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Phraseologisms from the myths of Ancient Greece
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Sword of Damocles - a constantly threatening danger hanging over someone with apparent well-being. According to ancient Greek tradition, the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius I the Elder (end of the 5th-4th centuries BC) offered the throne for one day to his favorite Damocles, who considered Dionysius the happiest of mortals. In the midst of fun at the feast, Damocles suddenly saw a naked sword hanging on a horsehair over his head, and realized the illusory nature of well-being.
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The origin of zoomorphism white crow is interesting. As you know, the white crow is called people who stand out sharply against the background of the team with their behavior, appearance or life position. Often, nature makes mistakes and mistakes, which modern science interprets as failures in the genetic code or mutations. It is for this reason that sometimes there are individual individuals whose color is unusual for animals of this species. The most common examples are perhaps white rabbits and mice. Periodically, information is received that white foxes, fish and even toads were seen here and there. The reason for this phenomenon is the absence in the hair and skin of the pigment responsible for the color. Such deviations were called a special term - albinism. Accordingly, animals suffering from this disease are albinos. And it is very rare to find an albino crow. The ancient Roman poet Juvenal, using this fact, uttered his famous pearl: “A slave can become king, captives can wait for triumph. Only the lucky one of such a rare white crow ... ". So the authorship of the phrase so widely used now belongs to a Roman who lived 2000 years ago. By the way, this expression has an eastern counterpart - "white elephant". Albinism is extremely rare among elephants, which is why white-skinned elephants are considered sacred animals in Southeast Asia.
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REST ON YOUR LAUREL. The expression came from the name of a simple laurel tree. According to Greek legend, the nymph Daphne, running away from Apollo, turned into a laurel tree. Since then, this plant has become the tree of Apollo, the god of poetry and the arts. Laurel branches and laurel wreaths began to crown the winners. "Reap laurels" means to win success. "Resting on our laurels" means to stop striving for further success, to rest on what has already been achieved.
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THEMIS THEMIS. ~ Scales of Themis - a symbol of justice. ~ Temple (altar) of Themis - court. - [The case] occupied us at the trial so that we did not expect to be freed for the holiday, and therefore I came home only to eat and sleep, and spent all the days and part of the nights at the altar of Themis. Leskov. ~ Servants (priests, sons) of Themis are judges. - They finally reached the square where the government offices were located ... From the windows of the second and third floors ... the incorruptible heads of the priests of Themis protruded. Gogol. - Here the names of artists and artists interfered with each other - with the names of the sons of Themis and Mars. V. Krestovsky.
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The apple of discord Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, forgot to invite the goddess of discord, Eris, to their wedding. Eris was very offended and secretly threw a golden apple on the table, at which the gods and mortals were feasting; on it was written: "To the most beautiful." A terrible dispute arose between the three goddesses: the wife of Zeus - the Hero, Athena - the maiden, the goddess of wisdom, and the beautiful goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite. “The young man Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, was chosen as a judge between them. Paris awarded the apple to the goddess of beauty. Grateful Aphrodite helped Paris kidnap the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, the beautiful Helen. To avenge such an insult, the Greeks went to war against Troy. As you can see, the apple of Eris actually led to discord. The expression "apple of discord", meaning any cause of disputes and strife, remained in memory of this. They also sometimes say "the apple of Eris", "the apple of Paris". You can often hear the words "throw an apple of discord between several people." The meaning of this is perfectly clear.
A myth is a narrative that originated in the earliest stages of history. And his fantastic images (legendary heroes, gods) were a kind of attempt to explain and generalize many natural phenomena, events taking place in society. Mythology reflects both the aesthetic attitude of the individual to reality and moral views. The most famous and popular today are Many of them are used in literature and rituals. And phraseological units from ancient Greek myths are expressions that can be heard everywhere. However, not everyone knows where this or that catchphrase comes from. So, let's figure out which phraseological units from myths we use and why.
Augean stables
We use this phrase when we are talking about a very polluted room, where there is a complete mess. Or we call so the enterprise, the organization where all affairs are started. Why do we say so? The fact is that in Greek mythology, these stables are the vast possessions of the king of Elis - Avgeas, which have not been put in order for many years. And Hercules cleansed them in one day, directing the Alpheus River through the stables. This water carried away all the dirt with it. This phraseological unit from the myths of Ancient Greece became known thanks to the historian It was he who first told about this myth.
Ariadne's thread
This is another phraseological unit from the myths of Ancient Greece, which in a figurative sense means an opportunity, a guiding thread, a way to help find a way out of a difficult situation. Ariadne in mythology is the daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king named Minos. When Prince Theseus arrived in Crete, doomed, along with other guys, to be devoured by the Minotaur, the girl fell in love with him. And the Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth, where there were a huge number of transitions. Once entered there, a person would never get back. Ariadne gave Theseus a large ball of thread, which the guy unwound, getting to the monster. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus easily left the room thanks to the threads.
Sink into oblivion
In Greek mythology, there was a river of oblivion - Lethe, which flowed in the underworld. When the soul of a dead person tried the water from this source, she forever forgot about earthly life. This phraseologism from the myths of Ancient Greece means - to disappear without a trace, an abyss of no one knows where, etc.
Wheel of Fortune
In mythology, Fortune is the goddess of happiness and misfortune, blind chance. She is always depicted standing on a wheel or a ball, blindfolded. In one hand she has a steering wheel, which says that fortune decides the fate of a person, and in the other - a cornucopia, indicating the well-being that the goddess can give. The wheel or ball speaks of its constant variability. Using this phraseological unit from the myths of Ancient Greece, we mean blind chance, happiness.
panic fear
This is another phraseological unit that we use almost every day. Pan in mythology is the god of herds and shepherds. Pan is able to instill such fear in a person that he will run headlong wherever his eyes look, without even thinking that the road will lead to inevitable death. Hence the expression, which means a sudden, unaccountable fear that covers a person.
To the question Give examples (5) of phraseological units from the myths of ancient Greece and their meaning. given by the author Yoonya Sachenko the best answer is you can do this:
1. Augean stables - a heavily littered, polluted or cluttered room.
In Greek mythology, the Augean Stables are the vast stables of Augius, king of Elis, which have not been cleaned for many years. They were cleansed in one day by Hercules: he sent a river through the stables, the waters of which carried away all the manure.
2. Ariadne's thread is what helps to find a way out of a predicament.
The expression originated from the Greek myths about the hero Theseus, who killed the Minotaur. At the request of the Cretan king Minos, the Athenians were obliged to send seven young men and seven girls to Crete every year to be devoured by the Minotaur, who lived in a labyrinth built for him, from which no one could get out. To accomplish a dangerous feat, Theseus was helped by the daughter of the Cretan king Ariadne, who fell in love with him. Secretly from her father, she gave him a sharp sword and a ball of thread. When Theseus and the boys and girls doomed to be torn to pieces were taken to the labyrinth, Theseus tied the end of the thread at the entrance and went along the intricate passages, gradually unwinding the ball. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus found his way back from the labyrinth by a thread and led out all the doomed from there.
3. Achilles' heel - a weak spot.
In Greek mythology, Achilles (Achilles) is one of the most powerful and brave heroes. He is sung in the Iliad by Homer. The mother of Achilles, the sea goddess Thetis, in order to make her son's body invulnerable, dipped him into the sacred river Styx. While dipping, she held him by the heel, which the water did not touch, so the heel remained the only vulnerable spot of Achilles, where he was mortally wounded by the arrow of Paris.
4. The sword of Damocles is a looming, threatening danger.
The expression arose from the ancient Greek tradition, told by Cicero in the essay “Tusculan Conversations”. Damocles, one of the associates of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder, began to enviously speak of him as the happiest of people. Dionysius, in order to teach the envious man a lesson, put him in his place. During the feast, Damocles saw that a sharp sword was hanging on a horsehair over his head. Dionysius explained that this is an emblem of the dangers to which he, as a ruler, is constantly exposed, despite his seemingly happy life.
5. Gifts of the Danes. - "insidious" gifts that bring death to those who receive them.
The Trojan horse is a secret insidious plan (hence the Trojan virus (Trojan)).
The expressions originated from Greek legends about the Trojan War. The Danaans (Greeks), after a long and unsuccessful siege of Troy, resorted to a trick: they built a huge wooden horse, left it at the walls of Troy, and pretended to swim away from the coast of the Troad. The priest Laocoön, seeing this horse and knowing the tricks of the Danaans, exclaimed: “Whatever it is, I am afraid of the Danaans, even those who bring gifts! ” But the Trojans, not listening to the warnings of Laocoön and the prophetess Cassandra, dragged the horse into the city. At night, the Danaans, who hid inside the horse, went out, killed the guards, opened the city gates, let in their comrades who returned on ships, and thus captured Troy.
Answer from 22 answers[guru]
Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Give examples (5) of phraseological units from the myths of ancient Greece and their meaning.
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Answer from European[newbie]
The apple of discord is the cause of the dispute, enmity The goddess of discord, Eris, rolled a golden apple between the guests at the wedding feast with the inscription: “To the most beautiful”. Among the guests were the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, who argued about which of them should get the apple. Their dispute was resolved by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, by awarding the apple to Aphrodite. In gratitude, Aphrodite helped Paris kidnap Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, which caused the Trojan War.
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Achilles' heel - a vulnerable spot Achilles' mother, the sea goddess Thetis, in order to make her son's body invulnerable, dipped him into the sacred river Styx. While dipping, she held him by the heel, which the water did not touch, so the heel remained the only vulnerable spot of Achilles, where he was mortally wounded by the arrow of Paris.
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Two-faced Janus - two-faced man Janus - the god of every beginning and end, entrances and exits. Depicted with two faces facing in opposite directions: young - forward, into the future, old - back, into the past.
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Narcissus is a man who loves only himself Narcissus is a handsome young man, the son of the river god Cephis and the nymph Leiriopa. One day, Narcissus, who had never loved anyone, leaned over the stream and, seeing his face in it, fell in love with himself and died of anguish. His body turned into a flower.
