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 a LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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 Received 
 Accession No. O I (o H . Claxs NJ. 
 

ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 
 
 THIRD READER GRADE 
 
 ey 
 
 JAMES BALDWIN 
 fl 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 *2CAUFOrt> 
 
 NEW YORK : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
770 
 
 r 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANYe 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES. 
 W. P. 7 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 PERHAPS no other stories have ever been told so often or 
 listened to with so much pleasure as the classic tales of ancient 
 Greece. For many ages they have been a source of delight 
 to young people and old, to the ignorant and the learned, to 
 all who love to hear about and contemplate things mysterious, 
 beautiful, and grand. They have become so incorporated into 
 our language and thought, and so interwoven with our literature, 
 that we could not do away with them now if we would. They 
 are a portion of our heritage from the distant past, and they 
 form perhaps as important a part of our intellectual life as 
 they did of that of the people among whom they originated. 
 
 That many of these tales should be read by children at an 
 early age no intelligent person will deny. Sufficient reason for 
 this is to be found in the real pleasure that every child derives 
 from their perusal : and in the preparation of this volume no 
 other reason has been considered. I have here attempted to 
 tell a few stories of Jupiter and his mighty company and of some 
 of the old Greek heroes, simply as stories, nothing more. I have 
 carefully avoided every suggestion of interpretation. Attempts 
 at analysis and explanation will always prove fatal to a child's 
 appreciation and enjoyment of such stories. To inculcate the 
 
 3 
 
idea that these tales are merely descriptions of certain natural 
 phenomena expressed in narrative and poetic form, is to de- 
 prive them of their highest charm; it is like turning precious 
 gold into utilitarian iron; it is changing a delightful romance 
 into a dull scientific treatise. The wise teacher will take heed 
 not to be guilty of such an error. 
 
 It will be observed that while each of the stories in this volume 
 is wholly independent of the others and may be read without 
 any knowledge of those which precede it, there is nevertheless 
 a certain continuity from the first to the last, giving to the col- 
 lection a completeness like that of a single narrative. In order 
 that the children of our own country and time may be the better 
 able to read these stories in the light in which they were narrated 
 long ago, I have told them in simple language, keeping the 
 supernatural element as far as possible in the background, and 
 nowhere referring to Jupiter and his mighty company as gods. 
 I have hoped thus to free the narrative still more from every- 
 thing that might detract from its interest simply as a story. 
 
 J. B. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JUPITER AND HIS MIGHTY COMPANY . . , . . . . . 7 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE . . . . . . . . 10 
 
 THE STORY OF PROMETHEUS . . . , , . . . . . . . 14 
 
 THE FLOOD . . .... 26 
 
 THE STORY OF lo , . . . . , , . . . 32 
 
 THE WONDERFUL WEAVER . . . . . - . . . , . . . . 40 
 
 THE LORD OF THE SILVER Bow ....,..". 46 
 
 ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS . . . . . . . . 64 
 
 CADMUS AND EUROPA , . . , . . . . . . 75 
 
 THE QUEST OF MEDUSA'S HEAD .... 88 
 
 THE STORY OF ATALANTA ............. 115 
 
 THE HORSE AND THE OLIVE . . . , . . . . . . . . ^137 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS . . . . . ...... 147 
 
 THE WONDERFUL ARTISAN . . . , . . . . . , . . 183 
 
 THE CRUEL TRIBUTE ....-,... 193 
 
 5 
 
PERSONS AND PLACES MENTIONED. 
 
 Ad me'tus 
 
 Qer'cy on 
 
 Her^u leg 
 
 Per'dix 
 
 M ge'an Sea 
 
 Qe'reg 
 
 I -ea'ri an Sea 
 
 Per i gu'ne 
 
 -ZE'geus (jus) 
 
 hel'ron 
 
 I-e'a rus 
 
 Per'seus (sus) 
 
 M gi'na 
 
 eio'tho 
 
 I'o 
 
 Pitftheus 
 
 Ms -eu la/pi us 
 
 o ro'nis 
 
 I ol'-eus 
 
 Plu'to 
 
 ^E'thra 
 
 Cran'a e 
 
 Ju'no 
 
 Po sel'don 
 
 A i do'ne us 
 
 -Crete 
 
 Ju'pi ter 
 
 Pro -erus'teg 
 
 Al c.es'tis 
 
 Qy lo'pe 
 
 Lftb'y rinth 
 
 Pro me'theus 
 
 Al the'a 
 
 Qy'prus 
 
 Lash'e sis 
 
 (thus) 
 
 An dro'ge os 
 
 Dse'da lus 
 
 Le'to 
 
 Pros'er pine 
 
 An drom'e da 
 
 Dan 'a e 
 
 Mars 
 
 Pyr'rha 
 
 A pol'lo 
 
 Daph'ne 
 
 Me de'a 
 
 Pyth'i a 
 
 A rash'ne 
 
 De'los 
 
 Me du'sa 
 
 Py'thon 
 
 Ar -ea/di a 
 
 Delphi 
 
 Meg'a ra 
 
 Sa r5n'i-e Sea 
 
 Ar'gos 
 
 Deu -ea'li on 
 
 Me! la'ni on 
 
 Sat'urn 
 
 Ar'gus 
 
 Dl an'a 
 
 Mel e a'ger 
 
 Scl'ron 
 
 Ar i ad'ne 
 
 E'gypt 
 
 Mer'u ry 
 
 SiQ'i ly 
 
 Ar'te mis 
 
 E leu'sis 
 
 MI ner'va 
 
 Sl'nis 
 
 A'sia 
 
 Ep i me'theus 
 
 MI'nos 
 
 Tem'pe 
 
 At a lan'ta 
 
 (thus) 
 
 Min'o taur 
 
 Thebe 
 
 A the'na 
 
 Eu ro'pa 
 
 My 9e'na3 
 
 The'seus (sus) 
 
 Ath'en 
 
 Eu'rope 
 
 Nep'tune 
 
 Thes'sa ly 
 
 At'ro pos 
 
 G6r'gons 
 
 Nile 
 
 Ti'ryn 
 
 Ba-e'-ehus 
 
 Greece 
 
 CE'neus (nus) 
 
 Tl'tang 
 
 Bos'pho rus 
 
 Ha/de 
 
 Os'sa 
 
 Troa'zen 
 
 -Gadme'ia 
 
 Har mo'ni a 
 
 Pan do'ra 
 
 Ve'nus 
 
 -Gad'mus 
 
 He'li os 
 
 Par nas'sus 
 
 Ves'ta 
 
 al'y don 
 
 Hel'las 
 
 Par'neg 
 
 Vulcan 
 
 Jau'a sus 
 
 HelQen 
 
 Pe'li as 
 
 Zeus (zus) 
 
 Qe'-erops 
 
 Hellenes 
 
 Pe ne^us 
 
 
OLD GREEK STORIES. 
 
 JUPITER AND HIS MIGHTY COMPANY. 
 
 A LONG time ago, when the world was much 
 younger than it is now, people told and believed 
 a great many wonderful stories about wonderful 
 things which neither you nor I have ever seen. 
 They often talked about a certain Mighty Being 
 called Jupiter, or Zeus, who was king of the sky 
 and the earth ; and they said that he sat most of 
 the time amid the clouds on the top of a very high 
 mountain where he could look down and see every- 
 thing that was going on in the earth beneath. He 
 liked to ride on the storm-clouds and hurl burning 
 thunderbolts right and left among the trees and 
 rocks; and he was so very, very mighty that 
 when he nodded, the earth quaked, the mountains 
 
trembled and smoked, the sky grew black, and the 
 sun hid his face. 
 
 Jupiter had two brothers, both of them terrible 
 fellows, but not nearly so great as himself. The name 
 of one of them was Neptune, or Poseidon, and he 
 was the king of the sea. He had a glittering, golden 
 palace far down in the deep sea-caves where the 
 fishes live and the red coral grows ; and whenever 
 he was angry the waves would rise mountain high, 
 and the storm-winds would howl fearfully, and the 
 sea would try to break over the land; and men 
 called him the Shaker of the Earth. 
 
 The other brother of Jupiter was a sad pale- 
 faced being, whose kingdom was underneath the 
 earth, where the sun never shone and where there 
 was darkness and weeping and sorrow all the time. 
 His name was Pluto, or Aidoneus, and his country 
 was called the Lower World, or the Land of 
 Shadows, or Hades. Men said that whenever any 
 one died, Pluto would send his messenger, or Shadow 
 Leader, to carry that one down into his cheerless 
 kingdom ; and for that reason they never spoke well 
 of him, but thought of him only as the enemy of 
 life. 
 
 A great number of other Mighty Beings lived 
 with Jupiter amid the clouds on the mountain top, 
 so many that I can name a very few only. There 
 
was Venus, the queen of love and beauty, who was 
 fairer by far than any woman that you or I have ever 
 seen. There was Athena, or Minerva, the queen 
 of the air, who gave people wisdom and taught them 
 how to do very many useful things. There was 
 Juno, the queen of earth and sky, who sat at the 
 right hand of Jupiter and gave him all kinds of 
 advice. There was Mars, the great warrior, whose 
 delight was in the din of battle. There was Mer- 
 cury, the swift messenger, who had wings on his 
 cap and shoes, and who flew from place to place 
 like the summer clouds when they are driven before 
 the wind. There was Vulcan, a skillful blacksmith, 
 who had his forge in a burning mountain and 
 wrought many wonderful things of iron and copper 
 and gold. And besides these, there were many 
 others about whom you will learn by and by, 
 and about whom men told strange and beautiful 
 stories. 
 
 They lived in glittering, golden mansions, high 
 up among the clouds so high indeed that the eyes 
 of men could never see them. But they could look 
 down and see what men were doing, and oftentimes 
 they were said to leave their lofty homes and wander 
 unknown across the land or over the sea. 
 
 And of all these Mighty Folk, Jupiter was by 
 far the mightiest. 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 
 
 JUPITER and his Mighty Folk had not always 
 dwelt amid the clouds on the mountain top. In 
 times long past, a wonderful family called Titans 
 had lived there and had ruled over all the world. 
 There were twelve of them six brothers and six 
 sisters and they said that their father was the 
 Sky and their mother the Earth. They had the 
 form and looks of men and women, but they were 
 much larger and far more beautiful. 
 
 '<The name of the youngest of these Titans was 
 Saturn ; and yet he was so very old that men often 
 called him Father Time. He was the king of the 
 Titans, and so, of course, was the king of all the 
 earth besides. 
 
 Men were never so happy as they were during 
 Saturn's reign. It was the true Golden Age 
 then. The springtime lasted all the year. The 
 woods and meadows were always full of blossoms, 
 and the music of singing birds was heard every 
 day and every hour. It was summer and autumn, 
 
 10 
 
II 
 
 too, at the same time. Apples and figs and oranges 
 always hung ripe from the trees ; and there were 
 purple grapes on the vines, and melons and berries 
 of every kind, which the people had but to pick 
 and eat. 
 
 Of course nobody had to do any kind of work 
 in that happy time. There was no such thing as 
 sickness or sorrow or old age. Men and women 
 lived for hundreds and hundreds of years and 
 never became gray or wrinkled or lame, but were 
 always handsome and young. They had no need 
 of houses, for there were no cold days nor storms 
 nor anything to make them afraid. 
 
 Nobody was poor, for everybody had the same 
 precious things the sunlight, the pure air, the 
 wholesome water of the springs, the grass for a 
 carpet, the blue sky for a roof, the fruits and 
 flowers of the woods and meadows. So, of course, 
 no one was richer than another, and there was 
 no money, nor any locks or bolts; for everybody 
 was everybody's friend, and no man wanted to 
 get more of anything than his neighbors had. 
 
 When these happy people had lived long enough 
 they fell asleep, and their bodies were seen no more. 
 They flitted away through the air, and over the 
 mountains, and across the sea, to a flowery land in 
 the distant west. And some men say that, even to 
 
12 
 
 this day, they are wandering happily hither and 
 thither about the earth, causing babies to smile 
 in their cradles, easing the burdens of the toilworn 
 and sick, and blessing mankind everywhere. 
 
 What a pity it is that this Golden Age should 
 have come to an end ! But it was Jupiter and his 
 brothers who brought about the sad change. 
 
 It is hard to believe it, but men say that Jupiter 
 was the son of the old Titan king, Saturn, and that 
 he was hardly a year old when he began to plot 
 how he might wage war against his father. As 
 soon as he was grown up, he persuaded his 
 brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and his sisters, Juno, 
 Ceres, and Vesta, to join him ; and they vowed that 
 they would drive the Titans from the earth. 
 
 Then followed a long and terrible war. But 
 Jupiter had many mighty helpers. A company of 
 one-eyed monsters called Cyclopes were kept busy 
 all the time, forging thunderbolts in the fire of 
 burning mountains. Three other monsters, each 
 with a hundred hands, were called in to throw 
 rocks and trees against the stronghold of the 
 Titans ; and Jupiter himself hurled his sharp light- 
 ning darts so thick and fast that the woods were 
 set on fire and the water in the rivers boiled with 
 the heat. 
 
 Of course, good, quiet old Saturn and his brothers 
 
13 
 
 and sisters could not hold out always against such 
 foes as these. At the end of ten years they had 
 to give up and beg for peace. They were bound 
 in chains of the hardest rock and thrown into 
 a prison in the Lower World ; and the Cyclopes 
 and the hundred-handed monsters were sent there 
 to be their jailers and to keep guard over them 
 forever. 
 
 Then men began to grow dissatisfied with their 
 lot. Some wanted to be rich and own all the good 
 things in the world. Some wanted to be kings 
 and rule over the others. Some who were strong 
 wanted to make slaves of those who were weak. 
 Some broke down the fruit trees in the woods, lest 
 others should eat of the fruit. Some, for mere 
 sport, hunted the timid animals which had always 
 been their friends. Some even killed these poor 
 creatures and ate their flesh for food. 
 
 At last, instead of everybody being everybody's 
 friend, everybody was everybody's foe. 
 
 So, in all the world, instead of peace, there was 
 war ; instead of plenty, there was starvation ; instead 
 of innocence, there was crime ; and instead of hap- 
 piness, there was misery. 
 
 And that was the way in which Jupiter made 
 himself so mighty; and that was the way m which 
 the Golden Age came to an end. 
 
THE STORY OF PROMETHEUS. 
 
 I. HOW FIRE WAS GIVEN TO MEN. 
 
 IN those old, old times, there lived two brothers 
 who were not like other men, nor yet like those 
 Mighty Ones who lived upon the mountain top. 
 They were the sons of one of those Titans who had 
 fought against Jupiter and been sent in chains to 
 the strong prison-house of the Lower World. 
 
 The name of the elder of these brothers was 
 Prometheus, or Forethought; for he was always 
 thinking of the future and making things ready 
 for what might happen to-morrow, or next week, 
 or next year, or it may be in a hundred years to 
 come. The younger was called Epimetheus, or 
 Afterthought; for he was always so busy thinking 
 of yesterday, or last year, or a hundred years ago, 
 that he had no care at all for what might come 
 to pass after a while. 
 
 For some cause Jupiter had not sent these 
 brothers to prison with the rest of the Titans. 
 
 Prometheus did not care to live amid the clouds 
 
 14 
 
is 
 
 on the mountain top. He was too busy for that. 
 While the Mighty Folk were spending their time 
 in idleness, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia, he 
 was intent upon plans for making the world wiser 
 and better than it had ever been before. 
 
 He went out amongst men to live with them 
 and help them ; for his heart was filled with sad- 
 ness when he found that they were no longer 
 happy as they had been during the golden days 
 when Saturn was king. Ah, how very poor and 
 wretched they were ! He found them living in 
 caves and in holes of the earth, shivering with the 
 cold because there was no fire, dying of starvation, 
 hunted by wild beasts and by one another the 
 most miserable of all living creatures. 
 
 " If they only had fire," said Prometheus to him- 
 self, " they could at least warm themselves and cook 
 their food; and after a while they could learn to 
 make tools and build themselves houses. Without 
 fire, they are worse off than the beasts." 
 
 Then he Went boldly to Jupiter and begged him 
 to give fire to men, that so they might have a little 
 comfort through the long, dreary months of winter. 
 
 " Not a spark will I give," said Jupiter. " No, 
 indeed ! Why, if men had fire they might become 
 strong and wise like ourselves, and after a while 
 they would drive us out of our kingdom. Let them 
 
16 
 
 shiver with cold, and let them live like the beasts. 
 It is best for them to be poor and ignorant, that 
 so we Mighty Ones may thrive and be happy." 
 
 Prometheus made no answer; but he had set his 
 heart on helping mankind, and he did not give up. 
 He turned away, and left Jupiter and his mighty 
 company forever. 
 
 As he was walking by the shore of the sea he 
 found a reed, or, as some say, a tall stalk of fennel, 
 growing; and when he had broken it off he saw 
 that its hollow center was filled with a dry, soft 
 pith which would burn slowly and keep on fire a 
 long time. He took the long stalk in his hands, 
 and started with it towards the dwelling of the sun 
 in the far east. 
 
 " Mankind shall have fire in spite of the tyrant 
 who sits on the mountain top," he said. 
 
 He reached the place of the sun in the early 
 morning just as the glowing, golden orb was rising 
 from the earth and beginning his daily journey 
 through the sky. He touched the end of the long- 
 reed to the flames, and the dry pith caught on fire 
 and burned slowly. Then he turned and hastened 
 back to his own land, carrying with him the precious 
 spark hidden in the hollow center of the plant. 
 
 He called some of the shivering men from their 
 caves and built a fire for them, and showed them 
 
17 
 
 how to warm themselves by it and how to build 
 other fires from the coals. Soon there was a cheer- 
 ful blaze in every rude home in the land, and men 
 and women gathered round it and were warm and 
 happy, and thankful to Prometheus for the wonder- 
 ful gift which he had brought to them from the sun. 
 
 It was not long until they learned to cook their 
 food and so to eat like men instead of like beasts. 
 They began at once to leave off their wild and savage 
 habits; and instead of lurking in the dark places of 
 the world, they came out into the open air and the 
 bright sunlight, and were glad because life had been 
 given to them. 
 
 After that, Prometheus taught them, little by 
 little, a thousand things. He showed them how to 
 build houses of wood and stone, and how to tame 
 sheep and cattle and make them useful, and how 
 to plow and sow and reap, and how to protect 
 themselves from the storms of winter and the 
 beasts of the woods. Then he showed them how 
 to dig in the earth for copper and iron, and how 
 to melt the ore, and how to hammer it into shape 
 and fashion from it the tools and weapons which 
 they needed in peace and war ; and when he saw 
 how happy the world was becoming he cried out : 
 
 " A new Golden Age shall come, brighter and 
 better by far than the old ! " 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 2 
 
i8 
 
 II. HOW DISEASES AND CARES CAME AMONG MEN. 
 
 Things might have gone on very happily indeed, 
 and the Golden Age might really have come again, 
 had it not been for Jupiter. But one day, when he 
 chanced to look down upon the earth, he saw the 
 fires burning, and the people living in houses, and 
 the flocks feeding on the hills, and the grain ripen- 
 ing in the fields, and this made him very angry. 
 
 " Who has done all this ? " he asked. 
 
 And some one answered, " Prometheus ! " 
 
 "What! that young Titan!" he cried. "Well, 
 I will punish him in a way that will make him 
 wish I had shut him* up in the prison-house with 
 his kinsfolk. But as for those puny men, let them 
 keep their fire. I will make them ten times more 
 miserable than they were before they had it." 
 
 Of course it would be easy enough to deal with 
 Prometheus at any time, and so Jupiter was in no 
 great haste about it. He made up his mind to 
 distress mankind first; and he thought of a plan 
 for doing it in a very strange, roundabout way. 
 
 In the first place, he ordered his blacksmith 
 Vulcan, whose forge was in the crater of a burning 
 mountain, to take a lump of clay which he gave 
 him, and mold it into the form of a woman. 
 Vulcan did as he was bidden; and when he had 
 
'9 
 
 finished the image, he carried it up to Jupiter, who 
 was sitting among the clouds with all the Mighty 
 Folk around him. It was nothing but a mere 
 lifeless body, but the great blacksmith had given it 
 a form more perfect than that of any statue that 
 has ever been made. 
 
 " Come now ! " said Jupiter, " let us all give some 
 goodly gift to this woman;" and he began by 
 giving her life. 
 
 Then the others came in their turn, each with a 
 gift for the marvelous creature. One gave her 
 beauty ; and another a pleasant voice ; and another 
 good manners; and another a kind heart;- and 
 another skill in many arts ; and, lastly, some one 
 gave her curiosity. Then they called her Pandora, 
 which means the all-gifted, because she had re- 
 ceived gifts from them all. 
 
 Pandora was so beautiful and so wondrously 
 gifted that no one could help loving her. When 
 the Mighty Folk had admired her for a time, they 
 gave her to Mercury, the light-footed ; and he led 
 her down the mountain side to the place where 
 Prometheus and his brother were living and toiling 
 for the good of mankind. He met Epimetheus 
 first, and said to him : 
 
 " Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman, whom 
 Jupiter has sent to you to be your wife." 
 
' ' EPIMETHEUS, HERE is A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN/ 
 
21 
 
 Prometheus had often warned his brother to 
 beware of any gift that Jupiter might send, for he 
 knew that the mighty tyrant could not be trusted; 
 but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, how lovely and 
 wise she was, he forgot all warnings, and took her 
 home to live with him and be his wife. 
 
 Pandora was very happy in her new home; and 
 even Prometheus, when he saw her, was pleased 
 with her loveliness. She had brought with her a 
 golden casket, which Jupiter had given her at 
 parting, and which he had told her held many 
 precious things ; but wise Athena, the queen of 
 the air, had warned her never, never to open it, 
 nor look at the things inside. 
 
 " They must be jewels," she said to herself; and 
 then she thought of how they would add to her 
 beauty if only she could wear them. " Why did 
 Jupiter give them to me if I should never use them, 
 nor so much as look at them? " she asked. 
 
 The more she thought about the golden casket, 
 the more curious she was to see what was in it ; 
 and every day she took it down from its shelf and 
 felt of the lid, and tried to peer inside of it without 
 opening it. 
 
 " Why should I care for what Athena told me ? " 
 she said at last. " She is not beautiful, and jewels 
 would be of no use to her. I think that I will 
 
22 
 
 look at them, at any rate. Athena will never 
 know. Nobody else will ever know." 
 
 She opened the lid a very little, just to peep 
 inside. All at once there was a whirring, rustling 
 sound, and before she could shut it down again, out 
 flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like 
 faces and gaunt and dreadful forms, such as nobody 
 in all the world had ever seen. They fluttered for 
 a little while about the room, and then flew away to 
 find dwelling-places wherever there were homes of 
 men. They were diseases and cares ; for up to that 
 time mankind had not had any kind of sickness, 
 nor felt any troubles of mind, nor worried about 
 what the morrow might bring forth. 
 
 These creatures flew into every house, and, 
 without any one seeing them, nestled down in the 
 bosoms of men and women and children, and put 
 an end to all their joy; and ever since that day 
 they have been flitting and creeping, unseen and 
 unheard, over all the land, bringing pain and sor- 
 row and death into every household. 
 
 If Pandora had not shut down the lid so quickly, 
 things would have gone much worse. But she 
 closed it just in time to keep the last of the evil 
 creatures from getting out. The name of this crea- 
 ture was Foreboding, and although he was almost 
 half out of the casket, Pandora pushed him back 
 
23 
 
 and shut the lid so tight that he could never escape. 
 If he had gone out into the world, men would have 
 known from childhood just what troubles were 
 going to come to them every day of their lives, and 
 they would never have had any joy or hope so long 
 as they lived. 
 
 And this was the way in which Jupiter sought to 
 make mankind more miserable than they had been 
 before Prometheus had befriended them. 
 
 III. HOW THE FRIEND OF MEN WAS PUNISHED. 
 
 The next thing that Jupiter did was to punish 
 Prometheus for stealing fire from the sun. He 
 bade two of his servants, whose names were 
 Strength and Force, to seize the bold Titan and 
 carry him to the topmost peak of the Caucasus 
 Mountains. Then he sent the blacksmith Vulcan 
 to bind him with iron chains and fetter him to the 
 rocks so that he could not move hand or foot. 
 
 Vulcan did not like to do this, for he was a friend 
 of Prometheus, and yet he did not dare to disobey. 
 And so the great friend of men, who had given 
 them firo and lifted them out of their wretchedness 
 and shovvn them how to live, was chained to the 
 mountain peak; and there he hung, with the storm- 
 winds whistling always around him, and the pitiless 
 
24 
 
 hail beating in his face, and fierce eagles shrieking 
 in his ears and tearing his body with their cruel 
 claws. Yet he bore all his sufferings without a 
 groan, and never would he beg for mercy or say 
 that he was sorry for what he had done. 
 
 Year after year, and age after age, Prometheus 
 hung there. Now and then old Helios, the driver 
 of the sun car, would look down upon him and 
 smile; now and then flocks of birds would bring 
 him messages from far-off lands; once the ocean 
 nymphs came and sang wonderful songs in his 
 hearing; and oftentimes men looked up to him 
 with pitying eyes, and cried out against the tyrant 
 who had placed him there. 
 
 Then, once upon a time, a white cow passed 
 that way, a strangely beautiful cow, with large 
 sad eyes and a face that seemed almost human. 
 She stopped and looked up at the cold gray peak 
 and the giant body which was chained there. Pro- 
 metheus saw her and spoke to her kindly : 
 
 "I know who you are," he said. "You are lo 
 who was once a fair and happy maiden in distant 
 Argos ; and now, because of the tyrant Jupiter and 
 his jealous queen, you are doomed to wander from 
 land to land in that unhuman form. But do not 
 lose hope. Go on to the southward and then to 
 the west ; and after many days you shall come to 
 
25 
 
 the great river Nile. There you shall again 
 become a maiden, but fairer and more beautiful 
 than before ; and jou shall become the wife of 
 the king of that land, and shall give birth to a 
 son, from whom shall spring the hero who will 
 break my chains and set me free. As for me, I 
 bide in patience the day which not even Jupiter 
 can hasten or delay. Farewell ! " 
 
 Poor lo would have spoken, but she could not. 
 Her sorrowful eyes looked once more at the suffer- 
 ing hero on the peak, and then she turned and 
 began her long and tiresome journey to the land 
 of the Nile. 
 
 Ages passed, and at last a great hero whose 
 name was Hercules came to the land of the 
 Caucasus. In spite of Jupiter's dread thunderbolts 
 and fearful storms of snow and sleet, he climbed 
 the rugged mountain peak; he slew the fierce 
 eagles that had so long tormented the helpless 
 prisoner on those craggy heights ; and with a 
 mighty blow, he broke the fetters of Prometheus 
 and set the grand old hero free. 
 
 " I knew that you would come/' said Prometheus. 
 " Ten generations ago I spoke of you to lo, who 
 was afterwards the queen of the land of the Nile." 
 
 " And lo," said Hercules, " was the mother of the 
 race from which I am sprung." 
 
THE FLOOD. 
 
 IN those very early times there was a man named 
 Deucalion, and he was the son of Prometheus. 
 He was only a common man and not a Titan like 
 his great father, and yet he was known far and wide 
 for his good deeds and the uprightness of his life. 
 His wife's name was Pyrrha, and she was one of 
 the fairest of the daughters of men. 
 
 After Jupiter had bound Prometheus on Mount 
 Caucasus and had sent diseases and cares into the 
 worldf men became very, very wicked. They no 
 longer built houses and tended their flocks and 
 lived together in peace ; but every man was at war 
 with his neighbor, and there was no law nor safety 
 in all the land. Things were in much worse case now 
 than they had been before Prometheus had come 
 among men, and that was just what Jupiter wanted. 
 But as the world became wickeder and wickeder 
 every day, he began to grow weary of seeing so 
 much bloodshed and of hearing the cries of the 
 
 oppressed and the poor. 
 
