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Famous heroes of the ancient world

Agamemnon is one of the main characters of the ancient Greek epic, the son of the Mycenaean king Atreus and Aeropa, the leader of the Greek army during the Trojan War.

Amphitrion is the son of the king of Tiryns Alkey and the daughter of Pelop Astidamia, the grandson of Perseus. Amphitryon took part in the war against the teleboys who lived on the island of Taphos, which was waged by his uncle, the Mycenaean king Electrion.

Achilles - in Greek mythology, one of the greatest heroes, the son of King Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons and the sea goddess Thetis, the grandson of Aeacus, the protagonist of the Iliad.

Ajax - the name of two participants in the Trojan War; both fought near Troy as applicants for the hand of Helen. In the Iliad, they often appear side by side and are compared to two mighty lions or bulls.

Bellerophon is one of the main characters of the older generation, the son of the Corinthian king Glaucus (according to other sources, the god Poseidon), the grandson of Sisyphus. Bellerophon's original name is Hippo.

Hector is one of the main characters of the Trojan War. The hero was the son of Hecuba and Priam, the king of Troy. According to legend, he killed the first Greek who set foot on the land of Troy.

Hercules is the national hero of the Greeks. Son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Gifted with mighty strength, he performed the most difficult work on earth and accomplished great feats. Having atoned for his sins, he ascended Olympus and achieved immortality.

Diomedes is the son of the Aetolian king Tydeus and the daughter of Adrastus Deipyla. Together with Adrast he took part in the campaign and the ruin of Thebes. As one of Helen's suitors, Diomedes subsequently fought near Troy, leading a militia on 80 ships.

Meleager is the hero of Aetolia, the son of the Calydonian king Oineus and Alfea, the husband of Cleopatra. Member of the campaign of the Argonauts. Meleager was most famous for his participation in the Calydonian hunt.

Menelaus is the king of Sparta, the son of Atreus and Aeropa, the husband of Helen, the younger brother of Agamemnon. Menelaus, with the help of Agamemnon, gathered friendly kings for the Ilion campaign, and he himself put up sixty ships.

Odysseus - "angry", king of the island of Ithaca, son of Laertes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope. Odysseus is the famous hero of the Trojan War, also famous for his wanderings and adventures.

Orpheus is the famous Thracian singer, the son of the river god Eagra and the muse Calliope, the husband of the nymph Eurydice, who set trees and rocks in motion with his songs.

Patroclus is the son of one of the Argonauts of Menetius, a relative and ally of Achilles in the Trojan War. As a boy, he killed his friend during a dice game, for which his father sent him to Peleus in Phthia, where he was brought up with Achilles.

Peleus is the son of the Aeginian king Aeacus and Endeida, the husband of Antigone. For the murder of his half-brother Phocus, who defeated Peleus in athletic exercises, he was expelled by his father and retired to Phthia.

Pelops is the king and national hero of Phrygia, and then of the Peloponnese. Son of Tantalus and the nymph Euryanassa. Pelops grew up on Olympus in the company of the gods and was the favorite of Poseidon.

Perseus is the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of the king of Argos Acrisius. Slayer of the Gorgon Medusa and savior of Andromeda from the dragon's claims.

Talphibius - a messenger, a Spartan, together with Eurybatus was the herald of Agamemnon, carrying out his instructions. Talthybius, together with Odysseus and Menelaus, gathered an army for the Trojan War.

Teucer is the son of Telamon and the daughter of the Trojan king Hesion. The best archer in the Greek army near Troy, where more than thirty defenders of Ilion fell from his hand.

Theseus is the son of the Athenian king Aeneas and Ethera. He became famous for a number of exploits, like Hercules; kidnapped Helena with Peyrifoy.

Trophonius is originally a chthonic deity, identical with Zeus the Underground. According to popular belief, Trophonius was the son of Apollo or Zeus, the brother of Agamed, the pet of the goddess of the earth - Demeter.

Phoroneus is the founder of the Argive state, the son of the river god Inach and the hamadryad Melia. He was honored as a national hero; sacrifices were made at his grave.