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Pygmalion and Galatea - about passionate love without reciprocity The myth of the famous sculptor Pygmalion tells that he openly expressed his contempt for women. Enraged by this, the goddess Aphrodite made him fall in love with a statue of a young girl Galatea, created by him, and doomed him to the torment of unrequited love. Pygmalion's passion was, however, so strong that it breathed life into the statue. Animated Galatea became his wife
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Phraseologisms of mythical origin and their meaning "Achilles' heel" is a weak, vulnerable place in a person "an apple of discord" is the cause of enmity, disputes, disagreements between someone. "Narcissus" is a narcissist; a person who admires himself. - "marital ties". "Cornucopia" - a huge variety, wealth. "Cross the Rubicon" - take an irreversible step, a decisive act, cross the line, the limit. "Sword of Damocles" is used when it comes to constant mortal danger. "tantalum torment "- endure terrible suffering due to the impossibility of achieving the desired goal of the "Augean stables" - extreme neglect, dirt, disorder. The "Procrustean bed" characterizes a far-fetched yardstick, under which the facts of deity are forcibly adjusted. Danaid's barrel is an empty, endless work. "Ariadne's thread "Means a pointer, a guiding thread, salvation. "Hercules feat" is a matter that requires great effort. "Cyclopean structure" is used when talking about a huge building nie. "saddle Pegasus" - to become a poet. "Sisyphean labor" is called fruitless, hard, endless work. "Pandora's box" means a source of misfortune, disaster, trouble. "Panacea" - a remedy not only for diseases, but for all problems. homeric laughter - uncontrollable, loud laughter. "Gordian knot" means a complex or intricate matter that is difficult to solve; cut the Gordian knot - solve a complex issue in a radical way. The Gordian knot is also considered a symbol of infinity. "Apples of the Hesperides" is a valuable baggage. "Prometheus fire" is used when it characterizes the spirit of nobility, courage and talent, and "Prometheus of torment" when it comes to suffering in the name of a lofty goal. "The all-seeing eye" is the ability to notice everything, to see, to quickly learn about everything. "Flood" is used when talking about a flood or a drain. "Arcadian idyll" means a harmonious, happy, cloudless life.
Answer from Artyom Korablin[newbie]
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Answer from Natalia[newbie]
thanks for the words
Answer from Lyme Tomira[newbie]
Priests of Themis
Judges
In Greek mythology, Themis is the goddess of justice. Depicted as a woman holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The blindfold symbolized her impartiality, the arguments of the prosecution and defense were evaluated on the scales, and the guilty were punished with a sword.
panic fear
Sudden, unaccountable fear that grips a person
Pan in mythology is the god of herds and shepherds. Pan is able to instill such fear in a person that he will run headlong wherever his eyes look, without even thinking that the road will lead to inevitable death. -
Achilles' heel
Vulnerable point, weak side
Thetis dipped her son Achilles into the miraculous waves of Styx so that the boy would become invulnerable. However, while bathing, she held her son's body by the heel, from which the heel became the most vulnerable point of Achilles. In the future, it was in the heel that Paris mortally wounded him.
Augean stables
1) A very polluted place, neglected premises
2) Extreme disorder in business
In Greek mythology, these stables are the vast possessions of the king of Elis - Avgeas, which have not been put in order for many years. And Hercules cleansed them in one day, directing the Alpheus River through the stables. This water carried away all the dirt with it.
Flour Tantalum
Suffering from the awareness of the proximity of the desired goal and the impossibility of achieving it
Tantalus is the name of King Sipylus in Phrygia, and also the son of Zeus and Queen Pluto from ancient Greek mythology. So he was a favorite of the gods, and as a result he had access to their advice and feasts, which became a further reason for his punishment. And there are several versions, according to which the gods hated him, and as a result they forced him to suffer in hell.
Sword of Damocles
Constantly threatening danger
The Usyracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder was a favorite and a saint, his confidant Damocles. But what about the sword? The fact is that Damocles was jealous of his king and it seemed to him that Dionysius had a happy and easy life. But at the same time, Dionysius the Elder always noticed the envy of Damocles and, as a result, decided to show him that in fact it is not so easy to manage the kingdom as it seems at first glance.
At one of the feasts, Dionysius ordered Damocles to be temporarily placed on the throne and rendered all the honors due to a real ruler. Damocles was happy about this. But in the midst of the fun, he noticed a sword hanging over his head. But the sword did not just hang, but hung by a thread and could break at any moment and, accordingly, cause the death of Damocles. With this situation, Dionysius wanted to prove that being a ruler is not as easy as it seems.
Sink into oblivion
Disappear without a trace, the abyss knows where, etc.
In Greek mythology, there was a river of oblivion - Lethe, which flowed in the underworld. When the soul of a dead person tried the water from this source, she forever forgot about earthly life. This phraseological unit from the myths of Ancient Greece means - to disappear without a trace, an abyss of no one knows where, etc.
pillars of Hercules
The highest, extreme degree of something
The Greeks believed that at the very end of the world, on the shore of an endless empty ocean, above the Strait of Gibraltar, two stone pillars rise (in the old way - pillars); they were approved here during one of his wanderings by the great Hercules as a sign that there is no further way for man.
Thread of Ariadne
A way to help find a way out of a difficult situation
Ariadne in mythology is the daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king named Minos. When Prince Theseus arrived in Crete, doomed, along with other guys, to be devoured by the Minotaur, the girl fell in love with him. And the Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth, where there were a huge number of transitions. Once entered there, a person would never get back. Ariadne gave Theseus a large ball of thread, which the guy unwound, getting to the monster. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus easily left the room thanks to the threads.
Answer from Nazar Starodubov[newbie]
Augean stables
1. a heavily littered, polluted place, usually a room where everything is lying in disarray;
2. something that is in an extremely neglected state, in disarray, etc. Usually about an organization, about a complete mess in the conduct of business.
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From the name of the huge canyons of the king of Elis Avgei, not cleaned for many years. Cleaning them was only possible for the mighty Hercules - the son of Zeus. The hero cleared the Augean stables in one day, directing the waters of two turbulent rivers through them.
Annibal's Oath
a firm determination to be irreconcilable towards someone or something, to fight someone or something to the end.
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On behalf of the Corthaginian commander Annibal (or Hannibal, 247-183 BC), who, according to legend, as a boy swore to be an implacable enemy of Rome all his life. Annibal kept his oath: during the Second Punic War (218-210 BC), the troops under his command inflicted a number of heavy defeats on the troops of Rome.
arcadian idyll
a happy serene life, a peaceful, unclouded existence.
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From the name of Arcadia - the central mountainous part of the Peloponnese, whose population in ancient times was engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture, and which in the classical literature of the 17th-18th centuries. portrayed as a happy country where people live serene, carefree lives.
Attic salt
subtle, elegant wit, elegant joke; mockery.
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By the name of the ancient Greek region of Attica, which was the center of the mental and spiritual life of that time and became famous for its rich and subtle culture.
Barrel Danaid
the same as Sisyphean labor - useless, endless labor, fruitless work.
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In ancient Greek mythology, the Danaids are fifty daughters of the Libyan king Danae, forty-nine of whom, as punishment for having killed their husbands on their wedding night on the orders of their father, were forever doomed to pour water into a bottomless barrel in the underworld of Hades.
Fly to Helikon
the same as Saddle Pegasus - to become a poet; feel inspired.
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From the name of Mount Helikon in Greece, considered by the ancient Greeks to be the habitat of the muses.
Pillars of Hercules
extreme limit, limit of something, extreme in something.
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Initially - the name of two rocks on the shores of Europe and Africa near the Strait of Gibraltar, according to ancient legend, erected by Hercules on the border of the world.
Gordian knot
intractable, complicated matter, task, some kind of difficulty. Also Cut (cut) the Gordian knot - resolve a complex tangled issue boldly, decisively and immediately.
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From the name of a complex, tangled knot tied, according to one of the legends, by the Phrygian king Gordius, which no one was able to untie. According to the oracle, the one who managed to unravel this knot was to become the ruler of all Asia. The legend told by ancient Greek writers tells that only Alexander the Great managed to do this - he cut the knot in half with a sword.
Sword of Damocles
a constant threat to someone, a nuisance.
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The expression arose from the ancient Greek legend about the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder (432-367 BC), who, in order to teach a lesson to one of his confidants, Damocles, who envied his position, put him in his place during the feast, hanging over his head Damocles sharp sword on a horsehair as a symbol of the dangers that inevitably threaten the tyrant. Damocles realized how little happy he is who is under eternal fear.
Two-faced Janus
1. two-faced person; 2. a case that has two opposite sides.
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In ancient Roman mythology, Janus is the god of time, as well as of every beginning and end, the god of change, movement. He was depicted with two faces, young and old, which were turned in different directions: young - forward, into the future, old - back, into the past.
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Answer from Anastasia Popova[newbie]
Procrustean bedForcibly force something to do One of the Greek myths tells about the robber Procrustes (torturer). He caught passers-by and adjusted them to his bed: if a person was longer, his legs were cut off, if shorter? pulled out.
Sisyphean laborEndless and fruitless workAn ancient Greek myth tells of the cunning and treacherous Corinthian king Sisyphus, who deceived the gods several times in order to prolong his luxurious life on earth.
An angry Zeus awarded him eternal torment in hell for this: Sisyphus had to roll a huge stone up a high mountain, which at the top suddenly broke out of his hands and rolled down. And it all started over...
Apple of contention An object of enmity or a cause of dispute. According to ancient Greek myth, once the goddess of discord, Eris, was not invited to a feast. Holding a grudge, Eris decided to take revenge on the gods. She took a golden apple, on which was written "the most beautiful", and imperceptibly threw it between the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. The goddesses argued over which of them should own it. Each considered herself the most beautiful. The son of the Trojan king Paris, who was invited to be a judge, gave the apple to Aphrodite, and in gratitude she helped him kidnap the wife of the Spartan king Helen. Because of this, the Trojan War broke out.
Horn of Plenty With extraordinary generosity, in huge quantities, the ancient Greek myth tells that the cruel god Kronos did not want to have children, because he was afraid that they would take away his power. Therefore, his wife gave birth to Zeus in secret, instructing the nymphs to take care of him, Zeus was fed with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Once she, clinging to a tree, broke off her horn. The nymph filled it with fruits and gave it to Zeus. Zeus gave the horn to the nymphs who raised him, promising that whatever they wished would come out of it.
