Supreme god, ruler of gods and men; the son of the titans Kronos and Rhea, hence one of his names - Kronid. Having overthrown the dominance of Cronus and the gods of the older generation - the Titans, Zeus ceded power over the sea and the underworld to his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Zeus left himself supreme power over the world and control of all celestial phenomena, primarily thunder and lightning, hence his epithets Zeus the Thunderer, Zeus the Cloud Chaser.

J. Jordaens. Zeus's childhood

Zeus was revered as the guardian of social order and family; he was credited with establishing laws and customs. Olympus was considered the permanent residence of Zeus, hence the epithet Zeus the Olympian. The attributes of Zeus were an aegis, a scepter, and sometimes an eagle. As the giver of victory in wars and competitions, Zeus was depicted with the goddess of victory Nike (Roman Victoria) in his hand. Zeus was considered the father of the younger generation of Olympic gods: Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Hebe, Iris, Persephone, as well as muses, charites and a number of heroes: Hercules, Perseus. The noble families of Ancient Greece descended from Zeus. The most important places of the cult of Znus were Dodona (Epirus) and Olympia (Elis), where they held events in honor of Zeus Olympic Games. Individual episodes of the myths about Zeus are given in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, in Hesiod's Theogony, and Apollodorus's Mythological Library. In ancient Roman mythology, Zeus corresponded to Jupiter.

Initially, in each region of Greece a special deity was revered, in charge of celestial phenomena - thunder and lightning. When pan-Greek culture emerged, the local gods merged into the image of Zevs, who was in charge of the change of seasons, sent a fair wind and granted clear days. When he shook his aegis, storms and rains came. Sometimes Zeus is identified with fate, sometimes he himself was subject to the moiras - the goddesses of fate. Zeus announced the destinies of fate through dreams, lightning and thunder, with the help of the flight of birds and the rustling of leaves of sacred trees. He gave people laws, established state power, and patronized public assemblies. Zevs protected the family and home, monitored the implementation of customs and rituals.

The main sanctuary of 3eus was Olympia in Elis, where the temple of 3eus was located and the Olympic Games were held in his honor. According to the main version of the myth, Zevs was saved by his mother from Cronus, who swallowed his children, and was hidden by her in a safe shelter. When Zevs grew up and matured, he rebelled against his father and overthrew his rule over the world. Zevs forced Cronus to vomit the swallowed children - his brothers and sisters.
Having overthrown the Titans into Tartarus, Zeus shared dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Hera became the wife of 3eus, who gave birth to Ares, Hebe and, according to some versions, Hephaestus. In addition, 3eus had many children from other goddesses: from Lethe - Apollo and Artemis, from Demeter - Persephone, from Maya - Hermes, from Dione - Aphrodite, from Themis - Ora and Moira, from Eurynome - Charita. Zeus also had children from mortal women: Semele gave birth to Dionysus from Zeus, Alcmene - Hercules, Leda - Helen and Polydeuces, Danae - Perseus. In Dodona, 3eus was revered as the god of fertility, the lord of the ether, who revealed his will by the rustling of the leaves of the sacred oak. Here Dione was considered the wife of 3eus.

In Crete, 3evs was revered as the god of the secret forces of nature. The Cretans believed that 3eus was born by Rhea in secret from Cronus on Crete. Rhea hid Zeus in Crete, the nymphs Adrastea and Ida fed him with the milk of the goat Amalthea. In Crete, the grave of 3eus was shown; he was honored in orgies as the dying and resurrecting god of vegetation. In Rome, the cult of 3eus merged with the cult of Jupiter. In ancient art, 3eus was depicted as an omnipotent ruler, seated on a throne with a scepter and Nike in his hands, with an eagle near the throne.

According to the myths about the gods of Ancient Greece, the basis of the universe was Chaos - the original emptiness, world disorder, from which, thanks to Eros - the first active force - the first ancient Greek gods were born: Uranus (sky) and Gaia (earth), who became spouses. The first children of Uranus and Gaia were hundred-armed giants, surpassing everyone in strength, and one-eyed Cyclopes (Cyclopes). Uranus tied them all up and threw them into Tartarus - the dark abyss of the underworld. Then the Titans were born, the youngest of whom Kronos castrated his father with a sickle given to him by his mother: she could not forgive Uranus for the death of her first-borns. From the blood of Uranus the Erinyes were born - terrible looking women, goddesses of blood feud. From the contact of a part of the body of Uranus, thrown into the sea by Kronos, with sea foam, the goddess Aphrodite was born, who, according to other sources, is the daughter of Zeus and the Titanide Dione.

Uranus and Gaia. Ancient Roman mosaic 200-250 AD.

After the god Uranus separated from Gaia, the titans Kronos, Rhea, Oceanus, Mnemosyne (goddess of memory), Themis (goddess of justice) and others came to the surface of the earth. Thus, the titans turned out to be the first creatures to live on earth. The god Kronos, thanks to whom his brothers and sisters were freed from imprisonment in Tartarus, began to rule the world. He married his sister Rhea. Since Uranus and Gaia predicted to him that his own son would deprive him of power, he swallowed his children as soon as they were born.

Gods of Ancient Greece – Zeus

See also separate article.

According to ancient Greek myths, the goddess Rhea felt sorry for her children, and when her youngest son Zeus was born, she decided to deceive her husband and gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed. And she hid Zeus on the island of Crete, on Mount Ida, where he was raised by nymphs (deities personifying the forces and phenomena of nature - deities of springs, rivers, trees, etc.). The goat Amalthea fed the god Zeus with her milk, for which Zeus subsequently placed her in the host of stars. This is the current star of Capella. Having become an adult, Zeus decided to take power into his own hands and forced his father to vomit out all the child gods he had swallowed. There were five of them: Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia.

After this, the “Titanomachy” began - a war for power between the ancient Greek gods and the Titans. Zeus was helped in this war by the hundred-armed giants and the Cyclopes, whom he brought out of Tartarus for this purpose. The Cyclopes forged thunder and lightning for the god Zeus, an invisibility helmet for the god Hades, and a trident for the god Poseidon.

Gods of Ancient Greece. Video

Having defeated the titans, Zeus cast them into Tartarus. Gaia, angry with Zeus for killing the Titans, married the gloomy Tartarus and gave birth to Typhon, a terrible monster. The ancient Greek gods shuddered with horror when a huge hundred-headed Typhon emerged from the bowels of the earth, filling the world with a terrible howl, in which the barking of dogs, the roar of an angry bull, the roar of a lion, and human voices were heard. Zeus incinerated all one hundred heads of Typhon with lightning, and when he fell to the ground, everything around began to melt from the heat emanating from the monster’s body. Typhon, overthrown by Zeus into Tartarus, continues to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Thus, Typhon is the personification of underground forces and volcanic phenomena.

