Myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece (Theogony). Who are the Titans in Greek mythology

Part II. The Legend of Hercules, the Titan Dragon Ladon and the Golden Apples of the Hesperides

“Get me three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides,” King Eurystheus ordered.

Hercules did not answer. He turned and walked out silently from Tiryns onto the rocky road.

Wind-Zephyr is light and fast. But the news of the voluntary death of the centaur Chiron, who gave his immortality to Prometheus, lay heavy on the wings of the Wind.

The wings of the Wind bent under the weight of the news, and the mournful path was slow. From mountain to mountain the Wind carried bitter news to the gray Ocean. And, hearing that news through a stone dream, each mountain along the way woke up completely shocked, swaying from the foot to the top, and for a long time its wooded crown swayed so sadly in the clouds. And in the deep depths of her stone soul, diamonds of tears and golden and silver silent words about the wise centaur were born, congealing as gold and silver thought-ore for centuries and millennia.

The gorges groaned, contracting in pain, stones rolled along the beds of mountain rivers dried up from grief, the sands crumbled into dust, and underground streams froze in the hot springs.

The Wind carried the news of Chiron's death to the ends of the earth and brought it down on the heart of the Man-Mountain:

Chiron is dead!

The titan's strength trembled, its shoulders bent, its legs buckled, and Atlas staggered. And the sky swayed with him, swayed for the first time in its heavenly uranium life. And the golden houses of the victorious gods swayed in the sky, amphoras and cups on the divine feast table overturned, and the drink of immortality spilled onto the earth with boiling fire.

The gods were confused. They stood up in alarm from their golden seats: their world rocked.

And already, secretly rejoicing, the messenger of the gods, the Titanide Iris, rushed across the rainbow bridges, to the ends of the world, to Atlas. She spread out her colored clothes before the eyes of the titan, as if sewn from all the joys of the world, lay down in the middle of them and said:

Titan, don’t frown, don’t look so angrily at Iris. I am the voice of the gods. But I am still the same heliad Iris, child of the titans. You do not shake the sky of the gods, but the sky of the living world. It will collapse and earthly living life will perish. Only the dead one will remain - overseas. Have pity, Atlas, all living things!

And in response two words fell:

Chiron died.

Iris covered her face with clothes. Only the colors of the folds of clothing shimmered, playing, right next to the titan’s eyes. Atlas said:

Who is responsible for the living death of immortals The titans cast into Tartarus remained immortal there, although they were cut off from the world of living life. The same fate was shared by those titans and titanides who were thrown by the gods Kronida to the ends of the earth, to the ocean. Only gradually, as the Olympic pantheon and pan-Hellenic national unity strengthen, the myth removes immortality from these rejected titans, and they either disappear themselves, like the Sirens who sank into the waters of the ocean, or they are killed by heroes like monsters. This is how the immortals Skilla, Medusa, Chimera, Ladon and others died.? Who is responsible for Chiron's death? Who chained Prometheus to the rock of the Caucasus? The son of Iapetus will not reconcile with Zeus. But without the food of immortality, the titan weakened, tormented for millennia by the kite of Tartarus, now flying from the sky of the gods. Who called the kite from the underworld to heaven? The Zephyr Wind told me: the centaur Chiron was wounded in the leg by Hercules’ arrow, infused with Lernaean poison. The wound doomed the immortal body to eternal torment. And Chiron gave his immortality to the chained Prometheus in order to multiply the power of the titan, to strengthen his strength, weakened by suffering over thousands of years, so that the tired heart of the titan would beat with double strength.

Let Prometheus taste the golden apple of Gaia, the apple of youth from the garden of the Hesperides! Then the powers of the titan would be revived. But Atlas cannot walk to the son of Iapetus from end to end of the Earth with the apple of youth in his hand. Iris, you should take this apple of the Hesperides to Prometheus! The Hesperides, the evening nymphs of the sunset, will give it to you. Neither gods nor people can taste this apple. For them it is a toy made of gold. Only titans scorched by lightning or chained will taste it. At the titan's lips it will fill with golden youth and the healing power of eternal life. Take the apple, Titanide Iris, to the Titan Prometheus. Revive his strength with youth.

I shine for him more tenderly than for gods and mortals, delighting him with rainbows. I cannot bring Prometheus the apple of youth: I am prohibited from entering the garden of the Hespirides. There are no rains or rainbows there, overseas. I am bound by an unbreakable oath by the Styx before the gods at the cradle of baby Eros. I won't break the ban. Aphrodite is not the only mother of love. I, too, am the mother of Eros, the infant god, the moth born from the Wind-Zephyr. And the world needs butterfly love Along with the winged Eros, the son of the goddess of love Aphrodite, the poetic fantasy of the Hellenes has long created the image of the little Eros with moth wings, the son of the Wind-Zephyr and Iris-Rainbow. It became part of the ritual of wedding folk rites and songs. Initially, little Eros arose as a miniature echo of the ancient cosmogonic Eros - the powerful force of all-creating love, spread throughout nature, as the god of the plant world, the world of insects, birds, everything small in nature. Later, in the Alexandrian era, this little Eros received a different, simplified interpretation.. Your idea is great to return the world of living life to the titans again. Great is your anger towards the gods. But, forgive me, I can’t leave the sky for tartarus, I can’t leave the earth without the fluttering of love, without its first breath. Kronid will punish.

And Atlas remembered the rage of the scourge-bearer Kronid. Anger, solidified as ore, melted in the liver and chest of the titan. And Atlas answered Iris menacingly:

What is the heaven of the gods to me! The immortal Chiron died, he who was fairer than any god. What is the world of living life to me, where there is no Chiron! What are your moths to me when Prometheus is in chains!

And frantic, in blind rage from grief for his friend, he shook his shoulders at the edge of the sky, so that the world of the gods would shake.

The sky was shaking. Thunder rolled across the sky by itself - not thunder, but the wheels of heavenly carts, jumping off the axles of the world - and not just wheels, but hammers: every spoke is a hammer, every rim is a hammer, every wheel itself is a hammer . Oh, and hammers in the sky!

Only these hammers do not thunder over Miracle Mountain. Where are you, Miracle Mountain!

The Heaven Holder would bring down the sky of the gods out of grief at the loss of a friend. But Atlas could not take his hands off the sky. His hands hold the sky, as if they were soldered to him.

Thus the world of the gods remained indestructible. And living life did not perish.

Then the hugely powerful titan groaned heavily:

You powerless hands of titan! My power deceived me.

And a tear hung in the corner of his eye, on an eyelash burned by the heat. It rolled along the stone folds of the cheek and fell to the ground like a drop like a sea at Atlas’s feet. The soil of the earth gave way to the tear, deepened into a granite bowl, and the tear of Atlanta became a lake.

While the sad news of Chiron's death was flying across the mountains and seas to Atlas, Hercules walked from the Caucasus mountains, from the pillar of the East, to the borders of Atlantis, to the pillar of Sunset, behind the golden apples.

Why did the Sun-Helium descend so low over the Libyan desert, slowing down the running and flight of the solar horses, when Hercules walked along the hot sands of the desert? Why did the ancient titan-sun god bend down and almost fall out of the chariot? From his mouth comes heat. From the nostrils of his horses - heat. There is heat under the horse's hooves. Drink air in the afternoon.

Hercules was exhausted. Pain drilled into my burned feet. And God sows rays of eyes across the desert. In every grain of sand there is an eye of the sun. He's burning!

And so Helius took the crown of the sun from his head and, lowering his hand with the crown to the ground, holds it above the very crown of Hercules. It’s as if the skull is melting, the thought is burning... Balls of fire before the eyes...

The hero couldn't bear it. He tore the bow from his shoulder, put an arrow with Lernaean poison boiling from the heat on the string and took aim at the titan god:

Retreat from Hercules, Helium! Rise to the heights of the sky, to your road. I am not familiar with the help of the gods and I do not expect a reward for my work and feat. Why are you oppressing me? Step back from Hercules, Helius, or I'll shoot an arrow at you!

Helium was amazed at the hero’s courage. A mortal raised his hand to the Sun! Even the gods did not dare to do this.

The titan of the sun did not want to allow Hercules to the Garden of the Hesperides. He knew: the Destroyer would tear off the apples of Gaia, the hope of the titans, kill the guardian of the apple tree - the dragon Ladon, and plunge the Evening nymphs-deviants into grief.

Helium was amazed with each eye-ray. He is not afraid of the arrows of Hercules. They are far from the Sun, they will become ashes on the way. There are more terrible arrows for the eyes-rays of the Sun - the golden rays-arrows of young Apollo.

But Helium truly honored the titanic courage of the hero Hercules. Winged horses soared. The chariot-cart rushed upward. Air breathed.

But the demigod hero did not lower his threatening bow.

Stop! - Hercules exclaimed. - Don’t jump like that, shining god! Hercules still needs to swim across the ocean. Give me your golden bowl-boat, on which you sail from sunset to the Red Sea - to sunrise. There is no path for a mortal boat on the waves of the ocean.

And the ancient titan answered Hercules from the distance of heaven in amazement before a mortal:

At Tartessus, in Hyperborea.

At Tartessa, in the city where the Miracles of the whole world sleep until the time comes for them to be born and go out to mortals on earth - there, in distant Hyperborea, by the shore of the ocean, a golden cup-shuttle was waiting for Hercules. And Hercules swam out into the ocean to the borders of Atlanta, to the Garden of the Hesperides.

