{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11582/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11582","id":"gutenberg_11582","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11582","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"OLD GREEK STORIES\n\nBY\n\nJAMES BALDWIN\n\nNEW YORK: CINCINNATI: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nPerhaps no other stories have ever been told so often or listened to\nwith so much pleasure as the classic tales of ancient Greece. For many\nages they have been a source of delight to young people and old, to the\nignorant and the learned, to all who love to hear about and contemplate\nthings mysterious, beautiful, and grand. They have become so\nincorporated into our language and thought, and so interwoven with our\nliterature, that we could not do away with them now if we would. They\nare a portion of our heritage from the distant past, and they form\nperhaps as important a part of our intellectual life as they did of that\nof the people among whom they originated.\n\nThat many of these tales should be read by children at an early age no\nintelligent person will deny. Sufficient reason for this is to be found\nin the real pleasure that every child derives from their perusal: and in\nthe preparation of this volume no other reason has been considered. I\nhave here attempted to tell a few stories of Jupiter and his mighty\ncompany and of some of the old Greek heroes, _simply as stories_,\nnothing more. I have carefully avoided every suggestion of\ninterpretation. Attempts at analysis and explanation will always prove\nfatal to a child's appreciation and enjoyment of such stories. To\ninculcate the idea that these tales are merely descriptions of certain\nnatural phenomena expressed in narrative and poetic form, is to deprive\nthem of their highest charm; it is like turning precious gold into\nutilitarian iron: it is changing a delightful romance into a dull\nscientific treatise. The wise teacher will take heed not to be guilty of\nsuch an error.\n\nIt will be observed that while each of the stories in this volume is\nwholly independent of the others and may be read without any knowledge\nof those which precede it, there is nevertheless a certain continuity\nfrom the first to the last, giving to the collection a completeness like\nthat of a single narrative. In order that the children of our own\ncountry and time may be the better able to read these stories in the\nlight in which they were narrated long ago, I have told them in simple\nlanguage, keeping the supernatural element as far as possible in the\nbackground, and nowhere referring to Jupiter and his mighty company as\ngods. I have hoped thus to free the narrative still more from everything\nthat might detract from its interest simply as a story.\n\nJ.B.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nJUPITER AND HIS MIGHTY COMPANY\nTHE GOLDEN AGE\nTHE STORY OF PROMETHEUS\nTHE FLOOD\nTHE STORY OF IO\nTHE WONDERFUL WEAVER\nTHE LORD OF THE SILVER BOW\nADMETUS AND ALCESTIS\nCADMUS AND EUROPA\nTHE QUEST OF MEDUSA'S HEAD\nTHE STORY OF ATALANTA\nTHE HORSE AND THE OLIVE\nTHE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS\nTHE WONDERFUL ARTISAN\nTHE CRUEL TRIBUTE\n\n\n\n\nPERSONS AND PLACES MENTIONED.\n\n\nAdme'tus\nAEge'an Sea\nAE'geus (jus)\nAEgi'na\nAEscula'pius\nAe'thra\nAido'neus\nAlces'tis\nAlthe'a\nAndro'geos\nAndrom'eda\nApol'lo\nAraech'ne\nArca'dia\nAr'gos\nAr'gus\nAriad'ne\nAr'temis\nA'sia\nAtalan'ta\nAthe'na\nAth'ens\nAt'ropos\nBac'chus\nBos'phorus\nCadme'ia\nCad'mus\nCal'ydon\nCau'casus\nCe'crops\nCer'cyon\nCe'res\nChei'ron\nClo'tho\nCoro'nis\nCran'a\u00eb\nCrete\nCyclo'pes\nCy'prus\nDae'dalus\nDan'a\u00eb\nDaph'ne\nDe'los\nDel'phi\nDeuca'lion\nDian'a\nE'gypt\nEleu'sis\nEpime'theus (thus)\nEuro'pa\nEu'rope\nGor'gons\nGreece\nHa'des\nH\u00e4rmo'nia\nHe'lios\nHel'las\nHel'len\nHel'lenes\nHer'cules\nIca'rian Sea\nIc'arus\nI'o\nIol'cus\nJu'no\nJu'piter\nLab'yrinth\nLach'esis\nLe'to\nMars\nMede'a\nMedu'sa\nMeg'ara\nMeila'nion\nMelea'ger\nMer'cury\nMiner'va\nMi'nos\nMin'otaur\nMyce'nae\nNep'tune\nNile\nOe'neus (nus)\nOs'sa\nPando'ra\nP\u00e4rnas'sus\nPar'nes\nPe'lias\nPene'us\nPer'dix\nPerigu'ne\nPer'seus (sus)\nPit'theus\nPlu'to\nPosei'don\nProcrus'tes\nProme'theus (thus)\nPros'erpine\nPyr'rha\nPyth'ia\nPy'thon\nSaron'ic Sea\nSat'urn\nSci'ron\nSic'ily\nSi'nis\nTem'pe\nThebes\nThe'seus (sus)\nThes'saly\nTi'ryns\nTi'tans\nTroe'zen\nVe'nus\nVes'ta\nVul'can\nZeus (zus)\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nOLD GREEK STORIES.\n\nJUPITER AND HIS MIGHTY COMPANY.\n\n\nA long time ago, when the world was much younger than it is now, people\ntold and believed a great many wonderful stories about wonderful things\nwhich neither you nor I have ever seen. They often talked about a\ncertain Mighty Being called Jupiter, or Zeus, who was king of the sky\nand the earth; and they said that he sat most of the time amid the\nclouds on the top of a very high mountain where he could look down and\nsee everything that was going on in the earth beneath. He liked to ride\non the storm-clouds and hurl burning thunderbolts right and left among\nthe trees and rocks; and he was so very, very mighty that when he\nnodded, the earth quaked, the mountains trembled and smoked, the sky\ngrew black, and the sun hid his face.\n\nJupiter had two brothers, both of them terrible fellows, but not nearly\nso great as himself. The name of one of them was Neptune, or Poseidon,\nand he was the king of the sea. He had a glittering, golden palace far\ndown in the deep sea-caves where the fishes live and the red coral\ngrows; and whenever he was angry the waves would rise mountain high, and\nthe storm-winds would howl fearfully, and the sea would try to break\nover the land; and men called him the Shaker of the Earth.\n\nThe other brother of Jupiter was a sad pale-faced being, whose kingdom\nwas underneath the earth, where the sun never shone and where there was\ndarkness and weeping and sorrow all the time. His name was Pluto, or\nAidoneus, and his country was called the Lower World, or the Land of\nShadows, or Hades. Men said that whenever any one died, Pluto would send\nhis messenger, or Shadow Leader, to carry that one down into his\ncheerless kingdom; and for that reason they never spoke well of him, but\nthought of him only as the enemy of life.\n\nA great number of other Mighty Beings lived with Jupiter amid the clouds\non the mountain top,--so many that I can name a very few only. There\nwas Venus, the queen of love and beauty, who was fairer by far than any\nwoman that you or I have ever seen. There was Athena, or Minerva, the\nqueen of the air, who gave people wisdom and taught them how to do very\nmany useful things. There was Juno, the queen of earth and sky, who sat\nat the right hand of Jupiter and gave him all kinds of advice. There was\nMars, the great warrior, whose delight was in the din of battle. There\nwas Mercury, the swift messenger, who had wings on his cap and shoes,\nand who flew from place to place like the summer clouds when they are\ndriven before the wind. There was Vulcan, a skillful blacksmith, who had\nhis forge in a burning mountain and wrought many wonderful things of\niron and copper and gold. And besides these, there were many others\nabout whom you will learn by and by, and about whom men told strange and\nbeautiful stories.\n\nThey lived in glittering, golden mansions, high up among the clouds--so\nhigh indeed that the eyes of men could never see them. But they could\nlook down and see what men were doing, and oftentimes they were said to\nleave their lofty homes and wander unknown across the land or over the\nsea.\n\nAnd of all these Mighty Folk, Jupiter was by far the mightiest.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOLDEN AGE.\n\n\nJupiter and his Mighty Folk had not always dwelt amid the clouds on the\nmountain top. In times long past, a wonderful family called Titans had\nlived there and had ruled over all the world. There were twelve of\nthem--six brothers and six sisters--and they said that their father was\nthe Sky and their mother the Earth. They had the form and looks of men\nand women, but they were much larger and far more beautiful.\n\nThe name of the youngest of these Titans was Saturn; and yet he was so\nvery old that men often called him Father Time. He was the king of the\nTitans, and so, of course, was the king of all the earth besides.\n\nMen were never so happy as they were during Saturn's reign. It was the\ntrue Golden Age then. The springtime lasted all the year. The woods and\nmeadows were always full of blossoms, and the music of singing birds was\nheard every day and every hour. It was summer and autumn, too, at the\nsame time. Apples and figs and oranges always hung ripe from the trees;\nand there were purple grapes on the vines, and melons and berries of\nevery kind, which the people had but to pick and eat.\n\nOf course nobody had to do any kind of work in that happy time. There\nwas no such thing as sickness or sorrow or old age. Men and women lived\nfor hundreds and hundreds of years and never became gray or wrinkled or\nlame, but were always handsome and young. They had no need of houses,\nfor there were no cold days nor storms nor anything to make them afraid.\n\nNobody was poor, for everybody had the same precious things--the\nsunlight, the pure air, the wholesome water of the springs, the grass\nfor a carpet, the blue sky for a roof, the fruits and flowers of the\nwoods and meadows. So, of course, no one was richer than another, and\nthere was no money, nor any locks or bolts; for everybody was\neverybody's friend, and no man wanted to get more of anything than his\nneighbors had.