Thrasymedes is the son of the Pylos king Nestor, who arrived with his father and brother Antiloch near Ilion. He commanded fifteen ships and took part in many battles.

Oedipus is the son of the Finnish king Laius and Jocasta. He killed his father and married his mother without knowing it. When the crime was discovered, Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedipus blinded himself. Died pursued by Erinyes.

Aeneas is the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, a relative of Priam, the hero of the Trojan War. Aeneas, like Achilles among the Greeks, is the son of a beautiful goddess, a favorite of the gods; in battles he was defended by Aphrodite and Apollo.

Jason, the son of Aison, on behalf of Pelius, set off from Thessaly for the Golden Fleece to Colchis, for which he equipped the campaign of the Argonauts.

The heroes of Ancient Hellas, whose names have not been forgotten to this day, occupied a special place in mythology, fine arts and the life of the ancient Greek people. They were role models and ideals of physical beauty. Legends and poems were composed about these brave men, statues were created in honor of the heroes and called them by the names of the constellation.

Legends and myths of Ancient Greece: heroes of Hellas, gods and monsters

The mythology of ancient Greek society is divided into three parts:

1. Pre-Olympic period - legends about titans and giants. At that time, man felt defenseless against the formidable forces of nature, about which he still knew very little. Therefore, the surrounding world seemed to him a chaos, in which there are terrifying uncontrollable forces and entities - titans, giants and monsters. They were generated by the earth as the main acting force of nature.

At this time, Cerberus, a chimera, the serpent Typhon, hundred-armed hecatoncheir giants, the goddess of vengeance Erinia, appearing in the guise of terrible old women, and many others appear.

2. Gradually, a pantheon of deities of a different nature began to develop. Abstract monsters began to resist humanoid higher powers - the Olympic gods. This is a new, third generation of deities who entered the battle against the titans and giants and defeated them. Not all opponents were imprisoned in a terrible dungeon - Tartarus. Many were among the new Oceans, Mnemosyne, Themis, Atlas, Helios, Prometheus, Selena, Eos. Traditionally, there were 12 main deities, but over the centuries their composition has been constantly replenished.

3. With the development of ancient Greek society and the rise of economic forces, man's faith in his own strength became stronger and stronger. This bold view of the world gave rise to a new representative of mythology - the hero. He is the conqueror of monsters and at the same time the founder of states. At this time, great feats are performed and victories are won over ancient entities. Typhon is killed by Apollo, the hero of ancient Hellas Cadmus founds the famous Thebes on the habitat of the dragon he killed, Bellerophon destroys the chimera.

Historical sources of Greek myths

We can judge the exploits of heroes and gods from a few written testimonies. The largest of them are the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by the great Homer, "Metamorphoses" by Ovid (they formed the basis of the famous book by N. Kuhn "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece"), as well as the works of Hesiod.

Around the 5th century BC. there are collectors of legends about the gods and the great defenders of Greece. The heroes of Ancient Hellas, whose names we now know, were not forgotten thanks to their painstaking work. These are the historians and philosophers Apollodorus of Athens, Heraclid of Pontus, Palefatus and many others.

Origin of Heroes

First, let's find out who it is - the hero of Ancient Hellas. The Greeks themselves have several interpretations. This is usually a descendant of some deity and a mortal woman. Hesiod, for example, called demigods the heroes whose ancestor was Zeus.

It takes more than one generation to create a truly invincible warrior and protector. Hercules is the thirtieth in the family of the descendants of the main one, and all the power of the previous heroes of his family was concentrated in him.

In Homer, this is a strong and courageous warrior or a person of noble birth, who has famous ancestors.

Modern etymologists also interpret the meaning of the word in question in different ways, highlighting the general - the function of the protector.

Heroes of Ancient Hellas often have a similar biography. Many of them did not know the name of their father, were brought up either by one mother, or were adopted children. All of them, in the end, went to accomplish feats.