The oceanid sisters alarmed Father Ocean:

Hercules swims to the Garden of the Hesperides. I took the golden boat from the Sun. He is on his way to Atlanta. Test his thoughts and strength, father. Will titanium apples be stolen?

The waves went along the river-ocean,

Spun, shook the golden cup,

They throw her like a log from side to side,

They tilt it to put it upside down.

And under each wave is an oceanid.

And at the very bottom of the bowl is Father Ocean himself.

Not shown to Hercules:

A storm was raised under the waters.

The hero leans on the golden oar:

The bowl is spinning in place,

It's like someone is twirling it on their finger.

The golden chalice is deep,

And there is more and more water in it.

Will not come to the rescue of Hercules

Neither god, nor titan, nor mortal.

Father Ocean himself spins the cup

Between the limits of living life and dead life.

Suddenly a despicable wave rose:

How the golden cup shook,

Placed her on her rib sideways,

Rolled like a wheel on the water

Back to the wonderful city of Tartessus!

Here is the club and bow of Hercules

They fell to the bottom of the ocean.

The golden cup is full of water,

The hero sits up to his neck in water.

He grabbed the side with his hand,

I rested my foot on the other side,

He brought the golden oar under the side of the bowl,

Wants to tip the cup to the bottom.

And he sees it, holds it under water in the palm of his hand

The father of the oceanids himself is Ocean.

Here is a frantic hero in anger

He raised his oar to the titan:

Put down your palm, Titan Ocean,

Or I’ll beat her away from the bowl with a golden oar!

Do not interfere with the path of Hercules, -

No one else on earth - neither god nor titan -

Didn’t raise his hand to the forefather Ocean,

There was no such thing in the world:

He is beyond battles and struggles.

The ancient gray Ocean was amazed,

Amazed even more than Helium,

And, like Helium, according to the law of titanium truth,

Honored the hero's courage.

The waves went deep into the World River.

It was as if the river had been smoothed out by the sky.

And the oceanids carried away

The hero's club and bow,

Fell to the bottom of the ocean.

And Hercules stepped ashore.

Again he walked through the desert in the heat, along the hot sands, stubbornly stepping on his burnt heels, and reached the Man-Mountain.

Here are the limits of Atlanta.

Hercules stood in front of Atlas. The titan and the hero said nothing to each other. Atlas had never before met the gaze of a hero before him. He saw titans, gods, giants, but he saw a hero for the first time. And Atlas did not know who the alien was. And Hercules met titans, gods, and giants in all forms of life. And Hercules fought with everyone, and defeated everyone: giants, gods and titans. The path to the Garden of the Hesperides was difficult.

Hercules looked at his feet: burnt, ulcerated, with dried blood. And he saw a lake at his feet - blue, clear, like a tear. The hero threw the lion skin, club and bow to the ground from his shoulder, sat down by the lake, plunged his feet into its salty water and washed them in the tears of Atlas.

And the titan Atlas watched.

The hero felt better from the wonderful water.

“Have a guest, titan,” said the alien. - I'm coming to you.

I do not know you. I haven't seen you in the world of titans. I have never met any gods in the world. Who are you, guest?

And, like a wounded lion who tore his chest with his claws, and who suddenly had a huge human heart open, Atlas groaned:

You! Chiron's killer? O foremother Gaia-Earth, let go of Atlas’s legs for a moment! I never asked you for anything. O Uranus, forefather, take my hands away from the arch for a moment! Before me is the murderer of Chiron.

And Atlas strained all his titanium strength to tear his palms away from the sky. But the arms, petrified up to the elbow, did not move. I wanted to pull my feet out of the ground. But the petrified feet did not move.

Hercules saw the titan’s torment and said to him with stern sadness:

You are suffering, Chained. But even uninhibited, you would not be afraid of Hercules. I have slain gods too The most ancient Hellenic legends about Hercules were drowned out by later ones, created by zealots of the Olympic pantheon. Their echoes have been preserved, which reflect the struggle of the cults of foreign and proto-Hellenic gods with the cult of Zeus. In these ancient tales, Hercules enters into a fight with all the gods of Olympus, except Zeus, and defeats them in single combat. He took Apollo's tripod out of the temple, and the god could not snatch it from the hands of Hercules. Zeus separated them with lightning. Hercules killed the son of Poseidon, and the ruler of the seas could not resist the power of Hercules: Hercules broke his trident with his club. He even wounded Hades, the god of the world of death; this meant that Hercules was stronger than death.. Poseidon yielded to my strength at Pylos, Apollo at Delphi, and underground Hades also retreated before me. Calm your rage, Atlas. I am innocent of Chiron's death. I honored him, just like you. Chiron stepped on an arrow with Lernaean poison. That's how the gods wanted it. You ask them. Chiron could not endure the endless torment on earth.

But Atlas answered gloomily:

I've heard about you. Titan Slayer, son of Zeus. Like me, Chiron was a titan.

You're wrong, Mountain Man. - And anger was already boiling in the chest of the son of Zeus, the alien. - I don’t know the ancient titans and I haven’t been to Tartarus. Didn't go below Hades. Yes, you're right: I'm a fighter, but only of monsters. Who is their ancestor? who were they? what image is hidden under their skin? - I'm not asking. I destroy. We, the demigod heroes, clear the world and the roads on the soil of the earth, so that the whole earth becomes open to mortals. If there were monsters in the sky, I would clear the sky too. There is no place for monsters in the world of living life - let them live in the world of the dead. Here, within the boundaries of Atlanta, somewhere is the Garden of the Hesperides. The dragon guards that garden. His name is Ladon. He's a monster.

Oh Ladon! - Sorrow and joy filled Atlas’s voice, and his voice poured out like a waterfall. But Hercules did not move:

You know the way to the Garden of the Hesperides. I am coming to you from the Caucasus Mountains. Show me the way to the Garden.

I don't know the way to the Garden of the Hesperides. Thus, for the first time in his entire titanic immortal life, the truth-loving Atlas lied.

I came to you from Prometheus. I killed the dragon bird, the kite of Tartarus, who devoured the liver of a titan. Prometheus is free from torment. Here is an arrow that pierced a kite snake. Here is a feather from his throat. Show me the way to the Garden.

I don't know the way to the Garden.

Thus, the truth-loving Atlas lied to Hercules for the second time.

I need three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. They are guarded by a hundred-headed monster. It is the evil of the earth. Whoever lurks under the skin of the dragon: a titan or a giant, or who knows what, for me he is a dragon. Not a titan - I will kill the Serpent and get the apples of Gaia. Show me the way to the Garden of the Hesperides.

I don't know the way to the Garden.

This is how the truth-loving Atlas lied to Hercules for the third time.

The immortal titan and the mortal Hercules fell silent. They stood opposite each other, as if they had forgotten about each other.

With his head bowed and his hand resting on his club, Hercules, the son of Zeus, was thinking about something. It was as if he was asking his heart as a hero. He thought for a long, long time. Finally he said:

Goodbye. I will find the way to the Garden myself. I found the way to Hades and the way back from Hades, without asking the lords of the underworld. You did not honor your guest, titan. He did not honor the work of Hercules, the liberator of Prometheus from torment. I am not your enemy, ancient Ruler of Heaven, I replaced Prometheus on earth. I am the successor to his work. My path on earth is difficult. It is no easier than holding the sky for you. I'm coming. Atlant.

Like the sadness of mountain meadows in the pre-winter season, warmed by a late autumn ray, sounded from the top of the Mountain:

Don't go. I haven't heard Prometheus' word yet. What did your brother tell you? Tell me his word, Hercules. Kronid is not the only one who reads the thoughts of others. And Prometheus reads them.

Again the mortal hero and the immortal titan stood opposite each other. Hercules thought again, bowing his head. And this time I thought even longer. And so, without hiding, he said:

The path of Hercules is not crooked, Atlas. Prometheus gave advice that you should bring me three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides so that I would not enter the Garden. Bring it. I'll wait for you here.

That's when Atlas was amazed. He hears the titanic truth in the word of Hercules. But he cannot understand the truth itself. The words of Prometheus will not comprehend. The Titan Provider asked him a riddle.

How can I go and leave the sky? I am the Heaven Holder. You see for yourself: my hands are chained to the sky. My feet are rooted to the ground. They can't be moved. How will I step? Who will hold this sky?

And Hercules answered:

You? Are you?.. Mortal?..

The Mountain-Man was even more amazed, more amazed than the gray Ocean at the hero’s courage. Are they kidding with the Man-Mountain?

You? Can you hold the sky? Not God? Not titanium? Only mortal? Can a mortal hold the sky? And Atlas breathed on Hercules. But the hero didn’t even move. He just said sternly:

I knew how to defeat Death too. Titan, why are you breathing so weakly?

Both the titan and the hero fell silent, and they were silent for a long time. Atlas's rocky eyebrows just moved together, and a heavy thought lay in the folds between his eyebrows. Said:

Inevitable Forces have chained me to the firmament and are keeping me here. I am not the master of my hands and feet. Only for thought is the will free. Where is there a force stronger than these Forces?

I am that strength. - And Hercules raised his hand. - Bring me three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides and give me your burden. Today I will hold the sky and hold it. I will free your arms and legs. You will step, Atlas, on the ground. Bring me three golden apples from the Garden.