Zeus throws lightning at Typhon

The supreme god of Ancient Greece, Zeus, by lot cast between the brothers, received the sky and supreme power over all things. The only thing he has no power over is fate, personified by his three daughters, the Moiras, who spin the thread of human life.

Although the gods of Ancient Greece lived in the air space between heaven and earth, their meeting place was the top of Mount Olympus, about 3 kilometers high, located in northern Greece.

After Olympus, the twelve main ancient Greek gods are called Olympian (Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite and Hermes). From Olympus the gods often descended to earth, to people.

The visual arts of Ancient Greece represented the god Zeus as a mature man with a thick curly beard and shoulder-length wavy hair. His attributes are thunder and lightning (hence his epithets “thunderer”, “lightning striker”, “cloud-catcher”, “cloud-collector”, etc.), as well as an aegis - a shield made by Hephaestus, by shaking which Zeus caused storms and rains (hence the epithet of Zeus “ egiokh” – aegis-power). Sometimes Zeus is depicted with Nike - the goddess of victory in one hand, with a scepter in the other and with an eagle sitting at his throne. In ancient Greek literature, the god Zeus is often called Kronid, meaning "son of Kronos."

"Zeus from Otricoli". Bust of the 4th century BC

The first time of the reign of Zeus, according to the concepts of the ancient Greeks, corresponded to the “silver age” (in contrast to the “golden age” - the time of the reign of Kronos). In the “Silver Age” people were rich, enjoyed all the blessings of life, but lost their imperturbable happiness, because they lost their former innocence and forgot to pay due gratitude to the gods. By this they incurred the wrath of Zeus, who exiled them to the underworld.

After " silver age“, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the “copper” age came - the age of wars and devastation, then the “iron” age (Hesiod introduces the age of heroes between the copper and iron ages), when the morals of people were so corrupted that the goddess of justice Dick, and with her Loyalty, Shyness and Truthfulness left the earth, and people began to earn their livelihood through hard work and sweat.

Zeus decided to destroy the human race and create a new one. He sent a flood to the earth, from which only the spouses Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved, who became the founders of a new generation of people: at the behest of the gods, they threw stones behind their backs, which turned into people. Men arose from stones thrown by Deucalion, and women from stones thrown by Pyrrha.

In the myths of Ancient Greece, the god Zeus distributes good and evil on earth, he established social order, and established royal power:

“Rolling thunder, sovereign lord, rewarding judge,
Do you like to have conversations with Themis, sitting bent over?”
(from Homer’s hymn to Zeus, vv. 2–3; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

Although Zeus was married to his sister, the goddess Hera, other goddesses, nymphs, and even mortal women became the mothers of his many children in ancient Greek legends. Thus, the Theban princess Antiope gave birth to twins Zetas and Amphion, the Argive princess Danae gave birth to a son Perseus, the Spartan queen Leda gave birth to Helen and Polydeuces, and the Phoenician princess Europe gave birth to Minos. Many such examples could be given. This is explained by the fact that, as mentioned above, Zeus supplanted many local gods, whose wives began to be perceived over time as the beloved of Zeus, for whose sake he cheated on his wife Hera.

On especially solemn occasions or on very significant occasions, they brought a “hecatomb” to Zeus - a great sacrifice of one hundred bulls.

Gods of Ancient Greece - Hera

See separate article.

The goddess Hera, considered in Ancient Greece to be the sister and wife of Zeus, was glorified as the patroness of marriage, the personification of marital fidelity. In ancient Greek literature, she is portrayed as a guardian of morality, brutally persecuting its violators, especially her rivals and even their children. So, Io, the beloved of Zeus, was turned by Hera into a cow (according to other Greek myths, the god Zeus himself turned Io into a cow to hide her from Hera), Callisto - into a bear, and the son of Zeus and Alcmene, the mighty hero Hercules, was pursued by Zeus' wife his entire life, starting from infancy. Being the protector of marital fidelity, the goddess Hera punishes not only the lovers of Zeus, but also those who try to persuade her to be unfaithful to her husband. Thus, Ixion, taken by Zeus to Olympus, tried to win the love of Hera, and for this, at her request, he was not only thrown into Tartarus, but also chained to an ever-rotating fiery wheel.

Hera is an ancient deity, worshiped on the Balkan Peninsula even before the Greeks arrived there. The birthplace of her cult was the Peloponnese. Gradually, other female deities were united in the image of Hera, and she began to be thought of as the daughter of Kronos and Rhea. According to Hesiod, she is the seventh wife of Zeus.

Goddess Hera. Hellenistic period statue

One of the myths of Ancient Greece about the gods tells how Zeus, irritated by Hera’s attempt on the life of his son Hercules, hung her in chains from the sky, tying heavy anvils to her feet, and subjected her to scourging. But this was done in a fit of strong anger. Usually, Zeus treated Hera with such respect that other gods, visiting Zeus at councils and at feasts, showed high respect to his wife.

The goddess Hera in Ancient Greece was assigned such qualities as lust for power and vanity, which pushed her to deal with those who put their own or others’ beauty above hers. So, throughout the entire Trojan War, she assists the Greeks in order to punish the Trojans for the preference given to Aphrodite by the son of their king Paris over Hera and Athena.

In her marriage to Zeus, Hera gave birth to Hebe, the personification of youth, Ares and Hephaestus. However, according to some legends, she gave birth to Hephaestus alone, without the participation of Zeus, from the scent of flowers, in revenge for the birth of Athena from his own head.

In ancient Greece, the goddess Hera was depicted as a tall, stately woman dressed in long dress and crowned with a diadem. In her hand she holds a scepter - a symbol of her supreme power.

Here are the expressions in which the Homeric hymn glorifies the goddess Hera:

“I glorify the golden-throned Hera, born of Rhea,
An ever-living queen with a face of extraordinary beauty,
Loud Zeus sister and spouse
Glorious. All on the great Olympus are blessed gods
She is reverently revered on a par with Kronidou
(vv. 1–5; trans. V.V. Veresaev)

God Poseidon

God Poseidon, recognized as the ruler of Ancient Greece water element(he received this destiny by lot, like Zeus - the sky), is depicted very similar to his brother: he has the same curly, thick beard as Zeus, the same Wavy hair to the shoulders, but he has his own attribute by which he can be easily distinguished from Zeus - a trident; with it he sets in motion and calms the waves of the sea. He rules over the winds; Obviously, the idea of ​​earthquakes was associated with the sea in Ancient Greece; This explains the epithet “earth shaker” used by Homer in relation to the god Poseidon:

“He causes the land and the barren sea to sway,
It reigns on Helikon and on the wide Eglas. Double
Honor, O Earth Shaker, has been granted to you by the gods:
To tame wild horses and save ships from wrecking"
(from the Homeric hymn to Poseidon, v. 2–5; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

The trident, therefore, is needed by Poseidon in order to cause a shaking of the earth, and in order to, by moving apart the mountains, create valleys abundant in water; The god Poseidon can hit a rock with a trident, and a bright spring of clean water will immediately flow out of it.