Heroes are called upon to fulfill the will of the Olympic gods and bestow patronage on people. They bring order and justice to the earth. They also have a contradiction. On the one hand, they are endowed with superhuman strength, but on the other hand, they are deprived of immortality. The gods themselves sometimes try to correct this injustice. Thetis kills the son of Achilles, seeking to make him immortal. The goddess Demeter, in gratitude to the Athenian king, puts his son Demophon into the fire in order to burn out everything mortal in him. Usually these attempts end in failure due to the intervention of parents who fear for the lives of their children.

The fate of the hero is usually tragic. Not being able to live forever, he tries to immortalize himself in the memory of people with exploits. Often he is persecuted by malevolent gods. Hercules tries to destroy Hera, Odysseus is pursued by the wrath of Poseidon.

Heroes of Ancient Hellas: a list of names and exploits

The first protector of people was the titan Prometheus. He is conditionally called a hero, since he is not a man or a demigod, but a real deity. According to Hesiod, it was he who created the first people, molding them from clay or earth, and patronized them, protecting them from the arbitrariness of other gods.

Bellerophon is one of the first heroes of the older generation. As a gift from the Olympian gods, he received the wonderful winged horse Pegasus, with the help of which he defeated the terrible fire-breathing chimera.

Theseus is a hero who lived before the great Trojan War. Its origin is unusual. He is a descendant of many gods, and even the wise half-snakes, half-humans were his ancestors. The hero has two fathers at once - King Aegeus and Poseidon. Before his greatest feat - the victory over the monstrous Minotaur - he managed to do many good deeds: he destroyed the robbers who lay in wait for travelers on the Athenian road, he killed the monster - the Krommion pig. Also, Theseus, along with Hercules, participated in the campaign against the Amazons.

Achilles is the greatest hero of Hellas, the son of King Peleus and the goddess of the sea, Thetis. Wishing to make her son invulnerable, she put him in the oven of Hephaestus (according to other versions, in or boiling water). He was destined to die in the Trojan War, but before that, to accomplish many feats on the battlefield. His mother tried to hide him from the ruler Lykomed, dressing him up in women's clothing and passing him off as one of the royal daughters. But the cunning Odysseus, sent to search for Achilles, was able to expose him. The hero was forced to accept his fate and went to the Trojan War. On it, he accomplished many feats. The mere appearance of him on the battlefield turned the enemies to flight. Achilles was killed by Paris with an arrow from a bow, which was directed by the god Apollo. She hit the only weak spot on the hero's body - the heel. honored Achilles. Temples were built in his honor in Sparta and Elis.

The life stories of some heroes are so interesting and tragic that they should be told separately.

Perseus

Heroes of Ancient Hellas, their exploits and life stories are known to many. One of the most popular representatives of the great defenders of antiquity is Perseus. He performed several feats that glorified his name forever: he cut off his head and saved the beautiful Andromeda from the sea monster.

To do this, he had to get the helmet of Ares, which makes anyone invisible, and the sandals of Hermes, which make it possible to fly. Athena, the patroness of the hero, gave him a sword and a magic bag in which to hide a severed head, because the sight of even a dead Gorgon turned any living creature into stone. After the death of Perseus and his wife Andromeda, they were both placed by the gods in the sky and turned into constellations.

Odysseus

The heroes of ancient Hellas were not only unusually strong and courageous. Many of them were wise. The most cunning of them all was Odysseus. More than once his sharp mind rescued the hero and his companions. Homer dedicated his famous "Odyssey" to the long-term journey of the king of Ithaca home.

The Greatest of the Greeks

The hero of Hellas (Ancient Greece), the myths about which are most famous, is Hercules. and a descendant of Perseus, he accomplished many feats and became famous for centuries. All his life he was haunted by the hatred of Hera. Under the influence of the madness sent by her, he killed his children and two sons of his brother Iphicles.

The hero's death came prematurely. Putting on a poisoned cloak sent by his wife Dejanira, who thought it was soaked in a love potion, Hercules realized that he was dying. He ordered a funeral pyre to be prepared and went up on it. At the time of death, the son of Zeus - the main character of Greek myths - was ascended to Olympus, where he became one of the gods.

