his body were collected by the muses, who mourned the death of the beautiful young man. The head of Orpheus floated down the Hebrus River and was found by nymphs, then ended up on the island of Lesbos, where Apollo accepted it. The musician's shadow fell into Hades, where the couple were reunited.

Patroclus(Πάτροκλος), in Greek mythology, the son of one of the Argonauts Menoetius, a relative and ally of Achilles in the Trojan War. As a boy, he killed his friend while playing dice, for which his father sent him to Peleus in Phthia, where he was raised with Achilles. From then on, their friendship began, which did not stop until the death of Patroclus and continued in the kingdom of Hades (Homer, Iliad, XI 764-790; XXIV 24, 84-90). The famous art of Patroclus in driving chariots and his concern for the team of Achilles (Homer, Iliad, XXIII 280-284) give reason to see in him the original charioteer Peleus.

Due to the fact that the genealogy of Patroclus's grandfather Actor was not very stable in the mythological tradition, connecting Actor either with Phthia (Thessaly) or with Opunt (Locris), a desire arose to link these two geographical points with each other in the legendary biography of Patroclus. This is how a version developed according to which Menoetius first moved from Thessaly to Locris, but over time had to save his son from here (during the games, Patroclus accidentally killed one of his peers, and he was threatened with revenge from the relatives of the murdered man). Then the father took Patroclus to Phthia and gave it to Peleus; here Patroclus grew up with Achilles. To bring the two famous heroes even closer together, a version of the myth was used, according to which the nymph Aegina, having given birth to Aeacus, the father of Peleus, from Zeus, then became the wife of Actor (Pindar, Olympian Odes, IX 68-70). In this case, Aegina, like Alcmene, gives rise to one clan of divine origin (Achilles belongs to it) and another of mortal origin (Patroclus belongs to him), and both heroes turn out to be close relatives.

Peleus(Πηλεύς), in Greek mythology, the son of the Aeginean king Aeacus and Endeida, the husband of Antigone, the father of Achilles and Menestius, the brother of Telamon. For the murder of his half-brother Phocus, who defeated Peleus in athletic exercises, he was expelled by his father and retired to Phthia to his uncle Eurytion, who performed a rite of purification on him and married his daughter Antigone to Peleus. During the Calydonian hunt, Peleus unintentionally killed his father-in-law with a spear and again had to seek purification. This time he found it in Iolka with King Akasta. Astydamia, the wife of Acastus, was inflamed with passion for Peleus, but was rejected by him, and then she slandered Peleus in front of his wife and her husband. Astydamia informed Antigone that Peleus had seduced her and was going to marry her. Believing the slander, Antigone committed suicide. Acast, not daring to raise his hand against the guest, invited him to take part in a hunt on Mount Pelion; here he stole a hunting knife from the sleeping Peleus, and Peleus would have been killed by the centaurs inhabiting the mountain if the wise centaur Chiron had not saved him (Apollodorus, III 12, 6; 13, 1-3; Pindar, Nemean Odes, IV 57-61 ).

Pelop(Πέλοψ), in Greek myth-making, the king and national hero of Phrygia, and then the Peloponnese. Son of Tantalus and the nymph Euryanassa, brother of Niobe, husband of Hippodamia, father of Alkathos, Atreus, Pittheus, Troezen, Thyestes, Chrysippus. As the favorite of the gods, King Sipila in Phrygia Tantalus had access to divine councils and feasts. Such an unusually high position plunged the demigod Tantalus into pride and permissiveness. Having killed Pelops, Tantalus invited the gods to a feast and, deciding to laugh at them, served them a treat prepared from the body of his own son. But the Olympians realized the deception; the angry gods, rejecting this unholy meal, ordered Hermes to bring Pelops back to life. Hermes carried out the will of the gods by immersing the scattered members of Pelops in a cauldron of boiling water; the young man emerged from it endowed with extraordinary beauty (Pindar, Olympian Odes, I 37-50). Only one of his shoulders (which Demeter ate in thought, saddened by the disappearance of her daughter Persephone) had to be made of ivory; Since then, the descendants of Pelops have had a white spot on their left shoulder. After this, young Pelops grew up on Olympus in the company of the gods and was the favorite of Poseidon. According to Pindar's poetics, Poseidon fell in love with him and carried him to Olympus. There he appointed Pelops as his bed servant and began to feed him ambrosia, but soon God returned him to earth, giving him a chariot with a team of winged horses.