Poseidon (Neptune). Antique statue of the 2nd century. according to R.H.

According to the myths of Ancient Greece, Poseidon had disputes with other gods over the possession of this or that land. Thus, Argolis was poor in water because during the dispute between Poseidon and Hera, the Argive hero Inachus, appointed as a judge, transferred this land to her, and not to him. Attica was flooded due to the fact that the gods decided the dispute between Poseidon and Athena (who should own this country) in favor of Athena.

She was considered the wife of the god Poseidon Amphitrite, daughter of Ocean. But Poseidon, like Zeus, also had tender feelings for other women. Thus, the mother of his son, the cyclops Polyphemus, was the nymph Foos, the mother of the winged horse Pegasus - the gorgon Medusa, etc.

The magnificent palace of Poseidon was located, according to ancient Greek legends, in the depths of the sea, where, in addition to Poseidon, there lived numerous other creatures that occupied secondary places in the world of the gods: the old man Nereus- ancient sea deity; Nereids (daughters of Nereus) - sea nymphs, among whom the most famous are Amphitrite, who became the wife of Poseidon, and Thetis- mother of Achilles. To inspect his possessions - not only the depths of the sea, but also islands, coastal lands and sometimes even lands lying in the depths of the mainland - the god Poseidon set out in a chariot drawn by horses that had fish tails instead of hind legs.

In Ancient Greece, the Isthmian Games on the Isthmus, the Isthmus of Corinth, by the sea, were dedicated to Poseidon, as the sovereign ruler of the seas and the patron of horse breeding. There, in the sanctuary of Poseidon, there was an iron statue of this god, erected by the Greeks in honor of their victory at sea when the Persian fleet was defeated.

Gods of Ancient Greece – Hades

Hades (Hades), called in Rome Pluto, received the underworld by lot and became its ruler. The ancients’ idea of ​​this world is reflected in the ancient Greek names of the underground god: Hades - invisible, Pluto - rich, since all wealth, both mineral and plant, is generated by the earth. Hades is the lord of the shadows of the dead, and he is sometimes called Zeus Katakhton - the underground Zeus. Considered in Ancient Greece to be the personification of the rich bowels of the earth, it was no coincidence that Hades turned out to be the husband Persephone, daughter of the fertility goddess Demeter. This married couple, who had no children, in the minds of the Greeks, was hostile to all life and sent a continuous series of deaths to all living things. Demeter did not want her daughter to remain in the kingdom of Hades, but when she asked Persephone to return to earth, she replied that she had already tasted the “apple of love,” that is, she had eaten part of the pomegranate she received from her husband, and could not return. True, she still spent two-thirds of the year with her mother at the behest of Zeus, because, yearning for her daughter, Demeter stopped sending the harvest and taking care of the ripening of the fruits. Thus, Persephone in the myths of Ancient Greece personifies the interaction between the goddess of fertility, who gives life, forcing the earth to bear fruit, and the god of death, who takes away life, dragging all the creatures of the earth back into her bosom.

The kingdom of Hades had in ancient Greece different names: Hades, Erebus, Orc, Tartarus. The entrance to this kingdom, according to the Greeks, was either in southern Italy, or in Colon, near Athens, or in other places where there were failures and chasms. After death, all people go to the kingdom of the god Hades and, as Homer says, they drag out a miserable, joyless existence there, deprived of the memory of their earthly life. The gods of the underworld preserved full consciousness only for a select few. Of the living, only Orpheus, Hercules, Theseus, Odysseus and Aeneas managed to penetrate Hades and return to earth. According to the myths of Ancient Greece, an ominous three-headed dog Cerberus sits at the entrance to Hades, snakes move on his neck with a menacing hiss, and he does not allow anyone to leave the kingdom of the dead. Several rivers flow through Hades. The souls of the dead were transported across the Styx by the old boatman Charon, who charged a fee for his work (therefore, a coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased so that his soul could pay Charon). If a person remained unburied, Charon did not allow his shadow into his boat, and it was destined to wander the earth forever, which was considered the greatest misfortune in Ancient Greece. A person deprived of burial will forever be hungry and thirsty, since he will not have a grave at which relatives would make libations and leave food for him. Other rivers of the underworld are Acheron, Pyriflegethon, Cocytus and Lethe, the river of oblivion (having swallowed water from Lethe, the deceased forgot everything. Only after drinking sacrificial blood, the soul of the deceased temporarily regained its former consciousness and the ability to speak with the living). The souls of a very few chosen ones live separately from other shadows in Elysia (or on the Champs Elysees), mentioned in the Odyssey and in the Theogony: there they remain in eternal bliss under the protection of Kronos, as if in the Golden Age; later it was believed that everyone initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries went to Elysia.

Criminals who have offended the ancient Greek gods in any way suffer eternal torment in the underworld. Thus, the Phrygian king Tantalus, who offered the meat of his son as food to the gods, eternally suffers from hunger and thirst, standing up to his neck in water and seeing ripe fruits next to him, and also remains in eternal fear, because a rock is hanging over his head, ready to collapse . The Corinthian king Sisyphus is forever dragging a heavy stone up the mountain, which, barely reaching the top of the mountain, rolls down. Sisyphus is punished by the gods for self-interest and deceit. The Danaids, daughters of the Argive king Danaus, forever fill a bottomless barrel with water for the murder of their husbands. The Euboean giant Titius lies prostrate in Tartarus for insulting the goddess Latona, and two kites eternally torment his liver. The god Hades administers his judgment over the dead with the help of three heroes famous for their wisdom - Aeacus, Minos and Rhadamanthus. Aeacus was also considered the gatekeeper of the underworld.

According to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the kingdom of the god Hades is immersed in darkness and inhabited by all sorts of terrible creatures and monsters. Among them are the terrible Empusa - a vampire and a werewolf with donkey legs, Erinyes, Harpies - the goddess of the whirlwind, the half-woman, half-snake Echidna; here is the daughter of Echidna, the Chimera, with the head and neck of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake, and here are the gods of various dreams. The three-headed and three-body daughter of Tartarus and Night, the ancient Greek goddess Hecate, rules over all these demons and monsters. Her triple appearance is explained by the fact that she appears on Olympus, on earth, and in Tartarus. But, primarily, she belongs to the underworld, is the personification of the darkness of the night; she sends people painful dreams; she is invoked when performing all kinds of witchcraft and spells. Therefore, the service to this goddess was performed at night.

The Cyclopes, according to the myths of Ancient Greece, forged an invisibility helmet for the god Hades; Obviously, this thought is associated with the idea of ​​​​the invisible approach of death to its victim.