\n\nWhen these happy people had lived long enough they fell asleep, and\ntheir bodies were seen no more. They flitted away through the air, and\nover the mountains, and across the sea, to a flowery land in the distant\nwest. And some men say that, even to this day, they are wandering\nhappily hither and thither about the earth, causing babies to smile in\ntheir cradles, easing the burdens of the toilworn and sick, and blessing\nmankind everywhere.\n\nWhat a pity it is that this Golden Age should have come to an end! But\nit was Jupiter and his brothers who brought about the sad change.\n\nIt is hard to believe it, but men say that Jupiter was the son of the\nold Titan king, Saturn, and that he was hardly a year old when he began\nto plot how he might wage war against his father. As soon as he was\ngrown up, he persuaded his brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and his sisters,\nJuno, Ceres, and Vesta, to join him; and they vowed that they would\ndrive the Titans from the earth.\n\nThen followed a long and terrible war. But Jupiter had many mighty\nhelpers. A company of one-eyed monsters called Cyclopes were kept busy\nall the time, forging thunderbolts in the fire of burning mountains.\nThree other monsters, each with a hundred hands, were called in to throw\nrocks and trees against the stronghold of the Titans; and Jupiter\nhimself hurled his sharp lightning darts so thick and fast that the\nwoods were set on fire and the water in the rivers boiled with the heat.\n\nOf course, good, quiet old Saturn and his brothers and sisters could\nnot hold out always against such foes as these. At the end of ten years\nthey had to give up and beg for peace. They were bound in chains of the\nhardest rock and thrown into a prison in the Lower Worlds; and the\nCyclopes and the hundred-handed monsters were sent there to be their\njailers and to keep guard over them forever.\n\nThen men began to grow dissatisfied with their lot. Some wanted to be\nrich and own all the good things in the world. Some wanted to be kings\nand rule over the others. Some who were strong wanted to make slaves of\nthose who were weak. Some broke down the fruit trees in the woods, lest\nothers should eat of the fruit. Some, for mere sport, hunted the timid\nanimals which had always been their friends. Some even killed these poor\ncreatures and ate their flesh for food.\n\nAt last, instead of everybody being everybody's friend, everybody was\neverybody's foe.\n\nSo, in all the world, instead of peace, there was war; instead of\nplenty, there was starvation; instead of innocence, there was crime; and\ninstead of happiness, there was misery.\n\nAnd that was the way in which Jupiter made himself so mighty; and that\nwas the way in which the Golden Age came to an end.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF PROMETHEUS.\n\nI. HOW FIRE WAS GIVEN TO MEN.\n\n\nIn those old, old times, there lived two brothers who were not like\nother men, nor yet like those Mighty Ones who lived upon the mountain\ntop. They were the sons of one of those Titans who had fought against\nJupiter and been sent in chains to the strong prison-house of the Lower\nWorld.\n\nThe name of the elder of these brothers was Prometheus, or Forethought;\nfor he was always thinking of the future and making things ready for\nwhat might happen to-morrow, or next week, or next year, or it may be in\na hundred years to come. The younger was called Epimetheus, or\nAfterthought; for he was always so busy thinking of yesterday, or last\nyear, or a hundred years ago, that he had no care at all for what might\ncome to pass after a while.\n\nFor some cause Jupiter had not sent these brothers to prison with the\nrest of the Titans.\n\nPrometheus did not care to live amid the clouds on the mountain top. He\nwas too busy for that. While the Mighty Folk were spending their time in\nidleness, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia, he was intent upon plans\nfor making the world wiser and better than it had ever been before.\n\nHe went out amongst men to live with them and help them; for his heart\nwas filled with sadness when he found that they were no longer happy as\nthey had been during the golden days when Saturn was king. Ah, how very\npoor and wretched they were! He found them living in caves and in holes\nof the earth, shivering with the cold because there was no fire, dying\nof starvation, hunted by wild beasts and by one another--the most\nmiserable of all living creatures.\n\n\"If they only had fire,\" said Prometheus to himself, \"they could at\nleast warm themselves and cook their food; and after a while they could\nlearn to make tools and build themselves houses. Without fire, they are\nworse off than the beasts.\"\n\nThen he went boldly to Jupiter and begged him to give fire to men, that\nso they might have a little comfort through the long, dreary months of\nwinter.\n\n\"Not a spark will I give,\" said Jupiter. \"No, indeed! Why, if men had\nfire they might become strong and wise like ourselves, and after a while\nthey would drive us out of our kingdom. Let them shiver with cold, and\nlet them live like the beasts. It is best for them to be poor and\nignorant, that so we Mighty Ones may thrive and be happy.\"\n\nPrometheus made no answer; but he had set his heart on helping mankind,\nand he did not give up. He turned away, and left Jupiter and his mighty\ncompany forever.\n\nAs he was walking by the shore of the sea he found a reed, or, as some\nsay, a tall stalk of fennel, growing; and when he had broken it off he\nsaw that its hollow center was filled with a dry, soft pith which would\nburn slowly and keep on fire a long time. He took the long stalk in his\nhands, and started with it towards the dwelling of the sun in the far\neast.\n\n\"Mankind shall have fire in spite of the tyrant who sits on the mountain\ntop,\" he said.\n\nHe reached the place of the sun in the early morning just as the\nglowing, golden orb was rising from the earth and beginning his daily\njourney through the sky. He touched the end of the long reed to the\nflames, and the dry pith caught on fire and burned slowly. Then he\nturned and hastened back to his own land, carrying with him the precious\nspark hidden in the hollow center of the plant.\n\nHe called some of the shivering men from their caves and built a fire\nfor them, and showed them how to warm themselves by it and how to build\nother fires from the coals. Soon there was a cheerful blaze in every\nrude home in the land, and men and women gathered round it and were warm\nand happy, and thankful to Prometheus for the wonderful gift which he\nhad brought to them from the sun.\n\nIt was not long until they learned to cook their food and so to eat like\nmen instead of like beasts. They began at once to leave off their wild\nand savage habits; and instead of lurking in the dark places of the\nworld, they came out into the open air and the bright sunlight, and were\nglad because life had been given to them.\n\nAfter that, Prometheus taught them, little by little, a thousand things.\nHe showed them how to build houses of wood and stone, and how to tame\nsheep and cattle and make them useful, and how to plow and sow and reap,\nand how to protect themselves from the storms of winter and the beasts\nof the woods. Then he showed them how to dig in the earth for copper and\niron, and how to melt the ore, and how to hammer it into shape and\nfashion from it the tools and weapons which they needed in peace and\nwar; and when he saw how happy the world was becoming he cried out:\n\n\"A new Golden Age shall come, brighter and better by far than the old!\"\n\n\n\n\nII. HOW DISEASES AND CARES CAME AMONG MEN.\n\n\nThings might have gone on very happily indeed, and the Golden Age might\nreally have come again, had it not been for Jupiter. But one day, when\nhe chanced to look down upon the earth, he saw the fires burning, and\nthe people living in houses, and the flocks feeding on the hills, and\nthe grain ripening in the fields, and this made him very angry.\n\n\"Who has done all this?\" he asked.\n\nAnd some one answered, \"Prometheus!\"\n\n\"What! that young Titan!\" he cried. \"Well, I will punish him in a way\nthat will make him wish I had shut him up in the prison-house with his\nkinsfolk. But as for those puny men, let them keep their fire. I will\nmake them ten times more miserable than they were before they had it.\"\n\nOf course it would be easy enough to deal with Prometheus at any time,\nand so Jupiter was in no great haste about it. He made up his mind to\ndistress mankind first; and he thought of a plan for doing it in a very\nstrange, roundabout way.\n\nIn the first place, he ordered his blacksmith Vulcan, whose forge was in\nthe crater of a burning mountain, to take a lump of clay which he gave\nhim, and mold it into the form of a woman. Vulcan did as he was bidden;\nand when he had finished the image, he carried it up to Jupiter, who\nwas sitting among the clouds with all the Mighty Folk around him. It was\nnothing but a mere lifeless body, but the great blacksmith had given it\na form more perfect than that of any statue that has ever been made.\n\n\"Come now!\" said Jupiter, \"let us all give some goodly gift to this\nwoman;\" and he began by giving her life.\n\nThen the others came in their turn, each with a gift for the marvelous\ncreature. One gave her beauty; and another a pleasant voice; and another\ngood manners; and another a kind heart; and another skill in many arts;\nand, lastly, some one gave her curiosity. Then they called her Pandora,\nwhich means the all-gifted, because she had received gifts from them\nall.\n\nPandora was so beautiful and so wondrously gifted that no one could help\nloving her. When the Mighty Folk had admired her for a time, they gave\nher to Mercury, the light-footed; and he led her down the mountain side\nto the place where Prometheus and his brother were living and toiling\nfor the good of mankind. He met Epimetheus first, and said to him:\n\n\"Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman, whom Jupiter has sent to you to\nbe your wife.