Prometheus fireUnquenchable desire to achieve high goalsOne of the titans, Prometheus, stole fire from the gods and taught people how to use it. Enraged, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to chain the titan to a rock, where an eagle flew every day to peck at the liver of Prometheus. The hero Hercules freed Prometheus.
In the arms of Morpheus Immerse yourself in a dream In ancient Greek mythology, Morpheus is the god of dreams, the son of the god of sleep, Hypnos. Usually he was depicted as a small winged man with closed eyelids and hung with poppy flowers. On behalf of this deity, the name of the drug - morphine - is derived from poppy heads and used for pain relief during operations. Since ancient times, the expression "find yourself in the arms of Morpheus," used with a playful connotation, means to fall asleep.
Hymen's bonds Marriage, bonds of marriage Bonds are fetters, something that binds a person or binds one living being to another. There are a lot of words of this root: “prisoner”, “knot”, “bridle”, “burden”, etc. Thus, we are talking about something like “ligaments” or “chains”, while in Ancient Greece God was called Hymen marriage, patron of weddings.
Sing praises Excessively praise, exalt someone or something It arose from the name of dithyrambs - laudatory songs in honor of the god of wine and the vine Dionysus, sung during processions dedicated to this deity.
Priests of ThemisJudges In Greek mythology, Themis is the goddess of justice. Depicted as a woman holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The blindfold symbolized her impartiality, the arguments of the prosecution and defense were evaluated on the scales, and the guilty were punished with a sword.
Panic fear A sudden, unaccountable fear that grips a person Pan in mythology is the god of herds and shepherds. Pan is able to instill such fear in a person that he will run headlong wherever his eyes look, without even thinking that the road will lead to inevitable death. -
Achilles' heel Vulnerable place, weak side Thetis dipped her son Achilles into the miraculous waves of Styx so that the boy would become invulnerable. However, in
Answer from Inna Pupysheva[newbie]
apple of discord - the cause of the quarrel
Answer from Olga Kurochkina[newbie]
Thanks
Augean stables
In Greek mythology, the Augean stables are the vast stables of Augius, king of Elis, which have not been cleaned for many years. They were cleansed in one day by the hero Heracles (Hercules): he sent a river through the stables, the waters of which carried away all the manure. This myth was first reported by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC). The expression "Augean stables" that arose from here is used to refer to a very dirty room, as well as severe neglect, clogging, disorder in matters that require great effort to eliminate them; it became winged in antiquity (Seneca, Satire on the death of Emperor Claudius; Lucian, Alexander).
Ariadne's thread
An expression meaning: a guiding thread, a guiding thought, a way to help get out of a difficult situation, solve a difficult issue. It arose from the Greek myths about the Athenian hero Theseus, who killed the Minotaur, a monstrous half-bull, half-man. At the request of the Cretan king Minos, the Athenians were obliged to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete every year to be devoured by the Minotaur, who lived in a labyrinth built for him, from which no one could get out. To accomplish a dangerous feat, Theseus was helped by the daughter of the Cretan king Ariadne, who fell in love with him. Secretly from her father, she gave him a sharp sword and a ball of thread. When Theseus and the young men and women doomed to be torn to pieces were taken to the labyrinth. Theseus tied the end of the thread at the entrance and went along the intricate passages, gradually unwinding the ball. Having killed the Minotaur, Theseus found the way back from the labyrinth by a thread and brought out all the doomed from there (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8, 172; Heroides, 10, 103).
Achilles' heel
In Greek mythology, Achilles (Achilles) is one of the strongest and bravest heroes; He is sung in Homer's Iliad. The post-Homeric myth, transmitted by the Roman writer Hyginus, reports that the mother of Achilles, the sea goddess Thetis, in order to make her son's body invulnerable, dipped him into the sacred river Styx; dipping, she held him by the heel, which the water did not touch, so the heel remained the only vulnerable spot of Achilles, where he was mortally wounded by the arrow of Paris. The expression “Achilles (or Achilles) heel”, which arose from here, is used in the meaning: a weak side, a vulnerable spot of something.
Barrel Danaid
The Danaids in Greek mythology are the fifty daughters of the king of Libya, Danae, with whom his brother Egypt, the king of Egypt, was at enmity. Fifty sons of Egypt, pursuing Danae, who fled from Libya to Argolis, forced the fugitive to give them his fifty daughters as wives. On their wedding night, the Danaids, at the request of their father, killed their husbands. Only one of them decided to disobey her father. For the crime committed, forty-nine Danaids were, after their death, condemned by the gods to forever fill a bottomless barrel with water in the underworld of Hades. Hence the expression "barrel of Danaid", used in the meaning: constant fruitless labor, as well as a receptacle that can never be filled. The myth of the Danaids was first described by the Roman writer Hyginus (Fables, 168), but the image of a bottomless vessel was found among the ancient Greeks earlier. Lucian was the first to use the expression "danaid barrel".
Age of Astrea
In Greek mythology, Astrea is the goddess of justice. The time when she was on earth was a happy, "golden age." She left the earth in the Iron Age and since then, under the name of Virgo, has been shining in the constellation of the Zodiac. The expression "age of Astrea" is used in the meaning: a happy time.
Libation [worship] Bacchus [Bacchus]
Bacchus (Bacchus) - in Roman mythology - the god of wine and fun. Among the ancient Romans, when offering sacrifices to the gods, there was a rite of libation, which consisted in pouring wine from a bowl in honor of the god. From this arose the playful expression "libation to Bacchus", used in the meaning: a drinking bout. The name of this ancient Roman god is also used in other playful expressions about drunkenness: “worship Bacchus”, “serve Bacchus”.
Hercules. Herculean labor [feat]. Pillars of Hercules [pillars]
Hercules (Hercules) - the hero of Greek myths ("Iliad", 14, 323; "Odyssey", II, 266), gifted with extraordinary physical strength; he performed twelve feats - he killed the monstrous Lernean hydra, cleared the stables of Augius, and so on. On the opposite coasts of Europe and Africa near the Strait of Gibraltar, he placed the "Pillars of Hercules (pillars)". So in the ancient world they called the rocks of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa. These pillars were considered "the edge of the world", beyond which there is no way. Therefore, the expression "to reach the Pillars of Hercules" began to be used in the meaning: to reach the limit of something, to the extreme point. The name of the legendary Greek hero has become a household name for a person with great physical strength. The expression "Hercules labor, feat" used when talking about some business that requires extraordinary effort.
Hercules at the Crossroads
The expression arose from the speech of the Greek sophist Prodicus (5th century BC), known only in the presentation of Xenophon's "Memories of Socrates", 2, 1, 21-33). In this speech, Prodicus told the allegory he had composed about the young man Hercules (Hercules), who was sitting at a crossroads and reflecting on the life path that he was to choose. Two women approached him: Pampering, who painted for him a life full of pleasures and luxury, and Virtue, who showed him the difficult path to glory. The expression "Hercules at the Crossroads" is applied to a person who finds it difficult to choose between two solutions.
Hymen. Bonds [chains] of Hymen
In ancient Greece, the word "hymen" meant both a wedding song and the deity of marriage, consecrated by religion and law, in contrast to Eros, the god of free love. Allegorically, "Hymen", "The Bonds of Hymen" - marriage, matrimony.
Sword of Damocles
The expression arose from the ancient Greek tradition, told by Cicero in the essay "Tusculan Conversations". Damocles, one of the associates of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder (432-367 BC), began to enviously speak of him as the happiest of people. Dionysius, in order to teach the envious man a lesson, put him in his place. During the feast, Damocles saw that a sharp sword was hanging on a horsehair over his head. Dionysius explained that this is the emblem of those dangers to which he, as a ruler, is constantly exposed, despite his seemingly happy life. Hence the expression "sword of Damocles" got the meaning of impending, threatening danger.
Greek gift. Trojan horse
The expression is used in the meaning: insidious gifts that bring death to those who receive them. Originated from Greek legends about the Trojan War. The Danaans, after a long and unsuccessful siege of Troy, resorted to a trick: they built a huge wooden horse, left it at the walls of Troy, and pretended to swim away from the coast of Troad. The priest Laocoon, seeing this horse and knowing the tricks of the Danaans, exclaimed: “Whatever it is, I am afraid of the Danaans, even those who bring gifts!” But the Trojans, not listening to the warnings of Laocoön and the prophetess Cassandra, drag the horse into the city. At night, the Danaans, who hid inside the horse, went out, killed the guards, opened the city gates, let in their comrades who returned on ships, and thus captured Troy (“Odyssey” by Homer, 8, 493 et al.; “Aeneid” by Virgil, 2, 15 and ff. .). Virgil's half-line "I'm afraid of the Danaans, even those who bring gifts", often quoted in Latin ("Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"), has become a proverb. From here arose the expression "Trojan horse", used in the meaning: a secret, insidious plan.
Two-faced Janus
In Roman mythology, Janus - the god of time, as well as every beginning and end, entrances and exits (janua - door) - was depicted with two faces facing in opposite directions: young - forward, into the future, old - back, into the past. The expression "two-faced Janus", or simply "Janus", which arose from here, means: a two-faced person.
The Golden Fleece. Argonauts
In ancient Greek myths, it is said that the hero Jason went to Colchis (the eastern coast of the Black Sea) to extract the golden fleece (golden wool of a ram), which was guarded by a dragon and bulls, spewing flames from their mouths. Jason built the Argo (fast) ship, after which the participants in this, according to legend, the first long-distance voyage of antiquity, were called Argonauts. With the help of the sorceress Medea, Jason, having overcome all obstacles, successfully mastered the golden fleece. The first to expound this myth was the poet Pindar (518-442 BC). The golden fleece is called gold, wealth, which they seek to master; Argonauts - brave sailors, adventurers.
Cassandra
According to Homer ("Iliad", 13, 365), Cassandra is the daughter of the Trojan king Priam. Apollo gave her the gift of divination. But when she rejected his love, he inspired everyone to distrust her prophecies, although they always came true; so, in vain, she warned the Trojans that the wooden horse, which they brought into the city, would bring them death (Virgil and Aeneid, 2, 246) (see Gifts of the Danaans). The name of Cassandra has become a household name for a person who warns of danger, but who is not believed.