The god Hades is depicted as a mature husband, sitting on a throne with a rod or bident in his hand, with Cerberus at his feet. Sometimes the goddess Persephone with a pomegranate is next to him.

Hades almost never appears on Olympus, so he is not included in the Olympic pantheon.

Goddess Demeter

The ancient Greek goddess Pallas Athena is the beloved daughter of Zeus, born from his head. When Zeus's beloved oceanide Metis (the goddess of reason) was expecting a child who, according to prophecy, was supposed to surpass his father in strength, Zeus with cunning speeches made her shrink in size and swallowed her. But the fetus with which Metis was pregnant did not die, but continued to develop in his head. At the request of Zeus, Hephaestus (according to another myth, Prometheus) cut his head with an ax, and the goddess Athena jumped out of it in full military armor.

The birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Drawing on an amphora from the second half of the 6th century. BC

"Before the aegis-powerful Zeus
She quickly jumped to the ground from his eternal head,
Shaking with a sharp spear. Under the heavy jump of the bright-eyed one
The great Olympus hesitated, they groaned terribly
Around the lying lands, the wide sea trembled
And it boiled in crimson waves..."
(from the Homeric hymn to Athena, vv. 7–8; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

As the daughter of Metis, the goddess Athena herself became "Polymetis" (many-minded), the goddess of reason and intelligent war. If the god Ares revels in all bloodshed, being the personification of a destructive war, then the goddess Athena introduces an element of humanity into the war. In Homer, Athena says that the gods do not leave unpunished the use of poisoned arrows. If the appearance of Ares is terrifying, then the presence of Athena in battle disciplines, inspires and brings reconciliation. Thus, in her person the ancient Greeks contrasted reason with brute force.

Being an ancient Mycenaean deity, Athena concentrated in her hands the control of many natural phenomena and aspects of life: at one time she was the mistress of the heavenly elements, and the goddess of fertility, and a healer, and the patroness of peaceful labor; she taught people how to build houses, bridle horses, etc.

Gradually, ancient Greek myths began to limit the activities of the goddess Athena to war, introducing rationality into the actions of people and women's craft (spinning, weaving, embroidery, etc.). In this respect, she is related to Hephaestus, but Hephaestus is the elemental side of the craft, associated with fire; For Athena, reason prevails even in her craft: if to give nobility to the art of Hephaestus, his union with Aphrodite or Charita was needed, then the goddess Athena herself is perfection, the personification of cultural progress in everything. Athena was revered everywhere in Greece, but especially in Attica, which she won in a dispute with Poseidon. In Attica, she was a favorite deity; the main city of Attica was named Athens in her honor.

The name "Pallada" apparently appeared after the fusion of the cult of Athena with the cult of the ancient deity Pallant, who in the minds of the Greeks was a giant defeated by Athena during the war of the gods with the giants.

As a warrior she is Pallas, as a patroness in peaceful life - Athena. Her epithets are “blue-eyed”, “owl-eyed” (the owl, as a symbol of wisdom, was the sacred bird of Athena), Ergana (worker), Tritogenea (an epithet of unclear meaning). In Ancient Greece, the goddess Athena was depicted in different ways, but most often in a long sleeveless robe, with a spear and shield, wearing a helmet and with an aegis on her chest, on which is mounted the head of Medusa, given to her by Perseus; sometimes with a snake (a symbol of healing), sometimes with a flute, since the ancient Greeks believed that Athena invented this instrument.

The goddess Athena was not married, she is not subject to the spell of Aphrodite, therefore main temple her, located in the acropolis, was called “Parthenon” (parthenos - maiden). A huge “chryselephantine” (i.e., made of gold and ivory) statue of Athena with Nike in right hand(works by Phidias). Not far from the Parthenon, inside the walls of the acropolis stood another statue of Athena, a bronze one; the shine of her spear was visible to the sailors approaching the city.

In the Homeric hymn, Athena is called the defender of the city. Indeed, in the period of ancient Greek history we are studying, Athena was a purely urban deity, unlike, for example, Demeter, Dionysus, Pan, etc.

God Apollo (Phoebus)

According to the myths of Ancient Greece, when the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis, the beloved of Zeus, Latona (Leto) was supposed to become a mother, she was cruelly persecuted by Hera, the jealous and merciless wife of Zeus. Everyone was afraid of Hera's wrath, so Latona was driven away from everywhere she stopped. And only the island of Delos, wandering like Latona (according to legend, it was once floating), understood the suffering of the goddess and accepted her to his land. He was, moreover, seduced by her promise to give birth to a great god on his land, for whom a sacred grove would be laid out and a beautiful temple erected there, on Delos.

On the land of Delos the goddess Latona gave birth to twins - the gods Apollo and Artemis, who received the epithets in his honor - Delius and Delia.

Phoebus Apollo is the oldest deity of Asia Minor origin. Once upon a time he was revered as the guardian of herds, roads, travelers, sailors, as the god of medical art. Gradually he took one of the leading places in the pantheon of Ancient Greece. His two names reflect his dual essence: clear, bright (Phoebus) and destructive (Apollo). Gradually, the cult of Apollo replaced the cult of Helios in Ancient Greece, originally revered as the deity of the sun, and became the personification of sunlight. The rays of the sun, life-giving, but sometimes deadly (causing drought), were perceived by the ancient Greeks as the arrows of a “silver-bowed”, “far-striking” god, therefore the bow is one of Phoebus’s constant attributes. His other attribute of Apollo - the lyre or cithara - is shaped like a bow. God Apollo is a most skilled musician and patron of music. When he appears with the lyre at the feasts of the gods, he is accompanied by the muses - the goddesses of poetry, arts and sciences. The Muses are the daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory Mnemosyne. There were nine muses: Calliope - the muse of epic, Euterpe - the muse of lyricism, Erato - the muse of love poetry, Polyhymnia - the muse of hymns, Melpomene - the muse of tragedy, Thalia - the muse of comedy, Terpsichore - the muse of dance, Clio - the muse of history and Urania - the muse of astronomy. Mounts Helikon and Parnassus were considered the muses' favorite places to stay. This is how the author of the Homeric hymn to Apollo of Pythia describes Apollo-Musagetes (leader of the muses):

“The clothes of the immortals are fragrant on God. Strings
Passionately under the plectrum they sound golden on the divine lyre.
Thoughts quickly transferred from earth to Olympus, from there
He enters the chambers of Zeus, the assembly of other immortals.
Immediately everyone has a desire for songs and lyres.
The beautiful Muses begin the song in alternating choirs..."
(vv. 6–11; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

The laurel wreath on the head of the god Apollo is a memory of his beloved, the nymph Daphne, who turned into a laurel tree, preferring death to the love of Phoebus.

Apollo's medical functions gradually passed to his son Asclepius and granddaughter Hygieia, the goddess of health.