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"'EPIMETHEUS, HERE IS A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.'\"]\n\nPrometheus had often warned his brother to beware of any gift that\nJupiter might send, for he knew that the mighty tyrant could not be\ntrusted; but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, how lovely and wise she was,\nhe forgot all warnings, and took her home to live with him and be his\nwife.\n\nPandora was very happy in her new home; and even Prometheus, when he saw\nher, was pleased with her loveliness. She had brought with her a golden\ncasket, which Jupiter had given her at parting, and which he had told\nher held many precious things; but wise Athena, the queen of the air,\nhad warned her never, never to open it, nor look at the things inside.\n\n\"They must be jewels,\" she said to herself; and then she thought of how\nthey would add to her beauty if only she could wear them. \"Why did\nJupiter give them to me if I should never use them, nor so much as look\nat them?\" she asked.\n\nThe more she thought about the golden casket, the more curious she was\nto see what was in it; and every day she took it down from its shelf and\nfelt of the lid, and tried to peer inside of it without opening it.\n\n\"Why should I care for what Athena told me?\" she said at last. \"She is\nnot beautiful, and jewels would be of no use to her. I think that I will\nlook at them, at any rate. Athena will never know. Nobody else will\never know.\"\n\nShe opened the lid a very little, just to peep inside. All at once there\nwas a whirring, rustling sound, and before she could shut it down again,\nout flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like faces and gaunt\nand dreadful forms, such as nobody in all the world had ever seen. They\nfluttered for a little while about the room, and then flew away to find\ndwelling-places wherever there were homes of men. They were diseases and\ncares; for up to that time mankind had not had any kind of sickness, nor\nfelt any troubles of mind, nor worried about what the morrow might bring\nforth.\n\nThese creatures flew into every house, and, without any one seeing them,\nnestled down in the bosoms of men and women and children, and put an end\nto all their joy; and ever since that day they have been flitting and\ncreeping, unseen and unheard, over all the land, bringing pain and\nsorrow and death into every household.\n\nIf Pandora had not shut down the lid so quickly, things would have gone\nmuch worse. But she closed it just in time to keep the last of the evil\ncreatures from getting out. The name of this creature was Foreboding,\nand although he was almost half out of the casket, Pandora pushed him\nback and shut the lid so tight that he could never escape. If he had\ngone out into the world, men would have known from childhood just what\ntroubles were going to come to them every day of their lives, and they\nwould never have had any joy or hope so long as they lived.\n\nAnd this was the way in which Jupiter sought to make mankind more\nmiserable than they had been before Prometheus had befriended them.\n\n\n\n\nIII. HOW THE FRIEND OF MEN WAS PUNISHED.\n\n\nThe next thing that Jupiter did was to punish Prometheus for stealing\nfire from the sun. He bade two of his servants, whose names were\nStrength and Force, to seize the bold Titan and carry him to the topmost\npeak of the Caucasus Mountains. Then he sent the blacksmith Vulcan to\nbind him with iron chains and fetter him to the rocks so that he could\nnot move hand or foot.\n\nVulcan did not like to do this, for he was a friend of Prometheus, and\nyet he did not dare to disobey. And so the great friend of men, who had\ngiven them fire and lifted them out of their wretchedness and shown them\nhow to live, was chained to the mountain peak; and there he hung, with\nthe storm-winds whistling always around him, and the pitiless hail\nbeating in his face, and fierce eagles shrieking in his ears and tearing\nhis body with their cruel claws. Yet he bore all his sufferings without\na groan, and never would he beg for mercy or say that he was sorry for\nwhat he had done.\n\nYear after year, and age after age, Prometheus hung there. Now and then\nold Helios, the driver of the sun car, would look down upon him and\nsmile; now and then flocks of birds would bring him messages from\nfar-off lands; once the ocean nymphs came and sang wonderful songs in\nhis hearing; and oftentimes men looked up to him with pitying eyes, and\ncried out against the tyrant who had placed him there.\n\nThen, once upon a time, a white cow passed that way,--a strangely\nbeautiful cow, with large sad eyes and a face that seemed almost human.\nShe stopped and looked up at the cold gray peak and the giant body which\nwas chained there. Prometheus saw her and spoke to her kindly:\n\n\"I know who you are,\" he said. \"You are Io who was once a fair and happy\nmaiden in distant Argos; and now, because of the tyrant Jupiter and his\njealous queen, you are doomed to wander from land to land in that\nunhuman form. But do not lose hope. Go on to the southward and then to\nthe west; and after many days you shall come to the great river Nile.\nThere you shall again become a maiden, but fairer and more beautiful\nthan before; and you shall become the wife of the king of that land, and\nshall give birth to a son, from whom shall spring the hero who will\nbreak my chains and set me free. As for me, I bide in patience the day\nwhich not even Jupiter can hasten or delay. Farewell!\"\n\nPoor Io would have spoken, but she could not. Her sorrowful eyes looked\nonce more at the suffering hero on the peak, and then she turned and\nbegan her long and tiresome journey to the land of the Nile.\n\nAges passed, and at last a great hero whose name was Hercules came to\nthe land of the Caucasus. In spite of Jupiter's dread thunderbolts and\nfearful storms of snow and sleet, he climbed the rugged mountain peak;\nhe slew the fierce eagles that had so long tormented the helpless\nprisoner on those craggy heights; and with a mighty blow, he broke the\nfetters of Prometheus and set the grand old hero free.\n\n\"I knew that you would come,\" said Prometheus. \"Ten generations ago I\nspoke of you to Io, who was afterwards the queen of the land of the\nNile.\"\n\n\"And Io,\" said Hercules, \"was the mother of the race from which I am\nsprung.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE FLOOD.\n\n\nIn those very early times there was a man named Deucalion, and he was\nthe son of Prometheus. He was only a common man and not a Titan like his\ngreat father, and yet he was known far and wide for his good deeds and\nthe uprightness of his life. His wife's name was Pyrrha, and she was one\nof the fairest of the daughters of men.\n\nAfter Jupiter had bound Prometheus on Mount Caucasus and had sent\ndiseases and cares into the world, men became very, very wicked. They no\nlonger built houses and tended their flocks and lived together in peace;\nbut every man was at war with his neighbor, and there was no law nor\nsafety in all the land. Things were in much worse case now than they had\nbeen before Prometheus had come among men, and that was just what\nJupiter wanted. But as the world became wickeder and wickeder every day,\nhe began to grow weary of seeing so much bloodshed and of hearing the\ncries of the oppressed and the poor.\n\n\"These men,\" he said to his mighty company, \"are nothing but a source of\ntrouble. When they were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should\nbecome greater than ourselves; and now they are so terribly wicked that\nwe are in worse danger than before. There is only one thing to be done\nwith them, and that is to destroy them every one.\"\n\nSo he sent a great rain-storm upon the earth, and it rained day and\nnight for a long time; and the sea was filled to the brim, and the water\nran over the land and covered first the plains and then the forests and\nthen the hills. But men kept on fighting and robbing, even while the\nrain was pouring down and the sea was coming up over the land.\n\nNo one but Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, was ready for such a storm.\nHe had never joined in any of the wrong doings of those around him, and\nhad often told them that unless they left off their evil ways there\nwould be a day of reckoning in the end. Once every year he had gone to\nthe land of the Caucasus to talk with his father, who was hanging\nchained to the mountain peak.\n\n\"The day is coming,\" said Prometheus, \"when Jupiter will send a flood to\ndestroy mankind from the earth. Be sure that you are ready for it, my\nson.\"\n\nAnd so when the rain began to fall, Deucalion drew from its shelter a\nboat which he had built for just such a time. He called fair Pyrrha,\nhis wife, and the two sat in the boat and were floated safely on the\nrising waters. Day and night, day and night, I cannot tell how long, the\nboat drifted hither and thither. The tops of the trees were hidden by\nthe flood, and then the hills and then the mountains; and Deucalion and\nPyrrha could see nothing anywhere but water, water, water--and they knew\nthat all the people in the land had been drowned.\n\nAfter a while the rain stopped falling, and the clouds cleared away, and\nthe blue sky and the golden sun came out overhead. Then the water began\nto sink very fast and to run off the land towards the sea; and early the\nvery next day the boat was drifted high upon a mountain called\nParnassus, and Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out upon the dry land. After\nthat, it was only a short time until the whole country was laid bare,\nand the trees shook their leafy branches in the wind, and the fields\nwere carpeted with grass and flowers more beautiful than in the days\nbefore the flood.