Castor and Pollux
In Greek mythology, Castor and Polydeuces (Roman Pollux) are the sons of Zeus and Leda, twins. In the Odyssey (II, 298) they are spoken of as the children of Leda and Tyndareus, the son of the Spartan king. According to another version of the myth, Castor's father is Tyndareus, and Pollux's father is Zeus, therefore the first, born of a mortal, is mortal, and the second is immortal. When Castor was killed, Pollux began to beg Zeus to give him the opportunity to die. But Zeus offered him a choice: either to stay forever on Olympus without a brother, or to spend one day with his brother on Olympus, the other in Hades. Pollux chose the latter. Their names have become synonymous with two inseparable friends.
Summer. Sink into oblivion
In Greek mythology, Leta is the river of oblivion in Hades, the underworld; the souls of the dead, upon arrival in the underworld, drank water from it and forgot their entire past life (Hesiod, Theogony; Virgil, Aeneid, 6). The name of the river has become a symbol of oblivion; the expression “to sink into oblivion”, which arose from here, is used in the meaning: to disappear forever, to be forgotten.
Mars. Son of Mars. Field of Mars
In Roman mythology, Mars is the god of war. Figuratively: a military, belligerent person. The expression "son of Mars" is used in the same meaning; the expression "Marsovo-le" in the meaning: the battlefield. Also in ancient Rome was called one of the parts of the city on the left bank of the Tiber, intended for military and gymnastic exercises. In Paris, this name is given to the square in the western part of the city, which originally served for military parades. In St. Petersburg, this was the name of the square between the Summer Garden and the barracks of the Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment, where large military parades were held under Nicholas I and later.
Between Scylla and Charybdis
According to the legends of the ancient Greeks, two monsters lived on the coastal rocks on both sides of the Strait of Messina: Scylla and Charybdis, which swallowed sailors. Scylla,
... without cease barking,
With a piercing squeal, like a young puppy's squeal,
The whole neighborhood is announced by a monster. approach her
It's not scary for people alone, but for the most immortal...
Past her, not a single sailor could unscathed
With an easy ship to pass: all the toothy mouths gaping,
At once, she kidnaps six people from the ship ...
Close up you will see another rock...
Scary the whole sea under that rock disturbs Charybdis,
Consuming three times a day and spewing three times a day
Black moisture. Don't you dare get close when it consumes:
Poseidon himself will not save from certain death then ...
(“Odyssey” by Homer, 12, 85-124. Translation by V. A. Zhukovsky.)
The expression “between Scylla and Charybdis” that arose from here is used in the meaning: to be between two hostile forces, in a position where danger threatens from both sides.
Minerva [Pallas] emerging from the head of Jupiter [Zeus]
Minerva - in Roman mythology, the goddess of wisdom, the patroness of sciences and arts, identified with the Greek goddess Pallas Athena, who, according to myths, was born from the head of Jupiter (the Greek parallel to him is Zeus), coming out fully armed - in armor, a helmet, with a sword in the hand. Therefore, when one speaks of someone or something that allegedly appeared immediately completely finished, this appearance is compared with Minerva, which came out of the head of Jupiter, or with Pallas, which came out of the head of Zeus (Hesiod, Theogony; Pindar, Olympian Odes, 7, 35).
Morpheus. Embrace of Morpheus
In Greek mythology, Morpheus is the son of the god Hypnos, the winged god of dreams. His name is synonymous with sleep.
Flour Tantalum
In Greek mythology, Tantalus, the king of Phrygia (also called the king of Lydia), was a favorite of the gods, who often invited him to their feasts. But, proud of his position, he offended the gods, for which he was severely punished. According to Homer ("Odyssey", II, 582-592), his punishment was that, thrown into Tartarus (hell), he always experiences unbearable pangs of thirst and hunger; he stands up to his neck in water, but the water recedes from him as soon as he bows his head to drink; branches with luxurious fruits hang over him, but as soon as he stretches out his hands to them, the branches deviate. Hence the expression "Tantal's torment" arose, which means: unbearable torment due to the inability to achieve the desired goal, despite its proximity
Narcissus
In Greek mythology, he is a handsome young man, the son of the river god Cephis and the nymph Leirio-pa. One day, Narcissus, who had never loved anyone, leaned over the stream and, seeing his face in it, fell in love with himself and died of anguish; his body turned into a flower (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3, 339-510). His name has become a household name for a person who admires himself, narcissistic. M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin called Narcissists contemporary liberal talkers, in love with their own eloquence, those “sowers of progress” who, on insignificant occasions, quarreled with the government bureaucracy, covering up with chatter about the “holy cause”, “bright future” etc., their personal interests (“The New Narcissus, or In Love with Himself.” “Signs of the Times”).
Start with Leda's eggs
In Greek mythology, Leda, the daughter of Thestia, king of Aetolia, struck Zeus with her beauty, who appeared to her in the form of a swan. The fruit of their union was Helen (Iliad, 3, 426; Odyssey, II, 298). According to the latest version of this myth, Elena was born from one Leda's egg, and her brothers, the twins Castor and Pollux, from another (Ovid, Heroides, 17, 55; Horace, Satyrs, 2, 1, 26). Having subsequently married Menelaus, Helen was abducted by Paris and thus turned out to be the culprit of the Greek campaign against Troy. The expression “beginning with the eggs of Leda” goes back to Horace (65-8 BC), who (“On the Art of Poetry”) praises Homer for not beginning his narrative of the Trojan War ab ovo - not from an egg (of course, the myth of Leda), not from the very beginning, but immediately introduces the listener in medias res - into the middle of things, into the very essence of de la. It should be added to this that the expression "ab ovo" among the Romans was proverbial; in full form: "ab ovo usque ad mala" - from beginning to end; literally: from egg to fruit (the Roman dinner began with eggs and ended with fruit).
Nectar and ambrosia
In Greek mythology, nectar is a drink, ambrosia (ambrosia) is the food of the gods, giving them immortality (“Odyssey”, 5, 91-94). Portable: an unusually tasty drink, a gourmet dish; supreme pleasure.
Olympus. Olympians. Olympic bliss, greatness, tranquility
Olympus is a mountain in Greece, where, as it is told in Greek myths, the gods lived (Ho-mer, Iliad, 8, 456). In later writers (Sophocles, Aristotle, Virgil), Olympus is the vault of heaven, inhabited by the gods. Olympians are immortal gods; figuratively - people who always preserve the majestic solemnity of their appearance and imperturbable peace of mind; also called people arrogant, inaccessible. From here a number of expressions arose: "literary Olympus", "musical Olympus" - a group of recognized poets, writers, musicians. Sometimes these expressions are used ironically, jokingly. "Olympic bliss" - the highest degree of bliss; "Olympic greatness" - solemnity in manners, in all appearance; "Olympic calmness" - calmness unperturbed by anything.
panic fear
The expression is used in the meaning: unaccountable, sudden, strong fear, covering many people, causing confusion. It originated from the Greek myths about Pan, the god of forests and fields. According to the myths, Pan brings sudden and unaccountable terror to people, especially travelers in remote and lonely places, as well as to the troops who rush to flee from this. This is where the word "panic" comes from.
Parnassus
In Greek mythology, Parnassus is a mountain in Thessaly, the seat of Apollo and the Muses. In a figurative sense: a collection of poets, the poetry of a people. "Parnassian sisters" - muses.
Pegasus
In Greek mythology, the winged horse of Zeus; under the blow of his hoof on Mount Helikon, the source of Hypocrene was formed, inspiring poets (Hesiod, Theogony; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5). Symbol of poetic inspiration.
Pygmalion and Galatea
The ancient Greek myth about the famous sculptor Pygmalion tells that he openly expressed his contempt for women. Enraged by this, the goddess Aphrodite made him fall in love with a statue of a young girl Galatea, created by him, and doomed him to the torment of unrequited love. Pygmalion's passion was, however, so strong that it breathed life into the statue. The revived Galatea became his wife. On the basis of this myth, Pygmalion was figuratively called a person who, by the strength of his feelings, by the direction of his will, contributes to the rebirth of another (see, for example, Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion"), as well as a lover who meets the cold indifference of his beloved woman.
Prometheus. Promethean fire
Prometheus in Greek mythology is one of the Titans; he stole fire from heaven and taught people how to use it, which undermined faith in the power of the gods. For this, the angry Zeus ordered Hephaestus (the god of fire and blacksmithing) to chain Prometheus to a rock; an eagle that flew in every day tormented the liver of the chained titan (Hesiod, Theogony; Aeschylus, Bound Prometheus). The expression “Prometheus fire”, which arose on the basis of this myth, is used in the meaning: sacred fire burning in the soul of a person, an unquenchable desire to achieve lofty goals in science, art, social work. The image of Prometheus is a symbol of human dignity, greatness.
Penelope's work
The expression originated from Homer's Odyssey (2, 94-109). Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, during many years of separation from him, remained faithful to him, despite the harassment of the suitors; she said that she was postponing a new marriage until the day when she had finished weaving the coffin for her father-in-law, Elder Laertes; she spent the whole day weaving, and at night she unraveled everything that she had woven during the day and went back to work. The expression is used in the meaning: fidelity of the wife; endless work.
Sphinx. Sphinx riddle
In Greek mythology, the Sphinx is a monster with the face and chest of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird, who lived on a rock near Thebes; The Sphinx lay in wait for travelers and asked them riddles; he killed those who failed to unravel them. When the Theban king Oedipus solved the riddles given to him, the monster took his own life (Hesiod, Theogony). Hence the word "sphinx" got the meaning: something incomprehensible, mysterious; "sphinx riddle" - something unsolvable-mine.
Sisyphean labor. Sisyphean work
The expression is used in the meaning: hard, endless and fruitless work. Originated from Greek mythology. The Corinthian king Sisyphus was sentenced by Zeus to eternal torment in Hades for insulting the gods: he had to roll a huge stone up the mountain, which, having reached the top, again rolled down. For the first time, the expression "Sisyphean labor" is found in the elegy (2, 17) of the Roman poet Proportion (1st century BC)
Titans
In Greek mythology, the children of Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth), who rebelled against the Olympian gods, for which they were cast into Tartarus (Hesiod, Theogony). Portable titans are people distinguished by their strength, gigantic power of mind, geniuses; titanic - huge, grandiose.