In the archaic era, Apollo the Archer became the most popular god among the ancient Greek aristocracy. In the city of Delphi there was the main sanctuary of Apollo - the Delphic oracle, where both private individuals and government officials came for predictions and advice.

Apollo is one of the most formidable gods of Ancient Greece. The other gods are even a little afraid of Apollo. This is how it is described in the hymn to Apollo of Delos:

“He will pass through the house of Zeus - all the gods, and they will tremble.
They jumped up from their chairs and stood in fear when he
He will come closer and begin to draw his shining bow.
Only Leto remains near the lightning-loving Zeus;
The goddess opens the bow and covers the quiver with a lid,
From Phoebus's powerful shoulders he removes weapons with his hands
And a golden peg on a pillar near the seat of Zeus
Hangs up the bow and quiver; Apollo sits in a chair.
In his golden cup, welcoming his dear son,
Father serves nectar. And then the rest of the deities
They also sit in chairs. And Summer's heart rejoices,
Rejoicing that she gave birth to a bow-bearing, powerful son"
(Art. 2–13; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

In Ancient Greece, the god Apollo was depicted as a slender young man with shoulder-length wavy curls. He is either naked (the so-called Apollo of Belvedere has only a light covering falling from his shoulders) and holds a shepherd’s crook or bow in his hands (Apollo of Belvedere has a quiver of arrows behind his shoulders), or in long clothes, in a laurel wreath and with a lyre in his hands - this is Apollo Musagetes or Cyfared.

Apollo Belvedere. Statue by Leohar. OK. 330-320 BC.

It is noteworthy that although Apollo was the patron of music and singing in Ancient Greece, he himself plays only stringed instruments - the lyre and the cithara, which the Greeks considered noble, contrasting them with the “barbaric” (foreign) instruments - the flute and pipe. It was not for nothing that the goddess Athena refused the flute, giving it to a lower deity - the satyr Marsyas, since when playing this instrument her cheeks puffed out unsightly.

Gods of Ancient Greece – Artemis

God Dionysus

Dionysus (Bacchus), in Ancient Greece - the god of the plant forces of nature, the patron of viticulture and winemaking, in the 7th–5th centuries. BC e. gained enormous popularity among the common people as opposed to Apollo, whose cult was popular among the aristocracy.

However, this rapid growth in the popularity of Dionysus was, as it were, the second birth of the god: his cult existed back in the 2nd millennium BC. e., but then was almost forgotten. Homer does not mention Dionysus, and this indicates the unpopularity of his cult in the era of the dominance of the aristocracy, at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e.

The archaic image of Dionysus, the way God was thought to be, apparently, before the change in the cult, is a mature man with a long beard; in the V–IV centuries. BC e. The ancient Greeks depicted Bacchus as a pampered, even somewhat effeminate young man with grapes or an ivy wreath on his head, and this change in the appearance of the god indicates a change in his cult. It is no coincidence that in Ancient Greece there were several myths that told about the struggle with which the cult of Dionysus was introduced, and about the resistance that met its appearance in Greece. One of these myths forms the basis of Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae. Through the mouth of Dionysus himself, Euripides very plausibly tells the story of this god: Dionysus was born in Greece, but was forgotten in his homeland and returned to his country only after he had gained popularity and established his cult in Asia. He had to overcome resistance in Greece, not because he was a stranger there, but because he brought with him an orgasm alien to Ancient Greece.

Indeed, Bacchic festivities (orgies) in the classical era of Ancient Greece were ecstatic, and the moment of ecstasy was obviously the new element that was introduced during the revival of the cult of Dionysus and was the result of the fusion of the cult of Dionysus with the eastern deities of fertility (for example, the cult coming from the Balkans Sabasia).

In Ancient Greece, the god Dionysus was considered the son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of the Theban king Cadmus. The goddess Hera hated Semele and wanted to destroy her. She convinced Semele to ask Zeus to appear to his mortal lover in the guise of a god with thunder and lightning, which he never did (when appearing to mortals, he changed his appearance). As Zeus approached Semele's house, lightning slipped from his hand and struck the house; Semele died in the flames of a fire, giving birth before her death to a weak child, unable to live. But Zeus did not let his son die. Green ivy grew from the ground and protected the child from the fire. Zeus then took the rescued son and sewed him into his thigh. In the body of Zeus, Dionysus grew stronger and was born a second time from the thigh of the thunderer. According to the myths of Ancient Greece, Dionysus was raised by mountain nymphs and the demon Silenus, whom the ancients imagined as an eternally drunk, cheerful old man, devoted to his pupil-god.

The secondary introduction of the cult of the god Dionysus was reflected in a number of stories not only about the god’s arrival in Greece from Asia, but also about his travels on the ship in general. Already in the Homeric hymn we find a story about the move of Dionysus from the island of Ikaria to the island of Naxos. Not knowing that God was in front of them, the handsome young man was seized by robbers, tied with rods and loaded onto a ship to sell him into slavery or receive a ransom for him. But on the way, the fetters of Dionysus’s hands and feet fell off of their own accord, and miracles began to happen before the robbers:

“Sweet, first of all, is everywhere on a fast ship
Suddenly fragrant wine began to gurgle, and ambrosia
The smell rose all around. The sailors looked in amazement.
Instantly they reached out, clinging to the highest sail,
The vines hither and thither, and the clusters hung in abundance...”
(Art. 35–39; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

Turning into a lion, Dionysus tore the pirate leader to pieces. The rest of the pirates, with the exception of the wise helmsman, whom Dionysus spared, rushed into the sea and turned into dolphins.

The miracles described in this ancient Greek hymn - the spontaneous falling off of shackles, the appearance of fountains of wine, the transformation of Dionysus into a lion, etc., are characteristic of ideas about Dionysus. In myths and fine arts In ancient Greece, the god Dionysus was often represented as a goat, bull, panther, lion, or with attributes of these animals.

Dionysus and satyrs. Painter Brigos, Attica. OK. 480 BC

The retinue of Dionysus (thyas) consists of satyrs and bacchantes (maenads). The attribute of the Bacchantes and the god Dionysus himself is the thyrsus (a stick entwined with ivy). This god has many names and epithets: Iacchus (screaming), Bromius (wildly noisy), Bassareus (the etymology of the word is unclear). One of the names (Liey) is obviously associated with the feeling of liberation from worries experienced when drinking wine, and with the orgiastic character of the cult, freeing a person from ordinary prohibitions.

Pan and the forest deities

Pan was in Ancient Greece the god of forests, the patron of pastures, herds and shepherds. The son of Hermes and the nymph Dryope (according to another myth - the son of Zeus), he was born with goat horns and goat legs, because the god Hermes, caring for his mother, took the form of a goat:

“With the light nymphs he is goat-legged, two-horned, noisy
Wanders through the mountain oak groves, under the dark canopy of trees,
Nymphs from the tops of rocky cliffs call him,
They call for the master with dirty, curly fur,
God of merry pastures. The rocks were given to him as his inheritance,
Snowy mountain heads, paths of flinty cliffs"
(from the Homeric hymn to Pan, vv. 2–7; trans. V.V. Veresaev).

