God change. Myths and legends

Elena - in Greek mythology, the Spartan queen, the most beautiful of women. According to the most popular version of the myth, Helen was the daughter of the mortal woman Leda and the god Zeus, who appeared to Leda in the form of a beautiful swan. From this union, Leda gave birth to an egg from which Elena emerged. According to another version of the myth, Leda only kept an egg laid by the goddess of retribution Nemesis from her marriage to Zeus and found by a shepherd. When a girl emerged from the egg, Leda raised her as her daughter. In her youth, Helen was kidnapped by Theseus and Pirithous, but when they went to the kingdom of Hades for Persephone, Helen was released and brought back by her brothers Dioscuri.

The rumor about the beauty of Elena spreads throughout Greece and several dozen of the most famous heroes come to woo her, including Odysseus, Menelaus, Diomedes, both Ajax, Patroclus. The earthly father of Elena Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, in order to avoid insults among the suitors, on the advice of Odysseus, binds all the suitors of Elena with an oath to protect the honor of her future husband in the future. After that, Tyndareus chooses Menelaus as the husband of Helen. This choice was clearly influenced by the fact that Clytemestre (another daughter of Tyndareus) was married to Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

Soon Tyndareus ceded the royal power in Sparta to Menelaus and his daughter Helen. In a marriage with Menelaus, Helen gave birth to a daughter, Hermione. The serene life of Menelaus and Helen lasted about 10 years, until the Trojan prince Paris came to Sparta, to whom Aphrodite promised the most beautiful of women (Helen) as a reward for the fact that Paris recognized Aphrodite as the most beautiful of the goddesses. Paris, taking advantage of the absence of Menelaus, takes Helen to Troy. According to the most popular version of the myth, Aphrodite inspired Helen with a love for Paris, which Helen could not resist. There was another version of the myth, expressed by the ancient Greek poet Stesichorus. When he wrote a hymn about the abduction of Helen by Paris, he went blind that very night. The poet prayed to the gods for healing. Then Elena appeared to him in a dream and said that this was a punishment for the fact that he composed such unkind verses about her. Stesichorus then composed a new chant - that Paris did not take Elena to Troy at all, but only her ghost, while the gods transferred the real Elena to Egypt, and she remained there, faithful to Menelaus, until the very end of the war. After this, Stesichorus received his sight. The Greek playwright Euripides relied on this version of the myth in the tragedy "Helen", and from the writers of modern times, for example, Henry Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang in the novel "The Dream of the World".

Arriving in Troy, Helen won the hearts of the Trojans with her beauty. Soon Menelaus and Odysseus arrive in Troy to return Helen peacefully, but the Trojans refuse to extradite Helen and a war begins that lasts 10 years.

Pierre Delrome. Hector, Helen and Paris. Hector urges Paris to fight

In the Iliad by Homer, Elena is burdened by her position, because the spell of Aphrodite, which caused love for Paris, has already been dispelled. In the 4th song of the Odyssey, Elena tells how during the war she helped Odysseus, who secretly entered the city:

Throwing the drug into the wine and ordering the wine to spread,
Thus began Helen, born of Zeus, to speak:
235 "King Menelaus Atreid, pet of Zeus, and all of you,
Children of brave men! At will, Zeus sends
People are both evil and good, for everything is possible for Kronid.
Sitting here in the high hall, feast in fun, conversation
Amuse yourself, and I would like to tell you the right one.
240 Feats of all Odysseus, in the suffering of a strong spirit,
I can't tell or list them in detail.
But I will tell you what act he dared to fearlessly
In the distant Trojan region, where you, the Achaeans, suffered like that.
Having beaten his body in the most shameful way,
245 With a miserable rag, like a slave, dressing his shoulders,
In the wide-street city of hostile husbands, he made his way.
Hiding himself like that, he was completely like a husband to another -
The beggar, as never before, was seen near the courts.
Having taken the image, he went to Ilion, suspicious
250 Not arousing in anyone. I just recognized him right away.
She began to ask, but he cunningly evaded the answers.
Only when I washed it and rubbed it with oil,
She put on a dress and swore a great oath to him,
That only then will I give Odysseus to the Trojans when he
255 He will return to the camp to himself, to the fleeting Achaean ships, -
Only then did he reveal to me the whole plan of the cunning Achaeans.
There are many Trojans in the city, having beaten them with long-bladed brass,
He returned to the Achaeans, bringing them knowledge of many things.
The other Trojan women sobbed loudly. But full of joy
260 It was my heart: for a long time I was eager to leave
Home again and grieved for the blindness
Aphrodite sent me, taking me away from my homeland,
Throw forcing both the daughter, and the marriage bedroom, and the husband,
Who could compete with everyone in spirit and appearance.