 26 
 
27 
 
 " These men," "he said to his mighty company, 
 "are nothing but a source of trouble. When they 
 were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should 
 become greater than ourselves ; and now they 
 are so terribly wicked that we are in worse danger 
 than before. There is only one thing to be done 
 with them, and that is to destroy them every one." 
 
 So he sent a great rain-storm upon the earth, 
 and it rained day and night for a long time; and 
 the sea was filled to the brim, and the water ran over 
 the land and covered first the plains and then the 
 forests and then the hills. But men kept on fight- 
 ing and robbing, even while the rain was pouring 
 down and the sea was coming up over the land. 
 
 No one but Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, 
 was ready for such a storm. He had never joined 
 in any of the wrong doings of those around him, 
 and had often told them that unless they left off 
 their evil ways there would be a day of reckoning 
 in the end. Once every year he had gone to the 
 land of the Caucasus to talk with his father, who 
 was hanging chained to the mountain peak. 
 
 " The day is coming," said Prometheus, " when 
 Jupiter will send a flood to destroy mankind from the 
 earth. Be sure that you are ready for it, my son." 
 
 And so when the rain began to fall,, Deucalion 
 drew from its shelter a boat which he had built 
 
28 
 
 for just such a time. He called fair Pyrrha, his 
 wife, and the two sat in the boat and were floated 
 safely on the rising waters. Day and night, day 
 and night, I cannot tell how long, the boat drifted 
 hither and thither. The tops of the trees were 
 hidden by the flood, and then the hills and then 
 the mountains ; and Deucalion and Pyrrha could 
 see nothing f anywhere but water, water, water 
 and they knew that all the people in the land had 
 been drowned. 
 
 After a while the rain stopped falling, and the 
 clouds cleared away, and the blue sky and the 
 golden sun came out overhead. Then the water 
 began to sink very fast and to run off the land 
 towards the sea ; and early the very next day the 
 boat was drifted high upon a mountain called 
 Parnassus, and Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out 
 upon the dry land. After that, it \vas only a short 
 time until the whole country was laid bare, and 
 the trees shook their leafy branches in the wind, 
 and the fields were carpeted with grass and flowers 
 more beautiful than in the days before the flood. 
 
 But Deucalion and Pyrrha were very sad, for 
 they knew that they were the only persons who 
 were left alive in all the land. At last they started 
 to walk down the mountain side towards the plain, 
 wondering what would become of them now, all 
 
2 9 
 
 alone as they were in the wide world. While they 
 were talking and trying to think what they should 
 do, they heard a voice behind them. They turned 
 and saw a noble young prince standing on one of 
 the rocks above them. He was very tall, with blue 
 eyes and yellow hair. There were wings on his 
 shoes and on his cap, and in his hands he bore a 
 staff with golden serpents twined around it. They 
 knew at once that he was Mercury, the swift mes- 
 senger of the Mighty Ones, and they waited to 
 hear what he would say. 
 
 " Is there anything that you wish ? " he asked. 
 " Tell me, and you shall have whatever you desire." 
 
 " We should like, above all things," said Deucalion, 
 " to see this land full of people once more ; for 
 without neighbors and friends, the world is a very 
 lonely place indeed." 
 
 " Go on down the mountain," said Mercury, " and 
 as you go, cast the bones of your mother over your 
 shoulders behind you ; " and, with these words, he 
 leaped into the air and was seen no more. 
 
 " What did he mean ? " asked Pyrrha. 
 
 " Surely I do not know," said Deucalion. " But 
 let us think a moment. Who is our mother, if it 
 is not the Earth, from whom all living things have 
 sprung ? And yet what could he mean by the bones 
 of our mother ? " 
 
'AS THEY WALKED THEY PICKED UP THE LOOSE STONES IN THEIR WAY." 
 
" Perhaps he meant the stones of the earth," said 
 Pyrrha. " Let us go on down the mountain, and 
 as we go, let us pick up the stones in our path and 
 throw them over our shoulders behind us." 
 
 " It is rather a silly thing to do," said Deucalion ; 
 " and yet there can be no harm in it, a:nd we shall 
 see what will happen." 
 
 And so they walked on, down the steep slope of 
 Mount Parnassus, and as they walked they picked 
 up the loose stones in their way and cast them 
 over their shoulders ; and strange to say, the stones 
 which Deucalion threw sprang up as full-grown 
 men, strong, and handsome, and brave; and the 
 stones which Pyrrha threw sprang up as full- 
 grown women, lovely and fair. When at last they , 
 reached the plain they found themselves at the head 
 of a noble company of human beings, all eager to 
 serve them. 
 
 So Deucalion became their king, and he set 
 them in homes, and taught them how to till the 
 ground, and how to do many useful things ; and the 
 land was filled with people who were happier and 
 far better than those who had dwelt there before 
 the flood. And they named the country Hellas, 
 after Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha ; 
 and the people are to this day called Hellenes. 
 
 But we call the country GREECE. 
 
THE STORY OF IO. 
 
 IN the town of Argos there lived a maiden 
 named lo. She was so fair and good that all who 
 knew her loved her, and said that there was no one 
 like her in the whole world. When Jupiter, in his 
 home in the clouds, heard of her, he came down to 
 Argos to see her. She pleased him so much, and 
 was so kind and wise, that he came back the next 
 day and the next and the next ; and by and by he 
 stayed in Argos all the time so that he might be 
 near her. She did not know who he was, but 
 thought that he was a prince from some far-off 
 land; for he came in the guise of a young man, 
 and did not look like the great king of earth and 
 sky that he was. 
 
 But Juno, the queen who lived with Jupiter and 
 shared his throne in the midst of the clouds, did 
 not love lo at all. When she heard why Jupiter 
 stayed from home so long, she made up her mind 
 to do the fair girl all the harm that she could ; and 
 one day she went down to Argos to try what could 
 be done. 
 
 32 
 
33 
 
 Jupiter saw her while she was yet a great way 
 off, and he knew why she had come. So, to save 
 lo from her, he changed the maiden to a white 
 cow. He thought that when Juno had gone back 
 home, it would not be hard to give lo her own 
 form again. 
 
 But when the queen saw the cow, she knew that 
 it was lo. 
 
 " Oh, what a fine cow you have there ! " she 
 said. " Give her to me, good Jupiter, give her 
 to me!" 
 
 Jupiter did not like to do this; but she coaxed 
 so hard that <at last he gave up, and let her have 
 the cow for her own. He thought that it would 
 not be long till he could get her away from the 
 queen, and change her to a girl once more. But 
 Juno was too wise to trust him. She took the 
 cow by her horns, and led her out of the town. 
 
 " Now, my sweet maid," she said, " I will see that 
 you stay in this shape as long as you live." 
 
 Then she gave the cow in charge of a strange 
 watchman named Argus, who had, not two eyes only, 
 as you and I have, but ten times ten. And Argus 
 led the cow to a grove, and tied her by a long rope 
 to a tree, where she had to stand and eat grass, and 
 cry, " Moo ! moo ! " from morn till night ; and when 
 the sun had set, and it was dark, she lay down on 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 3 
 
34 
 
 the cold ground and wept, and cried, " Moo! moo 1" 
 till she fell asleep. 
 
 But no kind friend heard her, and no one came 
 to help her; for none but Jupiter and Juno knew 
 that the w^hite cow who stood in the grove was lo, 
 whom all the world loved. Day in and day out, 
 Argus, who was all eyes, sat on a hill close by and 
 kept watch ; and you could not say that he went 
 to sleep at all, for while half of his eyes were shut, 
 the other half were wide awake, and thus they slept 
 and watched by turns. 
 
 Jupiter was grieved when he saw to what a hard 
 life lo had been doomed, and he tried to think of 
 some plan to set her free. One day he called sly 
 Mercury, who had wings on his shoes, and bade 
 him go and lead the cow away from the grove 
 where she was kept. Mercury went down and 
 stood near the foot of the hill where Argus sat, and 
 began to play sweet tunes on his flute. This was 
 just what the strange watchman liked to hear; and 
 so he called to Mercury, and asked him to come up 
 and sit by his side and play still other tunes. 
 
 Mercury did as he wished, and played such 
 strains of sweet music as no one in all the world 
 has heard from that day to this. And as he played, 
 queer old Argus lay down upon the grass and lis- 
 tened, and thought that he had not had so great a 
 
35 
 
 treat in all his life. But by and by those sweet 
 sounds wrapped him in so strange a spell that all 
 his eyes closed at once, and he fell into a deep sleep. 
 
 This was just what Mercury wished. It was not 
 a brave thing to do, and yet he drew a long, sharp 
 knife from his belt and cut off the head of poor 
 Argus while he slept. Then he ran down the hill 
 to loose the cow and lead her to the town. 
 
 But Juno had seen him kill her watchman, and 
 she met him on the road. She cried out to' him 
 and told him to let the cow go ; and her" face was 
 so full of wrath that, as soon as he saw her, he 
 turned and fled, and left poor lo to her fate. 
 
 Juno was so much grieved when she saw Argus 
 stretched dead in the grass on the hilltop, that she 
 took his hundred eyes and set them in the tail of a 
 peacock; and there you may still see them to this day. 
 
 Then she found a great gadfly, as big as a bat, 
 and sent it to buzz in the white cow's ears, and to 
 bite her and sting her so that she could have no 
 rest all day long. Poor lo ran from place to place 
 to get out of its way ; but it buzzed and buzzed, and 
 stung and stung, till she was wild with fright and 
 pain, and wished that she were dead. Day after 
 day she ran, now through the thick woods, now in 
 the long grass that grew on the treeless plains, and 
 now by the shore of the sea. 
 
37 
 
 By and by she came to a narrow neck of the sea, 
 arid, since the land on the other side looked as 
 though she might find rest there, she leaped into 
 the waves and swam across ; and that place has 
 been called Bosphorus a word which means the 
 Sea of the Cow from that time till now, and 
 you will find it so marked on the maps which 
 you use at school. Then she went on through a 
 strange land on the other side, but, let her do what 
 she would, she could not get rid of the gadfly. 
 
 After a time she came to a place where there 
 were high mountains with snow-capped peaks which 
 seemed to touch the sky. There she stopped to 
 rest a while ; and she looked up at the calm, cold 
 cliffs above her and wished that she might die 
 where all was so grand and still. But as she 
 looked she saw a giant form stretched upon the 
 rocks midway between earth and sky, and she knew 
 at once that it was Prometheus, the young Titan, 
 whom Jupiter had chained there because he had 
 given fire to men. 
 
 " My sufferings are not so great as his," she 
 thought ; and her eyes were filled with tears. 
 
 Then Prometheus looked down and spoke to her, 
 and his voice was very mild and kind. 
 
 " I know who you are," he said ; and then he told 
 her not to lose hope, but to go south and then west, 
 
38 
 
 and she would by and by find a place in which to 
 rest. 
 
 She would have thanked him if she could ; but 
 when she tried to speak she could only say, u Moo ! 
 moo ! " 
 
 Then Prometheus went on and told her that 
 the time would come when she should be given 
 her own form again, and that she should live to 
 be the mother of a race of heroes. " As for 
 me," said he, " I bide the time in patience, for I 
 know that one of those heroes will break my 
 chains and set me free. Farewell ! " 
 
 Then lo, with a brave heart, left the great Titan 
 and journeyed, as he had told her, first south and 
 then west. The gadfly was worse now than before, 
 but she did not fear it half so much, for her heart 
 was full of hope. For a whole year she wandered, 
 and at last she came to the land of Egypt in Africa. 
 She felt so tired now that she could go no farther, 
 and so she lay down near the bank of the great 
 River Nile to rest. 
 
 All this time Jupiter might have helped her had 
 he not been so much afraid of Juno. But now it 
 so chanced that when the poor cow lay down by 
 the bank of the Nile, Queen Juno, in her high house 
 in the clouds, also lay down to take a nap. As 
 soon as she was sound asleep, Jupiter like a flash 
 
39 
 
 of light sped over the sea to Egypt. He killed the 
 cruel gadfly and threw it into the river. Then he 
 stroked the cow's head with his hand, and the cow 
 was seen no more ; but in her place stood the young 
 girl lo, pale and frail, but fair and good as she had 
 been in her old home in the town of Argos. Jupiter 
 said not a word, nor even showed himself to the 
 tired, trembling maiden. He hurried back with all 
 speed to his high home in the clouds, for he feared 
 that Juno might waken and find out what he had 
 done. 
 
 The people of Egypt were kind to lo, and gave 
 her a home in their sunny land ; and by and by the 
 king of Egypt asked her to be his wife, and made 
 her his queen ; and she lived a long and happy life 
 in his marble palace on the bank of the Nile. Ages 
 afterward, the great-grandson of the great-grandson 
 of lo's great-grandson broke the chains of Pro- 
 metheus and set that mighty friend of mankind 
 free. 
 
 The name of the hero was Hercules. 
 
THE WONDERFUL WEAVER. 
 
 I. THE WARP. 
 
 THERE was a young girl in Greece whose name 
 was Arachne. Her face was pale but fair, and her 
 eyes were big and blue, and her hair was long and 
 like gold. All that she cared to do from morn till 
 noon was to sit in the sun and spin ; and all that 
 she cared to do from noon till night was to sit in 
 the shade and weave. 
 
 And oh, how fine and fair were the things which 
 she wove in her loom ! Flax, wool, silk she 
 worked with them all ; and when they came from 
 her hands, the cloth which she had made of them 
 was so thin and soft and bright that men came 
 from all parts of the world to see it And they 
 said that cloth so rare could not be made of flax, 
 or wool, or silk, but that the warp was of rays of 
 sunlight and the woof was of threads of gold. 
 
 Then as, day by day, the girl sat in the sun and 
 span, or sat in the shade and wove, she said : " In 
 all the world there is no yarn so fine as mine, and 
 
 40 
 
* ' ARACHNE, I AM ATHENA, THE QUEEN OF THE AIR.' " 
 
42 
 
 in all the world there is no cloth so soft and 
 smooth, nor silk so bright and rare." 
 
 " Who taught you to spin and weave so well ? " 
 some one asked. 
 
 " No one taught me," she said. " I learned how 
 to do it as I sat in the sun and the shade ; but no 
 one showed me." 
 
 " But it may be that Athena, the queen of the 
 air, taught you, and you did not know it." 
 
 " Athena, the queen of the air? Bah!" said 
 Arachne. " How could she teach me ? Can she 
 spin such skeins of yarn as these ? Can she weave 
 goods like mine ? I should like to see her try. I 
 can teach her a thing or two." 
 
 She looked up and saw in the doorway a tall 
 woman wrapped in a long cloak. Her face was 
 fair to- see, but stern, oh, so stern ! and her gray 
 eyes were so sharp and bright that Arachne could 
 not meet her gaze. 
 
 "Arachne," said the woman, " I am Athena, the 
 queen of the air, and I have heard your boast. 
 Do you still mean to say that I have not taught 
 you how to spin and weave ? " 
 
 " No one has taught me," said Arachne ; " and 
 I thank no one for what I know;" and she 
 stood up, straight and proud, by the side of 
 her loom. 
 
43 
 
 " And do you still think that you can spin and 
 weave as well as I ? " said Athena. 
 
 Arachne's cheeks grew pale, but she said : 
 " Yes. I can weave as well as you." 
 
 " Then let me tell you what we will do," said 
 Athena. " Three days from now we will both 
 weave ; you on your loom, and I on mine. We 
 will ask all the world to come and see us; and 
 great Jupiter, who sits in the clouds, shall be the 
 judge. And if your work is best, then I will 
 weave no more so long as the world shall last; 
 but if my work is best, then you shall never use 
 loom or spindle or distaff again. Do you agree 
 to this ? " " I agree," said Arachne. 
 
 " It is well," said Athena. And she was gone. 
 
 II. THE WOOF. 
 
 When the time came for the contest in weaving, 
 all the world was there to see it, and great Jupiter 
 sat among the clouds and looked on. 
 
 Arachne had set up her loom in the shade of a 
 mulberry tree, where butterflies were flitting and 
 grasshoppers chirping all through .the livelong day. 
 But Athena had set up her loom in the sky, where 
 the breezes were blowing and the summer sun was 
 shining; for she was the queen of the air. 
 
44 
 
 Then Arachne took her skeins -of finest silk and 
 began to weave. And she wove a web of marvel-, 
 ous beauty, so thin and light that it would float in 
 the air, and yet so strong that it could hold a lion 
 in its meshes ; and the threads of warp and woof 
 were of many colors, so beautifully arranged and 
 mingled one with another that all who saw were 
 filled with delight. 
 
 " No wonder that the maiden boasted of her 
 skill/' said the people. 
 
 And Jupiter himself nodded. 
 
 Then Athena began to weave. And she took 
 of the sunbeams that gilded the mountain top, and 
 of the snowy fleece of the summer clouds, and of 
 the blue ether of the summer sky, and of the bright 
 green of the summer fields, and of the royal purple 
 of the autumn woods, and what do you suppose 
 she wove ? 
 
 The web which she wove in the sky was full 
 of enchanting pictures of flowers and gardens, and 
 of castles and towers, and of mountain heights, 
 and of men and beasts, and of giants and dwarfs, 
 and of the njighty beings who dwell in the clouds 
 with Jupiter. And those who looked upon it were 
 so filled with wonder and delight, that they forgot 
 all about the beautiful web which Arachne had 
 woven. And Arachne herself was ashamed and 
 
45 
 
 afraid when she saw it; and she hid her face in 
 her hands and wept. 
 
 " Oh, how can I live," she cried, " now that I 
 must never again use loom or spindle or distaff ? " 
 
 And she kept on, weeping and weeping and 
 weeping, and saying, " How can I live ? " 
 
 Then, when Athena saw that the poor maiden 
 would never have any joy unless she were allowed 
 to spin and weave, she took pity on her and said : 
 
 " I would free you from your bargain if I could, 
 but that is a thing which no one can do. You 
 must hold to your agreement never to touch loom 
 or spindle again. And yet, since you will never be 
 happy unless you can spin and weave, I will give 
 you a new form so that you can carry on your work 
 with neither spindle nor loom." 
 
 Then she touched Arachne with the tip of the 
 spear which she sometimes carried ; and the maiden 
 was changed at once into a nimble spider, which ran 
 into a shady place in the grass and began merrily to 
 spin and weave a beautiful web. 
 
 I have heard it said that all the spiders which 
 have been in the world since then are the children 
 of Arachne; but I doubt whether this be true. Yet, 
 for aught I know, Arachne still lives and spins and 
 weaves ; and the very next spider that you see may 
 be she herself. 
 
THE LORD OF THE SILVER BOW. 
 
 I. DELOS. 
 
 LONG before you or I or anybody else can remem- 
 ber, there lived with the Mighty Folk on the moun- 
 tain top a fair and gentle lady named Leto. So fair 
 and gentle was she that Jupiter loved her and made 
 her his wife. But when Juno, the queen of earth 
 and sky, heard of this, she was very angry ; and she 
 drove Leto down from the mountain and bade all 
 things great and small refuse to help her. So Leto 
 fled like a wild deer from land to land and could 
 find no place in which to rest. She could not stop, 
 for then the ground would quake under her feet, 
 and the stones would cry out, u Go on ! go on ! " 
 and birds and beasts and trees and men would 
 join in the cry; and no one in all the wide land 
 took pity on her. 
 
 One day she came to the sea, and as she fled along 
 the beach she lifted up her hands and called aloud 
 to great Neptune to help her. Neptune, the king 
 
 4 6 
 
47 
 
 of the sea, heard her and was kind to her. He sent 
 a huge fish, called a dolphin, to bear her away from 
 the cruel land ; and the fish, with Leto sitting on 
 his broad back, swam through the waves to Delos, 
 a little island which lay floating on top of the water 
 like a boat. There the gentle lady found rest and 
 a home; for the place belonged to Neptune, and 
 the words of cruel Juno were not obeyed there. 
 Neptune put four marble pillars under the island 
 so that it should rest firm upon them ; and then he 
 chained it fast, with great chains which reached to 
 the bottom of the sea, so that the waves might 
 never move it. 
 
 By and by twin babes were born to Leto in 
 Delos. One was a boy whom she called Apollo, 
 the other a girl whom she named Artemis, or 
 Diana. When the news of their birth was carried 
 to Jupiter and the Mighty Folk on the mountain 
 top, all the world was glad. The sun danced on the 
 waters, and singing swans flew seven times round 
 the island of Delos. The moon stooped to kiss the 
 babes in their cradle; and Juno forgot her anger, 
 and bade all things on the earth and in the sky be 
 kind to Leto. 
 
 The two children grew very fast. Apollo be- 
 came tall and strong and graceful ; his face was 
 as bright as the sunbeams; and he carried joy and 
 
4 8 
 
 gladness with him wherever he went. Jupiter gave 
 him a pair of swans and a golden chariot, which bore 
 him over sea and land wherever he wanted to go; 
 and he gave him a lyre on which he played the 
 sweetest music that was ever heard, and a silver 
 bow with sharp arrows which never missed the mark. 
 When Apollo went out into the world, and men 
 came to know about him, he was called by some the 
 Bringer of Light, by others the Master of Song, 
 and by still others the Lord of the Silver Bow. 
 
 Diana was tall and graceful, too, and very hand- 
 some. She liked to wander in the woods with her 
 maids, who were called nymphs ; she took kind care 
 of the timid deer and the helpless creatures which 
 live among the trees ; and she delighted in hunting 
 wolves and bears and other savage beasts. She 
 was loved and feared in every land, and Jupiter 
 made her the queen of the green woods and the 
 chase. 
 
 II. DELPHI. 
 
 " Where is the center of the world ? " 
 This is the question which some one asked Jupiter 
 as he sat in his golden hall. Of course the mighty 
 ruler of earth and sky was too wise to be puzzled 
 by so simple a thing, but he was too busy to answer 
 it at once. So he said: 
 
49 
 
 " Come again in one year from to-day, and I will 
 show you the very place." 
 
 Then Jupiter took two swift eagles which could 
 fly faster than the storm-wind, and trained them till 
 the speed of the one was the same as that of the 
 other. At the end of the year he said to his 
 servants : 
 
 " Take this eagle to the eastern rim of the earth, 
 where the sun rises out of the sea ; and carry his 
 fellow to the far west, where the ocean is lost in 
 darkness and nothing lies beyond. Then, when I 
 give you the sign, loosen both at the same moment." 
 
 The servants did as they were bidden, and 
 carried the eagles to the outermost edges of the 
 world. Then Jupiter clapped his hands. The 
 lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, and the two 
 swift birds were set free. One of them flew straight 
 back towards the west, the other flew straight back 
 towards the east; and no arrow ever sped faster 
 from the bow than did these two birds from the 
 hands of those who had held them. 
 
 On and on. they went like shooting stars rush- 
 ing to meet each other; and Jupiter and all his 
 mighty company sat amid the clouds and watched 
 their flight. Nearer and nearer they came, but 
 they swerved not to the right nor to the left. 
 Nearer and nearer and then with a crash like 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 4 
 
50 
 
 the meeting of two ships at sea, the eagles came 
 together in mid-air and fell dead to the ground. 
 
 " Who asked where is the center of the world? " 
 said Jupiter. " The spot where the two eagles lie 
 that is the center of the world." 
 
 They had fallen on the top of a mountain in 
 Greece which men have ever since called Parnassus. 
 
 " If that is the center of the world," said young 
 Apollo, " then I will make my home there, and 
 I will build a house in that place, so that my 
 light may be seen in all lands." 
 
 So Apollo went down to Parnassus, and looked 
 about for a spot in which to lay the foundations 
 of his house. The mountain itself was savage 
 and wild, and the valley below it was lonely 
 and dark. The few people who lived there kept 
 themselves hidden among the rocks as if in dread 
 of some great danger. They told Apollo that 
 near the foot of the mountain where the steep 
 cliff seemed to be split in two there lived a huge 
 serpent called the Python. This serpent often 
 seized sheep and cattle, and sometimes even men 
 and women and children, and carried them up to 
 his dreadful den and devoured them. 
 
 " Can no one kill this beast? " said Apollo. 
 
 And they said, " No one; and we and our chil- 
 dren and our flocks shall all be slain by him." 
 
Then Apollo with his silver bow in his hands 
 went up towards the place where the Python lay. 
 The monster had worn great paths through the 
 grass and among the rocks, and his lair was not 
 hard to find. When he caught sight of Apollo, he 
 uncoiled himself, and came out to meet him. The 
 bright prince saw the creature's glaring eyes and 
 blood-red mouth, and heard the rush of his scaly 
 body over the stones. He fitted an arrow to his 
 bow, and stood still. The Python saw that his foe 
 was no common man, and turned to flee. Then 
 the arrow sped from the bow and the monster 
 was dead. 
 
 " Here I will build my house," said Apollo. 
 
 Close to the foot of the steep cliff, and beneath 
 the spot where Jupiter's eagles had fallen, he laid 
 the foundations; and soon where had been the lair 
 of the Python, the white walls of Apollo's temple 
 arose among the rocks. Then the poor people of 
 the land came and built their houses near by; and 
 Apollo lived among them many years, and taught 
 them to be gentle and wise, and showed them how 
 to be happy. The mountain was no longer savage 
 and wild, but was a place of music and song ; the 
 valley was no longer dark and lonely, but was filled 
 with beauty and light. 
 
 " What shall we call our city ? " the people asked. 
 
"Call it Delphi, or the Dolphin," said Apollo; 
 " for it was a dolphin that carried my mother across 
 the sea." 
 
 III. DAPHNE. 
 
 In the Vale of Tempe, which lies far north of 
 Delphi, there lived a young girl whose name was 
 Daphne. She was a strange child, wild and shy as 
 a fawn, and as fleet of foot as the deer that feed on 
 the plains. But she was as fair and good as a day 
 in June, and none could know her but to love her. 
 
 Daphne spent the most of her time in the fields 
 and woods, with the birds and blossoms and trees ; 
 and she liked best of all to wander along the banks 
 of the River Peneus, and listen to the ripple of the 
 water as it flowed among the reeds or over the shin- 
 ing pebbles. Very often she would sing and talk to 
 the river as if it were a living thing, and could hear 
 her ; and she fancied that it understood what she 
 said, and that it whispered many a wonderful secret 
 to her in return. The good people who knew her 
 best said : 
 
 " She is the child of the river." 
 
 "Yes, dear river," she said, " let me be your child." 
 
 The river smiled and answered her in a way 
 which she alone could understand ; and always, 
 after that, she called it " Father Peneus." 
 
53 
 
 One day when the sun shone warm, and the air 
 was filled with the perfume of flowers, Daphne 
 wandered farther away from the river than she had 
 ever gone before. She passed through a shady 
 wood and climbed a hill, from the top of which she 
 could see Father Peneus lying white and clear and 
 smiling in the valley below. Beyond her were other 
 hills, and then the green slopes and wooded top of 
 great Mount Ossa. Ah, if she could only climb to 
 the summit of Ossa, she might have a view of the 
 sea, and of other mountains close by, and of the twin 
 peaks of Mount Parnassus, far, far to the south ! 
 
 " Good-by, Father Peneus," she said. " I am going 
 to climb the mountain ; but I will come back soon." 
 
 The river smiled, and Daphne ran onward, climb- 
 ing one hill after another, and wondering why the 
 great mountain seemed still so far away. By and 
 by she came to the foot of a wooded slope where 
 there was a pretty waterfall and the ground was 
 bespangled with thousands of beautiful flowers ; 
 and she sat down there a moment to rest. Then 
 from the grove on the hilltop above her, came the 
 sound of the loveliest music she had ever heard. 
 She stood up and listened. Some one was playing 
 on a lyre, and some one was singing. She was 
 frightened; and still the music was so charming 
 that she could not run away. 
 