And the hero threw his club and bow far away from himself.

The will of Hercules was powerful, like the very life of the earth. It’s as if thousands of lives poured into it with all the rays of the world, compressed in it, fused, so that this will could radiate itself endlessly, so that it could accomplish the impossible, overcome the impossible - even lift the sky.

Mortal Hercules had not yet met an opponent equal to himself in strength. And, seeing the Heavenly Holder, he wanted to test himself. To master what Atlas mastered: to lift the sky.

Hercules took the hand of Atlas in both hands - he tore the titan’s palm from the edge of the sky, tore off the other palm and placed his shoulder under the vault of heaven.

Hercules leaned his body on Atlas. He moved the titan from his place and said:

Slowly Atlas pulled the sole of his foot out of the soil. Slowly he extended his other leg and took a step. Atlas did not walk the earth for millennia. The titan turned to the hero and said:

You are the Strength, Hercules.

And he looked at how he held the sky: on one shoulder he held it.

Atlas had never seen such power. No lightning, no thunder, alone? And he is not the Mountain Man. How can he, the titan Atlas, express what confused and tormented his titanic soul?

You are mortal, but stronger than Ananka the Inevitability. You are mortal, but stronger than the immortal. And yet you, Strength, will die. I will not comprehend this other truth - not earthly, not heavenly. Why aren't you immortal?

Yes, I am the Force,” Hercules answered. - And I serve my strength. She tells me: “You must” - and Hercules raises the sky. Aren't you, Titan, the same? Show me where he lives

Immortality, and Hercules will reach Immortality, and it will yield to Hercules. Bring me three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Today the Ruler of Heaven is Hercules: not you.

And Hercules pressed his feet harder against the shaft between the deep depressions squeezed out by the feet of the Man-Mountain. The sky with the gods was heavy on the shoulder of the demigod-hero, but Hercules held the sky.

The Man-Mountain sighed:

I played with my power like a free titan. You are a servant of your strength and a leader. I'm game. You are a feat and work Hercules, although blindly fulfilling his heroic mission as a Monster Slayer, acts purposefully. His path is the path of victory. Atlas, as a free child of nature, as an elemental creature, only plays with his power and, while playing, he himself becomes its toy and victim.. Here, at the limit of a new life, chained to the sky, I learned what they don’t know on Miracle Mountain - it’s scary to fall into the hands of your power. I'm coming!

Stretching forward his bent, petrified arms up to the elbows, stone palms up. Atlas walked. And the soil of the earth arched under the heavy, huge foot of the Man-Mountain.

Centuries-runners ran like children. Nobody counted them. No one measured their run. The muses of Olympus sang:

On the day of the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera, Mother Earth Gaia gave Hera a wonderful tree with golden apples. It suddenly grew from the depths of the earth in distant Hyperborea, within the boundaries of the Skyholder - the disgraced titan Atlas. There, near the ocean, the sun god Helius, having descended from the golden chariot, unharnesses the solar horses and on a golden bowl-shuttle floats with them along the World River-Ocean, to the east, to blessed Ethiopia, and to the city of Aeya, where the golden palace of the sun stands. .

Until sunset, the wonderful tree was guarded by an immortal hundred-headed dragon, deeply, to the very underworld, immersed in the ground with the rings of a serpentine body. And at the time of the evening star, the golden fruits of the wonderful tree were guarded by the Hesperides - the evening nymphs, the singing guardians of the Sunset. And right there, at the foot of the tree, feeding its roots, an ambrosial spring flowed from the bowels of the earth - the spring of living water, the water of immortality...

Birds chirped, dryads rang through the leaves, shepherds spoke in the mountains, as if here, in a secret refuge, Zeus and Hera were hiding, celebrating the day of their sacred marriage. And neither gods nor mortals had access to the wonderful garden.

This is how the muses of Olympus sang.

But under Atlanta, the Sirens, the disgraced muses of the titans, sang something different overseas. And the Hesperides sang something else in the magic garden.

They sang:

The celestials within the Atlantean region do not descend onto the soil of the earth. The Hesperides did not meet the Olympians in this garden. The dragon Ladon will not guard the virgin birds, cherishing their sweet peace. The virgin birds will not guard the fruits of the wonderful tree from evening until sunrise for the amusement of the Lord of Olympus. And Aglaya the Shining One will not sit, covered in sparkling feathers, on the branches of the miraculous apple tree. And Erithia will not open her crimson wings to fly from branch to branch. And Hesperia, twinkling like the starry youth Hesperus, will not fly to the top of the miracle tree to look out over the quiet garden from there. And the nymph of the spring, Arethusa, will not wet her lips in the stream, nor will she scatter the fragrance of ambrosia drops over the flowers, leaves and herbs of a garden of unprecedented beauty...

So the evening nymphs sang.

Who are you, little girls?

The flowers, waking up only in the evening, said that the Hesperides were the daughters of the Evening Star. And the flowers, which poured out their fragrance at night, whispered to each other that the Hesperides were the daughters of Night. And those who rubbed their eyes with dew in the morning said that the Hesperides were the sisters of the Sirens, that they too were the muses of the ancient disgraced titans, who once sang of Cronus and Rhea in the golden age.

Only the nymph Hesperia, in a grotto near the garden, was silent, embroidering on the fabric of the meadows the image of Atlas holding the sky, and at his feet a lake of tears, and the four Hesperides in the cradle.

During the day, the Hesperides dozed, hiding in the thick of the foliage. Then the ears and eyes of the dragon Ladon, the guardian of the garden, vigilantly wandered through the garden, and the beauty of his scales and the dangerous spell of the snake’s eyes sparkled near the Gaea apple tree.

The serpentine beauty is cruel and slippery. It will enchant your eyes and freeze your heart. It will give birth to a dream and kill the dream itself. Just think: here it is, a miracle creation! And in front of you is a monster-bastard. You will begin to look for living water in its beauty, but you will find only dead water. And in the very nearness that beauty is far away. And the closer she is, the farther away: as if everything in her is not her own, but someone else’s - only the skin she’s wearing. But there are such colors on that skin that the sea can only invent and hide for the Nereids in the kingdom of fish, at its bottom, like a wonder of the sea. And try to pull this marvel of the sea ashore: what an ugly earthworm!

But Ladon was different.

Together with Atlas, Ladon rushed to Olympus to pluck the stars from the sky. But, overthrown from Olympus, the thief of stars fell into the waters of Spercheus. He took the body of the titan Spercheus and carried it to the bottom. He covered it with seaweed and covered it with stones. Hidden from the eyes of the gods. Ladon lay for a long time at the bottom of the river, under the icy crust of Spercheus, until the Sun-Helium sowed eye rays on the ice and the water burst out in violent growth.

Then the titan emerged from the waters onto the earth. His skin was already covered with scales under the stones and grass, and he looked marvelous and terrible.

Thus, the overthrown titan of Happy Arcadia acquired the image of a dragon. He covered his titanic truth with a terrible guise. He did not find the Miracle Mountain in the once Happy Arcadia. I found neither Atlas nor the merry Pleiades. And I saw them in the sky. He saw it and Ladon spread the wings of the dragon and flew into the sunset, to where the sisters of the Pleiades sparkled. The night flew by. The gods of Olympus do not roam the world at night. Landed in the garden of the Hesperides. And Hera made him, at the request of his mother Gaia, the Guardian of the golden apples. The Earth received into its depths the rings of the body of the Giant Serpent. And from Gaia-Earth serpentine wisdom entered the titan Ladon.

But the wings fell off.

Ladon spoke to the world in many voices - animal and bird. And he had a hundred heads: so many heads was the dragon. One head - large, snake-like - rose from the snake's body, like the pistil of a giant flower, and the other, small ones, swayed like stamens, dancing around it, and each sang and spoke in its own way, like birds in a grove.

They sang and asked:

Are you sleeping, Ladon? - And the Serpent answered through his sleep:

I'm sleeping. - They sang again and asked:

Are you sleeping, Ladon? - And the Serpent, through his drowsiness, answered again:

A veil of sleep surrounded the singing of the Garden of the Hesperides. The dragon fell asleep, but anyone who dared to approach the magical garden would have fallen asleep at the approaches to it, enchanted by the singing of the Evening Nymphs, the guardians of the garden.

Only the spell of sleep is powerless against Atlas. Within the Atlantovs there was Atlas, the titan from Miracle Mountain, the master.

It was daylight in Hyperborea.

A cloud dozed on the stone boulders of the gray hair of the Man-Mountain, centuries ago it was still so golden. And the cloud did not awaken when Atlas entered the garden of the Hesperides and heard unknown birds singing the forgotten songs of the titans. Atlas did not know that Ladon was singing those songs with a hundred voices at once. Far behind the Man-Mountain, beyond the garden, the traces of his feet gaped on the stone ground, step by step. But here, in the garden, the earth was not pressed in, and the flowers and herbs, bent under the heel of the titan, straightened up, as if not a Mountain, but a Breeze had passed over them with an airy tread.

The dragon didn't move. He did not cover the key of Immortality with the armor of his neck. Only the purple of the rings of his scales, wrapped around the trunk of the apple tree, began to play more vividly, now flashing crimson, now darkening crimson, and his half-lowered eyelids rose to look with a snake’s eye under the cliffs of the eyebrows of the Man-Mountain.

Is that you, Forkid? - asked the Mountain.

