Causes of the Trojan War, fleet and ships of those times. The racial type of the ancient Hellenes Why did the Greeks draw eyes on their ships

The history of ancient shipbuilding has its roots in the distant past. The beginnings of shipping belong to the most ancient times, about which we have only a vague idea. The first means of transportation on water was probably a raft made of sheaves of reeds or tree trunks, driven by poles. It was equipped with a rough beam, which played the role of a steering wheel, and a small hut of the most primitive type.

The next step in the development of shipbuilding was the shuttle - a hollowed-out tree trunk, set in motion with the help of oars or a simple sail. These were already ships, the manufacture of which required the use of well-known tools. Then boats appear, knocked together from separate boards and equipped with oars and sails, such vessels could appear only with a significant development of various crafts and the ability to process metals.

The impetus for the first attempts at navigation was probably given by fishing, followed by the exchange of goods, i.e. maritime trade; along with this, in the vastness of the sea that belonged to no one, piracy developed in early times. According to the concepts of the ancients, every foreigner was considered an enemy who could be killed or enslaved with impunity, so sea robbery was not considered either criminal or shameful and was carried out quite openly. All seafaring peoples robbed the sea, hunted people and were engaged in the slave trade.

Navigation methods were the most primitive due to the lack of maps, sailing directions, lighthouses, signs, a compass and other devices of this kind. The only nautical instrument that the ancients had at their disposal was the lot. Sailors determined their location by familiar shores or by an approximate calculation of the distance traveled, and at night on the high seas by the stars. The plotting was also very inaccurate. When orienting and determining the direction of the wind, four points were initially distinguished: east, west, north and south. By the time of the first Olympiad (776 BC), four rhumbas were added to these directions, corresponding to the points of sunrise and sunset on the solstice. Such a division of the horizon into eight parts was maintained until 400 BC, when four more points were added, spaced 30 ° on both sides of the north and south; that is, the horizon was divided into twelve equal parts of 30 ° each.

Ancient shipping was considered coastal, that is, coastal, mainly the Greeks were guided by the close coast, since long-distance sea voyages on the high seas were very dangerous, and only a few daredevils ventured on long trips. This is well enough illustrated by the ancient "peripluses". The word "periplus" goes back to the ancient Greek word περίπλους - swimming near the coast, description of the coast. Such voyages were determined by the instability of ships in rough seas, the need for quick shelter in some bay near the coast in case of sudden bad weather or the need to replenish food and fresh water [Lazarov 1978. p. 49].

In ancient times, there were mainly two types of ships - military, which had elongated proportions, a removable mast, oars as the main means of transportation, called the Greeks "long", and merchant - shorter and wider, moving mainly with the help of sails - "round". Basically, the epithets "long" and "round" were used to distinguish an elongated warship from a merchant ship. In addition to large ones, the Greeks created various small vessels that they used for fishing, for short trips from one island to another, for pirate raids, etc.

The smallest type of rowboat was the light boat. There were such small high-speed vessels that were used by pirates. It can be assumed that on small vessels of this type there were five rowers on each side, that is, ten in total. There are mentions of epactrids in the sources (the word ἐπακτρίς comes from the verb έπάγειν - to find a means of salvation from something), apparently, this ship boarded a larger ship. This is mentioned by Aristophanes in the comedy "The Horsemen":

And hooks, and hooks, and hold dolphins, and
rescue boat on ropes.

(Aristophanes. Riders. 762-763. Translated by A. I. Piotrovsky)

Very little is known about the structure and size of merchant ships of the ancient era. The surviving information relates to military courts to a greater extent, since military events that played an important role in the life of Greek city-states - city-states, always attracted the interest of Greek writers and masters. Vessels without rams became widespread in archaic times. This period was characterized by the rise of the material and cultural life of the Greek world. The wide development of trade relations led to the creation of a special merchant ship. In the 7th-6th centuries BC. ships appear that combine the useful qualities of military and merchant ships. They were deeply seated, with chopped off noses, maneuverable, fast, and could carry large loads [Peters 1986. pp. 11-12].

Numerous merchant ships differed primarily on a geographical basis, that is, depending on the region in which they were built. It was this factor that determined the design features of the hull, the type of sailing and oar device, and the materials from which the ship was made. The size of the vessel was determined by the tasks that the navigators set themselves: the range of routes, their distance from the coast, the volume of traffic and the nature of the cargo. Thus, on a geographical basis, we can divide ancient ships into Phoenician, Carian, Samian, Phocian, etc. But whatever changes were made to merchant sailing ships, they remained small, with a single mast and a square sail of hides sewn together. These vessels moved along the coast, sometimes going out to sea, and were not very resistant to storms.

By 500 B.C. there was already a sufficiently large number of sailing ships to improve the infrastructure of trade. Basically, cargo ships were single-deck and had an average carrying capacity of up to 80 tons. The length-to-width ratio of the hull was 5:3. The wide, high-raised stern gave the ship additional windage, which made it possible to reach maximum speed with fair winds. Most often, the ship was equipped with two steering oars located on the sides, which were fastened with leather straps to the beams passing across the hull. The presence of two rudders gave the ship stability on the course and increased its maneuverability. Merchant ships were largely, and the largest - exclusively, dependent on the wind. Vessels without keels and with low windage could not sail steeply against the wind, they were very blown away by gulfwind (wind blowing strictly perpendicular to the side), although ancient sailors tried to fight drift using oars. This explains the fact that quite often the ships were drifted in the other direction; such helplessness in bad weather limited the time of navigation to the summer months, that is, the period from mid-March to the end of October, when the weather was fine.

The construction of warships has reached a more significant development than merchant ships. In the first half of the 1st millennium BC. the most common type of vessel was the pentecontera - a 50-oared ship - named after the number of rowers, 25 on each side. This vessel was mainly used for piracy and coastal raids, but was also suitable for longer voyages in unknown waters where the crew was strong enough to protect the vessel from local threats. Penteconters were widely used in the period up to the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, and for many policies remained the main type of warships. In the 5th century BC. these ships are becoming rarer, giving way to more advanced ships, “the inhabitants of Phocaea were the first among the Hellenes to embark on distant sea voyages. They sailed not on “round” merchant ships, but on 50-oared ships ”(Herodotus. I. 163, 166. Translated by G. A. Stratanovsky). An important invention was the addition of a bronze battering ram attached to the nose of the penteconter. Herodotus mentions a battering ram in connection with the defeat of the Phocians at the Battle of Alalia (Corsica) in 535 BC. The use of a ram required an increase in the strength of the main structures of the ship and the speed at which the ship moved. It is still not exactly established who first invented the ram - the Greeks or the Phoenicians. Many scientists believe that the devices that ships are equipped with, depicted on geometric vases of the 8th century. BC, served to protect their bow when pulled ashore, and not to sink enemy ships. The real ram appeared, in their opinion, not earlier than the first half of the 7th century. BC. The use of a ram made it necessary to build ships with a more massive and durable bow.

The technical methods of shipbuilding of that time allowed the Greeks to create ships no more than 35 m long and 8 m wide. It was dangerous to build a wooden ship longer, since the middle part could not withstand the pressure on the sides, because it was not as strongly strengthened as the bow and stern, which were more resistant to waves, so even with a slight wave of the sea, the ship could break in half. The solution to this issue was found by the Phoenicians, and they began to build ships with rams and two rows of oars, to increase the speed of movement while maintaining the strength of the ship. On a ship of this kind, rowers were arranged in two rows, one above the other, operating the oars. This new type of ship then spread to Greece. This is how a faster and more maneuverable ship appeared, apparently, a little later the Greeks used the same technique to build a trireme. The Greek word "diera" was absent from literary sources until the Roman period, in translation it means "two-row". The development of ships with two rows of oars is reconstructed from depictions dating from 700 to 480 BC. It is possible that before the advent of multi-row ships in the Hellenistic period, ships received their names by the number of rows of oars, and not by the number of rowers.

The poet Homer narrated about the events of 500 years ago. His descriptions of ships correspond mainly to that time, although some details may refer to an earlier era. He never mentions the ram, a characteristic detail of the warships of the 8th century. BC, however, in his work there is a reference to the penteconter:

These tribes Philoctetes the leader, an excellent archer,
Led on seven ships; fifty sat on each
Strong rowers and skilful arrows to fight cruelly ...

(Homer. Iliad. II. 718-720. Translated by N. I. Gnedich)

Homer's long ships were deckless, there were small deck superstructures only at the stern, where the captain was located, and at the bow, where there was an observation deck. The rowers sat on the benches, they had nowhere to sleep on the ship, so they tried to moor at night and pull the ship ashore. The hull of the ships was very narrow, low and light, it was covered with pitch, which is why all Homeric ships are “black”:

In the camp, with black courts,
Achilles reclined swift-footed...

(Homer. Iliad. II. 688. Translated by N. I. Gnedich)

Similar descriptions are found among archaic poets who follow the creator of the Iliad in their use of epithets. Archilochus and Solon speak of ships as "fast", while Alcaeus uses the Homeric definition in a passage from a hymn to the Dioscuri:

You, on a strong ship's beak, spun,
Sliding along the tackle to the top of the mast.
In the evil night, radiate the desired light
Black ship...

(Alkey. 9-12. Translated by M. L. Gasparov)

The oars were fixed in oarlocks, rotated on pins and additionally held in place with leather straps. Aeschylus says this:

Dinner is done -
The rower adjusted the oar to the oarlock.

(Aeschylus. Persians. 372-773. Translated by Vyach. V. Ivanov)

Homer mentions a single steering oar - apparently a feature of the Mycenaean era, although contemporary depictions usually show two steering oars. Archaic poets give a lot of references to oars, as an example, we can cite an excerpt from one of the works of Alcaeus:

So why do we hesitate to venture into the sea,
As if hibernating in winter?
Rather get up, oars in hand,
With a strong pressure on the pole we will lay
And push off into the open sea
Having sent the sail, straightened with a yard, -
And the heart will become more cheerful:
Instead of booze, a hand in business ...

(Alkey. 5-12. Translated by M. L. Gasparov)

The main structure of ancient ships is the keel beam and frames. The keel had a longitudinal section where the edge of the outer skin was attached. The cross-sectional dimensions of the keel beam, as well as the frames, varied depending on the size of the vessel. The frames were usually located very tightly - at a distance of 10-20 cm, sometimes reaching 50 cm. The sheathing consisted of thick boards and was usually double. Separate parts were connected using bronze plates and nails, which were less susceptible to corrosion. In addition to bronze nails, wooden nails, slips, spikes and planks were widely used for fastening. Of great importance was the sealing of cracks (caulking), which made it possible to exclude water seepage. Very little is known about the superstructures of ancient ships. On the deck, obviously, there was a helmsman, a captain and a shelter for the crew. An interesting testimony was left by Archilochus in one of his elegies, where he mentions the flooring on which wine was stored:

With a bowl in your hands, you walked along the deck of a fast-moving boat,
Remove the lid with a nimble hand from a dugout barrel,
Scoop red wine to a thick sediment! ..

(Archiloch. Elegies. 5. 5-8. Per. V. V. Veresaev)

The mast, spars and sails can be represented on the basis of various images of ancient Greek ships, and Alcaeus gives us quite detailed descriptions in a fragment of one of his hymns:

We are lost in the clash of sea ramparts!
Then on the right a rolling shaft will burst into the side,
That on the left, and between that and that
Our black ship is rushing about -
And we suffer without strength under the storm,
The water splashes under the mast itself,
The sail is torn, and rags
They hung in large pieces from the yardarm;
The ropes are cracking...

(Alkey. 9. 1-9. Per. M. L. Gasparov)

However, according to the surviving drawings, it is difficult to detect a significant difference between the sailing armament of military and merchant ships. The images show that the vessels were single-masted, the removable mast was located almost in the middle of the vessel, but closer to the bow, and was not higher than the length of the vessel. At the top of the mast, a block was placed to lift a heavy yard, there was also something like a small mars platform through which the halyard passed. Such sites were used as an observation post. The mast was fixed with ropes at the bow and stern. A transverse yard was strengthened on the mast, with the help of additional rigging (halyard) it was raised to the top of the mast, where it was fixed with bay feet. To keep it in a certain position, the rail was equipped with ropes (topenants) on the legs, passing from it to the top of the mast, which went down the mast through the block for lifting weights. However, the topenants held the yard only in a strictly fixed position, and did not allow its ends to be raised or lowered in a vertical plane. The vertical position of the yard was fixed with the help of braces. The sails of ancient Greek ships had a quadrangular shape, their dimensions depended on the size of the vessel and the height of the mast. They were sewn together from separate pieces in a horizontal direction. A rounded notch was left at the bottom of the sail, through which the helmsman could look in the direction of the bow of the vessel and see everything ahead. When raising the sail, sheets were used, its cleaning was carried out with the help of gits. The sails, usually white, could be painted in a variety of colors, including black, like the Phoenician ones [Nazarov 1978. pp. 50-51].