54 
 
 T 1 - :.*, all at once, the sound ceased, and a young 
 rr.coi, tail and fair and with a face as bright as the 
 morning sun 5 came down the hillside towards her. 
 
 " Daphne ! " he said ; but she did not stop to 
 hear. She turned and fled like a frightened deer, 
 back towards the Vale of Tempe. 
 
 " Daphne ! " cried the young man. She did not 
 know that it was Apollo, the Lord of the Silver Bow; 
 she only knew that the stranger was following her, 
 and she ran as fast as her fleet feet could carry her. 
 No young man had ever spoken to her before, and 
 the sound of his voice filled her heart with fear. 
 
 "She is the fairest maiden that I ever saw," 
 said Apollo to himself. " If I could only look at 
 her face again and speak with her, how happy I 
 should be." 
 
 Through brake, through brier, over rocks and 
 the trunks of fallen trees, down rugged slopes, 
 across mountain streams, leaping, flying, panting, 
 Daphne ran. She looked not once behind her, but 
 she heard the swift footsteps of Apollo coming 
 always nearer; she heard the rattle of the silver 
 bow which hung from his shoulders ; she heard his 
 very breath, he was so close to her. At last she 
 was in the valley where the ground was smooth 
 and it was easier running, but her strength was 
 fast leaving her. Right before her, however, lay 
 
SHE TURNED AND FLED LIKE A FRIGHTENED DEER." 
 
5 6 
 
 the river, white and smiling in the sunlight. She 
 stretched out her arms and cried: 
 
 " O Father Peneus, save me ! " 
 
 Then it seemed as though the river rose up to 
 meet her. The air was filled with a blinding mist. 
 For a moment Apollo lost sight of the fleeing 
 maiden. Then he saw her close by the river's 
 bank, and so near to him that her long hair, 
 streaming behind her, brushed his cheek. He 
 thought that she was about to leap into the rush- 
 ing, roaring waters, and he reached out his hands 
 to save her. But it was not the fair, timid Daphne 
 that he caught in his arms; it was the trunk of 
 a laurel tree, its green leaves trembling in the 
 breeze. 
 
 "O Daphne! Daphne !" he cried, "is this the 
 way in which the river saves you? Does Father 
 Peneus turn you into a tree to keep you from me ? " 
 
 Whether Daphne had really been turned into 
 a tree, I know not; nor does it matter now 
 it was so long ago. But Apollo believed that it 
 was so, and hence he made a wreath of the laurel 
 leaves and set it on his head like a crown, and 
 said that he would wear it always in memory of 
 the lovely maiden. And ever after that, the laurel 
 was Apollo's favorite tree, and, even to this day, 
 poets and musicians are crowned with its leaves. 
 
57 
 
 IV. DELUDED. 
 
 Apollo did not care to live much of the time 
 with his mighty kinsfolk on the mountain top. 
 He liked better to go about from place to place and 
 from land to land, seeing people at their work and 
 making their lives happy. When men first saw 
 his fair boyish face and his soft white hands, they 
 sneered and said he was only an idle, good-for- 
 nothing fellow. But when they heard him speak, 
 they were so charmed that they stood, spellbound, 
 to listen ; and ever after that they made his words 
 their law. They wondered how it was that he was 
 so wise ; for it seemed to them that he did nothing 
 but stroll about, playing on his wonderful lyre and 
 looking at the trees and blossoms and. birds and 
 bees. But when any of them were sick they came 
 to him, and he told them what to find in plants or 
 stones or brooks that would heal them and make 
 them strong again. They noticed that he did not 
 grow old, as others did, but that he was always 
 young and fair; and, even after he had gone away, 
 they knew not how, nor whither, it seemed as 
 though the earth were a brighter and sweeter place 
 to live in than it had been before his coming. 
 
 In a mountain village beyond the Vale of Tempe, 
 there lived a beautiful lady named Coronis. When 
 
58 
 
 Apollo saw her, he loved her and made her his 
 wife ; and for a long time the two lived together, 
 and were happy. By and by a babe was born to 
 them, a boy with the most wonderful eyes that 
 anybody ever saw, and they named him ^Escu- 
 lapius. Then the mountains and the woods were 
 filled with the music of Apollo's lyre, and even the 
 Mighty Folk on the mountain top were glad. 
 
 One day Apollo left Coronis and her child, and 
 went on a journey to visit his favorite home on 
 Mount Parnassus. 
 
 " I shall hear from you every day," he said at part- 
 ing. " The crow will fly swiftly every morning to 
 Parnassus, and tell me whether you and the child 
 are well, and what you are doing while I am away." 
 
 For Apollo had a pet crow which was very wise, 
 and could talk. The bird was not black, like the 
 crows which you have seen, but as white as snow. 
 Men say that all crows were white until that time, 
 but I doubt whether anybody knows. 
 
 Apollo's crow was a great tattler, and did not 
 always tell the truth. It would see the beginning 
 of something, and then, without waiting to know 
 anything more about it, would hurry off and make 
 up a great story about it. But there was no one 
 else to carry news from Coronis to Apollo ; for, as 
 you know, there were no postmen in those days, 
 
59 
 
 and there was not a telegraph wire in the whole 
 world. 
 
 All went well for several days. Every morning 
 the white bird would wing its way over hills and 
 plains and rivers and forests until it found Apollo, 
 either in the groves on the top of Parnassus or in 
 his own house at Delphi. Then it would alight 
 upon his shoulder and say, " Coronis is well ! 
 Coronis is well ! " 
 
 One day, however, it had a different story. It 
 came much earlier than ever before, and seemed to 
 be in great haste. 
 
 "Cor Cor Cor!" it cried; but it was so out 
 of breath that it could not speak her whole name. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " cried Apollo, in alarm. 
 " Has anything happened to Coronis ? Speak ! 
 Tell me the truth!" 
 
 " She does not love you ! she does not love you ! " 
 cried the crow. " I saw a man I saw a man, " 
 and then, without stopping to take breath, or to 
 finish the story, it flew up into the air, and hurried 
 homeward again. 
 
 Apollo, who had always been so wise, was now 
 almost as foolish as his crow. He fancied that 
 Coronis had really deserted him for another man, 
 and his mind was filled with grief and rage. With 
 his silver bow in his hands he started at once for 
 
6o 
 
 his home. He did not stop to speak with any one ; 
 he had made up his mind to learn the truth for 
 himself. His swan-team and his golden chariot 
 were not at hand for, now that he was living 
 with men, he must travel like men. The journey 
 had to be made on foot, and it was no short journey 
 in those days when there were no roads. But after 
 a time, he came to the village where he had lived 
 happily for so many years, and soon he saw his 
 own house half hidden among the dark-leaved olive 
 trees. In another minute he would know whether 
 the crow had told him the truth. 
 
 He heard the. footsteps of some one running in 
 the grove. He caught a glimpse of a white robe 
 among the trees. He felt sure that this was the 
 man whom the crow had seen, and that he was 
 trying to run away. He fitted an arrow to his bow 
 quickly. He drew the string. Twang! And the 
 arrow which never missed sped like a flash of light 
 through the air. 
 
 Apollo heard a sharp, wild cry of pain ; and 
 he bounded forward through the grove. There, 
 stretched dying on the grass, he saw his dear 
 Coronis. She had seen him coming, and was 
 running gladly to greet him, when the cruel arrow 
 pierced her heart. Apollo was overcome with 
 grief. He took her form in his arms, and tried to 
 
6i 
 
 call her back to life again. But it was all in vain. 
 She could only whisper his name, and then she 
 was dead. 
 
 A moment afterwards the crow alighted on one 
 of the trees near by. "Cor Cor Cor," it began; 
 for it wanted now to finish its story. But Apollo 
 bade it begone. 
 
 "Cursed bird," he cried, "you shall never say a 
 word but ' Cor Cor Cor ! ' all your life ; and the 
 feathers of which you are so proud shall no longer 
 be white, but black as midnight." 
 
 And from that time to this, as you very well 
 know, all crows have been black ; and they fly from 
 one dead tree to another, always crying, "Cor 
 cor cor ! " 
 
 V. DISGRACED. 
 
 Soon after this, Apollo took the little ^Esculapius 
 in his arms and carried him to a wise old school- 
 master named Cheiron, who lived in a cave under 
 the gray cliffs of a mountain close by the sea. 
 
 " Take this child," he said, " and teach him all the 
 lore of the mountains, the woods, and the fields. 
 Teach him those things which he most needs to 
 know in order to do great good to his fellow-men." 
 
 And ^Esculapius proved to be a wise child, gentle 
 and sweet and teachable ; and among all the pupils 
 
62 
 
 of Cheiron he was the best loved. He learned the 
 lore of the mountains, the woods, and the fields. 
 He found out what virtue there is in herbs and 
 flowers and senseless stones ; and he studied the 
 habits of birds and beasts and men. But above all 
 he became skillful in dressing wounds and healing 
 diseases ; and to this day physicians remember and 
 honor him as the first and greatest of their craft. 
 When he grew up to manhood his name was heard 
 in every land, and people blessed him because he 
 was the friend of life and the foe of death. 
 
 As time went by, ^Esculapius cured so many 
 people and saved so many lives that Pluto, the pale- 
 faced king of the Lower World, became alarmed. 
 
 " I shall soon have nothing to do," he said, " if this 
 physician does not stop keeping people away from 
 my kingdom." 
 
 And he sent word to his brother Jupiter, and 
 complained that ^Esculapius was cheating him out 
 of what was his due. Great Jupiter listened to his 
 complaint, and stood up among the storm clouds, 
 and hurled his thunderbolts at ^Esculapius until 
 the great physician was cruelly slain. Then all the 
 world was filled with grief, and even the beasts and 
 the trees and the stones wept because the friend of 
 life was no more. 
 
 When Apollo heard of the death of his son, his 
 
63 
 
 grief and wrath were terrible. He could not do 
 anything against Jupiter and Pluto, for they were 
 stronger than he ; but he went down into the smithy 
 of Vulcan, underneath the smoking mountains, and 
 slew the giant smiths who had made the deadly 
 thunderbolts. 
 
 Then Jupiter, in his turn, was angry, and ordered 
 Apollo to come before him and be punished for 
 what he had done. He took away his bow and 
 arrows and his wonderful lyre and all his beauty 
 of form and feature; and after that Jupiter clothed 
 him in the rags of a beggar and drove him down 
 from the mountain, and told him that he should 
 never come back nor be himself again until he 
 had served some man a whole year as a slave. 
 
 And so Apollo went out, alone and friendless, 
 into the world ; and no one who saw him would 
 have dreamed that he was once the sun-bright 
 Lord of the Silver Bow. 
 
ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS. 
 
 I. THE SLAVE. 
 
 IN a little town north of Delphi, and not very 
 far from the sea, there lived a young man named 
 Admetus. He was the ruler of the town, and 
 hence was called its king ; but his kingdom was 
 so small that he could walk all round it in half 
 a day. He knew the name of every man and 
 woman and child in the town, and everybody loved 
 him because he was so gentle and kind and at 
 the same time a king. 
 
 Late one day, when the rain was falling and 
 the wind was blowing cold from the mountains, 
 a beggar came to his door. The man was ragged 
 and dirty and half starved, and Admetus knew 
 that he must have come from some strange land, 
 for in his own country no one ever went hungry. 
 So the kind king took him into the house and 
 fed him ; and after the man had bathed he gave 
 him his own warm cloak, and bade the servants 
 
 make a place for him to sleep through the night. 
 
 6 4 
 
A: , 
 , , - 
 
 - O f 
 
 In the morning Admetus asked the poor man 
 his name, but he shook his head and made no 
 answer. Then Admetus asked him about his 
 home and his country ; and all that the man 
 would say was : " Make me your slave, master ! 
 Make me your slave, and let me serve you for 
 a year." 
 
 The young king did not need another servant. 
 But he saw that the poorest slave in the land 
 was better off than this man, and so he took pity 
 on him. " I will do as you ask," he said. " I win 
 give you a home and food and clothing; and you 
 shall serve me and be my slave for one year." 
 
 There was but little that the stranger knew 
 how to do, and so he was sent to the hills to 
 take care of the king's sheep and goats. For a 
 whole year he tended the flocks, finding the green- 
 est pastures and the freshest water for them, and 
 keeping the wolves away. Admetus was very kind 
 to him, as he was to all his servants, and the 
 food and clothing which he gave him were of 
 the best in the land. But the stranger did not 
 tell his name nor say anything about his kindred 
 or his home. 
 
 When a year and a day had passed, it so hap- 
 pened that Admetus was walking out among the 
 hills to see his sheep. All at once the sound of 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 5 
 
66 
 
 music fell upon his ear. It was no such music as 
 shepherds play, but sweeter and richer than any 
 he had ever heard before. He looked to see where 
 the sound came from. Ah ! who was that sitting 
 on the hilltop, with the sheep around him listening 
 to his music? Surely it was not his shepherd? 
 
 It was a tall and handsome young man, clad 
 in robes lighter and finer than any king might 
 wear. His face was as bright as sunbeams, and 
 his eyes gleamed like lightning. Upon his shoulder 
 was a silver bow, from his belt hung a quiver of 
 sharp arrows, and in his hands was a golden lyre. 
 Admetus stood still /and wondered. Then the 
 stranger spoke : / 
 
 " King Admetu^; ' he said, " I am the poor beg- 
 gar whom you fed your slave to whom you were 
 so kind. I have served you, as I agreed, for a 
 whole year, and now I am going home. Is there 
 anything I can do for you ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Admetus ; " tell me your name." 
 
 " My name is Apollo," was the answer. " Twelve 
 months ago my father, mighty Jupiter, drove me 
 away from before his face and bade me go out 
 friendless and alone upon the earth ; and he told 
 me that I should not turn again towards home until 
 I had served a year as some man's slave. I came 
 to you, ragged and half starved, and you fed and 
 
6 7 
 
 clothed me ; and I became your slave, and you 
 were as kind to me as though I were your son. 
 What shall I give you to reward you ? " 
 
 " Lord of the Silver Bow," said the king, " I have 
 all that any man can want. I am happy in the 
 thought that I have been of some help to you. I 
 can ask for nothing more." 
 
 " Very well," said Apollo; u but if the time should 
 ever come when you need my help, let me know." 
 
 Then the bright prince walked swiftly away, play- 
 ing sweet music as he went; and Admetus with 
 glad heart returned to his home. 
 
 II. THE CHARIOT. 
 
 From the place where Admetus lived it was only 
 a few miles to lolcus, a rich city by the sea. The 
 king of lolcus was a cruel tyrant named Pelias, who 
 cared for nobody in all the world but himself. This 
 Pelias had a daughter named Alcestis, who was as 
 fair as any rose in June and so gentle and good that 
 everybody praised her. Many a prince from over 
 the sea had come to woo Alcestis for his wife ; and 
 the noblest young men in Greece had tried to win 
 her favor. But there was only one to whom she 
 would listen, and that was her young neighbor, 
 King Admetus. 
 
68 
 
 So Admetus went before gruff King Pelias to 
 ask him whether he might wed Alcestis. 
 
 " No one shall have my daughter," said the old 
 king, "until he proves that he is worthy to be my 
 son-in-law. If you want her, you must come for 
 her in a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild boar. 
 If you come in any other way, she shall not be 
 your wife." And Pelias laughed, and drove the 
 young man out of his palace. 
 
 Admetus went away feeling very sad ; for who 
 had ever heard of harnessing a lion and a wild 
 boar together in a chariot? The bravest man in 
 the world could not do such a thing as that. 
 
 As he walked along and saw the sheep and 
 goats feeding on the hilltops near his own town, 
 he chanced to think of Apollo and of the last 
 words that he had heard him say : " When you 
 need my help, let me know." 
 
 " I will let him know," said Admetus. 
 
 Early the next morning he built an altar of 
 stones in the open field; and when he had killed 
 the fattest goat of the flock, he built a fire on the 
 altar and laid the thighs of the goat in the flames. 
 Then when the smell of the burning flesh went 
 up into the air, he lifted his hands towards the 
 mountain tops and called to Apollo. 
 
 " Lord of the Silver Bow," he cried, " if ever I 
 
6 9 
 
 have shown kindness to the poor and the dis- 
 tressed, come now and help me. For I am in 
 sore need, and I remember your promise." 
 
 Hardly was he done speaking when bright 
 Apollo, bearing his bow and his quiver of arrows, 
 came down and stood before him. 
 
 " Kindest of kings," he said, "tell me how I can 
 help you." 
 
 Then Admetus told him all about the fair 
 Alcestis, and how her father would give her only 
 to the man who should come for her in a chariot 
 drawn by a lion and a wild boar. 
 
 " Come with me," said Apollo, " and I will help 
 you." 
 
 Then the two went together into the forest, the 
 Lord of the Silver Bow leading the way. Soon 
 they started a lion from its lair and gave chase 
 to it. The fleet-footed Apollo seized the beast by 
 its mane, and although it howled and snapped with 
 its fierce jaws it did not touch him. Then Adme- 
 tus started a wild boar from a thicket. Apollo 
 gave chase to it, too, making the lion run beside 
 him like a dog. When he had caught the boar, 
 he went on through the forest, leading the two 
 beasts, one with his right hand, the other with his 
 left ; and Admetus followed behind. 
 
 It was not yet noon when they came to the 
 
edge of the woods and saw the sea and the city 
 of lolcus only a little way off. A golden chariot 
 stood by the roadside as if waiting for them, and 
 the lion and the boar were soon harnessed to it. 
 It was a strange team, and the two beasts tried 
 hard to fight each other; but Apollo lashed them 
 with a whip and tamed them until they lost their 
 fierceness and were ready to mind the rein. Then 
 Admetus climbed into the chariot; and Apollo 
 stood by his side and held the reins and the whip, 
 and drove into lolcus. 
 
 Old King Pelias was astonished when he saw 
 the wonderful chariot and the glorious charioteer; 
 and when Admetus again asked him for the fair 
 Alcestis, he could not refuse. A day was set for 
 the wedding, and Apollo drove his team back to 
 the forest and set the lion and the wild boar free. 
 
 And so Admetus and Alcestis were married, 
 and everybody in the two towns, except gruff 
 old King Pelias, was glad. Apollo himself was 
 one of the guests at the wedding feast, and he 
 brought a present for the young bridegroom; it 
 was a promise from the Mighty Folk upon the 
 mountain top that if Admetus should ever be sick 
 and in danger of death, he might become well 
 again if some one who loved him would die for 
 him. 
 
III. THE SHADOW LEADER. 
 
 Admetus and Alcestis lived together happily for 
 a long time, and all the people in their little king- 
 dom loved and blessed them. But at last Admetus 
 fell sick, and, as he grew worse and worse every day, 
 all hope that he would ever get well was lost. Then 
 those who loved him remembered the wedding gift 
 which Apollo had given him, and they began to ask 
 who would be willing to die in his stead. 
 
 His father and mother were very old and could 
 hope to live but a short time at best, and so it was 
 thought that one of them would be glad to give 
 up life for the sake of their son. But when some 
 one asked them about it, they shook their heads 
 and said that though life was short they would 
 cling to it as long as they could. 
 
 Then his brothers and sisters were asked if they 
 would die for Admetus, but they loved themselves 
 better than their brother, and turned away and left 
 him. There were men in the town whom he had 
 befriended and who owed their lives to him ; they 
 would have done everything else for him, but this 
 thing .they would not do. 
 
 Now while all were shaking their heads and say- 
 ing " Not I," the beautiful Alcestis went into her 
 own room and called to Apollo and asked that she 
 
73 
 
 might give up her life to save her husband. Then 
 without a thought of fear she lay down upon her 
 bed and closed her eyes ; and a little while after- 
 ward, when her maidens came into the room they 
 found her dead. 
 
 At the very same time Admetus felt his sickness 
 leave him, and he sprang up as well and strong 
 as he had ever been. Wondering how it was that 
 he had been so quickly cured, he made haste to 
 find Alcestis and tell her the good news. But 
 when he went into her room, ,he saw her lying 
 lifeless on her couch, and he knew at once that 
 she had died .for him. His grief was so great that 
 he could not speak, and he wished that death had 
 taken him and spared the one whom he loved. 
 
 In all the land every eye was wet with weeping 
 for Alcestis, and the cries of the mourners were 
 heard in every house. Admetus sat by the couch 
 where his young queen lay, and held her cold hand 
 in his own. The day passed, and night came, but 
 he would not leave her. All through the dark 
 hours he sat there alone. The morning dawned, 
 but he did not want to see the light. 
 
 At last the sun began to rise in the east, and 
 then Admetus was surprised to feel the hand 
 which he held growing warm. He saw a red 
 tinge coming into the pale cheeks of Alcestis. 
 
74 
 
 A moment later the fair lady opened her eyes 
 and sat up, alive and well and glad. 
 
 How was it that Alcestis had been given back to 
 life ? 
 
 When she died and left her body, the Shadow 
 Leader, who knows no pity, led her, as he led all 
 others, to the cheerless halls of Proserpine, the 
 queen of the Lower World. 
 
 " Who is this who comes so willingly ? " asked the 
 pale-faced queen. 
 
 And when she was told how Alcestis, so young 
 and beautiful, had given her life to save that of her 
 husband, she was moved with pity; and she bade 
 the Shadow Leader take her back again to the joy 
 and sunlight of the Upper World. 
 
 So it was that Alcestis came to life ; and for 
 many years she and Admetus lived in their little 
 kingdom not far from the sea ; and the Mighty Ones 
 on the mountain top blessed them ; and, at last, 
 when they had become very old, the Shadow Leader 
 led them both away together. 
 
CADMUS AND EUROPA. 
 
 I. THE BULL. 
 
 IN Asia there lived a king who had two children, 
 a boy and a girl. The boy's name was Cadmus, 
 and the girl's name was Europa. The king's coun- 
 try was a very small one. He could stand on his 
 house top and see the whole of it. On one side of 
 it there were mountains, and on the other side was 
 the sea. The king thought that it was the center 
 of the world, and he did not know much about 
 other lands and people. 
 
 Yet he was very happy in his own little kingdom, 
 and very fond of his children. And he had good 
 reason to be proud of them ; for Cadmus grew up 
 to be the bravest young man in the land, and 
 Europa to be the fairest maiden that had ever been 
 seen. But sad days came to them all at last. 
 
 One morning Europa went out into a field near 
 the seashore to pick flowers. Her father's cattle 
 were in the field, grazing among the sweet clover. 
 They were all very tame, and Europa knew every 
 one of them by name. The herdsman was lying 
 
 75 
 
7 6 
 
 in the shade under a tree, trying to make' music on 
 a little flute of straw. Europa had played in the 
 field a thousand times before, and no one had ever 
 thought of any harm befalling her. 
 
 That morning she noticed that there was a 
 strange bull with the herd. He was very large 
 and as white as snow; and he had soft brown 
 eyes which somehow made him look very gentle 
 and kind. At first he did not even look at 
 Europa, but went here and there, eating the 
 tender grass which grew among the clover. But 
 when she had gathered her apron full of daisies 
 and buttercups, he came slowly towards her. She 
 was not at all afraid of him ; and so she stopped 
 to look at him, he was so handsome. He came 
 close to her, and rubbed her arm with his nose 
 to say " Good-morning ! " 
 
 She stroked his head and neck, and he seemed 
 much pleased. Then she made a wreath of daisies, 
 and hung it round his neck. He looked at her 
 with his soft kind eyes, and seemed to thank her ; 
 and in a little while, he lay down among the clover. 
 Europa then made a smaller wreath, and climbed 
 upon his back to twine it round his horns. But all 
 at once he sprang up, and ran away so swiftly that 
 Europa could not help herself. She did not dare 
 to jump off while he was going so fast, and all that 
 
77 
 
 she could think to do was to hold fast to his neck 
 and scream very loud. 
 
 The herdsman under the tree heard her scream, 
 and jumped up to see what was the matter. He 
 saw the bull running with her towards the shore. 
 He ran after them as fast as he could, but it was 
 of no use. The bull leaped into the sea, and swam 
 swiftly away, with poor Europa on his back. Sev- 
 eral other people had seen him, and now they ran 
 to tell the king. Soon the whole town was alarmed. 
 Everybody ran out to the shore and looked. All 
 that could be seen was something white moving 
 very fast 'over the calm, blue water; and soon it 
 was out of sight. 
 
 The king sent out his fastest ship to try to over- 
 take the bull. The sailors rowed far out to sea, 
 much farther than any ship had ever gone before ; 
 but no trace of Europa could be found. When 
 they came back, everybody felt that there was no 
 more hope. All the women and children in the 
 town wept for the lost Europa. The king shut 
 himself up in his house, and did not eat nor drink 
 for three days. Then he called his son Cadmus, 
 and bade him take a ship and go in search of his 
 sister; and he told him that, no matter what dan- 
 gers might be in his way, he must not come back 
 until she was found. 
 
78 
 
 Cadmus was glad to go. He chose twenty brave 
 young men to go with him, and set sail the very 
 next day. It was a great undertaking; for they 
 were to pass through an unknown sea, and they 
 did not know what lands they would come to. 
 Indeed, it was feared that they would never come 
 to any land at all. Ships did not dare to go far 
 from the shore in those days. But Cadmus and 
 his friends were not afraid. They were ready to 
 face any danger. 
 
 In a few days they came to a large island called 
 Cyprus. Cadmus went on shore, and tried to talk 
 with the strange people who lived there. They 
 were very kind to him, but they did not under- 
 stand his language. At last he made out by signs 
 to tell them who he was, and to ask them if they 
 had seen his little sister Europa or the white bull 
 that had carried her away. They shook their heads 
 and pointed to the west. 
 
 Then the young men sailed on in their little 
 ship. They came to many islands, and stopped at 
 every one, to see if they could find any trace of 
 Europa; but they heard no news of her at all. 
 At last, they came to the country which we now 
 call Greece. It was a new country then, and only 
 a few people lived there, and Cadmus soon learned 
 to speak their language well. For a long time he 
 
79 
 
 wandered from one little town to another, always 
 telling the story of his lost sister. 
 
 II. THE PYTHIA. 
 
 One day an old man told Cadmus that if he 
 would go to Delphi and ask the Pythia, perhaps 
 she could tell him all about Europa. Cadmus had 
 never heard of Delphi or of the Pythia, and he 
 asked the old man what he meant. 
 
 " I will tell you," said the man. " Delphi is a 
 town, built near the foot of Mount Parnassus, at 
 the very center of the earth. It is the town of 
 Apollo, the Bringer of Light ; and there is a temple 
 there, built close to the spot where Apollo killed a 
 black serpent, many, many years ago. The temple 
 is the most wonderful place in the world. In the 
 middle of the floor there is a wide crack, or crevice; 
 and this crevice goes down, down into the rock, 
 nobody knows how deep. A strange odor comes up 
 out of the crevice ; and if any one breathes much 
 of it, he is apt to fall over and lose his senses." 
 
 " But who is the Pythia that you spoke about ? " 
 asked Cadmus. 
 
 " I will tell you," said the old man. " The Pythia 
 is a wise woman, who lives in the temple. When 
 anybody asks her a hard question, she takes a 
 
8o 
 
 three-legged stool, called a tripod, and sets it over 
 the crevice in the floor. Then she sits on the stool 
 and breathes the strange odor ; and instead of los- 
 ing her senses as other people would do, she talks 
 with Apollo ; and Apollo tells her how to answer 
 the question. Men from all parts of the world go 
 there to ask about things which they would like to 
 know. The temple is full of the beautiful and 
 costly gifts which they have brought for the 
 Pythia. Sometimes she answers them plainly, and 
 sometimes she answers them in riddles ; but what 
 she says always comes true." 
 