Ancient Greek Demigods and Characters of Myths in Modern Art

The heroes of Ancient Hellas, the pictures of which can be seen in the article, have always been considered examples of physical strength and health. There is not a single art form in which the plots of Greek mythology were not used. And today they do not lose popularity. Of great interest to the audience were such films as Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans, the main character of which is Perseus. Odyssey is dedicated to a magnificent film of the same name (directed by Andrey Konchalovsky). "Troy" told about the exploits and death of Achilles.

A huge number of films, series and cartoons have been shot about the great Hercules.

Conclusion

The heroes of Ancient Hellas are still a wonderful example of masculinity, self-sacrifice and devotion. Not all of them are perfect, and many of them have negative traits - vanity, pride, lust for power. But they always rose to the defense of Greece if the country or its people were in danger.

The mythological heroes of ancient Greece were people, but the gods were the parents of many of them. Myths about their exploits and accomplishments are an integral part of the culture of the ancient Greeks, and the article below presents a kind of “top” of the heroes of Hellas.

The most powerful hero of ancient Greece - Hercules

The parents of Hercules were the mortal woman Alcmene and the powerful ancient Greek god Zeus. According to ancient Greek mythology, Hercules performed twelve famous feats during his life, for which the goddess Athena lifted him to Olympus, where Zeus granted immortality to the hero.

The most famous exploits of Hercules are the killing of the nine-headed hydra, the victory over the previously invulnerable Nemean lion, the taming of the guardian of the kingdom of the dead, the dog Cerberus, the cleaning of the Augean stables that had been uncleaned for decades, the construction of stone pillars on the banks of the Strait of Gibraltar, dividing Africa and Europe. In ancient times, the strait was called the Pillars of Hercules (Hercules is the Roman name of Hercules).

Ancient Greek hero Odysseus

The king of Ithaca, Odysseus, is famous for his journey from the city of Troy to his homeland, full of dangers and mortal risk. The exploits that the hero accomplished during it are described by the ancient Greek poet Homer in the poem "Odyssey".

Odysseus was distinguished not only by strength, but also by cunning. During the journey, he blinded the giant Cyclops Polyphemus, escaped from the sorceress Kirka, did not succumb to the charms of the sweet-voiced sirens, "slipped" on the ship between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis, which absorbs everything, left the beautiful nymph Calypso, survived after being struck by lightning and, returning home , dealt with all the newly-minted "suitors" of his wife Penelope. "Odyssey" - since then people have called any risky and long journey.

Greek hero Perseus

Perseus is another son of Zeus, his mother was the Argive princess Danae. Perseus became famous for killing the medusa Gorgon - a winged monster covered with scales, whose head was covered with snakes instead of hair, and from whose gaze all living things turned to stone. Then Perseus freed Princess Andromeda from the clutches of a sea monster devouring people, and turned her former fiancé into stone, forcing him to look at the severed head of the Gorgon.

Ancient Greek hero of the Trojan War - Achilles

Achilles was the son of King Peleus and the nymph Thetis. In infancy, his mother dipped him into the waters of the river of the dead Styx, due to which the whole body of Achilles became invulnerable, except for the heel by which his mother held him.

The invulnerability of Achilles made him an invincible warrior, until, during the siege of Troy, the son of the Trojan king Paris hit him with an arrow in this very heel. Since then, any weak point of any impregnable defense has been called its "Achilles' heel".

Greek hero Jason

Jason is famous for the fact that on the Argo ship with a team of brave Argonauts (among whom were the sweet-voiced singer Orpheus and the mighty Hercules) went to distant Colchis (modern Georgia) and obtained the skin of a magical ram guarded by a dragon - the Golden Fleece.

In Colchis, Jason married the daughter of the king of this country, the jealous Medea, who bore him two boys. When Jason later decided to remarry the Corinthian princess Creusa, Medea killed both her and her own children.

The unfortunate hero of ancient Greece Oedipus

The oracle predicted to Oedipus' father, the Theban king Laius, that he would die at the hands of his son. Laius ordered Oedipus to be killed, but he was saved and adopted as a slave, and the young man also received a prediction from the Delphic oracle that he would kill his father and marry his own mother.

