Theban mythological cycle

Micro paraphrase: One of the main mythological cycles (cycles) of Ancient Greece. The Theban cycle of myths tells about the founding of the city of Thebes in Boeotia, about the fate of the Theban king Oedipus and his descendants.

The founder of Thebes was the Phoenician Cadmus. His sister Europa was kidnapped by Zeus and carried across the sea in the form of a bull. The brother, looking for his sister, ended up in Hellas and founded Thebes. So the descendants of Cadmus began to rule the city.

The next king, Laius, was predicted by the priestess that he would die at the hands of his own son. When a son was born to him and his wife Jocasta, Laius ordered the newborn to be thrown into the abyss to be devoured by wild beasts. But the slave disobeyed the king’s will and slipped the boy to the servant of the Corinthian king Polybus. He raised him and named him Oedipus for his legs, swollen from wounds - the cruel father had previously tied his newborn son's legs with belts, piercing his feet with a sharp iron.

Having become a young man, Oedipus, not knowing who his parents were, set off on his wanderings in order to find out the secret of his birth. On the way, without knowing it, in a fit of anger he kills his blood father Laius. Considering himself innocent of murder (after all, he was defending himself), Oedipus went to Thebes. Just then the city was threatened by a monster - the Sphinx. He kept Thebes in fear by asking people riddles, and if they did not answer them, they died.

Oedipus correctly answered the Sphinx’s question: “Who walks on four in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?”, after which the monster threw himself from the cliff, and Oedipus saved the city and, becoming its king, married the dowager queen Jocasta, not knowing that it was his mother. They had children: two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, and two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices.

Having learned the terrible truth from the oracle, Jocasta hanged herself without surviving the shock, and Oedipus, mad with grief, gouged out his eyes and left Thebes. He became a beggar wanderer and traveled with his daughter Antigone. None of the children wanted to follow him except her.

After going a long way, Oedipus and Antigone reached Attica and ended up in the city of Athens. There, in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, Oedipus realized that his last hours were approaching. He asked to send for King Theseus so that he would help him and give him and his daughter shelter. Here Oedipus met his other daughter, Ismene. She came to say goodbye to her father and convey to him the sad news: Oedipus's youngest son, Etiocles, seized power in Thebes, expelling his older brother, Polyneices. The eldest son also came to his father to tell about his misfortune and ask for help, but Oedipus did not want to listen to him. Oedipus died in poverty, and Antigone returned to Thebes.

The sons continued to dispute power among themselves. Thebes was attacked. When Polyneices died at the hands of Eteocles during the battle, the Thebans decided to deprive him of burial. Despite the ban, Antigone, according to ancient custom, so as not to anger the gods, betrayed the body of Polyneices to the ground. The king of Thebes, Creon, angry because of Antigone's disobedience, demanded that she admit guilt.

For violating the ban, Antigone was sentenced to a terrible execution, and Polyneices’ body was dug up. But the blind soothsayer Tiresias stopped Creon, warning him with evil signs from the gods. Returning to the tomb where Antigone was buried alive, the king of Thebes learned that she had killed herself. To atone for his guilt before the gods, Creon performed the burial ceremony of Polyneices and asked for forgiveness from Hades and Hecate.

Ten years have passed since the campaign of the seven against Thebes. During this time, the sons of the heroes who fell at Thebes matured. They decided to take revenge on the Thebans for the defeat of their fathers and undertook a new campaign. An army of epigones set out from Argos and defeated Thebes. The defeated Thebans began negotiations with the besiegers, and at night, on the advice of Tiresias, they secretly left Thebes from the besiegers. They moved north to Thessaly, where they later settled. Thebes, taken by the epigones, were destroyed. The rich booty that they got was divided among themselves by the epigones.

8TH GRADE

CYCLES OF ANCIENT GREEK MYTHS

THEBAN CYCLE

(abbreviated)

Oedipus. His childhood, youth and return to Thebes

The king of Thebes, the son of Cadmus, Polidor, and his wife Nyktida had a son Labdacus, who inherited power over Thebes. Labdak's son and successor was Laius. Laius kidnapped the young son of Pelops, Chrysippus, and took him to Thebes. The angry and saddened father cursed Laius, and in his curses he wished that the gods would punish the kidnapper of his son by destroying his own Son. Laius married Menokeus's daughter, Jocasta. Laius lived quietly in Thebes for a long time, and only one thing worried him: he had no children. Finally, Lai decided to ask the god Apollo about the reason for childlessness. The priestess of Apollo, the Pythia Laius, gave a formidable answer. She said:

Son of Labdacus, will you have a son, but know this: you will die by the hand of your son.

Horror seized Lai. He thought for a long time how to avoid the command of his inexorable fate; he finally decided that he would kill his rash as soon as he was born.

Soon, Lai actually had a son. The cruel father called the slave and ordered him to throw the baby in the forest on the Kifero slope - well, so that wild animals would tear him to pieces there. But the slave took pity on the child and secretly handed over the little boy to the slave of the Corinthian king Polybus. The slave took the boy to King Polybus, who decided to raise him as his successor. King Polybus named the boy Oedipus after his legs, swollen from wounds.

This is how Oedipus grew up with Polybus and his wife Merope. Oedipus himself considered them his parents. But one day Oedipus spent a long time persuading them to reveal to him the secret of his birth. But neither Polybus nor Merope said anything to him. Then Oedipus decided to go to Delphi and there find out the secret of his birth. The radiant Apollo answered him through the lips of the soothsayer Pythia:

Oedipus, your fate is terrible! You will kill your father, marry your own mother, and from this marriage will be born children cursed by the gods and hated by all people.

Horror seized Oedipus. How can he avoid an evil fate? After all, the oracle did not name his parents. Oedipus decided to remain an eternal blue - without a clan, without a tribe, without a homeland.

A homeless wanderer, Oedipus left Delphi. On this road, Oedipus met a chariot in which a gray-haired, majestic old man was riding. The herald swung his whip at him. The angry Oedipus hit the herald and was about to pass by the chariot when the old man waved his staff and hit Oedipus on the head. Oedipus got angry, in anger he hit the old man with his stick so that he fell dead on his back to the ground. Oedipus rushed at the escorts and killed them all. Oedipus killed, without knowing, his father Laius. After all, this old man was Lai.