It’s me, Atlas,” answered the Serpent. And the titan looked at the titan. They are both from Happy Arcadia.

Now you are a worm,” said Atlas. “Now... I’m a worm,” Ladon said. And the titan looked at the titan.

It's like snow on your hair. Atlant. And a dark cloud sleeps in the snow.

Let my daughter sleep. Atlas has no other daughters. The Pleiades are with the gods, in the sky. And the titan looked at the titan.

Are you on guard, Ladon?

I'm on guard.

The sky was azure and the grass was emerald, as always.

Give me three golden apples,” said Atlas. And his stone palms, folded edge-to-edge, extended closer to the trunk.

The whole body of the dragon began to sparkle with a myriad of colors, as if a rain of joy sprinkled rubies all over its scales; and eyes, like two forges, with fire.

O Atlas, why were you silent! Has Tartarus risen? Are the titans back? Are the Uranids hungry for Gaia's apples? I saved them, titan. Has the time come?

But the Man-Mountain shook his head sadly:

Has the time come? Don't know. Hercules has arrived. Give me three golden apples. I'll bring them to you.

The neck of the giant Snake broke away from the tree, at once it rose menacingly, the crest over its forehead swelled, and the huge rings of the snake’s body began to rise in waves, rising and unfolding from the depths of the earth.

Atlant, Atlant, Atlant! - the Snake croaked three times threateningly. -Who sent you to the Garden of the Hesperides? Are you from the gods, Heaven Holder? Are you with the Kronids? With them? Get away from the tree, Mountain.

But the Man-Mountain remained standing. He just said:

Don't wake up my cloud. Not with the gods of Atlas. I am a titan. Calm down and humble your rings. Do you want to save this garden? Well, be a Guardian! Just give me three golden apples from the tree.

The rubies on the sparkling body of the Guardian of the Apple Tree have become dull. He turned all gray and sagged.

The apple tree had a branch, and not a branch, but a giving hand, silver extended far from the trunk. And on her smallest finger hung three apples on one stem.

The Serpent placed his bowed head on this branch.

Why didn't the sky collapse, Atlas? - Ladon asked the titan sadly. - You’re here, aren’t you? Who holds up the sky?

Hercules holds the sky.

Everything fell silent in the Garden of the Hesperides. It’s as if leaves, flowers, grass, and sand - all living things have lost their voice. And, like a sigh from the underworld, Ladon’s whisper sounded:

Was that what you said about Hercules, Atlas?

Who is he? From whom? Is it from Zeus? New god? Or more than God?

He? He is on his own, like you, like me. - And the titan looked at the titan. - He is the son of Zeus. But there is no help from the gods. I came so he wouldn't come. That's what Prometheus wanted. He doesn't know the way to the Garden, but he will find it. Ladon, even the gods retreat before him. Hades himself retreated.

Is he immortal?

He is mortal.

And then it seemed to Ladon that Atlas became shorter in stature, as if his shoulders became stooped, and his wrinkles became deeper, and his head bowed steeper, and as if in the wise eyes of the titan his great wisdom could not understand something.

And then it seemed to Atlas as if the giant Serpent had become smaller, and the twists of the rings of his body had become smaller and smaller, and their girth was weaker, and as if the crimson and purple shed on the Serpent by Dawn and Dusk had become strangely earthy, as if a worm was devouring the titan in him . And it also seemed to Atlas as if he read in the wise eyes of the Serpent that even his serpentine wisdom could not resolve something.

Mortal holds the sky with the gods. What then are the titans?

And I heard:

We are not needed. The titans will never rise again. Their world is over. He holds the sky on one shoulder.

Are only gods needed? Kronids?

Gods are not needed either. He conquers the gods too. Unchained he holds the sky, because he is the Force. And the Serpent croaked gloomily:

Yes, now I know Hercules,” and looked down at the Man-Mountain.

The Serpent looked and thought: “The world doesn’t need you, Mountain.”

And he thought the same about the dragon titan Atlant, glancing at him from above: “The Garden doesn’t need you, Guardian of Apples. And apples are only the golden toys of the gods. The key of the underworld feeds the apple tree not with living, but with dead water.”

The titans fell silent. They were so silent that it was as if their voice had drowned in the ocean.

“You are old, Atlas,” said Ladon.

Now time is catching up on me. Doesn’t slide past, as it used to... Are you dreaming of Arcadia, Ladon?

She is a dream. Have dreams from the Night ever flown to the Titans before? And Ladon answered:

They didn't fly off. Only river nymphs... And now I also dream of Deceptions flying out of the underworld. I remember that Storms once flew to me like swans. Yes, now I know Hercules. He is the Relentless... Do you remember, Atlas, that golden-horned doe of Artemis, friend of the Pleiades? Next to her, the Wind was out of breath from running and held on, grabbing her golden horns to cover his shame. Neither arrow nor spear could catch up with this doe. And she was stronger than the Nemean lion. But Hercules chased her and drove her out of Arcadia. Day after day, after week, after week, after month, he drove her tirelessly: from river to river, from mountain to mountain, from gorge to gorge, from forest to forest. He didn’t let her bend down to the grass and cut off a leaf over the path with her tooth as she ran. Only he couldn’t take away the water! She swam and drank. He is behind her. So he drove the golden-horned doe, Relentless, without the help of God. The two of them circled the entire earth and returned to Arcadia. The doe no longer had any strength - only the bones and the shadow ran. And the doe thought: “There is salvation on Miracle Mountain. There is a stream, there is Ladon.” And the doe directed her weak legs towards Ladon. But where is Miracle Mountain? Where is the flow? I found one bank in a hollow. All around there are alien waters in a cauldron of fog. And there was no other shore: only a wall in the distance in front of her. Then the persecuted doe called to me: “Give me salvation, Ladon!” But the answer was silence. Here Hercules overtook the doe. She swam and swirled in foreign waters. And Hercules stood on the shore. Bow in hand. He waits and watches. There is only one shore. And she had nowhere to go... The arrow slowly pierced... Taygetos told me about this after the battle between Atlas and Kronid. The titans fell silent again: the Mountain-Man and the Giant Serpent.

The Pleiades will soon flutter onto the heavenly road. I love their crowd and diamond fun.

And Atlas, as happened in Arcadia, wanted to throw back his head and peer into the sky. But the head, drooping under the weight of the sky, did not lean back. The neck did not straighten, petrified above the humps of the shoulders.

What are you looking for, Atlas, star girls in the sky? - asked the Serpent, lowering his eyelids. - The Pleiades have not yet run out. As they rise, the Hesperides sing and make me sleep.

Where are the evening girls now?

They are dozing.

And again the titans fell silent: both the Mountain-Man and the Giant Serpent. It was as if everyone had told each other what they had been thinking about for a thousand years. But there was still one last word left, and it sounded:

Give me three golden apples for Hercules, Ladon.

Take it while the Hesperides sleep. And the dragon, the guardian of the garden, closed his serpentine eyelids and froze. The titan carefully extended his stone palms to the three apples hanging on the smallest finger of the mighty branch-hand. The fruits shone with dull gold. The titanium gently touched their legs. He carefully broke it off with his fingernail. And immediately an ambrosia drop ran onto the place where the leg of the sister apples broke off from the branch. The wound was covered with silver. And already a new sprout burst out with a tender bud from the silvered place.

On Atlas’s stone palms, as if on a curved dish, lay three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides.

Evening, the starry youth Hesperus, rose as a star in Hyperborea. On such an evening, the pomegranate sunset sky seems to press on the waters of the ocean.

“I’m coming, Forkid,” said Atlas. - I have to go. Atlas promised Hercules to return when Hesperus ascended.

Go,” answered the Serpent; but didn’t raise his eyelids.

And the Man-Mountain stepped forward.

Atlas was already about to take the second step, leaving the garden, when the hissing, piercing cry of the Serpent rang out after him:

Atlas, Atlas, let him hold the sky - not you! The titan stopped in amazement. He turned his shoulders and faced the direction where the scream was coming from.

Can I hear you, Ladon?

And even louder, and sharper, and more maliciously, the voice of the Serpent repeated:

Let him hold the sky - not you!

With his stone palms outstretched in front of him, on which lay three golden apples, the Sky Holder stood and slowly pondered the words of the Serpent, repeating them with his thoughts, like an echo: “Let him hold the sky - not you!”

Slowly, with a millstone of titanium truth, strong as adamant, Atlas ground in his heart the words of the Serpent that not he, Atlas, would be the Ruler of Heaven, but Hercules. Some ancient blocks of indestructible covenants turned over in the heart of the titan, and under the gray moss the half-petrified chest rose high.

"Let him hold the sky!"

And, not yet comprehending what the voice of his heart was saying to his titanium thought, as if breaking invisible chains, Atlas suddenly raised his free hands high to the sky, dropping golden apples from his open palms to the ground, and exultingly exclaimed:

So let him hold the sky!

Without lowering his arms, bending his granite-like body at the waist of his eyelids and not bending back, Atlas looked with his head thrown back at the distant, darkened path of the Sun, above which the Pleiades shimmered, and laughed like a young man.

Neither Heaven-Uranus nor the foremother Gaia-Earth have heard for millennia that the ancient titan laughed so youthfully on earth again.

The thought of the wise Atlas did not know from the age of cunning. It was just Atlas. Like an omphalos, the navel of the earth, his word was strong and true. And he did not know that between the roots of all things, hanging under Tartarus into the great Abyss of Whirlwinds, lives Eris-Strife.

