The best works of world literature. The exploits of Hercules: a brief summary (myths of Ancient Greece)

Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations are considered the cradle of European culture. The literature of that time, preserved in myths and legends, hand-written scrolls and retold lists, found vivid reflection in almost all forms of art - painting, sculpture, architecture, music, cinema. Greek and Roman mythology is very popular. And Hercules, who is also Hercules, an undaunted strong man, has become a figure of the nominal!

Biography of the hero

The Greeks themselves were very fond of recounting the exploits of Hercules to each other. Summary (myths of Ancient Greece and other sources) they can be found in various written documents of subsequent eras. The main character of these stories - a face uneasy. He is the son of the very god Zeus, the supreme ruler of Olympus, the thunder-storm and master of all other deities and mere mortals. And his mother is an ordinary woman. The offspring of such unions were called heroes. After all, they were endowed with immense physical strength, military valor and, most importantly, immortality. And as to how all of this can be used, we can tell the exploits of Hercules (summary). Myths of Ancient Greece say that he had to commit them at the behest of the jealous wife of Zeus, Hera. After all, it was she who took up arms against the illegitimate son of her unfaithful spouse and ordered him to be in the service of the cowardly and stupid Efrisfey. 12 of the most difficult tasks were required to fulfill the hero for his release.

The content of myths

The narrative of them is included in the notion of "the exploits of Hercules." A brief summary (the myths of Ancient Greece - the main source of information) are such.

1. In the Kiferon Mountains, a ferocious man-eating lion roams with such a solid hide that it is impossible to penetrate anything. Hercules managed to trick the beast into a trap, strangle him, and the hero, taken from the Nemean lion, began to use the hero as his main clothes.
2. The massacre with the Lernaean Hydra is included in the heroic exploits of Hercules. A brief summary (the myths of ancient Greece, by the way, explain where the constellation of Cancer and Hydra originated from!) Is very interesting. Hydra - a monstrous form of a multi-headed snake, devouring all living things or poisoning its poison (bile). When Hercules fought against her, it was supported by all the inhabitants of land, water and sky. Only the cancer crawled out of its hole and bit the hero. For which he was crushed. However, the magnanimous giant threw him high into the sky, and the obstinate became a constellation.
3. Listing the exploits of Hercules, a brief summary of them, it is worth mentioning about the victory over birds with steel feathers, sharp as arrows - Stymphal. And the cleaning of the Augean stables, the extraction of the magic apples of the Hesperides, for which our hero had to be in the role of the Atlantean, taming the mighty boar from Eryphania and the same terrible bull from the island of Crete - all this added glory and honor to the strength and courage of Hercules!

... And other stories

What else are the exploits of Hercules interesting? The content of myths has brought to us such stories: the hero caught the favorite of Artemis, the Cyrene deer; Coped with Diomedes himself, a cruel king who fed his wild horses to travelers-strangers; Stole the belt from the very Hippolyta, the leader of the Amazons - wayward maidens-warriors. And even the cows in the three-headed Gerion-the eerie kind of giant-managed to steal! In total, on the Hero's account, about 50 miraculous feats. Not without reason in Greece there was even a cult of Hercules! That's what he is - a popular character in myths!

In Russian, the historian-writer B. Kuhn most fully described the content of most of the myths of the ancient Greeks.