Frightened, Oedipus set off to travel, but on the way to Thebes, in a quarrel, he killed some noble old Theban. The road to Thebes was guarded by the Sphinx, making riddles to travelers and devouring everyone who could not guess them. Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, after which he committed suicide.

The Thebans chose Oedipus as their king, and the widow of the former ruler of Thebes became his wife. But when Oedipus learned that the former king was an old man he had once killed on the road, and his wife was also a mother, he blinded himself.

Another famous hero of ancient Greece - Theseus

Theseus was the son of the king of the seas, Poseidon, and became famous for having killed the Minotaur, a monster that lived in the difficult Cretan labyrinth, and then found a way out of this labyrinth. He got out of there thanks to a ball of thread, which was presented to him by the daughter of the Cretan king Ariadne.

The mythological hero Theseus is revered in Greece as the founder of Athens.

According to the materials of the encyclopedia "Who is who".

The dead heroes of primitive times, the founders of tribes, the founders of cities and colonies, enjoyed divine honors among the Greeks. They constitute a separate world of Greek mythology, however, closely connected with the world of the gods, from whom they originate. Each tribe, each region, each city, even each clan has its own hero, in whose honor holidays and sacrifices are established. The most widespread and rich in legends heroic cult among the Greeks was the cult of Alcides Hercules (Hercules). He is a symbol of the highest human heroism, which tirelessly overcomes the obstacles that are everywhere opposed to it by testing fate, fights against the impure forces and horrors of nature, and, having freed itself from human weaknesses, becomes like the gods. In Greek mythology, Hercules is a representative of humanity, which, with the help of its semi-divine origin, can ascend to Olympus, despite the hostility of hostile forces towards it.

Hercules kills the Nemean Lion. Copy from the statue of Lysippus

Initially appearing in Boeotia and Argos, the myth of Hercules was subsequently mixed with many foreign legends, because the Greeks merged with their Hercules all such deities that they met in their relations with the Phoenicians (Melkart), Egyptians and Celto-Germanic tribes. He is the son of Zeus and the Thebes Alcmene and the ancestor of the royal families of Dorian, Thessalian and Macedonian. Condemned by the envy of the goddess Hera to serve the king of Argos, Eurystheus, Hercules in myths performs twelve labors on his behalf: frees the Peloponnese and other regions from monsters and predatory animals, cleans the stables of King Avgius in Elis, extracts golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides (in North Africa) with the help of the titan Atlas, for which he holds the vault of heaven for some time, passes through the so-called Pillars of Hercules to Spain, there he leads the bulls from King Geryon, and then returns through Gaul, Italy and Sicily. From Asia he brings the belt of the Amazonian queen Hippolyta, in Egypt he kills the cruel king Busiris and leads the chained Cerberus out of the underworld. But he also falls into weakness for a while and performs the female service of the Lydian queen Omphala; however, he soon returns to his former courage, undertakes some more feats and finally takes his own life in a flame on Mount Ete, when the poisoned clothes that his wife, who did not suspect trouble, sent him Dejanira, led the hero to inevitable death. Upon death, he was taken to Olympus and married Hebe, the goddess of youth.

In all countries and on all coasts, where the active sea trade brought the Greeks, they found traces of their national hero, who preceded them, paving the way, whose labors and dangers, defeated by his heroism and perseverance, were a reflection of their own national life. in Greek mythology carried its beloved hero from the extreme west, where the Atlas Range, the gardens of the Hesperides and the Pillars of Hercules testified to his existence as far as Egypt and the shores of the Black Sea. The soldiers of Alexander the Great acquired it even in India.

In the Peloponnese, a myth arose about the cursed kind of Lydian or Phrygian tantalum, whose son is a hero Pelops through deceit and cunning, he took possession of the daughter and the region of the Elidian king Enomai. his sons Atreus and Fiestas(Tieste) allow themselves incest, infanticide and pass on to their descendants an even greater degree of damnation. The mythological hero Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, friend of Pylades, the murderer of his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, by the return of his sister Iphigenia from Tauris, where she was a priestess of the barbaric worship of Artemis, is freed from Erinnia and atones for the sins of the entire Tantalus family.