Also during the siege of Troy, Helen helps Odysseus and Diomedes steal a wooden statue of the goddess Athena from a local temple.

Menelaus, after the capture of Troy, is looking for Elena with a sword in his hand to execute her for treason, but at the sight of Elena, shining with her former beauty, he releases the sword from his hands and forgives her.

In the Egyptian version of the myth, Menelaus arrives with Helen's ghost in Egypt to find the real Helen. The ghost of Helen ascends to heaven, and the true Helen returns to Menelaus.
After her death, Helena was transferred to the island of Leuka at the mouth of the Danube, where she joined the eternal union with Achilles (according to one of the myths, Helen and Achilles met on the Trojan Plain shortly before Achilles' death). However, another myth looks more plausible, according to which, on the islands of the blessed, Achilles was united by an eternal union with Medea. The passionate and strong Medea is much more similar to Penthesilea, once loved by Achilles, than Elena, obedient to fate. Henry Rider Haggard, relying on information about the meeting of Odysseus and Helen in Troy, in the novel "The Dream of Peace" forever connects the fate of Helen with another hero of the Trojan War - Odysseus.

The anger of the Spartan king against an unfaithful wife, already softened by her beauty at the first meeting, disappeared completely during further communication. It was impossible to apply the usual measure to the daughter of Nemesis: just as the years spent in Troy slipped over her without a trace, without touching her, so in her temper she stood above human law. She wanted to become the wife of Menelaus again and again became her - and not she was with him, but he was in captivity with her.
However, for now, both of them were in captivity of the whimsical goddess, who decided to keep them away from both her old and her new homeland. The storm that tore off the ship of Menelaus from the others soon raged; but when the sky cleared, neither Menelaus nor his skillful helmsman knew where they were or where they should go. They took the direction at random in order to get at least somewhere, to some people and learn further from them; and, indeed, they saw populated cities, grazing cattle, cultivated fields, but the people did not understand their language and had no idea about Hellas and Troy. Some of them were greeted hospitably, others had to be saved in a hasty flight. Sometimes need forced swimmers to turn into sea robbers and, by a sudden raid on a seaside village, provide themselves with food for the coming days. Days, months, years passed like that—nine full years. Everyone was tired and wild, and there was still no end in sight.
Finally, fate took pity on the wanderers: in the country that sheltered them, they recognized Egypt, the ancient homeland of Danae, the ancestor of the kings of Argos. Although hospitality did not belong to the primordial qualities of his people, nevertheless, the lesson once given by Hercules to Busirides did not go unnoticed: the Egyptian king received the Hellenic wanderers cordially and showed them the path that they should follow in order to get home. With joy in their hearts, they moved on, reached the island of Pharos - suddenly the weather changed, a sharp north wind blew, there was no way to continue the journey. The swimmers wandered inactively over the deserted island; they remembered the distant days of Aulis. The supplies given by the hospitable king quickly ran out; sailors began to fish, partly to kill boredom, partly to feed themselves. But the wind remained the same, no one could predict the end of the disaster.
With longing in his soul, Menelaus also wandered along the dull shore of a flat island. Suddenly he sees - among the foam of waves crashing against the rocks, the fair-haired head of a girl is shown, behind her shoulders, chest - and suddenly an indescribable beauty stands in front of him. There is a wreath of algae on her hair, sea water flows from a blue dress; approaches the hero, puts his hand on his shoulder: “What are you thinking about? Can I help the trouble? He told her everything. She shook her head. “Obviously,” he says, “some god is angry with you, but which one, for what and how to propitiate him, I don’t know; it requires someone smarter than poor Idofei.” "Who is this?" - Menelaus asked. - "My father, Proteus." - "So lead me to him, I will beg him." Idothea laughed: “So he will obey you! No, this is where the trick is needed. Listen: take three reliable comrades with you and bring them here; In the meantime, I'll get down to business."
Fulfilling her will, Menelaus brought with him three of his best sailors and began to wait for the appearance of an affectionate nymph. And indeed, she soon swam again from her underwater chamber and brought with her four walrus skins. “My father,” she said, “will soon come here from the depths of the sea to bask in the sun with his herd of walruses. If he recognizes you as people, he will immediately hide, and then everything is lost. But I will cover you with these skins, and he will take you for walruses. Having counted his flock, he will take a nap; then you pounce on him and hold him tight. Do you hear? Hold tight and don't let him in, no matter what he does, no matter how he scares you. He cannot harm you, but he can scare you: don’t be cowards.”
With these words, she put on each walrus skin. But the matter was not very easy. Finding himself in the skin of a sea monster, Menelaus almost suffocated: he had never inhaled such a stench in his entire life. I had to call on Idothea again. She laughed: “Yes, yes, this is more difficult than taking Troy! Fortunately, I have a tool for this too. Diving into her underwater chamber, she took out a bottle of ambrosia from there and anointed the edge of each under the nose. Immediately the stench passed; it seemed to the Achaeans that they were in the garden of Zeus, in the flower garden of the Hesperides. And they patiently began to wait for the arrival of the prophetic sea elder.
