Heroes of ancient Greece. Names of ancient Greek mythology Heroes mythology of ancient Greece

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

The most powerful hero of Ancient Greece - Hercules

Hercules' parents 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 elevated him to Olympus, where Zeus granted the hero immortality.

The most famous labors 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 dog Cerberus, the cleaning of the Augean stables that had been uncleaned for decades, the construction of stone pillars on the shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, separating Africa and Europe. In ancient times, the strait was called the Pillars of Hercules (Hercules is the Roman name for Hercules).

Ancient Greek hero Odysseus

King Odysseus of Ithaca is famous for his journey from the city of Troy to his homeland, full of dangers and mortal risks. The exploits that the hero accomplished during it were 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 Kirke, did not succumb to the charms of the sweet-voiced sirens, “slipped” on a ship between the Scylla devouring all living things and the whirlpool Charybdis, consuming everything, left the beautiful nymph Calypso, survived a lightning strike and returned home , dealt with all the new “suitors” of his wife Penelope. “Odyssey” is how people have since called any risky and long journey.

Hero of Ancient Greece Perseus

Perseus is another son of Zeus, his mother was the Argive princess Danae. Perseus became famous for killing the Gorgon Medusa - a winged monster covered with scales, whose head was covered with snakes instead of hair, and whose gaze turned all living things to stone. Then Perseus freed Princess Andromeda from the clutches of the sea monster that was 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, thanks to which Achilles’s entire body became invulnerable, except for the heel by which his mother held him.

Achilles' invulnerability 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.”

Hero of Ancient Greece Jason

Jason is famous for the fact that on the ship "Argo" with a crew of brave Argonauts (among whom were the sweet-voiced singer Orpheus and the mighty Hercules) he 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 Creus, 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 the death of Oedipus, but he was saved and adopted by 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, asking 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 that his wife was also a mother, he blinded himself.

Another famous hero of Ancient Greece is Theseus.

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

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

Based on materials from the encyclopedia "Who's Who".

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Heroes were born from marriages of Olympian gods with mortals. They were endowed with superhuman capabilities and enormous strength, but did not have immortality. Heroes performed all sorts of feats with the help of their divine parents. They were supposed to fulfill the will of the gods on earth, to bring justice and order into people's lives. Heroes were highly revered in Ancient Greece, legends about them were passed down from generation to generation.

The concept of a heroic act did not always include military valor. Some heroes, indeed, are great warriors, others are healers, others are great travelers, others are just husbands of goddesses, others are ancestors of nations, others are prophets, etc. Greek heroes are not immortal, but their posthumous fate is unusual. Some heroes of Greece live after death on the Isles of the Blessed, others on the island of Levka or even on Olympus. It was believed that most heroes who fell in battle or died as a result of dramatic events were buried in the ground. The tombs of heroes - heroons - were places of their worship. Often, there were graves of the same hero in different places in Greece.

Read more about the characters from Mikhail Gasparov’s book “Entertaining Greece”

In Thebes they talked about the hero Cadmus, the founder of Cadmeia, the winner of the terrible cave dragon. In Argos they talked about the hero Perseus, who, at the end of the world, cut off the head of the monstrous Gorgon, from whose gaze people turned to stone, and then defeated the sea monster - Whale. In Athens they talked about the hero Theseus, who freed central Greece from evil robbers, and then in Crete killed the bull-headed cannibal Minotaur, who was sitting in a palace with intricate passages - the Labyrinth; he did not get lost in the Labyrinth because he held on to the thread that was given to him by the Cretan princess Ariadne, who later became the wife of the god Dionysus. In the Peloponnese (named after another hero, Pelops), they talked about the twin heroes Castor and Polydeuces, who later became the patron gods of horsemen and fighters. The hero Jason conquered the sea: on the ship “Argo” with his Argonaut friends, he brought to Greece from the eastern edge of the world the “golden fleece” - the skin of a golden ram that came down from heaven. The hero Daedalus, the builder of the Labyrinth, conquered the sky: on wings made of bird feathers, fastened with wax, he flew from captivity in Crete to his native Athens, although his son Icarus, flying with him, could not stay in the air and died.

The main hero, the real savior of the gods, was Hercules, the son of Zeus. He was not just a mortal man - he was a forced mortal man who served a weak and cowardly king for twelve years. On his orders, Hercules performed twelve famous labors. The first were victories over monsters from the outskirts of Argos - a stone lion and a multi-headed hydra snake, in which, instead of each severed head, several new ones grew. The last were victories over the dragon of the Far West, who guarded the golden apples of eternal youth (it was on the way to him that Hercules dug the Strait of Gibraltar, and the mountains on its sides began to be called the Pillars of Hercules), and over the three-headed dog Cerberus, who guarded the terrible kingdom of the dead. And after that he was called to his main task: he became a participant in the great war of the Olympians with the rebellious younger gods, the giants - in the Gigantomachy. The giants threw mountains at the gods, the gods struck the giants, some with lightning, some with a rod, some with a trident, the giants fell, but not killed, but only stunned. Then Hercules hit them with arrows from his bow, and they did not get up again. Thus, man helped the gods defeat their most terrible enemies.