Perseus, in Greek mythology, the ancestor of Hercules, the son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of the Argive king Acrisius. In the hope of preventing the fulfillment of the prophecy about the death of Acrisius at the hands of his grandson, Danae was imprisoned in a copper tower, but the almighty Zeus entered there, turning into golden rain, and conceived Perseus. Frightened, Acrisius put the mother and child in a wooden box and threw it into the sea. However, Zeus helped his lover and son reach the island of Serif safely.

The matured Perseus was sent by the local ruler Polydectes, who fell in love with Danae, to search for the gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turns all living things into stone. Fortunately for the hero, Athena hated Medusa and, according to one of the myths, out of jealousy, she awarded the once beautiful gorgon with deadly beauty. Athena taught Perseus what to do. First, the young man, following the advice of the goddess, went to the old gray women, who had one eye and one tooth between the three of them.

Having captured the eye and tooth by cunning, Perseus returned them to the Grays in exchange for showing the way to the nymphs, who gave him an invisibility cap, winged sandals and a bag for Medusa’s head. Perseus flew to the western edge of the world, to the gorgon's cave, and, looking at the reflection of the mortal Medusa in his copper shield, cut off her head. Putting it in his bag, he sped off wearing an invisibility hat, unnoticed by the monster’s snake-haired sisters.

On the way home, Perseus saved the beautiful Andromeda from a sea monster and married her. Then the hero headed to Argos, but Acrisius, having learned about the arrival of his grandson, fled to Larissa. And yet he did not escape his fate - during the festivities in Larisa, while participating in competitions, Perseus threw a heavy bronze disk, hit Acrisius in the head and killed him. Stricken with grief, the inconsolable hero did not want to rule in Argos and moved to Tiryns. After the death of Perseus and Andromeda, the goddess Athena raised the spouses to heaven, turning them into constellations.

Talfibiy, in Greek mythology, the messenger, a Spartan, together with Eurybates, was Agamemnon’s herald, carrying out his instructions. Talthybius, together with Odysseus and Menelaus, gathered an army for the Trojan War. Homer tells that, on the orders of Agamemnon, Talthybius abducted Briseis from the tent of Achilles, and in the tragedy of Euripides it is described that the herald of Agamemnon forcibly took the son of Astyanax from Andromache and informed the Trojan queen Hecuba that her daughter Polyxena would be sacrificed.

According to Apollodorus, stated in his work “The Library,” Talthybius and Odysseus brought Iphigenia to Aulis. After the war, Talthybius returned safely to Greece and died in his native Sparta (Apollodorus, III 22; Homer, Iliad, I 320; Euripides, Troy, 235-277). In Sparta there was a sanctuary of Talthybius, the patron saint of heralds, who were considered his descendants and acted as ambassadors on behalf of the state (Pausanias, III 12, 7, Herodotus, VII 134).

The son of the river god Scamander and the nymph Ideas, the most ancient king of Troas, eponym of the Phrygian tribe of the Teucrians. According to another legend, Scamander and Teucer, driven by hunger, moved to the Trojan region from Crete, from where they brought the cult of Apollo with them. According to the first version of the legend, Teucer took in Dardanus, who had fled from the island of Samothrace, to whom he gave his daughter Batea in marriage and separated part of the region, named after the newcomer Dardania; after the death of Teucer, royal power passed into the hands of Dardan (Apollodorus, III 12, 1; Diodorus, IV 75). According to the second version, Teucer already found Dardanus in Troas. According to Strabo's account, Teucer was a native of Crete. Together with his father, he moved to Troas during the famine in Crete. Apollo advised them to settle where, under cover of darkness, the creatures of the earth would attack them. On the banks of the Xanth River at night, a countless number of mice gnawed all the skin on the weapons of the settlers.

Theseus(“strong”), in Greek mythology, a hero, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus and Efra. Childless Aegeus received advice from the Delphic oracle - when leaving as a guest, not to untie his wineskin until returning home. Aegeus did not guess the prediction, but the Troezenian king Pittheus, with whom he was visiting, realized that Aegeus was destined to conceive a hero. He gave the guest some drink and put him to bed with his daughter Efra. That same night Poseidon also became close to her. This is how Theseus was born, the great hero, the son of two fathers.