1. bow
2. stem
3. Add-on in the bow
4. Ram
5. Anchor
6. aft
7. Akhtershteven
8. Upper, inward-curved part of the sternpost
9. Superstructure aft
10. Steering oars
11. Frame
12. Side part
13. Bottom
14. Oaring ports
15. rowing oars
16. oarlocks
17. Mast
18. Mast base - spur
19. Top of the mast - top
20. Side ropes to hold the mast
21. Sail
22. Topenants

On penteconters, the rowers sat on wooden benches (banks), which were supported by vertical uprights (pilers). One or more longitudinal bars ran along the sides, vertical pegs were located at an equal distance between the side and the bars, to which the oars were attached. In the bow there was a stem, which in the underwater part turned into a ram. Rams were made of wood and covered with copper sheathing on top. Although penteconters could engage in ramming and boarding combat, ramming was the mainstay of offensive tactics in naval battles of this period.

The ships were steered by two large reinforced oars-rudders. The masts on the penteconters were removable and in bad weather, during battles or camps, they were removed and stacked along the side [Peters 1968. p. 10]. In appearance, the penteconter was a long and rather narrow boat, in the bow of which a ram, made in the shape of an animal's head, protruded far ahead. Above the battering ram, behind the stem, there was a small platform for the soldiers. The stern was high, smoothly rounded, its end was sometimes made in the shape of a dolphin's tail. Steering oars were attached to the stern and a ladder was tied. Such ships could already make long voyages. Pentecontera had a finished elegant form and was not only a technically perfect vessel for its time, but was a true work of ancient building art.

The first literary evidence of the appearance of the trireme is considered to be a satirical poem by Hipponactus, usually dated to 540 BC. e. The author uses the epithet "multi-bench" vessel, which most researchers recognize as a reference to the trireme:

Artist! What's on your mind, sly, keep?
You painted the ship on the sides. What
We see? The snake crawls to the stern from the bow.
You will cast spells on swimmers, sorcerer, grief,
You mark the ship with a cursed sign!
The trouble is, since the helmsman is wounded in the heel by a snake!

(Hipponact. 6. 1-6. Per. Vyach. V. Ivanov)

By the middle of the VI century. BC. triremes have become quite common and well-known. References to this type of ships in the literature are an indication that a person not connected with the sea and shipbuilding knew this ship quite well. Until now, there is a discussion in the scientific community about whether penteconters could be directly transformed into triremes without a significant change in design, or whether this was a certain technical breakthrough. Do not forget that there were diers (two-row ships) that helped solve the problem of doubling the crew. Diera was a transitional link from ships with one row of oars - penteconter to later ships - triremes with three rows of oars.

The transformation from a direme to a trireme was not just the addition of another row of oars, some lengthening of the hull and an increase in the number of rowers to 170 people, but was a complex technical solution, it is not without reason that modern scientists do not know exactly how the oars were located on a three-row ship. Indeed, the invention of such a vessel, where the crew included rowers, officers, sailors, soldiers in the amount of about 200 people, where the rowers were very close to each other, was a real miracle and an indicator of the technical progress achieved by the Greeks in the archaic period.

There are only a few references to the emergence of triremes in literary sources. The Greek historian Herodotus in his work for the first time speaks of triremes in connection with the canal of Pharaoh Necho, leading from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea: “This canal is four days long and was dug so wide that two triremes could sail side by side” (Herodotus II. 158. Translated by G. A. Stratanovsky). He attributes to this pharaoh the construction of shipyards for the production of ships: “Necho ordered the construction of triremes both in the North Sea and in the Arabian Gulf for the Red Sea. Their shipyards can still be seen there to this day. In case of need, the king always used these ships ”(Herodotus. II. 159. Translated by G. A. Stratanovsky). However, it seems unlikely that the new type of vessel was invented in Egypt. At this time, the contacts of the Greeks with the Egyptians were intensifying, the Hellenic mercenaries were actively involved in the service of the pharaohs, and the colony of Naucratis, founded by several Greek policies, appeared in Egypt itself. It is possible that, by attracting a sufficiently large number of Greeks, the Egyptian rulers could also borrow some technical innovations, including new types of warships. The Greek historian Thucydides, when referring to the period of ancient history from 700 to 480 BC, mentions the Corinthian shipbuilder Aminocles, who built four ships for the Samians (Thucydides. I. 13). Many scholars, following Thucydides, admit that triremes were invented in Corinth.

Trier was a more advanced vessel compared to the penteconter, she had various military devices for effective ramming. Above the lower ram of the trireme there were two horizontal beams protruding forward, which served to break the oars on enemy ships and to protect the bow during a ramming strike. The stem of the ship hanging over the ram in the form of a sleigh made it possible, during a ramming attack, to crawl on board the enemy ship, crush it with its weight under itself, sinking the pierced part of the ship. The oar ports were located at a small height above the waterline and were closed with special leather linings. When the sea was rough, the oars of the lower row were pulled inside the ship, and the ports were battened down with leather hatches [Peters 1986. p. 76]. Since there was very little space on the trireme, the ship usually landed on a shore for the night. In antiquity, it was quite difficult to block an enemy port, since the blockers had to have their base nearby, where they could take their ships to rest, otherwise the blockade would be simply useless.

The maximum speed of the trireme was 7-8 knots at 30 strokes per minute, although she usually walked at a speed of 2 knots (a knot is 1853 m / h). The ship was easy to steer and was very obedient to the helm. The turn was first carried out by steering oars, then all the other oars began to row, and the side from which the turn took place began to tab, i.e. row in the other direction. At full turn, the diameter of the circle covered a distance two and a half times the length of the ship itself. It was a quick turn method where a 180° turn took several minutes.

All triremes can be divided into three categories: warships, transport for transporting troops and transport for transporting horses. Trier at its base had a wooden keel, to which parts of the ship's set were attached, covered on the outside with boards. The keel in the bow turned into a stem with one or more rams, the latter varying in size and design. In the Attic triremes, they were located closer to the surface of the water, and often such rams struck above the waterline. The Syracusan triremes had a shorter and more durable ram, located lower than that of the Attic triremes, a blow with such a ram made a hole in the side of the enemy ship always below the waterline. In addition to the lower ram, there was also an upper ram. Trier could conduct ramming and boarding battles. In the stern, the keel passed into a rounded sternpost.

One of the improvements to the trireme was a solid deck, under which there was a hold that served to store various supplies. Aeschylus in Agamemnon says that Clytemnestra accused her husband of sharing the deck with her when he took Cassandra away from Troy:

Lies with him and the last
From tender captives - a witch, a visionary,
And in death an inseparable concubine,
Like at sea, on a hard deck bed.

(Aeschylus. Agamemnon. 1440-1443. Translated by Vyach. V. Ivanov)

Later, a light upper deck appeared on the triremes, which protected the rowers of the upper row from arrows and darts and served to position the soldiers on it.

The main mover of the trireme was three rows of oars located one above the other along each side. At the ends of a special ledge running along the sides, there were oarlocks of the longest oars of the upper row. These oars were the heaviest and were each controlled by one rower - a tranit. The middle row of oars passed through the holes in the sides, the oars of this row were controlled by zigits, each also with one oar. The oars of the lower row were controlled by talamites. The oars during parking were tightly pulled up by belts to the oarlocks. Rowers sat on banks, on which special pillows were often placed for comfort. So that one row of oars does not touch the other when rowing, the holes for them in the sides were located along an inclined line. All three rows of oars worked together only during the battle, usually the rowers were divided into watches. There are indications that, if necessary, the trireme could move stern forward with the help of oars, which was important after a ramming blow [Peters 1968. p. 15].

In the IV century. BC. the triremes had 200 oars: 62 oars were used by tranits, 54 by zigits, 54 by talamites, and the remaining 30 oars, apparently, were spare or additional. We know the length of such an oar—approximately 4.16 or 4.40 m [Peters 1986, p. 79]. It is known that the oars at the bow and at the stern were shorter than those located in the center of the vessel.

The rowers sat strictly one behind the other in a straight line from stern to bow, and the oarlocks, on the contrary, were located along a smooth line coinciding with the side line. All the oars were at the same distance from the side of the ship so that their ends created one line, correspondingly bending along the curve of the side. The oars had different lengths, depending on what place the rower occupied and at what distance from the waterline, but the difference in length was several tens of centimeters. The blades of the oars entered the water at intervals of 20 cm. On the triremes, only one person rowed each oar, the system of oars on the penters was similar, but only three people controlled one oar. Some scholars suggest that the new system of oars was introduced in order to make up for the lack of skill in rowing, since the days when one well-trained person was required per oar.

For turns during movement, the trireme had one reinforced rudder in the form of a large oar on the stern from each side, it is possible that these oars rotated around its axis and were connected by a bar that moved in a horizontal direction. When the steering oar was moved to the left, the ship turned to the right; the rudder blade on modern ships also operates. It is known that the steering oars were removed from the vessel when it was pulled ashore.

The spar of the trireme resembled the equipment of the penteconter, however, one should pay attention to some features that are unique to the triremes. There were two masts on the trireme: the mainmast and the foremast, which appeared on the ship by the end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century. BC. In the 5th century BC. the triremes mostly had one sail, but already in the 4th century. BC e. Xenophon also mentions the second sail: “Already at the very departure, he [Iphicrates] left large sails on the shore, meaning that he was going into battle; he also almost did not use akatia, even when a fair wind blew (Xenophon. Greek history. VI. 27. Per. M. I. Maksimov). Apparently, both the foremast and the yard got their name from a small vessel. Two types of sails are mentioned in literary sources: light and heavy. Scientists suggest that light sails were more valuable than heavy ones, because they increased the speed of the ship.

With a fairly complex sailing rig that was used on Greek ships, there were a large number of different ropes designed for a specific purpose. Various types of ropes are mentioned in literary and epigraphic sources: belts, ropes, ends, braces and mooring lines. Homer also spoke of sheets attached to the lower corner of the sail, and braces attached to the end of the yard.

Each ship had four anchor lines, one for each anchor and two spare lines, as well as two to four stern lines. Anchor ropes were important, as they were used both for mooring in coastal waters and for pulling a ship to land. The ship usually had two anchors located at the bow of the vessel, in rare cases at the stern. Anchors were metal or wood-metal structures, sometimes stones were used as anchors, but this was already a rarity, at least in the 4th century. BC. [Lazarov 1978. p. 82]. The team of the departing ship hung the anchor from special bars protruding from both sides of the bow and serving to repel the blow of an enemy ship and to fasten the anchor.

After the anchor was raised, the captain served libations, probably in the stern, and prayed to the gods to make the journey quick and the return safe. The process of pulling the anchor and the traditional departure to the sea, accompanied by the corresponding ritual actions, are described by Pindar:

And Pug, prophesying by birds and lots,
He commanded the good army to board the ship.
And when the anchor hung over the water cutter -
That is the leader at the stern,
With a cup of gold in hand
Called to the father of the celestials Zeus<...>
The prophet shouted to their oars,
Having spoken to them joyful hope;
And the insatiable moved the oars
In fast hands...

(Pindar. Pythian odes. IV. 190-196, 200-205. Translated by M. L. Gasparov)

The Greeks made the bow of the ship in the form of an animal with eyes and ears. Apparently, these ear-shaped beams were specially created on both sides of the nose to protect against ramming. The trireme had two ladders located at the stern. To push one ship away from another or push off from the shore, repulsors were used: there were always two or three of them on the trireme.

Oak and pine forests were used for the construction of ships, cypress and cedar were also used, hemp, canvas and resin were used for puttying. The underwater parts of the ship could be sheathed with lead sheets, lead was also used for counterweights of oars and the manufacture of anchors. During the construction of the ship, bronze and iron nails and staples, as well as copper tips for rams, were widely used. Anchor ropes and all rigging were made of hemp, sails were made of canvas [Peters 1968. p. 14].

Northern Black Sea region, III c. BC.

In the Hellenistic era, new vast states arose in the ancient world, the armed forces increased, the navy reached a scale that was enormous for those times, the volume of maritime trade increased, and the geographical outlook expanded. Between the new states, the struggle for dominance on the sea routes is intensifying. Science and technology are widely developed, which contributes to the flourishing of shipbuilding, a new stage of which was marked by the construction of large ships with oar control. The equipment and combat power of ships are constantly being improved, but there are no fundamental innovations in shipbuilding. The engineering thought of the Hellenistic era creates multi-deck ships. The military-technical competition of the heirs of Alexander the Great led to the creation of a number of giant ships (Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Demetrius. 31-32, 43). The construction of these ships pursued the goal, rather, of psychological pressure on the enemy than of practical use. Many of these giants were never able to take part in naval battles, which cannot be said about tetrares and penthers (ships with four and five rows of oars, respectively). Nevertheless, earlier types of ships were still widely used during this period. There were two reasons for this. On the one hand, the construction of large multi-tiered ships was extremely complex and expensive, requiring an established structure of shipyards and skilled builders. All this resulted in huge financial costs that only rich states and policies could afford. On the other hand, a ship of ancient times could serve 40-50 years, there are cases when ships were operated 80 years after they were built (Titus Livius. XXXV. 26). The long service life of ships made it possible for a long time to use obsolete ships as a military, transport or auxiliary fleet [Peters 1982. p. 77].