But suddenly the titanic thought struck him that he, the titan Skyholder, was free and would return to Happy Arcadia. And Atlas forgot that his Miracle Mountain was no longer there, that in the place of the Miracle Mountain, mists were boiling in a deep cauldron. Happy Atlas forgot about everything.

And then truth asked the titanic heart the titanic thought:

Where, Atlas, is your word to Hercules? Who tore your palms from the sky? Who, even for a day, for an hour, freed you, the slave of the gods, from the burden of heaven with the gods? Does the titan of the hero-liberator want to deceive? How are you better than the gods? Is this the truth of the Titans?

And the thought of Atlas, the Man-Mountain, answered the heart:

Hercules' hands are not chained to the sky. They can throw the sky with the gods to the ground and break the sky itself. Mortal Hercules is free.

And then the voice of the Serpent came again from the garden of the Hesperides:

Do not spare the titan killer, titan! He is the Slayer.

On the ground, at Atlas's feet, lay three golden apples. Atlas looked at them, looked at the sky and saw that the starry youth Hesperus had ascended high into the sky. The titan reached for the apples, but bent down and could not pick them up. So Atlas stood above them with his stone palms outstretched forward.

And Atlas saw how a fallen branch with three apples began to grow into the soil. It began to grow and grow, first as a thin blade of grass, and then as a tree with three golden apples on a silver leg. I saw how the tree grew higher and higher, how it grew to the stone palms of the titan, and bent over them. The fruits themselves fell into his hands.

Then the Man-Mountain walked there, to the edge of the earth - to Hercules.

The Hesperides-virgin birds awakened in the magical garden.

We looked at the golden fruits - three apples were missing. They flapped their wings in alarm: trouble had struck and the guardian's apples had been lost. Neither they nor Ladon will sing in the garden anymore. The evening nymphs and the hundred-voiced dragon will become mute. The law of the truth of miracles is unbreakable: whoever does not fulfill his destiny will lose his magical power.

And the Hesperides cried in the magic garden: why is the Serpent silent? Whose fault? Where is the kidnapper?

The ruler of heaven, Atlas, took three apples from the Garden for Hercules.

The Hesperides were surprised. We got up. They flew after the kidnapping owner and flew to the outskirts of the garden. They see: the trace of the Man-Mountain leaves them towards the ocean.

The Hesperides, the evening guards, returned to the Gaea apple tree and sang sadly, putting the dragon Ladon to sleep.

It is not Hercules who stands at the edge of the earth within the Atlantean borders, but the ruler of heaven. With his head bowed, Atlas holds the sky as before.

Hercules strides through mountains and valleys towards Tiryns. Behind the hero's shoulders is a bow and quiver; The wind ruffles the lion's skin. Club in right hand. On the left are three golden apples.

What did the titan and the hero say to each other when they met and parted? But this is not what the Hesperides sing about in the magic garden. They sing about the wanderings of stolen apples.

Silently, Hercules gave three golden apples to the king of Tiryns, Eurystheus. Only in the garden of the Hesperides, in distant Hyperborea, did such apples ripen. Hercules accomplished his feat. King Eurystheus recoiled in fear from Hercules' gift. Didn't touch the apples with his hand.

Take it away! No, keep them for yourself,” said the ruler of Tiryns. -You brought me the forbidden fruit. Whoever touches these apples or tastes them is cut off from the world - living life. These are apples of death. What have you done, brave hero, servant of Eurystheus! He earned himself an immortal death Touching the golden apples, which were forbidden, doomed the one who touched them to death. Although Hercules, ascended to Olympus, according to myth, gained immortality, however, having become a god, he lost his former significance as an ascetic hero and became unnecessary, like Prometheus ascended to Olympus. With the ascension to Olympus, the mythological meaning of Hercules and Prometheus as fighters for humanity ended. The immortality of Hercules thus became his eternal death: the image of Hercules the hero died.

King Eurystheus grinned evilly.

Hercules did not answer. He walked out again silently from Tiryns onto the stone road. And in his hand three golden apples shone wonderfully. So he came to a crossroads. Here Hera appeared before Hercules. The goddess looked searchingly and menacingly into the eyes of the hero. And Hercules handed her the golden apples of the Hesperides.

These golden fruits are not for mortals,” the hero told the goddess. - These are apples from the Garden of the Gods. It’s true, they give those who have tasted eternal youth. Accept them as a gift. Take it to Olympus.

Hera withdrew her hand. She took a step back from Hercules. Said:

The forbidden fruit is the apple of Gaia and for the immortals. Whichever god of heaven touches or tastes them against the will of Gaia-Earth is forever subject to Hades. He will not return to the celestials in the world of living life. Will reign in the world of dead life. Take them back to the Hesperides. - And disappeared into the azure.

Hera did not love the son of Zeus, Hercules, the destroyer of the world of the titans.

The hero was left at a crossroads and did not know what to do with the golden apples of the Hesperides garden, for which he went to the ends of the world. They are not needed by living life. But the path to the Garden of the Hesperides is difficult.

Hercules wanted to give the golden apples to the sea.

But Nereus swam out of the sea, and the titan god said to the sea hero:

Don't throw those apples into the sea. Throw it into the sea, and the Nereids will go to the bottom of the sea forever. The waves will not play and sing. And there will be no sea divas in the sea. Take away, Hercules, these golden apples to Miracle Mountain. Put them on Miracle Mountain and leave yourself.

And Nereus went into his sea.

But Hercules did not know where in the world that Miracle Mountain was.

Hercules wanted to give the golden apples to Helium the Sun. He climbed a high mountain and shouted to the Titan into the sky:

Take, Helium, from me the golden apples of the Sun! They are golden, just like you. Take them on a canoe to the sunny city - to Asia.

But the titan Helius answered Hercules:

They were once apples of the sun. They gifted those who tasted it with eternal youth. They were then called rejuvenating. But now they are apples of death. I don’t want my winged horses to stray from the heavenly path and start a fire all over the world. I don’t want to drown in the waters of Lake Eridanus: it is as deep as Tartarus. I don't want young Apollo to ride my chariot. I will not touch forbidden fruits. For the titans cast into Tartarus, their foremother Gaia intended them so that, having tasted, they could regain their youth and enter joyfully into living life. Take these apples to the tartare.

Hercules decided to give the golden apples back to Gaia-Earth. There was an ancient-pre-ancient cave not far from the crossroads, where sleepers hear the voice of the Earth in their dreams. And the hero was about to go, when the Dream-Hypnos stood behind Hercules and whispered the Dream-Hypnos to Hercules:

Wait here until night, Hercules. Place these apples next to you. Lie down and sleep.

The hero lay down and fell asleep.

And he dreamed of three maiden Hesperides: they flew to Hercules in a dream from Hyperborea. Each took a golden apple, laughed - and the Hesperides again flew away to the boundaries of Atlanta. They took with them three golden apples.

Hercules woke up and looked: there were no golden apples next to him. Did sleep take them away? Or the Hesperides? Who knows.

But Hercules held them in his hands. Hercules held the sky on one shoulder. I reached the pillars of Sunset. Sailed across the ocean on a Helium cup-shuttle. Now the heroes will not forget the road to the boundaries of Atlanta - to where the Garden of the Hesperides is.

Without the help of the gods or rewards, Hercules accomplished his feat.

Sing again in the garden of the Hesperides, Evening nymphs! Golden apples returned to ancient Hyperborea. The service of Hercules ended.

And the hero walked towards Artos.

Much in the modern world is built on the models given by philosophers, scientists and poets of ancient Greece. The culture of the Hellenes excited the minds of artists and writers for many years after the gods who turned into people stopped roaming the roads of Greece. Despite the popularity of Greek mythology, not all of its characters are equally well known. The Titans, for example, did not receive as much fame as the Olympian gods.

Who are the Titans?

In ancient Greek mythology, it is customary to distinguish three generations of gods.

1. Gods of the first generation - ancestors, which do not have personification, the embodiment of such comprehensive concepts as earth, night, love.
2. The gods of the second generation are called titans. To understand who is which titan in the minds of the ancient Greeks, you need to understand that they are an intermediate link between completely personified Olympians and the embodiment of truly global concepts. The closest assessment would be “the personification of elemental forces.”
3. The gods of the third generation are Olympians. The closest and most understandable to people, interacting with them directly.

Who are the Titans in Greek mythology?

The second generation of the gods of ancient Hellas is an intermediate one, taking away power from their parents, but ceding it to their children. In both cases, the initiator of the revolution was the companion of the supreme god of the generation. Gaia, the wife of Uranus, was angry with her husband because he imprisoned her children, the hundred-armed giants Hecatoncheires. Only Cronus (Kronos), the youngest and most cruel of the titans, responded to his mother’s entreaties to overthrow his father; in order to gain supreme dominion he had to castrate Uranus’s sickle. Interestingly, after seizing power, Cronus again imprisoned the Hecatoncheires.

Fearing a repeat of the situation, the titan tried to play it safe - he swallowed the children born to his wife, Rhea. At some point, the Titanide got tired of her husband’s cruelty, and she saved her youngest son, Zeus. Sheltered from her cruel father, the young god survived, managed to save his brothers and sisters, win the war and become the ruler of Olympus. Although the reign of Kronos is called the golden age in myths, titanium in mythology is the personification of chaotic, ruthless forces, and the transition to the wise and humane Olympian gods is a completely logical consequence of the development and humanization of the culture of the ancient Greeks.

