Eagle Rocks - a unique sightseeing site in Sochi

Sochi has a very interesting history
Where there are mountains, there are always legends. Sochi in this sense is no exception. What is not a peak - it is a legend. To begin with the Eagle Rocks. There is no person who does not know the story of Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind and was chained to a rock in punishment for that. But few people know that the titan was tortured by eagles in Sochi. In memory of this, a huge figure of Prometheus has been installed on the Eagle Rocks, and anyone can take a picture with it. All this is already a history...

I will tell you one heroic and beautiful legend, and you will understand why it was here that Prometheus was chained and these rocks were called Eagles.

The story begins in ancient times, when there were Gods and Titans, when people were helpless, huddled in caves, not knowing fire, not being able to stand up for themselves.

The gods lived at the top of Olympus, were strong and beautiful, but they did not care about the fate of people, they spent time on endless feasts and feuds among themselves.

Titans are more ancient creatures, a product of the Earth and Heaven, of Chaos itself. The guide between titans and humans was Prometheus, Zeus's cousin.

The name Prometheus means “thinking before”, “foreseeing” - as opposed to the name of his brother Epimetheus - “thinking after”, “strong in hindsight”.

Therefore, now people who think with hindsight can be safely called the brothers of Prometheus - and they will not understand anything.

It is for the sake of people that Prometheus goes against and against the will of the gods, and subsequently goes to a long execution.

Each time Prometheus came to Olympus with a rod, and then one day he brought with him a hollow reed stalk instead of a rod. Arriving at the forge of his friend Hephaestus, Prometheus imperceptibly distracted the owners with a conversation, took a coal from the fire of the forge and put it in his kind of hollow staff.

No one suspected anything, and Prometheus managed to quietly carry the fire to Earth and transfer it to people.

Fire is a symbol, the material embodiment of divine skills stolen from Olympus.

And all would be fine, but once Zeus looked at the Earth and saw that people already know how to heat their homes, cook food, make tools of labor and hunting, read the sky by the stars. Zeus was afraid that people would become godlike and overthrow him from Olympus.

Zeus ordered Prometheus to be chained for ever and ever to the mountain cliffs of the Caucasus, where no man's foot had set foot.

And it was predicted to Prometheus that he would suffer until he was freed by one of the mortals.

Prometheus gritted his teeth, and not a single groan escaped his lips! Hephaestus drove a steel stake into his chest and chained him to a rock. Only when Hephaestus left did he allow himself to scream in pain. But the Titan did not regret his deed, as he saw that he was able to help people.

His suffering did not end there. Zeus, blazing with anger, sent his eagle to him, which flew every day and pecked at Titan's liver.

A person could have avoided suffering by going into death, but Prometheus was an immortal Titan, and every night his liver was restored, wounds healed, and everything began again.

The Argonauts, passing by, and they sailed to Colchis for the golden fleece, saw Prometheus chained to the rock and pecking at the liver of an eagle and named the rocks Eagle.

The oceanids heard the groans of Prometheus, sailed to him, and one of them, whose name was Agura, fell in love with Prometheus, she gave him water with her palms, washed his wounds, for which Zeus threw her off a cliff and turned into a stormy stream of water. Since then, the Agursky waterfalls and the Agura river have been formed.

Fortunately, the torment of Prometheus did not last forever. Another ancient Greek hero, Hercules, freed him.

During his wanderings, he saw a chained Prometheus and wanted to know why he was doomed to such torments? And Prometheus told him how he brought fire to people, having stolen it from the gods.

Hercules saw an eagle flying to Prometheus and, taking out his deadly arrow, killed him.

The eagle fell like a stone down from the cliff. The freed Prometheus went down to his beloved Agura, took a fragment of the rock on which he was chained, melted it into metal, and since then people began to wear rings.

This is how Zeus's prediction about the release of Prometheus came true.

The Olympic flame originates from this legend. It is lit in Olympia and carried through cities and countries to the site of the Olympics.

Poets of all times and generations glorified Prometheus in their works as a fighter against injustice and a liberator of mankind.