The manning system of a warship, described in detail in the decree of Themistocles, has been preserved almost unchanged since the 5th century. BC. The captain of the ship was a trierarch. In Athens, the trierarch received the ship by lot, he made a list of the necessary gear, which he received from the warehouse and for which he was personally responsible, he could also purchase them at his own expense, the policy provided payment and provisions. The trierarch was responsible for the maintenance of the ship at sea and was obliged to pay the necessary expenses himself if the money was not provided to him by the commander of the fleet. The crew was divided into three parts: the soldiers on deck (epibats), officers and assistants of the trierarchs, and rowers. The functions of the warriors were secondary in battle, since the ram was the main offensive weapon, but they sometimes fought on land or fought a boarding battle. Their main function was to maintain discipline, that is, to support the authority of the trierarch. These warriors had the highest status on the ship after the trierarch, it was they who helped the trierarchs to make libations during the ceremonial departure of the Sicilian expedition (Thucydides. VI. 32). The officers on board the ship were supposed to help the trierarch and protect the helmsman. The total number of rowers on the trireme of the classical time was 170 people, in the subsequent era this number increased depending on the class of the ship. The Greeks paid great attention to training for rowers, since a rower on a trireme in the 5th-4th centuries. BC. must be sufficiently qualified. Only in exceptional circumstances were rowers used to conduct military operations on land. The art of steering the oar was the subject of hard training and constant practice. Sailors have been trained to row from the moment they board a ship and have perfected their skills throughout their lives. The sources also mention a helmsman, boatswain or rower commander, rower chief, who was on the bow of the ship, a ship's carpenter, a flutist who set the pace with his game. Naturally, the helmsman was an important person, he stood on a par with the trierarch and epibates, his competence included steering the ship under oars and sails. Initially, the necessary experience in managing a ship was obtained on small ships, then helmsmen were assigned to triremes.

Speaking of ancient shipbuilding, one cannot fail to mention port facilities. The most famous in Greece were boathouses (ship sheds) in Piraeus. Evidence of these boathouses of the 4th century BC has been preserved. BC. And we can assume that the Athenians used the foundations of buildings dating from the 5th century BC. BC. and destroyed after the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. [Peters 1968. p. 8]. The boathouses were finally destroyed by Sulla in 86 BC. along with the famous naval arsenal of Philo. Plutarch mentions this arsenal: “A little later, Sulla took Piraeus and burned most of its buildings, including the amazing structure - the arsenal of Philo” (Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Sulla. 14. Per. S. P. Kondakov).

Our knowledge of these boathouses is mainly based on archaeological excavations in Piraeus in the second half of the 19th century. . The stone slips were about 3 m wide and on average 37 m long in the dry part. They, of course, went under water, but the underwater part cannot be calculated, although some scientists admit that the slips went under water by about 1 meter. Under one roof there were two boathouses, and the ridge of this collapsible roof fell towards the sea. Columns made of local stone, placed at a sufficiently large distance from each other, supported the ridge and canopy of the roof and formed partitions between individual boathouses. Scientists have suggested that boathouses were divided into groups, which ended with strong walls for greater reliability and protection from fires [Peters 1986. p. 78]. Open partitions with columns within each group provided ventilation, which was of great importance for the safety of the ships. Access to ships was severely restricted, although not in the same way as in Hellenistic Rhodes, where illegal entry into the docks was considered a crime.

Triremes could simply be hauled by hand onto slips, but could use winches, blocks, and rollers. The wooden equipment of the ships was stored in the boathouse, while the gear and the rest of the rigging were stored in the warehouse at the dock. Wooden equipment was brought on board before launching, but the ships were completed and received the rest of the equipment and provisions later, in the harbor of Piraeus or at the pier.

Groups of slipways have been found in Apollonia, the harbor of Cyrene, and in Acarnania. There are two boathouses on Cape Suniy, designed to store ships slightly smaller than the triremes. These are only the remains of boathouses that have come down to us, it can be assumed that many Greek boathouses had a standard width, and those that were somewhat narrower were built for smaller ships. Another well-known harbor - in Carthage - consisted of 220 boathouses, which were among the most impressive in antiquity and occupied almost the entire coast of the harbor. Each of these boathouses had an upper floor where the ship's rigging was stored. They were destroyed after 146 BC, and the Romans built an embankment on the preserved foundations. Some remains of boathouses have been found in the harbor of Syracuse. Here their number was somewhat larger - 310 for two harbors. Even from the few surviving remains, it can be assumed that all the Greek city-states that had warships erected slipways in their harbors.

Saint Petersburg. Hermitage

Along with boathouses, shipyards were also built. The shipyards were not as numerous as the boathouses, this was due to the fact that the Greeks did not build each ship individually, but made individual parts and, if it was necessary to urgently build a ship, they assembled it quickly enough. In addition to stationary moorings in harbors and ports, there were also temporary ones, these were places on the coast convenient for pulling a ship ashore.

As a maritime power, the Roman state appears on the expanses of water at the end of the 3rd century. BC. The Romans did not invent anything fundamentally new in shipbuilding (Polybius 1.20 (15), creating their own navy, they relied on the experience of Greek and Phoenician shipbuilders. In its structure, the Roman fleet resembled the Greek one, just like the Greeks, the Romans had a division of ships on "long" military (naves longae) and "round" trading (naves rotundae), on ships with and without a deck. One of the significant differences between the Roman fleet was that the ships were larger and heavier than similar Greek or Phoenician models. This due to the fact that the Romans made much more active use of onboard artillery and greatly increased the number of soldiers on board the ship.Roman ships, compared with the Greeks, were less navigable, inferior in speed and maneuverability.In many cases, they were armored with bronze plates and almost always hung in front of battle with oxhides soaked in water to protect against incendiary projectiles.

The crew of a ship, like a division of the Roman land army, was called a centuria. There were two main officials on the ship - the centurion, one was responsible for sailing and navigation itself, the second, responsible for the conduct of hostilities, led several dozen soldiers. Initially, two “naval duumvirs” (duoviri navales) commanded the fleet. Subsequently, prefects (praefecti) of the fleet appeared, roughly equivalent in status to modern admirals. Contrary to popular belief, in the Republican period (V-I centuries BC), all members of the crew of Roman ships, including rowers, were civilians. The war was a matter exclusively for citizens, so slaves were generally not allowed on the ship as rowers.

The Romans built both large warships for conducting large-scale military operations at sea, and small light vessels for reconnaissance and patrolling, moners (moneris) - ships with a single row of oars - were just used for such purposes. Double-row ships (biremis) were represented by Liburnians, judging by the name, this type of ships was borrowed from the Illyrian tribe of Liburnians (Appian. Illyrian History. 3), but, apparently, went back to the Greek model. Taking this type of ship as a model, the Romans created their own ships, strengthening the design, but retaining the name. Liburns, like moners, were used for reconnaissance and patrolling, but if necessary, they could take part in hostilities in shallow water or deliver troops to the enemy coast. Liburns were also effectively used against merchant and combat single-row ships (usually pirates), in comparison with which they were much better armed and protected. Along with nautical liburns, the Romans built many different types of river liburns, which were used in combat operations and when patrolling the Rhine, Danube, and Nile.

The most common ship was still the trireme, in the Roman version of the trireme. The Roman triremes were heavier and more massive than the Greek ships, they were able to carry throwing machines and a sufficient contingent of soldiers on board to conduct a boarding battle. The trireme was a multifunctional vessel of the ancient fleet. For this reason, triremes were built by the hundreds and were the most common type of all-purpose warship in the Mediterranean. Quadriremes and larger warships were also represented in the Roman fleet, however, they were massively built only directly during major military campaigns, mainly during the Punic, Syrian and Macedonian wars, i.e. in the III-II centuries. BC. Actually, the first quadri- and quinqueremes were improved copies of Carthaginian ships of similar types, first encountered by the Romans during the First Punic War. These ships were not fast and poorly maneuverable, but, being armed with throwing machines (up to 8 on board) and equipped with large detachments of marines (up to 300 people), they served as a kind of floating fortresses, which were very difficult for the Carthaginians to cope with.

The tactics of naval combat over the centuries, of course, did not remain unchanged. The main weapon of the Greek ships of the VI-V centuries. BC. was a ram, the main tactical technique was a ram strike. Since ship hulls at that time did not have watertight bulkheads, even a small hole was enough for the ship to quickly fill with water and sink. The second tactic was a boarding battle. Each trireme during the fighting carried on board a number of hoplites - heavily armed infantrymen, archers and slingers. However, their number was very modest, in the classical period it did not exceed 15-20 people. For example, during the Battle of Salamis, on board each trireme were 8 hoplites and 4 archers. It was quite difficult to capture an enemy ship with such a small military force, and it was not advisable to use rowers as warriors, since the loss of each qualified rower affected the combat capability of the entire ship, so they were taken care of, trying, if possible, not to bring the battle to boarding.

First of all, the attacking ship sought to strike at full speed on the side of the enemy ship and quickly reverse. Such a maneuver was especially successful if the attacking ship was at least as large as the enemy ship, and even better, surpassed it. Otherwise, there was a risk that the attacking ship would not have enough kinetic energy, and the strength of its hull in the bow would be insufficient. The attacking ship (let's say a penteconter) itself risked becoming a victim of an attack on a large ship (for example, a trireme), since it could receive more damage than the attacked one, could get stuck in the wreckage of the oars and thus lose its course, and its crew would be effectively hit various throwing darts from the high side of the enemy ship. But it was not so easy for the attacking ship to reach the position of a ramming strike, because the attacked ship did not stand still and tried to evade, therefore, in order to make it easier for itself to choose a favorable attack angle and deprive the enemy of the opportunity to evade a ramming strike, the attacking ship had to break its oars, so how, with the loss of the oars of one side, the ship became uncontrollable and was open to strike. To do this, it was necessary to move not at an angle close to 90 ° with respect to the longitudinal axis of the enemy ship, but, on the contrary, deliver a sliding counter strike, moving at an angle close to 180 ° with respect to the enemy’s course. At the same time, while passing along the side of the enemy, the rowers of the attacking ship had to retract the oars on command. Then the oars of the attacked ship along one side would have been broken, but the oars of the attacking ship would have survived. After that, the attacking ship went into circulation and delivered a ramming blow to the side of the immobilized enemy ship. A similar tactical maneuver in the Greek fleet was called a "breakthrough" (Polybius. XVI. 2-7). The tactical situation, called "bypass", developed in the event that, for one reason or another, the ships passed too far from each other and at the same time the crew of the enemy ship turned out to be sufficiently prepared to quickly respond to the attack. Then both ships went into circulation, and each tried to turn around faster and have time to board the enemy. With equal maneuverability and crew training, the matter could end in a head-on collision. In any case, the outcome of military operations at sea was decided primarily due to the level of individual training of the crews - rowers, helmsmen, sailing crew and marines.

On the passage, the fleet usually followed the flagship in wake formation. The formation of the front was carried out in anticipation of a collision with the enemy. At the same time, the ships sought to line up not in one, but in two or three rows with a mutual displacement of half a position. This was done in order, firstly, to make it difficult for the enemy to carry out a breakthrough maneuver. Even having broken the oars of one of the ships of the first row and began to describe the circulation, the enemy ship inevitably exposed the side to the ramming of the ships of the second row. And, secondly, such a formation prevented some of the enemy ships from reaching the rear of their fleet, which would threaten the creation of a local two- or even three-fold numerical superiority of the enemy in battles between individual ships and groups of ships. Finally, there was a special circular formation that provided a deaf defense. It was called "hedgehog" and was used in cases where it was necessary to protect weak ships with valuable cargo or to evade a linear battle with a numerically superior enemy.

In the Hellenistic and especially in the Roman periods, throwing weapons began to be widely used. For this purpose, catapults were installed in the bow of the ship. There are references to towers arranged on ships and served, probably, as a cover for the ship's infantry. The role of the boarding attack during naval battles is increasing. For this attack, special bridges were thrown aboard the enemy ship. The widespread use of boarding combat was an addition to the ramming strike. The invention of a special boarding bridge, called the "raven" (Polybius. I. 22), is attributed to the Romans during the First Punic War. Being inexperienced in naval battles, they came up with this simple device for effectively interlocking ships after a ramming attack and turning a naval battle into hand-to-hand combat. The Raven was a specially designed assault ladder, 10 meters long and about 1.8 meters wide. It was named "Raven" because of the characteristic beak-shaped form of a large iron hook located on the lower surface of the assault ladder. Ramming an enemy ship or simply breaking its oars in a glancing blow, the Roman ship abruptly lowered the "raven", which pierced the deck with its steel hook and stuck firmly in it.