But gigantomachy was only the penultimate danger that threatened the omnipotence of the Olympians. Hercules also saved them from the last danger. In his wanderings to the ends of the earth, he saw chained Prometheus on a Caucasian rock, tormented by Zeus's eagle, took pity on him and killed the eagle with an arrow. In gratitude for this, Prometheus revealed to him the last secret of fate: let Zeus not seek the love of the sea goddess Thetis, because the son that Thetis gives birth to will be stronger than his father - and if it is the son of Zeus, he will overthrow Zeus. Zeus obeyed: Thetis was married not to a god, but to a mortal hero, and they had a son, Achilles. And with this began the decline of the heroic age.

The heroes of Ancient Hellas, whose names have not been forgotten to this day, occupied a special place in mythology, fine art and the life of the ancient Greek people. They were role models and ideals of physical beauty. Legends and poems were written about these brave men; statues were created in honor of the heroes and they were named after the constellations.

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 - tales of titans and giants. At that time, man felt defenseless against the formidable forces of nature, about which he still knew very little. Therefore, the world around him seemed to him to be chaos, in which there were terrifying uncontrollable forces and entities - titans, giants and monsters. They were generated by the earth as the main active force of nature.

At this time, Cerberus, the chimera, the serpent Typhon, the hundred-armed giants Hecatoncheires, the goddess of vengeance Erinyes, 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 be confronted by humanoid higher powers - the Olympian gods. This is the new, third generation of deities, who entered into battle against the titans and giants and won a victory over them. Not all opponents were imprisoned in the terrible dungeon - Tartarus. Many were included in the new Oceanus, Mnemosyne, Themis, Atlas, Helios, Prometheus, Selene, Eos. Traditionally, there were 12 main deities, but over the centuries their composition was constantly replenished.

3. With the development of ancient Greek society and the rise of economic forces, man's faith in his own strength became increasingly stronger. This bold view of the world gave birth 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 accomplished and victories are won over ancient entities. Typhon is killed by Apollo, the hero of ancient Hellas Cadmus founds the famous Thebes on the site 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 “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece” by N. Kuhn), as well as the works of Hesiod.

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

Origin of Heroes

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

It takes more than one generation to create a truly invincible warrior and defender. Hercules is the thirtieth in the line of 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 brave warrior or a person of noble birth with famous ancestors.

Modern etymologists also interpret the meaning of the word in question differently, highlighting the common one - the function of a protector.

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

Heroes are called upon to carry out the will of the Olympian gods and grant protection to people. They bring order and justice to earth. There is also a contradiction in them. On the one hand, they are endowed with superhuman strength, but on the other, they are deprived of immortality. The gods themselves sometimes try to correct this injustice. Thetis stabs Achilles' son to death, trying to make him immortal. The goddess Demeter, in gratitude to the Athenian king, puts his son Demophon in the fire 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. Unable to live forever, he tries to immortalize himself in people's memory through his exploits. He is often persecuted by unkind gods. Hercules tries to destroy Hera, Odysseus is pursued by the wrath of Poseidon.

Heroes of Ancient Hellas: list of names and exploits

The first defender of people was the titan Prometheus. He is conventionally called a hero because he is not a man or a demigod, but a real deity. According to Hesiod, it was he who created the first people, sculpting them from clay or earth, and patronized them, protecting them from the tyranny 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 origins are unusual. He is a descendant of many gods, and his ancestors were even wise half-snake-half-humans. The hero has two fathers at once - King Aegeus and Poseidon. Before his greatest feat - the victory over the monstrous Minotaur - he managed to accomplish many good deeds: he destroyed the robbers lying in wait for travelers on the Athens road, and killed the monster - the Crommion pig. Also, Theseus, together 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. Wanting 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 he would accomplish many feats on the battlefield. His mother tried to hide him with the ruler Lycomedes, dressing him in women's clothing and passing him off as one of the king's 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. His mere appearance on the battlefield put his enemies to flight. Achilles was killed by Paris with an arrow from a bow, which was directed by the god Apollo. It hit the only vulnerable spot on the hero’s body - the heel. Achilles was revered. Temples were built in his honor in Sparta and Elis.

The life stories of some heroes are so interesting and tragic that they are worth telling about them separately.

Perseus

The 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 forever glorified his name: he cut off the head and saved the beautiful Andromeda from a sea monster.

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

Odysseus

The heroes of ancient Hellas were not only unusually strong and courageous. Many of them were distinguished by their wisdom. The most cunning of them was Odysseus. More than once his sharp mind saved the hero and his companions. Homer dedicated his famous “Odyssey” to the many-year journey of the king of Ithaca home.

The Greatest of the Greeks

The hero of Hellas (Ancient Greece), whose myths 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 Hera's hatred. Under the influence of the madness she sent, he killed his children and two sons of his brother Iphicles.