\n\nBut Deucalion and Pyrrha were very sad, for they knew that they were the\nonly persons who were left alive in all the land. At last they started\nto walk down the mountain side towards the plain, wondering what would\nbecome of them now, all alone as they were in the wide world. While\nthey were talking and trying to think what they should do, they heard a\nvoice behind them. They turned and saw a noble young prince standing on\none of the rocks above them. He was very tall, with blue eyes and yellow\nhair. There were wings on his shoes and on his cap, and in his hands he\nbore a staff with golden serpents twined around it. They knew at once\nthat he was Mercury, the swift messenger of the Mighty Ones, and they\nwaited to hear what he would say.\n\n\"Is there anything that you wish?\" he asked. \"Tell me, and you shall\nhave whatever you desire.\"\n\n\"We should like, above all things,\" said Deucalion, \"to see this land\nfull of people once more; for without neighbors and friends, the world\nis a very lonely place indeed.\"\n\n\"Go on down the mountain,\" said Mercury, \"and as you go, cast the bones\nof your mother over your shoulders behind you;\" and, with these words,\nhe leaped into the air and was seen no more.\n\n\"What did he mean?\" asked Pyrrha.\n\n\"Surely I do not know,\" said Deucalion. \"But let us think a moment. Who\nis our mother, if it is not the Earth, from whom all living things have\nsprung? And yet what could he mean by the bones of our mother?\"\n\n[Illustration: \"AS THEY WALKED THEY PICKED UP THE LOOSE STONES IN THEIR\nWAY.\"]\n\n\"Perhaps he meant the stones of the earth,\" said Pyrrha. \"Let us go on\ndown the mountain, and as we go, let us pick up the stones in our path\nand throw them over our shoulders behind us.\"\n\n\"It is rather a silly thing to do,\" said Deucalion; \"and yet there can\nbe no harm in it, and we shall see what will happen.\"\n\nAnd so they walked on, down the steep slope of Mount Parnassus, and as\nthey walked they picked up the loose stones in their way and cast them\nover their shoulders; and strange to say, the stones which Deucalion\nthrew sprang up as full-grown men, strong, and handsome, and brave; and\nthe stones which Pyrrha threw sprang up as full-grown women, lovely and\nfair. When at last they reached the plain they found themselves at the\nhead of a noble company of human beings, all eager to serve them.\n\nSo Deucalion became their king, and he set them in homes, and taught\nthem how to till the ground, and how to do many useful things; and the\nland was filled with people who were happier and far better than those\nwho had dwelt there before the flood. And they named the country Hellas,\nafter Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and the people are to\nthis day called Hellenes.\n\nBut we call the country GREECE.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF IO.\n\n\nIn the town of Argos there lived a maiden named Io. She was so fair and\ngood that all who knew her loved her, and said that there was no one\nlike her in the whole world. When Jupiter, in his home in the clouds,\nheard of her, he came down to Argos to see her. She pleased him so much,\nand was so kind and wise, that he came back the next day and the next\nand the next; and by and by he stayed in Argos all the time so that he\nmight be near her. She did not know who he was, but thought that he was\na prince from some far-off land; for he came in the guise of a young\nman, and did not look like the great king of earth and sky that he was.\n\nBut Juno, the queen who lived with Jupiter and shared his throne in the\nmidst of the clouds, did not love Io at all. When she heard why Jupiter\nstayed from home so long, she made up her mind to do the fair girl all\nthe harm that she could; and one day she went down to Argos to try what\ncould be done.\n\nJupiter saw her while she was yet a great way off, and he knew why she\nhad come. So, to save Io from her, he changed the maiden to a white cow.\nHe thought that when Juno had gone back home, it would not be hard to\ngive Io her own form again.\n\nBut when the queen saw the cow, she knew that it was Io.\n\n\"Oh, what a fine cow you have there!\" she said. \"Give her to me, good\nJupiter, give her to me!\"\n\nJupiter did not like to do this; but she coaxed so hard that at last he\ngave up, and let her have the cow for her own. He thought that it would\nnot be long till he could get her away from the queen, and change her to\na girl once more. But Juno was too wise to trust him. She took the cow\nby her horns, and led her out of the town.\n\n\"Now, my sweet maid,\" she said, \"I will see that you stay in this shape\nas long as you live.\"\n\nThen she gave the cow in charge of a strange watchman named Argus, who\nhad, not two eyes only, as you and I have, but ten times ten. And Argus\nled the cow to a grove, and tied her by a long rope to a tree, where she\nhad to stand and eat grass, and cry, \"Moo! moo!\" from morn till night;\nand when the sun had set, and it was dark, she lay down on the cold\nground and wept, and cried, \"Moo! moo!\" till she fell asleep.\n\nBut no kind friend heard her, and no one came to help her; for none but\nJupiter and Juno knew that the white cow who stood in the grove was Io,\nwhom all the world loved. Day in and day out, Argus, who was all eyes,\nsat on a hill close by and kept watch; and you could not say that he\nwent to sleep at all, for while half of his eyes were shut, the other\nhalf were wide awake, and thus they slept and watched by turns.\n\nJupiter was grieved when he saw to what a hard life Io had been doomed,\nand he tried to think of some plan to set her free. One day he called\nsly Mercury, who had wings on his shoes, and bade him go and lead the\ncow away from the grove where she was kept. Mercury went down and stood\nnear the foot of the hill where Argus sat, and began to play sweet tunes\non his flute. This was just what the strange watchman liked to hear; and\nso he called to Mercury, and asked him to come up and sit by his side\nand play still other tunes.\n\nMercury did as he wished, and played such strains of sweet music as no\none in all the world has heard from that day to this. And as he played,\nqueer old Argus lay down upon the grass and listened, and thought that\nhe had not had so great a treat in all his life. But by and by those\nsweet sounds wrapped him in so strange a spell that all his eyes closed\nat once, and he fell into a deep sleep.\n\nThis was just what Mercury wished. It was not a brave thing to do, and\nyet he drew a long, sharp knife from his belt and cut off the head of\npoor Argus while he slept. Then he ran down the hill to loose the cow\nand lead her to the town.\n\nBut Juno had seen him kill her watchman, and she met him on the road.\nShe cried out to him and told him to let the cow go; and her face was so\nfull of wrath that, as soon as he saw her, he turned and fled, and left\npoor Io to her fate.\n\nJuno was so much grieved when she saw Argus stretched dead in the grass\non the hilltop, that she took his hundred eyes and set them in the tail\nof a peacock; and there you may still see them to this day.\n\nThen she found a great gadfly, as big as a bat, and sent it to buzz in\nthe white cow's ears, and to bite her and sting her so that she could\nhave no rest all day long. Poor Io ran from place to place to get out of\nits way; but it buzzed and buzzed, and stung and stung, till she was\nwild with fright and pain, and wished that she were dead. Day after day\nshe ran, now through the thick woods, now in the long grass that grew on\nthe treeless plains, and now by the shore of the sea.\n\n[Illustration: \"SHE CRIED OUT TO HIM AND TOLD HIM TO LET THE COW GO.\"]\n\nBy and by she came to a narrow neck of the sea, and, since the land on\nthe other side looked as though she might find rest there, she leaped\ninto the waves and swam across; and that place has been called\nBosphorus--a word which means the Sea of the Cow--from that time till\nnow, and you will find it so marked on the maps which you use at school.\nThen she went on through a strange land on the other side, but, let her\ndo what she would, she could not get rid of the gadfly.\n\nAfter a time she came to a place where there were high mountains with\nsnow-capped peaks which seemed to touch the sky. There she stopped to\nrest a while; and she looked up at the calm, cold cliffs above her and\nwished that she might die where all was so grand and still. But as she\nlooked she saw a giant form stretched upon the rocks midway between\nearth and sky, and she knew at once that it was Prometheus, the young\nTitan, whom Jupiter had chained there because he had given fire to men.\n\n\"My sufferings are not so great as his,\" she thought; and her eyes were\nfilled with tears.\n\nThen Prometheus looked down and spoke to her, and his voice was very\nmild and kind.\n\n\"I know who you are,\" he said; and then he told her not to lose hope,\nbut to go south and then west, and she would by and by find a place in\nwhich to rest.\n\nShe would have thanked him if she could; but when she tried to speak she\ncould only say, \"Moo! moo!\"\n\nThen Prometheus went on and told her that the time would come when she\nshould be given her own form again, and that she should live to be the\nmother of a race of heroes. \"As for me,\" said he, \"I bide the time in\npatience, for I know that one of those heroes will break my chains and\nset me free. Farewell!