The main weapon of the Roman ship was the marines (manipularii). They were distinguished by excellent fighting qualities. The Carthaginians, who relied on the speed and maneuverability of their ships, had more skilled sailors, but did not use soldiers in naval combat. The Romans always sought to bring the battle to a boarding battle, since their infantry practically had no equal among the warriors of other states.

Having eliminated all their main rivals in the Mediterranean basin by the beginning of a new era, the Romans equip squadrons with light and maneuverable liburns. With the change in the strategic tasks of naval formations, the tactics of the fleet also change radically. Its main task is to support the actions of ground forces from the sea, reconnaissance (Vegetius. IV. 37), landing, fighting pirates, guarding merchant ships.

Maritime business in ancient Greece went through a complex centuries-old path of development from the construction of primitive boats to the grandiose ships of the Hellenistic period, where navigation reached such a scale and perfection that remained unsurpassed for a long time. The Romans became worthy successors of the Greeks, who preserved the traditions of shipbuilding, which, subsequently, were used by the states that arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire.

In continuation of the theme of ancient civilizations, I offer you a small compilation of data on the racial and ethnic history of the Hellenic world - from the Minoan era to the Macedonian expansion. Obviously, this topic is more extensive than the previous ones. Here we will dwell on the materials of K. Kuhn, Angel, Poulianos, Sergi and Ripley, as well as some other authors ...

To begin with, it is worth noting a few points related to the pre-Indo-European population of the Aegean basin.

Herodotus about the Pelasgians:

"The Athenians are of Pelasgian origin, while the Lacedomonians are of Hellenic origin"

“When the Pelasgians occupied the land that is now called Greece, the Athenians were Pelasgians and were called Kranaii; when the Cecrops ruled, they were called Cecropides; under Eret they became the Athenians and, as a result, the Ionians, from Ionus, the son of Xutus "

“... the Pelasgians spoke a barbarian dialect. And if all Pelasgi were such, then the Athenians, being Pelasgians, changed their language at the same time as all of Greece.

"The Greeks, already isolated from the Pelasgians, were few in number, and their number grew by mixing with other barbarian tribes"

“... the Pelasgians, who had already become Hellenes, united with the Athenians when they also began to call themselves Hellenes”

In the "Pelasgians" of Herodotus, it is worth considering a conglomeration of various tribes, having both autochthonous Neolithic origin, and Asia Minor, and the North Balkan origin, which passed, during the Bronze Age, the process of homogenization. Later, the Indo-European tribes who came from the north of the Balkans, as well as the Minoan colonists from Crete, were also involved in this process.

Skulls of the Middle Bronze Age:

207, 213, 208 - female skulls; 217 - male.

207, 217 – Atlanto-Mediterranean type (“basic white”); 213 – European Alpine type; 208 - Eastern Alpine type.

It is also necessary to touch upon Mycenae and Tiryns, the civilizational centers of the Middle Bronze Age.

Reconstruction of the appearance of the ancient Mycenaeans:

Paul Fort, "Daily life in Greece during the Trojan War"

“Everything that can be learned from the study of skeletons of the early Hellenic type (XVI-XIII centuries BC), with the current level of anthropological information, only confirms and slightly supplements the data of Mycenaean iconography. The men buried in the circle B of the royal tombs at Mycenae averaged 1.675 meters in height, seven were over 1.7 meters. Women - mostly 4-8 centimeters lower. In circle A, two skeletons are more or less well preserved: the first reaches 1.664 meters, the second (the bearer of the so-called mask of Agamemnon) - 1.825 meters. Lawrence Angil, who studied them, noticed that both had extremely dense bones, bodies and heads were massive. These people clearly belonged to a different ethnic type from their subjects and were on average 5 centimeters taller than them.

If we talk about the "God-born" sailors who came from across the sea and usurped power in the old Mycenaean policies, then here, most likely, we have a place with the ancient Eastern Mediterranean tribes of sailors. The "God-born" found their reflection in myths and legends, with their names began the dynasties of the Hellenic kings, who already lived in the Classical era.

Paul Fort about the type displayed on the death masks of kings from the "god-born" dynasties:

“Some deviations from the common type on the golden masks from the burial grounds allow us to see other physiognomies, one is especially interesting - almost round, with a more fleshy nose and eyebrows fused at the bridge of the nose. Such persons are often found in Anatolia, and even more often in Armenia, as if on purpose wanting to substantiate the legends, according to which many kings, queens, concubines, craftsmen, slaves and soldiers moved from Asia Minor to Greece.

Traces of their presence can be found among the populations of the Cyclades, Lesbos and Rhodes.

A. Poulianos about the Aegean Anthropological Complex:

“He stands out for dark pigmentation, wavy (or straight) hair, medium chest hair growth, above average beard growth. The influence of the Near East elements is undoubtedly evident here. According to the color and shape of the hair, according to the growth of the beard and hair on the chest in relation to the anthropological types of Greece and Western Asia, Aegean type occupies an intermediate position

Also, confirmation of the expansion of navigators "from across the sea" can be found in the data dermatology:

“There are eight types of prints, which can easily be reduced to three main ones: arcuate, looped, whorled, that is, those whose lines diverge in concentric circles. The first attempt at a comparative analysis, made in 1971 by professors Rol Astrom and Sven Erikeson on the material of two hundred copies of the Mycenaean era, turned out to be discouraging. She showed that for Cyprus and Crete the percentage of arc prints (5 and 4%, respectively) is the same as for the peoples of Western Europe, for example, Italy and Sweden; the percentage of looped (51%) and whorled (44.5%) is very close to what we see among the peoples of modern Anatolia and Lebanon (55% and 44%). True, the question of what percentage of Greek artisans were Asian emigrants remains open. And yet the fact remains: the study of fingerprints revealed two ethnic components of the Greek people - European and Middle Eastern "

Coming up to more detailed description population of ancient Hellas K. Kuhn about the ancient Hellenes(from "The Races of Europe")

“... In 2000 BC. there were, from a cultural point of view, three main elements of the Greek population: local Neolithic Mediterraneans; aliens from the north, from the Danube; Cycladic tribes from Asia Minor.

Between 2000 BC and the Homeric era, Greece was invaded three times: (a) by Corded Ware tribes who came from the north later than 1900 BC and who, according to Myres, brought the Indo-European basis Greek language; (b) the Minoans from Crete, who gave the "ancient genealogy" to the dynasties of the rulers of Thebes, Athens, Mycenae. Most of them invaded Greece later than 1400 BC. © "God-born" conquerors, such as Atreus, Pelops, etc., who came from the Aegean on ships, learned the Greek language and usurped the throne, marrying the daughters of the Minoan kings ... "

“The Greeks of the great period of the Athenian civilization were the result of a mixture of various ethnic elements, and the search for the origins of the Greek language continues ...”

“The skeletal remains should come in handy in the process of reconstructing history. The six skulls from Ayas Kosmas, near Athens, represent the entire period of mixing of Neolithic, "Danubian" and "Cycladic" elements, between 2500 and 2000 BC. BC. Three skulls are dolichocephalic, one is mesocephalic, and two are brachycephalic. All faces are narrow, noses are leptorrhine, orbits are high ... "

“The Middle Helladic period is represented by 25 skulls, which represent the era of the invasion of the Corded Ware culture from the North, and the process of strengthening the power of the Minoan conquerors from Crete. 23 skulls are from Asin, and 2 are from Mycenae. It should be noted that the population of this period are very mixed. Only two skulls are brachycephalic, they are both male and both are associated with short stature. One skull is of medium size, high skull, narrow nose and narrow face; others are extremely broad-faced and Hamerrin. They are two different broad-headed types, both of which can be found in present-day Greece.

Long skulls are not a homogeneous type; some have large skulls and massive brows, with deep nasal cavities, reminiscent of one of the Neolithic dolichocephalic variants from Long Barrow and the Corded Ware culture…”

“The rest of the dolichocephalic skulls represent the Middle Helladic population, which had smoothed eyebrows and long noses, similar to the inhabitants of Crete and Asia Minor in the same era ...”

“...41 skulls of the late Helladic period, dated between 1500 and 1200. BC, and having their origin, for example, from Argolis, must include a certain element of "God-born" conquerors. Among these skulls, 1/5 are brachycephalic, mostly of the Cypriot Dinaric type. Among the dolichocephalic, a significant proportion are difficult-to-classify variants, and a smaller number are undersized Mediterranean variants. The similarity with the northern types, with the type of Corded Ware culture in particular in this era seems to be more noticeable than before. This change of non-Minoan origin must be related to the heroes of Homer"

“... The racial history of Greece in the classical period is not described in as much detail as in those periods that were previously studied. Up to the beginning of the slave era, there may have been small population changes. In the Argolis, the pure Mediterranean element is present in only one of the six skulls. According to Kumaris, mesocephaly dominated Greece throughout the Classical period, both in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. The average cephalic index in Athens, represented by 30 skulls, of this period is 75.6. Mesocephaly displays a mixture of various elements, among which the Mediterranean is dominant. Greek colonies in Asia Minor display the same combination of types as in Greece. The mixture with Asia Minor was supposed to be masked by a noticeable similarity between the populations of both shores of the Aegean Sea"

“The high-bridged Minoan nose and lithe body came to classical Greece as an artistic ideal, but human portraits show that this could not have been commonplace in life. Villains, funny characters, satyrs, centaurs, giants and all objectionable people both in sculpture and in vase painting are shown as broad-faced, snub-nosed and bearded. Socrates belonged to this type, similar to a satyr. This Alpine type can also be found in modern Greece. And in the early skeletal materials, it is represented by some brachycephalic series.

In general, it is surprising to contemplate the portraits of the Athenians and the death masks of the Spartans, so similar to the modern inhabitants of Western Europe. This similarity is less noticeable in Byzantine art, where one can often find images similar to modern inhabitants of the Middle East; but the Byzantines, in the main, lived outside of Greece.
As will be shown below(Chapter XI) , the modern inhabitants of Greece, oddly enough, practically do not differ from their classical ancestors»

Greek skull from Megara:

The following data leads Lauren Angel:

“All evidence and assumptions contradict Nilsson's hypothesis that the Greco-Roman decline is associated with an increase in the reproduction of passive individuals, the bastardization of the originally racially pure nobility, as well as their low birth rate. Since it was this mixed group, which appeared in the Geometric period, that gave rise to the Classical Greek civilization"

Analysis of the remains of representatives of different periods of Greek history, reproduced by Angel:

Based on the above data, the dominant elements in the Classical era are: Mediterranean and Iranian-Nordic.

Greeks of the Iranian-Nordic type(from the works of L. Angel)

“Representatives of the Iranian-Nordic type have long high skulls with strongly protruding occiputs that smooth out the contour of the ovoid ellipsoid, developed eyebrows, sloping and wide foreheads. Considerable height of the face and narrow cheekbones, combined with a wide jaw and forehead, give the impression of a rectangular "horse" face. Large but compressed cheekbones are combined with high orbits, an aquiline protruding nose, a long concave palate, massive wide jaws, chins with a recess, although not protruding forward. Initially, representatives of this type were both blue-eyed and green-eyed blondes and brown-haired, and burning brunettes.

Greeks of the Mediterranean type(from the works of L. Angel)

“Classic Mediterraneans are thin-boned and gracile. They have small dolichocephalic heads, pentagonal in vertical and occipital projection; contracted neck muscles, low rounded foreheads. They have delicate beautiful features; square orbits, thin noses with a low nose bridge; triangular mandibles with a slight protruding chin, barely noticeable prognathism and malocclusion, which is associated with the degree of wear of the teeth. Initially, they were only below average height, with a thin neck, brunettes with black or dark hair.