Oedipus calmly walked on. He considered himself innocent of murder: after all, he was not the first to attack, because he was only defending himself. Great despondency reigned in Thebes. Two disasters struck the city of Cadmus. The terrible Sphinx, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, settled near Thebes on Mount Ephingioni and demanded more and more victims, and then a slave brought the news that King Laius had been killed by some unknown person. Oedipus decided to get them out of trouble; he decided to go to the Sphinx himself.

The Sphinx was a terrible monster with the head of a woman, the body of a huge lion, with paws armed with sharp lion claws, and with huge wings. The gods decided that the Sphinx would remain with Thebes until someone solved its riddle. Many brave Thebans tried to save Thebes from the Sphinx, but all the nones died.

Oedipus came to the Sphinx, who offered him his riddle:

Tell me, who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two, and in the evening on three? None of all the creatures living on earth changes as much as he does. When he walks on four legs, then he has less strength and moves more slowly than at other times.

And Oedipus did not think for a single moment, immediately answering:

This is a man! When she had, when it was only morning of her age, she was weak and crawled slowly on all fours. During the day, that is, in adulthood, he walks on two legs, and in the evening, that is, in old age, she becomes decrepit and, in need of support, takes a crutch; then he walks on three legs.

This is how Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx. And the Sphinx, flapping its wings, rushed from the cliff into the sea. It was decided by the gods that the Sphinx should die if anyone solved its riddle. Thus Kdip freed Thebes from trouble.

When Oedipus returned to Thebes, the Thebans proclaimed him king, but even earlier Creon, who ruled in place of the murdered Laius, had appointed the king of Thebes as the one who would save them from the Sphinx. Having reigned in Thebes, Oedipus married Laius' widow Jocasta and had two daughters and two sons from her. Thus the second command of fate was fulfilled: Oedipus became the husband of his own mother, and his children were born from her.

Oedipus in Thebes

Proclaimed king by the people, Oedipus wisely reigned in Thebes.

And then a great misfortune befell Thebes. The arrow god Apollo sent a terrible pestilence to Thebes. It lost citizens both old and small. A crowd of citizens came to King Oedipus to ask him to help them, to teach them how to overcome those troubles that threaten death. Oedipus himself had already sent Jocasta's brother Creon to Delphi to ask Apollo how to get rid of troubles.

Apollo ordered the expulsion of the one who, by his crime, brought these troubles to Thebes. But how to find the one who killed Lai? Oedipus decided to find the killer at any cost. The blind soothsayer Tiresias is brought. What can the fortune teller answer? Yes, he knows the killer, but he cannot name him. But Oedipus demanded an answer. Tiresias resists for a long time, for a long time he does not want to name the murderer, but finally he says:

You yourself, Oedipus, are the killer you are looking for! Without knowing, you married someone who is dearer to each of us, you married your mother.

Oedipus was terribly angry with Tiresias when he heard these words. Tiresias calmly listens to angry things to the king. He knows that Oedipus, although sighted, still does not see all the evil that he, unwillingly, creates. Tiresias is not afraid of any threats; he boldly tells Oedipus that the murderer is here, in front of him. The citizens of Tiresias listened in horror.

And Oedipus, full of anger, accuses Creon of teaching Tiresias to speak like that. Jocasta also comes; Oedipus asks Jocasta how Laius was killed, and about how Laius’s only son was abandoned in the forest on the slopes of Cithaeron. Jocasta tells him everything.

O Zeus! - exclaimed Oedipus. - Why did you decide to doom me!

Oh, was it really not I who was sighted, but blind Tiresias!

Oedipus also asks about the slave who escaped, where he is, whether he is still alive, and learns that this slave is grazing flocks on the slope of Cithaeron. But he tells Oedipus that Polybus is not his father, that he himself brought the fa to King Corin as a small child, and it was given to him by the shepherd of King Laius. Oedipus listens to the messenger with horror; the terrible truth becomes increasingly clear. In fear, the shepherd admits that the boy whom he once gave to the messenger was the son of Laius, whom his father doomed to death; and he felt sorry for the unfortunate child.<...>

In despair, Oedipus goes to the palace. He is his father's killer, his mother's husband, his children are both children and maternal brothers. Jocasta could not bear all the horror; she caused her own death. Mad with grief, Oedipus tore the buckles from Jocasta's clothes and gouged out his eyes with their points.

Death of Oedipus

Creon did not immediately expel Oedipus from Thebes.<...>Blind, decrepit Oedipus went into exile in a foreign land. After a long wandering, Oedipus finally came to Attica, to the city of Athens.<...>

And Oedipus, having learned that he was in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, realized that his last hour, the end of all his suffering, was not far off.<...>Meanwhile, the citizens of Colonna rush to the Eumenides Grove to find out who decided to enter it. Oedipus is in front of them! No, the Colonians cannot allow Oedipus to remain here, they are afraid of the wrath of the gods. Finally, Oedipus asks the citizens to wait at least until Theseus arrives. Let the king of Athens decide, Oedipus can stay here, but he must be expelled from here too.

Ismene arrived here. Oedipus is glad that Ismene has arrived, now with him are his daughters, his faithful companion and assistant Antigone and Ismene, who never forgot her father and constantly sent him news from Thebes. And Ismene was looking for Oedipus to translate the very sad news: the sons of Oedipus first ruled together in Thebes. But the youngest son, Eteocles, seized power alone and expelled his elder brother Polyneices from Thebes.<...>Oedipus does not want to be on the side of either son; he is angry with his sons.

Not because they put the desire for power above the responsibilities of children towards their father.

Theseus greets Oedipus and promises him protection. Oedipus thanks Theseus and promises him his protection. And it is not Oedipus who is destined to find peace here now. Creon tries to persuade Oedipus to go with him; he persuades him to go to Thebes and promises him that he will live there calmly in the circle of his relatives, surrounded by their cares. But the will of Oedipus is indestructible. Yes, he doesn’t believe Creon.