\"\n\nThen Io, with a brave heart, left the great Titan and journeyed, as he\nhad told her, first south and then west. The gadfly was worse now than\nbefore, but she did not fear it half so much, for her heart was full of\nhope. For a whole year she wandered, and at last she came to the land of\nEgypt in Africa. She felt so tired now that she could go no farther, and\nso she lay down near the bank of the great River Nile to rest.\n\nAll this time Jupiter might have helped her had he not been so much\nafraid of Juno. But now it so chanced that when the poor cow lay down by\nthe bank of the Nile, Queen Juno, in her high house in the clouds, also\nlay down to take a nap. As soon as she was sound asleep, Jupiter like a\nflash of light sped over the sea to Egypt. He killed the cruel gadfly\nand threw it into the river. Then he stroked the cow's head with his\nhand, and the cow was seen no more; but in her place stood the young\ngirl Io, pale and frail, but fair and good as she had been in her old\nhome in the town of Argos. Jupiter said not a word, nor even showed\nhimself to the tired, trembling maiden. He hurried back with all speed\nto his high home in the clouds, for he feared that Juno might waken and\nfind out what he had done.\n\nThe people of Egypt were kind to Io, and gave her a home in their sunny\nland; and by and by the king of Egypt asked her to be his wife, and made\nher his queen; and she lived a long and happy life in his marble palace\non the bank of the Nile. Ages afterward, the great-grandson of the\ngreat-grandson of Io's great-grandson broke the chains of Prometheus and\nset that mighty friend of mankind free.\n\nThe name of the hero was Hercules.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL WEAVER.\n\nI. THE WARP.\n\n\nThere was a young girl in Greece whose name was Arachne. Her face was\npale but fair, and her eyes were big and blue, and her hair was long and\nlike gold. All that she cared to do from morn till noon was to sit in\nthe sun and spin; and all that she cared to do from noon till night was\nto sit in the shade and weave.\n\nAnd oh, how fine and fair were the things which she wove in her loom!\nFlax, wool, silk--she worked with them all; and when they came from her\nhands, the cloth which she had made of them was so thin and soft and\nbright that men came from all parts of the world to see it. And they\nsaid that cloth so rare could not be made of flax, or wool, or silk, but\nthat the warp was of rays of sunlight and the woof was of threads of\ngold.\n\nThen as, day by day, the girl sat in the sun and span, or sat in the\nshade and wove, she said: \"In all the world there is no yarn so fine as\nmine, and in all the world there is no cloth so soft and smooth, nor\nsilk so bright and rare.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"'ARACHNE, I AM ATHENA, THE QUEEN OF THE AIR.'\"]\n\n\"Who taught you to spin and weave so well?\" some one asked.\n\n\"No one taught me,\" she said. \"I learned how to do it as I sat in the\nsun and the shade; but no one showed me.\"\n\n\"But it may be that Athena, the queen of the air, taught you, and you\ndid not know it.\"\n\n\"Athena, the queen of the air? Bah!\" said Arachne. \"How could she teach\nme? Can she spin such skeins of yarn as these? Can she weave goods like\nmine? I should like to see her try. I can teach her a thing or two.\"\n\nShe looked up and saw in the doorway a tall woman wrapped in a long\ncloak. Her face was fair to see, but stern, oh, so stern! and her gray\neyes were so sharp and bright that Arachne could not meet her gaze.\n\n\"Arachne,\" said the woman, \"I am Athena, the queen of the air, and I\nhave heard your boast. Do you still mean to say that I have not taught\nyou how to spin and weave?\"\n\n\"No one has taught me,\" said Arachne; \"and I thank no one for what I\nknow;\" and she stood up, straight and proud, by the side of her loom.\n\n\"And do you still think that you can spin and weave as well as I?\" said\nAthena.\n\nArachne's cheeks grew pale, but she said: \"Yes. I can weave as well as\nyou.\"\n\n\"Then let me tell you what we will do,\" said Athena. \"Three days from\nnow we will both weave; you on your loom, and I on mine. We will ask all\nthe world to come and see us; and great Jupiter, who sits in the clouds,\nshall be the judge. And if your work is best, then I will weave no more\nso long as the world shall last; but if my work is best, then you shall\nnever use loom or spindle or distaff again. Do you agree to this?\" \"I\nagree,\" said Arachne.\n\n\"It is well,\" said Athena. And she was gone.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE WOOF.\n\n\nWhen the time came for the contest in weaving, all the world was there\nto see it, and great Jupiter sat among the clouds and looked on.\n\nArachne had set up her loom in the shade of a mulberry tree, where\nbutterflies were flitting and grasshoppers chirping all through the\nlivelong day. But Athena had set up her loom in the sky, where the\nbreezes were blowing and the summer sun was shining; for she was the\nqueen of the air.\n\nThen Arachne took her skeins of finest silk and began to weave. And she\nwove a web of marvelous beauty, so thin and light that it would float in\nthe air, and yet so strong that it could hold a lion in its meshes; and\nthe threads of warp and woof were of many colors, so beautifully\narranged and mingled one with another that all who saw were filled with\ndelight.\n\n\"No wonder that the maiden boasted of her skill,\" said the people.\n\nAnd Jupiter himself nodded.\n\nThen Athena began to weave. And she took of the sunbeams that gilded the\nmountain top, and of the snowy fleece of the summer clouds, and of the\nblue ether of the summer sky, and of the bright green of the summer\nfields, and of the royal purple of the autumn woods,--and what do you\nsuppose she wove?\n\nThe web which she wove in the sky was full of enchanting pictures of\nflowers and gardens, and of castles and towers, and of mountain heights,\nand of men and beasts, and of giants and dwarfs, and of the mighty\nbeings who dwell in the clouds with Jupiter. And those who looked upon\nit were so filled with wonder and delight, that they forgot all about\nthe beautiful web which Arachne had woven. And Arachne herself was\nashamed and afraid when she saw it; and she hid her face in her hands\nand wept.\n\n\"Oh, how can I live,\" she cried, \"now that I must never again use loom\nor spindle or distaff?\"\n\nAnd she kept on, weeping and weeping and weeping, and saying, \"How can I\nlive?\"\n\nThen, when Athena saw that the poor maiden would never have any joy\nunless she were allowed to spin and weave, she took pity on her and\nsaid:\n\n\"I would free you from your bargain if I could, but that is a thing\nwhich no one can do. You must hold to your agreement never to touch loom\nor spindle again. And yet, since you will never be happy unless you can\nspin and weave, I will give you a new form so that you can carry on your\nwork with neither spindle nor loom.\"\n\nThen she touched Arachne with the tip of the spear which she sometimes\ncarried; and the maiden was changed at once into a nimble spider, which\nran into a shady place in the grass and began merrily to spin and weave\na beautiful web.\n\nI have heard it said that all the spiders which have been in the world\nsince then are the children of Arachne; but I doubt whether this be\ntrue. Yet, for aught I know, Arachne still lives and spins and weaves;\nand the very next spider that you see may be she herself.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE LORD OF THE SILVER BOW.\n\nI. DELOS.\n\n\nLong before you or I or anybody else can remember, there lived with the\nMighty Folk on the mountain top a fair and gentle lady named Leto. So\nfair and gentle was she that Jupiter loved her and made her his wife.\nBut when Juno, the queen of earth and sky, heard of this, she was very\nangry; and she drove Leto down from the mountain and bade all things\ngreat and small refuse to help her. So Leto fled like a wild deer from\nland to land and could find no place in which to rest. She could not\nstop, for then the ground would quake under her feet, and the stones\nwould cry out, \"Go on! go on!\" and birds and beasts and trees and men\nwould join in the cry; and no one in all the wide land took pity on her.\n\nOne day she came to the sea, and as she fled along the beach she lifted\nup her hands and called aloud to great Neptune to help her. Neptune, the\nking of the sea, heard her and was kind to her. He sent a huge fish,\ncalled a dolphin, to bear her away from the cruel land; and the fish,\nwith Leto sitting on his broad back, swam through the waves to Delos, a\nlittle island which lay floating on top of the water like a boat. There\nthe gentle lady found rest and a home; for the place belonged to\nNeptune, and the words of cruel Juno were not obeyed there. Neptune put\nfour marble pillars under the island so that it should rest firm upon\nthem; and then he chained it fast, with great chains which reached to\nthe bottom of the sea, so that the waves might never move it.\n\nBy and by twin babes were born to Leto in Delos. One was a boy whom she\ncalled Apollo, the other a girl whom she named Artemis, or Diana. When\nthe news of their birth was carried to Jupiter and the Mighty Folk on\nthe mountain top, all the world was glad. The sun danced on the waters,\nand singing swans flew seven times round the island of Delos. The moon\nstooped to kiss the babes in their cradle; and Juno forgot her anger,\nand bade all things on the earth and in the sky be kind to Leto.\n\nThe two children grew very fast. Apollo became tall and strong and\ngraceful; his face was as bright as the sunbeams; and he carried joy and\ngladness with him wherever he went. Jupiter gave him a pair of swans\nand a golden chariot, which bore him over sea and land wherever he\nwanted to go; and he gave him a lyre on which he played the sweetest\nmusic that was ever heard, and a silver bow with sharp arrows which\nnever missed the mark. When Apollo went out into the world, and men came\nto know about him, he was called by some the Bringer of Light, by others\nthe Master of Song, and by still others the Lord of the Silver Bow.