Having studied the comparative data of the ancient and modern Greeks, Angel draws conclusions:

"racial continuity in Greece is striking"

“Poulianos is correct in his judgment that there is a genetic continuity of the Greeks from antiquity to modernity”

For a long time, the question of the influence of the northern Indo-European elements on the genesis of the Greek civilization remained debatable, so it is worth dwelling on a few points related to this particular topic:

The following writes Paul Fort:

“Classical poets, from Homer to Euripides, stubbornly draw heroes tall and blond. Any sculpture from the Minoan era to the Hellenistic era endows goddesses and gods (except perhaps Zeus) with golden curls and superhuman growth. It is rather an expression of an ideal of beauty, a physical type not found among mere mortals. And when the geographer Dikearchus from Messene in the 4th century BC. e. surprised at the blond Thebans (dyed? red?) and praises the courage of the fair-haired Spartans, he only emphasizes in this way the exceptional rarity of blondes in the Mycenaean world. And in fact, on the few images of warriors that have come down to us - - be it ceramics, inlay, wall paintings of Mycenae or Pylos. we see men with black, slightly curly hair, and their beards, if any, are as black as agate. No less dark are the wavy or curly hair of priestesses and goddesses in Mycenae and Tiryns. Wide-open dark eyes, a long thin nose with a clearly defined, and even fleshy tip, thin lips, very fair skin, relatively small stature and a slender figure - all these features we invariably find on Egyptian monuments where the artist sought to capture "peoples that live on the islands of the Great (Substantial) Green. In the XIII, as in the XV century BC. e., most of the population of the Mycenaean world belonged to the oldest Mediterranean type, the same one that has been preserved in many regions to this day "

L. Angel

"there is no reason to suppose that the Iranian-Nordic type in Greece was as light-pigmented as the Nordic type in northern latitudes"

J. Gregor

“... Both the Latin “flavi”, and the Greek “xanthos”, and “hari” are generalized terms with many additional meanings. "Xanthos", which we boldly translate as "blonde", was used by the ancient Greeks to define "any color of hair except jet black, and that color was in all probability no lighter than dark chestnut" ((Weiss, Keiter ) Sergi)…”

K. Kuhn

"... we cannot be sure that all prehistoric skeletal material that appears to be north-Caucasian in the osteological sense was associated with light pigmentation"

Buxton

“With regard to the Achaeans, we can say that there seems to be no reason to suspect the presence of a North Caucasian component”

Debets

“In the composition of the population of the Bronze Age, we generally find the same anthropological types as in the modern population, only with a different percentage of representatives of one type or another. We can't talk about mixing with the northern race."

K. Kuhn, L. Angel, Baker and, later, Aris Poulianos were of the opinion that the Indo-European language was brought to Greece along with the ancient tribes of Central Europe, which, as an integral element, became part of the Dorian and Ionian tribes that assimilated the local Pelasgian population.

We can find indications of this fact in the ancient author Polemona(living in the era of Hadrian):

“Those who managed to preserve the Hellenic and Ionian race in all its purity (!) are men rather tall, broad-shouldered, stately, well-cut and rather fair-skinned. Their hair is not quite light (that is, light brown or light brown), relatively soft and slightly wavy. The faces are broad, high cheekbones, the lips are thin, the nose is straight and shiny, full of fire, eyes. Yes, the eyes of the Greeks are the most beautiful in the world.

These features: a strong physique, medium or tall height, mixed hair pigmentation, wide cheekbones indicate a Central European element. Similar data can be found in Poulianos, according to the results of his research, the Central European Alpine type in some regions of Greece has a specific gravity of 25-30%. Poulianos studied 3,000 people from various regions of Greece, among which Macedonia is the most light-pigmented, but at the same time, the cephalic index there is 83.3, i.e. an order of magnitude higher than in all other regions of Greece. In Northern Greece, Poulianos distinguishes the Western Macedonian (North-Pindian) type, it is the most light-pigmented, is sub-brachycephalic, but at the same time, it is similar to the Helladic anthropological group (Central Greek and South Greek type).

As a more or less illustrative example West Macedonian complex damn - Bulgarian-speaking Macedonian:

An interesting example is the fair-haired characters from pellets(Macedonia)

In this case, the heroes are depicted as golden-haired, pale (as opposed to mere mortals working under the scorching sun?), very tall, with a straight profile line.

In comparison with them - image detachment of hypaspists from Macedonia:

On the image of the heroes, we see the underlined sacredness of their image and features, which are as different as possible from the "mere mortals" embodied in the hypaspist warriors.

If we talk about paintings, then the relevance of their comparison with living people is doubtful, since the creation of realistic portraits begins only from the 5th-4th century. BC. - before this period, the image of features that are relatively rare among people dominates (an absolutely straight line of the profile, a heavy chin with a soft contour, etc.).

However, the combination of these features is not a fantasy, but an ideal, the models for the creation of which were few. Some parallels for comparison:

In the 4th-3rd centuries. realistic images people are starting to become widespread – some examples are:

Alexander the Great(+proposed face reconstruction)

Alcibiades / Thucydides / Herodotus

On the sculptures of the era of Philip Argeada, the conquests of Alexander and in the Hellenistic period, which are distinguished by a higher realism than in earlier periods, dominates atlanto-mediterranean(“basic white” in Angel's terminology) type. Perhaps this is an anthropological pattern, and possibly a coincidence or a new ideal, under which the features of the depicted personalities were summed up.

Atlanto-Mediterranean characteristic of the Balkan Peninsula:

Modern Greeks of the Atlanto-Mediterranean type:

Based on the data of K. Kuhn, the Atlanto-Mediterranean substrate is to a large extent present in Greece everywhere, and is also the basic element for the populations of Bulgaria and Crete. Angel also positions this anthropological element as one of the most prevalent in the population of Greece, both throughout history (see table) and in the modern era.

Antique sculptural images showing features of the above type:

The same features are clearly visible in the sculptures of Alcibiades, Seleucus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Antiochus and other representatives of the Classical era.

As mentioned above, this element also dominates among population of Bulgaria:

2) Tomb in Kazanlak(Bulgaria)

The same features are visible here as in the previous paintings.

Thracian type according to Aris Poulianos:

"Of all the types of the southeastern branch of the Caucasoid race Thracian type the most mesocephalic and narrow-faced. The profile of the bridge of the nose is straight or convex (often concave in women). The position of the tip of the nose is horizontal or raised. The slope of the forehead is almost straight. The protrusion of the wings of the nose and the thickness of the lips are medium. In addition to Thrace and eastern Macedonia, the Thracian type is common in Turkish Thrace, in the west of Asia Minor, partly among the population of the Aegean Islands and, apparently, in the north, in Bulgaria (in the southern and eastern regions). This type is closest to the central one, especially to its Thessalian variant. It can be opposed to both Epirus and Western Asian types, and is called southwestern ... "

Both Greece (with the exception of Epirus and the Aegean archipelago), as a zone of localization of the civilization center of the Classical Hellenic civilization, and Bulgaria, with the exception of the northwestern regions, as the ethnic core of the ancient Thracian community), are relatively tall, dark-pigmented, mesocephalic, high-headed populations, whose specificity fits into the framework of the Western Mediterranean race (see Alekseev).

Map of peaceful Greek colonization in the 7th-6th centuries. BC.

During the expansion of the 7th-6th centuries. BC. Greek colonists, leaving the overpopulated cities of Hellas, brought the grain of classical Greek civilization to almost all parts of the Mediterranean: Asia Minor, Cyprus, Southern Italy, Sicily, the Black Sea coast of the Balkans and Crimea, as well as the emergence of a few policies in the Western Mediterranean (Massilia, Emporia, etc. .d.).

In addition to the cultural element, the Hellenes brought there the "grain" of their race - a genetic component isolated Cavalli Sforza and associated with areas of the most intensive colonization:

This element is also visible clustering of the population of South-Eastern Europe by Y-DNA markers:

Concentration of various Y-DNA markers in the population of modern Greece:

Greeks N=91

15/91 16.5% V13 E1b1b1a2
1/91 1.1% V22 E1b1b1a3
2/91 2.2% M521 E1b1b1a5
2/91 2.2% M123 E1b1b1c

2/91 2.2% P15(xM406) G2a*
1/91 1.1% M406 G2a3c

2/91 2.2% M253(xM21,M227,M507) I1*
1/91 1.1% M438(xP37.2,M223) I2*
6/91 6.6% M423(xM359) I2a1*

2/91 2.2% M267(xM365,M367,M368,M369) J1*

3/91 3.2% M410(xM47,M67,M68,DYS445=6) J2a*
4/91 4.4% M67(xM92) J2a1b*
3/91 3.2% M92 J2a1b1
1/91 1.1% DYS445=6 J2a1k
2/91 2.2% M102(xM241) J2b*
4/91 4.4% M241(xM280) J2b2
2/91 2.2% M280 J2b2b

1/91 1.1% M317 L2

15/91 16.5% M17 R1a1*

2/91 2.2% P25(xM269) R1b1*
16/91 17.6% M269 R1b1b2

4/91 4.4% M70T

The following writes Paul Faure:

“For several years, a group of scientists from Athens - V. Baloaras, N. Konstantoulis, M. Paidusis, X. Sbarunis and Aris Poulianos - studying the blood groups of young conscripts of the Greek army and the composition of bones burned at the end of the Mycenaean era, came to a double conclusion about that the Aegean Sea basin shows a striking uniformity in the ratio of blood types, and a few exceptions, recorded, say, in the White Mountains of Crete and in Macedonia, find a match among the Ingush and other peoples of the Caucasus (while throughout Greece the blood type is “B "approaches 18%, and the group "O" with slight fluctuations - to 63%, here they are noted much less often, and the latter sometimes drops to 23%). This is a consequence of ancient migrations within the stable and still predominant Mediterranean type in Greece "

Y-DNA markers in the population of modern Greece:

mt-DNA markers in the population of modern Greece:

Autosomal markers in the population of modern Greece:

AS A CONCLUSION

It is worth making several conclusions:

Firstly, Classical Greek civilization, formed in the 8th-7th centuries. BC. included a variety of ethno-civilizational elements: Minoan, Mycenaean, Anatolian, as well as the influence of the North Balkan (Achaean and Ionian) elements. The genesis of the civilizational core of Classical civilization is a set of processes of consolidation of the above elements, as well as their further evolution.

Secondly, the racial genetic and ethnic core of the Classical civilization was formed as a result of the consolidation and homogenization of various elements: Aegean, Minoan, North Balkan and Anatolian. Among which the dominant was the autochthonous East Mediterranean element. The Hellenic "core" was formed as a result of complex processes of interaction between the above elements.

Third, unlike the "Romans", who were essentially a polytonym ("Roman = citizen of Rome"), the Hellenes formed a unique ethnic group that retained a family connection with the ancient Thracian and Asia Minor population, but became the racial genetic basis for a completely new civilization. Based on the data of K. Kuhn, L. Angel and A. Poulianos, there is a line of anthropological continuity and “racial continuity” between modern and ancient Hellenes, which manifests itself both in comparison between populations as a whole, as well as in comparison between specific micro-elements.

Fourth, despite the fact that many people have an oppositional opinion, the Classical Greek civilization became one of the bases for the Roman civilization (along with the Etruscan component), thereby partly predetermining the further genesis of the Western world.

Fifth, in addition to influencing Western Europe, the era of the campaigns of Alexander and the wars of the Diadochi was able to give rise to a new Hellenistic world, in which various Greek and Oriental elements were closely intertwined. It was the Hellenistic world that became fertile ground for the emergence of Christianity, its further spread, as well as the emergence of the Eastern Roman Christian civilization.

"Gogol Nose" - And then - the missing nose. The grotesque in the story also lies in surprise and, one might say, absurdity. Gogol shows that it is not only possible, but also quite expedient. Domashenko Nikolay. 1946 N. Gogol "The Nose". It seems that Gogol not without reason made St. Petersburg the scene of action of the story "The Nose".

"Lesson Religion of the Ancient Greeks" - Message. Reflection in religion of social relations. Muses. Three generations of gods. What elements and occupations did the gods patronize. Hello, Our Blessed Earth Thank you for your reverent attitude to the records that restore the pages of history from the life of the planet. Lesson plan: Where the gods lived.

"How to draw animals" - 3. What, first of all, does the animal painter pay attention to? 3. The layout of the image in the sheet. V. Questions and tasks. VII Assignments and questions. Lynx. If you see the goal, it is easier to overcome all obstacles and achieve results. Joy through obstacle. Questions and tasks. Drawing animals or how to become an animal artist.

"Greek religion" - In ancient Greek mythology, one of the 9 muses, the patroness of comedy. Zeus. Melpomene. Cerberus. Thalia is the muse of Comedy. Ancient bas-relief. Artemis. Melpomene, Erato and Polhymnia. Poseidon. Terpsichore. Hermes. Religion of the ancient Greeks. Kron and Rhea. Mount Olympus. Frieze of the altar of Zeus at Pergamon (marble, 180 BC).

"Learning to draw" - How to start learning to draw? Transmission of chiaroscuro by means of tonal shading. Learning to draw. Iso. Determination of proportions corresponding to nature (the ratio of parts to the whole). How to create a drawing? Spatial changes of objects (far and near plans). Before you start drawing, you need to know what composition is.

"How to draw flowers" - Try to use an elastic band less often. Zinnia Poppy Rose. Poppy is also similar in design to some types of flowers - water lilies, buttercups. The rose has a complex structure. We draw a chrysanthemum. Pay attention to proportions. Sequential execution of the poppy drawing. The oval will become the base of the dome, inverted, in the form of a bowl.