Titans - mythology

Not all the titans of ancient Greece were overthrown during the war, some of them took the side of the Olympians, so in some cases, the titan is the god of Olympus. Here are some of them:

• Metis raised young Zeus in Crete;
• Themis, who became the goddess of correct behavior (later justice) on Olympus;
• Prometheus and Epimetheus, brothers who played an important role in the war of the gods and the Titans.

The fight of the Olympian gods with the titans

After Zeus grew up and freed his brothers and sisters from the womb of Kronos with the help of poisoned nectar, he found it possible to challenge his cruel parent. This battle lasted for ten years, where neither side had an advantage. Finally, the hecatoncheires, freed by Zeus, intervened in the duel between the titans and the gods; their help turned out to be decisive, the Olympians won and overthrew into Tartarus all the titans who did not agree with the power of the new gods.

These events aroused the interest of many ancient Greek poets, but the only work that has been completely preserved to this day is Hesiod’s Theogony. Modern scientists suggest that the war of the gods and the titans reflected the struggle between the religions of the indigenous population of the Balkan Peninsula and the Hellenes who invaded their territory.

Titans and Titanides

Researchers identify twelve elder titans, six male and six female. Titans:

• Cronus, who later personified time;
• Ocean;
• Krios;
• Kay, symbolizing the celestial axis;
• Iapetus, according to some assumptions, the ancestor of the Aryans;
• Hyperion is the sun god.

Titanides:

• Themis;
• Tethys, the female embodiment of the sea;
• Theia, goddess of the moon;
• Mnemosyne, memory;
• Phoebe.

Now it is difficult to say exactly what titanium or titanide looks like according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks. In the images that have reached us, they are presented either anthropomorphically, like the Olympians, or in the form of monsters, only vaguely similar to people. In any case, their characters were also humanized, like the characters of the third generation of gods. According to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the Titans and Titanides more than once entered into marriages with each other and with other representatives of Greek mythology. Children from such marriages, born before the Titanomachy, are considered junior titans.

Titans and Atlanteans

In ancient Greek myths, all losers are punished, no matter who they are - titans, first-generation gods or mere mortals. Zeus punished one of the titans, Atlas, by forcing him to support the vault of heaven. Later, he helped Hercules get the apples of the Hesperides, thereby completing the 12th labor. Atlas was considered the inventor of astronomy and natural philosophy. Perhaps that is why the mysterious, enlightened, never found Atlantis was named after him.

As soon as we talk about some giants or semi-mythological giants, the ancient Greek legends about giants and the struggle of gods led by Zeus with them - about the Titanomachy - immediately come to mind. The disappeared world in Greek legends turned out to be mystically connected with these myths about giants. At first glance, the connection here is purely mythological: Atlas was the ruler of Atlantis. Since Atlas is considered an exclusively mythological person, this line was not considered by anyone as a historical fact. And, it seems, in vain - most often the dress of world myths is woven from pieces of a very real story.

Plato calls Atlas not only the ruler of the disappeared country, but also the brother of Poseidon. Here it is worth recalling the genealogy of these wonderful heroes.

The Titans were the first rulers of the earth, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky).

The Titans, unlike the Olympian gods, appear as rather abstract figures, often symbolizing the elements or the generalization of certain feelings. For example, the son of the Titan Ocean and his daughter Styx were Power, Violence, Jealousy, Nike-Victory (all of them took the side of the gods during the Titanomachy).

Let us briefly recall how those grandiose events unfolded that are described in many Greek myths. Uranus hated his children-titans and ordered them to be imprisoned, thus remaining in the depths of Gaia-earth. Deciding to take revenge, Gaia forged a wonderful sickle and gave it to one of her sons, Cronus. And with this sickle Cronus cut off the reproductive organ from Uranus and threw it into the sea, from which Aphrodite was born.

Cronus freed the titan brothers and married the Titanide Rhea. Thus, power on earth and in heaven now belonged entirely to the titans. But Kron himself turned out to be a cruel creature; he devoured all his children that were born from Rhea.

And so he would have destroyed them all if Rhea, instead of the next child, had not slipped Kron a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed. The rescued child - and it was Zeus - was hidden in Crete and fed with the milk of the Amalthea goat.

When Zeus grew up, he not only forced his father Cronus to vomit all the children back, but also gathered the gods to fight Cronus and the Titans. Thus began the Titanomachy - the struggle of the gods with the Titans. Gaia helped the gods win, Cronus was killed by Zeus, and all the Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus. The time of the gods has come.

During the Titanomachy, Cron decided to make the titan Atlas the leader of the titans in the fight against the gods, and when the titans were defeated, Atlas was expelled somewhere to the West, where the edge of the world is located and the gardens of the Hesperides grow. As a punishment, he was determined to hold heaven and earth on himself.

The Titan Atlas was placed “somewhere in the West” to hold up the firmament (Roman statue, Naples, National Museum)

Where was Atlas located, “holding the vault of heaven”? At first glance, the answer to this question should not cause much controversy: Atlas was placed somewhere “on the western edge of the world,” as indicated by the earliest sources on this issue - Hesiod and Pindar in the 5th century. However, there are noticeable discrepancies in the sources, which, as we will see later, are not only not accidental, but seem to contain a message encrypted by history itself. Often a certain geographical abstraction is indicated: a place in the north inhabited by the Hyperboreans - “people who live above the northern seas,” which, in general, corresponds to life “at the ends of the earth.” But there is another feature of the image of Atlas - it symbolizes the wisdom that was hidden from people by the gods.

Atlas, in his hard work, learned all the secrets of the universe and was initiated into much knowledge, thus becoming an example of secret wisdom, hard work and punishment for trying to rebel against the gods. And this is a symbol of some “sharpened knowledge” of ancient generations of titans, the essence of which is still shrouded in mystery.

Let us pay attention: in many legends the titans appear not as enemies of the human race (in most legends people do not yet appear, as if they had not yet been created), but as supreme beings. Moreover, according to some myths, it was the titans who contributed to the formation of people. Legend has it that when the gods created people from earth (or clay) and fire, they ordered the titans Epimetheus and Prometheus to endow people with various kinds of abilities and benefits. Epimetheus decided to do everything himself and endowed all living beings, including animals, with the ability to procreate, and also gave them the skills to protect themselves, thus distributing everything equally. After such a “division,” people found themselves deprived: they found themselves naked and naked. And this was precisely the reason that Prometheus stole fire from Hephaestus, and from Athena - a share of her wisdom, transferring both to people, for which he paid, being punished by Zeus.

As you can see, two plots are clearly visible here. Firstly, the titans participated in endowing people with abilities, that is, they acted as one of the creators and thereby played a certain positive role. Secondly, they conveyed to people part of divine knowledge - wisdom and the ability to use fire, that is, to heat themselves and cook food, which saved the human race from extinction. And thirdly, this strikingly repeats the presentation of a well-known biblical story. In both cases, people were created from clay or earth, and they were punished for stealing some secret knowledge from the gods: either they tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, or they used the divine wisdom of Aphrodite. In any case, people took what was the monopoly of the gods (remember that in the original version of the Book of Genesis the Bible also refers to “gods” and not to “god”). And in both cases, this was followed by the punishment of people, and the same in biblical and Greek tradition: a monstrous flood that washes away humanity.

But this happened a little later. According to Greek myth, the flood is preceded by another event - gigantomachy, or the struggle of the gods with the giants. The giants, according to one myth, were born from drops of blood that fell to the ground when Cronus cut off the genital organ of his father Uranus. According to another legend, Gaia gave birth to giants immediately after her children, the Titans, were defeated, in order to take revenge on the gods for imprisoning her children in the underworld - Tartarus. Thus, according to Greek myth, the giants were of divine origin, but did not possess the necessary righteousness to be on a par with them. The giants were terrible: in addition to their enormous height, they had a terrifying appearance, they had the tails of dragons, and instead of hair and beards they had balls of snakes.

But even these giants were defeated by the army that Zeus gathered under his leadership. And there is a remarkable detail here. Although the gods fought bravely, they could not defeat the giants. And then, using the prophecy, they had to turn to a mortal for help.

This is what Hercules became. So mortals began to interfere in the affairs of the gods.

Of course, both in the case of the Titanomachy and in the plot of the Gigantomachy, a magnificent Greek myth with many details, heroes and discrepancies appears before us in all its color. But we can abstract from all these details, no matter how interesting they may seem to us. For us, something else is more important - the very idea embedded in these stories.

First of all, certain titans reign on earth for some time, and then giants.

Moreover, the titans are not only huge and powerful creatures, but also wise. If we put aside the purely mythological background, then we will see a picture of a confrontation between two nationalities or two groups of people. Some - tall, with a developed culture - were conquered and supplanted by others, more numerous and aggressive. Probably, they could have been connected by a common origin (strictly speaking, the leader of the Olympian gods Zeus and his rivals - the Titans - go back to a single Gaia), but they began to develop in different ways. But these are not people of the modern species, who will arise later, and, as we have seen, not without the participation of the titans. And all these vicissitudes lead to the fact that people will, at the behest of the gods, be literally washed away by the waves of the flood. And humanity will be destroyed again, it will be given another chance for a “post-flood” existence, which continues to this day.