And so he came - a small stature, cunning eyes, a long gray beard; behind him is a herd of his walruses; are located around our fake walruses, buried their muzzles in the sand and doze. The old man, apparently, is also tending to sleep; however, he fulfills his duty, he begins to consider his company, if there are any deserters - everything is safe, even, as if there are superfluous ones; sits down on the sand, his chest sunk in a beard, his nose in a walrus mustache, his eyes under thick eyelashes. Asleep.
Menelaus, who watched everything told through the eye holes of his walrus skin, quietly crawled out from under it and signaled to his comrades to follow his example. They had already taken the ropes with them; rushing together at the old man, they began to knit him. The matter, however, proved to be difficult. The old man opened his eyes, quickly understood his position, and the next moment, under the hands of the Achaeans, there was no longer an old man, but a lion - huge, angry, with a raised mane. One of them jumped back in fright, but the others, remembering the words of Idothea, did not let the monster out of their hands: they knew that this transformation was only a deception for the eyes, that the imaginary lion had no more strength than the former old man. Seeing that the lion did not work, Proteus suddenly turned into a dolphin in order to escape from the enemy by jumping into the sea. But he failed to jump: the ropes held him by the fins and tail, and the comrades of Menelaus, in addition, sat on him, one astride his back, the other on his flat muzzle. To get rid of these unpleasant riders, Proteus suddenly became a smooth snake, and at first things did not go badly. Both Achaeans rolled onto the sand, and he managed to slip out of the ropes. But on the other hand, Menelaus, grabbing him by the throat, began to strangle him so cruelly that he soon wilted. And suddenly the kite broke into a stream of water, which began to gradually flow down the sloping shore into the sea. But the hero did not let himself be embarrassed by this cunning: he instantly made a fifth deep furrow in the soft sand, the water gathered in this furrow, it was impossible to flow further. An ordinary puddle formed; our swimmers sit along its edges and see what will happen next. The puddle became muddied, boiled, splashed like a fountain - and the fountain became a seagull with outstretched wings, ready to take flight. And this, however, failed: both the wings and legs of the gull ended up in the tenacious hands of the Achaeans; no matter how she floundered, she could not free herself. She rested on the ground, and as if rooted to it; the wings became spreading branches, and in an instant, before the astonished eyes of the Achaeans, there stood a huge poplar tree, the green top of which rustled merrily under the gusts of the north wind. It was unpleasant; Of course, it was impossible for Proteus to run in this form, but he could, if he wished, starve out his opponents. "Bring the axe!" shouted Menelaus to one of his comrades. Poplar, apparently, was frightened: he shrank, hissed, and suddenly became fire. "Skin him!" - Menelaus shouted - and the free son of ether under the walrus skin, as if in an oven, lost his agility and began to humbly lick its wet surface. He did not like this occupation: having exhausted the circle of his seven transformations, he again took on his former appearance of a sea old man. “I see,” he said sullenly, “that my worthless daughter has taught you; tell me what you need!"
Menelaus posed his question - “How did you anger the gods? asked Proteus. “Because you are always pointlessly in a hurry. So you did at Troy; your brother told you that before leaving, you must make a sacrifice to the immortal gods; and you didn't have the patience. But he, having brought the hecatomb, was in his homeland in a few days; True, he immediately died at the hands of his wicked wife, but the gods are already innocent of this. And you…” “Wait,” shouted Menelaus, turning pale, “did you say that my brother, Agamemnon, died at the hands of his wife? How did it happen?
And Proteus told him what we already know - about the bloody font prepared by Clytemnestra in Mycenae for her returned husband, about her criminal reign, about how Orestes grows up as an exile in a foreign land - this was before his revenge. Then he continued. “And now again, when the hope of returning to Hellas flashed on you, you did not think about making a proper sacrifice to the immortal gods. Return to Egypt, fulfill your duty, and then the gentle south wind will direct you across the Libyan Sea to the shores of the Peloponnese.
Menelaus followed the elder's advice, and his wish came true. But what he heard about the fate of his brother made him go to Mycenae first. He arrived there the day after Orest's vengeance; He buried Clytemnestra and Aegisthus and established a temporary ruling council of elders until the purification and return of the legitimate heir Orestes. Only after that did he return to Sparta, where he took over the reins of government from the hands of the aged Tyndar. He gave his daughter Hermione, in fulfillment of the word given under Troy, to Neoptolemus; more about this marriage will be told. In general, his later life was peaceful and happy; having lived to a ripe old age, he, not having experienced death, was transferred by the gods to the Champs Elysees, where he enjoyed eternal bliss with other favorites of the gods.
But Elena did not follow him there: she was given to him only as an earthly wife. At the same time, the gods decided on the day of the great reconciliation to create both strength above strength, and beauty above beauty - to create Achilles and Helen, so that a great war would arise and the burden of Mother Earth would be lightened. This task was completed; now they both, and the son of Peleus and the daughter of Nemesis, were settled together on the White Island, which is at the very entrance to Pontus Euxinus.