Philemon and Baucis
In the ancient Greek legend, processed by Ovid (Metamorphoses, 8, 610 et al.), there is a couple of modest elderly spouses who cordially received Jupiter and Mercury, who came to them in the form of weary travelers. When the gods, angry that the rest of the inhabitants of this area did not show them hospitality, flooded it, the hut of Philemon and Baucis, which remained unharmed, was turned into a temple, and the spouses became priests. According to their desire, they died at the same time - the gods turned Philemon into an oak, Baucis into a linden. Hence Philemon and Baucis became synonymous with the inseparable pair of old spouses.
Fortune. Wheel of Fortune
Fortune - in Roman mythology, the goddess of blind chance, happiness and misfortune. She was depicted with a blindfold, standing on a ball or wheel and holding a steering wheel in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other. The steering wheel indicated that fortune controls the fate of a person, the cornucopia - well-being, the abundance that it can give, and the ball or wheel emphasized its constant variability. Her name and the expression "wheel of Fortune" is used in the meaning: chance, blind happiness.
Fury
In Roman mythology - each of the three goddesses of vengeance (in Greek myth.-erinia). Aeschylus, who brought the Erinyes on stage, depicted them as disgusting old women with snakes instead of hair, with bloodshot eyes, with protruding tongues and bared teeth. A symbol of revenge, figuratively - an angry angry woman.
Chimera
In Greek mythology, a fire-breathing monster described in various ways. Homer in the Iliad (6, 180) reports that it has the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon. Hesiod in Theogony claims that the chimera has three heads (lion, goat, dragon). Allegorically, a chimera is something unreal, the fruit of consideration.
Cerberus
In Greek mythology, a three-headed dog guarding the entrance to the underworld (Hades). It was first described in Theogony by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod; Virgil speaks of her (“Aeneid”, 6), etc. Hence the word “Cerberus” (Latin form; Greek Kerberus) is used figuratively in the meaning: a ferocious, vigilant guardian, and also an evil dog.
Circe
Circe (Latin form; Greek Kirke) - according to Homer, an insidious sorceress. The Odyssey (10, 337-501) tells how, with the help of a magic drink, she turned the companions of Odysseus into pigs. Odysseus, who was given a magical plant by Hermes, overcame her spell, and she invited him to share her love. Having forced Circe to swear that she was not plotting anything bad against him and would return the human form to his companions, Odysseus leaned towards her proposal. Her name has become synonymous with a dangerous beauty, an insidious seductress.
Apple of discord
This expression in the meaning: the subject, the cause of the dispute, enmity, was first used by the Roman historian Justin (II century AD). It is based on a Greek myth. The goddess of discord, Eris, rolled a golden apple between the guests at the wedding feast with the inscription: "To the most beautiful." Among the guests were the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, who argued about which of them should get the apple. Their dispute was resolved by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, by awarding the apple to Aphrodite. In gratitude, Aphrodite helped Paris kidnap Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, which caused the Trojan War.
Pandora's Box
An expression that has the meaning: the source of misfortunes, great disasters; arose from the poem of the Greek poet Hesiod "Works and Days", which tells that once people lived without knowing any misfortunes, illnesses and old age, until Prometheus stole fire from the gods; for this, the angry Zeus sent a beautiful woman to earth - Pandora; she received from Zeus a chest in which all human misfortunes were locked. Spurred on by curiosity, Pandora opened the casket and scattered all the misfortunes.
Tenth Muse
Ancient mythology numbered nine muses (goddesses - patronesses of sciences and arts). The ancient Greek poet Hesiod in "Theogony" ("Genealogy of the gods", 77) for the first time in the sources that have come down to us calls their names. The delimitation of the areas of sciences and arts (lyric poetry, history, comedy, tragedy, dance, love poetry, hymns, astronomy and epic) and their assignment to certain muses was made in a later era (III - I centuries BC. .).
The expression "tenth muse" denotes any area of art, mostly newly emerged and not included in the canonical list: in the 18th century. so called criticism, in the middle of the XIX century. in Germany - variety theater, in our time - cinema, radio, television, etc.
Golden Rain
This image arose from the Greek myth about Zeus, who, captivated by the beauty of Danae, the daughter of the Argos king Acrisius, appeared to her in the form of a golden rain, after which her son Perseus was born.
Danae, showered with a rain of gold coins, is depicted in the paintings of many Renaissance artists (Titian, Correggio, Van Dyck, etc.). The expression is used in the meaning: big money. Figuratively, the "golden rain" is called the easily obtained wealth.
Cyclopes. Cyclopean buildings
In Greek mythology, one-eyed giant blacksmiths. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod (8-7 centuries BC) in Theogony (Genealogy of the Gods) tells that they forged lightning and thunder arrows for Zeus. According to Homer ("Odyssey", 9, 475) - one-eyed strong men, giants, cannibals, cruel and rude, living in caves on mountain tops, engaged in cattle breeding. The Cyclopes were credited with building gigantic buildings. Hence "cyclops" is used in the meaning of one-eyed, as well as a blacksmith. The "Cyclopean Building" is a huge structure.
By some unnamed essay
Nature. Loans. in the 16th century from lat. lang., where natura "nature" is Suf. derived from natum "born" (from nascor "I am born"). Wed nature.
"boat, canoe", Ukrainian kayuk. Borrowed from the Tat., Tur., Crimean-Tat., Kazakh.
Scylla and Charybdis - in ancient Greek mythology, two monsters that lived on both sides of the narrow sea strait between Italy and Sicily and killed passing sailors. Scylla, who had six heads, grabbed rowers from passing ships, and Charybdis, who sucked water into herself at a great distance, swallowed up the ship with her.
Skilla (ancient Greek Σκύλλα, in Latin transliteration Scylla, lat. Scylla) and Charybdis (ancient Greek Χάρυβδις, transcription of Charybdides is acceptable) are sea monsters from ancient Greek mythology.
Charybdis in the ancient Greek epic is the personified representation of the all-consuming deep sea (etymologically, Charybdis means "whirlpool", although there are other interpretations of this word). In the Odyssey, Charybdis is depicted as a sea deity (ancient Greek δία Χάρυβδις), living in a strait under a rock at an arrow's flight distance from another rock that served as the seat of Scylla.
Comparison of Skilla with Charybdis served as the formation of a proverb, equivalent to the Russian "out of the fire and into the frying pan":
Phraseological units from ancient Greek myths
Phraseologism "Sisyphean labor" meaning
The ancient Greek myth tells about the cunning and treacherous Corinthian king Sisyphus, who deceived the gods several times in order to prolong his luxurious life on earth.
An angry Zeus awarded him eternal torment in hell for this: Sisyphus had to roll a huge stone up a high mountain, which at the top suddenly broke out of his hands and rolled down. And it all started over...
The Sisyphean expression labor began to denote hard, exhausting, useless work.
Phraseologism "Apple of discord" meaning
According to ancient Greek myth, once the goddess of discord, Eris, was not invited to a feast. Holding a grudge, Eris decided to take revenge on the gods. She took a golden apple, on which was written "the most beautiful", and imperceptibly threw it between the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. The goddesses argued over which of them should own it. Each considered herself the most beautiful. The son of the Trojan king Paris, who was invited to be a judge, gave the apple to Aphrodite, and in gratitude she helped him kidnap the wife of the Spartan king Helen. Because of this, the Trojan War broke out.
The expression apple of discord has turned into a phraseological unit denoting the cause of a quarrel, enmity
MEDUSA'S LOOK
If a person is unpleasant in communication and not liked by others, then it is often said that he has the look of Medusa.
Medusa Gorgon - a monster on whose head snakes wriggled, and instead of feet there were copper hooves. If a person looked at her, then he immediately turned into stone.
Perseus managed to defeat the monster. To kill Medusa, the hero had to show remarkable ingenuity: during the battle, he used a shiny shield that reflected the Gorgon - so Perseus never looked at the monster. Then he cut off the head of the defeated Medusa and attached it to the shield. As it turned out, her gaze could still turn all living things into stone.
BARREL DANAID
A barrel of Danaids is a meaningless, useless work.
As the ancient Greek legend says, a long time ago King Danai sat on the Libyan throne, who had fifty beautiful daughters. And the gods gave the Egyptian king Egypt fifty sons, whom he planned to wed with the daughters of Danae. But the Libyan king opposed the will of Egypt and, together with his daughters, fled. In the Greek city of Argos, the sons overtook Danae and forced his daughters to marry them. But Danai did not want to put up with such an outcome and persuaded his daughters to kill the spouses after the wedding feast. All but one of the sisters obeyed the father's command. The beautiful Hypermnestra sincerely fell in love with the handsome Linkei and could not take his life.
The crime committed by the Danaids angered the Gods, and they severely punished the guilty. In the terrible Tartarus, a terrible curse awaited them - the sisters are forever doomed to pour water into a bottomless barrel, trying to fill it.
ATTIC SALT
Attic salt - (bookish) - an elegant joke, refined wit.
Turnover - tracing paper from lat. sal Atticus. The expression is attributed to the ancient Roman writer and orator Cicero (106 - 43 BC). In an effort to popularize Greek culture in Rome, Cicero in his writings devoted a significant place to the theory of oratory developed by the Greeks. He especially singled out the inhabitants of Attica, famous for their eloquence. "All of them were ... sprinkled with the salt of wit ..." - wrote Cicero.
PROMETHEUS FIRE
Prometheus fire - (bookish) the spirit of nobility, courage, an unquenchable desire to achieve high goals.
The expression comes from ancient Greek mythology. One of the titans, Prometheus, stole fire from the gods and taught people how to use it. Enraged, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to chain the titan to a rock, where an eagle flew every day to peck at the liver of Prometheus. The hero Hercules freed Prometheus.
ARIADNE'S THREAD
Ariadne's thread - means a way out of some difficult, confusing situation. The expression originated from the ancient Greek myth of the Golden Fleece, when Ariadne gave her lover a ball of thread so that he could find a way out of the labyrinth. Here you can download or listen to the MYTH "Theseus' Journey to Crete" - the source of the phraseological unit Ariadne's thread.
OLYMPIAN CALM
Olympic calmness - imperturbable calmness.
Olympus is a mountain in Greece, where, as it is told in Greek myths, the gods lived. In Sophocles, Aristotle, Virgil and other authors, Olympus is the vault of heaven inhabited by the gods. The Olympians are immortal gods, always preserving the majestic solemnity of their appearance and imperturbable peace of mind.