Seeing Oedipus's inflexibility, Creon begins to threaten him that he will force Oedipus to go with him to Thebes.<...>Theseus is outraged by Creon's violence. Theseus knows that lawlessness will not be tolerated in Thebes. Creon himself disgraces his city and his land; Although he is old for years, he acts like a crazy youth.<...>Creon submitted to Theseus’ demand, and soon Elder Oedipus was hugging his daughters and thanking the magnanimous king of Athens, calling upon him the blessing of the gods.

Hearing that Polyneices is here, Antigone asks her father to listen to him, even though he has seriously offended him. Oedipus agrees to listen to his son, and Theseus follows him. Antigone asks her brother to tell his father why he came; she is sure that Oedipus will not leave her son without an answer. Polyneices spoke about how his younger brother drove him out of Thebes, how he went to Argos, married the daughter of Adrastus there and found help for himself to take away from his brother the power that belongs to him by right, as the eldest!<...>

Oedipus does not listen to his son. Please don't touch him.<...>Polynices left without begging for forgiveness and protection from his father, he left without listening to Antigone’s requests to return to Argos and not start a war that threatened the death of him, his brother and Thebes.

Oedipa has been close lately. Theseus hastily came to the grove of the Eumenides. Hearing his voice, Oedipus said:

Keep this secret and reveal it to your eldest son at your death, and let him pass it on to his successor. Let's go, Theseus, let's go, children! Now I, a blind man, will be your guide, and Hermes and Persephone will lead me.

Children, from this day on you will no longer have a father. The god of death, Tanat, has already taken possession of me. It will not be your responsibility to take care of me.<...>

Seven against Thebes

When blind Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, his sons and Creon divided power among themselves. Each of them was to rule in turn for a year. Eteocles did not want to share power with his older brother Polyneices; he expelled his brother from the seven gates of Thebes and alone seized power in Thebes. And Polynices went to Argos, where King Adrastus ruled.

King Adrastus came from the Amyphaonid family. When two heroes, the great soothsayer Melampod and Biant, the sons of the hero Amiphaon, married the daughters of King Proytes.<...>In Melampodu there was a son Antiphat, in Anti-phata there was Oikl, and in Oikla there was Amphiaraus. Bianta had a son, Tal, and his children were Adrastus and Erifila. When the descendants of Melampodu and Bianta - Adrastus and Amphiaraus - matured, strife broke out between them.<...>

Polynices arrived at the palace of King Adrastus late at night, hoping to find protection and help from him. At the palace, Polynices met the son of Oeneus, the hero Tydeus, who, having killed his uncle and cousins ​​in his homeland, also fled to Argos. A fierce argument broke out between both heroes. The restless Tydeus, did not tolerate anyone’s objections, grabbed his weapon. Polynices also, covering himself with a shield, drew his sword. The heroes rushed at each other. Adrastus remembered the prediction given to him by the oracle that he would give his daughters to a lion and a boar. He hastily separated the heroes and led the guests to his palace. Soon King Adrastus gave his daughters: one, Deil, for Polyneices, the second, Argeia, for Tydeus.

Having become Adrastus's sons-in-law, Polynices and Tydeus began to ask him to return power to them in their homeland. Adrastus agreed to help them, but set the condition that Amphiaraus, a mighty warrior and great predictor, also take part in the campaign.

It was decided to move first to the seven gates of Thebes. Amphiaraus was inspired to take part in this campaign because he knew that the heroes were starting this campaign against the will of the gods. He, the favorite of Zeus and Apollo, did not want to anger the gods by breaking their will. No matter how Tydeus persuaded Amphiaraus, he stood firm on his decision. Tydeus flared up with indomitable anger; the heroes would have become enemies forever if Adrastus had not reconciled them. In order to force Amphiaraus to take part in the campaign, Polyneices decided to resort to cunning. He decided to win over Eriphyle to his side so that she would force Amphiaraus to go against Thebes. Knowing Eriphyle's self-interest, Polyneices promised to give her the precious necklace of Harmonia, the wife of the first king of Thebes, Cadmus. She was seduced by Erifil's precious gift and decided that her husband should participate in the campaign. Amphiaraus could not refuse, because he himself had once sworn an oath that he would obey all the decisions of Erifila. So she sent Eriphilus to the certain death of her husband, tempted by precious beads; She did not know that the necklace brings great troubles to the one who owns it.

Many heroes agreed to participate in this campaign.<...>

The army set out on a campaign.<...>The army of Nemea arrived happily.<...>

Having passed through the gorges of the wooded Kietheron, the army arrived at the shores of Asopus, to the walls of the seven-gate Thebes. The leaders did not immediately begin the siege. They decided to send Tydeus to Thebes for negotiations with the besieged. Arriving in Thebes, Tydeus found the noble Thebans at a feast at Eteocles. The Thebans did not listen to Tydeus; the Nones, laughing, invited him to take part in the feast. Tydeus was angry and, despite the fact that he was alone in the circle of enemies, he challenged them to a duel and won every one of them, because Pallas Athena helped her favorite. Anger gripped the Thebans, and they decided to destroy the great hero. They sent fifty young men under the leadership of Meontes and Lycophon to ambush Tydeus when he returned to the besiegers’ camp. And Tydeus did not die here, he killed all the young men, only Meont was released at the behest of the gods, so that Meont could inform the Thebans about the exploits of Tydeus.

After this, enmity flared up even more between the heroes who came from Argos and the Thebans.<...>

The mighty Tydeus, who thirsted for blood like a fierce dragon, stood against the Protis Gate with his detachment.<...>Amphiaraus knew that the descendants would curse the participants in this campaign. Amphiaraus also knew that he himself would fall in battle and his corpse would be swallowed up by the enemy land of Thebes. There was no emblem on Amphiaraus's shield. The last, seventh gate was besieged by Polyneices. On his shield was a depiction of a goddess leading an armed hero, and the inscription on the shield read: “I am leading this husband, as conquered, back to his city and to the house of his parents.” Everything was ready for the assault on the indestructible walls of Thebes.