The Mediterranean was getting tighter. To the north lay another sea already mastered by the Phoenicians. Its waves left their salt on the sides of the Hellenic ships: in the time of Catreus, the Argonauts visited there. But the way to Pontus was shown to them by the blind soothsayer Phineus. Phoenician. He pointed it out only because among the Argonauts were his sons-in-law Zeth and Kalaid. It was not the sea itself that frightened the Greek helmsmen. They were afraid of the way to it. The path was narrow, and it was reliably guarded by the ships of Priam.

Troy had a vested interest in controlling the Straits. The ships of the Black Sea peoples brought to the shores of Asia Minor selected wheat, skins of rare animals, stainless steel weapons, intricate utensils and jewelry, and most importantly - highly valued Colchian and Scythian slaves. Having saturated the Phoenician market, the Black Sea merchants inevitably had to establish contacts with the allies of the Phoenicians - the Dardanians. Troy became rich in gold, it competed with Mycenae. Intermediary trade has always been a profitable business.

It cannot be said that the Greeks put up with this state of affairs. The excavations of G. Schliemann and especially W. Dörpfeld showed that before the time of Agamemnon, Troy was destroyed at least five times. The sixth was an event that went down in history as the Trojan War, sung by Homer and indirectly connected with the death of Katreya.

The reason for the war was at first glance trifling. After Priam's son Paris presented Aphrodite with a golden apple with the inscription "Give it to the most beautiful" on Mount Ida Phrygian, he sailed to Sparta to stay with Menelaus11. Just at this time, Katreus died at the hands of his son in Rhodes. The body of Catreus was brought with due honors to Crete for burial. Since Menelaus was the grandson of Katreus on the maternal side, the king of Sparta, naturally, could not evade participation in the feast. Paris took advantage of his departure. On a high-speed ship, made by the hereditary shipbuilder Ferekl, the son of Harmon, the prince took away the wife of Menelaus, Helen, who liked him. They found their first refuge on the island of Kranai, which belonged to the Phoenicians. From there, Paris went to Sidon, then spent some time in Cyprus, and finally arrived in Troy.

With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that Paris left his ship on Kranai in payment for asylum and did the rest of the journey on Phoenician ships. When the brother of Menelaus Agamemnon finally managed to assemble a fleet to chase after his windy wife, then, “not knowing the sea route to Troy, the soldiers landed on the shores of Mysia and devastated it, mistaking this country for Troy ... Leaving Mysia, the Hellenes sailed into the open sea , but a strong storm began, and, breaking away from each other, each moored to their native shores ... After they gathered again in Argos ... they faced a great difficulty that prevented them from sailing: they did not have a leader, who would be able to show them the sea route to Troy" (3, Epitoma, III, 17-19). It is unlikely that Paris had such a "leader" (pilot).

This passage not only testifies to the state of maritime affairs among the Aegean peoples, but also adds a small detail to Homer's story: the Cretans arrived at Troy separately, because someone else knew the blue roads of the Aegean very well. What could have delayed them? We don't know. Perhaps some urgent pirate raid. Perhaps a natural disaster - not so devastating as to cause serious damage to the island, but enough to damage or delay the fleet. And yet the Cretans arrived at Troy. The presence of their ships at the Hellespont and the absence of the Phoenician ones can tell something about the international position of the Priam kingdom and about the sphere of interests of the hegemons of the sea: the Cretans were vitally interested in penetrating the Black Sea waters; the Phoenicians preferred to remain observers, not wanting to get involved in the struggle of the giants. Isn't that why Homer honors them so much through the mouth of his heroes?

The rivalry between Crete and Phoenicia, their struggle for the sea did not stop for a moment. The capture of new lands contributed to the safety of the blue roads connecting them. We must pay tribute to the Phoenicians: unlike the Cretans, they knew how to ensure their hegemony without resorting to extreme means. Where it was impossible to do without these funds, they launched a ram - pirate squadrons. Apparently, this ram, despite its rare use, was quite effective: we do not know the clashes of Crete and other states with Phoenicia. Minos preferred to be content with what he had, other lords saved their prestige by inventing new epithets for the "thugs". On the other hand, the Phoenicians, having once outlined and captured the key bases for their trade, used their advantages without disturbing the hornet's nest into which the Cretans turned the Aegean.

But the hidden "war of all against all" did not subside, and methods were invented in it that outlived their creators for many centuries. One of them was the device of false signal lights. Probably, by that time, all permanent sea routes and the most important parking lots were already equipped with lighthouses (11a, XIX, 375-377): ... Across the sea, the light shines for sailors in the darkness, The light from the fire, far on top of the burning mountain, In the wilderness of the desert ... For example, Ithaca was equipped with such lights (11b, X, 29-30): Suddenly, on the tenth day, the shore of the fatherland appeared to us. He was already close; we could see all the lights on it.

These lights are by no means the lights of dwellings or random fires. The word standing here in the original can be translated as "support the fire." But in another place (11a, XVIII, 211) a more specific concept appears - "signal fire" or "watch fire" ("lighthouse" of the translation). It was these lights that were used to confuse sailors and take possession of their good. The Greeks attributed the invention of this craft to the king of Euboea, Nauplius, the son of Poseidon and Amymone.

Euboea was at that time the largest international slave market in the Aegean. Catreus sells his daughters to Nauplius for further resale (according to some versions of the myth, Nauplius married one of them, Klymene, and they gave birth to Palamedes, the inventor of writing and counting, weights and measures, navigation and lighthouses, dice and other arts, who died under Troy on the slander of Odysseus). Hercules sells Nauplia - also for resale - the priestess of Athena, Avga, who was seduced by him, the daughter of the Arcadian king Aleus and the future wife of the king of Misia Teutrant. This Nauplius, says Apollodorus, "lived a very long time and, sailing the sea, lit false signal lights to all the sailors he met with the aim of destroying them" (3, II, 1, 5). In this favorite way, he also took revenge on the Greeks, who were returning from near Troy, for the death of Palamedes. When their fleet approached Euboea at night, Nauplius, having accurately calculated the time, lit a fire on Mount Cafarea, or Xylophage. The signal was given at the moment when there was a chain of reefs between the Greek ships and the coast. Many of the winners died on them. This happened in the southeastern part of Euboea, at Cape Kafirefs, or Doro, the northwestern entrance cape to the strait of the same name, formed by the northern slope of the three-headed mountain Ohi, 1397 m high. Nauplia. It was a symbol of power over the sea.

There were no Cretans among the dead at Euboea. Idomeneo, rejoicing, hurried home by the shortest route - through the Cyclades. At Troy, he performed many glorious deeds, causing a lot of trouble to the Dardanians. It would seem that this should have predetermined his fate. Nevertheless, Poseidon, whose sympathies in this war belonged to the Greeks, decided to sink the Cretan ship. Then Idomeneo swore to sacrifice to him the first living creature that would meet him on the shore. He was absolutely sure that this would be his favorite dog. But the gods know what they're doing. The first to meet Idomeneo was his son, born and raised during his ten-year absence.

The king was faced with a dilemma. To become an oathbreaker is to bring upon oneself the punishment of the gods. To keep the word given to Poseidon - the consequences are the same, but in the face of the god of the seas, he acquires an intercessor before the gods, moreover, this is not as shameful as breaking the oath. Idomeneo chose the latter. But Poseidon did not think to protect him. The angry gods sent a plague to the island, and the king was expelled from Crete by his subjects. He went to Italy, settled near the Salentinsky Cape and founded the city of Salent there, where he died. The exile was buried with royal honors and gained immortality for his loyalty to the word given to Poseidon. The gods punished innocent Crete for the crime of its master. That's what the legends say. What about history?

Loss of independence by Crete

The end of the Cretan kingdom was reconstructed quite fully. In 1500 BC. e. The first volcanic eruption began on the island of Santorini (Thira), 130 km from Crete. A powerful wave of eruptions took place throughout the Mediterranean. In 1470 BC. e. The kingdom of Crete was destroyed by a powerful earthquake. Palaces and cities perished, the relief changed. (Evans immediately noticed traces of sudden and violent death.) And 70 years later, warlike tribes of the Achaeans broke into the exhausted island, soon driven out by the Ionians, and then the Dorians. Apparently, at this time, the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur finally took shape, telling that Athens threw off the almost thirty-year yoke of Minos. The Greek hero defeated the Cretan monster, Hellas gained freedom. Thirty years is for a myth. In fact, "in those days, the year was equal to eight current years," Apollodorus testifies (3, III, IV, 2)13.

So, the gods punished the magnificent Crete three times, and two punishments, according to myths, are associated with the name of the god of the sea and the "shaker of the earth" - Poseidon.

Around 1700 BC e. - a strong volcanic eruption with a seaquake (a fire-breathing bull sent by Poseidon).

Around 1470 BC. e. - an earthquake (the open earth swallowed up the patricide Altemen).

Around 1400 BC. e. Crete suffers punishment for the murder of Idomeneo's son because of an oath to Poseidon (it is possible that the Achaeans captured Crete after some other cataclysm).

If you believe the myths, the last two punishments are associated with the death of the heirs to the throne - before the reign of Idomeneo and at its end, that is, during the life of one generation. According to science, about 70 years passed between the last catastrophe and the conquest by the Achaeans - also the lifetime of one generation. “Three generations after the death of Minos (a hundred years later. - A.S.), - writes Herodotus, - the Trojan War broke out, when the Cretans turned out to be faithful allies and avengers of Menelaus. And after returning from Troy, famine and pestilence began on the island people and livestock, until Crete was deserted for the second time; now the third Cretan population lives on the island, along with the remnants of the former inhabitants" (10, VII, 171).

Sounds like a myth? It seems that the legends about Altemene and Idomeneo only change places in time. But then they are legends, not history. Other dates do not match either: the Trojan War took place around 1190-1180. BC e. (Tacitus, for example, believes that his era is separated from it by 1300 years), and the death of the Cretan kingdom - about 1380 BC. e., 20 years after the invasion of the Achaeans. Well, this only indicates the time of creation of the myth and its Achaean source.

"Keftiu", as the Egyptians called the Cretans, disappear forever from the stage. This word reappears several centuries later, but now it already means "Phoenicians" (80, p. 121).

We know little more about the ships of Minos than about Minos himself. The main material for conclusions about their design is provided by images on vessels and seals, as a rule, fragmentary, extremely generalized and schematic.

B. G. Petere, who dealt specifically with this problem, developed an interesting classification chronological table of the Aegean types of ships, based on the type of propulsion device and the presence or absence of a ram (94, pp. 162-165). But this table, along with the Cretan ones, also includes images of the ships of Achaean Greece, and one has to speak about the ships, especially Crete, only presumably, based on where this or that image was found. Only from about 1600 BC. e., as you think. J. Lurie, "the Mycenaean culture is only an offshoot of the Cretan without any significant differences," and starting from that time it is legitimate to transfer the features of the Achaean ships to the Cretan ones or vice versa (87, p. 59).

In the early Minoan period (before 3000 BC), the Cretans, apparently, did not yet know sailing ships. In any case, not a single image of them has come down to us. All ships of that time were equipped with rams, their sternposts rising high above the deck (according to B. G. Peters, they are from 4.5 to 7.5 times the height of the side) and decorated with carved images of fish or dolphins. BG Petere believes that these are "images of long-distance vessels with stocks of drying fish and devices for extracting fresh water" (94, p. 161). These "devices" are ordinary mutton skins that condense moisture from the air at night. According to the number of dashes denoting oars, it is possible to distinguish several types of vessels: 26-, 32- and 38-oared, depicted on vessels from the island of Syros. “Ships of this type,” concludes B. G. Petere, “in the future, they will probably be replaced by penteconteres. when it was pulled ashore and lowered into the sea.Perhaps, the bow and stern of the vessel raised to different heights were a kind of stabilizers, which, if it stopped at sea, automatically brought one of its extremities to the wind, thereby reducing the possibility of water flooding through board" (94, pp. 161-166). The side wave was very dangerous. Pindar quotes an ancient proverb (24, p. 137):

Which shaft hits the side, That one is more disturbing for the sailor's heart. At the end of the early Minoan period, a single mast (hence, the keel structure) appears, which is now present in all images, and a two-legged, probably metal, anchor. Only two images of masted ships belong to the early Minoan period. Perhaps others have not yet been found, but it cannot be ruled out that these two drawings should be dated a little later - the Middle Minoan period (3000-2200 BC), when Minos reigned in Crete and when Daedalus flew there. It was to Daedalus that the Cretans, along with many of his other good deeds, attributed the invention of the sail, and yet the only purpose of the mast is to carry the sail. These ships "were more suitable for long-distance navigation and had a highly raised stern and bow, which ended in the middle part with a ram, as well as a mast and, probably, sailing equipment" (94, p. 166). Homer also called the Cretan ships “big-nosed”, and Pindar mentions “ships with a high stern”. We can also agree with the proposal of B. G. Peters that at least some Cretan ships had a hypothesis, common for Egyptian ships, but for some reason attributed by I. Sh. Shifman (108, p. 43) to the Phoenicians, who allegedly invented it in the 7th century BC e. The curved yards of the Cretan ships also resemble those of Egypt. Such coincidences are hardly accidental, they may suggest that contacts between Crete and Egypt took place much more often than is commonly believed. S. Ya. Lurie suggests that long-distance sea voyages should have forced the Cretans to master the basics of nautical astronomy (87, p. 45). And the mutual borrowing of some techniques may indicate that while the kings were measuring their strengths, someone who, perhaps, was deliberately taken with them on such campaigns, made sketches or memorized foreign designs, so that later they could be compared with domestic ones and made conclusions. The safety of the navigation of the Cretan ships was ensured by their rams, but a ship intended for battle is not a single ram.