TSAR! REMEMBER THE GREEKS
Tsar! Remember the Greeks. 1. Reminder of urgent business. 2. A reminder of the need for revenge.
The king of Persia (522-4X6 BC) Darius I ordered his slave to repeat these words loudly to him three times a day, every time Darius sat down at the table. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, in this way this ruler showed that he had not forgotten how the Greeks (Athenians and Ionians) captured and burned the Persian city of Sardis, and that he would certainly take revenge when it was possible.
PANDORA'S BOX
Pandora's Box. Allegorically - "a source of misfortune, trouble." Phraseologism is associated with the myth of Pandora, who received from the god Zeus a closed box filled with all earthly disasters and misfortunes. Curious Pandora opened the box, and human misfortunes flew out
PROCRUSTEAN BED
Procrustean bed. Allegorical expression - "a sample given in advance, for which you need to prepare something." One of the Greek myths tells about the robber Procrustes (torturer). He caught passers-by and adjusted them to his bed: if a person was longer, they cut off his legs, if shorter, they pulled him out.
THE GOLDEN FLEECE
The Golden Fleece is gold, wealth that they seek to master.
In ancient Greek myths, it is said that the hero Jason went to Colchis (the eastern coast of the Black Sea) to extract the golden fleece (golden wool of a ram), which was guarded by a dragon and bulls, spewing flames from their mouths. Jason built the ship "Argo" (fast), after which the participants in this, according to legend, the first long-distance voyage of antiquity, were called Argonauts. With the help of the sorceress Medea, Jason, having overcome all obstacles, successfully took possession of the golden fleece. The first to expound this myth was the poet Pindar (518-442 BC).
BACK TO YOUR PENATES
To return to their penates - to return under their own roof.
What does penates mean and why do people return to them? The ancient Romans believed in kind, cozy gods who lived in every house and guarded it, a kind of brownie. They were called penates, they were revered, treated to food from their table, and when leaving for a foreign land, they tried to take their small images with them.
Remember "Eugene Onegin" by A.S. Pushkin:
Returned to his penates,
Vladimir Lensky visited
The neighbor's monument is moderate.
TWO-FACED JANUS
In Roman mythology, Janus - the god of time, entrances and exits - was depicted with two faces. One face, young, was turned forward, into the future. Another, senile, - back to the past. In modern language it is used as a synonym for an insincere, two-faced person, a double-dealer.
GREEK GIFT
The gifts of the Danaans are insidious gifts brought with a treacherous purpose.
An expression from the Iliad: in the legend, the Greeks took Troy by building a huge wooden horse and giving it to the Trojans. A detachment of warriors was hidden inside the horse.
FABRIC PENELOPE
Penelope's fabric is about sophisticated cunning.
Penelope, the wife of Odysseus (the hero of Homer's Odyssey), promised to choose from among the suitors who molested her after she finished weaving a veil for her old father-in-law Laertes. But every night she unraveled everything that she managed to do in a day. When her cunning was revealed, Odysseus returned and killed in a fierce battle all the applicants for the hand of his wife.
GOLDEN AGE
In ancient times, people believed that a long time ago, at the dawn of time, a beautiful golden age reigned on earth, when humanity enjoyed peace and serenity - people did not know what fear, wars, laws, crimes, hunger were.
And although these naive beliefs have long since sunk into oblivion, the phraseologism of the golden age is still alive - this is how we call the best time, the days of the heyday of something.
Here you can listen or download the MYTH "FIVE CENTURIES"
CORNUCOPIA
The cornucopia is an endless source of wealth, wealth.
The ancient Greek myth tells that the cruel god Kronos did not want to have children, as he was afraid that they would take away his power. Therefore, his wife gave birth to Zeus in secret, instructing the nymphs to take care of him, Zeus was fed with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea. Once she, clinging to a tree, broke off her horn. The nymph filled it with fruits and gave it to Zeus. Zeus gave the horn to the nymphs who raised him, promising that whatever they wished would come out of it.
So the expression cornucopia became a symbol of prosperity, wealth.
Here you can listen or download the MYTH "BIRTH OF ZEUS"
THE BOND OF HYMENEUS
The bonds of Hymen are the mutual obligations that living together imposes on spouses, or, simply, matrimony itself, marriage.
Bonds are fetters, something that binds a person or ties one living being to another. There are a lot of words of this root: “prisoner”, “knot”, “bridle”, “burden”, etc. Thus, we are talking about something like “ligaments” or “chains”, while in Ancient Greece God was called Hymen marriage, patron of weddings.
Eugene Onegin in the novel by A. S. Pushkin says to Tatyana Larina:
Judge what kind of roses
Hymen will prepare for us ... -
when it comes to their possible marriage.
Here you can download or listen to the MYTH "HYMENEUS"
tantalum flour
Tantalum's torments, Tantalus's torments - suffering from the awareness of the proximity of the desired goal and the impossibility of achieving it. Here you can listen or download the MYTH "TANTAL"
AUGEAN STABLES
AUGEAN STABLES - a dirty place, neglected business, a mess.
GORDIAN KNOT
To cut the Gordian knot - boldly, energetically solve a difficult matter.
I HAVE EVERYTHING I HAVE WITH ME
Everything that a person carries with him is his inner wealth, knowledge and mind.
PANIC FEAR (HORROR)
Panic is a strong fear. Here you can listen or download the myth "PAN"
PALMA
The palm tree is a symbol of victory, almost the same as the laurel wreath.
RIDE A PEGASUS
Saddle Pegasus - become a poet, speak poetry
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
To be under the auspices - to use someone's patronage, to be protected.
SWORD OF DAMOCLES
The sword of Damocles is a constant threat.
HOMERIC LAUGHTER (LAUGHTER)
Homeric laughter is unrestrained laughter.
PILLARS OF HERCULES (PILLARS)
To say "reached the pillars of Hercules" means reached the extreme limit.
MENTOR TONE
"Mentor tone" - mentoring, arrogant tone.
In Greek mythology, the Augean Stables are the vast stables of Augius, king of Elis, which have not been cleaned for many years. They were cleansed in one day by Hercules: he sent a river through the stables, the waters of which carried away all the manure.
2. Ariadne's thread is what helps to find a way out of a predicament.
The expression originated from the Greek myths about the hero Theseus, who killed the Minotaur. At the request of the Cretan king Minos, the Athenians were obliged to send seven young men and seven girls to Crete every year to be devoured by the Minotaur, who lived in a labyrinth built for him, from which no one could get out. To accomplish a dangerous feat, Theseus was helped by the daughter of the Cretan king Ariadne, who fell in love with him. Secretly from her father, she gave him a sharp sword and a ball of thread. When Theseus and the boys and girls doomed to be torn to pieces were taken to the labyrinth, Theseus tied the end of the thread at the entrance and went along the intricate passages, gradually unwinding the ball. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus found his way back from the labyrinth by a thread and led out all the doomed from there.
3. Achilles' heel - a weak spot.
In Greek mythology, Achilles (Achilles) is one of the most powerful and brave heroes. He is sung in the Iliad by Homer. The mother of Achilles, the sea goddess Thetis, in order to make her son's body invulnerable, dipped him into the sacred river Styx. While dipping, she held him by the heel, which the water did not touch, so the heel remained the only vulnerable spot of Achilles, where he was mortally wounded by the arrow of Paris.
4. Barrel Danaid - endless work, fruitless work.
Danaids - fifty daughters of the king of Libya Danae, with whom his brother Egypt, the king of Egypt, was at enmity. Fifty sons of Egypt, pursuing Danae, who fled from Libya to Argolis, forced the fugitive to give them his fifty daughters as wives. On their wedding night, the Danaids, at the request of their father, killed their husbands. Only one of them decided to disobey her father. For the crime committed, forty-nine Danaids were sentenced by the gods after their death to forever fill a bottomless barrel with water in the underworld of Hades.
5. The age of Astrea is a happy time, time.
Astrea is the goddess of justice. The time when she was on earth was a happy, “golden age”. She left the earth in the Iron Age and since then, under the name of Virgo, has been shining in the constellation of the Zodiac.
6. Hercules. Hercules labor (feat). Pillars of Hercules (pillars).
Hercules (Hercules) - the hero of Greek myths, gifted with extraordinary physical strength. He accomplished the famous twelve labors. On the opposite coasts of Europe and Africa, near the Strait of Gibraltar, he placed the “Pillars of Hercules (pillars)”. So in the ancient world they called the rocks - Gibraltar and Jebel Musa. These pillars were considered “the edge of the world”, beyond which there is no way. Therefore, the expression “to reach the Pillars of Hercules” began to be used in the meaning: to reach the limit of something, to the extreme point. The expression "Herculean labor, feat" is used when talking about any business that requires extraordinary efforts.
7. Hercules at the crossroads. Applied to a person who finds it difficult to choose between two solutions.
The expression originated from the speech of the Greek sophist Prodicus. In this speech, Prodicus told the allegory he had composed about the young man Hercules (Hercules), who was sitting at a crossroads and reflecting on the life path that he was to choose. Two women approached him: Pampering, who painted for him a life full of pleasures and luxury, and Virtue, who showed him the difficult path to glory.
8. Bonds (chains) of Hymen - marriage, matrimony.
In ancient Greece, the word "hymen" meant both a wedding song and the deity of marriage, consecrated by religion and law, in contrast to Eros, the god of free love.
9. The sword of Damocles is a looming, threatening danger.
The expression arose from the ancient Greek tradition, told by Cicero in the essay “Tusculan Conversations”. Damocles, one of the associates of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder, began to enviously speak of him as the happiest of people. Dionysius, in order to teach the envious man a lesson, put him in his place. During the feast, Damocles saw that a sharp sword was hanging on a horsehair over his head. Dionysius explained that this is an emblem of the dangers to which he, as a ruler, is constantly exposed, despite his seemingly happy life.
10. Gifts of the Danes. - "insidious" gifts, bringing with them death for those who receive them.
The Trojan horse is a secret insidious plan (hence the Trojan virus (Trojan)).