The Thebans also prepared for battle.<...>Among the Theban heroes was the mighty son of Poseidon, the invincible Periclymenes.

Before the battle began, Eteocles asked the soothsayer Tiresias about the outcome of the battle. Tiresias promised victory only if Creon's son Menoikeus was sacrificed to Ares (who was still angry over Cadmus' murder of the serpent dedicated to him). The young man Menoikei pierced his chest with a sword. This is how Creon’s son died: he voluntarily sacrificed himself to save his native Thebes.

Everything promised victory for the Thebans. The wrathful Ares has mercy, the gods are on the side of the Thebans, who carry out the will and take into account the sign of the gods. And the Thebans did not immediately achieve victory.<...>

Young Parthenopaus also fell while besieging Thebes; the mighty Periclymenes threw a huge stone the size of a rock from the wall onto his head. This stone broke Partenopaev’s head, and he fell dead to the ground. The Argives retreated from under the walls: they were convinced that they would not take Thebes by storm. Now the Thebans could rejoice: the walls of Thebes stood motionless.<...>

Like two fierce lions fighting for prey, so the brothers collided in a fierce fight. Covered with shields, they fight, closely watching each other's movements with eyes full of hatred. Eteocles stumbled and now threw Polynices’ spear at his brother and wounded him in the thigh.<...>The brothers fight with their shields locked; They are both wounded, their weapons bloodied. Eteocles quickly took a step back; Polyneices, who did not expect this, raised his shield, and at that moment his brother plunged his sword into his stomach. Polyneices fell to the ground, blood gushed like a river from a terrible wound, his eyes were clouded with the darkness of death. Eteocles celebrated the victory; he ran up to his dead brother and wanted to remove his weapons. Polynices gathered his last strength, stood up and struck his brother in the chest with his sword; with this blow his soul flew off to the dark kingdom of Hades. Like a felled oak tree, Eteocles fell dead on the corpse of his brother, and their blood mixed, flooding the ground around him. The Thebans and Argives looked with horror at the terrible end of the brothers' duel.

The truce between the besieged and the besieged did not last long. A bloody battle broke out between them again. The gods assisted the Thebans in this battle.<...>

The Thebans defeated the Argives, and their entire army was killed near Thebes. Amphiaraus also died. He hurried to escape in his chariot, driven by Baton. He was pursued by the powerful Periclymenes. Periklymen was already catching up with the great predictor, he was already swinging his spear to hit him, when suddenly the lightning of Zeus flashed and thunder struck, the earth opened up and swallowed Amphiaraus with his war chariot. Of all the heroes, only Adrastus escaped. He rushed off on his horse, Areion, as fast as the wind, and took refuge in Athens, from where he returned to Argos.

The Thebans won, Thebes was saved. They learned that the heroes of Argos, their wives and mothers remained unburied. Full of sadness, they came with Adrastus to Attica to beg King Theseus to help their grief and force the Thebans to give them the bodies of the dead. In Eleusis, at the Temple of Demeter, they met Tereus’s mother and begged her to beg her son to demand the surrender of the bodies of the Arigos warriors.

Theseus was angry. Eleuther had seven fires built, and the corpses of the soldiers were burned on them. And the corpses of the leaders were transferred to Eleusis and burned there, the ashes of their mother and wife were taken to their homeland, to Argos.

Only the ashes of Capaneus, killed by the lightning of Zeus, remained in Eleusis. The corpse of Capaneus was sacred, for he was killed by the Thunderer himself. The Athenians lit a huge fire and placed the corpse of Capaneus on it. When the fire was already beginning to flare up and the tongues of fire touched the hero’s corpse, Capaneus’s wife, the beautiful daughter of Iphitus Evadne, came to Eleusis. She could not bear the death of her beloved husband. Putting on luxurious funeral clothes, she climbed onto a rock that hung right above the fire, and threw herself from there into the flames. Thus Evadne died, and her shadow descended along with the shadow of her husband into the dark kingdom of Hades.

Campaign of the Epigones

Ten years have passed since the campaign of the seven against Thebes. During this time, the sons of the heroes who died at Thebes matured. They decided to take revenge on the Thebans for the defeat of their fathers and went on a new campaign. The following took part in this campaign: Aigialei, son of Adrast; Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus: Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Thesander, son of Polyneices; Miss, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Polydorus, son of Hippomedon and Euryalus, son of Menestheus.

The Delphic oracle predicted victory for the epigones if Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, took part in this campaign.

Thesander, the son of Polyneices, undertook to persuade Alcmaeon not to refuse to participate in the campaign. Alcmaeon hesitated for a long time. Like his father Polyneices, Thesander decided to seek the assistance of Eriphile, the mother of Alcmaeon. He bribed her by giving her the precious clothes of the wife of Cadmus and Harmony, which Pallas Athena herself wove for her. Eriphyle was seduced by her clothes, as she had once been seduced by the necklace of Harmony, and insisted that Alcmaeon and his brother Amphilochus take part in the campaign.

An army of epigones set out from Argos. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, equal to his father in strength and courage, was chosen as the leader of the army. Joyful heroes went on a campaign, burning with the desire to avenge their parents.

In Potnia near Thebes they asked the oracle of Amphiaraus about the consequences of the campaign. The oracle answered them that he saw Alcmaeon, the heir to the glory of Amphiaraus, who entered the gates of Thebes as a winner. The epigones will win. Only Aigialei, the son of Adrast, who escaped during the first campaign, will die.

Finally, the army of the epigones reached the seven-gate Thebes. Having devastated all the surrounding areas, the epigones laid siege to the city. The Thebans went out into the field under the leadership of their king Laodamant, the frantic son of Eteocles, to repel the besiegers from the walls. A bloody battle ensued. In this battle, Aigialei died, struck by the spear of Laodamant, but Laodamant was also killed by Alcmaeon. The Thebans were defeated and took refuge behind the impregnable walls of Thebes.

The defeated Thebans began negotiations with the besiegers, and at night, on the advice of Tiresias, secretly from the besiegers, they moved out of Thebes with all the women and children. They went north to Thessaly. After a long journey, the Thebans reached Hestiotis in Thessaly and settled there.

