From Greece we know its beautiful myths, starring gods and heroes. However, There are numerous Greek legends that are based on real events and characters These stories have numerous embellishments, obviously, but on many occasions they are a distant echo of events that really occurred.
Today we tell you several Greek legends inspired by real events so that you can let your imagination fly, while you question the past. Let’s go there.
The beautiful Phryne, courtesan and lover of Praxiteles and of whom many stories are told; the mythical Trojan War that we do not know if it existed; anecdotes from writers and philosophers that seem more taken from the popular imagination than from reality… join us for this interesting summary that will not leave you indifferent.
1. The trial of Phryne
Her real name was Mnesaréte, but everyone knew her as Phryne, “toad.” The nickname may seem like an insult, but nothing could be further from the truth: according to some sources, the woman was called that because of the olive tone of her soft skin.
Phryne was a hetaira, that is, a professional courtesan of ancient Greece who dedicated herself not only to giving her clients sexual pleasure, but also intellectual and aesthetic pleasure. Since women were not allowed access to culture and spent their lives locked in the gynoecium of the home, hetairas They gave Athenian men all the pleasure they needed.
Phryne was one of the most famous courtesans of the time. She was the lover of Praxiteles himself, who say that she was inspired by the beautiful forms of his body to create her Aphrodites. However, the “confidence” and power of Phryne (who amassed enormous wealth and thereby emulated the men of the city) was not well regarded by everyone; soon She was accused of “impiety” and brought before the Areopagus, the Athenian court
Although the trial existed, little is known about it; We only preserve scattered fragments of testimonies that tell it. So what we are going to review below enters, de facto, into the realm of legend.
It seems that Hyperides, the courtesan’s defense attorney, was not achieving much with his speech in court. The woman seemed doomed. In desperation, and as a final resource, Hyperides tore off Phryne’s tunic and left before the astonished eyes of the judges the wonderful vision of her naked body. Then, the defender warned everyone present not to condemn the goddess Aphrodite herself, since only her incarnation on earth could have such perfect forms. Phryne was finally acquitted… for being beautiful Other versions, however, maintain that it was she herself (and dressed, of course) who was in charge of her own defense, which was so brilliant that she was exonerated.
2. The 300? spartans
The Battle of Thermopylae has entered the popular imagination of the 21st century thanks to the very famous comic by Frank Miller and, later, the film based on it, which was enormously successful. It was thanks to these two sources that many people became aware of the historical event in question and of the “heroic resistance” of the 300 Spartans, who spent days preventing an army of more than 2 million Persians from accessing the Hellenic peninsula.
Well, there were wars between the Persians and the Greeks (known as the Persian Wars), and there was a desperate defense of the Thermopylae Pass (literally, “hot waters”), natural access to Greece But it is not true that it was only 300 Spartans who heroically resisted the advance of the Persians. In fact, the Greek army was made up of a coalition of various Hellenic cities, so there were not only Spartans among them, but also Thebans, Corinthians and Myceneans, among others, who in total numbered more than 6,000 soldiers. What is certain is that its leader was Leonidas I, king of Sparta.
And good; If the Greeks far exceeded the legendary figure of 300 men, the Persians did not even remotely reach the astronomical figure of two million It is estimated that, in Xerxes’ armies, the soldiers would not exceed 300,000 men. A more than considerable number, of course, but very far from the figures proposed by some of the Greek historians. On the other hand, the Greek resistance was by no means a guarantor of the safeguarding of the Hellenic peninsula, since the Persians managed to penetrate it and destroy, among other symbols, the Athenian Acropolis.
Where, then, does the myth of the 300 heroic Spartans who resisted at the pass of Thermopylae come from? No, it is not the invention of Miller, the author of the comic. It was Herodotus, a Greek historian from the 5th century BC, who recorded the feat some decades later and turned the event into a true propaganda campaign. A very successful campaign, by the way, as it continues to bear fruit more than 2000 years later.
3. Pheidippides and the first “marathon”
Since we have brought up the subject of the Persian Wars, we cannot fail to review the legend that surrounds Pheidippides, the hero of Marathon. But let’s put ourselves in context: it is the year 490 BC, and the first of the Persian Wars are taking place; This time, it is Darius I, the father of Xerxes I (the Persian king of Thermopylae) who attempts to take control of Greece. That year the Battle of Marathon took place, a city located on the Attic coasts, in which, for the first time, the Greeks defeated the Persians.
According to legend, Pheidippides was an emissary from the Greeks who managed to bring news of the victory to Athens, after which he died from exhaustion. The distance that separates Marathon from Athens is 40 kilometers, which, much later, inspired the philologist Michel Bréal (1832-1915) to design, together with Pierre de Coubertin (the father of the modern Olympic Games) a race that would cover the same distance, known since then as Marathon.
However, according to Herodotus, the distance that Pheidippides covered was not 40 kilometers, but more than 200, since, according to the Greek historian, the hero’s mission was not to communicate the victory, but to ask the Spartans for help to defeat the Persians. Therefore, the real route would have been that of Marathon-Sparta, cities separated by exactly 213 kilometers.