Unlike satyrs, who had the same appearance, Pan was depicted by the ancient Greeks with a pipe in his hands, while satyrs were depicted with grapes or ivy.

Following the example of the ancient Greek shepherds, the god Pan led a nomadic life, wandering through the forests, resting in remote caves and instilling “panic fear” in lost travelers.

There were many forest gods in Ancient Greece, and in contrast to the main deity, they were called paniskas.

At first glance, Greek mythology seems complex and confusing, which is very difficult to understand. Of course, you won’t find so many gods, their wives and children anywhere else. Our task is to figure out who Zeus is, so without going into unnecessary details, we will try to do this.

Birth

In order to continue his family, the supreme god of all gods, Kronos, was forced to enter into a relationship with his sister Reya. The latter came from a family of titans, who were considered the very first gods who settled on earth.

Zeus was born from this union. The birth took place in an atmosphere of secrecy and secrecy, because the father killed his previous five children, swallowing them as soon as they were born. He initially did not want to have children, and especially sons, because he was afraid that his son would grow up stronger than himself and could encroach on the status of the main ruler. It was predicted for him to die from his own offspring.

The mother did not want to put up with this state of affairs and, on the advice of her parents, she decides to leave her son and runs away to a secret place to give birth to the future king of the gods. Kronos knew about his wife’s pregnancy and imminent birth, so he waited at home to do the known thing. Rhea deceives her husband and takes him a stone wrapped in a swaddling cloth. Suspecting nothing, he swallows the package and calms down for a while. But that's only half the battle. How to save life, raise and raise a son?

His mother decides to hide him in one of the caves on the island of Crete and assigns people to guard him. This is how the life of the young god goes. He grows up, learns, gains experience, not forgetting the goal he has set for himself - overthrowing his father's despot and seizing all power. Everyone is on his side. The guards, drowning out the baby's cries, knock loudly on their shields. They feed only selected products. Prepare for great achievements.

Overthrow of the King of Kings Kronos

Zeus understood the seriousness of his plans, realizing that if he won, he would receive everything. But if he loses, he will forever find himself in the kingdom of Hades at the lowest level. This place was called Tartarus, where everyone who dared to offend the gods was exiled. Knowing that he himself cannot defeat his powerful father, Zeus decides to free the brothers who were swallowed earlier. All this time, those in the stomach grew, developed and accumulated strength. Subsequently, Prometheus and Hades helped him climb to the throne.

To carry out his plan, he prepares a poisoned drink, sneaks into the bedroom and pours the potion into the goblet with the drink. Kronos is getting sick and he vomits out the stone handed over to Rhea, and after him all the brothers.

Now all that remains is to convince and unite all relatives into one powerful, strong group capable of resisting the supreme ruler. The brave young man manages to do this. Having assessed their capabilities, the latter understand that the available forces are not enough for a complete and final victory. We urgently need to make a decision and attract even more powerful supporters to our side.

The solution is found very quickly. The young god remembers his father’s old enemies, who were kept in the lower world. These were Cyclopes and hundred-armed creatures called Hecatoncheires. By hook or by crook, he manages to free him, and then attract new allies to his side. Now, the united coalition is becoming a real force.

Decisive Battle

The plain, located between the mountains Othrys and, was called Thessaly and it was in this place that the battle was supposed to take place. Everything starts as expected. Zeus and his army begin to fight the titans that Kronos has deployed. Thunder and lightning, fragments of rocks fly towards the giant giants, splitting the ground under their feet with a roar. Such strength and power forces you to retreat. It is becoming more and more difficult to contain the onslaught. Victory is closer than ever, but not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance.

The giants decide on a last, desperate attempt and present their remaining trump card. From lower world, the Titans call to their aid a terrible monster of enormous size, which was called Typhon.

The battle begins with renewed vigor. For a while, it seems that the scales are tipping towards the losers, but this is only for a short time. Gathering all his strength and power into a fist, Zeus, with new fierce rage, strikes the enemy with powerful bolts of lightning. As a result, unable to withstand such an onslaught, the titans, along with their monster, are cast into Tartarus, where they will remain for eternity.

Thus, the young god becomes the most important king among the gods, having the gift of throwing thunder and lightning when angry.

You can read about his love adventures in another article. He had a lot of descendants. The most famous among them:,.

The future father of Zeus Kronos, or otherwise Kronos, was a difficult child in childhood. He began by castrating his own father, Uranus, with a sickle. True, he did this at the instigation of his mother Gaia, exhausted by the irrepressible fertility of her husband. Such a radical measure had an effect, and since then the titans, to which Kron belonged, became the absolute masters of space.

Problem children

It should be noted that Uranus had no luck at all with offspring. At first, from his marriage to Gaia, terrible monsters were born, which awed their parents. Among them were such monsters as the hundred-armed and fifty-headed Hecatonchires and the one-eyed giants - the Cyclops. We will talk about both of them further; they will also show what they are capable of. Uranus was so frightened by their ever-increasing strength and power that he considered it best to tie up his children and throw them into Tartarus. Then things got even worse. Seven Titanide sisters and six Titan brothers were born, among whom the youngest was the future father of Zeus and Hades, Cronus.

Unhappy Gaia, shedding tears for her hundred-armed children languishing underground, decided to take revenge on Uranus and for this purpose prepared an uprising of the Titans and Titanides. They, following the will of their mother, treacherously attacked their father. The only exception was one of them, named Ocean. A special role was assigned to Kron. Gaia handed him a sickle made of some particularly durable material (perhaps even diamond), and with it he deprived his father of further opportunities to produce offspring. By the way, historians claim that this was quite consistent with morals ancient world- it was customary to cut off the genitals of enemies and keep them as a trophy. Having fulfilled his mother’s instructions, Kron reigned in peace.

Graceful times of Hellas

According to the testimony of the first historically reliable poet of Ancient Greece, Hesiod, the period when the future father of Zeus ruled the world was the happiest time, the like of which the whole world had never known. mythological story. According to him, people were like gods and knew neither grief, nor sadness, nor daily work. Since there was no need to work, but they still wanted to occupy themselves with something, the sons of Ancient Hellas were divided into poets, artists and sculptors. Thus, the fertile era gave humanity countless masterpieces of art.

Eater of his own children

Having taken his place on the throne, the future father of the god Zeus Kronus thought about the heirs to his power and got married. He took his own sister, the Titanide Rhea, as his wife, but this marriage can hardly be called happy, and not at all because it was consanguineous - in mythology this is an everyday thing. His mother Gaia, a wise and perspicacious woman, warned that one of his future sons would do to him the same way as he did to his father Uranus: if he did not castrate him, he would certainly deprive him of power. Nothing could be more terrible for Kron, and he thought hard about how to help the grief.