Thebes, taken by the epigones, were destroyed. The epigones returned happily to their homeland. And Thersander, the son of Polynices, began to rule in Thebes, restoring it.

Texts are given according to M.A. Kun.

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece

Well-known cycles of ancient Greek myths are the Trojan cycle, the Theban cycle, and the cycle of myths about the Argonauts.

The Trojan cycle of myths of Ancient Greece tells about the events associated with the city of Troy and the Trojan War. The war began due to the abduction of Helen the Beautiful by Paris, and ended with the destruction of Troy.

The cycle of myths about the Argonauts tells about Jason and his family, about the journey on the ship "Argo" for the Golden Fleece, Jason's marriage to Medea, and about further events in the life of the Argonauts: Jason's betrayal and his attempt at a new marriage, about Medea's terrible revenge, about the end Jason's life.

The Theban cycle of myths tells about the founding of the city of Thebes in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, about the fate of the Theban king Oedipus and his descendants.

In the minds of the ancient Greeks, the Olympian gods were like people and the relationships between them resembled the relationships between people: they quarreled and made peace, envied and interfered in people’s lives, were offended, took part in wars, rejoiced, had fun and fell in love. Each of the gods had a specific occupation, being responsible for a specific area of ​​life:

1.Zeus (Dias) - ruler of the sky, father of gods and people.

2. Hera (Ira) - wife of Zeus, patroness of the family.

3.Poseidon - ruler of the seas.

4.Hestia (Estia) - protector of the family hearth.

5.Demeter (Dimitra) - goddess of agriculture.

6. Apollo - god of light and music.

7.Athena - goddess of wisdom.

8.Hermes (Ermis) - god of trade and messenger of the gods.

9. Hephaestus (Ifestos) - god of fire.

10.Aphrodite - goddess of beauty.

11.Ares (Aris) - god of war.

12.Artemis - goddess of the hunt.

People on earth turned to the gods - to each according to his “specialty”, erected temples for them and, in order to appease them, brought gifts as sacrifices. According to Greek mythology, in addition to the children of Chaos, the Titans and the Olympian gods, the earth was inhabited by many other deities who personified the forces of nature. So, the nymphs Naiads lived in rivers and streams, the Nereids lived in the sea, Dryads and Satyrs lived in the forests, and the nymph Echo lived in the mountains. Human life was controlled by three goddesses of Fate - the Moiras (Lachesis, Clotho, Atropos). It was they who spun the thread of human life from birth to death and could break it whenever they wanted...

The myths of ancient Greece about heroes took shape long before the advent of written history. These are legends about the ancient life of the Greeks, and reliable information is intertwined in tales about heroes with fiction. Memories of people who accomplished civil feats, being commanders or rulers of the people, stories about their exploits force the ancient Greek people to look at these ancestors as people chosen by the gods and even related to the gods. In the imagination of the people, such people turn out to be the children of gods who married mortals.

In accordance with their divine origin, the heroes of the myths of Ancient Greece had strength, courage, beauty, and wisdom. But unlike the gods, the heroes were mortal, with the exception of a few who rose to the level of deities (Hercules, Castor, Polydeuces, etc.).

In ancient Greek times, it was believed that the afterlife of heroes was no different from the afterlife of mere mortals. Only a few favorites of the gods move to the islands of the blessed. Later, Greek myths began to say that all heroes enjoy the benefits of the “golden age” under the auspices of Kronos and that their spirit is invisibly present on earth, protecting people and averting disasters from them. These ideas gave rise to the cult of heroes

4. The concept of epic. Homeric poems. The time and place of their creation, artistic features. The role of the gods in the fate of the heroes of the poems. Homeric question.

Epic - Greek. “word”, “narration”, “story”. One of the three types of literature identified by Aristotle. Originated earlier than other genera. It is a story about events unfolding in space and time independent of the objective narrator. The epic tells about the past holistically. Containing a holistic picture of people's life.

Three parts: story, description, reasoning.

Homer has a strictly objective narrative.

In the community-tribal formation, a heroic epic arose - a heroic narrative about an event important for the clan, which reflected the harmonious unity of the people and heroic heroes. “The Iliad” is a military-heroic epic, “The Odyssey” is a fairy-tale epic.

Homer is the legendary ancient Greek poet-storyteller, who is credited with creating the Iliad and Odyssey.

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer. The Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the 6th century. BC, when their existence was reliably recorded.

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the “law of chronological incompatibility” formulated by Thaddeus Frantsevich Zelinsky. It is that “In Homer, the story never returns to its point of departure. It follows that parallel actions in Homer cannot be depicted; Homer’s poetic technique knows only the simple, linear, and not the double, square dimension.” Thus, sometimes parallel events are depicted as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even suppressed. This explains some apparent contradictions in the text of the poem.

Features of Homeric style.

1. Objectivity.

2. Antipsychologism.

3. Monumentality.

4. Heroism.

5. Retarding technique.

6. Chronological incompatibility (actions occurring in parallel are depicted sequentially).

7. Humanism.

8. Lyrical, tragic and comic principles in poems with the unity of artistic style.

9. Constant formulas (like epithets, for example).

10. Hexameter.

Homer is characterized by compound epithets (“swift-footed,” “rose-fingered,” “thunderer”); the meaning of these and other epithets should be considered not situationally, but within the framework of the traditional formulaic system. Thus, the Achaeans are “lush-legged” even if they are not described as wearing armor, and Achilles is “swift-footed” even when resting.

The action of the poem takes place in two parallel planes, human - near Troy and divine - on Olympus.

Artistic features of the Iliad and Odyssey

The images of Homer's heroes are to some extent static, that is, their characters are illuminated somewhat one-sidedly and remain unchanged from the beginning to the end of the action of the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", although each character has his own face, different from the others: resourcefulness is emphasized in the Odyssey mind, in Agamemnon - arrogance and lust for power, in Paris - delicacy, in Helen - beauty, in Penelope - the wisdom and constancy of a wife, in Hector - the courage of the defender of his city and the mood of doom, since he, and his father, and his son, and Troy herself.