So, the general outline of the plot of the Titanomachy is clear: the wise titans, who rebelled against the Olympian gods, were defeated, and their leader is forced from now on to support the vault of heaven. It is noteworthy that the titans appear here in a generally positive way, but still they lose the battle, and their attempt to help people ends in the destruction of the people themselves - a flood. Let us remember this plot for now - the story of the defeat of the giants will be encountered in another culture.

Very early, attempts began to group the myths about the numerous gods of Ancient Greece through genealogies, to bring ideas about them into a system corresponding to the course of phenomena in the real world. In these theosophical constructions of religious concepts, physical revolutions, traces of which were still visible or preserved by echoes of ancient myths, were presented in the form of wars that different tribes or generations of gods waged among themselves, and from which Zeus and other Olympian gods emerged victorious, taking possession of the universe and who gave it its current order. So, the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece represented the cosmos in the current perfection of its improvement as the result of a long development from rough elemental principles into a harmonious organism; According to the Greeks, the course of the history of the universe was an ascension, not a descent, an improvement, perfection, and not corruption. The light region of the ether (sky) was the most important department of the universe in all the myths about the gods of Ancient Greece; whoever possesses the shining throne of the kingdom of heaven is the ruler of the rest of the universe; everything in the entire universe receives a form consistent with the qualities of the one who rules in the realm of the ether. The most ancient myths about the origin of the gods and the universe were collected by Hesiod. He was from the Boeotian city of Askra. His systematic collection of myths is called "Theogony". This is a poem. The summary of the Theogony is as follows:

The beginning of the origin of the gods

Initially, before the emergence of the gods, there was Chaos, a formless primeval space in which Tartarus (matter, the dark void) and Eros (Eros, Eros, the generative force) were located. The movements of Tartarus under the influence of Eros gave birth to Erebus (primordial fog) and Night. Eros began to act in them, and they gave birth to Ether and day (Hemera). Matter, which was in Chaos, formed into the first goddess - the “broad-breasted” Gaia (earth), the mother and nourisher of everything, producing all living things, and receiving everything produced again into her dark bosom. Gaia, having risen, gave birth to Uranus (the starry sky), and he spread his arch over her; having descended, she gave birth to the sea (Pontus), and it spread out under her; She also gave birth to mountains.

Origin of the Titans

Then the next stage in the origin of the ancient Greek gods began. Eros began to act in the universe again, attracting the male and female elements to unite, and she, combining with Uranus spread over her, gave birth to the gods; these gods were the Titans, Cyclops and Hecatoncheires - volcanic and neptunian forces of nature, whose activity still continued on the continent of Greece, and especially on the islands, but seemed weakened compared to what it had been before. There were twelve Titans: six male and six female. Some of them chose the sky as their home, others the earth, and others the sea. The titan and titan who settled in the sea were Oceanus and Tethys (water), from which, according to other theogonic systems, everything came. According to the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece, the Ocean is a river flowing around the earth and the sea covered by the earth; it is a deep and ring-shaped belt of flowing water; its flow is circular; he is the boundary of the world, and he himself is limitless. When the concept of the Ocean River is personified in the image of Titan, this god, who retains the name Ocean, is a kind, gentle old man. This titan and his wife, the ancestor of rivers and streams, live in the far west, which was generally a wonderland in ancient Greek myths. All rivers rushing through gorges, like mighty bulls or victorious heroes making their way through the barriers of mountains, all quiet rivers of the plains, all streams and springs were considered in the myths of Ancient Greece to be the sons and daughters of the gods Ocean and Tethys. Their first-born children were Styx and Aheloy. The Styx (in Greek, a feminine name) was the Black River; her personification, the ancient Greek goddess Styx, lived in the distant west, where the sun hides, where the land of night is; her home was a magnificent house standing between the rocks with silver columns that rose to the very sky. In the myths of Ancient Greece, she was the guardian of the sacred river flowing in a dark gorge, the waters of which the gods swore when they made an unbreakable promise. – Achelous, the “silver river,” was in mythology a representative of rivers that feed vegetation. Ancient Greek myths located the source of this sacred, great river at Dodona, and the Dodona region, irrigated by Achelous, the homeland of the Pelasgians, was “full of grass and bread, goats, sheep and herds of heavy-paced cattle.” At the Ocean, where the garden of the Hesperides and where the sources of ambrosia are, Zeus combined with Hera, the goddess of the clouds, the queen of the sky, who was raised by Ocean and Tethys.

In the shining sky, according to ancient Greek mythology, lived the Titan Hyperion “high-walking” and the Titan Theia (shine); from them were born the gods Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn; Eos is a feminine word in Greek); There also lived another couple in the sky, Kay and Phoebe (the bright one), the parents of Leto (the silence of the night) and Asteria (the Starlight). The children of the Titan Eos were the Wind gods; there were four of them: Zephyr, Boreas, Noth and Eurus.

According to the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece, of the titans and titans who lived on earth, some were personifications of human qualities and phases of human development; This was the significance of Iapetus and his sons, who are also called titans: Atlas (or Atlas), supporting the sky; arrogant Menoetius; the cunning Prometheus; the feeble-minded Epimetheus; ideas about them provided rich material for thoughtful myths and great works of ancient Greek poetry. The Titans who lived on earth were personifications of beneficial forces that gave human life prosperity or noble pleasures; These were Themis, the goddess of justice and legal order; her daughters and Zeus were in the myths about the gods of Ancient Greece Ora (Horai, hours of the day, seasons), the goddess of the correct course of annual changes in nature and the correct structure of human life; Eurynome, mother of Charit (Grace), goddess of everything sweet, attractive in nature and in human life: fun, beauty, grace; Mnemosyne, whose daughters from her union with Zeus were the goddesses of singing, the muses; the formidable Hecate, the goddess of fate, who was very highly respected; She was the first of all deities to be prayed to by those offering sacrifices of atonement; good and evil came from her to people. Subsequently, Hecate became the goddess of roads and crossroads in the myths of Ancient Greece; crossroads were burial places, and on them, near the tombs, in the mysterious light of the moon, ghosts appeared; therefore Hecate became the terrible goddess of witchcraft and ghosts, accompanied by the howling of dogs.

Cyclops and Hecatonchires

In the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece, Gaia, in addition to the Titans, gave birth to the Cyclops and Hecatoncheires from her marriage with Uranus. Cyclops, giants with a large, round, fiery eye in the middle of their forehead, were personifications of clouds flashing with lightning. There were three of them. There were also three Hecatoncheires, the “Hundred-Handed” giants, who personified earthquakes and stormy waves of the sea that flooded the earth. These huge monsters were so strong that, according to myths about the origin of the gods, Uranus himself began to fear them; therefore he bound them and cast them into the depths of the earth; They are now raging in its depths, producing eruptions of fire-breathing mountains and earthquakes.

Cyclops Polyphemus. Painting by Tischbein, 1802

Castration of Uranus by Cronus

Gaia, suffering from this, decided to take revenge on Uranus. She made a large sickle out of iron and gave it to Krona, the youngest of the titans, who alone of all of them agreed to fulfill his mother’s plan. When Uranus descended at night on the bed of Gaia, Cronus, hiding near that place, cut off his father’s penis with a sickle and threw it away. Gaia took the drops of blood that fell at the same time, and from them gave birth to three Erinyes, giants and Melian nymphs. In the myths of Ancient Greece, Erinyes, who had snakes instead of hair on their heads, walk with torches throughout the earth, pursuing and punishing evildoers; there are three of them: Tisiphone (the killing avenger), Alecto (the tireless pursuer) and Megaera (the terrible). Giants and Melian nymphs were personifications of vengeance, violence, and bloodshed in the myths of Ancient Greece. The penis cut off from Uranus fell into the sea and was carried along the waves; from the white foam of these waves, Aphrodite (Anadyomene, “rising from the water”) was born, who formerly formed part of the being of Uranus (formerly Urania), now becoming a special being. Uranus cursed the Titans. – According to the scientist Preller, Cronus was initially the god of the ripening of bread in Ancient Greece and became the personification of time, moving imperceptibly towards the time of ripening, and quickly cutting off what was ripe, “the god of the withering heat, which stops the rains of his father, the sky.”

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

Origin of Nereus and the Sea Deities

According to the myths about the origin of the gods, Gaia also had children from cohabitation with Pontus, the sea. The first of these children of hers was Nereus, a kind, favorable sea god, the father of numerous daughters, the Nereids, beautiful sea nymphs who were personifications of the calm sea, quiet bays, and bright life near safe bays. The next children of Gaia from cohabitation with Pontus, the sons Thaumas and Phorcys and the daughter Keto, were personifications of the majestic and terrible phenomena of the sea. The daughter of Phorcys and the oceanid Electra (“brilliant”) was Iris, the rainbow; their other daughters were in ancient Greek myths the Harpies, the goddess of destructive storms, whirlwinds, and deaths.

Hercules and Nereus. Boeotian vessel ca. 590-580 BC.

Graia, Scylla and Gorgons

From the cohabitation of Phorkidas and Keto, the ugly Graias, the terrible monsters Scylla and Gorgons were born; they lived on the edge of the universe, where the sun sets, in the land of Night and its children. - The Grays, three sisters, were already gray-haired old women at birth; all three, they had only one eye and one tooth, which they used alternately. The Gorgons, of which the most terrible was Medusa, were winged monsters with human heads, on which there were snakes instead of hair, and with such a terrible expression on their faces that from their gaze all living things turned to stone.