Perhaps a modern ruler would have chosen a different path, but the ancient gods had their own ideas about what was correct and what was not. Kron did not think long, but simply devoured all the babies that Rhea produced in abundance. “Oh times, oh morals!” - this is how the Roman philosopher Cicero would exclaim many centuries later. But what does Kron care about some Romans? The main thing is the strength of state power, and all paths are good to achieve it.

Zeus's father is deceived by his own wife

But only a man, moreover, blinded by the brilliance of fame, could reason this way. His wife did not approve of such views at all and one day, having once again been relieved of her burden, she decided to save her child. She slipped Krona a stone wrapped in diapers instead of another victim. Either the fear generated by his mother’s prediction turned out to be so great, or the ruler of the world was very indiscriminate in his food, but as soon as he swallowed this cobblestone, like a sweet bun, he calmed down.

Meanwhile, Rhea, internally triumphant, hid her baby in a cave on the island of Crete, where she raised him, despite all the treachery of her husband. She named her son Zeus and entrusted his protection to the Curetes - terrible, demonic, but completely domesticated creatures. Hesiod, already mentioned in the story, tells that they drowned out the screams and cries of the baby with their roar, which helped keep the place where he was hidden secret. Under their constant care, young Zeus grew up powerful, beautiful and extremely intelligent. Heredity and upbringing apparently had an effect.

The trick of the wife of young Zeus

Having reached the right age, the young man married the beautiful Metis. It must be said that his chosen one was from birth prone to all kinds of intrigue and really wanted to help her husband achieve supreme power. At this time, Kronos, the father of Zeus, ruled, suspecting nothing, and was absolutely confident in his complete safety. It was this misconception that Metis took advantage of.

She got hold of a miraculous drink that Zeus secretly gave his dad to drink. It was not banal poison, it was something exceptional. Having tasted it, the bloodthirsty father of Zeus suddenly felt nauseated and, to the great joy of those around him, vomited out all his former children, swallowed by him during the entire marriage. Needless to say, they were alive, healthy and full of strength... History has preserved their names: Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia.

Ten Years' War

The brothers and sisters, freed in such a miraculous way, under the leadership of Zeus, declared war on the Titans - their relatives born by Gaia and Uranus before the latter was castrated. Since Zeus's father, Cronus, was their younger brother, then, consequently, they themselves were the uncles and aunts of the saved rebels. There were six Titans and six Titanides. The war with them lasted ten years and proceeded with varying success.

Zeus had a secret weapon - the Cyclopes, which he brought from the dark depths of Tartarus on the occasion of the war. These ferocious one-eyed creatures fought with rage and despair, but could not defeat those whom the father of Zeus set against them. Witnesses of this battle talk about terrible lightning that rained down from the sky on the titans, and about peals of thunder that shook the earth, but everything was in vain. And here came the long-awaited turning point in the battle.

When the Titans were ready to celebrate their victory, the hundred-armed creatures Hecatoncheires suddenly appeared from the bowels of the earth, whom Zeus kept there for the most extreme case. In addition to one hundred hands, each of them also had fifty heads. These monsters lifted entire rocks into the air and threw them at their opponents when they got close enough. Ancient authors do not skimp on describing the horror that their appearance produced among the army of the hapless father Cronus. The intervention of these creatures decided the outcome of the matter - the enemy was defeated and justice triumphed.

Poetry of Ancient Greece

Nowadays, some skeptics, not inclined to trust the testimonies of Hesiod, Homer and other poets who described the events of that era in their works, see in this ten-year war only a reflection natural disasters, which once raged on the planet. Let's not dissuade them - they are deprived of the ability to enjoy the play of poetic fantasy. It seems that the ancient authors themselves did not pretend to document what they presented, but with their poems they made the hearts of many generations of people skip a beat.

Celebration of the winners

But let’s return to the foot of Olympus, where until recently everything was burning and shaking, engulfed in a mad battle. The long-awaited peace reigned there. The Titans, struck with horror at the sight of the hundred-armed creatures, trembled and fled, but soon they, chained in chains, were thrown into the depths of the earth's bowels. The Titan god, the father of Zeus, shared the same fate and became a prisoner of Tartarus. The reign of wild and impersonal cosmic forces has come to an end. They were replaced by humanoid deities - the Olympians.

As follows from a number of sources, the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades - the old man Kronos - was forgiven, reconciled with his children and went to reign over the Ocean - that was the name of the greatest of the rivers of the ancient world, separating the kingdom of the living from the world of shadows. He showed himself there as a wise and magnanimous ruler, which is why the time of his reign is usually considered happy and prosperous. Leaving for the kingdom of the dead, the frivolous father of Poseidon and Zeus left behind, in addition to his legitimate children, those who were the fruit of his momentary hobbies. The most famous of them is Chiron, a wise centaur born from the young nymph Philira.

Immortal time

It should be noted that due to the consonance of names in generally accepted etymology, the name Kronos is often identified with the name of the god of time - Chronos. Many researchers see the symbolism of generational change in the children born and devoured by Crohn. This was the reason that in the mythology of the ancient Romans, the father of Zeus Kronos received a new incarnation in the image of Saturn, symbolizing the inexorability and transience of time.

Celebrations were dedicated to him, at which servants and masters changed roles, as if illustrating the inconstancy and variability of the age. In general, such holidays had the character of cheerful carnival events. It is now difficult to say what the ancient Greeks called the father of Zeus - Cronus or Kronos, but in the modern language there are words in the roots of which his name is preserved, for example: chronometer, chronology, timing, and so on. All of them are somehow connected with the concept of “time”. It was in them that the titan, the father of Zeus, found his true immortality.

God Zeus

Chain of Zeus. Zeus, the father of gods and men, immortals and mortals, reigns over the whole world and Olympus. He is the strongest of the gods. With whom his servants are inseparable - Power, Strength and Victory-Nick. None of the gods can compare with him in power. If you bring down from Olympus a strong gold chain, give one end into the hands of Zeus, the other - to all the gods, then even then they could not only throw Zeus to Earth, but even slightly shake him on the golden throne. But if Zeus had pulled the chain, he would have raised all the gods on it, along with the earth and the sea, wound the chain around the top of Olympus and left the whole world suspended among the heavenly expanses.

Aegis of Zeus. Zeus is the owner of the aegis, so he is called “Egiokh”, “Aegis-holder”. But no one knows exactly what an aegis is. Some say that it is a shield made of goatskin, others that it is a cloak, but everyone agrees that the fearsome head of the Gorgon Medusa is attached to the aegis. When Zeus shakes his aegis over two troops engaged in battle, the sky is shrouded in heavy clouds, lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, instilling terror in the souls of one army, filling the hearts of the other with vigor and courage. In this way, Zeus brings victory in battle, which is why one of his names is Zeus the Victorious.