The hero's death came prematurely. Wearing a poisoned cloak sent by his wife Deianira, who thought it was laced with a love potion, Hercules realized that he was dying. He ordered the funeral pyre to be prepared and climbed onto it. At the moment 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 mythical characters in modern art

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

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

Conclusion

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

(or their descendants) and mortal people. Heroes differed from gods in that they were mortal. More often these were the descendants of a god and a mortal woman, less often - of a goddess and a mortal man. Heroes, as a rule, had exceptional or supernatural physical abilities, creative gifts, etc., but did not have immortality. Heroes were supposed to carry out the will of the gods on earth and bring order and justice into people's lives. With the help of their divine parents, they performed all kinds 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 took part 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 as follows: Thetis, wanting to make her son immortal, immersed him in the waters of the Styx (according to another version - in the fire), so that only one heel by which she held him remained vulnerable; hence the saying “Achilles’ heel” that exists to this day. This saying refers to someone's weak side.
As a child, Achilles was called Pirrisius ("Ice"), but when fire burned his lips, he was called Achilles ("lipless").
Achilles was raised by the centaur Chiron.

Chiron teaches Achilles how to play the lyre
Another teacher of Achilles was Phoenix, a friend of his father Peleus. The centaur Chiron restored Phoenix's sight, which was taken from him by his father, who was falsely accused by his 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 bandages the hand of Patroclus (image on the bowl)
The first shield of Achilles was made by Hephaestus; this scene is also depicted on vases.
During the long siege of Ilium, 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 of Homer's Iliad.
Having defeated many enemies, Achilles in the last battle reached the Scaean Gate of Ilion, but here an arrow shot from the bow of Paris by the hand of Apollo himself struck him in the heel, and the hero died.

Death of Achilles
But there are also later legends about the death of Achilles: he appeared in the temple of Apollo in Thimbra, near Troy, to marry Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam, where he was killed by Paris and Deiphobus.
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. According to Homer's story, Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus Laertides argued for the armor of Achilles. 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 gave to Thetis.

Hercules

A. Canova “Hercules”
Author: LuciusCommons – foto scattata da me., from Wikipedia
Hercules is the son of the god Zeus and Alcmene, the daughter of the Mycenaean king.
Numerous myths have been created about Hercules; the most famous is the cycle of tales about the 12 labors 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 it 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 (Alcmene’s husband), stopped the sun, and their night lasted three days. On the night 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 born first (premature). Zeus made an agreement with Hera that Hercules would not be under the power of Eurystheus all his life: after ten labors performed on behalf of Eurystheus, Hercules would not only be freed from his power, but would even receive immortality.
Athena tricks Hera into breastfeeding Hercules: after tasting this milk, Hercules becomes immortal. The baby hurts the goddess, and she tears him from her breast; the splashing stream of milk turns into the Milky Way. Hera turned out to be the adoptive mother of Hercules.
In his youth, Hercules accidentally killed Linus, the brother of Orpheus, with a lyre, so he was forced to retire to the wooded Kytheron, 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 follow his own path.

Annibale Carracci "The Choice of Hercules"

12 labors of Hercules

1. Strangulation of the Nemean Lion
2. Killing the Lernaean Hydra
3. Extermination of Stymphalian birds
4. Capture of the Kerynean fallow deer
5. Taming the Erymanthian boar and the battle with the centaurs
6. Cleaning the Augean stables.
7. Taming the Cretan bull
8. Theft of Diomedes' horses, victory over King Diomedes (who threw strangers to be devoured by his horses)
9. The theft of the belt of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
10. The abduction of the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon
11. The theft of golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides
12. Taming the guard 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 scattered 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 freedom from torment.

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

Pillars of Hercules - Rock of Gibraltar (foreground) and North African Mountains (background)
Author: Hansvandervliet – own work, from Wikipedia
Participated in the campaign of the Argonauts. He defeated the king of Elis, Augeas, and established the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games he won the pankration event. Some authors describe the struggle of Hercules with Zeus himself - their competition ended in a draw. Established an Olympic stadium length of 600 of his feet. While running, he covered stages without taking a breath. He 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, who had 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, daughter of the Argive king Acrisius. He defeated the monster Gorgon Medusa and was the savior of 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 is the most famous of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with a woman's face and snakes instead of hair. Her gaze turned a person to stone.
Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Kepheus and Cassiopeia (had divine ancestors). Cassiopeia once boasted that she was superior in beauty to the Nereids (sea deities, the daughters of Nereus and the oceanids Doris, who in appearance resembled Slavic mermaids), the angry goddesses turned to Poseidon with a request for revenge, and he sent a sea monster that threatened the death of Kepheus’ 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 make this sacrifice. Chained to the cliff, Andromeda was left to the mercy of the monster.

Gustave Dore "Andromeda Chained to the Rock"
Perseus saw her in this position. He was struck by her beauty and promised to kill the monster if she agreed to marry him (Perseus). Andromeda's father Cepheus happily 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 relative 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 (mykes) of his sword in the surrounding area. It is believed that the underground spring of Perseus has been preserved among the ruins of Mycenae.
Andromeda gave birth to Perseus a daughter, Gorgophon, and six sons: Persus, Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Eleus, Mestor and Electryon. The eldest of them, Persian, was considered the ancestor of the Persian people.