Ships of the late Minoan period (2200-1400 BC) give a much greater variety of types. During the time of Thutmose III, the Cretans built them from Lebanese cedar, and this could not but affect their seaworthiness. Even in the Middle Minoan period, cabins for helmsmen appeared on ships (a seal from Knossos), which may indicate an increased range of navigation. Now there are spacious cabins intended for passengers (golden ring from Tiryns). Rammed ships are being built specifically for transport purposes (on one seal from Knossos, a ship for transporting horses is reproduced). The sail becomes the main mover, and in pursuit of speed, the Cretans sometimes supply their ships with two or even three masts. Such an innovation requires special structural strength, and one image reveals the secret: the frame of the vessel was ordered with frames and, apparently, beams, since these ships are decked. On such a fast ship, Demeter, the goddess of fertility, was captured in Crete and taken to Attica, to the city of Forik, for sale into slavery (39, p. 92).

These ancient brigantines, which participated in the Trojan War, could become flagships in the squadrons of Morgan and Drake. Even the little we know about them allows us to recognize them as courts of a higher class than contemporary Egyptian ones. They sometimes had rams on both stems, and the hypothesis and steering oars in the bow and stern allowed them to attack and retreat with equal ease in any direction.

Their worthy rivals were the ships of the Achaeans, lovingly mentioned by Homer at every opportunity. Most often they are accompanied by the epithet "black". "They must have been kept generously tarred," suggests L. Casson (111, p. 36), and he is not alone in this opinion. But here's what is strange: 29 fleets arrived at Troy, and Homer stubbornly calls the ships only 13 of them, always the same. Why? The concept of "untarred ship" was for all ancient peoples as absurd as, for example, "dry water". Naturally, the Greeks also did not spare resin or wax for their ships. And why is the birthplace of these "black" ships limited to a fairly clear region: the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula from Thessaly to Argos with the islands of Euboea, Aegina and Salamis? The exceptions here are the Echinades Islands off the western coast of the peninsula, nearby Ithaca and even Crete far to the south ...

There is another circumstance that is usually overlooked: sculpture, temples, utensils - everything that was made of solid material was always painted by the Greeks. Ships were no exception (especially since a thickly tarred tree is an unpleasant thing for those who sit on it). Herodotus, for example, assures that "in ancient times, all ships were painted red (red lead) ..." (10, III, 58), and Bacchilid adds one more traditional coloring detail associated with religious ideas: they painted on the prows of ships blue eyes. Another Greek poet, Timothy, mentions "black rook legs" (24, p. 287), that is, oars. But after all, the oars never tarred at all, they could only be painted. Traces of colors are preserved on the Parthenon. They are also preserved in Homer's poems: his Achaean ships are "dark-nosed", "red-breasted", "purple-breasted". Somehow, these sunny colors do not fit well with the resin liquefied by the sun ... One could assume that the epithet "black" indicates the material used in the construction of these ships: Homer calls oak bark "black oak" (11b, XIV, 12 ). It is possible that the stern of Theseus' ship was trimmed with such an "oak", as Bacchilidus mentions (24, p. 265), and even then, most likely, as a sign of mourning - for the same reason that his ship carried black sails. But oak is common throughout the Mediterranean...

It remains only to assume a different meaning of the word ielas, cited by N. I. Gnedich in the main meaning. And then the resin turns out to have nothing to do with it: "black" ships are "ominous" ships, "terrifying" ships. The epithet "black" was used in this sense by both the Greeks and the Romans: for example, Plutarch (26d, 27) mentions the "black days of the year" in connection with the death of the Roman army in the battle with the Cimbri (cf. Russian, "black day", ancient Iranian "Black", that is, severe, sea). Perhaps the basis for such an epithet was the frightening war paint of these boats or the figure of some monster on the acroterium, but rather the highest perfection of their design in the entire Greek fleet.

Ship types

Homer has sometimes been attributed a Phoenician origin. It is impossible not to remember the Phoenicians when looking at the map, if you highlight on it the areas that sent "black" ships to Troy. These are exactly the places where the Phoenicians created their settlements. And then the epithet "black" takes on another meaning. Unsurpassed Phoenician ships, terrifying and envious, dark-nosed and red-breasted, blue-eyed and black-footed - these ships carried black sails! Only the Phoenicians painted sails in this color, and when Theseus went with a sacrifice to Crete, where the son of a Phoenician ruled, he sailed on a "black" ship. The "black" ships brought Achilles and Odysseus, Ajax and Idomeneo to Troy. They were brought in by those who argued loudest about the power of the sea. And perhaps the primacy among them had passed by that time from the Cretans to the Myrmidons, whose ships have another permanent epithet in Homer: "fast-flying", while the ships of the Argives are only "wide", and the Achaean "many" and "steep-sided". Probably, these epithets reflect the main types of ships that prevailed in that era: high-speed "long" with a large number of rowers and several masts and merchant "round" ones with a round stern and a wide bottom to increase the capacity of the hold (they were called in imitation of the Phoenicians "sea horses" ).

The first type should include 50-oar penteconters, the second - 20-oar eicosors. A 20-oared ship is depicted on one Athenian vase; perhaps this is the scene of the abduction of Helen by Paris: a man is about to board the ship and - a unique circumstance! - woman. Homer's "multi-oared" ships were real pirate ships, and their designers took care not only of their speed, but also of their capacity: in addition to fifty warriors (they were also rowers), these "black" ships were capable of carrying passengers, food supplies, weapons and at least a hundred sacrificial bulls. Their suitability for long-distance voyages was brilliantly proved by the Argonauts, and after the war Menelaus and Odysseus confirmed them. Their silhouettes were remembered by Egyptian artists and reproduced in the tombs of their masters.

"Round" ships became widespread a little later and did not leave the scene soon. From the myths, you can learn that Perseus and his mother Danae swam in a box (like Osiris - in a sarcophagus), and Hercules already swam across the sea in the Cup of Helios - the direct predecessor of the "round" ships. “Piracy, which served for Homeric society, with its undeveloped productive forces, the form of relations corresponding to them, had to fall and fell defeated by a more systematic and less spontaneous organization of commodity exchange opposed to it,” writes K. M. Kolobova. “In this contradiction of two forms relations - piracy and trade - trade won, and the pirate (long) ships of Greece were replaced by merchant (round) ships "(82b, p. 10-11).

Homer describes in detail both the technique of shipbuilding and navigation techniques. When the time came for Odysseus to serve the nymph Calypso from the island, he set about building a raft. For this, he chose two dozen dry trunks of black poplar, alder and pine. Having cut them down with a double-edged labrys, he cleared the trees of the bark, scraped them smoothly, using the same ax instead of a planer, and hewed them along the cord. Further, Odysseus drilled the resulting beams and fastened them with long bolts (one must think that the nymph ended up by accident) and spikes made of hard wood, which usually replaced nails. He made the underwater part of the raft as wide as that of the "round" ships, and fastened the surface with transverse bars and laid a deck of thick oak planks on them. He let the mast pass through the deck, fixed it in the lower logs and provided it with a yardarm. Finally, he lined the deck with wicker bough railings, leaving room only for the helm, and did not forget to take ballast for stability. The "ship" was ready, and its construction hardly differed much from the construction of real ships. Having prepared a sail and "everything to develop and twist it, having fastened the ropes," Odysseus launched his offspring into the water (11b, V, 234-261).

We find much of this description in other places in the poems, where we are no longer talking about rafts, but about real ships. The double-edged ax, it turns out, among the sailors was also a "terrible weapon" (11a, X, 254; XXIII, 854). The correct cord is well known to shipbuilders (11a, XV, 409). Actions consonant with Odysseus are performed by his son Telemachus (11b, II, 423-428):

Obeying him, a pine mast

They raised at once and, deep into the nest, hoisted,

She was approved in it, and ropes were pulled from the sides;

White was then tied with braided sail straps;

Filled with wind, it rose, and the purple waves

Noisily, under the keel of the ship flowing into them, they rustled ...

The belts mentioned here were woven from cowhide, with which the lower edge of the sail was tied to the mast, since there was no lower yard on Greek ships. These straps were resilient, strong and reliable - more reliable than other tackle, made of hemp and, according to Homer, decayed in eight or nine years. In the same way as Odysseus did, a "platform" was laid on the ships - a half-deck in the bow and stern (rowers occupied the middle part), fenced with rails. The "strongly built deck" with which Bacchilid supplies the ship of Theseus is probably just a poetic image. On the aft half-deck, a "soft-wide carpet with a linen sheet" (11b, XIII, 73) could be spread out for the rest of the ship's commander or an honored guest. The altar located here guaranteed their personal integrity and pleasant dreams.

Keelless Greek ships are unknown, and this is natural: their construction would be pointless, because in Greece there are no rivers like the Nile, and even those that exist almost all dry up in summer. Therefore, even fishing boats in most cases were supplied with a keel: people noticed early on that such a design was more reliable. Keel, according to Bacchilids, was also Theseus' "wonderfully built ship" (24, p. 267). Swimming was practiced within sight of the shore, but they were quite far away, since it is possible to go around almost the entire Aegean Sea without losing sight of the land. From island to island, from archipelago to archipelago, from Europe to Asia. Fear of the abyss gave way to self-confidence, sometimes, perhaps even excessive. The Greeks also mastered night swimming. Already in the time of Odysseus, sailors were guided in the open sea by the stars created by Atlas and divided into constellations by the wise centaur Chiron, the compiler of the first map of the starry sky (it was used by the Argonauts), the inventor of the armillary sphere, teacher and mentor of many outstanding personalities, demigods and heroes. Homer knows Sirius and Orion, he repeatedly names the Pleiades, Bootes and the Bear. “The Phoenicians discovered without a pole that nondescript star, which they recognized as the most reliable leader in their night voyages,” writes E. Curtius, “while the Greeks preferred to have the more brilliant constellation Ursa Major as a guiding star for navigation; if they were therefore inferior to the Phoenicians in accuracy astronomical definitions, then in all other respects they became their happy competitors and rivals. On this basis, they gradually pushed back the Phoenicians; that is why it was on the coast of the Ionian Sea that so few legends about the dominance of the Phoenicians on the sea were preserved "(85, p. 31-32) . If possible, the ships landed at night so that the crews could rest (there was not even a hint of comfort on the ships, except for the aforementioned carpet on the deck). In view of the coast, the sails were removed, the mast was lowered on the ropes into the hull and fixed in a special nest iotodokn, the rowers took up the oars and drove the ship to the shore stern forward (so as not to break or tie a ram). Therefore, the main attention was paid to decorating the stern. The "thinly cut stern" of Tesey's ship (24, p. 268) was his "calling card". If the ship got into the port, a stone anchor was released from the bow, the stern was moored to the mooring stone and a ladder or gangway was lowered from it. Usually the ships had two anchors - at the bow and at the stern, and the Greeks had a saying: "A ship at one anchor, but life cannot survive on one hope" (24, p. 405). And here is what the port of that time looked like (11b, VI, 262-269):

With loopholes the walls surround him; A deep pier envelops it on both sides; the entrance to the harbor is constrained by ships, with which the coast is lined on the right and left, and each of them is under a protective roof; There is also a trading square around the Poseidon temple, Standing firmly on huge hewn stones; the rigging of all the ships is there, the supply of sails and ropes are kept in spacious Buildings; there smooth oars are also being prepared.

Such ports were rare. More often, the night caught the navigator in a desert area, and here he performed the same ritual, only instead of mooring, the ship was pulled ashore, placed on rollers that protected the hull from damage and facilitated its ascent and descent, and the crew went to bed. If the area was unsafe, the ships were surrounded by a wall. Sometimes the wall was real, like a rampart, in another case, judging by Homer's epithet "copper", a rather strong guard in copper armor was simply put up. Apparently, everything here depended on the duration of the parking lot.