 So Cadmus went to Delphi to ask the Pythia 
 about his lost sister. The wise woman was very 
 kind to him ; and when he had given her a beauti- 
 ful golden cup to pay her for her trouble, she sat 
 down on the tripod and breathed the strange odor 
 which came up through the crevice in the rock. 
 Then her face grew pale, and her eyes looked wild, 
 and she seemed to be in great pain ; but they said 
 that she was talking with Apollo. Cadmus asked 
 her to tell him what had become of Europa. She 
 said that Jupiter, in the form of a white bull, had 
 carried her away, and that it would be of no use to 
 look for her any more. 
 
 " But what shall I do ? " said Cadmus. " My father 
 told me not to turn back till I should find her." 
 
8i 
 
 " Your father is dead," said the Pythia, " and a 
 strange king rules in his place. You must stay in 
 Greece, for there is work here for you to do." 
 
 " What must I do? " said Cadmus. 
 
 " Follow the white cow," said the Pythia; "and on 
 the hill where she lies down, you must build a city." 
 
 Cadmus did not understand what she meant by 
 this ; but she would not speak another word. 
 
 " This must be one of her riddles," he said, and 
 he left the temple. 
 
 III. THE DRAGON. 
 
 When Cadmus went out of the temple, he saw a 
 snow-white cow standing not far from the door. 
 She seemed to be waiting for him, for she looked 
 at him with her large brown eyes, and then turned 
 and walked away. Cadmus thought of what the 
 Pythia had just told him, and so he followed her. 
 All day and all night he walked through a strange 
 wild country where no one lived ; and two of the 
 young men who had sailed with Cadmus from his 
 old home were with him. 
 
 When the sun rose the next morning, they saw 
 that they were on the top of a beautiful hill, with 
 woods on one side and a grassy meadow on the 
 other. There the cow lay down. 
 
 " Here we will build our city," said Cadmus. 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 6 
 
82 
 
 Then the young men made a fire of dry sticks, 
 and Cadmus killed the cow. They thought that if 
 they should burn some of her flesh, the smell of it 
 would go up to the sky and be pleasing to Jupiter 
 and the Mighty Folk who lived with him among 
 the clouds ; and in this way they hoped to make 
 friends with Jupiter so that he would not hinder 
 them in their work. 
 
 But they needed water to wash the flesh and their 
 hands; and so one of the young men went down 
 the hill to find some. He was gone so long that the 
 other young man became uneasy and went after him. 
 
 Cadmus waited for them till the fire had burned 
 low. He waited and waited till the sun was high 
 in the sky. He called and shouted, but no one 
 answered him. At last he took his sword in his 
 hand and went down to see what was the matter. 
 
 He followed the path which his friends had 
 taken, and soon came to a fine stream of cold 
 water at the foot of a hill. He saw something 
 move among the bushes which grew near it. It 
 was a fierce dragon, waiting to spring upon him. 
 There was blood on the grass and leaves, and it 
 was not hard to guess what had become of the 
 two young men. 
 
 The beast sprang at Cadmus, and tried to seize 
 him with its sharp claws. But Cadmus leaped 
 
83 
 
 quickly aside and struck it in the neck with his 
 long sword. A great stream of black blood gushed 
 out, and the dragon soon fell to the ground dead. 
 Cadmus had seen many fearful sights, but never 
 anything so dreadful as this beast. He had never 
 been in so great danger before. He sat down 
 on the ground and trembled ; and, all the time, 
 he was weeping for his two friends. How now 
 was he to build a city, with no one to help him ? 
 
 IV. THE CITY. 
 
 While Cadmus was still weeping he was sur- 
 prised to hear some one calling him. He stood up 
 and looked around. On the hillside before him 
 was a tall woman who had a helmet on her head 
 and a shield in her hand. Her eyes were gray, 
 and her face, though not beautiful, was very noble. 
 Cadmus knew at once that she was Athena, the 
 queen of the air she who gives wisdom to men. 
 
 Athena told Cadmus that he must take out 
 the teeth of the dragon and sow them in the 
 ground. He thought that would be a queer kind 
 of seed. But she said that if he would do this, he 
 would soon have men enough to help him build 
 his city ; and, before he could say a word, she had 
 gone out of his sight. 
 
w 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 C/3 
 
 (84) 
 
85 
 
 The dragon had a great many teeth so many 
 that when Cadmus had taken them out they 
 filled his helmet heaping full. The next thing 
 was to find a good place to sow them. Just as 
 he turned away from the stream, he saw a yoke 
 of oxen standing a little way off. He went to 
 them and found that they were hitched to a 
 plow. What more could he want? The ground 
 in the meadow was soft and black, and he drove 
 the plow up and down, making long furrows 
 as he went. Then he dropped the teeth, one 
 by one, into the furrows and covered them over 
 with the rich soil. When he had sown all of 
 them in this way, he sat down on the hillside 
 and watched to see what would happen. 
 
 In a little while the soil in the furrows began 
 to stir. Then, at every place that a tooth had 
 been dropped, something bright grew up. It was 
 a brass helmet. The helmets pushed their way 
 up, and soon the faces of men were seen under- 
 neath, then their shoulders, then their arms, then 
 their bodies ; and then, before Cadmus could think, 
 a thousand warriors leaped out of the furrows 
 and shook off the black earth which was clinging 
 to them. Every man was clothed in a suit of - 
 brass armor; and every one had a long spear 
 in his right hand and a shield in his left. 
 
86 
 
 Cadmus was frightened when he saw the strange 
 crop which had grown up from the dragon's teeth. 
 The men looked so fierce that he feared they 
 would kill him if they saw him. He hid himself 
 behind his plow and then began to throw stones 
 at them. The warriors did not know where the 
 stones came from, but each thought that his 
 neighbor had struck him. Soon they began to fight 
 among themselves. Man after man was killed, and 
 in a little while only five were left alive. Then 
 Cadmus ran towards them and called out: 
 
 " Hold ! Stop fighting ! You are my men, and 
 must come with me. We will build a city here." 
 
 The men obeyed him. They followed Cadmus 
 to the top of the hill ; and they were such good 
 workmen that in a few days they had built a 
 house on the spot where the cow had lain down. 
 
 After that they built other houses, and people 
 came to live in them. They called the town Cad- 
 meia, after Cadmus who was its first king. But 
 when the place had grown to be a large city, 
 it was known by the name of Thebes. 
 
 Cadmus was a wise king. The Mighty Folk 
 who lived with Jupiter amid the clouds were well 
 pleased with him and helped him in more ways 
 than one. After a while he married Harmonia, 
 the beautiful daughter of Mars. All the Mighty 
 
Ones were at the wedding; and Athena gave the 
 bride a wonderful necklace about which you may 
 learn something more at another time. 
 
 But the greatest thing that Cadmus did is yet 
 to be told. He was the first schoolmaster of the 
 Greeks, and taught them the letters which were used 
 in his own country across the sea. They called the 
 first of these letters alpha and the second beta, 
 and that is why men speak of the alphabet to this 
 day. And when the Greeks had learned the alpha- 
 bet from Cadmus, they soon began to read and 
 write, and to make beautiful and useful books. 
 
 As for the maiden Europa, she was carried safe 
 over the sea to a distant shore. She may have 
 been happy in the new, strange land to which she 
 was taken I cannot tell; but she never heard of 
 friends or home again. Whether it was really 
 Jupiter in the form of a bull that carried her away, 
 nobody knows. It all happened so long ago that 
 there may have been some mistake about the story ; 
 and I should not think it strange if it were a 
 sea robber who stole her from her home, and a 
 swift ship with white sails that bore her away. 
 Of one thing I am very sure : she was loved so 
 well by all who knew her that the great unknown 
 country to which she was taken has been called 
 after her name ever since Europe. 
 
THE QUEST OF MEDUSA'S HEAD. 
 
 I. THE WOODEN CHEST. 
 
 THERE was a king of Argos who had but one 
 child, and that child was a girl. If he had had a 
 son, he would have trained him up to be a brave 
 man and great king; but he did not know what 
 to do with this fair-haired daughter. When he 
 saw her growing up to be tall and slender and 
 wise, he wondered if, after all, he would have to 
 die some time and leave his lands and his gold 
 and his kingdom to her. So he sent to Delphi 
 and asked the Pythia about it. The Pythia told 
 him that he would not only have to die some time, 
 but that the son of his daughter would cause his 
 death. 
 
 This frightened the king very much, and he 
 tried to think of some plan by which he could keep 
 the Pythia's words from coming true. At last he 
 made up his mind that he would build a prison 
 for his daughter and keep her in it all her life. 
 So he called his workmen and had them dig a deep 
 
 88 
 
8 9 
 
 round hole in the ground, and in this hole they 
 built a house of brass which had but one room 
 and no door at all, but only a small window at 
 the top. When it was finished, the king put the 
 maiden, whose name w r as Dana'e, into it ; and with 
 her he put her nurse and her toys and her pretty 
 dresses and everything that he thought she would 
 need to make her happy. 
 
 " Now we shall see that the Pythia does not 
 always tell the truth," he said. 
 
 So Danae was kept shut up in the prison of 
 brass. She had no one to talk tc but her old 
 nurse ; and she never saw the land or the sea, but 
 only the blue sky above the open window and now 
 and then a white cloud sailing across. Day v after 
 day she sat under the window and wondered why 
 her father kept her in that lonely place, and whether 
 he would ever come and take her out. I do not 
 know how many years passed by, but Danae grew 
 fairer every day, and by and by she was no longer 
 a child, but a tall and beautiful woman ; and Jupi- 
 ter amid the clouds looked down and saw her and 
 loved her. 
 
 One day it seemed to her that the sky opened 
 and a shower of gold fell through the window into 
 the room; and w r hen the blinding shower had 
 ceased, a noble young man stood smiling before 
 
go 
 
 her. She did not know nor do I that it was 
 mighty Jupiter who had thus come down in the 
 rain ; but she thought that he was a brave prince 
 who had come from over the sea to take her out 
 of her prison-house. 
 
 After that he came often, but always as a tall 
 and handsome youth ; and by and by they were 
 married, with only the nurse at the wedding feast, 
 and Danae was so happy that she was no longer 
 lonesome even when he was away. But one day 
 when he climbed out through the narrow window 
 there was a great flash of light, and she never 
 saw him again. 
 
 Not long afterwards a babe was born to Danae, a 
 smiling boy whom she named Perseus. For four 
 years she and the nurse kept him hidden, and not 
 even the women who brought their food to the 
 window knew about him. But one day the king 
 chanced to be passing by and heard the child's 
 prattle. When he learned the truth, he was very 
 much alarmed, for he thought that now, in spite of 
 all that he had done, the words of the Pythia might 
 come true. 
 
 The only sure way to save himself would be to 
 put the child to death before he was old enough 
 to do any harm. But when he had taken the little 
 Perseus and his mother out of the prison and had 
 
seen how helpless the child was, he could not bear 
 the thought of having him killed outright. For 
 the king, although a great coward, was really a 
 kind-hearted man and did not like to see anything 
 suffer pain. Yet something must be done. 
 
 So he bade his servants make a wooden chest 
 that was roomy and watertight and strong; and 
 when it was done, he put Danae and the child into 
 it and had it taken far out to sea and left there to 
 be tossed about by the waves. He thought that in 
 this way he would rid himself of both daughter and 
 grandson without seeing them die; for surely the 
 chest would sink after a while, or else the winds 
 would cause it to drift to some strange shore so far 
 away that they could never come back to Argos 
 again. 
 
 All day and all night and then another day, fair 
 Danae and her child drifted over the sea. The 
 waves rippled and played before and around the 
 floating chest, the west wind whistled cheerily, and 
 the sea birds circled in the air above; and the child 
 was not afraid, but dipped his hands in the curling 
 waves and laughed at the merry breeze and shouted 
 back at the screaming birds. 
 
 But on the second night all was changed. A 
 storm arose, the sky was black, the billows were 
 mountain high, the winds roared fearfully; yet 
 
92 
 
 through it all the child slept soundly in his mother's 
 arms. And Danae sang over him this song : 
 
 " Sleep, sleep, dear child, and take your rest 
 Upon your troubled mother's breast ; 
 For you can lie without one fear 
 Of dreadful danger lurking near. 
 
 "Wrapped in soft robes and warmly sleeping, 
 You do not hear your mother weeping ; 
 You do not see the mad waves leaping, 
 Nor heed the winds their vigils keeping. 
 
 " The stars are hid, the night is drear, 
 The waves beat high, the storm is here ; 
 But you can sleep, my darling child, 
 And know naught of the uproar wild." 
 
 At last the morning of the third day came, and 
 the diest was tossed upon the sandy shore of a 
 strange island where there were green fields and, 
 beyond them, a little town. A man who happened 
 to be walking near the shore saw it and dragged 
 it far up on the beach. Then he looked inside, and 
 there he saw the beautiful lady and the little boy. 
 He helped them out and led them just as they were 
 to his own house, where he cared for them very 
 kindly. And when Dana'e had told him her story, 
 he bade her feel no more fear; for they might have 
 a home with him as long as they should choose to 
 stay, and he would be a true friend to them both. 
 
93 
 
 II. THE MAGIC SLIPPERS. 
 
 So Dana'e and her son stayed in the house 
 of the kind man who had saved them from the 
 sea. Years passed by, and Perseus grew up to 
 be a tall young man, handsome, and brave, and 
 strong. The king of the island, when he saw 
 Dana'e, was so pleased with her beauty that he 
 wanted her to become his wife. But he was a 
 dark, cruel man, and she did not like him at all ; 
 so she told him that she would not marry him. 
 The king thought that Perseus was to blame for 
 this, and that if he could find some excuse to send 
 the young man on a far journey, he might force 
 Danae to have him whether she wished or not. 
 
 One day he called all the young men of his 
 country together and told them that he was soon 
 to be wedded to the queen of a certain land beyond 
 the sea. Would not each of them bring him a 
 present to be given to her father ? For in those 
 times it was the rule, that when any man was 
 about to be married, he must offer costly gifts 
 to the father of the bride. 
 
 " What kind of presents do you want ? " said 
 the young men. 
 
 "Horses," he answered; for he knew that Per- 
 seus had no horse. 
 
94 
 
 " Why don't you ask for something worth the 
 having ? " said Perseus ; for he was vexed at the 
 way in which the king was treating him. " Why 
 don't you ask for Medusa's head, for example ? " 
 
 " Medusa's head it shall be ! " cried the king. 
 "These young men may give me horses, but you 
 shall bring Medusa's head." 
 
 " I will bring it," said Perseus ; and he went 
 away in anger, while his young friends laughed 
 at him because of his foolish words. 
 
 What was this Medusa's head which he had 
 so rashly promised to bring? His mother had 
 often told him about Medusa. Far, far away, 
 on the very edge of the world, there lived three 
 strange monsters, sisters, called Gorgons. They 
 had the bodies and faces of women, but they had 
 wings of gold, and terrible claws of brass, and 
 hair that was full of living serpents. They were 
 so awful to look upon, that no man could bear 
 the sight of them, but whoever saw their faces 
 was turned to stone. Two of these monsters 
 had charmed lives, and no weapon could ever 
 do them harm ; but the youngest, whose name 
 was Medusa, might be killed, if indeed anybody 
 could find her and could give the fatal stroke. 
 
 When Perseus went away from the king's pal- 
 ace, he began to feel sorry that he had spoken so 
 
95 
 
 rashly. For how should he ever make good his 
 promise and do the king's bidding? He did not 
 know which way to go to find the Gorgons, and 
 he had no weapon with which to slay the terrible 
 Medusa. But at any rate he would never show 
 his face to the king again, unless he could bring 
 the head of terror with him. He went down 
 to the shore and stood looking out over the sea 
 towards Argos, his native land ; and while he 
 looked, the sun went down, and the moon arose, 
 and a soft wind came blowing from the west. Then, 
 all at once, two persons, a man and a woman, 
 stood before him. Both were tall and noble. The 
 man looked like a prince ; and there were wings on 
 his cap and on his feet, and he carried a winged 
 staff, around which two golden serpents were 
 twined. 
 
 He asked Perseus what was the matter; and the 
 young man told him how the king had treated him, 
 and all about the rash words which he had spoken. 
 Then the lady spoke to him very kindly; and he 
 noticed that, although she was not beautiful, she 
 had most wonderful gray eyes, and a stern but 
 lovable face and a queenly form. And she told 
 him not to fear, but to go out boldly in quest of 
 the Gorgons; for she would help him obtain the 
 terrible head of Medusa. 
 
9 6 
 
 " But I have no ship, and how shall I go ? " said 
 Perseus. 
 
 " You shall don my winged slippers/' said the 
 strange prince, " and they will bear you over sea 
 and land." 
 
 " Shall I go north, or south, or east, or west ? " 
 asked Perseus. 
 
 " I will tell you," said the tall lady. u You must 
 go first to the three Gray Sisters, who live beyond 
 the frozen sea in the far, far north. They have a 
 secret which nobody knows, and you must force 
 them to tell it to you. Ask them where you shall 
 find the three Maidens who guard the golden apples 
 of the West; and when they shall have told you, 
 turn about and go straight thither. The Maidens 
 will give you three things, without which you can 
 never obtain the terrible head ; and they will show 
 you how to wing your way across the western 
 ocean to the edge of the world where lies the home 
 of the Gorgons." 
 
 Then the man took off his winged slippers, and 
 put them on the feet of Perseus; and the woman 
 whispered to him to be off at once, and to fear 
 nothing, but be bold and true. And Perseus knew 
 that she was none other than Athena, the queen of 
 the air, and that her companion was Mercury, the 
 lord of the summer clouds. But before he could 
 
97 
 
 thank them for their kindness, they had vanished 
 in the dusky twilight. 
 
 Then he leaped into the air to try the Magic 
 Slippers. 
 
 III. THE GRAY SISTERS. 
 
 Swifter than an eagle, Perseus flew up towards 
 the sky. Then he turned, and the Magic Slippers 
 bore him over the sea straight towards the north. 
 On and on he went, and soon the sea was passed ; 
 and he came to a famous land, where there were 
 cities and towns and many people. And then he 
 flew over a range of snowy mountains, beyond 
 which were mighty forests and a vast plain where 
 many rivers wandered, seeking for the sea. And 
 farther on was another range of mountains; and 
 then there were frozen marshes and a wilderness of 
 snow, and after all the sea again, but a sea of ice. 
 On and on he winged his way, among toppling ice- 
 bergs and over frozen billows and through air which 
 the sun never warmed, and at last he came to the 
 cavern where the three Gray Sisters dwelt. 
 
 These three creatures were so old that they had 
 forgotten their own age, and nobody could count 
 the years which they had lived. The long hair 
 which covered their heads had been gray since 
 they were born ; and they had among them only 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 7 
 
9 8 
 
 a single eye and a single tooth which they passed 
 back and forth from one to another. Perseus 
 heard them mumbling and crooning in their dreary 
 home, and he stood very still and listened. 
 
 " We know a secret which even the Great Folk 
 who live on the mountain top can never learn ; 
 don't we, sisters ? " said one. 
 
 "Ha! ha! That we do, that we do!" chattered 
 the others. 
 
 " Give me the tooth, sister, that I may feel 
 young and handsome again," said the one nearest 
 to Perseus. 
 
 " And give me the eye that I may look out and 
 see what is going on in the busy world," said the 
 sister who sat next to her. 
 
 " Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes ! " mumbled the third, as 
 she took the tooth and the eye and reached them 
 blindly towards the others. 
 
 Then, quick as thought, Perseus leaped forward 
 and snatched both of the precious things from her 
 hand. 
 
 "Where is the tooth? Where is the eye?" 
 screamed the two, reaching out their long arms 
 and groping here and there. " Have you dropped 
 them, sister? Have you lost them?" 
 
 Perseus laughed as he stood in the door of their 
 cavern and saw their distress and terror. 
 
99 
 
 " I have your tooth and your eye," he said, " and 
 you shall never touch them again until you tell me 
 your secret. Where are the Maidens who keep 
 the golden apples of the Western Land ? Which 
 way shall I go to find them?" 
 
 " You are young, and we are old," said the Gray 
 Sisters; "pray, do not deal so cruelly with us. 
 Pity us, and give us our eye." 
 
 Then they wept and pleaded and coaxed and 
 threatened. But Perseus stood a little way off and 
 taunted them; and they moaned and mumbled 
 and shrieked, as they found that their words did 
 not move him. 
 
 " Sisters, we must tell him," at last said one. 
 
 "Ah, yes, we must tell him," said the others. 
 "We must part with the secret to save our eye." 
 
 And then they told him how he should go to 
 reach the Western Land, and what road he should 
 follow to find the Maidens who kept the golden 
 apples. When they had made everything plain to 
 him Perseus gave them back their eye and their 
 tooth. 
 
 "Ha! ha!" they laughed; "now the golden days 
 of youth have come again!" And, from that day 
 to this, no man has ever seen the three Gray 
 Sisters, nor does any one know what became of 
 them. But the winds still whistle through their 
 
100 
 
 cheerless cave, and the cold waves murmur on the 
 shore of the wintry sea, and the ice mountains 
 topple and crash, and no sound of living creature 
 is heard in all that desolate land. 
 
 IV, THE WESTERN MAIDENS, 
 
 As for Perseus, he leaped again into the air, and 
 the Magic Slippers bore him southward with the 
 speed of the wind. Very soon he left the frozen 
 sea behind him and came to a sunny land, where 
 there were green forests and flowery meadows and 
 hills and valleys, and at last a pleasant garden 
 where were all kinds of blossoms and fruits. He 
 knew that this was the famous Western Land, 
 for the Gray Sisters had told him what he should 
 see there. So he alighted and walked among the 
 trees until he came to the center of the garden. 
 There he saw the three Maidens of the West 
 dancing around a tree which was full of golden 
 apples, and singing as they danced. For the won- 
 derful tree with its precious fruit belonged to Juno, 
 the queen of earth and sky; it had been given to 
 her as a wedding gift, and it was the duty of the 
 Maidens to care for it and see that no one touched 
 the golden apples. 
 
 Perseus stopped and listened to their song: 
 
IOI 
 
 " We sing of the old, we sing of the new, 
 Our joys are many, our sorrows are few ; 
 Singing, dancing, 
 All hearts entrancing, 
 We wait to welcome the good and the true. 
 
 "The daylight is waning, the evening is here, 
 The sun will soon set, the stars will appear. 
 
 Singing, dancing, 
 
 All hearts entrancing, 
 We wait for the dawn of a glad new year. 
 
 " The tree shall wither, the apples shall fall, 
 Sorrow shall come, and death shall call, 
 
 Alarming, grieving, 
 
 All hearts deceiving, 
 But hope shall abide to comfort us all. 
 
 " Soon the tale shall be told, the song shall be sung. 
 The bow shall be broken, the harp unstrung, 
 
 Alarming, grieving, 
 
 All hearts deceiving, 
 Till every joy to the winds shall be flung. 
 
 " But a new tree shall spring from the roots of the old, 
 And many a blossom its leaves shall unfold, 
 
 Cheering, gladdening, 
 
 With joy maddening, 
 For its boughs shall be laden with apples of gold." 
 
 Then Perseus went forward and spoke to the 
 Maidens. They stopped singing, and stood still 
 
a 
 [5 
 
 
 
 1x02) 
 
103 
 
 as if in alarm. But when they saw the Magic 
 Slippers on his feet, they ran to him, and welcomed 
 him to the Western Land and to their garden. 
 
 " We knew that you were coming," they said, 
 " for the winds told us. But why do you come ? " 
 
 Perseus told them of all that had happened to him 
 since he was a child, and of his quest of Medusa's 
 head ; and he said that he had come to ask them to 
 give him three things to help him in his fight with 
 the Gorgons. 
 
 The Maidens answered that they would give him 
 not three things, but four. Then one of them gave 
 him a sharp sword, which was crooked like a sickle, 
 and which she fastened to the belt at his waist ; 
 and another gave him a shield, which was brighter 
 than any looking-glass you ever saw ; and the third 
 gave him a magic pouch, which she hung by a 
 long strap over his shoulder. 
 
 " These are three things which you must have 
 in order to obtain Medusa's head; and now here 
 is a fourth, for without it your quest must be in 
 vain." And they gave him a magic cap, the Cap 
 of Darkness; and when they had put it upon his 
 head, there was no creature on the earth or in the 
 sky no, not even the Maidens themselves that 
 could see him. 
 
 When at last he was arrayed to their liking, they 
 
104 
 
 told him where he would find the Gorgons, and 
 what he should do to obtain the terrible head and 
 escape alive. Then they kissed him and wished 
 him good luck, and bade him hasten to do the 
 dangerous deed. And Perseus donned the Cap 
 of Darkness, and sped away and away towards 
 the farthermost edge of the earth ; and the three 
 Maidens went back to their tree to sing and to 
 dance and to guard the golden apples until the old 
 world should become young again. 
 
 V. THE DREADFUL GORGONS. 
 
 With the sharp sword at his side and the bright 
 shield upon his arm, Perseus flew bravely onward 
 in search of the dreadful Gorgons ; but he had the 
 Cap of Darkness upon his head, and you could no 
 more have seen him than you can see the wind. 
 He flew so swiftly that it was not long until he 
 had crossed the mighty ocean which encircles the 
 earth, and had come to the sunless land which lies 
 beyond ; and then he knew, from what the Maidens 
 had told him, that the lair of the Gorgons could 
 not be far away. 
 
 He heard a sound as of some one breathing 
 heavily, and he looked around sharply to see where 
 it came from. Among the foul weeds which grew 
 
ios 
 
 close to the bank of a muddy river there was some- 
 thing which glittered in the pale light. He flew 
 a little nearer ; but he did not dare to look straight 
 forward, lest he should all at once meet the gaze 
 of a Gorgon, and be changed into stone. So he 
 turned around, and held the shining shield before 
 him in such a way that by looking into it he could 
 see objects behind him as in a mirror. 
 
 Ah, what a dreadful sight it was ! Half hidden 
 among the weeds lay the three monsters, fast 
 asleep, with their golden wings folded about them. 
 Their brazen claws were stretched out as. though 
 ready to seize their prey ; and their shoulders were 
 covered with sleeping snakes. The two largest of 
 the Gorgons lay with their heads tucked under their 
 wings as birds hide their heads when they go to 
 sleep. But the third, who lay between them, slept 
 with her face turned up towards the sky; and Per- 
 seus knew that she was Medusa. 
 
 Very stealthily he went nearer and nearer, always 
 with his back towards the monsters and always 
 looking into his bright shield to see where to go. 
 Then he drew his sharp sword and, dashing 
 quickly downward, struck a back blow, so sure, 
 so swift, that the head of Medusa was cut from 
 her shoulders and the black blood gushed like 
 a river from her neck. Quick as thought he 
 
io6 
 
 thrust the terrible head into his magic pouch and 
 leaped again into the air, and flew away with the 
 speed of the wind. 
 
 Then the two older Gorgons awoke, and rose with 
 dreadful screams, and spread their great wings, and 
 dashed after him. They could not see him, for the 
 Cap of Darkness hid him from even their eyes ; but 
 they scented the blood of the head which he carried 
 in the pouch, and like hounds in the chase, they 
 followed him, sniffing the air. And as he flew 
 through the clouds he could hear their dreadful 
 cries and the clatter of their golden wings and the 
 snapping of their horrible jaws. But the Magic 
 Slippers were faster than any wings, and in a little 
 while the monsters were left far behind, and their 
 cries were heard no more ; and Perseus flew on alone. 
 
 VI, THE GREAT SEA BEAST. 
 