In Lacedaemon, myths were told about the heroes-Tindarides - twins Kastore and Polidevka(Pollux), the brothers of Helen, who merged with the Dioscuri, shining stars, patrons of sailors and sailors: they thought that their ascent would calm the storm.

The tribal hero of Thebes was the Phoenician Cadmus, who was looking for his sister Europe, kidnapped by Zeus, and led by a cow to Boeotia. King Laius descended from him, who, frightened by one saying of the oracle, ordered that his son from Jocasta, Oedipus, be thrown into a mountain gorge. But the son, according to Greek mythology, was saved, brought up in Corinth, and subsequently killed his father, out of ignorance; he, having solved one riddle, freed the Theban region from the harmful monster of the Sphinx, and as a reward for this he received a widowed queen, his own mother, in marriage. Then, when serious disasters befell the country, and one elderly priest discovered a terrible secret, Jocasta herself took her own life, and Oedipus left his fatherland as a blind old man and ended his life in the town of Colon, in Attica; his sons Eteocles and Polynices, cursed by their father, killed each other during the Campaign of the Seven against Thebes. His daughter Antigone was doomed to death by the Theban king Creon because, contrary to his command, she buried the corpse of her brother.

Antigone leads the blind Oedipus out of Thebes. Painting by Jalabert, 1842

Hero Brothers - singer Amphion, husband of Niobe, and brave, armed with a club Z, also belong to Thebes. In order to avenge their mother, insulted by the nymph Dirka, they claimed the latter to the tail of a bull and tortured her to death (Farnese bull). In Boeotia and Attica, the legend of Thereus, the primitive king of the Thracians rich in myths who lived around the Copaid lake, and his sister and sister-in-law, was established. Procne and Philomele, which, after the murder of Terey's son, were turned - one into a swallow, the other into a nightingale.

Thessaly, rich in horses, was inhabited by Greek myths about heroes centaurs(bull-killers) with a horse's torso and legs, who fought with the Lapiths, more than once depicted in Hellenic sculpture. The fairest of the wild centaurs was the herbalist Chiron, mentor of Asclepius and Achilles.

In Athens, the folk mythological hero was Theseus. He was considered the founder of the city, for he united the scattered inhabitants into one community. He was the son of the Athenian king Aegeus, was born and raised in Troezen by Pittheus. Having taken out his father's sword and sandals from under a huge stone block and thus proving his extraordinary strength, this hero, on his way back to his homeland, clears the isthmus from wild robbers (Procrustes and others) and frees the Athenians from the heavy tribute of seven boys and seven girls, which they were to send every nine years to the Cretan Minotaur. Theseus kills this monster, which had a bull's head on a human body, and with the help of a thread given to him by the king's daughter Ariadne, finds a way out of the Labyrinth. (Recent research rightly recognizes in the Greek myth of the Minotaur an allusion to the worship of Moloch, native to the island of Crete and associated with human sacrifice). Aegeus, believing that his son was dead, because on his return he forgot to replace the black sail of the ship with white, in despair he threw himself into the sea, which received from him the name of the Aegean.

Theseus kills the Minotaur. Drawing on an ancient Greek vase

Theseus' name is closely associated with the worship of the god Poseidon, after whom he established the Isthmian games. Poseidon also gives a tragic denouement of the love story of the second wife of Theseus ( Phaedras) with his son Ippolit. The legend of Theseus has a lot of affinity with the legend of Hercules. Like Hercules, the hero Theseus also

(or their descendants) and mortal people. Heroes differed from the gods in that they were mortal. More often they were the descendants of a god and a mortal woman, less often - a goddess and a mortal man. Heroes, as a rule, possessed exceptional or supernatural physical abilities, creative talents, etc., but did not possess immortality. The heroes were supposed to fulfill the will of the gods on earth, to bring order and justice into people's lives. With the help of their divine parents, they performed all sorts of feats. Heroes were highly revered, legends about them were passed down from generation to generation.
The heroes of ancient Greek myths were Achilles, Hercules, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, Jason, Hector, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Pelops, Phoroneus, Aeneas.
Let's talk about some of them.

Achilles

Achilles was the bravest of heroes. He participated in the campaign against Troy led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon.