Before leaving Efra, Aegeus led her to a boulder, under which he hid his sword and sandals. If a son is born, he said, let him grow up and mature, and when he can move the stone, then send him to me. Theseus grew up, and Ephra discovered the secret of his birth. The young man easily took out his sword and sandals, and on the way to Athens he dealt with the robber Sinis and the Crommion pig. Theseus was able to defeat the monstrous Minotaur, the man-bull, only with the help of the princess Ariadne, who fell in love with him, who gave him a guiding thread.

Trophonius or Zeus Trophonius (Τροφώνιος), in Greek myth-making, originally a chthonic deity identical with Zeus Underground (Ζεύς χθόνιος). According to popular belief, Trophonius was the son of Apollo or Zeus, or the Orkhomen king Ergin, the brother of Agamedes, the pet of the earth goddess Demeter. In the cult, Trophonius became close to Demeter Persephone, Asclepius and other deities, who in Boeotia were known under the collective name of the Trophoniades. The Temple of Trophonius was located near the Boeotian city of Lebadia; Here there also existed a cave oracle known in ancient times, since Trophonius, along with other chthonic deities (Amphiaraus, Asclepius), had the power to reveal the future to people. Predictions were given to people in their dreams, and those who turned to the oracle had to perform a number of mandatory rituals, a description of which we find in Pausanias (IX, 39, 5). Anyone who wanted to go to the oracle had to first spend a certain number of days in the temple of the “Good Demon and Good Silence”; During this time, it was necessary to perform established purifications, wash in the Gerkina River and make sacrifices to Trophonius, his sons, Apollo, Kronos, King Zeus, Hera and Demeter - Europe. At each sacrifice there had to be a priest present, who predicted from the entrails of the animals whether Trophonius would be favorable and merciful to the questioner; the decisive sacrifice was the last one, which took place before descending into the cave above the pit where the ram was slaughtered.

Phoroney(Φορωνεός), in Greek mythology, the founder of the Argive state, the son of the river god Inach and the hamadryad Melia, the husband of Laodice, from whom he had children Apis, Niobe and Cara. He was the first person to live in the Peloponnese and founded the city of Phoronium, which his grandson renamed Argos (Apollodorus, II 1, 1). King of the Peloponnese, who taught people to live in communities and use crafts (Pausanias, II 15, 5). He was credited with introducing primitive culture, civil order and religious rites, and in particular the cult of the Argive Hera, into the Peloponnese.

Like Prometheus, Phoroneus was considered the first person to transfer fire from heaven to earth. The inhabitants of Argos denied that Prometheus gave people fire, and the invention of fire was attributed to Phoroneus. (Pausanias, II 19, 5). He was revered as a national hero; Sacrifices were performed at his grave. His daughter Niobe, according to legend, was the first mortal woman to awaken the love of Zeus. His daughter Foronida, also known as Io, was called Phoronea. According to one version, Phoroneus’s wife was Cerdo, who bore him Agenor, Ias and Pelasgus.

Thrasymedes, in Greek mythology, the son of the Pylos king Nestor, who arrived with his father and brother Antilochus near Ilion. Together with his brother, Thrasymedes accompanied his elderly father in the Trojan War. He commanded fifteen ships (Giginus, Fabulas, 97, 5) and took part in many battles (Homer, Iliad, XIV 10-11; XVI 317-325). In the post-Homeric epic, Thrasimedes appears among the heroes who fought for the body of the murdered Antilochus, and is among the warriors who entered Troy in the belly of a wooden horse. After the defeat of Troy, Thrasimedes returned safely to Pylos (Homer, Odyssey, III 442-450), near which his grave was shown (Pausanias, IV 36, 2).

Historical information.

Pylos (Πυλος), an ancient city in Greece, on the western coast of Messenia, on Cape Koryphasia. Pylos dominated a beautiful harbor, which now bears the name of the Bay of Navarino; the harbor is covered by the island of Sphacteria lying opposite it. In Homer's poems, Pylos is mentioned as the residence of King Nestor. During the Peloponnesian War, in 425 BC, the Athenians, under the leadership of Demosthenes, captured Pylos, fortified it and held it for almost two decades. Two other ancient cities are mentioned with the name of Pylos, both located in Elis.