 Perseus soon crossed the ocean and came again 
 to the Land of the West. Far below him he could 
 see the three Maidens dancing around the golden 
 tree ; but he did not stop, for, now that he had the 
 head of Medusa safe in the pouch at his side, he 
 must hasten home. Straight east he flew over the 
 great sea, and after a time he came to a country 
 where there were palm trees and pyramids and 
 
a great river flowing from the south. Here, as 
 he looked down, a strange sight met his eyes: 
 he saw a beautiful girl chained to a rock by the 
 seashore, and far away a huge sea beast swimming 
 towards her to devour her. Quick as thought, he 
 flew down and spoke to her ; but, as she could not 
 see him for the Cap of Darkness which he wore, 
 his voice only frightened her. 
 
 Then Perseus took off his cap, and stood upon 
 the rock ; and when the girl saw him with his 
 long hair and wonderful eyes and laughing face, 
 she thought him the handsomest young man in 
 the world. 
 
 " Oh, save me ! save me ! " she cried as she 
 reached out her arms towards him. 
 
 Perseus drew his sharp sword and cut the chain 
 which held her, and then lifted her high up upon 
 the rock. But by this time the sea monster was 
 close at hand, lashing the water with his tail and 
 opening his wide jaws as though he would swallow 
 not only Perseus and the young girl, but even the 
 rock on which they were standing. He was a ter- 
 rible fellow, and yet not half so terrible as the 
 Gorgon. As he came roaring towards the shore, 
 Perseus lifted the head of Medusa from his pouch 
 and held it up ; and when the beast saw the dread- 
 ful face he stopped short and was turned into stone ; 
 
io8 
 
 and men say that the stone beast may be seen in 
 that selfsame spot to this day.^v 
 
 Then Perseus slipped the Gorgon's head back 
 into the pouch and hastened to speak with the 
 young girl whom he had saved. She told him 
 that her name was Andromeda, and that she was 
 the daughter of the king of that land. She said 
 that her mother, the queen, was very beautiful 
 and very proud of her beauty ; and every day she 
 went down to the seashore to look at her face as 
 it was pictured in the quiet water; and she had 
 boasted that not even the nymphs who live in 
 the sea were as handsome as she. When the sea 
 nymphs heard about this, they were very angry 
 and asked great Neptune, the king of the sea, to 
 punish the queen for her pride. So Neptune sent 
 a sea monster to crush the king's ships and kill the 
 cattle along the shore and break down all the 
 fishermen's huts. The people were so much dis- 
 tressed that they sent at last to ask the Pythia 
 what they should do ; and the Pythia said that 
 there was only one way to save the land from 
 destruction, that they must give the king's daugh- 
 ter, Andromeda, to the monster to be devoured. 
 
 The king and the queen loved their daughter 
 very dearly, for she was their only child ; and for a 
 long time they refused to do as the Pythia had told 
 
109 
 
 them. But day after day the monster laid waste 
 the land, and threatened to destroy not only the 
 farms, but the towns ; and so they were forced in 
 the end to give up Andromeda to save their coun- 
 try. This, then, was why she had been chained to 
 the rock by the shore and left there to perish in the 
 jaws of the beast. 
 
 While Perseus was yet talking with Andromeda, 
 the king and the queen and a great company of 
 people came down the shore, weeping and tearing 
 their hair ; for they were sure that by this time the 
 monster had devoured his prey. But when they 
 saw her alive and well, and learned that she had 
 been saved by the handsome young man who stood 
 beside her, they could hardly hold themselves for 
 joy. And Perseus was so delighted with Androm- 
 eda's beauty that he almost forgot his quest which 
 was not yet finished ; and when the king asked him 
 what he should give him as a reward for saving 
 Andromeda's life, he said : 
 
 " Give her to me for my wife." 
 
 This pleased the king very much; and so, on 
 the seventh day, Perseus and Andromeda were 
 married, and there was a great feast in the king's 
 palace, and everybody was merry and glad. And 
 the two young people lived happily for some time 
 in the land of palms and pyramids ; and, from the 
 
(no) 
 
 1 THE KING SAW IT AND WAS TURNED INTO STONE.' 
 
Ill 
 
 sea to the mountains, nothing was talked about 
 but the courage of Perseus and the beauty of 
 Andromeda. 
 
 VII. THE TIMELY RESCUE. 
 
 But Perseus had not forgotten his mother; and 
 so, one fine summer day, he and Andromeda sailed 
 in a beautiful ship to his own home ; for the Magic 
 Slippers could not carry both him and his bride 
 through the air. The ship came to land at the 
 very spot where the wooden chest had been cast 
 so many years before ; and Perseus and his bride 
 walked through the fields towards the town. 
 
 Now, the wicked king of that land had never 
 ceased trying to persuade Danae to become his 
 wife ; but she would not listen to him, and the more 
 he pleaded and threatened, the more she disliked 
 him. At last when he found that she could not be 
 made to have him, he declared that he would kill 
 her; and on this very morning he had started 
 out, sword in hand, to take her life. 
 
 So, as Perseus and Andromeda came into the 
 town, whom should they meet but his mother 
 fleeing to the altar of Jupiter, and the king 
 following after, intent on killing her? Danae 
 was so frightened that she did not see Perseus, 
 but ran right on towards the only place of safety. 
 
112 
 
 For it was a law of that land that not even the 
 king should be allowed to harm any one who took 
 refuge on the altar of Jupiter. 
 
 When Perseus saw the king rushing like a mad- 
 man after his mother, he threw himself before him 
 and bade him stop. But the king struck at him 
 furiously with his sword. Perseus caught the blow 
 on his shield, and at the same moment took the 
 head of Medusa from his magic pouch. 
 
 " I promised to bring you a present, and here it 
 is ! " he cried. 
 
 The king saw it, and was turned into stone, just 
 as he stood, with his sword uplifted and that terri- 
 ble look of anger and passion in his face. 
 
 The people of the island were glad when they 
 learned what had happened, for no one loved the 
 wicked king. They w^ere glad, too, because Per- 
 seus had come home again, and had brought 
 with him his beautiful wife, Andromeda. So, after 
 they had talked the matter over among themselves, 
 they went to him and asked him to be their king. 
 But he thanked them, and said that 'he would 
 rule over them for one day only, and that then 
 he would give the kingdom to another, so that 
 he might take his mother back to her home and 
 her kindred in distant Argos. 
 
 On the morrow therefore, he gave the kingdom 
 
to the kind man who had saved his mother and 
 himself from the sea; and then he went on board 
 his ship, with Andromeda and Danae, and sailed 
 away across the sea towards Argos. 
 
 VIII. THE DEADLY QUOIT. 
 
 When Danae's old father, the king of Argos, 
 heard that a strange ship was coming over the sea 
 with his daughter and her son on board, he was 
 in great distress ; for he remembered what the 
 Pythia had foretold about his death. So, without 
 waiting to see the vessel, he left his palace in great 
 haste and fled out of the country. 
 
 " My daughter's son cannot kill me if I will keep 
 out of his way," he said. 
 
 But Perseus had no wish to harm him ; and he 
 was very sad when he learned that his poor grand- 
 father had gone away in fear and without telling 
 any one where he was going. The people of Argos 
 welcomed Danae to her old home; and they were 
 very proud of her handsome son, and begged that 
 he would stay in their city, so that he might some 
 time become their king. . 
 
 It happened soon afterwards that the king of 
 a certain country not far away was holding games 
 and giving prizes to the best runners and leapers 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 8 
 
114 
 
 and quoit throwers. And Perseus went thither 
 to try his strength with the other young men of 
 the land ; for if he should be able to gain a prize, 
 his name would become known all over the world. 
 No one in that country knew who he was, but all 
 wondered at his noble stature and his strength 
 and skill ; and it was easy enough for him to win 
 all the prizes. 
 
 One day, as he was showing what he could do, 
 he threw a heavy quoit a great deal farther than 
 any had been thrown before. It fell in the crowd 
 of lookers-on, and struck a stranger who was stand- 
 ing there. The stranger threw up his hands and 
 sank upon the ground; and when Perseus ran to 
 help him, he saw that he was dead. Now this man 
 was none other than Danae's father, the old king 
 of Argos. He had fled from his kingdom to save 
 his life, and in doing so had only met his death. 
 
 Perseus was overcome with grief, and tried in 
 every way to pay honor to the memory of the 
 unhappy king. The kingdom of Argos was now 
 rightfully his own, but he could not bear to take 
 it after having killed his grandfather. So he was 
 glad to exchange with another king who ruled 
 over two rich cities, not far away, called Mycenae 
 and Tiryns. And he and Andromeda lived happily 
 in Mycenae for many years. 
 
THE STORY OF ATALANTA. 
 
 I. THE BEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 IN a sunny land in Greece called Arcadia there 
 lived a king and a queen who had no children. 
 They wanted very much to have a son who might 
 live to rule over Arcadia when the king was dead, 
 and so, as the years went by, they prayed to great 
 Jupiter on the mountain top that he would send 
 them a son. After a while a child was born to 
 them, but it was a little girl. The father was in a 
 great rage with Jupiter and everybody else. 
 
 " What is a girl good for?" he said. "She can 
 never do anything but sing, and spin, and spend 
 money. If the child had been a boy, he might have 
 learned to do many things, to ride, and to hunt, 
 and to fight in the wars, and by and by he would 
 have been king of Arcadia. But this girl can never 
 be a king." 
 
 Then he called to one of his men and bade him 
 take the babe out to a mountain where there was 
 nothing but rocks and thick woods, and leave it 
 
 "5 
 
there to be eaten up by the wild bears that lived in 
 the caves and thickets. It would be the easiest 
 way, he said, to get rid of the useless little creature. 
 
 The man carried the child far up on the moun- 
 tain side and laid it down on a bed of moss in the 
 shadow of a great rock. The child stretched out 
 its baby hands towards him and smiled, but he 
 turned away and left it there, for he did not dare 
 to disobey the king. 
 
 For a whole night and a whole day the babe lay 
 on its bed of moss, wailing for its mother; but only 
 the birds among the trees heard its pitiful cries. 
 At last it grew so weak for want of food that it 
 could only moan and move its head a little from 
 side to side. It would have died before another 
 day if nobody had cared for it. 
 
 Just before dark on the second evening, a she- 
 bear came strolling down the mountain side from 
 her den. She was out looking for her cubs, for 
 some hunters had stolen them that very day while 
 she was away from home. She heard the moans of 
 the little babe, and wondered if it was not one of 
 her lost cubs ; and when she saw it lying so help- 
 less on the moss she went to it and looked at it 
 kindly. Was it possible that a little bear could be 
 changed into a pretty babe with fat white hands 
 and with a beautiful gold chain around its neck? 
 
The old bear did not know; and as the child looked 
 at her with its bright black eyes, she growled softly 
 and licked its face with her warm tongue and then 
 lay down beside it, just as she would have done 
 with her own little cubs. The babe was too young 
 to feel afraid, and it cuddled close to the old bear 
 and felt that it had found a friend. After a while 
 it fell asleep; but the bear guarded it until morn- 
 ing and then went down the mountain side to look 
 for food. 
 
 In the evening, before dark, the bear came again 
 and carried the child to her own den under the 
 shelter of a rock where vines and wild flowers grew ; 
 and every day after that she came and gave the 
 child food and played with it. And all the bears 
 on the mountain learned about the wonderful cub 
 that had been found, and came to see it ; but not 
 one of them offered to harm it. And the little girl 
 grew fast and became strong, and after a while 
 could walk and run among the trees and rocks and 
 brambles on the round top of the mountain ; but her 
 bear mother would not allow her to wander far from 
 the den beneath the rock where the vines and the 
 wild flowers grew. 
 
 One day some hunters came up the mountain to 
 look for game, and one of them pulled aside the 
 vines which grew in front of the old bear's home. 
 
He was surprised to see the beautiful child lying 
 on the grass and playing with the flowers which 
 she had gathered. But at sight of him she 
 leaped to her feet and bounded away like a 
 frightened deer. She led the hunters a fine 
 chase among the trees and rocks ; but there were 
 a dozen of them, and it was not long till they 
 caught her. 
 
 The hunters had never taken such game as that 
 before, and they were so well satisfied that they did 
 not care to hunt any more that day. The child 
 struggled and fought as hard as she knew how, but 
 it was of no use. The hunters carried her down the 
 mountain, and took her to the house where they 
 lived on the other side of the forest. At first she 
 cried all the time, for she sadly missed the bear 
 that had been a mother to her so long. But 
 the hunters made a great pet of her, and gave her 
 many pretty things to play with, and were very 
 kind ; and it was not long till she began to like her 
 new home. 
 
 The hunters named her Atalanta, and when she 
 grew older, they made her a bow and arrows, and 
 taught her how to shoot ; and they gave her a light 
 spear, and showed her how to carry it and how to 
 hurl it at the game or at an enemy. Then they 
 took her with them when they went hunting, and 
 
rig 
 
 there was nothing in the world that pleased her so 
 much as roaming through the woods and running 
 after the deer and other wild animals. Her feet 
 became very swift, so that she could run faster than 
 any of the men ; and her arms were so strong and 
 her eyes so sharp and true that with her arrow or 
 her spear she never missed the mark. And she 
 grew up to be very tall and graceful, and was 
 known throughout all Arcadia as the fleet-footed 
 huntress. 
 
 II. THE BRAND ON THE HEARTH. 
 
 Now, not very far from the land of Arcadia there 
 was a little city named Calydon. It lay in the 
 midst of rich wheat fields and fruitful vineyards; 
 but beyond the vineyards there was a deep dense 
 forest where many wild beasts lived. The king of 
 Calydon was named QEneus, and he dwelt in a 
 white palace with his wife Althea and his boys 
 and girls. His kingdom was so small that it was 
 not much trouble to govern it, and so he spent the 
 most of his time in hunting or in plowing or in 
 looking after his grape vines. He was said to be 
 a very brave man, and he was the friend of all the 
 great heroes of that heroic time. 
 
 The two daughters of CEneus and Althea were 
 famed all over the world for their beauty ; and one 
 
120 
 
 of them was the wife of the hero Hercules, who 
 had freed Prometheus from his chains, and done 
 many other mighty deeds. The six sons of CEneus 
 and Althea were noble, handsome fellows ; but the 
 noblest and handsomest of them all was Meleager, 
 the youngest. 
 
 When Meleager was a tiny babe only seven 
 days old, a strange thing happened in the white 
 palace of the king. Queen Althea awoke in the 
 middle of the night, and saw a fire blazing on the 
 hearth. She wondered what it could mean ; and 
 she lay quite still by the side of the babe, and 
 looked and listened. Three strange women were 
 standing by the hearth. They were tall, and two of 
 them were beautiful, and the faces of all were stern. 
 Althea knew at once that they were the Fates who 
 give gifts of some kind to every child that is born, 
 and who say whether his life shall be a happy 
 one or full of sadness and sorrow. 
 
 " What shall we give to this child ? " said the 
 eldest and sternest of the three strangers. Her 
 name was Atropos, and she held a pair of sharp 
 shears in her hand. 
 
 " I give him a brave heart," said the youngest 
 and fairest. Her name was Clotho, and she held a 
 distaff full of flax, from which she was spinning a 
 golden thread. 
 
121 
 
 "And I give him a gentle, noble mind," said the 
 dark-haired one, whose name was Lachesis. She 
 gently drew out the thread which Clotho spun, and 
 turning to stern Atropos, said : " Lay aside those 
 shears, sister, and give the child your gift." 
 
 " I give him life until this brand shall be burned 
 to ashes, " was the answer ; and Atropos took a 
 small stick of wood and laid it on the burning coals. 
 
 The three sisters waited till the stick was ablaze, 
 and then they were gone. Althea sprang up 
 quickly. She saw nothing but the fire on the 
 hearth and the stick burning slowly away. She 
 made haste to pour water upon the blaze, and when 
 every spark was put out, she took the charred stick 
 and put it into a strong chest where she kept her 
 treasures, and locked it up. 
 
 " I know that the child's life is safe," she said, 
 " so long as that stick is kept unburned." 
 
 And so, as the years went by, Meleager grew up 
 .to be a brave young man, so gentle and noble that 
 his name became known in every land of Greece. 
 He did many daring deeds and, with other heroes, 
 went on a famous voyage across the seas in search 
 of a marvelous fleece of gold ; and when he re- 
 turned to Calydon the people declared that he was 
 the worthiest of the sons of QEneus to become their 
 king. 
 
122 
 
 III. THE GIFTS ON THE ALTARS. 
 
 Now it happened one summer that the vineyards 
 of Calydon were fuller of grapes than they had ever 
 been before, and there was so much wheat in the 
 fields that the people did not know what to do with it. 
 
 " I will tell you what to do," said King CEneus. 
 " We will have a thanksgiving day, and we will give 
 some of the grain and some of the fruit to the 
 Mighty Beings who sit among the clouds on the 
 mountain top. For it is from them that the sun- 
 shine and the fair weather and the moist winds 
 and the warm rains have come; and without their 
 aid we could never have had so fine a harvest." 
 
 The very next day the king and the people of 
 Calydon went out into the fields and vineyards to 
 offer up their thank offerings. Here and there they 
 built little altars of turf and stones and laid dry- 
 grass and twigs upon them ; and then on top of the 
 twigs they put some of the largest bunches of 
 grapes and some of the finest heads of wheat, which 
 they thought would please the Mighty Beings who 
 had sent them so great plenty. 
 
 There was one altar for Ceres, who had shown 
 men how to sow grain, and one for Bacchus, who 
 had told them about the grape, and one for wing- 
 footed Mercury, who comes in the clouds, and one 
 
123 
 
 for Athena, the queen of the air, and one for the 
 keeper of the winds, and one for the giver of light, 
 and one for the driver of the golden sun car, and 
 one for the king of the sea, and one which was 
 the largest of all for Jupiter, the mighty thunderer 
 who sits upon the mountain top and rules the 
 world. And when everything was ready, King 
 CEneus gave the word, and fire was touched to 
 the grass and the twigs upon the altars; and the 
 grapes and the wheat that had been laid there 
 were burned up. Then the people shouted and 
 danced, for they fancied that in that way the 
 thank offerings were sent right up to Ceres 
 and Bacchus and Mercury and Athena and all 
 the rest. And in the evening they went home 
 with glad hearts, feeling that they had done 
 right. 
 
 But they had forgotten one of the Mighty Beings. 
 They had not raised any altar to Diana, the fair 
 huntress and queen of the woods, and they had not 
 offered her a single grape or a single grain of wheat. 
 They had not intended to slight her ; but, to tell the 
 truth, there were so many others that they had never 
 once thought about her. 
 
 I do not suppose that Diana cared anything at 
 all for the fruit or the grain ; but it made her very 
 angry to think that she should be forgotten. 
 
124 
 
 " I'll show them that I am not to be slighted in 
 this way," she said. 
 
 All went well, however, until the next summer; 
 and the people of Calydon were very happy, for it 
 looked as though there would be a bigger harvest 
 than ever. 
 
 " I tell you," said old King CEneus, looking over 
 his fields and his vineyards, " it pays to give thanks. 
 We'll have another thanksgiving as soon as the 
 grapes begin to ripen." 
 
 But even then he did not think of Diana. 
 
 The very next day the largest and fiercest wild 
 boar that anybody had ever seen came rushing out 
 of the forest. He had two long tusks which stuck 
 far out of his mouth on either side and were as 
 sharp as knives, and the stiff bristles on his back 
 were as large and as long as knitting needles. As 
 he went tearing along towards Calydon, champing 
 his teeth and foaming at the mouth, he was a fright- 
 ful thing to look at, I tell you. Everybody fled 
 before him. He rushed into the wheat fields and 
 tore up all the grain ; he went into the vineyards 
 and broke down all the vines ; he rooted up all the 
 trees in the orchards ; and, when there was nothing 
 else to do, he went into the pasture lands among the 
 hills and killed the sheep that were feeding there. 
 He was so fierce and so fleet of foot that the bravest 
 
125 
 
 warrior hardly dared to attack him. His thick skin 
 was proof against arrows and against such spears as 
 the people of Calydon had ; and I do not know how 
 many men he killed with those terrible razor tusks 
 of his. For weeks he had pretty much his own 
 way, and the only safe place for anybody was inside 
 of the walls. 
 
 When he had laid waste the whole country he 
 went back into the edge of the forest; but the 
 people were so much afraid of him that they lived 
 in dread every day lest he should come again and 
 tear down the gates of the city. 
 
 " We must have forgotten somebody when we 
 gave thanks last year," said King CEneus. " Who 
 could it have been ? " 
 
 And then he thought of Diana. 
 
 " Diana, the queen of the chase," said he, " has 
 sent this monster to punish us for forgetting her. 
 I am sure that we shall remember her now as 
 long as we live." 
 
 Then he sent messengers into all the countries 
 near Calydon, asking the bravest men and skillfullest 
 hunters to come at a certain time and help him 
 hunt and kill the great wild boar. Very many of 
 these men had been with Meleager in that wonder- 
 ful voyage in search of the Golden Fleece, and he 
 felt sure they would come. 
 
126 
 
 IV. THE HUNT IN THE FOREST. 
 
 When the day came which King CEneus had set, 
 there was a wonderful gathering of men at Calydon. 
 The greatest heroes in the world were there; and 
 every one was fully armed, and expected to have 
 fine sport hunting the terrible wild boar. With the 
 warriors from the south there came a tall maiden 
 armed with bow and arrows and a long hunting 
 spear. It was our friend Atalanta, the huntress. 
 
 " My daughters are having a game of ball in the 
 garden," said old King QEneus. " Wouldn't you 
 like to put away your arrows and your spear, and 
 go and play with them ? " 
 
 Atalanta shook her head and lifted her chin as if 
 in disdain. 
 
 " Perhaps you would rather stay with the queen, 
 and look at the women spin and weave," said 
 CEneus. 
 
 " No," answered Atalanta, " I am going with the 
 warriors to hunt the wild boar in the forest ! " 
 
 How all the men opened their eyes ! They had 
 never heard of such a thing as a girl going out with 
 heroes to hunt wild boars. 
 
 " If she goes, then I will not," said one. 
 
 " Nor I, either," said another. 
 
 " Nor I," said a third. " Why, the whole world 
 
127 
 
 would laugh at us, and we should never hear the 
 end of it." 
 
 Several threatened to go home at once ; and two 
 brothers of Queen Althea, rude, unmannerly fel- 
 lows, loudly declared that the hunt was for heroes 
 and not for puny girls. 
 
 But Atalanta only grasped her spear more firmly 
 and stood up, tall and straight, in the gateway of the 
 palace. Just then a handsome young man came for- 
 ward. It was Meleager. 
 
 " What's this ? " he cried. " Who says that Ata- 
 lanta shall not go to the hunt ? You are afraid that 
 she'll be braver than you that is all. Pretty heroes 
 you are ! Let all such cowards go home at once." 
 
 But nobody went, and it was settled then and 
 there that the maiden should have her own way. 
 And yet the brothers of Queen Althea kept on 
 muttering and complaining. 
 
 For nine days the heroes and huntsmen feasted 
 in the halls of King GEneus, and early on the tenth 
 they set out for the forest. Soon the great beast 
 was found, and he came charging out upon his foes. 
 The heroes hid behind the trees or climbed up 
 among the branches, for they had not expected to 
 see so terrible a creature. He stood in the middle 
 of a little open space, tearing up the ground with 
 his tusks. The white foam rolled from his mouth, 
 
"YOU OUGHT TO HAVE SEEN THE TALL HUNTRESS MAIDEN THEN." 
 (128) 
 
129 
 
 his eyes glistened red like fire, and he grunted so 
 fiercely that the woods and hills echoed with fear- 
 ful sounds. 
 
 Then one of the bravest of the men threw his 
 spear. But that only made the beast fiercer than 
 ever; he charged upon the warrior, caught him 
 before he could save himself, and tore him in 
 pieces with his tusks Another man ventured too 
 far from his hiding-place and was also overtaken 
 and killed. One of the oldest and noblest of the 
 heroes leveled his spear and threw it with all his 
 force ; but it only grazed the boar's tough skin 
 and glanced upward and pierced the heart of a 
 warrior on the other side. The boar was getting 
 the best of the fight. 
 
 Atalanta now ran forward and threw her spear. 
 It struck the boar in the back, and a great stream 
 of blood gushed out. A warrior let fly an arrow 
 which put out one of the beast's eyes. Then Melea- 
 ger rushed up and pierced his heart with his spear. 
 The boar could no longer stand up ; but he fought 
 fiercely for some moments, and then rolled over, dead. 
 
 The heroes then cut off the beast's head. It was 
 as much as six of them could carry. Then they 
 took the skin from his great body and offered it to 
 Meleager as a prize, because he had given the death 
 wound to the wild boar. But Meleager said : 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 9 
 
130 
 
 "It belongs to Atalanta, because it was she who 
 gave him the very first wound." And he gave it to 
 her as the prize of honor. 
 
 You ought to have seen the tall huntress maiden 
 then, as she stood among the trees with the boar's 
 skin thrown over her left shoulder and reaching down 
 to her feet. She had never looked so much like 
 the queen of the woods. But the rude brothers of 
 Queen Althea were vexed to think that a maiden 
 should win the prize, and they began to make 
 trouble. One of them snatched Atalanta's spear 
 from her hand, and dragged the prize from her 
 shoulders, and the other pushed her rudely and 
 bade her go back to Arcadia and live again with 
 the she-bears on the mountain side. All this vexed 
 Meleager, and he tried to make his uncles give 
 back the spear and the prize, and stop their unman- 
 nerly talk. But they grew worse and worse, and at 
 last set upon Meleager, and would have killed him 
 if he had not drawn his sword to defend himself. 
 A fight followed, and the rude fellows struck right 
 and left as though they were blind. Soon both 
 were stretched dead upon the ground. Some who 
 did not see the fight said that Meleager killed 
 them, but I would rather believe that they killed 
 each other in their drunken fury. 
 
 And now all the company started back to the 
 
city. Some carried the boar's huge head, and some 
 the different parts of his body, while others had 
 made biers of the green branches, and bore upon 
 them the dead bodies of those who had been slain. 
 It was indeed a strange procession. 
 
 A young man who did not like Meleager, had 
 run on in front and had reached the city before 
 the rest of the company had fairly started. Queen 
 Althea was standing at the door of the palace, and 
 when she saw him she asked what had happened in 
 the forest. He told her at once that Meleager had 
 killed her brothers, for he knew that, with all their 
 faults, she loved them very dearly. It was terrible 
 to see her grief. She shrieked, and tore her hair, 
 and rushed wildly about from room to room. Her 
 senses left her, and she did not know what she 
 was doing. 
 
 It was the custom at that time for people to 
 avenge the death of their kindred, and her only 
 thought was how to punish the murderer of her 
 brothers. In her madness she forgot that Meleager 
 was her son. Then she thought of the three Fates 
 and of the unburned firebrand which she had locked 
 up in her chest so many years before. She ran and 
 got the stick and threw it into the fire that was 
 burning on the hearth. 
 
 It kindled at once, and she watched it as it 
 
132 
 
 blazed up brightly. Then it began to turn into 
 ashes, and as the last spark died out, the noble 
 Meleager, who was walking by the side of Atalanta, 
 dropped to the ground dead. 
 
 When they carried the news to Althea she said 
 not a word, for then she knew what she had done, 
 and her heart was broken. She turned silently away 
 and went to her own room. When the king came 
 home a few minutes later, he found her dead. 
 
 So ended the hunt in the wood of Calydon. 
 
 V. THE RACE FOR A WIFE. 
 
 After the death of Meleager, Atalanta went back 
 to her old home among the mountains of Arcadia. 
 She was still the swift-footed huntress, and she 
 was never so happy as when in the green woods 
 wandering among the trees or chasing the wild 
 deer. All the world had heard about her, how- 
 ever; and the young heroes in the lands nearest 
 to Arcadia did nothing else but talk about her 
 beauty and her grace and her swiftness of foot 
 and her courage. Of course every one of these 
 young fellows wanted her to become his wife; and 
 she might have been a queen any day if she had 
 only said the word, for the richest king in Greece 
 would have been glad to marry her. But she cared 
 
133 
 
 nothing for any of the young men, and she liked 
 the freedom of the green woods better than all the 
 fine things she might have had in a palace. 
 