Scylla. Boeotian red-figure crater of the second half of the 5th century. BC

Hesperides and Atlas

Not far from the Gorgons, at the border of eternal darkness, lived the Hesperides, daughters of Night; their singing was beautiful; they lived on a charming island, which was not reached by sailors, and where the fertile land produces its most excellent gifts to the gods”; The Hesperides guarded the golden apples that grew on this island. Next to the Hesperides gardens stood the titan Atlas (Atlas), the personification of the Atlas Range; he held on his head, supporting him with his hands, “the wide vault of heaven.” – Mother of the Hesperides, Night, was a good goddess who gave birth to light; at the end of each day, she covers the earth with her moist wings and gives sleep to all nature.

Moira

Moira, goddesses of the birth and death of people, were either also daughters of Night, or daughters of Zeus and Themis. In the myths of Ancient Greece there were three of them: Clotho spun the beginning of the thread of human life, Lachesis continued spinning the thread begun by her sister, Atropos (inevitable) cut the thread. Goddesses of human destiny, they were the guardians of the laws of necessity, on the action of which order and improvement in nature and in human society are based.

Thanat and Kera

The children of the night were also the inexorable god of death, Thanat, and the terrible Kera, goddesses of fate, mainly the fate that gives people death in battles; on the battlefields they were “terrible in appearance, in bloody clothes,” dragging and tormenting the wounded and killed.

God Kron

Uranus, the sky that gives the rain that fertilizes the earth, was, according to the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece, deprived of dominion by Cronus, the personification of that power of the sky that gives ripening to the fruits of the earth. Cronus became ruler; his reign was a golden age; then “the fruit was ripe forever, and the harvest was forever.” But his father’s curse took away his power to be renewed with youth, so in the myths about the origin of the gods he is a symbol of old age, a pale, withered old man, with gray hair and a long beard, bent over, gloomy. It was predicted to him that his children would overthrow him, just as he overthrew his father; therefore, he absorbed all the children that his wife, Rhea, bore to him, the personification of the productive power of mountains and forests, “mother mountain,” later identified with the Phrygian goddess of nature, Cybele, the founder of cities, who wore a crown made in the form of a city wall.

Zeus and the fight of the gods with the titans

According to ancient Greek myths, Cronus absorbed all his children; but when the last son, Zeus, was born, the mother gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow and hid the beautiful baby in a cave. The nymphs fed him there with milk and honey, and the Curetes and Corybantes - the personification of thunderclouds - danced around, hitting their shields with their spears so that the baby’s cry could not be heard by the parent. Zeus quickly grew up and, with the help of Rhea’s cunning, forced his father to disgorge the devoured children. The stone he had swallowed was also thrown out; Zeus placed it "for eternal remembrance at Delphi" on the winding slope of Parnassus. Zeus freed the Cyclopes; they gave him thunder and lightning, and he, according to ancient Greek myths about the origin of the gods, began a fight with Cronus for dominion over the universe.

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

All the gods of Ancient Greece took part in the struggle; some took the side of Cronus, others took the side of Zeus. The war of the gods lasted ten years. The titans' camp was on Othrid, the younger generation's deities' camp was on Olympus. The ancient Greek myth about this “war with the Titans” (Titanomachy) is based, perhaps, on memories of earthquakes during which a breach of the seaside ridge, the Tempeian Gorge, was formed, and the waters of the Thessalian plain flowed into the sea. Under the feet of the fighting gods the earth shook to the depths of Tartarus. God Zeus finally showed all his power, continuously throwing lightning, so that all the forests were on fire, the whole earth was on fire, the sea was boiling; the eyes of the titans were blinded by the brilliance of lightning, and the ancient Chaos itself stirred in its depths, thinking that the hour of its dominion had come, that both heaven and earth would be cast into it. But the titans still held out irresistibly. Zeus summoned the hundred-armed, fifty-headed Hecatoncheires to his aid; They began to throw huge rocks at the titans, three hundred rocks at a time, and overthrew the titans into Tartarus, which is as deep below the earth as the sky is high from it. According to ancient Greek myths, the overthrown titans were bound there in chains. But not all the Titans were against Zeus; Themis, Oceanus and Hyperion fought for him and were accepted among the celestials.

Division of the universe between Zeus, Poseidon and Hades

The victory was celebrated with a brilliant holiday, with military dances and games. After that, the myths about the origin of the gods of Ancient Greece continue, the sons of Cronus divided among themselves, either by lot or by choice, dominion over the universe. Zeus received supreme power in heaven and on earth, Poseidon dominion over the sea and all waters; Hades (Pluto) became the ruler in the depths of the earth, where the dark dwellings of the dead are. Earth and Olympus remained the common possession of all gods and goddesses. But some of them took under their special protection those countries and cities that they especially loved and in which they were especially honored. The titans thrown into Tartarus remained there, bound in chains. Poseidon fenced Tartarus with a strong wall with copper gates. Hecatoncheires, the terrible forces of earthquakes, in ancient Greek myths guard the titans so that they do not break out of Tartarus and destroy the bright world of the Olympian gods. And the titans remained forever in Tartarus, the children of the angry earth, the disorderly, evil elements of nature, who opposed the rule of the gods and the moral improvement of life. This is how the most ancient myths told about the origin of the gods. But when the morals of the ancient Greeks softened, poetry freed the titans from darkness and bondage, transferred them to the Islands of the Blessed, and installed there the “ancient” god Kronus as king over the chosen dead of the ancient blessed times.

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

Typhon

Zeus had to defend his dominion against new enemies. Gaia combined with Tartarus and gave birth to her last child, the most terrible of all, Typhon (or Typheus), the personification of gases bursting from the bowels of the earth and causing volcanic upheavals. In ancient Greek myths, it was a colossal monster that had a hundred dragon heads with black tongues, flaming eyes and the hissing of its heads was terrible. Typhon was the most terrible of all the enemies who fought with the Olympians. He almost took over the universe. Zeus struck him with lightning. The struggle was such that it shook the heights of Olympus and the bowels of the earth to its deepest foundations. Zeus finally beat off all the heads of the monster with lightning, and it fell; his body burned with such fire that the earth became hot, like molten iron, and melted and flowed. Zeus cast the headless but living monster into Tartarus. But even from there Typhon sends destruction to land and sea, emitting scorching winds and other harmful effects of heat.

The fight of gods with giants. Pergamon Altar

in ancient Greek mythology: a giant who entered into a fight with the gods

Alternative descriptions

In ancient Greek mythology: one of the gods of the older generation of sons of Uranus and Gaia, who entered into a fight with the gods of the younger generation (Olympians) and were defeated by them

2nd novel of “Trilogy of Desire” by T. Dreiser

Ti, chemical element, silver-white metal, light, refractory, strong, ductile

Atlas in ancient Greek mythology

Large water heater

Large water boiler

A large teapot, even larger than a samovar

An outstanding figure, a man of exceptional caliber

Giant, colossus

Italian automatic pistol

A boiler with an internal firebox and overflow of boiling water into a separate container, used in railway cars

Metal of the century

Roman sun god

The largest of the satellites of the planet Saturn

Satellite of Saturn, discovered by H. Huygens

Chemical element, metal, named after the hero of the ancient Greek epic

Saturn satellite

Samovar in the carriage

Each of the prisoners of Tartarus

The largest of the satellites of the planets in the solar system

A boiler with a mythological name

Chemical element, Ti

Outstanding man

Water heating device

God in ancient Greek mythology

Chemical element, metal

US spacecraft

Giant of thought

Heater

Cast into Tartarus

Greek myth character

Metal number 22

Large boiler

Lightweight, durable metal

Atlas, Kronos

Water heating tank

Metal, Ti

. "outstanding" heater

Carriage "teapot"

Sent by Zeus to Tartarus

Precursor of vanadium in the table

Giant of Thought (trans.)

Mendeleev appointed him 22nd in a row

Metal for car wheel rims

In the table it is after scandium

Water heater

Mendeleev appointed him twenty-second in a row

Twenty-second according to Mendeleev

Following scandium in the table

Boiler in the carriage

Boiler or metal

Metal number twenty two

Following scandium in the table

. "god" on the train

Heating tank in the carriage

Twenty-second in the line of chemical elements

. “samovar” for the entire carriage

Each of the sons of Uranus

. "samovar" in a train carriage

Between scandium and vanadium

Krei, Krios, Hyperion

Water heating device

Metal for rocket

Large heater

Twenty-second metal in the table

What is the chemical element Ti?

Scandium's successor in the table

. "eternal" metal

Metal, satellite or god

Twenty-second element

Chemical element with the call sign Ti

Element 22 of the periodic table

A man of great potential

Son of Uranus and Gaia

God "boiler"

Before vanadium in the table

After scandium in the table

Twenty-second inhabitant of the periodic table

. "rich" boiler

Up to vanadium in the table

In the chemical table it is twenty-second

Saturn's moon, the largest in the solar system

The largest satellite of Saturn

Novel by T. Dreiser

In ancient Greek mythology, a giant who entered into a fight with the gods

Powerful water heater

Chemical element, silvery white light and hard metal

In Greek mythology, god, son of Uranus and Gaia

Novel by T. Dreiser (1914)

Name of chemical element