The expressions originated from Greek legends about the Trojan War. The Danans (Greeks), after a long and unsuccessful siege of Troy, resorted to a trick: they built a huge wooden horse, left it at the walls of Troy, and pretended to swim away from the coast of Troy. The priest Laocoön, seeing this horse and knowing the tricks of the Danaans, exclaimed: “Whatever it is, I am afraid of the Danaans, even those who bring gifts!” But the Trojans, not listening to the warnings of Laocoon and the prophetess Cassandra, dragged the horse into the city. At night, the Danaans, who hid inside the horse, went out, killed the guards, opened the city gates, let in their comrades who returned on ships, and thus captured Troy.
11. Two-faced Janus - a two-faced person.
Janus is the god of every beginning and end, entrances and exits (janua - door). Depicted with two faces facing in opposite directions: young - forward, into the future, old - back, into the past.
12. Golden fleece - gold, wealth, which they seek to master.
Argonauts are brave sailors and adventurers.
Jason went to Colchis (the eastern coast of the Black Sea) to extract the golden fleece (golden wool of a ram), which was guarded by a dragon and bulls, spewing flames from their mouths. Jason built the Argo ship, after which the participants in this, according to legend, the first long-distance voyage of antiquity, were called the Argonauts. With the help of the sorceress Medea, Jason, having overcome all obstacles, successfully took possession of the golden fleece.
13. To sink into oblivion - to disappear forever, to be forgotten.
Lethe is the river of oblivion in Hades, the underworld. The souls of the dead, upon arrival in the underworld, drank water from it and forgot their entire past life. The name of the river has become a symbol of oblivion.
14. Between Scylla and Charybdis - in a difficult situation, when danger threatens from two sides.
According to the legends of the ancient Greeks, two monsters lived on the coastal rocks on both sides of the strait: Scylla and Charybdis, which swallowed sailors.
15. Torments of Tantalus - suffering due to unsatisfied desires.
Tantalus, king of Phrygia (also called king of Lydia), was a favorite of the gods, who often invited him to their feasts. But, proud of his position, he offended the gods, for which he was severely punished. According to Homer (“The Odyssey”, II, 582-592), his punishment was that, thrown into Tartarus (hell), he always experiences unbearable pangs of thirst and hunger. He stands up to his neck in water, but the water recedes from him as soon as he bows his head to drink. Branches with luxurious fruits hang over him, but as soon as he stretches out his hands to them, the branches deviate.
16. Narcissus - a person who loves only himself.
Narcissus is a handsome young man, the son of the river god Cephis and the nymph Leiriopa. One day, Narcissus, who had never loved anyone, leaned over the stream and, seeing his face in it, fell in love with himself and died of anguish. His body turned into a flower.
17. Nectar and ambrosia - an unusually tasty drink, an exquisite dish.
In Greek mythology, nectar is a drink, ambrosia (ambrosia) is the food of the gods, giving them immortality.
18. Olympians are arrogant, inaccessible people.
Olympian bliss is the highest degree of bliss.
Olympian calm - calm, unperturbed by anything.
Olympic greatness - solemnity with manners.
Olympus is a mountain in Greece, where, as described in Greek myths, the immortal gods lived.
19. Panic fear - sudden, intense fear, causing confusion.
It arose from the myths about Pan, the god of forests and fields. According to the myths, Pan brings sudden and unaccountable terror to people, especially travelers in remote and lonely places, as well as to the troops who rush to flee from this. This is where the word "panic" comes from.
20. Pygmalion and Galatea - about passionate love without reciprocity.
In the myth of the famous sculptor Pygmalion, it is said that he openly expressed his contempt for women. Enraged by this, the goddess Aphrodite made him fall in love with a statue of a young girl Galatea, created by him, and doomed him to the torment of unrequited love. Pygmalion's passion was, however, so strong that it breathed life into the statue. The revived Galatea became his wife.
21. Prometheus fire - sacred fire burning in the human soul; unquenchable desire to achieve high goals.
Prometheus is one of the titans. He stole fire from heaven and taught people how to use it, which undermined faith in the power of the gods. For this, the angry Zeus ordered Hephaestus (the god of fire and blacksmithing) to chain Prometheus to a rock. The eagle that flew in every day tormented the liver of the chained titan.
22. Penelope's work is an endless work (fidelity of the wife).
The expression originated from Homer's Odyssey. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, remained faithful to him during many years of separation from him, despite the harassment of the suitors. She said that she was postponing a new marriage until the day when she finished weaving the coffin for her father-in-law, Elder Laertes. She spent the whole day weaving, and at night she unraveled everything that she had woven during the day and went back to work.
23. Sphinx riddle - something unsolvable.
Sphinx - a monster with the face and chest of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird, who lived on a rock near Thebes. The Sphinx lay in wait for travelers and asked them riddles. He killed those who failed to unravel them. When the Theban king Oedipus solved the riddles given to him, the monster took his own life.
24. Sisyphean labor is endless, ethereal (useless) work.
The Corinthian king Sisyphus was sentenced by Zeus to eternal torment in Hades for insulting the gods: he had to roll a huge stone up the mountain, which, having reached the top, again rolled down.
25. Circe is a dangerous beauty, an insidious seductress.
Circe (Latin form; Greek Kirke) - according to Homer, an insidious sorceress. With the help of a magical drink, she turned the companions of Odysseus into pigs. Odysseus, who was given a magical plant by Hermes, overcame her spell, and she invited him to share her love. Having forced Circe to swear that she was not plotting anything evil against him and would return the human form to his companions, Odysseus bowed to her proposal.
26. Apple of discord - the cause of the dispute, enmity.
The goddess of discord, Eris, rolled a golden apple between the guests at the wedding feast with the inscription: “To the most beautiful.” Among the guests were the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, who argued about which of them should get the apple. Their dispute was resolved by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, by awarding the apple to Aphrodite. In gratitude, Aphrodite helped Paris kidnap Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, which caused the Trojan War.
27. Pandora's box - a source of misfortune, great disasters.
Once people lived without knowing any misfortunes, illnesses and old age, until Prometheus stole fire from the gods. For this, the angry Zeus sent a beautiful woman to earth - Pandora. She received from Zeus a chest in which all human misfortunes were locked. Spurred on by curiosity, Pandora opened the chest and scattered all the misfortunes.
28. Golden rain - big money or easily obtained wealth.
This image arose from the Greek myth of Zeus, who, captivated by the beauty of Danae, the daughter of the Argos king Acrisius, appeared to her in the form of a golden rain, after which her son Perseus was born.
29. Cyclops - one-eyed
Cyclopes are one-eyed blacksmith giants, strong men, cannibals, cruel and rude, living in caves on mountain tops, engaged in cattle breeding. The Cyclopes were credited with building gigantic buildings.
WORKS
A.S. Pushkin
PROPHET
Spiritual thirst tormented,
In the gloomy desert I dragged, -
And a six-winged seraph
He appeared to me at a crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream
He touched my eyes.
Prophetic eyes opened,
Like a frightened eagle.
He touched my ears,
And they were filled with noise and ringing:
And I heard the shudder of the sky,
And the heavenly angels flight,
And the reptile of the sea underwater course,
And the valley of the vine vegetation.
And he clung to my lips,
And tore out my sinful tongue,
And idle and crafty,
And the sting of the wise snake
In my frozen mouth
He invested it with a bloody right hand.
And he cut my chest with a sword,
And took out a trembling heart,
And coal burning with fire
He put a hole in his chest.
Like a corpse in the desert I lay,
And God's voice called out to me:
"Arise, prophet, and see, and listen,
Fulfill my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of the people with the verb."
Notes
* Prophet (p. 149). In the image of the prophet, as in "Imitations of the Koran" (see above), Pushkin understood the poet. The picture depicted by Pushkin, in several small details, goes back to the VI chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Bible (six-winged Seraphim with a burning coal in his hand).
The poem was originally part of a cycle of four poems, under the title "Prophet", of anti-government content, dedicated to the events of December 14th. M. P. Pogodin explained to P. A. Vyazemsky in a letter dated March 29, 1837: “He wrote “Prophet” when he was in Moscow in 1826. There should be four poems, the first one has just been printed (“We languish with spiritual thirst, etc.”) "(" Links ", VI, 1936, p. 153). The remaining three poems were destroyed and have not reached us.
The version of the first verse of the "Prophet" - "We torment the Great Sorrow", which is available in Pushkin's note, apparently refers to the original edition of the well-known text.
Six-winged seraph- In Christian mythology, seraphim were called angels, especially close to God and glorifying him.
Finger- finger
Zenica- Pupil, eye.
opened up– opened
prophetic- Foreseeing the future, prophetic
Gorniy(flight) - Located in the sky.
Vegetation– growth
Right hand- right hand, sometimes even a hand
Vizhd- look
Listen- Listen to someone, direct attention to someone.
The theme of the poem:
The moment of writing the poem refers to 1826. This multidimensional poetic work belongs to a series of poems, the key themes of which are the problem of the spiritual realization of the poet and the problem of the essence of poetry.
Composition and plot:
In the compositional aspect, it seems possible to divide the text into three equal parts. The first characterizes the place and time of the action (it consists of four verses). To some extent, the initial formula of the poem echoes the introductory part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The “six-winged seraphim”, an angel who is especially close to the throne of God and glorifies him, indicates immersion in the Old Testament space; he appears to the hero “at a crossroads”, which also emphasizes the sacredness and universality of the issues under consideration. According to the Old Testament ideas described in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, one of the seraphim cleanses the prophet's lips by touching them with hot coal, which he takes with tongs from the sacred altar, thereby preparing him for the fulfillment of the mission of service. The theme of fire receives large-scale development in the poem at the compositional and lexical-semantic levels; the inner form of the word “seraphim” (translated from the Hebrew “fiery”, “flaming”) also actualizes the concept: in the word, one can single out the generating root srp “burn”, “burn”, “burn”. The second part of the poem occupies twenty lines and is dedicated to the transformation of a person into a Prophet. Its fusion and internal correlation is actualized by a special mechanism of poetic expressiveness: a complex sound anaphora for "and". The final part consists of six lines and expresses the idea of prophetic ministry; in it, the voice of God, calling to the lyrical hero, sums up a kind of result of the accomplished reincarnation. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter with periodic significant interruptions in the form of spondei and pyrrhichi, with double, cross and embracing rhymes with male and female rhymes; at the rhythmic-metrical level, the key idea of the poem is also reflected.
Lermontov "Duma"
Sadly, I look at our generation!