The one-sidedness in the depiction of heroes is due to the fact that most of them appear before us in only one situation - in battle, where all the traits of their characters cannot appear. Some exception is Achilles, since he is shown in a relationship with a friend, and in a battle with an enemy, and in a quarrel with Agamemnon, and in a conversation with the elder Priam, and in other situations.

The lack of psychological characteristics of the heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey is partly explained by the tasks of the genre: an epic, which is based on folk art, usually tells about events, about the affairs of some group, and is of little interest to an individual person.

Homer usually resorts to the intervention of the gods to explain an important change in behavior, the motivation for a conscious decision that replaced a momentary impulse.

The stylistic means used in the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” testify to the organic connection of the Homeric epic with its folklore origins; in terms of the abundance of epithets, Homer's poems can only be compared with works of folk art, where most of the nouns are accompanied by definitions. Achilles alone in the Iliad is endowed with 46 epithets. Among the epithets of the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” there are a large number of “constant” ones, that is, intended for any one hero or object. This is also a folklore trait. In Russian epics, for example, the sea is always blue, the hands are white, the fellow is good, the girl is red. In Homer, the sea is noisy, Zeus is the cloud suppressor, Poseidon is the shaker of the earth, Apollo is silver-bowed, the maidens are slender-ankled, Achilles is most often fleet-footed, Odysseus is cunning, Hector is helmet-shining.

Odyssey. After all, generations of heroes descend from Zeus (it’s not for nothing that Homer calls him “the father of men and gods”) or his relatives, so the gods are concerned about the fate of the heroes, and mortal people turn to their immortal patrons with sighs and pleas.

In the Odyssey, the wise goddess Athena and the wise hero Odysseus are inseparable. The goddess quietly watches him and always gets in his way on time - both on the island of the Phaeacians, taking the form of a beautiful maiden, and on Ithaca in the form of a young shepherd. She helps Odysseus and Telemachus hide their weapons; she watches the massacre of the suitors, turning into a swallow and sitting on the ceiling beam; she establishes peace in Ithaca. And it is she, the many-wise daughter of Zeus, who decisively stands up for Odysseus at the council of the gods.

The gods “put” sadness into a person’s heart, “throw” thought into him, “take out” his mind, “take away” fear, so that many mental acts are represented in Homer in a material-physical way. Sometimes the poet depicts the dependence of a person’s actions on the will of the deity in a surprisingly visible way. Thus, in the first song of the Iliad, in the scene of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the angry Achilles is already ready to pull his sword from its sheath and attack the enemy, but at that moment the goddess Athena, standing behind the hero, strongly pulls his light brown curls and he instantly changes his intention.

But this direct connection with the deity does not at all prevent Homeric man from acting independently and creating life with his own hands. Moreover, in some cases, even the gods hesitate when making an important decision, since they do not know the word of fate, on which both mortals and immortals depend.

Obviously, these epithets (almost always decorative) took shape in the poetic language long before the creation of the Iliad and Odyssey, and Homer often uses them as ready-made cliches, sometimes in accordance not with the plot situation, but with the poetic meter. That is why Achilles, for example, is called fleet-footed even when he is sitting, and the sea is noisy when it is calm.

The abundance of everyday details in the Iliad and Odyssey creates the impression of realism in the pictures described, but this is the so-called spontaneous, primitive realism.

Gomrovsky question. The historically characteristic image of the wandering singer Homer is intertwined in the legend preserved for us by ancient authors with all sorts of fantastic inventions. The Homeric question arose due to the lack of any reliable information about Homer already in ancient times. The interpretation of the name Homer already occupied the ancients. It was considered a common noun meaning “blind.” Researchers of the Homeric question interpreted this name in different ways: they saw in it an indication of a closely knit class of singers, and a designation of a singer, and simply the poet’s own name.

The Greek folk epic had an enormous influence on subsequent Greek literature and art, and later, especially through Virgil's Aeneid, served as a model for Western European epic.

The absence of any information about Homer’s personality, as well as the presence of contradictions, stylistic inconsistencies and plot inconsistencies in the poems gave rise to the “Homeric question” - a set of problems associated with the study of the Iliad and Odyssey, and primarily with the authorship of these poems.

In the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” they began to see works created by the people in ancient times, and in the name of Homer - a certain collective name for the author of the Greek epic as a whole. This interpretation of the Homeric question gained popularity because it made it possible to explain the artistic perfection of the Iliad and Odyssey by the nationality of these poems, thereby confirming the romantics' view of folklore as the only source of truly pure poetry. In addition to the analytical and unitary ones, there were various compromise theories of the Homeric question. For example, supporters of the “core core” theory assumed that the original text gradually acquired additions and insertions made by different poets; not only Homer, but three or four poets participated in the composition of the epic, hence the first, second, third editions, etc. Representatives of another theory saw in Homer’s poems a unification of several “small epics.”

There are other interpretations of the Homeric question and opinions about the origins of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but all of them in one way or another come down to the question of the relationship between the personal and collective creativity of the authors of the Homeric epic.

1. The concept of “ancient literature”

Ancient literature is usually called the literature of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Italian humanists of the Renaissance called Greco-Roman culture ancient (from the Latin word antiquus - ancient) as the earliest known to them. This name has remained with it to this day, although more ancient cultures have been discovered since then. It has been preserved as a synonym for classical antiquity, that is, the world that formed the basis for the formation of the entire European civilization.

Literature is a reflection of people's life. Having appeared, it in turn influences the life of the people in one direction or another. Therefore, in order to understand ancient literature, it is necessary to know and understand the life of those peoples who created it. These peoples are the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans. Geography and chronology. The ancient Greeks occupied the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The ancient Romans first inhabited a small area around Rome, in Central Italy (Lacium), then took possession of all of Italy, the Mediterranean countries, including Greece, and, finally, all the then known countries in Europe and the states of Western Asia. The first written monuments of Greek literature date back to the 8th century BC. e. , the first written monuments of Russian literature date back to the 3rd century BC. e. the fall of the Western Roman Empire and at the same time the end of Roman literature date back to the 5th century AD. e. , the end of ancient Greek literature, which later passed on to the path of Byzantine literature, dates back to the same time. Thus, from its origins to medieval literature, ancient literature occupies a huge period of time - about 1200 years.