 The young men would not take " No ! " for an 
 answer, however. They could not believe that she 
 really meant it, and so they kept coming and stay- 
 ing until the woods of Arcadia were full of them, 
 and there was no getting along with them at all. 
 So, when she could think of no other way to get 
 rid of them, Atalanta called them together and said : 
 
 " You want to marry me, do you ? Well, if any 
 one of you would like to run a race with me from 
 this mountain to the bank of the river over there, he 
 may do so ; and I will be the wife of the one who 
 outruns me." 
 
 " Agreed ! agreed ! " cried all the young fellows. 
 
 " But, listen ! " she said. " Whoever tries this race 
 must also agree that if I outrun him, he must lose 
 his life." 
 
 Ah, what long faces they all had then! About 
 half of them drew away and went home. 
 
 " But won't you give us the start of you a little ? " 
 asked the others. 
 
 " Oh, yes," she answered. " I will give you the 
 start by a hundred paces. But remember, if I over- 
 take any one before he reaches the river, he shall 
 lose his head that very day." 
 
134 
 
 Several others now found that they were in ill 
 health or that business called them home ; and when 
 they were next looked for, they were not to be found. 
 But a good many who had had some practice in 
 sprinting across the country stayed and made up 
 their minds to try their luck. Could a mere girl 
 outrun such fine fellows as they? Nonsense! 
 
 And so it happened that a race was run almost 
 every day. And almost every day some poor fellow 
 lost his head ; for the fleetest-footed sprinter in all 
 Greece was overtaken by Atalanta long before he 
 could reach the river bank. But other young men 
 kept coming and coming, and no sooner had one 
 been put out of the way than another took his place. 
 
 One day there came from a distant town a hand- 
 some, tall young man named Meilanion. 
 
 " You'd better not run with me," said Atalanta, 
 "for I shall be sure to overtake you, and that will 
 be the end of you." 
 
 " We'll see about that," said Meilanion. 
 
 Now Meilanion, before coming to try his chance, 
 had talked with Venus, the queen of love, who 
 lived with Jupiter among the clouds on the moun- 
 tain top. And he was so handsome and gentle and 
 wise that Venus took pity on him, and gave him 
 three golden apples and told him what to do. 
 
 Well, when all was ready for the race, Atalanta 
 
135 
 
 tried again to persuade Meilanion not to run, for 
 she also took pity on him. 
 
 " I'll be sure to overtake you," she said. 
 
 "All right!" said Meilanion, and away he sped; 
 but he had the three golden apples in his pocket. 
 
 Atalanta gave him a good start, and then she 
 followed after, as swift as an arrow shot from the 
 bow. Meilanion was not a very fast runner, and it 
 .would not be hard for her to overtake him. She 
 thought that she would let him get almost to the 
 goal, for she really pitied him. He heard her com- 
 ing close behind him ; he heard her quick breath as 
 she gained on him very fast. Then he threw one 
 of the golden apples over his shoulder. 
 
 Now, if there was anything in the world that 
 Atalanta admired, it was a bright stone or a pretty 
 piece of yellow gold. As the apple fell to the 
 ground she saw how beautiful it was, and she 
 stopped to pick it up ; and while she was doing this, 
 Meilanion gained a good many paces. But what 
 of that? In a minute she was as close behind him 
 as ever. And yet, she really did pity him. 
 
 Just then Meilanion threw the second apple over 
 his shoulder. It was handsomer and larger than 
 the first, and Atalanta could not bear the thought 
 of allowing some one else to get it. So she stopped 
 to pick it up from among the long grass, where it 
 
136 
 
 had fallen. It took somewhat longer to find it than 
 she had expected, and when she looked up again 
 Meilanion was a hundred feet ahead of her. But 
 that was no matter. She could easily overtake him. 
 And yet, how she did pity the foolish young man ! 
 
 Meilanion heard her speeding like the wind be- 
 hind him. He took the third apple and threw it 
 over to one side of the path where the ground 
 sloped towards the river. Atalanta's quick eye saw 
 that it was far more beautiful than either of the 
 others. If it were not picked up at once it would 
 roll down into the deep water and be lost, and that 
 would never do. She turned aside from her course 
 and ran after it. It was easy enough to overtake 
 the apple, but while she was doing so Meilanion 
 gained upon her again. He was almost to the goal. 
 How she strained every muscle now to overtake 
 him ! But, after all, she felt that she did not care 
 very much. He was the handsomest young man 
 that she had ever seen, and he had given her three 
 golden apples. It would be a great pity if he 
 should have to die. And so she let him reach the 
 goal first. 
 
 After that, of course, Atalanta became Meilanion's 
 wife. And he took her with him to his distant 
 home, and there they lived happily together for 
 many, many years. 
 
THE HORSE AND THE OLIVE. 
 
 I. FINDING A KING. 
 
 ON a steep stony hill in Greece there lived in 
 early times a few very poor people who had not yet 
 learned to build houses. They made their homes 
 in little caves which they dug in the earth or hol- 
 lowed out among the rocks ; and their food was the 
 flesh of wild animals, which they hunted in the 
 woods, with now and then a few berries or nuts. 
 They did not even know how to make bows and 
 arrows, but used slings and clubs and sharp sticks 
 for weapons ; and the little clothing which they had 
 was made of skins. They lived on the top of the 
 hill, because they were safe there from the savage 
 beasts of the great forest around them, and safe also 
 from the wild men who sometimes roamed through 
 the land. The hill was so steep on every side that 
 there was no way of climbing it save by a single 
 narrow footpath which was always guarded by 
 some one at the top. 
 
 One day when the men were hunting in the woods, 
 
 137 
 
138 
 
 they found a strange youth whose face was so fair 
 and who was dressed so beautifully that they could 
 hardly believe him to be a man like themselves. 
 His body was so slender and lithe, and he moved so 
 nimbly among the trees, that they fancied him to be 
 a serpent in the guise of a human being ; and they 
 stood still in wonder and alarm. The young man 
 spoke to them, but they could not understand a 
 word that he said ; then he made signs to them 
 that he was hungry, and they gave him something 
 to eat and were no longer afraid. Had they been 
 like the wild men of the woods, they might have 
 killed him at once. But they wanted their women 
 and children to see the serpent man, as they called 
 him, and hear him talk ; and so they took him home 
 with them to the top of the hill. They thought 
 that after they had made a show of him for a few 
 days, they would kill him and offer his body as a 
 sacrifice to the unknown being whom they dimly 
 fancied to have some sort of control over their 
 lives. 
 
 But the young man was so fair and gentle that, 
 after they had all taken a look at him, they began 
 to think it would be a great pity to harm him. So 
 they gave him food and treated him kindly; and he 
 sang songs to them and played with their children, 
 and made them happier than they had been for 
 
139 
 
 many a day. In a short time he learned to talk in 
 their language ; and he told them that his name 
 was Cecrops, and that he had been shipwrecked on 
 the seacoast not far away ; and then he told them 
 many strange things about the land from which he 
 had come and to which he would never be able to 
 return. The poor people listened and wondered ; 
 and it was not long until they began to love 
 him and to look up to him as one wiser than 
 themselves. Then they came to ask him about 
 everything that was to be done, and there was 
 not one of them who refused to do his bidding. 
 
 So Cecrops the serpent man, as they still 
 called him became the king of the poor people 
 on the hill. He taught them how to make bows 
 and arrows, and how to set nets for birds, and how 
 to take fish with hooks. He led them against the 
 savage wild men of the woods, and helped them kill 
 the fierce beasts that had been so great a terror to 
 them. He showed them how to build houses of 
 wood and to thatch them with the reeds which 
 grew in the marshes. He taught them how to live 
 in families instead of herding together like sense- 
 less beasts as they had always done before. And 
 he told them about great Jupiter and the Mighty 
 Folk who lived amid the clouds on the mountain 
 top. 
 
140 
 
 II. CHOOSING A NAME. 
 
 By and by, instead of the wretched caves among 
 the rocks, there was a little town on the top of the 
 hill, with neat houses and a market place; and 
 around it was a strong wall with a single narrow 
 gate just where the footpath began to descend to 
 the plain. But as yet the place had no name. 
 
 One morning while the king and his wise men 
 were sitting together in the market place and plan- 
 ning how to make the town become a rich, strong 
 city, two strangers were seen in the street. Nobody 
 could tell how they came there. The guard at the 
 gate had not seen them; and no man had ever 
 dared to climb the narrow footway without his 
 leave. But there the two strangers stood. One 
 was a man, the other a woman ; and they were so 
 tall, and their faces were so grand and noble, that 
 those who saw them stood still and wondered and 
 said not a word. 
 
 The man had a robe of purple and green 
 wrapped round his body, and he bore in one hand 
 a strong staff with three sharp spear points at one 
 end. The woman was not beautiful, but she had 
 wonderful gray eyes ; and in one hand she carried 
 a spear and in the other a shield of curious work- 
 manship. 
 
141 
 
 " What is the name of this town ? " asked the 
 man. 
 
 The people stared at him in wonder, and hardly 
 understood his meaning. Then an old man an- 
 swered and said, " It has no name. We who live 
 on this hill used to be called Cranae ; but since 
 King Cecrops came, we have been so busy that 
 we have had no time to think of names." 
 
 " Where is this King Cecrops ? " asked the 
 woman. 
 
 " He is in the market place with the wise men," 
 was the answer. 
 
 " Lead us to him at once," said the man. 
 
 When Cecrops saw the two strangers coming into 
 the market place, he stood up and waited for them 
 to speak. The man spoke first: 
 
 " I am Neptune," said he, " and I rule the sea." 
 
 "And I am Athena," said the woman, u and I 
 give wisdom to men." 
 
 " I hear that you are planning to make your 
 town become a great city," said Neptune, " and I 
 have come to help you. Give my name to the 
 place, and let me be your protector and patron, and 
 the wealth of the whole world shall be yours. 
 'Ships from every land shall bring you merchan- 
 dise and gold and silver; and you shall be the 
 masters of the sea." 
 
142 
 
 "My uncle makes you fair promises/' said Athena; 
 " but listen to me. Give my name to your city, and 
 let me be your patron, and I will give you that 
 which gold cannot buy : I will teach you how to 
 do a thousand things of which you now know 
 nothing. I will make your city my favorite home, 
 and I will give you wisdom that shall sway the 
 minds and hearts of all men until the end of time." 
 
 The king bowed, and turned to the people, who 
 had all crowded into the market place. " Which of 
 these mighty ones shall we elect to be the protector 
 and patron of our city ? " he asked. " Neptune 
 offers us wealth; Athena promises us wisdom. 
 Which shall we choose ? " 
 
 " Neptune and wealth ! " cried many. 
 
 " Athena and wisdom ! " cried as many others. 
 
 At last when it was plain that the people could 
 not agree, an old man whose advice was always 
 heeded stood up and said : 
 
 " These mighty ones have only given us prom- 
 ises, and they have promised things of which 
 we are ignorant. For who among us knows what 
 wealth is or what wisdom is ? Now, if they would 
 only give us some real gift, right now and right 
 here, which we can see and handle, we should know 
 better how to choose." 
 
 " That is true ! that is true ! " cried the people, 
 
143 
 
 " Very well, then," said the strangers, " we will 
 each give you a gift, right now and right here, and 
 then you may choose between us." 
 
 Neptune gave the first gift. He stood on the 
 highest point of the hill where the rock was bare, 
 and bade the people see his power. He raised 
 his three-pointed spear high in the air, and then 
 brought it down with great force. Lightning 
 flashed, the earth shook, and the rock was split 
 half way down to the bottom of the hill. Then 
 out of the yawning crevice there sprang a won- 
 derful creature, white as milk, with long slender 
 legs, an arching neck, and a mane and tail of silk. 
 
 The people had never seen anything like it 
 before, and they thought it a new kind of bear 
 or wolf or wild boar that had come out of the 
 rock to devour them. Some of them ran and hid 
 in their houses, while others climbed upon the 
 wall, and still others grasped their weapons in 
 alarm. But when they saw the creature stand 
 quietly by the side of Neptune, they lost their fear 
 and came closer to see and admire its beauty. 
 
 " This is my gift," said Neptune. " This animal 
 will carry your burdens for you ; he will draw 
 your chariots ; he will pull your wagons and your 
 plows ; he will let you sit on his back and will 
 run with you faster than the wind." 
 
W 
 Q 
 fc 
 O 
 
145 
 
 " What is his name ? " asked the king. 
 
 " His name is Horse," answered Neptune. 
 
 Then Athena came forward. She stood a mo- 
 ment on a green grassy plot where the children of 
 the town liked to play in the evening. Then she 
 drove the point of her spear deep down in the soil. 
 At once the air was filled with music, and out of 
 the earth there sprang a tree with slender branches 
 and dark green leaves and white flowers and violet 
 green fruit. 
 
 " This is my gift," said Athena. " This tree will 
 give you food when you are hungry ; it will shelter 
 you from the sun when you are faint ; it will beau- 
 tify your city; and the oil from its fruit will be 
 sought by all the world." 
 
 " What is it called ? " asked the king. 
 
 ' It is called Olive," answered Athena. 
 
 Then the king and his wise men began to talk 
 about the two gifts. 
 
 u I do not see that Horse will be of much use 
 to us," said the old man who had spoken before. 
 " For, as to the chariots and wagons and plows, 
 we have none of them, and indeed do not know 
 what they are ; and who among us will ever want 
 to sit on this creature's back and be borne faster 
 than the wind ? But Olive will be a thing of beauty 
 and a joy for us and our children forever." 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES IO 
 
146 
 
 " Which shall we choose ? " asked the king, turn 
 ing to the people. 
 
 " Athena has given us the best gift," they all 
 cried, " and we choose Athena and wisdom ! " 
 
 " Be it so," said the king, " and the name of our 
 city shall be Athens." 
 
 From that day the town grew and spread, and 
 soon there was not room on the hilltop for all 
 the people. Then houses were built in the plain 
 around the foot of the hill, and a great road was 
 built to the sea, three miles away ; and in all the 
 world there was no city more fair than Athens. 
 
 In the old market place on the top of the hill 
 the people built a temple to Athena, the ruins of 
 which may still be seen. The olive tree grew and 
 flourished ; and, when you visit Athens, people 
 will show you the very spot where it stood. Many 
 other trees sprang from it, and in time became 
 a blessing both to Greece and to all the other 
 countries round the great sea. As for the horse, 
 he wandered away across the plains towards the 
 north and found a home at last in distant Thes- 
 saly beyond the River Peneus. And I have heard it 
 said that all the horses in the world have descended 
 from that one which Neptune brought out of the 
 rock; but of the truth of this story there rftay be 
 some doubts. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS. 
 
 I. ^EGEUS AND ^ETHRA. 
 
 THERE was once a king of Athens whose name 
 was ^Egeus. He had no son ; but he had fifty 
 nephews, and they were waiting for him to die, so 
 that one of them might be king in his stead. They 
 were wild, worthless fellows, and the people of 
 Athens looked forward with dread to the day when 
 the city should be in their power. Yet so long as 
 ^Egeus lived they could not do much harm, but 
 were content to spend their time in eating and 
 drinking at the king's table and in quarreling among 
 themselves. 
 
 It so happened one summer that ^Egeus left his 
 kingdom in the care of the elders of the city and 
 went on a voyage across the Saronic Sea to the 
 old and famous city of Trcezen, which lay nestled 
 at the foot of the mountains on the opposite shore. 
 Troezen was not fifty miles by water from Athens, 
 and the purple-peaked island of ^Egina lay between 
 
 147 
 
148 
 
 them ; but to the people of that early time the dis- 
 tance seemed very great, and it was not often that 
 ships passed from one place to the other. And as 
 for going by land round the great bend of the sea, 
 that was a thing so fraught with danger that no 
 man had ever dared try it. 
 
 King Pittheus of Troezen was right glad to see 
 ^Egeus, for they had been boys together, and he 
 welcomed him to his city and did all that he could 
 to make his visit a pleasant one. So, day after day, 
 there was feasting and merriment and music in the 
 marble halls of old Troezen, and the two kings 
 spent many a happy hour in talking of the deeds of 
 their youth and of the mighty heroes whom both 
 had known. And when the time came for the ship 
 to sail back to Athens, ^Egeus was not ready to go. 
 He said he would stay yet a little longer in Troe- 
 zen, for that the elders of the city would manage 
 things well at home ; and so the ship returned with- 
 out him. 
 
 But ./Egeus tarried, not so much for the rest and 
 enjoyment which he was having in the home of his 
 old friend, as for the sake of ythra, his old friend's 
 daughter. For ^Ethra was as fair as a summer 
 morning, and she was the joy and pride of Troe- 
 zen; and ^Egeus was never so happy as when in 
 her presence. So it happened that some time after 
 
149 
 
 the ship had sailed, there was a wedding in the halls 
 of King Pittheus; but it was kept a secret, for 
 ^Egeus feared that his nephews, if they heard of 
 it, would be very angry and would send men to 
 Troezen to do him harm. 
 
 Month after month passed by, and still yEgeus 
 lingered with his bride and trusted his elders to see 
 to the affairs of Athens. Then one morning, when 
 the gardens of Troezen were full of roses and the 
 heather was green on the hills, a babe was born to 
 /Ethra a boy with a fair face and strong arms and 
 eyes as sharp and as bright as the mountain eagle's. 
 And now ^geus was more loth to return home 
 than he had been before, and he went up on the 
 mountain which overlooks Trcezen, and prayed to 
 Athena, the queen of the air, to give him wisdom 
 and show him what to do. Even while he prayed 
 there came a ship into the harbor, bringing a letter 
 to ^Egeus and alarming news from Athens. 
 
 " Come home without delay " these were words 
 of the letter which the elders had sent "come 
 home quickly, or Athens will be lost. A great king 
 from beyond the sea, Minos of Crete, is on the way 
 with ships and a host of fighting men ; and he 
 declares that he will carry sword and fire within our 
 walls, and will slay our young men and make our 
 children his slaves. Come and save us ! " 
 
ISO 
 
 " It is the call of duty/ 5 said ^Egeus ; and with 
 a heavy heart he made ready to go at once 
 across the sea to the help of his people. But he 
 could not take ^Ethra and her babe, for fear of 
 his lawless nephews, who would have slain them 
 both. 
 
 " Best of wives," he said, when the hour for part- 
 ing had come, " listen to me, for I shall never see 
 your father's halls, nor dear old Troezen, nor per- 
 haps your own fair face, again. Do you remember 
 the old plane tree which stands on the mountain 
 side, and the great flat stone which lies a little way 
 beyond it, and which no man but myself has ever 
 been able to lift? Under that stone, I have hidden 
 my sword and the sandals which I brought from 
 Athens. There they shall lie until our child is 
 strong enough to lift the stone and take them for 
 his own. Care for him, ^Ethra, until that time ; 
 and then, and not till then, you may tell him of 
 his father, and bid him seek me in Athens." 
 
 Then ^Egeus kissed his wife and the babe, and 
 went on board the ship; the sailors shouted; the 
 oars were dipped into the waves ; the white sail 
 was spread to the breeze; and ^Ethra from her 
 palace window saw the vessel speed away over the 
 blue waters towards ^gina and the distant Attic 
 shore. 
 
II. SWORD AND SANDALS. 
 
 Year after year went' by, and yet no word reached 
 /Ethra from her husband on the other side of the sea. 
 Often and often she would climb the mountain above 
 Troezen, and sit there all day, looking out over the 
 blue waters and the purple hills of ^Egina to the dim, 
 distant shore beyond. Now and then she could see 
 a white-winged ship sailing in the offing ; but men 
 said that it was a Cretan vessel, and very likely was 
 filled with fierce Cretan warriors, bound upon some 
 cruel errand of war. Then it was rumored that 
 King Minos had seized upon all the ships of Athens, 
 and had burned a part of the city, and had forced 
 the people to pay him -a most grievous tribute. But 
 further than this there was no news. 
 
 In the meanwhile ^Ethra's babe had grown to be 
 a tall, ruddy-cheeked lad, strong as a mountain lion ; 
 and she had named him Theseus. On the day that 
 he was fifteen years old he went with her up to the 
 top of the mountain, and with her looked out over 
 the sea. 
 
 "Ah, if only your father would come!" she sighed. 
 
 " My father ? " said Theseus. " Who is my father, 
 and why are you always watching and waiting and 
 wishing that he would come ? Tell me about him." 
 
 And she answered : " My child, do you see the 
 
152 
 
 great flat stone which lies there, half buried in the 
 ground, and covered with moss and trailing ivy? 
 Do you think you can lift it ? " 
 
 " I will try, mother," said Theseus. And he dug 
 his fingers into the ground beside it, and grasped its 
 uneven edges, and tugged and lifted and strained 
 until his breath came hard and his arms ached and 
 his body was covered with sweat ; but the stone was 
 moved not at all. At last he said, " The task is too 
 hard for me until I have grown stronger. But why 
 do you wish me to lift it ? " 
 
 " When you are strong enough to lift it," answered 
 ^Ethra, " I will tell you about your father." 
 
 After that the boy went out every day and prac- 
 ticed at running and leaping ^nd throwing and lift- 
 ing; and every day he rolled some stone out of its 
 place. At first he could move only a little weight, 
 and those who saw him laughed as he pulled and 
 puffed and grew red in the face, but never gave up 
 until he had lifted it. And little by little he grew 
 stronger, and his muscles became like iron bands, 
 and his limbs were like mighty levers for strength. 
 Then on his next birthday he went up on the moun- 
 tain with his mother, and again tried to lift the great 
 stone. But it remained fast in its place and was not 
 moved. 
 
 " I am not yet strong enough, mother," he said. 
 
153 
 
 " Have patience, my son," said 
 
 So he went on again with his running and leaping 
 and throwing and lifting; and he practiced wrest- 
 ling, also, and tamed the wild horses of the plain, 
 and hunted the lions among the mountains ; and 
 his strength and swiftness and skill were the 
 wonder of all men, and old Troezen was filled 
 with tales of the deeds of the boy Theseus. Yet 
 when he tried again on his seventeenth birthday, 
 he could not move the great flat stone that lay 
 near the plane tree on the mountain side. 
 
 " Have patience, my son," again said ^Ethra ; 
 but this time the tears were standing in her 
 eyes. 
 
 So he went back again to his exercising ; and he 
 learned to wield the sword and the battle ax and to 
 throw tremendous weights and to carry tremendous 
 burdens. And men said that since the days of Her- 
 cules there was never so great strength in one body. 
 Then, when he was a year older, he climbed the 
 mountain yet another time with his mother, and he 
 stooped and took hold of the stone, and it yielded 
 to his touch ; and, lo, when he had lifted it quite out 
 of the ground, he found underneath it a sword of 
 bronze and sandals of gold, and these he gave to 
 his mother. 
 
 " Tell me now about my father," he said. 
 
* SHE BUCKLED THE SWORD TO HIS BELT." 
 
155 
 
 yEthra knew that the time had come for which 
 she had waited so long, and she buckled the sword 
 to his belt and fastened the sandals upon his feet. 
 Then she told him who his father was, and why he 
 had left them in Trcezen, and how he had said 
 that when the lad was strong enough to lift the 
 great stone, he must take the sword and sandals 
 and go and seek him in Athens. 
 
 Theseus was glad when he heard this, and his 
 proud eyes flashed with eagerness as he said : " I 
 am ready, mother; and I will set out for Athens 
 this very day." 
 
 Then they walked down the mountain together 
 and told King Pittheus what had happened, and 
 showed him the sword and the sandals. But the 
 old man shook his head sadly and tried to dissuade 
 Theseus from going. 
 
 " How can you go to Athens in these lawless 
 times ? " he said. " The sea is full of pirates. In 
 fact, no ship from Trcezen has sailed across the 
 Saronic Sea since your kingly father went home to 
 the help of his people, eighteen years ago." 
 
 Then, finding that this only made Theseus the 
 more determined, he said : " But if you must go, I 
 will have a new ship built for you, stanch and stout 
 and fast sailing ; and fifty of the bravest young men 
 in Troezen shall go with you; and mayhap with 
 
1 5 6 
 
 fair winds and fearless hearts you shall escape the 
 pirates and reach Athens in safety." 
 
 " Which is the most perilous way ? " asked 
 Theseus " to go by ship or to make the journey 
 on foot round the great bend of land ? " 
 
 " The seaway is full enough of perils/' said his 
 grandfather, " but the landway is beset with dangers 
 tenfold greater. Even if there were good roads and 
 no hindrances, the journey round the shore is a 
 long one and would require many days. But there 
 are rugged mountains to climb, and wide marshes 
 to cross, and dark forests to go through. There is 
 hardly a footpath in all that wild region, nor any 
 place to find rest or shelter ; and the woods are full 
 of wild beasts, and dreadful dragons lurk in the 
 marshes, and many cruel robber giants dwell in the 
 mountains." 
 
 " Well," said Theseus, " if there are more perils 
 by land than by sea, then I shall go by land, and I 
 go at once." 
 
 " But you will at least take fifty young men, your 
 companions, with you ? " said King Pittheus. 
 
 " Not one shall go with me," said Theseus ; and 
 he stood up and played with his sword hilt, and 
 laughed at the thought of fear. 
 
 Then when there was nothing more to say, he 
 kissed his mother and bade his grandfather good-by, 
 
157 
 
 and went out of Troezen towards the trackless coast- 
 land which lay to the west and north. And with 
 blessings and tears the king and ^Ethra followed 
 him to the city gates, and watched him until 
 his tall form was lost to sight among the trees 
 which bordered the shore of the sea. 
 
 III. ROUGH ROADS AND ROBBERS. 
 
 With a brave heart Theseus walked on, keeping 
 the sea always upon his right. Soon the old city of 
 Troezen was left far behind, and he came to the 
 great marshes, where the ground sank under him at 
 every step, and green pools of stagnant water lay on 
 both sides of the narrow pathway. But no fiery 
 dragon came out of the reeds to meet him ; and so 
 he walked on and on till he came to the rugged 
 mountain land which bordered the western shore of 
 the sea. Then he climbed one slope after another, 
 until at last he stood on the summit of a gray peak 
 from which he could see the whole country spread 
 out around him. Then downward and onward he 
 went again, but his way led him through dark moun- 
 tain glens, and along the edges of mighty precipices, 
 and underneath many a frowning cliff, until he came 
 to a dreary wood where the trees grew tall and close 
 together and the light of the sun was seldom seen. 
 
I S 8 
 
 In that forest there dwelt a robber giant, called 
 Club-carrier, who was the terror of all the country. 
 For oftentimes he would go down into the valleys 
 where the shepherds fed their flocks, and would 
 carry off not only sheep and lambs, but sometimes 
 children and the men themselves. It was his cus- 
 tom to hide in the thickets of underbrush, close to 
 a pathway, and, when a traveler passed that way, 
 leap out upon him and beat him to death. When 
 he saw Theseus coming through the woods, he 
 thought that he would have a rich prize, for he knew 
 from the youth's dress and manner that he must 
 be a prince. He lay on the ground, where leaves 
 of ivy and tall grass screened him from view, and 
 held his great iron club ready to strike. 
 
 But Theseus had sharp eyes and quick ears, and 
 neither beast nor robber giant could have taken him 
 by surprise. When Club-carrier leaped out of his 
 hiding place to strike him down, the young man 
 dodged aside so quickly that the heavy club struck 
 the ground behind him ; and then, before the robber 
 giant could raise it for a second stroke, Theseus 
 seized the fellow's legs and tripped him up. 
 