\n\nDiana was tall and graceful, too, and very handsome. She liked to wander\nin the woods with her maids, who were called nymphs; she took kind care\nof the timid deer and the helpless creatures which live among the trees;\nand she delighted in hunting wolves and bears and other savage beasts.\nShe was loved and feared in every land, and Jupiter made her the queen\nof the green woods and the chase.\n\n\n\n\nII. DELPHI.\n\n\n\"Where is the center of the world?\"\n\nThis is the question which some one asked Jupiter as he sat in his\ngolden hall. Of course the mighty ruler of earth and sky was too wise to\nbe puzzled by so simple a thing, but he was too busy to answer it at\nonce. So he said:\n\n\"Come again in one year from to-day, and I will show you the very\nplace.\"\n\nThen Jupiter took two swift eagles which could fly faster than the\nstorm-wind, and trained them till the speed of the one was the same as\nthat of the other. At the end of the year he said to his servants:\n\n\"Take this eagle to the eastern rim of the earth, where the sun rises\nout of the sea; and carry his fellow to the far west, where the ocean is\nlost in darkness and nothing lies beyond. Then, when I give you the\nsign, loosen both at the same moment.\"\n\nThe servants did as they were bidden, and carried the eagles to the\noutermost edges of the world. Then Jupiter clapped his hands. The\nlightning flashed, the thunder rolled, and the two swift birds were set\nfree. One of them flew straight back towards the west, the other flew\nstraight back towards the east; and no arrow ever sped faster from the\nbow than did these two birds from the hands of those who had held them.\n\nOn and on they went like shooting stars rushing to meet each other; and\nJupiter and all his mighty company sat amid the clouds and watched their\nflight. Nearer and nearer they came, but they swerved not to the right\nnor to the left. Nearer and nearer--and then with a crash like the\nmeeting of two ships at sea, the eagles came together in mid-air and\nfell dead to the ground.\n\n\"Who asked where is the center of the world?\" said Jupiter. \"The spot\nwhere the two eagles lie--that is the center of the world.\"\n\nThey had fallen on the top of a mountain in Greece which men have ever\nsince called Parnassus.\n\n\"If that is the center of the world,\" said young Apollo, \"then I will\nmake my home there, and I will build a house in that place, so that my\nlight may be seen in all lands.\"\n\nSo Apollo went down to Parnassus, and looked about for a spot in which\nto lay the foundations of his house. The mountain itself was savage and\nwild, and the valley below it was lonely and dark. The few people who\nlived there kept themselves hidden among the rocks as if in dread of\nsome great danger. They told Apollo that near the foot of the mountain\nwhere the steep cliff seemed to be split in two there lived a huge\nserpent called the Python. This serpent often seized sheep and cattle,\nand sometimes even men and women and children, and carried them up to\nhis dreadful den and devoured them.\n\n\"Can no one kill this beast?\" said Apollo.\n\nAnd they said, \"No one; and we and our children and our flocks shall all\nbe slain by him.\"\n\nThen Apollo with his silver bow in his hands went up towards the place\nwhere the Python lay. The monster had worn great paths through the grass\nand among the rocks, and his lair was not hard to find. When he caught\nsight of Apollo, he uncoiled himself, and came out to meet him. The\nbright prince saw the creature's glaring eyes and blood-red mouth, and\nheard the rush of his scaly body over the stones. He fitted an arrow to\nhis bow, and stood still. The Python saw that his foe was no common man,\nand turned to flee. Then the arrow sped from the bow--and the monster\nwas dead.\n\n\"Here I will build my house,\" said Apollo.\n\nClose to the foot of the steep cliff, and beneath the spot where\nJupiter's eagles had fallen, he laid the foundations; and soon where had\nbeen the lair of the Python, the white walls of Apollo's temple arose\namong the rocks. Then the poor people of the land came and built their\nhouses near by; and Apollo lived among them many years, and taught them\nto be gentle and wise, and showed them how to be happy. The mountain was\nno longer savage and wild, but was a place of music and song; the valley\nwas no longer dark and lonely, but was filled with beauty and light.\n\n\"What shall we call our city?\" the people asked.\n\n\"Call it Delphi, or the Dolphin,\" said Apollo; \"for it was a dolphin\nthat carried my mother across the sea.\"\n\n\n\n\nIII. DAPHNE.\n\n\nIn the Vale of Tempe, which lies far north of Delphi, there lived a\nyoung girl whose name was Daphne. She was a strange child, wild and shy\nas a fawn, and as fleet of foot as the deer that feed on the plains. But\nshe was as fair and good as a day in June, and none could know her but\nto love her.\n\nDaphne spent the most of her time in the fields and woods, with the\nbirds and blossoms and trees; and she liked best of all to wander along\nthe banks of the River Peneus, and listen to the ripple of the water as\nit flowed among the reeds or over the shining pebbles. Very often she\nwould sing and talk to the river as if it were a living thing, and could\nhear her; and she fancied that it understood what she said, and that it\nwhispered many a wonderful secret to her in return. The good people who\nknew her best said:\n\n\"She is the child of the river.\"\n\n\"Yes, dear river,\" she said, \"let me be your child.\"\n\nThe river smiled and answered her in a way which she alone could\nunderstand; and always, after that, she called it \"Father Peneus.\"\n\nOne day when the sun shone warm, and the air was filled with the perfume\nof flowers, Daphne wandered farther away from the river than she had\never gone before. She passed through a shady wood and climbed a hill,\nfrom the top of which she could see Father Peneus lying white and clear\nand smiling in the valley below. Beyond her were other hills, and then\nthe green slopes and wooded top of great Mount Ossa. Ah, if she could\nonly climb to the summit of Ossa, she might have a view of the sea, and\nof other mountains close by, and of the twin peaks of Mount Parnassus,\nfar, far to the south!\n\n\"Good-by, Father Peneus,\" she said. \"I am going to climb the mountain;\nbut I will come back soon.\"\n\nThe river smiled, and Daphne ran onward, climbing one hill after\nanother, and wondering why the great mountain seemed still so far away.\nBy and by she came to the foot of a wooded slope where there was a\npretty waterfall and the ground was bespangled with thousands of\nbeautiful flowers; and she sat down there a moment to rest. Then from\nthe grove on the hilltop above her, came the sound of the loveliest\nmusic she had ever heard. She stood up and listened. Some one was\nplaying on a lyre, and some one was singing. She was frightened; and\nstill the music was so charming that she could not run away.\n\nThen, all at once, the sound ceased, and a young man, tall and fair and\nwith a face as bright as the morning sun, came down the hillside towards\nher.\n\n\"Daphne!\" he said; but she did not stop to hear. She turned and fled\nlike a frightened deer, back towards the Vale of Tempe.\n\n\"Daphne!\" cried the young man. She did not know that it was Apollo, the\nLord of the Silver Bow; she only knew that the stranger was following\nher, and she ran as fast as her fleet feet could carry her. No young man\nhad ever spoken to her before, and the sound of his voice filled her\nheart with fear.\n\n\"She is the fairest maiden that I ever saw,\" said Apollo to himself. \"If\nI could only look at her face again and speak with her, how happy I\nshould be.\"\n\nThrough brake, through brier, over rocks and the trunks of fallen trees,\ndown rugged slopes, across mountain streams, leaping, flying, panting,\nDaphne ran. She looked not once behind her, but she heard the swift\nfootsteps of Apollo coming always nearer; she heard the rattle of the\nsilver bow which hung from his shoulders; she heard his very breath, he\nwas so close to her. At last she was in the valley where the ground was\nsmooth and it was easier running, but her strength was fast leaving her.\nRight before her, however, lay the river, white and smiling in the\nsunlight. She stretched out her arms and cried:\n\n\"O Father Peneus, save me!\"\n\n[Illustration: \"SHE TURNED AND FLED LIKE A FRIGHTENED DEER.\"]\n\nThen it seemed as though the river rose up to meet her. The air was\nfilled with a blinding mist. For a moment Apollo lost sight of the\nfleeing maiden. Then he saw her close by the river's bank, and so near\nto him that her long hair, streaming behind her, brushed his cheek. He\nthought that she was about to leap into the rushing, roaring waters, and\nhe reached out his hands to save her. But it was not the fair, timid\nDaphne that he caught in his arms; it was the trunk of a laurel tree,\nits green leaves trembling in the breeze.\n\n\"O Daphne! Daphne!\" he cried, \"is this the way in which the river saves\nyou? Does Father Peneus turn you into a tree to keep you from me?\"\n\nWhether Daphne had really been turned into a tree, I know not; nor does\nit matter now--it was so long ago. But Apollo believed that it was so,\nand hence he made a wreath of the laurel leaves and set it on his head\nlike a crown, and said that he would wear it always in memory of the\nlovely maiden. And ever after that, the laurel was Apollo's favorite\ntree, and, even to this day, poets and musicians are crowned with its\nleaves.