1. Periodization of Ancient Greek Literature

1) Archaic period (2nd century BC - 5th century AD):

a) the period of formation of the classical slave society and state of the 5th-7th centuries. BC. (Lyrics of Archilochus)

b) Homeric period 8th century. BC. (epic poetry) 1. Homeric epic (Homer) 2. Didactic epic (Hesiod)

c) pre-literary, pre-Homeric period. (from 2nd century BC – 8th century BC)

2) Attic or classical period (5th century BC) Center of Athens. This is the period of heyday and formation of the policy. Drama occurs in the attic in two forms.

1) Tragedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles)

2) Comedy (Aristophanes). At the same time, the development of theater and drama took place.

3) Hellenistic period (3rd century BC) The period of the Greco-Macedonian wars. Epic poem (“Apollonius of Rhodes”) Alexandrian poetry (Callimachus, Theocritus) Menander – creator of the epic poem

4) Greek literature of the era of Roman rule (from 1st century BC to 5th century AD) This is the period when Greece became a province of the Roman Empire. But, nevertheless, people still came there to study. Genre of literary biography (Plutarch) Classical satire (Lucian) Novel (2nd sophistry, historiography, travelogue. The Greeks considered the novel a low form of literature. Lot and Heliodorus. They tried to bring the novel to a higher level)

1. Greek mythology. The main mythological cycles are Trojan, Theban and Argonautica

Greek mythology or the mythology of Ancient Greece arose much later than most of the ancient ideas of the Greek people about the world. The Hellenes, like other peoples of antiquity, sought to somehow unravel the formidable and often incomprehensible natural phenomena, to understand those mysterious unknown forces that control human life. The fantasy of the ancient Greeks gave birth to ancient Greek mythology and populated the surrounding world with good and evil fairy-tale creatures: dryads settled in groves and trees, nymphs settled in rivers, oreads settled in the mountains, and oceanids settled in the oceans and seas. The appearance of nature, wild and rebellious, was personified by centaurs and satyrs. When studying Greek mythology, it becomes clear that the world at that time was ruled by immortal gods, good and wise. They lived on the top of the huge Mount Olympus and were presented as beautiful and perfect creatures, similar in appearance to people. They were a single family, the head of which was Zeus the Thunderer. The humanization of divine beings is a characteristic feature of the Greek religion, which made it possible to make Greek mythology closer to ordinary people. External beauty was considered the highest measure of perfection. So, the powerful forces of nature, previously beyond the control of man, much less his influence, became understandable, became more explainable and understandable to the imagination of an ordinary person. The Greek people became the creator of uniquely colorful myths and legends about the lives of people, gods and heroes. In ancient Greek mythology, memories of a distant, long-forgotten past and poetic fiction merged together. Individual legends about the Greek gods were combined into complex cosmogonic legends (about the emergence of man and the world). Greek mythology is a primitive attempt to comprehend reality, to give purposefulness and harmony to the entire natural picture, and to expand life experience. The unforgettableness of the myths and legends of Ancient Greece is explained extremely simply: no other human creation is distinguished by such richness and completeness of images. Subsequently, philosophers and historians, poets and artists, sculptors and writers turned to ancient Greek mythology, drawing ideas for their own works from the inexhaustible sea of ​​legendary stories, introducing into the myths a new mythological worldview that corresponded to that historical period.

Well-known cycles of ancient Greek myths are the Trojan cycle, the Theban cycle, and the cycle of myths about the Argonauts.

Trojan cycle of myths of Ancient Greece talks about events related to the city of Troy and the Trojan War. The war began due to the abduction of Helen the Beautiful by Paris, and ended with the destruction of Troy.

Cycle of myths about the Argonauts tells about Jason and his family, about the journey on the ship "Argo" for the Golden Fleece, Jason's marriage to Medea, and about further events in the life of the Argonauts: Jason's betrayal and his attempt at a new marriage, about Medea's terrible revenge, about the end of Jason's life.

Theban cycle of myths tells about the founding of the city of Thebes in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, about the fate of the Theban king Oedipus and his descendants.

Summary of the Theban cycle of myths: The founder of Thebes was a Phoenician, prince Cadmus. His sister Europa was kidnapped by Zeus and carried across the sea in the form of a bull. The brother, looking for his sister, ended up in Hellas and founded Thebes. The descendants of Cadmus began to rule the city.

The next king, Lai, was predicted that he would be killed by his own son. This was punishment for a crime: one day Lai kidnapped a man’s son. When he and his wife Jocasta had a son, the father ordered the newborn to be thrown into the abyss to be devoured by wild beasts.

But the shepherds found the baby, raised him and named him Oedipus. Not knowing who his parents were, Oedipus came to Thebes and killed Laius in a street fight.

Then the Sphinx, a monster, threatened the city. The Sphinx asked riddles, and when people did not guess them, he devoured them. Oedipus guessed the riddle of the Sphinx: “Who walks on four in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” The answer was: “Man.” The Sphinx threw himself from a cliff, and Oedipus saved the city, became its king, married the widow Queen Jocasta, not knowing that this was his mother, and they had children, several sons and a daughter, Antigone.

When the truth subsequently became known, Jocasta hanged herself, unable to bear the shame. Out of grief, Oedipus gouged out his eyes and left Thebes. He became a beggar and traveled with his daughter Antigone, who was his guide. None of the children wanted to follow him. Oedipus died in poverty, and Antigone returned to Thebes.

The sons of Oedipus disputed power among themselves, and when one of them was killed, his sister Antigone buried him according to custom, despite the severe prohibition of the other brother. In Ancient Greece, leaving a person without burial was considered the worst mockery of him. So that the shameful punishment promised by another brother would not fall on her, Antigone voluntarily committed suicide.

Cretan cycle of myths: Zeus, Minos, Minotaur.