Agamemnon

Agamemnon- in ancient Greek mythology, the king of Mycenae, the son of the Mycenaean king Atreus and Aeropa (or Plisfen and Cleolla, or Plisfen and Aeropa) and the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, one of the main heroes of the ancient Greek national epic - Homer's Iliad. In modern science, it is identified with Akagamunas (14th century BC), mentioned in Hittite texts.

After the murder of his father by his nephew Aegisthus, the son of Tiesta, Agamemnon fled with his brother to Sparta, where he sought refuge with Tyndareus. Here the brothers married the daughters of the Spartan king Tyndareus, Agamemnon to Clytemnestra, Menelaus to Helen. After the death of Tyndareus, the throne passed to Menelaus. With the help of his brother, Agamemnon overthrew Fiesta from the throne and reigned in Mycenae. Subsequently, he expanded his possessions and became the most powerful ruler in all of Greece.

His children are Orestes, Chrysothemis, Electra and Iphigenia (in the early version, the children of Ifimedes, Electra, Orestes).

Trojan War

During the Trojan War, Agamemnon was in command of the entire army. Those who decided to march against Ilion conferred at Ellenion in Sparta. According to another version, they conferred in Aegion (Achaia), which is why the statue of Zeus Gomagyria stands there. Those who went on a campaign to Ilion swore not to stop the war at the statue of Zeus Mekhanei in Argos. Before the war, Agamemnon visited the oracle at Delphi. The copper threshold of the tent of Agamemnon was shown in Aulis. He accidentally killed the doe of Artemis and was forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

Brought 100 ships under Troy. He erected an altar to 12 gods on the island of Lekt, as well as the sanctuary of the king at Lake Selinusia (Ionia). In the Iliad, he killed 11 Trojans. Killed Iphidamant and Glaucus. Killed 16 warriors in total. In the funeral games for Achilles, he participated in the competition of equestrians.

Because of the beautiful captive Briseis, he had a strife with Achilles. Evil fate pursued his entire family, starting with the ancestor Tantalus and ending with Agamemnon himself and his children - Iphigenia and Orestes.

Return and death

According to a later version, returning from Troy, he visited Iphigenia in Tauris. Either along the way he founded Mycenae, Tegea and Pergamon in Crete.

Upon returning to his homeland with Cassandra, one of the daughters of Priam, taken as booty, he died at the hands of Aegisthus (according to Homer) - or his wife - according to other sources (tragedy). Cassandra suffered the same fate. Those who returned with him from Ilion were killed by Aegisthus at a feast, their graves, like those of Agamemnon, at Mycenae. Also a grave monument in Amikla. He built the temple of Athena at Cape Onugnafon in Laconia. He was revered in Klazomeni. Odysseus meets him in Hades. Zeus-Agamemnon was revered in Sparta. According to Stesichorus and Simonides, his palace in Sparta. After death, his soul chose the life of an eagle.

Courage, nobility and royal grandeur distinguished, according to Homer, this husband. Sad fate and his fatal end in particular were a favorite theme of ancient tragedies. His burial place is called Mycenae and Amikles. In Sparta, Agamemnon was given divine honors. In Chaeronea, his scepter, the work of Hephaestus, was kept as a shrine. Images of Agamemnon are often found in monuments of art, but only very rarely in the foreground. "Agamemnon" was called Mr. Pompey.