At sunrise, the ships were dragged into the water and a special pole "twenty-two cubits long" (about 10 m), used as needed both as a repulsive hook and as a lot, were taken to the depth. Further, the actions were repeated in the reverse order: the mast was raised and strengthened in the steps on the same ropes, the oars were disassembled and pushed into the belt loops on the gunwale, and the sails were set. “At first, the mast was pulled up with two forestays, installed in the steps from the stern side with a backstay. One sail with its yard was raised and installed with the help of braces to catch the wind. The windward sheet was installed quickly, and the helmsman took his place with a lee sheet in one hand and a tiller - a beam attached to the steering oar - to the other. To shorten the sail, the Homeric sailors used gits instead of reefs; the lines ran from the yard, wrapped around the base of the sail and went below deck. They turned the sail to the yard in the same way that Venetian blinds rise "( 111, p. 38). Like the Cretan ships, the Achaeans had a frame frame and one or more masts. Homer does not indicate their number, but it can be assumed, by analogy with Crete, that the Achaeans knew three-masted ships. Several masts and sails had the "magic" ships of the feacs, on the ship of Odysseus there was one mast, but at least three sails.

In general, a detailed acquaintance with the Homeric epic convinces us that both the shipbuilding technique and the methods of naval combat were then not as simple as they sometimes think. Here's another example. Agamemnon in a prayer to Zeus mentions (11a, II, 415) that he intends to burn the gates of Troy with "destructive fire" (prnoai de nopos dnioio vvretra). It seemed like an unremarkable threat. Another epithet, Homer has many of them. However, let us recall the opinion of Eratosthenes that Homer "never throws epithets in vain" (33, C16). In the XVIth song of the Iliad (122-124), the opponents of Agamemnon also use similar fire: ... The Trojans immediately threw a noisy Fire at the ship: a fierce flame quickly spread. So the stern of the ship burned.

(After all, the ships were pulled ashore stern first.) Three lines below, Achilles in a panic calls Patroclus for help, shouting that "the fire of destruction is raging on the ships," but for some reason no one extinguishes the fire, although nothing could be more sensitive for the Greeks than the deprivation of ships. Why?

There is a translation error here. Literally, Homer says that an unquenchable flame suddenly spread over the ship (tnc d "aiya kat" aoBeotn keхvto floe) - the same as Agamemnon intended to set fire to the Trojan gates. By the way, how was he going to do this: approach in front of the defenders of the city and kindle a fire? And how did the Dardanians themselves "throw" the fire?

Everything convinces us that we are dealing here with the earliest mention of the most terrible weapon, which later received the name "Greek fire". It was a "destroying flame" in the truest sense of the word. Many recipes have been proposed for the reconstruction of its composition. 4th century author BC e. Aeneas the Tactician in the "Guide to the siege of cities" mentions the composition of the mixture used in his time to ignite enemy ships: incense, tow, sawdust of coniferous trees, sulfur and resin. These components were always at hand on land and at sea (sulfur and frankincense were used for cult purposes). Probably there were other compositions. The Byzantines used at least three types of "Greek fire": "liquid", "marine" and "spontaneous". But the tactics of its use were the same: a fragile clay ball was stuffed with a mixture and thrown from a stationary or manual device at the enemy. When falling, the ball cracked, and the mixture spontaneously ignited, spreading in all directions. All this happened at once, creating an unimaginable noise ("noisy fire") and causing confusion. Tarred ships were generally an excellent combustible material, and such a flame can only be extinguished with foam, but the Greeks, of course, did not know this and called it aoBeotoe - "unquenchable", "unstoppable", "undying", "eternal". As can be seen, this weapon has been known on both sides of the Aegean since at least the 8th century. BC e., when Homer composed his hexameters.

A similar problem of time arises if we touch on another question - a question that researchers of the heroic era try to get around as best they can. "Troy did not have a fleet, and the Greeks were the undivided masters of the sea" (111, p. 35). This phrase of L. Kasson aphoristically expresses the very essence of the problem.

"Troy did not have a fleet ..." Could the largest power of that time, having access to the Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas, owning the islands, controlling the Straits so tightly that the rest of the Aegean was forced to conquer for itself for ten years, could not have a fleet? the right to swim in Pontus? From the fact that Homer does not say a word about Trojan ships, it is difficult to draw conclusions: after all, Herodotus never mentioned Rome, and Homer did not mention Tyre, but it does not occur to anyone on this basis to assert that these cities did not exist at that time. According to this logic, the reverse conclusion is no less legitimate: Homer is silent about the ships of the Trojans precisely because they were superior to the Achaean ones, and it is not known how the naval battle could have ended. How the land war ended is known.

But if you take a closer look at Homer, you can be sure that the Trojans had a fleet. Decent fleet. So worthy that its introduction into action could have a detrimental effect on the sublime heroism of the Homeric images of the Achaean leaders. During a storm, Homeric sailors "calling the sons of powerful Zeus for help, slaughtering white lambs for them, gathering on the prow of the ship" (39, p. 136). The state of maritime affairs in Troy can be judged, for example, by the fact that Menelaus served as helmsman of the Trojan Frontis, ... the most of all terrestrial

The secret penetrated to own the ship in the coming storm (11b, III, 282-283). It is quite natural that this Frontis was the son of Onetor, the priest of Zeus of Idea. Onetor himself was revered by the people as a god. Medea, who felt herself in Pontus as in her own palace, was also a priestess of Hecate and was known in Colchis as a sorceress. The Greeks did not yet have priests, burdened with the most diverse information and secrets: the functions of the priests were combined by the kings - basileus. Only when the Temple of Delphi rises, when it becomes a pan-Greek sanctuary, only then will other "earthly people" have naval commanders and helmsmen who are not inferior to Frontis, helmsmen who, according to Pindar, are able, according to Pindar, to foresee a storm in three days (24, p. 139). From the words of Homer quoted above, it follows that the Trojan fleet was incomparable in the Aegean.

Causes of the Trojan War

Therefore, it is most likely that the Trojan War began precisely with a sudden attack on Priam's ships and their destruction. Only this can explain such a mysterious fact as the transformation of Sigey and Tenedos of the Dardanian ship sites into the ship sites of the Achaeans. Strabo was amazed at this many years later: "... the Ship Parking ... is so close to the modern city (Ilion. - A. S.) that it is natural to be surprised at the recklessness of the Greeks and the cowardice of the Trojans; the recklessness of the Greeks, because they kept the Ship Parking unfortified for so long... The Ship Station is at Sigeus, and near it is the mouth of the Scamander, 20 stadia from Ilion. But if anyone objects that the so-called Achaean Harbor is now the , even closer to Ilion, about only 20 stadia from the city ... "(33, C598). The Greeks did not care about the safety of their ships, because they knew about the death of the Trojan fleet. Why didn't Homer mention this? Perhaps because this was told in the "Cyprias" - the first of the eight books of the "kyklic epic" (only the second and seventh - "Iliad" and "Odyssey" have come down to us), attributed to Homer.

Some light on this question is shed by Virgil, who began his Aeneid where Homer ended the Iliad. This is where the problem of time arises: did Virgil use any early sources unknown to us, or did he transfer the technical data of the ships of his age to the heroic era?

Much speaks for the fact that Virgil described the ships whose helms were held in the hands of the Trojans. But their resemblance to those described by Homer - the Achaean ones - is very suspicious. Moreover, Virgil willingly notes the features common to all ships of the heroic era, and, if possible, avoids detailing, which inevitably bears national features. These ships, built by Aeneas from maple and pine in the forests near Antandra, are multi-sailed and keeled, capable of withstanding long passages out of sight of the shore; they moored in the same way with their stern to the shore, and the Trojans got over to land along the gangway, filed in the stern, or along the ladders lowered from the high stern. In the event of a hasty landing, they jumped straight from the sides into the water if it was not very deep (which means the ships had low sides), or glided along the oars like real pirates. Mentions Virgil and some other details familiar from Homer: twisted ropes, "poles and gaffs with a sharp tip", painted sheathing.

But he also has details that Homer does not have. The Trojans knew how to walk on tacks, setting the sail obliquely to the wind, and the yards of their ships turned with the help of ropes tied to their extremities - legs; they were perfectly oriented by the stars; their ships had sharp rostra prows; they bore their own names, given according to the figure decorating the acroterium, and their identification mark ("flag"), like that of the Phoenicians, was copper shields attached to the stern; unlike the Achaeans, these ships were "blue-breasted" (9, V, 122).

Homer mentions a hundred bench (ekatocvyoc) ship (11a, XX, 247). The Greeks did not know such ships, the number of their rowers did not exceed 50 (each rower was entitled to a separate bench). It is also hard to believe that the Trojans owned such long and slow ships. Maybe Hector was just bragging? But after all, Homer "in vain does not throw epithets" ... We find an unexpected solution in Virgil (9, V, 118-120): He led the "Chimera" Geass - a ship huge, like a city, They drove it with force, sitting in three tiers, the Dardanians , In three steps they raised three rows of oars.

The world's first trier?! It would be difficult to overestimate this evidence if, like the description of the "Greek fire", it belonged to Homer, and not to the poet of the Augustan age. Elsewhere (9, X, 207) Virgil again mentions a hundred-oared ship, this time silent about its design. But this is a later time when triremes could appear.

Is it possible to find out with what speed the Dardanian helmsmen drove their ships? This can be judged by two hints from Virgil - and again with an eye to the time factor. At the beginning of his wanderings, Aeneas makes two transitions: Delos - Crete and Crete - Strofades. Their magnitude is approximately 210 and 320 km, respectively. Virgil points out that the Trojans conquered the first segment by the dawn of the third day, and the second - by the dawn of the fourth (9, III, 117, 205). Based on his unambiguous indication of round-the-clock navigation, we can conclude that the average speed of the Trojan ships was very high for that time - 2.37-2.38 knots in stormy conditions (for comparison: Odysseus' ship sailed at an average speed of 1.35 knots; in at the time of Herodotus, this figure increased to 2.5 knots, and at the time of Pliny - up to 4 knots). Here, perhaps, is just the case when Virgil can not be believed: he clearly transferred the speed of ships of a later time to the ships of the heroic era.

The Trojan War undermined the power of all these magnificent fleets of pride, glory, rivalry and envy. "Peoples of the Sea" no longer disturbed the rest of the pharaohs. Although the Thracians became the thalassocrats of the Aegean, according to Diodorus, after the Trojan War, they did not dare to move away from their shores. The Phoenicians remained the true, undivided rulers of the seas. It is they who can rightfully be called the winners in the Trojan War: they won it, watching the battles from the Solim Heights.

Greeks are shipbuilders

• They invented a high-speed ship with 70 oars called trieres, where the rowers sat in three rows on both sides of the ship, and a ram- a pointed log with which an enemy ship made its way. The Greeks believed that their ship was alive, and they painted an eye on the bow of the ship so that it could see far away.

Parthenon

The ancient Greeks built beautiful buildings - temples for their gods. The temple was very beautiful. Parthenon in Athens on the Acropolis, erected in honor of the goddess Athena. Its walls and columns were made of hewn stone blocks. The splendor of the temple was complemented by statues and panels carved from marble. In the center of the temple stood a 12-meter statue of the goddess, covered with ivory and gold, the creation of the great sculptor Phidias.

• The Greeks decorated amphoras with scenes from everyday life, from myths and legends. Thanks to this, we know what the ancient Greeks looked like, what they wore, what kind of life they led.

• The Greek theater was like a modern circus or stadium, only cut in half. The actors sat on the stage, and the audience sat on stone benches on the slopes of the hill. The theater accommodated 18 thousand spectators. In Greek theater, all roles were performed by men.

masks

• So that far-seated spectators could see everything, the actors put on painted masks, conveying character and mood, emphasized the age and gender of the character.

• The mask had a large open mouth, which acted as a mouthpiece - amplifying the voice of the actor so that it could be heard in the far rows.

selfish person -

• selfish person -

Which of the three goddesses ( Athena, Aphrodite, Hera

• Which of the three goddesses ( Athena, Aphrodite, Hera) Did Paris give an apple with the inscription “To the most beautiful”?

• What is the name of the king of the gods, the lord of thunder and lightning, what is his symbol?

• What are the brothers of Zeus? How did they share dominance?

• How did Hera try to kill Hercules as an infant?

• What was the name of the sculptor whom Aphrodite helped bring the statue to life?

• Which god correspond to the presented attributes

• One of the bravest Greek heroes who besieged Troy. He was killed by an arrow from Paris that struck his heel.

Nemean lion;

• Nemean lion;

• Lernaean Hydra;

• Stymphalian birds;

• Augean stables;

• Kerinean doe;

• Erymanthian boar;

• Cretan bull;

• Horses of Diomedes;

• Belt of Hippolyta;

• Cows of Geryon;

• Cerberus;

• Apples of the Hesperides

• What feat did Hercules perform in the cradle?

• What is the feature stymphalian birds?

• How did Hercules manage to clear the Augean stables in one day?

• What did it look like doe and who did she belong to?

• What special property did apples of the Hesperides?

Augean stables

• Augean stables - a very polluted place, neglected premises.