For the Greeks, Crete has always remained a place shrouded in legends telling about amazing events that once took place here. According to myths, in Crete in a cave on the mountain Dikti(or Dikta) 1 the baby was covered Zeus whose mother Rhea hid from her cruel father Crown. Subsequently Zeus, having become the ruler of the Olympic gods, brought the daughter of the Phoenician king to Crete Agenora Europe, which he kidnapped by turning into a bull. Europe gave birth to 3 sons - Rhadamantha, Sarpedona And Minos.

Having matured, Minos gained supreme power over all of Crete and gave the first laws to the inhabitants of the island. Despite the favor of his divine parent, Minos were constantly plagued by failures. God of the sea Poseidon, angered by deception Minos, forced the wife of the Cretan king to enter into an unnatural relationship with a bull, from the union with which he was born Minotaur- a man with a bull's head. By order Minos Athenian architect and sculptor Daedalus built in Knossos 2 Labyrinth, where they were imprisoned forever Minotaur. When one of the sons died in Athens Minos, the Cretan king sailed to the shores of Attica and abandoned the country to devastation. Driven to despair, the Athenians concluded with Minos an agreement under which they agreed to send a kind of tax to Crete - 14 boys and girls selected by lot, doomed to die in the Labyrinth at the hands of Minotaur. A few years later the young hero Theseus decided to relieve his compatriots from a terrible burden by voluntarily going to Crete with another batch of young people. Having won the heart of the daughter of the Cretan king with his nobility Ariadne, Theseus got it on advice Daedalus from his beloved a ball of long thread, with the help of which he got out of the Labyrinth after defeating Minotaur.

The legend about the Atrid family.

Pelops, who deceived the charioteer Myrtilus, to whom he promised half the kingdom for his help in the victory over King Oenomaus, and in an insidious manner killed his comrade-in-arms, was cursed by him, and his sons Atreus and Thyestes spent their lives in mutual enmity. Atreus, through a misunderstanding, killed his own son, sent by Thyestes, for which he treated his brother to the roasted meat of his own children. Atreus threw his wife Aerope, who was intriguing in favor of Thyestes, into the sea and sent his son Thyestes to kill his own father. But, having guessed his plan, the nephew killed Atreus. One of the Atrides, Agamemnon, died at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and his cousin Aegisthus, who were harassed by the son of the hero of the Trojan War Orestes, for which he was persecuted by the goddess of vengeance Erinyes. The curse of the Atrides - descendants of the Mycenaean king Atreus - was to fade only when Orestes, the last of the dynasty, exhausted his punishment by committing murder and being purified at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi and at the Athenian Areopagus (court), where Pallas Athena presided. The legends about Tantalus, Pelops, the brothers Atreus and Thyestes, as well as the Atrids became the subjects of many tragedies. Homer and Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus and Euripides, Aeschylus and Pindar, Thucydides and Sophocles, Seneca and Ovid and, of course, classics of other eras turned to the bloody myth.

Theban cycle.

Oedipus. His childhood. Youth and return to Thebes

Oedipus in Thebes

Death of Oedipus

Seven against Thebes

Antigone

Campaign of the Epigones

Seven against Thebes.

In mythical Greece there were two most powerful kingdoms: Thebes in Central Greece and Argos in Southern Greece. There was once a king in Thebes named Laius. He received a prophecy: “If you don’t give birth to a son, you will destroy the kingdom!” Laius did not listen and gave birth to a son named Oedipus. He wanted to destroy the baby; but Oedipus escaped, grew up on the wrong side, and then accidentally killed Laius, not knowing that it was his father, and married his widow, not knowing that it was his mother. How this happened, and how it was revealed, and how Oedipus suffered for it, another playwright, Sophocles, will tell us. But the worst thing - the death of the kingdom - was yet to come.

From an incestuous marriage with his own mother, Oedipus had two sons and two daughters: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone and Yemene. When Oedipus renounced power, his sons turned away from him, reproaching him for his sin. Oedipus cursed them, promising them to share power with the sword among themselves. And so it happened. The brothers agreed to rule alternately, each for a year. But after the first year, Eteocles refused to leave and expelled Polyneices from Thebes. Polyneices fled to the southern kingdom - to Argos. There he gathered his allies, and all of them went to the seven gates of Thebes. In the decisive battle, the two brothers came together and killed each other: Eteocles wounded Polynices with a spear, he fell to his knee, Eteocles hovered over him, and then Polynices struck him from below with a sword. The enemies wavered, Thebes was saved this time. Only a generation later, the sons of seven leaders came to Thebes on a campaign and wiped Thebes off the face of the earth for a long time: the prophecy came true.

Aeschylus wrote a trilogy about this, three tragedies: “Laius” - about the culprit king, “Oedipus” - about the sinner king and “Seven against Thebes” - about Eteocles, the hero king who gave his life for his city. Only the last one has survived.

Voyage of the Argonauts.

Argonauts - in ancient Greek mythology, participants in the expedition to Colchis (the Black Sea coast) on the ship "Argo".
The ship was built with the help of Athena, who inserted a piece of sacred centuries-old oak into its hull, conveying the will of the gods with the rustling of its leaves.
The Argonauts led by Jason, among whom were the Dioscuri twins - Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux), Hercules, Orpheus, Peleus, the soothsayer Pug, Eurytus (Ευρυτος, son of Hermes and Antianira, brother of Echion), Hylas (the favorite of Hercules, the naiads captivated by his beauty, carried away into the abyss during the campaign) and Telamon, were supposed to return to Greece the golden fleece of the magic ram, taken to Colchis.
Apollodorus lists 45 Argonauts. According to Diodorus, who does not give a list, there were 54 in total. According to Theocritus, there were 60, according to a number of other authors, only 50. Since the lists contradict each other, more than ninety names of heroes are found in various lists.
Having experienced many adventures, the Argonauts fulfilled the order and returned the fleece to Greece, while the sorceress Medea, the daughter of the Colchian king, whom Jason later took as his wife, helped Jason take possession of the golden fleece. According to Hesiod, they sailed along the Phasis to the ocean, then arrived in Libya.