Achilles. Greek antique bas-relief
Author: Jastrow (2007), from Wikipedia
Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the sea goddess Thetis.
There are several legends about the childhood of Achilles. One of them is the following: Thetis, wanting to make her son immortal, immersed him in the waters of Styx (according to another version, in fire), so that only the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable; hence the proverb "Achilles' heel" that exists to this day. This saying denotes someone's weak side.
As a child, Achilles was called Pyrrisius ("Ice"), but when the fire burned his lips, he was called Achilles ("lipless").
Achilles was raised by the centaur Chiron.

Chiron teaching Achilles to play the lyre
Another teacher of Achilles was Phoenix, a friend of his father Peleus. The centaur Chiron returned Phoenix's sight, which was taken from him by his father, who was falsely accused by a concubine.
Achilles joined the campaign against Troy at the head of 50 or even 60 ships, taking with him his tutor Phoenix and childhood friend Patroclus.

Achilles bandaging the hand of Patroclus (picture on the bowl)
The first shield of Achilles was made by Hephaestus, this scene is also depicted on vases.
During the long siege of Ilion, Achilles repeatedly launched raids on various neighboring cities. According to the existing version, he wandered the Scythian land for five years in search of Iphigenia.
Achilles is the main character in Homer's Iliad.
Having slain many enemies, Achilles in the last battle reached the Skean gates of Ilion, but here an arrow shot from the bow of Paris by the hand of Apollo himself hit him in the heel, and the hero died.

Death of Achilles
But there are later legends about the death of Achilles: he appeared in the temple of Apollo in Fimbra, near Troy, to marry Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam, where he was killed by Paris and Deiphobes.
Greek writer of the first half of the 2nd century AD. e. Ptolemy Hephaestion tells that Achilles was killed by Helen or Penthesilea, after which Thetis resurrected him, he killed Penthesilea and returned to Hades (the god of the underworld of the dead).
The Greeks erected a mausoleum for Achilles on the banks of the Hellespont, and here, in order to pacify the shadow of the hero, they sacrificed Polyxena to him. For the armor of Achilles, according to the story of Homer, Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus Laertides argued. Agamemnon awarded them to the latter. In the Odyssey, Achilles is in the underworld, where Odysseus meets him.
Achilles was buried in a golden amphora, which Dionysus presented to Thetis.

Hercules

A. Canova "Hercules"
Author: Lucius Commons - foto scattata da me., from Wikipedia
Hercules is the son of the god Zeus and Alkmena, the daughter of the Mycenaean king.
Numerous myths have been created about Hercules, the most famous is the cycle of legends about 12 exploits performed by Hercules when he was in the service of the Mycenaean king Eurystheus.
The cult of Hercules was very popular in Greece, from where it spread to Italy, where he is known by the name of Hercules.
The constellation Hercules is located in the northern hemisphere of the sky.
Zeus took the form of Amphitryon (husband of Alcmene), stopped the sun, and their night lasted three days. On the night when he was to be born, Hera made Zeus swear that today's newborn would be the supreme king. Hercules was from the Perseid family, but Hera delayed the birth of his mother, and his cousin Eurystheus was the first to be born (premature). Zeus concluded an agreement with Hera that Hercules would not be under the rule of Eurystheus all his life: after ten labors performed on behalf of Eurystheus, Hercules would not only be freed from his power, but even receive immortality.
Athena tricks Hera into breastfeeding Hercules: having tasted this milk, Hercules becomes immortal. The baby hurts the goddess, and she tears him from her breast; the splashed stream of milk turns into the Milky Way. Hera was the adoptive mother of Hercules.
In his youth, Hercules accidentally killed Lin, brother of Orpheus, with a lyre, so he was forced to retire to the wooded Kiteron, into exile. There, two nymphs appear to him (Depravity and Virtue), who offer him a choice between the easy road of pleasures and the thorny path of labors and exploits. Virtue convinced Hercules to go his own way.