Which of the two versions is true? So there were two races, one to ask Sparta for help, and the other to notify Athens of the victory? Be that as it may, if Pheidippides really existed, he was a true hero.
4. King Midas and gold
Another of the most famous Greek legends arises from the life of King Midas. While the existence of King Mittaa (his name in Phrygian) is more or less documented in Eastern sources, which place him in the 8th century BC, the legend that originated around him is obviously a myth. . We refer to the famous story of King Midas’s gold.
The legend may have been inspired by the fabulous riches possessed by the Phrygian monarchs. The Phrygians were a people from Macedonia who later settled in what is now Turkey, the so-called Phrygia, a region rich, apparently, in gold deposits.
Tell the myth (in the version that Ovid collects in his Metamorphosis) that Silenus, satyr of Dionysus’ entourage, had gotten lost and could not find the entourage The king immediately recognized the divine being, and asked him to instruct him. Known to all was the wisdom of Silenus, which he had taught to Dionysus himself.
Thus, the satyr remained for a time at Midas’ court, which filled him with luxuries and pleasures. When they returned him to Dionysus’s entourage, Dionysus, grateful for how Silenus had been treated, granted the king a wish. He, without hesitation, asked that everything that touched his body be turned into gold.
At first everything went well; the branches of the trees, the cups, the statuettes; everything turned into gold before the astonished gaze of Midas. The problem came when he tried to eat, and the food also turned into gold. Then, thirsty, he wanted to drink, and the same thing. But the worst was yet to come; When Midas hugged his daughter, she instantly became a beautiful golden statue…
The ending of the greedy monarch has several versions. While one tells that, hungry, thirsty and alone (since no one wanted to approach him) he died, the other tells us of the mercy of Dionysus who, in the face of the man’s suffering, allowed him to remove the curse by bathing in the waters of the river Pactolus which, Immediately, they turned golden.
5. The most famous war… that never existed?
When the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered, at the end of the 19th century, the supposed ruins of the city of Troy, many skeptics had to keep quiet. Would it be true, then, that the mythical Ilion existed and, with it, the most famous war of all time?
Despite the archaeological evidence (later a stratum was discovered in the place that had signs of fire, which would fit the legend), many scientists still question the veracity of the Homeric story. Did Troy, the scene of one of the main Greek legends, really exist? Is the epic of the Hellenic bard true?
Well, as often happens, in the Iliad there may be fragments of reality, seasoned with much, much poetic imagination. It is quite possible that neither Helen, nor Paris, nor Hector, nor Priam, nor Agamemnon, nor, of course, Achilles or Odysseus, existed. Or perhaps his characters are distantly inspired by dark historical reminiscences, who knows.
Historically it is known that, Towards the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the lands of the Mediterranean suffered a series of catastrophes and destruction of cities, which experts attribute to the invasion of some unknown people (two possibilities have been considered: the Dorians and the “sea people”). That’s when the call begins Dark Age from Greece, where writing completely disappeared and culture and the arts suffered a significant setback.
Perhaps Homer’s epic refers to this “great Mediterranean war” and, with it, the splendor of the time immediately before the disaster.
6. And Homer?
And speaking of the Iliad, we can ask ourselves another question: did Homer exist? Yes, as you read it. Although Herodotus, the historian par excellence of ancient Greece, affirms that he was a real person and that he lived in the 9th century BC, that is, contemporary with the Trojan War, there are currently serious doubts about it.
Given the null source of information beyond the supposed authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, It is legitimate to wonder if Homer is not, in reality, a kind of nickname, a fictitious name to which a series of poems transmitted by oral tradition can be assigned. That is to say, according to some experts, the two great Hellenic epics would have been composed by many bards, and would have finally been written down under the name of Homer. Or perhaps he did exist, and simply compiled all the oral tradition of his ancestors and put it into writing. The mystery remains open.
7. Anecdotes of cultured men
There are other Greek characters who undoubtedly existed, but about whom thousands of anecdotes are told that are not always true. This is the case of Sophocles, one of the greatest Greek playwrights, author of works as well known as Antigone either King Oedipus.
Well, it is said that the great author died of joy. At least, that’s what Diodorus maintains in his biography; According to him, Sophocles felt such joy upon learning of the success he was having with his Oedipus Rex, that he died from the intensity of his joy. He was 90 years old.
Several anecdotes are also told about philosophers, which did not always happen. It is the case of Diogenes of Sinope (413-323 BC), who, according to legend, met Alexander the Great when the Spartans had just set fire to the Macedonian’s palace. Apparently, Diogenes was staring at a handful of charred bones, and the Great, surprised, asked him what he was looking at so closely. Without hesitation, the philosopher answered that he was trying to distinguish the bones of slaves from those of nobles, and he was unable to discern them.
There is another famous anecdote concerning Diogenes and Alexander. One day, in Corinth, the king found him sunbathing. Eager to please such a wise character, the Macedonian asked him what he wanted him to give him. Without hesitation, Diogenes responded: “Get out of the way and don’t block the sunlight from me.” Diogenes was of the Cynical school, of course.