\n\n\n\n\nIV. DELUDED.\n\n\nApollo did not care to live much of the time with his mighty kinsfolk on\nthe mountain top. He liked better to go about from place to place and\nfrom land to land, seeing people at their work and making their lives\nhappy. When men first saw his fair boyish face and his soft white hands,\nthey sneered and said he was only an idle, good-for-nothing fellow. But\nwhen they heard him speak, they were so charmed that they stood,\nspellbound, to listen; and ever after that they made his words their\nlaw. They wondered how it was that he was so wise; for it seemed to them\nthat he did nothing but stroll about, playing on his wonderful lyre and\nlooking at the trees and blossoms and birds and bees. But when any of\nthem were sick they came to him, and he told them what to find in plants\nor stones or brooks that would heal them and make them strong again.\nThey noticed that he did not grow old, as others did, but that he was\nalways young and fair; and, even after he had gone away,--they knew not\nhow, nor whither,--it seemed as though the earth were a brighter and\nsweeter place to live in than it had been before his coming.\n\nIn a mountain village beyond the Vale of Tempe, there lived a beautiful\nlady named Coronis. When Apollo saw her, he loved her and made her his\nwife; and for a long time the two lived together, and were happy. By and\nby a babe was born to them,--a boy with the most wonderful eyes that\nanybody ever saw,--and they named him AEsculapius. Then the mountains and\nthe woods were filled with the music of Apollo's lyre, and even the\nMighty Folk on the mountain top were glad.\n\nOne day Apollo left Coronis and her child, and went on a journey to\nvisit his favorite home on Mount Parnassus.\n\n\"I shall hear from you every day,\" he said at parting. \"The crow will\nfly swiftly every morning to Parnassus, and tell me whether you and the\nchild are well, and what you are doing while I am away.\"\n\nFor Apollo had a pet crow which was very wise, and could talk. The bird\nwas not black, like the crows which you have seen, but as white as snow.\nMen say that all crows were white until that time, but I doubt whether\nanybody knows.\n\nApollo's crow was a great tattler, and did not always tell the truth. It\nwould see the beginning of something, and then, without waiting to know\nanything more about it, would hurry off and make up a great story about\nit. But there was no one else to carry news from Coronis to Apollo; for,\nas you know, there were no postmen in those days, and there was not a\ntelegraph wire in the whole world.\n\nAll went well for several days. Every morning the white bird would wing\nits way over hills and plains and rivers and forests until it found\nApollo, either in the groves on the top of Parnassus or in his own house\nat Delphi. Then it would alight upon his shoulder and say, \"Coronis is\nwell! Coronis is well!\"\n\nOne day, however, it had a different story. It came much earlier than\never before, and seemed to be in great haste.\n\n\"Cor--Cor--Cor!\" it cried; but it was so out of breath that it could not\nspeak her whole name.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" cried Apollo, in alarm. \"Has anything happened to\nCoronis? Speak! Tell me the truth!\"\n\n\"She does not love you! she does not love you!\" cried the crow. \"I saw a\nman--I saw a man,--\" and then, without stopping to take breath, or to\nfinish the story, it flew up into the air, and hurried homeward again.\n\nApollo, who had always been so wise, was now almost as foolish as his\ncrow. He fancied that Coronis had really deserted him for another man,\nand his mind was filled with grief and rage. With his silver bow in his\nhands he started at once for his home. He did not stop to speak with\nany one; he had made up his mind to learn the truth for himself. His\nswan-team and his golden chariot were not at hand--for, now that he was\nliving with men, he must travel like men. The journey had to be made on\nfoot, and it was no short journey in those days when there were no\nroads. But after a time, he came to the village where he had lived\nhappily for so many years, and soon he saw his own house half-hidden\namong the dark-leaved olive trees. In another minute he would know\nwhether the crow had told him the truth.\n\nHe heard the footsteps of some one running in the grove. He caught a\nglimpse of a white robe among the trees. He felt sure that this was the\nman whom the crow had seen, and that he was trying to run away. He\nfitted an arrow to his bow quickly. He drew the string. Twang! And the\narrow which never missed sped like a flash of light through the air.\n\nApollo heard a sharp, wild cry of pain; and he bounded forward through\nthe grove. There, stretched dying on the grass, he saw his dear Coronis.\nShe had seen him coming, and was running gladly to greet him, when the\ncruel arrow pierced her heart. Apollo was overcome with grief. He took\nher form in his arms, and tried to call her back to life again. But it\nwas all in vain. She could only whisper his name, and then she was dead.\n\nA moment afterwards the crow alighted on one of the trees near by.\n\"Cor--Cor--Cor,\" it began; for it wanted now to finish its story. But\nApollo bade it begone.\n\n\"Cursed bird,\" he cried, \"you shall never say a word but\n'Cor--Cor--Cor!' all your life; and the feathers of which you are so\nproud shall no longer be white, but black as midnight.\"\n\nAnd from that time to this, as you very well know, all crows have been\nblack; and they fly from one dead tree to another, always crying,\n\"Cor--cor--cor!\"\n\n\n\n\nV. DISGRACED.\n\n\nSoon after this, Apollo took the little AEsculapius in his arms and\ncarried him to a wise old schoolmaster named Cheiron, who lived in a\ncave under the gray cliffs of a mountain close by the sea.\n\n\"Take this child,\" he said, \"and teach him all the lore of the\nmountains, the woods, and the fields. Teach him those things which he\nmost needs to know in order to do great good to his fellow-men.\"\n\nAnd AEsculapius proved to be a wise child, gentle and sweet and\nteachable; and among all the pupils of Cheiron he was the best loved.\nHe learned the lore of the mountains, the woods, and the fields. He\nfound out what virtue there is in herbs and flowers and senseless\nstones; and he studied the habits of birds and beasts and men. But above\nall he became skillful in dressing wounds and healing diseases; and to\nthis day physicians remember and honor him as the first and greatest of\ntheir craft. When he grew up to manhood his name was heard in every\nland, and people blessed him because he was the friend of life and the\nfoe of death.\n\nAs time went by, AEsculapius cured so many people and saved so many lives\nthat Pluto, the pale-faced king of the Lower World, became alarmed.\n\n\"I shall soon have nothing to do,\" he said, \"if this physician does not\nstop keeping people away from my kingdom.\"\n\nAnd he sent word to his brother Jupiter, and complained that AEsculapius\nwas cheating him out of what was his due. Great Jupiter listened to his\ncomplaint, and stood up among the storm clouds, and hurled his\nthunderbolts at AEsculapius until the great physician was cruelly slain.\nThen all the world was filled with grief, and even the beasts and the\ntrees and the stones wept because the friend of life was no more.\n\nWhen Apollo heard of the death of his son, his grief and wrath were\nterrible. He could not do anything against Jupiter and Pluto, for they\nwere stronger than he; but he went down into the smithy of Vulcan,\nunderneath the smoking mountains, and slew the giant smiths who had made\nthe deadly thunderbolts.\n\nThen Jupiter, in his turn, was angry, and ordered Apollo to come before\nhim and be punished for what he had done. He took away his bow and\narrows and his wonderful lyre and all his beauty of form and feature;\nand after that Jupiter clothed him in the rags of a beggar and drove him\ndown from the mountain, and told him that he should never come back nor\nbe himself again until he had served some man a whole year as a slave.\n\nAnd so Apollo went out, alone and friendless, into the world; and no one\nwho saw him would have dreamed that he was once the sun-bright Lord of\nthe Silver Bow.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nADMETUS AND ALCESTIS.\n\nI. THE SLAVE.\n\n\nIn a little town north of Delphi, and not very far from the sea, there\nlived a young man named Admetus. He was the ruler of the town, and hence\nwas called its king; but his kingdom was so small that he could walk all\nround it in half a day. He knew the name of every man and woman and\nchild in the town, and everybody loved him because he was so gentle and\nkind and at the same time a king.\n\nLate one day, when the rain was falling and the wind was blowing cold\nfrom the mountains, a beggar came to his door. The man was ragged and\ndirty and half starved, and Admetus knew that he must have come from\nsome strange land, for in his own country no one ever went hungry. So\nthe kind king took him into the house and fed him; and after the man had\nbathed he gave him his own warm cloak, and bade the servants make a\nplace for him to sleep through the night.\n\nIn the morning Admetus asked the poor man his name, but he shook his\nhead and made no answer. Then Admetus asked him about his home and his\ncountry; and all that the man would say was: \"Make me your slave,\nmaster! Make me your slave, and let me serve you for a year.\"\n\nThe young king did not need another servant. But he saw that the poorest\nslave in the land was better off than this man, and so he took pity on\nhim. \"I will do as you ask,\" he said. \"I will give you a home and food\nand clothing; and you shall serve me and be my slave for one year.