Oedipus, (Οίδιπους) - a descendant of Cadmus, from the Labdacid family, the son of the Theban king Laius and Jocasta, or Epicasta, a favorite hero of Greek folk tales and tragedies, due to the multitude of which it is very difficult to imagine the myth of Oedipus in its original form. According to the most common legend, the oracle predicted to Laius the birth of a son who would kill himself, marry his own mother and cover the entire Labdacid house with shame. Therefore, when Laius had a son, his parents, piercing his legs and tying them together (which made them swollen: Οίδιπους = with swollen legs), sent him to Kiferon, where Oedipus was found by a shepherd, who sheltered the boy and then brought him to Sicyon, or Corinth , to King Polybus, who raised his adopted son as his own son. Having once received a reproach at a feast for his dubious origins, Oedipus turned to the oracle for clarification and received advice from him - to beware of parricide and incest.

As a result, Oedipus, who considered Polybus his father, left Sicyon. On the road he met Laius, started a quarrel with him and, in a passion, killed him and his retinue. At this time, the monster Sphinx was wreaking havoc in Thebes, asking everyone a riddle for several years in a row and devouring everyone who did not answer it. Oedipus managed to solve this riddle (what creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening? The answer is a man), as a result of which the Sphinx threw itself from a cliff and died. In gratitude for delivering the country from a prolonged disaster, the Theban citizens made Oedipus their king and gave him Laius's widow, Jocasta, his own mother, as his wife. Soon the double crime committed by Oedipus out of ignorance was revealed, and Oedipus, in despair, gouged out his eyes, and Jocasta took her own life. According to the ancient legend (Homer, Odyssey, XI, 271 and following), Oedipus remained to reign in Thebes and died, pursued by the Erinyes. Sophocles tells about the end of Oedipus' life differently: when the crimes of Oedipus were revealed, the Thebans, led by the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, expelled the elderly and blind king from Thebes, and he, accompanied by his faithful daughter Antigone, went to the town of Colon (in Attica), where in the sanctuary of the Erinyes, who finally, thanks to the intervention of Apollo, humbled their anger, ended their life full of suffering. His memory was considered sacred, and his grave was one of the palladiums of Attica.

Aeneas, in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of the handsome shepherd Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus), participant in the defense of Troy during the Trojan War, a most glorious hero. A brave warrior, Aeneas took part in decisive battles with Achilles and escaped death only thanks to the intercession of his divine mother.

After the fall of devastated Troy, at the behest of the gods, he left the burning city and, together with his old father, his wife Creusa and his young son Ascanius (Yul), capturing images of the Trojan gods, accompanied by companions on twenty ships, set off in search of a new homeland. After surviving a series of adventures and a terrible storm, he reached the Italian city of Cuma, and then ended up in Latium, a region in Central Italy. The local king was ready to give his daughter Lavinia for Aeneas (who was widowed along the way) and provide him with land to found a city.

Having defeated Turnus, the leader of the warlike Rutuli tribe and a contender for the hand of Lavinia, in a duel, Aeneas settled in Italy, which became the successor to the glory of Troy. His son Ascanius (Yul) was considered the progenitor of the Julian family, including the famous emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus.

Jason("healer"), in Greek mythology, the great-grandson of the god of the winds Aeolus, the son of King Iolcus Aeson and Polymede, hero, leader of the Argonauts. When Pelias overthrew his brother Aeson from the throne, he, fearing for his son’s life, placed him under the tutelage of the wise centaur Chiron, who lived in the Thessalian forests.

The Delphic oracle predicted to Pelias that he would be killed by a man wearing only one sandal. This explains the king’s fear when the matured Jason returned to the city, having lost a sandal on the way. Pelias decided to get rid of the impending threat and promised to recognize Jason as heir if he, risking his life, obtained the Golden Fleece in Colchis. Jason and his crew on the ship "Argo", having experienced many adventures, returned to their homeland with a wonderful fleece. They owed much of their success - victory over the dragon and the formidable warriors growing from its teeth - to the Colchian princess Medea, since Eros, at the request of Athena and Hera, who patronized Jason, instilled love for the hero in the girl’s heart.

Upon returning to Iolcus, the Argonauts learned that Pelias had killed Jason's father and all his relatives. According to one version, Pelias dies from the spell of Medea, whose name means “insidious.” According to another, Jason resigned himself to exile, lived happily with Medea for ten years and they had three children. Then the hero, leaving Medea, married Princess Glavka; in revenge, Medea killed her and killed her sons by Jason. Years passed. The elderly hero dragged out his days until one day he wandered onto the pier where the famous Argo stood. Suddenly, the mast of the ship, rotten from time to time, broke and collapsed on Jason, who immediately fell dead.