 Club-carrier roared loudly, and tried to strike 
 again; but Theseus wrenched the club out of his 
 hands, and then dealt him such a blow on the head 
 that he never again harmed travelers passing through 
 
159 
 
 the forest. Then the youth went on his way, carry- 
 ing the huge club on his shoulder, and singing a song 
 of victory, and looking sharply around him for any 
 other foes that might be lurking among the trees. 
 
 Just over the ridge of the next mountain he met 
 an old man who warned him not to go any farther. 
 He said that close by a grove of pine trees, which 
 he would soon pass on his way down the slope, there 
 dwelt a robber named Sinis, who was very cruel to 
 strangers. 
 
 " He is called Pine-bender," said the old man ; 
 " for when he has caught a traveler, he bends two 
 tall, lithe pine trees to the ground and binds his cap- 
 tive to them a hand and a foot to the top of one, 
 and a hand and a foot to the top of the other. 
 Then he lets the trees fly up, and he roars with 
 laughter when he sees the traveler's body torn in 
 sunder." 
 
 " It seems to me," said Theseus, " that it is full 
 time to rid the world of such a monster ; " and he 
 thanked the kind man who had warned him, and 
 hastened onward, whistling merrily as he went 
 down towards the grove of pines. 
 
 Soon he came in sight of the robber's house, 
 built near the foot of a jutting cliff. Behind it was 
 a rocky gorge and a roaring mountain stream ; and 
 in front of it was a garden wherein grew all kinds of 
 
i6o 
 
 % 
 
 fare plants and beautiful flowers. But the tops of 
 the pine trees below it were laden with the bones of 
 unlucky travelers, which hung bleaching white in 
 the sun and wind. 
 
 On a stone by the roadside sat Sinis himself ; 
 and when he saw Theseus coming, he ran to meet 
 him, twirling a long rope in his hands and crying 
 out : 
 
 " Welcome, welcome, dear prince ! Welcome to 
 our inn the true Traveler's Rest ! " 
 
 " What kind of entertainment have you ? " asked 
 Theseus. " Have you a pine tree bent down to the 
 ground and ready for me ? " 
 
 " Ay ; two of them ! " said the robber. " I knew 
 that you were coming, and I bent two of them for 
 you." 
 
 As he spoke he threw his rope towards Theseus 
 and tried to entangle him in its coils. But the 
 young man leaped aside, and when the robber 
 rushed upon him, he dodged beneath his hands and 
 seized his legs, as he had seized Club-carrier's, and 
 threw him heavily to the ground. Then the two 
 wrestled together among the trees, but not long, 
 for Sinis was no match for his lithe young foe ; and 
 Theseus knelt upon the robber's back as he lay 
 prone among the leaves, and tied him with his own 
 cord to the two pine trees which were already bent 
 
down. "As you would have done unto me, so will 
 I do unto you/' he said. 
 
 Then Pine-bender wept and prayed and made 
 many a fair promise ; but Theseus would not hear 
 him. He turned away, the trees sprang up, and the 
 robber's body was left dangling from their branches. 
 
 Now this old Pine-bender had a daughter named 
 Perigune, who was no more like him than a fair and 
 tender violet is like the gnarled old oak at whose 
 feet it nestles; and it was she who cared for the 
 flowers and the rare plants which grew in the 
 garden by the robber's house. When she saw how 
 Theseus had dealt with her father, she was afraid 
 and ran to hide herself from him. 
 
 " Oh, save me, dear plants ! " she cried, for she 
 often talked to the flowers as though they could 
 understand her. " Dear plants, save me ; and I will 
 never pluck your leaves nor harm you in any way 
 so long as I live." 
 
 There was one of the plants which up to that 
 time had had no leaves, but came up out of the 
 ground looking like a mere club or stick. This 
 plant took pity on the maiden. It began at once to 
 send out long feathery branches with delicate green 
 leaves, which grew so fast that Perigune was soon 
 hidden from sight beneath them. Theseus knew 
 that she must be somewhere in the garden, but he 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 1 1 
 
1 62 
 
 could not find her, so well did the feathery branches 
 conceal her. So he called to her : 
 
 " Perigune," he said, " you need not fear me ; for 
 I know that you are gentle and good, and it is only 
 against things dark and cruel that I lift up my 
 hand." 
 
 The maiden peeped from her hiding-place, and 
 when she saw the fair face of the youth and heard 
 his kind voice, she came out, trembling, and talked 
 with him. And Theseus rested that evening in her 
 house, and she picked some of her choicest flowers 
 for him and gave him food. But when in the morn- 
 ing the dawn began to appear in the east, and the 
 stars grew dim above the mountain peaks, he bade 
 her farewell and journeyed onward over the hills. 
 And Perigune tended her plants and watched her 
 flowers in the lone garden in the midst of the piny 
 grove ; but she never plucked the stalks of aspara- 
 gus nor used them for food, and when she afterwards 
 became the wife of a hero and had children and 
 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she taught 
 them all to spare the plant which had taken pity 
 upon her in her need. 
 
 The road which Theseus followed now led 
 him closer to the shore, and by and by he came 
 to a place where the mountains seemed to rise 
 sheer out of the sea, and there was only a narrow 
 
163 
 
 path high up along the side of the cliff. r*ar down 
 beneath his feet he could hear the waves dashing 
 evermore against the rocky wall, while above him 
 the mountain eagles circled and screamed, and gray 
 crags and barren peaks glistened in the sunlight. 
 
 But Theseus went on fearlessly and came at last 
 to a place where a spring of clear water bubbled 
 out from a cleft in the rock; and there the path 
 was narrower still, and the low doorway of a cavern 
 opened out upon it. Close by the spring sat a 
 red-faced giant, with a huge club across his knees, 
 guarding the road so that no one could pass ; and in 
 the sea at the foot of the cliff basked a huge turtle, 
 its leaden eyes looking always upward for its food. 
 Theseus knew for Perigune had told him that 
 this was the dwelling-place of a robber named Sci- 
 ron, who was the terror of all the coast, and whose 
 custom it was to make strangers wash his feet, so 
 that while they were doing so, he might kick them 
 over the cliff to be eaten by his pet turtle below. 
 
 When Theseus came up, the robber raised his 
 club, and said fiercely : " No man can pass here until 
 he has washed my feet i Come, set to work ! " 
 
 Then Theseus smiled, and said : " Is your turtle 
 hungry to-day ? and do you want me to feed him ? " 
 The robber's eyes flashed fire, and he said, " You 
 shall feed him, but you shall wash my feet first : " 
 
164 
 
 and with that he brandished his club in the air and 
 rushed forward to strike. 
 
 But Theseus was ready for him. With the iron 
 club which he had taken from Club-carrier in the 
 forest he met the blow midway, and the robber's 
 weapon was knocked out of his hands and sent spin- 
 ning away over the edge of the cliff. Then Sciron, 
 black with rage, tried to grapple with him; but 
 Theseus was too quick for that. He dropped his 
 club and seized Sciron by the throat; he pushed 
 him back against the ledge on which he had been 
 sitting; he threw him sprawling upon the sharp 
 rocks, and held him there, hanging half way over 
 the cliff. 
 
 " Enough ! enough ! " cried the robber. " Let me 
 up, and you may pass on your way." 
 
 " It is not enough," said Theseus ; and he drew 
 his sword and sat down by the side of the spring. 
 " You must wash my feet now. Come, set to 
 work!" 
 
 Then Sciron, white with fear, washed his feet. 
 
 "And now," said Theseus, when the task was 
 ended, " as you have done unto others, so will I 
 do unto you." 
 
 There was a scream in mid air which the moun- 
 tain eagles answered from above ; there was a great 
 splashing in the water below, and the turtle fled in 
 
165 
 
 terror from its lurking place. Then the sea cried 
 out : " I will have naught to do with so vile a 
 wretch ! " and a great wave cast the body of Sciron 
 out upon the shore. But it had no sooner touched 
 the ground than the land cried out: " I will have 
 naught to do with so vile a wretch ! " and there was 
 a sudden earthquake, and the body of Sciron was 
 thrown back into the sea. Then the sea waxed fu- 
 rious, a raging storm arose, the waters were lashed 
 into foam, and the waves with one mighty effort 
 threw the detested body high into the air; and 
 there it would have hung unto this day had not the 
 air itself disdained to give it lodging and changed 
 it into a huge black rock. And this rock, which 
 men say is the body of Sciron, may still be seen, 
 grim, ugly, and desolate; and one third of it lies in 
 the sea, one third is embedded in the sandy shore, 
 and one third is exposed to the air. 
 
 IV. WRESTLER AND WRONG-DOER. 
 
 Keeping the sea always in view, Theseus went 
 onward a long day's journey to the north and east ; 
 and he left the rugged mountains behind and came 
 down into the valleys and into a pleasant plain 
 where there were sheep and cattle pasturing and 
 where there were many fields of ripening grain. 
 
1 66 
 
 The fame of his deeds had gone before him, and 
 men and women came crowding to the roadside to 
 see the hero who had slain Club-carrier and Pine- 
 bender and grim old Sciron of the cliff. 
 
 " Now we shall live in peace," they cried ; " for 
 the robbers who devoured our flocks and our chil- 
 dren are no more." 
 
 Then Theseus passed through the old town of 
 Megara, and followed the shore of the bay towards 
 the sacred city of Eleusis. * 
 
 " Do not go into Eleusis, but take the road 
 which leads round it through the hills," whispered 
 a poor man who was carrying a sheep to market. 
 
 " Why shall I do that ? " asked Theseus. 
 
 " Listen, and I will tell you," was the answer. 
 " There is a king in Eleusis whose name is Cer- 
 cyon, and he is a great wrestler. He makes every 
 stranger who comes into the city wrestle with him ; 
 and such is the strength of his arms that when he 
 has overcome a man he crushes the life out of his 
 body. Many travelers come to Eleusis, but no 
 one ever goes away." 
 
 "But I will both come and go away," said 
 Theseus ; and with his club upon his shoulder, he 
 strode onward into the sacred city. 
 
 " Where is Cercyon, the wrestler ? " he asked of 
 the warden at the gate. 
 
i6 7 
 
 " The king is dining in his marble palace," was 
 the answer. " If you wish to save yourself, turn 
 now and flee before he has heard of your 
 coming." 
 
 " Why should I flee ? " asked Theseus. " I am 
 not afraid ; " and he walked on through the narrow 
 street to old Cercyon's palace. 
 
 The king was sitting at his table, eating and 
 drinking ; and he grinned hideously as he thought 
 of the many noble young men whose lives he 
 had destroyed. Theseus went up boldly to the 
 door, and cried out: 
 
 " Cercyon, come out and wrestle with me ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said the king, " here comes another 
 young fool whose days are numbered. Fetch him 
 in and let him dine with me ; and after that he 
 shall have his fill of wrestling." 
 
 So Theseus was given a place at the table of the 
 king, and the two sat there and ate and stared at 
 each other, but spoke not a word. And Cercyon, 
 as he looked at the young man's sharp eyes and 
 his fair face and silken hair, had half a mind to 
 bid him go in peace and seek not to test his 
 strength and skill. But when they had finished, 
 Theseus arose and laid aside his sword and his 
 sandals and his iron club, and stripped himself of 
 his robes, and said : 
 
1 68 
 
 " Come now, Cercyon, if you are not afraid ; come, 
 and wrestle with me." 
 
 Then the two went out into the courtyard where 
 many a young man had met his fate, and there they 
 wrestled until the sun went down, and neither could 
 gain aught of advantage over the other. But it was 
 plain that the trained skill of Theseus would, in the 
 end, win against the brute strength of Cercyon. 
 Then the men of Eleusis who stood watching the 
 contest, saw the youth lift the giant king bodily into 
 the air and hurl him headlong over his shoulder to 
 the hard pavement beyond. 
 
 " As you have done to others, so will I do unto 
 you ! " cried Theseus. 
 
 But grim old Cercyon neither moved nor spoke ; 
 and when the youth turned his body over and looked 
 into his cruel face, he saw that the life had quite 
 gone out of him. 
 
 Then the people of Eleusis came to Theseus and 
 wanted to make him their king. " You have slain 
 the tyrant who was the bane of Eleusis," they said, 
 " and we have heard how you have also rid the world 
 of the giant robbers who were the terror of the land. 
 Come now and be our king ; for we know that you 
 will rule over us wisely and well." 
 
 " Some day," said Theseus, " I will be your king, 
 but not now ; for there are other deeds for me to 
 
do." And with that he donned his sword and his 
 sandals and his princely cloak, and threw his great 
 iron club upon his shoulder, and went out of Eleu- 
 sis ; and all the people ran after him for quite a little 
 way, shouting, " May good fortune be with you, O 
 king, and may Athena bless and guide you ! " 
 
 V. PROCRUSTES THE PITILESS. 
 
 Athens was now not more than twenty miles 
 away, but the road thither led through the Parnes 
 Mountains, and was only a narrow path winding 
 among the rocks and up and down many a lonely 
 wooded glen. Theseus had seen worse and far more 
 dangerous roads than this, and so he strode bravely 
 onward, happy in the thought that he was so near 
 the end of his long journey. But it was very slow 
 traveling among the mountains, and he was not 
 always sure that he was following the right path. 
 The sun was almost down when he came to a broad 
 green valley where the trees had been cleared away. 
 A little river flowed through the middle of this val- 
 ley, and on either side were grassy meadows where 
 cattle were grazing ; and on a hillside close by, half 
 hidden among the trees, there was a great stone 
 house with vines running over its walls and roof. 
 
 While Theseus was wondering who it could be 
 
170 
 
 that lived in this pretty but lonely place, a man came 
 out of the house and hurried down to the road to 
 meet him. He was a well-dressed man, and his 
 face was wreathed with smiles ; and he bowed low 
 to Theseus and invited him kindly to come up to the 
 house and be his guest that night. 
 
 " This is a lonely place," he said, " and it is not 
 often that travelers pass this way. But there is 
 nothing that gives me so much joy as to find stran- 
 gers and feast them at my table and hear them tell 
 of the things they have seen and heard. Come up, 
 and sup with me, and lodge under my roof ; and you 
 shall sleep on a wonderful bed which I have a bed 
 which fits every guest and cures him of every ill." 
 
 Theseus was pleased with the man's ways, and as 
 he was both hungry and tired, he went up with him 
 and sat down under the vines by the door ; and the 
 man said : 
 
 " Now I will go in and make the bed ready for 
 you, and you can lie down upon it and rest ; and 
 later, when you feel refreshed, you shall sit at my 
 table and sup with me, and I will listen to the pleas- 
 ant tales which I know you will tell." 
 
 When he had gone into the house, Theseus looked 
 around him to see what sort of a place it was. He 
 was filled with surprise at the richness of it at 
 the gold and silver and beautiful things with which 
 
every room seemed to be adorned for it was 
 indeed a place fit for a prince. While he was 
 looking and wondering, the vines before him were 
 parted and the fair face of a young girl peeped out 
 
 " Noble stranger," she whispered, " do not lie 
 down on my master's bed, for those who do so 
 never rise again. Fly down the glen and hide your- 
 self in the deep woods ere he returns, or else there 
 will be no escape for you." 
 
 " Who is your master, fair maiden, that I should 
 be afraid of him ? " asked Theseus. 
 
 " Men call him Procrustes, or the Stretcher," said 
 the girl and she talked low and fast. " He is a 
 robber. He brings hither all the strangers that he 
 finds traveling through the mountains. He puts 
 them on his iron bed. He robs them of all they 
 have. No one who comes into his house ever 
 goes out again." 
 
 " Why do they call him the Stretcher ? And 
 what is that iron bed of his ? " asked Theseus, in no 
 wise alarmed. 
 
 " Did he not tell you that it fits all guests ? " said 
 the girl ; " and most truly it does fit them. For 
 if a traveler is too long, Procrustes hews off his legs 
 until he is of the right length ; but if he is too short, 
 as is the case with most guests, then he stretches 
 his limbs and body with ropes until he is long 
 
172 
 
 enough. It is for this reason that men call him the 
 Stretcher." 
 
 " Methinks that I have heard of this Stretcher 
 before," said Theseus ; and then he remembered 
 that some one at Eleusis had warned him to beware 
 of the wily robber, Procrustes, who lurked in the 
 glens of the Parnes peaks and lured travelers into 
 his den. 
 
 " Hark! hark!" whispered the girl. " I hear him 
 coming ! " And the vine leaves closed over her 
 hiding-place." 
 
 The very next moment Procrustes stood in the 
 door, bowing and smiling as though he had never 
 done any harm to his fellow men. 
 
 " My dear young friend," he said, " the bed is 
 ready, and I will show you the way. After you 
 have taken a pleasant little nap, we will sit down at 
 table, and you may tell me of the wonderful things 
 which you have seen in the course of your travels." 
 
 Theseus arose and followed his host ; and when 
 they had come into an inner chamber, there, surely 
 enough, was the bedstead, of iron, very curiously 
 wrought, and upon it a soft couch which seemed to 
 invite him to lie down and rest. But Theseus, peer- 
 ing about, saw the ax and the ropes with cunning 
 pulleys lying hidden behind the curtains; and he saw, 
 too, that the floor was covered with stains of blood. 
 
173 
 
 " Now, my dear young friend," said Procrustes, 
 " I pray you to lie down and take your ease ; for I 
 know that you have traveled far and are faint from 
 want of rest and sleep. Lie down, and while sweet 
 slumber overtakes you, I will have a care that no 
 unseemly noise, nor buzzing fly, nor vexing gnat 
 disturbs your dreams." 
 
 " Is this your wonderful bed ? " asked Theseus. 
 
 " It is," answered Procrustes, " and you need but 
 to lie down upon it, and it will fit you perfectly." 
 
 " But you must lie upon it first," said Theseus, 
 "and let me see how it will fit itself to your 
 stature." 
 
 "Ah, no," said Procrustes, "for then the spell 
 would be broken," and as he spoke his cheeks 
 grew ashy pale. 
 
 " But I tell you, you must lie upon it," said 
 Theseus ; and he seized the trembling man around 
 the waist and threw him by force upon the bed. 
 And no sooner was he prone upon the couch than 
 curious iron arms reached out and clasped his body 
 in their embrace and held him down so that he 
 could not move hand or foot. The wretched man 
 shrieked and cried for mercy; but Theseus stood 
 over him and looked him straight in the eye. 
 
 " Is this the kind of bed on which you have your 
 guests lie down ? " he asked. 
 
174 
 
 But Procrustes answered not a word. Then 
 Theseus brought out the ax and the ropes and the 
 pulleys, and asked him what they were for, and why 
 they were hidden in the chamber. He was still 
 silent, and could do nothing now but tremble and 
 weep. 
 
 " Is it true," said Theseus, " that you have lured 
 hundreds of travelers into your den only to rob 
 them ? Is it true that it is your wont to fasten them 
 in this bed, and then chop off their legs or stretch 
 them out until they fit the iron frame ? Tell me, is 
 this true ? " 
 
 " It is true ! it is true ! " sobbed Procrustes ; " and 
 now kindly touch the spring above my head and 
 let me go, and you shall have everything that I 
 possess." 
 
 But Theseus turned away. "You are caught," 
 he said, " in the trap which you set for others and 
 for me. There is no mercy for the man who shows 
 no mercy ; " and he went out of the room, and left 
 the wretch to perish by his own cruel device. 
 
 Theseus looked through the house and found 
 there great wealth of gold and silver and costly 
 things which Procrustes had taken from the stran- 
 gers who had fallen into his hands. He went into 
 the dining hall, and there indeed was the table 
 spread with a rich feast of meats and drinks and 
 
175 
 
 delicacies such as no king would scorn ; but there 
 was a seat and a plate for only the host, and none 
 at all for guests. 
 
 Then the girl whose fair face Theseus had seen 
 among the vines, came running into the house ; 
 and she seized the young hero's hands and blessed 
 and thanked him because he had rid the world of 
 the cruel Procrustes. 
 
 " Only a month ago," she said, " my father, a rich 
 merchant of Athens, was traveling towards Eleusis, 
 and I was with him, happy and care-free as any bird 
 in the green woods. This robber lured us into his 
 den, for we had much gold with us. My father, 
 he stretched upon his iron bed; but me, he made 
 his slave." 
 
 Then Theseus called together all the inmates of 
 the house, poor wretches whom Procrustes had 
 forced to serve him; and he parted the robber's 
 spoils among them and told them that they were 
 free to go wheresoever they wished. And on the 
 next day he went on, through the narrow crooked 
 ways among the mountains and hills, and came at 
 last to the plain of Athens, and saw the noble city 
 and, in its midst, the rocky height where the great 
 Temple of Athena stood ; and, a little way from 
 the temple, he saw the white walls of the palace 
 of the king. 
 
i 7 6 
 
 VI. HONOR AND HOME. 
 
 When Theseus entered the city and went walk* 
 ing up the street everybody wondered who the tall, 
 fair youth could be. But the fame of his deeds had 
 gone before him, and soon it was whispered that 
 this was the hero who had slain the robbers in 
 the mountains and had wrestled with Cercyon at 
 Eleusis and had caught Procrustes in his own 
 cunning trap. 
 
 " Tell us no such thing ! " said some butchers who 
 were driving their loaded carts to market. " The 
 lad is better suited to sing sweet songs to the ladies 
 than to fight robbers and wrestle with giants." 
 
 " See his silken black hair ! " said one. 
 
 " And his girlish lace ! " said another. 
 
 " And his long coat dangling about his legs ! " 
 said a third. 
 
 " And his golden sandals ! " said a fourth. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! " laughed the first ; " I wager that he 
 never lifted a ten-pound weight in his life. Think 
 of such a fellow as he hurling old Sciron from the 
 cliffs ! Nonsense ! " 
 
 Theseus heard all this talk as he strode along, 
 and it angered him not a little ; but he had not 
 come to Athens to quarrel with butchers. Without 
 speaking a word he walked straight up to the fore- 
 
177 
 
 most cart, and, before its driver had time to think, 
 took hold of the slaughtered ox that was being 
 hauled to market, and hurled it high over the tops 
 of the houses into the garden beyond. Then he 
 did likewise with the oxen in the second, the third, 
 and the fourth wagons, and, turning about, went 
 on his way, and left the wonder-stricken butchers 
 staring after him, speechless, in the street. 
 
 He climbed the stairway which led to the top of 
 the steep, rocky hill, and his heart beat fast in his 
 bosom as he stood on the threshold of his father's 
 palace. 
 
 " Where is the king ? " he asked of the guard. 
 
 " You cannot see the king," was the answer ; 
 "but I will take you to his nephews." 
 
 The man led the way into the feast hall, and 
 there Theseus saw his fifty cousins sitting about 
 the table, and eating and drinking and making 
 merry; and there was a great noise of revelry in 
 the hall, the minstrels singing and playing, and the 
 slave girls dancing, and the half-drunken princes 
 shouting and cursing. As Theseus stood in the 
 doorway, knitting his eyebrows and clinching his 
 teeth for the anger which he felt, one of the 
 feasters saw him, and cried out: 
 
 " See the tall fellow in the doorway ! What does 
 he want here ? " 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 12 
 
'GREAT KING,' HE SAID, 'I AM A STRANGER IN ATHENS.' 
 
1/9 
 
 " Yes, girl-faced stranger," said another, " what do 
 you want here ? " 
 
 " I am here," said Theseus, " to ask that hospi- 
 tality which men of our race never refuse to give." 
 
 " Nor do we refuse," cried they. " Come in, and 
 eat and drink and be our guest." 
 
 " I will come in," said Theseus, " but I will be the 
 guest of the king. Where is he ? " 
 
 " Never mind the king," said one of his cousins. 
 " He is taking his ease, and we reign in his stead." 
 
 But Theseus strode boldly through the feast hall 
 and went about the palace asking for the king. At 
 last he found yEgeus, lonely and sorrowful, sitting 
 in an inner chamber. The heart of Theseus was 
 very sad as he saw the lines of care upon the old 
 man's face, and marked his trembling, halting ways. 
 
 " Great king," he said, " I am a stranger in 
 Athens, and I have come to you to ask food and 
 shelter and friendship such as I know you never 
 deny to those of noble rank and of your own race." 
 
 " And who are you, young man ? " said the king. 
 
 " I am Theseus," was the answer. 
 
 " What ? the Theseus who has rid the world of 
 the mountain robbers, and of Cercyon the wrestler, 
 and of Procrustes, the pitiless Stretcher ? " 
 
 " I am he," said Theseus ; " and I come from old 
 Trcezen, on the other side of the Saronic Sea." 
 
i8o 
 
 The king started and turned very pale. 
 
 " Troezen ! Trcezen ! " he cried. Then checking 
 himself, he said, " Yes ! yes ! You are welcome, 
 brave stranger, to such shelter and food and friend- 
 ship as the King of Athens can give." 
 
 Now it so happened that there was with the king 
 a fair but wicked witch named Medea, who had so 
 much power over him that he never dared to do 
 anything without asking her leave. So he turned 
 to her, and said : " Am I not right, Medea, in bid- 
 ding this young hero welcome ? " 
 
 " You are right, King ygeus," she said ; " and 
 let him be shown at once to your guest chamber, 
 that he may rest himself and afterwards dine with 
 us at your own table." 
 
 Medea had learned by her magic arts who The- 
 seus was, and she was not at all pleased to have him 
 in Athens ; for she feared that when he should make 
 himself known to the king, her own power would be 
 at an end. So, while Theseus was resting himself 
 in the guest chamber, she told ^Egeus that the 
 young stranger was no hero at all, but a man whom 
 his nephews had hired to kill him, for they had 
 grown tired of waiting for him to die. The poor 
 old king was filled with fear, for he believed her 
 words ; and he asked her what he should do to save 
 his life. 
 
" Let me manage it," she said. " The young man 
 will soon come down to dine with us. I will drop 
 poison into a glass of wine, and at the end of the 
 meal I will give it to him. Nothing can be easier." 
 
 So, when the hour came, Theseus sat down to 
 dine with the king and Medea ; and while he ate he 
 told of his deeds and of how he had overcome the 
 robber giants, and Cercyon the wrestler, and Pro- 
 crustes the pitiless; and as the king listened, his 
 heart yearned strangely towards the young man, and 
 he longed to save him from Medea's poisoned cup. 
 Then Theseus paused in his talk to help himself to 
 a piece of the roasted meat, and, as was the custom 
 of the time, drew his sword to carve it for you 
 must remember that all these things happened long 
 ago, before people had learned to use knives and 
 forks at the table. As the sword flashed from 
 its scabbard, ^Egeus saw the letters that were 
 engraved upon it the initials of his own name. 
 He knew at once that it was the sword which he 
 had hidden so many years before under the stone 
 on the mountain side above Troezen. 
 
 " My son ! my son ! " he cried ; and he sprang up 
 and dashed the cup of poisoned wine from the table, 
 and flung his arms around Theseus. It was indeed 
 a glad meeting for both father and son, and they 
 had many things to ask and to tell. As for the 
 
182 
 
 wicked Medea, she knew that her day of rule was 
 past. She ran out of the palace, and whistled a 
 loud, shrill call ; and men say that a chariot drawn 
 by dragons came rushing through the air, and that 
 she leaped into it and was carried away, and no one 
 ever saw her again. 
 
 The very next morning, ^Egeus sent out his her- 
 alds, to make it known through all the city that 
 Theseus was his son, and that he would in time be 
 king in his stead. When the fifty nephews heard 
 this, they were angry and alarmed. 
 
 " Shall this upstart cheat us out of our heritage ? " 
 they cried ; and they made a plot to waylay and kill 
 Theseus in a grove close by the city gate. 
 - Right cunningly did the wicked fellows lay their 
 trap to catch the young hero ; and one morning, as 
 he was passing that way alone, several of them fell 
 suddenly upon him, with swords and lances, and 
 tried to slay him outright. They were thirty to 
 one, but he faced them boldly and held them at bay, 
 while he shouted for help. The men of Athens, 
 who had borne so many wrongs from the hands of 
 the nephews, came running out from 4:he streets; 
 and in the fight which followed, every one of the 
 plotters, who had lain in ambush was slain; and 
 the other nephews, when they heard about it, fled 
 from the city in haste and never came back again. 
 