The protagonist of the tragedies of Aeschylus "Agamemnon", Sophocles "Eant", Euripides "Iphigenia in Aulis" and "Hekaba", Ion of Chios and the unknown author of "Agamemnon", Seneca "Trojanka" and "Agamemnon".

Menelaus

Menelaus- the legendary hero of the Homeric epic "Iliad", the husband of Elena. Menelaus was the son of Atreus (according to Plisfen) and Aeropa, the younger brother of Agamemnon.

Menelaus and Agamemnon, expelled by Fiesta, fled from Mycenae to Sparta, to Tyndareus, whose daughter, Elena, Menelaus married, inheriting the throne of his father-in-law. They had a daughter, Hermione. During the abduction of Helen, Menelaus was visiting Crete.

Trojan War

When Paris took Helen away, Menelaus and Odysseus went to Ilion (Troy) and demanded the extradition of the kidnapped wife, but to no avail.

Returning home, Menelaus, with the help of Agamemnon, gathered friendly kings for the Ilion campaign, and he himself put up 60 ships, recruiting soldiers in Lacedaemon, Amykla and other cities. Gathering an army, he planted a plane tree near Mount Kafiy in Arcadia. According to the Iliad, he killed 7 named Trojans. Killed 8 warriors in total. Killed Euphorbus, the shield he took from Euphorbus, he later dedicated to the temple of Hera near Mycenae.

Before Ilion, Menelaus, having the help of Hera and Athena, showed himself to be a valiant warrior and a reasonable adviser. When Paris announced a challenge to single combat, Menelaus gladly agreed and rushed at the enemy so fiercely that the latter was frightened and began to retreat. Hector shamed Paris, and the single combat took place: Menelaus grabbed Paris by the helmet and dragged him to the Achaean squads, but Aphrodite saved her favorite. The victorious side began to demand the extradition of Helen and the treasures taken with her, but Pandarus, who stepped out of the ranks of the Trojans, wounded Menelaus and thereby eliminated the possibility of a truce. Later, Menelaus is called to single combat with Hector, but at the request of his friends he leaves this dangerous plan; in the same way Antilochus kept him from competing with Aeneas. When Patroclus fell, Menelaus was among those who protected the body of the slain hero. In the funerary games, Patroclus won in the javelin throw. In the Achilles games, he won the chariot race.

When the wooden horse was built, Menelaus, along with others, was brought into the city of Troy and was one of the first to start a decisive battle in the streets of Troy, which led to the fall of the latter. Depicted in a painting by Polygnotus at Delphi among the participants in the capture of Troy with a dragon on a shield.

Return to Greece

After the capture of Troy, Athena caused a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus. On the way back, he got into a storm, moored at Cape Sunia, then to Crete, wandered through Libya, Phenicia, Cyprus, and arrived in Egypt with only 5 ships. After wandering for 8 years in the East, he was detained for some time on the island of Pharos and suffered hunger until, on the advice of Idothea, her father Proteus helped him sail home. Stories about the stay of Menelaus in Libya are associated with the Cyrenian colonization. The harbor at Ardanida (Cyrenaica) bore the name of Menelaus. According to another version, Menelaus in Egypt married the royal daughter, according to him, the Egyptians wrote down the history of the Trojan War on the steles.

Returning to his homeland, he lived with Elena in Lacedaemon, and after his death was transferred to Elysium. Telemachus visits Menelaus and Helen in Sparta. Hera made him immortal and he arrived at the Elysian Fields with Helen. His house was shown in Sparta. The graves of Menelaus and Helen were shown in Ferapna, where his sanctuary was located and took place in honor of his game. In relation to Agamemnon, he considered himself a subordinate, recognizing his supreme power in everything.

The protagonist in the tragedies of Sophocles "Eant", Euripides "Iphigenia in Aulis", "Troyanki", "Helen", "Orest", "Andromache", the comedy of Alexis "Menelaus". Among the Spartans, the name Menelaus does not occur.

MENELAUS

- King of Sparta. Husband of Helen the Beautiful, daughter of Leda and Zeus. The son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Aeropa, brother of Agamemnon, married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra. He organized a military campaign near Troy in order to return Helen abducted by the Trojan Paris - this campaign became known as the Trojan War. Elena bore him a daughter, Hermione. Megapent's father (from a slave). See about it in more detail.

Myths of Ancient Greece, dictionary-reference book. 2012

God change. Myths and legends

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