His future is either empty or dark,
Meanwhile, under the burden of knowledge and doubt,
It will grow old in inaction.
We are rich, barely from the cradle,
The mistakes of the fathers and their late mind,
And life is already tormenting us, like a smooth path without a goal,
Like a feast at someone else's holiday.
Shamefully indifferent to good and evil,
At the beginning of the race we wither without a fight;
In the face of danger shamefully cowardly
And before the authorities - despicable slaves.
So skinny fruit, ripe before its time,
Not pleasing our taste, nor our eyes,
Hanging between flowers, an orphaned stranger,
And the hour of their beauty is its fall hour!
We dried up the mind with fruitless science,
Taya enviously from neighbors and friends
Unbelief ridiculed passions.
We barely touched the cup of pleasure,
But we did not save our young forces;
From every joy, fearing satiety,
We have extracted the best juice forever.
Dreams of poetry, creation of art
Sweet delight does not stir our mind;
We greedily keep in the chest the rest of the feeling -
Buried by avarice and useless treasure.
And we hate, and we love by chance,
Sacrificing nothing to either malice or love,
And some kind of secret cold reigns in the soul,
When the fire boils in the blood.
And our ancestors are boring luxury fun,
Their conscientious, childish depravity;
And we hurry to the grave without happiness and without glory,
Looking back mockingly.
We will pass over the world without noise or trace,
Nor the genius of the work begun.
And our ashes, with the severity of a judge and a citizen,
A descendant will offend with a contemptuous verse,
The mockery of the bitter deceived son
Over the squandered father.
The poem "Duma" in its genre is the same elegy-satire as "The Death of a Poet". Only the satire here is directed not at the court society, but at the bulk of the noble intelligentsia of the 30s.
The main theme of the poem is the social behavior of a person. The theme is revealed in Lermontov's Characteristics of the Generation of the 1930s given here. This generation, which grew up under conditions of gloomy reaction, is not at all what it was in the 10-20s, not the generation of "fathers", that is, the Decembrists. The socio-political struggle of the Decembrists is considered by them as a “mistake” (“We are rich, barely from the cradle, by the mistakes of our fathers ...”). The new generation has moved away from participation in public life and has delved into the pursuit of "sterile science", it is not disturbed by questions of good and evil; it shows "shameful cowardice in the face of danger", is "contemptible slaves before the authorities." Neither poetry nor art speaks to these people. Their fate is bleak:
Crowd gloomy and soon forgotten
We will pass over the world without noise or trace,
Not throwing for centuries a fruitful thought,
Nor the genius of the work begun.
Such a harsh assessment by Lermontov of his contemporaries was dictated by his social views as an advanced poet. For him, who even as a young man declared: “Life is so boring when there is no struggle,” an indifferent attitude to the evil reigning in life is especially unacceptable. Indifference to public life is the spiritual death of a person.
Severely censuring his generation for this indifference, for departing from the socio-political struggle, Lermontov, as it were, calls him to moral renewal, to awakening from spiritual hibernation. Lermontov, acting as an accuser, echoes Ryleev in this, who, with the same denunciation, turned to his contemporaries who evaded the political struggle in the poem "Citizen".
How fair and accurate was the characterization of the generation of the 30s, given by Lermontov in the Duma, is best evidenced by the testimony of his contemporaries, Belinsky and Herzen, who deeply felt all the horror of their era. Belinsky wrote about the Duma: “These verses are written in blood; they came out of the depths of the offended spirit. This is a cry, this is the groan of a man for whom the absence of an inner life is an evil, a thousand times more terrible than physical death!
apathy, inner emptiness and will not respond to him with a cry, with his groan? And Herzen spoke about this era: “Will the future people understand, will they appreciate all the horror, all the tragic side of our existence? .. Will they understand ... why hands do not rise to great work, why do we not forget longing in a moment of delight?”
Griboyedov "Woe from Wit"
"Woe from Wit" - a comedy in the verses of A. S. Griboyedov - a work that made its creator a classic of Russian literature. It combines elements of classicism and romanticism and realism, new for the beginning of the 19th century.
The comedy "Woe from Wit" - a satire on the aristocratic Moscow society of the first half of the 19th century - is one of the pinnacles of Russian dramaturgy and poetry; actually completed the "comedy in verse" as a genre. The aphoristic style contributed to the fact that she "dispersed into quotes."
Text history:
Around 1816, Griboyedov, returning from abroad, found himself in St. Petersburg at one of the secular evenings and was amazed at how the whole audience admired everything foreign. That evening she surrounded with attention and care some chatty Frenchman; Griboyedov could not stand it and made a fiery diatribe. While he was speaking, someone in the audience announced that Griboedov was crazy, and thus spread the word all over Petersburg. Griboyedov, in order to take revenge on secular society, conceived the idea of writing a comedy about this.
Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
"Thunderstorm" - a play in five acts by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky
History of creation
The play was begun by Alexander Ostrovsky in July and finished on October 9, 1859. The manuscript is stored in the Russian State Library.
The personal drama of the writer is also connected with the writing of the play "Thunderstorm". In the play's manuscript, next to Katerina's famous monologue: “And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone sings invisible voices…”, there is Ostrovsky’s note: “I heard from L.P. about the same dream…”. L.P. is the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, with whom the young playwright had a very difficult personal relationship: both had families. The husband of the actress was the artist of the Maly Theater I. M. Nikulin. And Alexander Nikolayevich also had a family: he lived in a civil marriage with a commoner Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he had children in common (all of them died as children). Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for almost twenty years.
It was Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya who served as the prototype for the image of the heroine of the play Katerina, she also became the first performer of the role.
Alexander Golovin. Bank of the Volga. 1916 Sketches of scenery for the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
In 1848, Alexander Ostrovsky went with his family to Kostroma, to the Shchelykovo estate. The natural beauty of the Volga region struck the playwright, and then he thought about the play. For a long time it was believed that the plot of the drama "Thunderstorm" was taken by Ostrovsky from the life of the Kostroma merchants. Kostromichi at the beginning of the 20th century could accurately indicate the place of Katerina's suicide.
In his play, Ostrovsky raises the problem of the turning point in public life that occurred in the 1850s, the problem of changing social foundations.
The names of the heroes of the play are endowed with symbolism: Kabanova is a heavy, heavy woman; Kuligin is a “kuliga”, a swamp, some of its features and name are similar to the name of the inventor Kulibin; the name Katerina means "pure"; Barbara, which is opposed to her, is a "barbarian".
In the play "Thunderstorm" the writer described the state of provincial society in Russia on the eve of reforms. The playwright considers such issues as the position of a woman in the family, the modernity of Domostroy, the awakening in a person of a sense of personality and dignity, the relationship between the “old”, oppressive, and “young”, mute.
The main idea of “Thunderstorm” is that a strong, gifted and courageous person with natural aspirations and desires cannot live happily in a society dominated by “cruel morals”, where Domostroy reigns, where everything is based on fear, deceit and submission .
The name "Thunderstorm" can be considered from several positions. A thunderstorm is a natural phenomenon, and nature plays an important role in the composition of the play. So, it complements the action, emphasizes the main idea, the essence of what is happening. For example, a beautiful night landscape corresponds to a date between Katerina and Boris. The expanses of the Volga emphasize Katerina's dreams of freedom, a picture of cruel nature opens up when describing the suicide of the main character. Then nature contributes to the development of action, as if pushing events, stimulates the development and resolution of the conflict. So, in the scene of a thunderstorm, the elements induce Katerina to public repentance.
So, the name “Thunderstorm” emphasizes the main idea of the play: self-esteem awakening in people; the desire for freedom and independence begins to threaten the existence of the old order.
The world of Kabanikhi and the Wild comes to an end, because in the “dark kingdom” a “beam of light” appeared - Katerina is a woman who cannot put up with the oppressive atmosphere that reigns in the family, in the city. Her protest was expressed in love for Boris, in an unauthorized departure from life. Katerina preferred death to existence in a world where she was “sick of everything”. She is the first lightning of that thunderstorm that will soon break out in society. The clouds over the "old" world have been gathering for a long time. Domostroy has lost its original meaning. Kabanikha and Dikoi use his ideas only to justify their tyranny and tyranny. They failed to convey to their children the true faith in the inviolability of their rules of life. Young people live according to the laws of their fathers as long as they can achieve a compromise through deceit. When oppression becomes unbearable, when deceit saves only partially, then a protest begins to awaken in a person, he develops and is able to break out at any moment.
Katerina's suicide woke up a man in Tikhon. He saw that there is always a way out of the current situation, and he, the most weak-willed of all the characters described by Ostrovsky, who unquestioningly obeyed his mother all his life, accuses her of the death of his wife in public. If Tikhon is already able to declare his protest, then the "dark kingdom" really does not have long to exist.
The storm is also a symbol of renewal. In nature, after a thunderstorm, the air is fresh and clean. In society, after the thunderstorm that began with Katerina's protest, renewal will also come: the oppressive and subjugating orders will probably be replaced by a society of freedom and independence.
But the storm occurs not only in nature, but also in Katerina's soul. She committed a sin and repents of it. Two feelings struggle in her: fear of the Boar and fear that “death will suddenly find you, as you are, with all your sins ...” In the end, religiosity, fear of retribution for sin prevail, and Katerina publicly confesses her deed sin. None of the residents of Kalinovo can understand her: these people, like Katerina, do not have a rich spiritual world and high moral values; they do not feel remorse, because their morality is - if only everything was “covered”. However, recognition does not bring relief to Katerina. As long as she believes in Boris's love, she is able to live. But, realizing that Boris is no better than Tikhon, that she is still alone in this world, where everything is “embarrassing” to her, she finds no other way out than to rush into the Volga. Katerina broke the religious law for the sake of freedom. The storm also ends in renewal in her soul. The young woman completely freed herself from the shackles of the Kalinovsky world and religion.
Thus, the thunderstorm that occurs in the soul of the main character turns into a thunderstorm in society itself, and all the action takes place against the backdrop of the elements.
Using the image of a thunderstorm, Ostrovsky showed that a society that has become obsolete, based on deceit, and the old order, which deprives a person of the opportunity to manifest the highest feelings, is doomed to destruction. It is as natural as the purification of nature through a thunderstorm. Thus, Ostrovsky expressed the hope that renewal in society would come as soon as possible.