Annibale Carracci "The Choice of Hercules"

12 Labors of Hercules

1 Strangling the Nemean Lion
2. Killing the Lernaean Hydra
3. Extermination of Stymphalian birds
4. Capture of the Kerinean fallow deer
5. Taming the Erymanthian boar and the battle with the centaurs
6. Cleaning the Augean stables.
7. Taming the Cretan Bull
8. The abduction of the horses of Diomedes, the victory over King Diomedes (who threw strangers to be eaten by his horses)
9 The Abduction Of The Girdle Of Hippolyta, Queen Of The Amazons
10. The abduction of the cows of the three-headed giant Gerion
11. Theft of golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides
12. Taming the guardian of Hades - the dog Cerberus

Antoine Bourdelle "Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds"
Stymphalian birds are birds of prey that lived near the Arcadian city of Stymphalus. They had copper beaks, wings and claws. They attacked people and animals. Their most formidable weapons were feathers, which the birds poured on the ground like arrows. They devoured crops in the area or ate people.
Hercules performed many other feats: with the consent of Zeus, he freed one of the titans - Prometheus, to whom the centaur Chiron gave his gift of immortality for the sake of liberation from torment.

G. Fuger "Prometheus brings fire to people"
During his tenth labor, he places the Pillars of Hercules on the sides of Gibraltar.

The Pillars of Hercules - The Rock of Gibraltar (foreground) and the mountains of North Africa (background)
Author: Hansvandervliet - Own work, from Wikipedia
Participated in the campaign of the Argonauts. Defeated the king of Elis Avgii and established the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, he won the pankration. Some authors describe the struggle of Hercules with Zeus himself - their contest ended in a draw. He established the Olympic stages 600 feet long. In running, he overcame stages without taking a breath. Accomplished many other feats.
There are also many legends about the death of Hercules. According to Ptolemy Hephaestion, having reached the age of 50 and finding that he could no longer draw his bow, he threw himself into the fire. Hercules ascended to heaven, was accepted among the gods, and Hera, reconciled with him, marries her daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth, to him. Happily lives on Olympus, and his ghost is in Hades.

Hector

The bravest leader of the Trojan army, the main Trojan hero in the Iliad. He was the son of the last Trojan king Priam and Hecuba (the second wife of King Priam). According to other sources, he was the son of Apollo.

Return of Hector's body to Troy

Perseus

Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. He defeated the monster Gorgon Medusa, was the savior of the princess Andromeda. Perseus is mentioned in Homer's Iliad.

A. Canova "Perseus with the head of the Gorgon Medusa." Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
Author: Yucatan - Own work, from Wikipedia
Gorgon Medusa - the most famous of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with a woman's face and snakes instead of hair. Her gaze turned a man to stone.
Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and Cassiopeia (had divine progenitors). Cassiopeia once boasted that she was superior to the beauty of the Nereids (sea deities, daughters of Nereus and the oceanids of Dorida, resembling Slavic mermaids in appearance), the angry goddesses turned to Poseidon with a request for revenge, and he sent a sea monster that threatened death to Kefey's subjects. The oracle of Ammon announced that the wrath of the deity would be tamed only when Cepheus sacrificed Andromeda to the monster, and the inhabitants of the country forced the king to decide on this sacrifice. Chained to a cliff, Andromeda was left to the mercy of the monster.

Gustave Doré "Andromeda Chained to a Rock"
In this position, Perseus saw her. He was struck by her beauty and promised to kill the monster if she agreed to marry him (Perseus). Andromeda's father Kefey gladly agreed to this, and Perseus accomplished his feat by showing the face of the Gorgon Medusa to the monster, thereby turning him into stone.

Perseus and Andromeda
Not wanting to reign in Argos after the accidental murder of his grandfather, Perseus left the throne to his kinsman Megapenthus, and he himself went to Tiryns (an ancient city on the Peloponnese peninsula). Founded Mycenae. The city got its name due to the fact that Perseus lost the tip (mike) of the sword in the vicinity. It is believed that among the ruins of Mycenae, the underground spring of Perseus has been preserved.
Andromeda bore Perseus a daughter, Gorgofon, and six sons: Perseus, Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Eleus, Mestor, and Electryon. The eldest of them, Persian, was considered the ancestor of the Persian people.