Zeus and people. As the owner of thunder and lightning, the god who sends thunderstorms, Zeus is called the Thunderer, the Cloudbreaker, the High-Thunderer. With his lightning he incinerates the wicked, people who violate the laws he established in the world. The punishment of Zeus is terrible for people, but Zeus treats those who honor the gods with mercy. He is “Helper in trouble”, “Protector”, “Savior”, “Friendly”. He is a deity who was revered by all Hellenes, which is why he was called Panhellenic Zeus.

God Zeus on the throne. Fragment of a Greek crater

Zeus is the king over the Universe. Both gods and people honor Zeus. When he enters his palace on Olympus, all the gods and goddesses stand respectfully before him. Expressing his will, Zeus moves his blue-black eyebrows and confirms his words with a nod of his head. At this moment Olympus oscillates from the base to the summit. The word given by Zeus in this way is inviolable.

All people living on earth are subject to Zeus, from him their troubles and successes, happiness and misfortunes. As the Greek poet Hesiod wrote:

To give strength to the powerless and to plunge the strong into insignificance, to take away happiness from the lucky, to suddenly exalt the unknown, to straighten a hunched figure or to hunch the back of the arrogant - It is very easy for the thunderer who lives in the highest.

Vessels of good and evil. At the throne of Zeus there are two large vessels: in one of them there are gifts of good, in the other - evil. Zeus draws good and evil from them and sends them to people. If a person is very dear to him, he receives only gifts of goodness, and his life passes happily and serenely. [But the Greeks understood that there is no life without sorrows, as the Greek tragedian Sophocles said, “both in the future and in the past, only one law is omnipotent - it does not pass carelessly human life!»] Sadness is a sign of Zeus's displeasure. Those who anger the Thunderer are attacked with his evil gifts: misfortune, illness, poverty, hunger! Therefore, it is best for life to be as it is for most people: for there to be approximately equal amounts of good and evil, and for joy and sorrow to alternate in life.

Themis, assistant of Zeus. Great, stern deities help Zeus control the destinies of the world: the keeper of the laws, Themis, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, ensures that laws are not violated either on earth or on Olympus.

She was depicted with scales and a sword in her hands, and sometimes blindfolded. The meaning of these symbols was as follows: the scales served to weigh the guilt of the defendant, the sword - to punish the guilty, and the eyes were blindfolded because a fair judge should not succumb to sympathy for the one he is judging, as if he should not “see” him, but only listen to what is said for and against the defendant.

Dike and Nemesis. If Themis made sure that everything was according to the law, then her and Zeus’s daughter Dike - “Justice” - ensured that everything was fair. She was a defender of truth and an enemy of deception. [It is no coincidence that in one of the images she was shown beating Adikiya - “Injustice.”]

Nemesis, the formidable goddess of fair retribution with a punishing sword in her hand, ensures that the measure of good and evil is never violated in the world. No criminal escapes punishment; even if the crime was committed secretly and there are no witnesses, Nemesis will take care of retribution.

Revenge for the poet Ivik. This is how, for example, the murder of the poet Ivik was avenged. When Ibycus was heading to a singing competition in the city of Corinth, where the Isthmian Games were celebrated in honor of Poseidon, he was robbed and killed on a deserted road. No one saw the atrocity, not a single person was around, only a crane wedge flew across the sky. The dying poet turned to the cranes with his last request: let them help expose the murderers. Ivik was never seen at the festival, and soon his body was found, and no one could say who was responsible for his death. And so, when there was a performance in the theater in Corinth [Greek theaters were open air and seated tens of thousands of people], cranes flew low over the theater, humming their sad songs. Then all the people heard a cry full of horror: “Look at the sky! The damned Ivik called the cranes!” It was one of the killers who turned to his accomplice, remembering the dying words of his victim. Both of them were immediately captured, confessed to their crime and suffered a well-deserved punishment. Not a single Hellene would doubt that the murderers were identified and punished by Nemesis herself.

Moira goddesses. The fate of people and gods, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, is determined by three inexorable goddesses, the sisters of Moira [their name has the same origin as the Russian word “mera”]. Moira, named Clotho (“The Spinner”), spins the thread of a person’s life: if the thread breaks, life is over. Her sister Lachesis (“Measuring Lots”) takes out, without looking, the lot that is intended for a person in life. The third moira, Atropos ("Inevitable"), cuts the thread of life spun by Clotho; no one can avoid death, no one can avert it, which is why Atropos received such a name. The Moira are harsh and unforgiving, even Zeus himself is subject to them, and nothing in the world can escape the fate they have assigned to him.

Oracle of Zeus in Dodona and the Olympic Games. As the ruler of the world, who is himself subject to Fate, but has power over the destinies of people, Zeus knows the future, and if asked about it, he can give an answer.

In the city of Dodona there was a temple of Zeus, famous throughout Greece, with an oracle to which people turned for predictions. They received the answer in the form of the rustling of leaves on the sacred oak of Zeus or the murmur of a stream that flowed under this oak.

Once every four years, all the Hellenes gathered to honor Zeus in the city dedicated to him, located in the south of Greece - Olympia. The Olympic Games, the most famous of the pan-Greek holidays, were held here. For a time, a sacred truce was declared in Greece, wars stopped, and no one dared to interfere with the people going to Olympia - they were under the protection of Zeus. The holiday lasted five days, and the winners in the Olympic competitions were considered people marked by the mercy of Zeus himself. Their reward was not any valuable things, but an olive wreath, and there was nothing more honorable than this reward.

Zeus statue

Temple of Zeus and his figure.

Here, in Olympia, one could see the image of the supreme god, which was known throughout Hellas and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. In the temple of Zeus there was a statue of him, made of gold and ivory by the great sculptor Phidias. God was depicted sitting on a throne made of gold, ivory and ebony. Zeus calmly looks ahead, his figure is full of greatness, his golden hair falls over his shoulders. In his right hand he held an ivory figurine of the goddess Nike, and in his left hand a scepter, a sign of his power. The god's hair, clothes and shoes were made of gold, and his body was made of ivory.

Question from Phidias.

In the twilight of the temple, this statue made a stunning impression. The Greek legend says that Phidias, having finished his work, said while looking at the statue: “Well, Zeus, are you satisfied?” - and at that same moment thunder struck and lightning struck the floor of the temple next to the statue: Zeus expressed his approval. Expressing admiration for the work of Phidias, one of the Greek poets wrote:

Did Zeus descend to earth to show you his image, Phidias, or did you ascend to heaven to see God yourself?

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the statue of Olympian Zeus, and we know it only from descriptions made by ancient authors.