THE WONDERFUL ARTISAN. 
 
 I. PERDIX. 
 
 WHILE Athens was still only a small city there 
 lived within its walls a man named Daedalus who was 
 the most skillful worker in wood and stone and metal 
 that had ever been known. It was he who taught the 
 people how to build better houses and how to hang 
 their doors on hinges and how to support the roofs 
 with pillars and posts. He was the first to fasten 
 things together with glue ; he invented the plumb- 
 line and the auger ; and he showed seamen how to 
 put up masts in their ships and how to rig the sails 
 to them with ropes. He built a stone palace for 
 ^Egeus, the young king of Athens, and beautified 
 the Temple of Athena which stood on the great 
 rocky hill in the middle of the city. 
 
 Daedalus had a nephew named Perdix whom he 
 had taken when a boy to teach the trade of builder. 
 But Perdix was a very apt learner, and soon sur- 
 passed his master in the knowledge of many things. 
 His eyes were ever open to see what was going on 
 
 183 
 
1 84 
 
 about him, and he learned the lore of the fields 
 and the woods. Walking one day by the sea, he 
 picked up the backbone of a great fish, and from 
 it he invented the saw. Seeing how a certain 
 bird carved holes in the trunks of trees, he learned 
 how to make and use the chisel. Then he invented 
 the wheel which potters use in molding clay; and 
 he made of a forked stick the first pair of compasses 
 for drawing circles ; and he studied out many other 
 curious and useful things. 
 
 Daedalus was not pleased when he saw that the 
 lad was so apt and wise, sc5 ready to learn, and so 
 eager to do. 
 
 " If he keeps on in this way," he murmured, " he 
 will be a greater man than I ; his name will be 
 remembered, and mine will be forgotten." 
 
 Day after day, while at his work, Daedalus pon- 
 dered over this matter, and soon his heart was filled 
 with hatred towards young Perdix. One morning 
 when the two were putting up an ornament on the 
 outer wall of Athena's temple, Daedalus bade his 
 nephew go out on a narrow scaffold which hung 
 high over the edge of the rocky cliff whereon the 
 temple stood. Then, when the lad obeyed, it was 
 easy enough, with a blow of a hammer, to knock 
 the scaffold from its fastenings. 
 
 Poor Perdix fell headlong through the air, and he 
 
1*5 
 
 would have been dashed in pieces upon the stones 
 at the foot of the cliff had not kind Athena seen 
 him and taken pity upon him. While he was yet 
 whirling through mid-air she changed him into a 
 partridge, and he flitted away to the hills to live for- 
 ever in the woods and fields which he loved so well. 
 And to this day, when summer breezes blow and 
 the wild flowers bloom in meadow and glade, the 
 voice of Perdix may still sometimes be heard, call- 
 ing to his mate from among the grass and reeds 
 or amid the leafv underwoods. 
 
 II. MINOS. 
 
 As for Daedalus, when the people of Athens 
 heard of his dastardly deed, they were filled with 
 grief and rage grief for young Perdix, whom all 
 had learned to love ; rage towards the wicked uncle, 
 who loved only himself. At first they were for 
 punishing Daedalus with the death which he so 
 richly deserved, but when they remembered what 
 he had done to make their homes pleasanter and 
 their lives easier, they allowed him to live ; and yet 
 they drove him out of Athens and bade him never 
 return. 
 
 There was a ship in the harbor just ready to start 
 on a voyage across the sea, and in it Daedalus em- 
 
1 86 
 
 barked with all his precious tools and his young 
 son Icarus. Day after day the little vessel sailed 
 slowly southward, keeping the shore ol the main- 
 land always upon the right. It passed Troezen and 
 the rocky coast of Argos, and then struck boldly 
 out across the sea. 
 
 At last the famous Island of Crete was reached, 
 and there Daedalus landed and made himself known ; 
 and the King of Crete, who had already heard of 
 his wondrous skill, welcomed him to his kingdom, 
 and gave him a home in his palace, and promised 
 that he should be rewarded with great riches and 
 honor if he would but stay and practice his craft 
 there as he had done in Athens. 
 
 Now the name of the King of Crete was Minos. 
 His grandfather, whose name was also Minos, was 
 the son of Europa, a young princess whom a white 
 bull, it was said, had brought- on his back across 
 the sea from distant Asia. This elder Minos had 
 been accounted the wisest of men so wise, indeed, 
 that Jupiter chose him to be one of the judges 
 of the Lower World. The younger Minos was 
 almost as wise as his grandfather; and he was 
 brave and far-seeing and skilled as a ruler of men. 
 He had made all the islands subject to his kingdom, 
 and his ships sailed into every part of the world 
 and brought back to Crete the riches of foreign 
 
i8 7 
 
 lands. So it was not hard for him to persuade 
 Daedalus to make his home with him and be the 
 chief of his artisans. 
 
 And Daedalus built for King Minos a most 
 wonderful palace with floors of marble and pillars 
 of granite ; and in the palace he set up golden 
 statues which had tongues and could talk ; and for 
 splendor and beauty there was no other building in 
 all the wide earth that could be compared with it. 
 
 There lived in those days among the hills of 
 Crete a terrible monster called the Minotaur, the 
 like of which has never been seen from that time 
 until now. This creature, it was said, had the 
 body of a man, but the face and head of a wild bull 
 and the fierce nature of a mountain lion. The 
 people of Crete would not have killed him if they 
 could; for they thought that the Mighty Folk who 
 lived with Jupiter on the mountain top had sent 
 him among them, and that these beings would be 
 angry if any one should take his life. He was the 
 pest and terror of all the land. Where he was 
 least expected, there he was sure to be ; and almost 
 every day some man, woman or child was caught 
 and devoured by him. 
 
 "You have done so many wonderful things," 
 said the king to Daedalus, " can you not do some- 
 thing to rid the land of this Minotaur ? " 
 
1 88 
 
 " Shall I kill him ? " asked Dsedalus. 
 
 " Ah, no ! " said the king. " That would only 
 bring greater misfortunes upon us." 
 
 " I will build a house for him then," said Daeda- 
 lus, " and you can keep him in it as a prisoner." 
 
 " But he may pine away and die if he is penned 
 up in prison," said the king. 
 
 "He shall have plenty of room to roam about," 
 said Daedalus ; " and if you will only now and then 
 feed one of your enemies to him, I promise you 
 that he shall live and thrive." 
 
 So the wonderful artisan brought together his 
 workmen, and they built a marvelous house with 
 so many rooms in it and so many winding ways 
 that no one who went far into it could ever find his 
 way out again ; and Daedalus called it the Laby- 
 rinth, and cunningly persuaded the Minotaur to go 
 inside of it. The monster soon lost his way among 
 the winding passages, but the sound of his terrible 
 bellowings could be heard day and night as he 
 wandered back and forth vainly trying to find some 
 place to escape. 
 
 III. ICARUS. 
 
 Not long after this it happened that Daedalus 
 was guilty of a deed which angered the king very 
 greatly; and had not Minos wished him to build 
 
189 
 
 other buildings for him, he would have put him to 
 death and no doubt have served him right. 
 
 " Hitherto," said the king, " I have honored you 
 for your skill and rewarded you for your labor. 
 But now you shall be my slave and shall serve 
 me without hire and without any word of praise." 
 
 Then he gave orders to the guards at the city 
 gates that they should not let Daedalus pass out 
 at any time, and he set soldiers to watch the ships 
 that were in port so that he could not escape 
 by sea. But although the wonderful artisan was 
 thus held as a prisoner, he did not build any more 
 buildings for King Minos ; he spent his time in 
 planning how he might regain his freedom. 
 
 " All my inventions," he said to his son Icarus, 
 "have hitherto been made to please other people; 
 now I will invent something to please myself." 
 
 So, all through the day he pretended to be plan- 
 ning some great work for the king, but every night 
 he locked himself up in his chamber and wrought 
 secretly by candle light. By and by he had made 
 for himself a pair of strong wings, and for Icarus 
 another pair of smaller ones ; and then, one mid- 
 night, when everybody was asleep, the two went 
 out to see if they could fly. They fastened the 
 wings to their shoulders with wax, and then sprang 
 up into the air. They could not fly very far at 
 
first, but they did so well that they felt sure of 
 doing much better in time. 
 
 The next night Daedalus made some changes 
 in the wings. He put on an extra strap or two; 
 he took out a feather from one wing, and put a 
 new feather into another; and then he and Icarus 
 went out in the moonlight to try them again. 
 They did finely this time. They flew up to the 
 top of the king's palace, and then they sailed away 
 over the walls of the city and alighted on the 
 top of a hill. But they were not ready to under- 
 take a long journey yet; and so, just before day- 
 break, they flew back home. Every fair night after 
 that they practiced with their wings, and at the end 
 of a month they felt as safe in the air as on the 
 ground, and could skim over the hilltops like birds. 
 
 Early one morning, before King Minos had risen 
 from his bed, they fastened on their wings, sprang 
 into the air, and flew out of the city. Once fairly 
 away from the island, they turned towards the west, 
 for Daedalus had heard of an island named Sicily, 
 which lay hundreds of miles away, and he had 
 made up his mind to seek a new home there. 
 
 All went well for a time, and the two bold flyers 
 sped swiftly over the sea, skimming along only a 
 little above the waves, and helped on their way by 
 the brisk east wind. Towards noon the sun shone 
 
HE FELT HIMSELF SINKING THROUGH THE AIR." 
 
192 
 
 very warm, and Daedalus called out to the boy who 
 was a little behind and told him to keep his wings 
 cool and not fly too high. But the boy was proud 
 of his skill in flying, and as he looked up at the sun 
 he thought how nice it would be to soar like it high 
 above the clouds in the blue depths of the sky. 
 
 " At any rate," said he to himself, " I will go up 
 a little higher. Perhaps I can see the horses which 
 draw the sun car, and perhaps I shall catch sight of 
 their driver, the mighty sun master himself." 
 
 So he flew up higher and higher, but his father 
 who was in front did not see him. Pretty soon, 
 however, the heat of the sun began to melt the 
 wax with which the boy's wings were fastened. He 
 felt himself sinking through the air ; the wings had 
 become loosened from his shoulders. He screamed 
 to his father, but it was too late. Daedalus turned 
 just in time to see Icarus fall headlong into the 
 waves. The water was very deep there, and the 
 skill of the wonderful artisan could not save his 
 child. He could only look with sorrowing eyes at 
 the unpitying sea, and fly on alone to distant Sicily. 
 There, men say, he lived for many years, but he 
 never did any great work, nor built anything half 
 so marvelous as the Labyrinth of Crete. And the 
 sea in which poor Icarus was drowned was called 
 forever afterward by his name, the Icarian Sea. 
 
THE CRUEL TRIBUTE. 
 
 I. THE TREATY. 
 
 MINOS, king of Crete, had made war upon 
 Athens. He had come with a great fleet of ships 
 and an army, and had burned the merchant vessels 
 in the harbor, and had overrun all the country and 
 the coast even to Megara, which lies to the west. 
 He had laid waste the fields and gardens round 
 about Athens, had pitched his camp close to the 
 walls, and had sent word to the Athenian rulers 
 that on the morrow he would march into their city 
 with fire and sword and would slay alj their young 
 men and would pull down all their houses, even to 
 the Temple of Athena, which stood on the great hill 
 above the town. Then ^Egeus, the king of Athens, 
 with the twelve elders who were his helpers, went 
 out to see King Minos and to treat with him. 
 
 u O mighty king," they said, " what have we done 
 that you should wish thus to destroy us from the 
 earth ? " 
 
 " O cowardly and shameless men," answered King 
 Minos, " why do you ask this foolish question, since 
 
 OLD GREEK STORIES 13 193 
 
194 
 
 you can but know the cause of my wrath? I had 
 an only son, Androgeos by name, and he was dearer 
 to me than the hundred cities of Crete and the 
 thousand islands of the sea over which I rule. 
 Three years ago he came hither to take part in the 
 games which you held in honor of Athena, whose 
 temple you have built on yonder hilltop. You know 
 how he overcame all your young men in the sports, 
 and how your people honored him with song and 
 dance and laurel crown. But when your king, this 
 same yEgeus who stands before me now, saw how 
 everybody ran after him and praised his valor, he 
 was filled with envy and laid plans to kill him. 
 Whether he caused armed men to waylay him on 
 the road to Thebes, or whether as some say he sent 
 him against a certain wild bull of your country to 
 be slain by that beast, I know not; but you can- 
 not deny that the young man's life was taken from 
 him through the plotting of this ^Egeus." 
 
 " But we do deny it we do deny it!" cried the 
 elders. " For at that very time our king was 
 sojourning at Trcezen on the other side of the 
 Saronic Sea, and he knew nothing of the young 
 prince's death. We ourselves managed the city's 
 affairs while he w r as abroad, and we know whereof 
 we speak. Androgeos was slain, not through the 
 king's orders but by the king's nephews, who hoped 
 
195 
 
 to rouse your anger against ^Egeus so that you 
 would drive him from Athens and leave the king- 
 dom to one of them." 
 
 " Will you swear that what you tell me is true ? " 
 said Minos. 
 
 " We will swear it," they said. 
 
 " Now then," said Minos, " you shall hear my 
 decree. Athens has robbed me of my dearest 
 treasure, a treasure that can never be restored to 
 me; so, in return, I require from Athens, as 
 tribute, that possession which is the dearest and 
 most precious to her people ; and it shall be 
 destroyed cruelly as my son was destroyed." 
 
 " The condition is hard," said the elders, " but it 
 is just. What is the tribute which you require ? " 
 
 " Has the king a son ? " asked Minos. 
 
 The face of King ^Egeus lost all its color and he 
 trembled as he thought of a little child then with 
 its mother at Troezen, on the other side of the 
 Saronic Sea. But the elders knew nothing about 
 that child, and they answered : 
 
 " Alas, no ! he has no son ; but he has fifty 
 nephews who are eating up his substance and long- 
 ing for the time to come when one of them shall 
 be king ; and, as we have said, it was they who 
 slew the young prince, Androgeos." 
 
 " I have naught to do with those fellows," said 
 
196 
 
 Minos; "you may deal with them as you like. 
 But you ask what is the tribute that I require, and 
 I will tell you. Every year when the springtime 
 comes and the roses begin to bloom, you shall 
 choose seven of your noblest youths and seven of 
 your fairest maidens, and shall send them, to me 
 in a ship w 7 hich your king shall provide. This is 
 the tribute which you shall pay to me, Minos, king 
 of Crete ; and if you fail for a single time, or 
 delay even a day, my soldiers shall tear down your 
 walls and burn your city and put your men to the 
 sword and sell your wives and children as slaves." 
 
 " We agree to all this, O King," said the elders ; 
 " for it is the least of two evils. But tell us now, 
 what shall be the fate of the seven youths and the 
 seven maidens ? " 
 
 " In Crete," answered Minos, " there is a house 
 called the Labyrinth, the like of which you have 
 never seen. In it there are a thousand chambers 
 and winding ways, and whosoever goes even a little 
 way into them can never find his way out again. 
 Into this house the seven youths and the seven 
 maidens shall be thrust, and they shall be left 
 there - 
 
 " To perish with hunger ? " cried the elders. 
 
 " To be devoured by a monster whom men call 
 the Minotaur," said Minos. 
 
i 9 7 
 
 Then King /Egeus and the elders covered their 
 faces and wept and went slowly back into the city 
 to tell their people of the sad and terrible conditions 
 upon which Athens could alone be saved. 
 
 " It is better that a few should perish than that 
 the whole city should be destroyed/' they said. 
 
 II. THE TRIBUTE. 
 
 Years passed by. Every spring when the roses 
 began to bloom seven youths and seven maidens 
 were put on board of a black-sailed ship and sent 
 to Crete to pay the tribute which King Minos 
 required. In every house in Athens there was 
 sorrow and dread, and the people lifted up their 
 hands to Athena on the hilltop and cried out, 
 " How long, O Queen of the Air, how long shall 
 this thing be ? " 
 
 In the meanwhile the little child at Trcezen on 
 the other side of the sea had grown to be a man. 
 His name, Theseus, was in everybody's mouth, for 
 he had done great deeds of daring; and at last 
 he had come to Athens to find his father, King 
 vEgeus, who had never heard whether he was 
 alive or dead ; and when the youth had made him- 
 self knotvn, the king had welcomed him to his home 
 and all the people were glad because so noble a 
 
198 
 
 prince had come to dwell among them and, in time, 
 to rule over their city. 
 
 The springtime came again. The black-sailed 
 ship was rigged for another voyage. The rude 
 Cretan soldiers paraded the streets ; and the 
 herald of King Minos stood at the gates and 
 shouted : 
 
 "Yet three days, O Athenians, and your tribute 
 will be due and must be paid ! " 
 
 Then in every street the doors of the houses were 
 shut and no man went in or out, but every one sat 
 silent with pale cheeks, and wondered whose lot it 
 would be to be chosen this year. But the young 
 prince, Theseus, did not understand; for he had 
 not been told about the tribute. 
 
 " What is the meaning of all this ? " he cried. 
 " What right has a Cretan to demand tribute in 
 Athens ? and what is this tribute of which he 
 speaks ? " 
 
 Then yEgeus led him aside and with tears told 
 him of the sad war with King Minos, and of the 
 dreadful terms of peace. " Now, say no more," 
 sobbed ^geus, " it is better that a few should die 
 even thus than that all should be destroyed." 
 
 " But I will say more," cried Theseus. " Athens 
 shall not pay tribute to Crete. I myself will go 
 with these youths and maidens, and I will slay the 
 
199 
 
 monster Minotaur, and defy King Minos himself 
 upon his throne." 
 
 " Oh, do not be so rash ! " said the king ; " for no 
 one who is thrust into the den of the Minotaur ever 
 comes out again. Remember that you are the 
 hope of Athens, and do not take this great risk 
 upon yourself." 
 
 " Say you that I am the hope of Athens ? " said 
 Theseus. "Then how can I do otherwise than go?" 
 And he began at once to make himself ready. 
 
 On the third day all the youths and maidens of 
 the city were brought together in the market place, 
 so that lots might be cast for those who were to be 
 taken. Then two vessels of brass were brought and 
 set before King /Egeus and the herald who had 
 . come from Crete. Into one vessel they placed as 
 many balls as there were noble youths in the city, 
 and into the other as many as there were maidens ; 
 and all the balls were white save only seven in 
 each vessel, and those were black as ebony. 
 
 Then every maiden, without looking, reached 
 her hand into one of the vessels and drew forth 
 a ball, and those who took the black balls were 
 borne away to the black ship, which lay in wait- 
 ing by the shore. The young men also drew lots 
 in like manner, but when six black balls had been 
 drawn Theseus came quickly forward and said: 
 
2OO 
 
 " Hold ! Let no more balls be drawn. I will be 
 the seventh youth to pay this tribute. Now let us 
 go aboard the black ship and be off." 
 
 Then the people, and King yEgeus himself, went 
 down to the shore to take leave of the young men 
 and maidens, whom they had no hope of seeing 
 again ; and all but Theseus wept and were broken- 
 hearted. 
 
 " I will come again, father," he said. 
 
 " I will hope that you may," said the old king. 
 " If when this ship returns, I see a white sail spread 
 above the black one, then I shall know that you 
 are alive and well ; but if I see only the black 
 one, it will tell me that you have perished." 
 
 And now the vessel was loosed from its moorings, 
 the north wind filled the sail, and the seven youths 
 and seven maidens were borne away over the sea, 
 towards the dreadful death which awaited them in 
 far distant Crete. 
 
 III. THE PRINCESS. 
 
 At last the black ship reached the end of its 
 voyage. The young people were set ashore, and 
 a party of soldiers led them through the streets 
 towards the prison, where they were to stay until 
 the morrow. They did not weep nor cry out now, 
 for they had outgrown their fears. But with paler 
 
2OI 
 
 faces and firm-set lips, they walked between the 
 
 rows of Cretan houses, and looked neither to the 
 / 
 
 right nor to the left. The windows and doors were 
 full of people who were eager to see them. 
 
 " What a pity that such brave young men should 
 be food for the Minotaur," said some. 
 
 " Ah, that maidens so beautiful should meet a 
 fate so sad ! " said others. 
 
 And now they passed close by the palace gate, 
 and in it stood King Minos himself, and his daugh- 
 ter Ariadne, the fairest of the women of Crete. 
 
 " Indeed, those are noble young fellows ! " said 
 the king. 
 
 " Yes, too noble to feed the vile Minotaur," said 
 Ariadne. 
 
 "The nobler, the better," said the king; u and 
 yet none of them can compare with your lost 
 brother Androgeos." 
 
 Ariadne said no more ; and yet she thought that 
 she had never seen any one who looked so much 
 like a hero as young Theseus. How tall he was, 
 and how handsome ! How proud his eye, and how 
 firm his step ! Surely there had never been his like 
 in Crete. 
 
 All through that night Ariadne lay awake and 
 thought of the matchless hero, and grieved that he 
 should be doomed to perish ; and then she began to 
 
2O2 
 
 lay plans for setting him free. At the earliest peep 
 of day she arose, and while everybody else was 
 asleep, she ran out of the palace and hurried to the 
 prison. As she was the king's daughter, the jailer 
 opened the door at her bidding and allowed her 
 to go in. There sat the seven youths and the 
 seven maidens on the ground, but they had not lost 
 hope. She took Theseus aside and whispered to 
 him. She told him of a plan which she had 
 made to save him; and Theseus promised her 
 that, when he had slain the Minotaur, he would 
 carry her away with him to Athens where she 
 should live with him always. Then she gave him 
 a sharp sword, and hid it underneath his cloak, 
 telling him that with it alone could he hope to 
 slay the Minotaur. 
 
 " And here is a ball of silken thread," she said. 
 " As soon as you go into the Labyrinth where the 
 monster is kept, fasten one end of the thread to the 
 stone doorpost, and then unwind it as you go along. 
 When you have slain the Minotaur, you have only 
 to follow the thread and it will lead you back to the 
 door. In the meanwhile I will see that your ship 
 is ready to sail, and then I will wait for you at the 
 door of the Labyrinth." 
 
 Theseus thanked the beautiful princess and 
 promised her again that if he should live to go 
 
"THE JAILER OPENED THE DOOR AT HER BIDDING." 
 
 (203) 
 
2O4 
 
 back to Athens she should go with him and be 
 his wife. Then with a prayer to Athena, Ariadne 
 hastened away. 
 
 IV. THE LABYRINTH. 
 
 As soon as the sun was up the guards came to 
 lead the young prisoners to the Labyrinth. They 
 did not see the sword which Theseus had under his 
 cloak, nor the tiny ball of silk which he held in his 
 closed hand. They led the youths and maidens a 
 long way into the Labyrinth, turning here and there, 
 back and forth, a thousand different times, until it 
 seemed certain that they could never find their way 
 out again. Then the guards, by a secret passage 
 which they alone knew, went out and left them, 
 as they had left many others before, to wander 
 about until they should be found by the terrible 
 Minotaur. 
 
 "Stay close by me," said Theseus to his compan- 
 ions, " and with the help of Athena who dwells in 
 her temple home in our own fair city, I will save 
 you." 
 
 Then he drew his sword and stood in the narrow 
 way before them ; and they all lifted up their hands 
 and prayed to Athena. 
 
 For hours they stood there, hearing no sound, 
 and seeing nothing but the smooth, high walls 
 
205. 
 
 on either side of the passage and the calm blue 
 sky so high above them. Then the maidens sat 
 down upon the ground and covered their faces 
 and sobbed, and said : 
 
 " Oh, that he would come and put an end to our 
 misery and our lives." 
 
 At last, late in the day, they heard a bellowing, 
 low and faint as though far away. They listened 
 and soon heard it again, a little louder and very 
 fierce and dreadful. 
 
 "It is he! it is he !" cried Theseus; "and now 
 for the fight!" 
 
 Then he shouted, so loudly that the walls of the 
 Labyrinth answered back, and the sound was car- 
 ried upward to the sky and outward to the rocks 
 and cliffs of the mountains. The Minotaur heard 
 him, and his bellowings grew louder and fiercer 
 every moment. 
 
 " He is coming ! " cried Theseus, and he ran 
 forward to meet the beast. The seven maidens 
 shrieked, but tried to stand up bravely and face 
 their fate ; and the six young men stood together 
 with firm-set teeth and clinched fists, ready to fight 
 to the last. 
 
 Soon the Minotaur came into view, rushing 
 down the passage towards Theseus, and roaring 
 most terribly. He was twice as tall as a man, 
 
206 
 
 and his head was like that of a bull with huge 
 sharp horns and fiery eyes and a mouth as large 
 as a lion's; but the young men could not see the 
 lower part of his body for the cloud of dust which 
 he raised in running. When he saw Theseus with 
 the sword in his hand coming to meet him, he 
 paused, for no one had ever faced him in that way 
 before. Then he put his head down, and rushed 
 forward, bellowing. But Theseus leaped quickly 
 aside, and made a sharp thrust with his sword as 
 he passed, and hewed off one of the monster's legs 
 above the knee. 
 
 The Minotaur fell upon the ground, roaring and 
 groaning and beating wildly about with his horned 
 head and his hoof -like fists ; but Theseus nimbly 
 ran up to him and thrust the sword into his heart, 
 and was away again before the beast could harm 
 him. A great stream of blood gushed from the 
 wound, and soon the Minotaur turned his face 
 towards the sky and was dead. 
 
 Then the youths and maidens ran to Theseus 
 and kissed his hands and feet, and thanked him for 
 his great deed ; and, as it was already growing dark, 
 Theseus bade them follow him while he wound up 
 the silken thread which was to lead them out of the 
 Labyrinth. Through a thousand rooms and courts 
 and winding ways they went, and at midnight they 
 
207 
 
 came to the outer door and saw the city lying in 
 the moonlight before them ; and, only a little way 
 off, was the seashore where the black ship was 
 moored which had brought them to Crete. The 
 door was wide open, and beside it stood Ariadne 
 waiting for them. 
 
 " The wind is fair, the sea is smooth, and the 
 sailors are ready," she whispered ; and she took 
 the arm of Theseus, and all went together through 
 the silent streets to the ship. 
 
 When the morning dawned they were far out to 
 sea, and, looking back from the deck of the little 
 vessel, only the white tops of the Cretan moun- 
 tains were in sight. 
 
 Minos, when he arose from sleep, did not know 
 that the youths and maidens had gotten safe out 
 of the Labyrinth. But. when Ariadne could not 
 be found, he thought that robbers had carried her 
 away. He sent soldiers out to search for her 
 among the hills and mountains, never dreaming 
 that she was now well on the way towards dis- 
 tant Athens. 
 
 Many days passed, and at last the searchers 
 returned and said that the princess could no- 
 where be found. Then the king covered his head 
 and wept, and said : 
 
 " Now, indeed, I am bereft of all my treasures ! " 
 
208 
 
 In the meanwhile, King yEgeus of Athens had 
 sat day after day on a rock by the shore, looking 
 and watching if by chance he might see a ship 
 coming from the south. At last the vessel with 
 Theseus and his companions hove in sight, but 
 it still carried only the black sail, for in their joy 
 the young men had forgotten to raise the white 
 one. 
 
 " Alas ! alas ! my son has perished ! " moaned 
 -^Egeus ; and he fainted and fell forward into the 
 sea and was drowned. And that sea, from then 
 until now, has been called by his name, the 
 Sea. 
 
 Thus Theseus became king of Athens. 
 
 Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Norwood, Mass. 
 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
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 JAN 29 1948 
 
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