\"\n\nThere was but little that the stranger knew how to do, and so he was\nsent to the hills to take care of the king's sheep and goats. For a\nwhole year he tended the flocks, finding the greenest pastures and the\nfreshest water for them, and keeping the wolves away. Admetus was very\nkind to him, as he was to all his servants, and the food and clothing\nwhich he gave him were of the best in the land. But the stranger did not\ntell his name nor say anything about his kindred or his home.\n\nWhen a year and a day had passed, it so happened that Admetus was\nwalking out among the hills to see his sheep. All at once the sound of\nmusic fell upon his ear. It was no such music as shepherds play, but\nsweeter and richer than any he had ever heard before. He looked to see\nwhere the sound came from. Ah! who was that sitting on the hilltop, with\nthe sheep around him listening to his music? Surely it was not his\nshepherd?\n\nIt was a tall and handsome young man, clad in robes lighter and finer\nthan any king might wear. His face was as bright as sunbeams, and his\neyes gleamed like lightning. Upon his shoulder was a silver bow, from\nhis belt hung a quiver of sharp arrows, and in his hands was a golden\nlyre. Admetus stood still and wondered. Then the stranger spoke:\n\n\"King Admetus,\" he said, \"I am the poor beggar whom you fed--your slave\nto whom you were so kind. I have served you, as I agreed, for a whole\nyear, and now I am going home. Is there anything I can do for you?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Admetus; \"tell me your name.\"\n\n\"My name is Apollo,\" was the answer. \"Twelve months ago my father,\nmighty Jupiter, drove me away from before his face and bade me go out\nfriendless and alone upon the earth; and he told me that I should not\nturn again towards home until I had served a year as some man's slave. I\ncame to you, ragged and half starved, and you fed and clothed me; and I\nbecame your slave, and you were as kind to me as though I were your son.\nWhat shall I give you to reward you?\"\n\n\"Lord of the Silver Bow,\" said the king, \"I have all that any man can\nwant. I am happy in the thought that I have been of some help to you. I\ncan ask for nothing more.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Apollo; \"but if the time should ever come when you\nneed my help, let me know.\"\n\nThen the bright prince walked swiftly away, playing sweet music as he\nwent; and Admetus with glad heart returned to his home.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE CHARIOT.\n\n\nFrom the place where Admetus lived it was only a few miles to Iolcus, a\nrich city by the sea. The king of Iolcus was a cruel tyrant named\nPelias, who cared for nobody in all the world but himself. This Pelias\nhad a daughter named Alcestis, who was as fair as any rose in June and\nso gentle and good that everybody praised her. Many a prince from over\nthe sea had come to woo Alcestis for his wife; and the noblest young men\nin Greece had tried to win her favor. But there was only one to whom she\nwould listen, and that was her young neighbor, King Admetus.\n\nSo Admetus went before gruff King Pelias to ask him whether he might wed\nAlcestis.\n\n\"No one shall have my daughter,\" said the old king, \"until he proves\nthat he is worthy to be my son-in-law. If you want her, you must come\nfor her in a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild boar. If you come in any\nother way, she shall not be your wife.\" And Pelias laughed, and drove\nthe young man out of his palace.\n\nAdmetus went away feeling very sad; for who had ever heard of harnessing\na lion and a wild boar together in a chariot? The bravest man in the\nworld could not do such a thing as that.\n\nAs he walked along and saw the sheep and goats feeding on the hilltops\nnear his own town, he chanced to think of Apollo and of the last words\nthat he had heard him say: \"When you need my help, let me know.\"\n\n\"I will let him know,\" said Admetus.\n\nEarly the next morning he built an altar of stones in the open field;\nand when he had killed the fattest goat of the flock, he built a fire on\nthe altar and laid the thighs of the goat in the flames. Then when the\nsmell of the burning flesh went up into the air, he lifted his hands\ntowards the mountain tops and called to Apollo.\n\n\"Lord of the Silver Bow,\" he cried, \"if ever I have shown kindness to\nthe poor and the distressed, come now and help me. For I am in sore\nneed, and I remember your promise.\"\n\nHardly was he done speaking when bright Apollo, bearing his bow and his\nquiver of arrows, came down and stood before him.\n\n\"Kindest of kings,\" he said, \"tell me how I can help you.\"\n\nThen Admetus told him all about the fair Alcestis, and how her father\nwould give her only to the man who should come for her in a chariot\ndrawn by a lion and a wild boar.\n\n\"Come with me,\" said Apollo, \"and I will help you.\"\n\nThen the two went together into the forest, the Lord of the Silver Bow\nleading the way. Soon they started a lion from its lair and gave chase\nto it. The fleet-footed Apollo seized the beast by its mane, and\nalthough it howled and snapped with its fierce jaws it did not touch\nhim. Then Admetus started a wild boar from a thicket. Apollo gave chase\nto it, too, making the lion run beside him like a dog. When he had\ncaught the boar, he went on through the forest, leading the two beasts,\none with his right hand, the other with his left; and Admetus followed\nbehind.\n\n[Illustration: \"IT WAS A STRANGE TEAM.\"]\n\nIt was not yet noon when they came to the edge of the woods and saw\nthe sea and the city of Iolcus only a little way off. A golden chariot\nstood by the roadside as if waiting for them, and the lion and the boar\nwere soon harnessed to it. It was a strange team, and the two beasts\ntried hard to fight each other; but Apollo lashed them with a whip and\ntamed them until they lost their fierceness and were ready to mind the\nrein. Then Admetus climbed into the chariot; and Apollo stood by his\nside and held the reins and the whip, and drove into Iolcus.\n\nOld King Pelias was astonished when he saw the wonderful chariot and the\nglorious charioteer; and when Admetus again asked him for the fair\nAlcestis, he could not refuse. A day was set for the wedding, and Apollo\ndrove his team back to the forest and set the lion and the wild boar\nfree.\n\nAnd so Admetus and Alcestis were married, and everybody in the two\ntowns, except gruff old King Pelias, was glad. Apollo himself was one of\nthe guests at the wedding feast, and he brought a present for the young\nbridegroom; it was a promise from the Mighty Folk upon the mountain top\nthat if Admetus should ever be sick and in danger of death, he might\nbecome well again if some one who loved him would die for him.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE SHADOW LEADER.\n\n\nAdmetus and Alcestis lived together happily for a long time, and all the\npeople in their little kingdom loved and blessed them. But at last\nAdmetus fell sick, and, as he grew worse and worse every day, all hope\nthat he would ever get well was lost. Then those who loved him\nremembered the wedding gift which Apollo had given him, and they began\nto ask who would be willing to die in his stead.\n\nHis father and mother were very old and could hope to live but a short\ntime at best, and so it was thought that one of them would be glad to\ngive up life for the sake of their son. But when some one asked them\nabout it, they shook their heads and said that though life was short\nthey would cling to it as long as they could.\n\nThen his brothers and sisters were asked if they would die for Admetus,\nbut they loved themselves better than their brother, and turned away and\nleft him. There were men in the town whom he had befriended and who owed\ntheir lives to him; they would have done everything else for him, but\nthis thing they would not do.\n\nNow while all were shaking their heads and saying \"Not I,\" the beautiful\nAlcestis went into her own room and called to Apollo and asked that she\nmight give up her life to save her husband. Then without a thought of\nfear she lay down upon her bed and closed her eyes; and a little while\nafterward, when her maidens came into the room they found her dead.\n\nAt the very same time Admetus felt his sickness leave him, and he sprang\nup as well and strong as he had ever been. Wondering how it was that he\nhad been so quickly cured, he made haste to find Alcestis and tell her\nthe good news. But when he went into her room, he saw her lying lifeless\non her couch, and he knew at once that she had died for him. His grief\nwas so great that he could not speak, and he wished that death had taken\nhim and spared the one whom he loved.\n\nIn all the land every eye was wet with weeping for Alcestis, and the\ncries of the mourners were heard in every house. Admetus sat by the\ncouch where his young queen lay, and held her cold hand in his own. The\nday passed, and night came, but he would not leave her. All through the\ndark hours he sat there alone. The morning dawned, but he did not want\nto see the light.\n\nAt last the sun began to rise in the east, and then Admetus was\nsurprised to feel the hand which he held growing warm. He saw a red\ntinge coming into the pale cheeks of Alcestis.\n\nA moment later the fair lady opened her eyes and sat up, alive and well\nand glad.\n\nHow was it that Alcestis had been given back to life?\n\nWhen she died and left her body, the Shadow Leader, who knows no pity,\nled her, as he led all others, to the cheerless halls of Proserpine, the\nqueen of the Lower World.\n\n\"Who is this who comes so willingly?\" asked the pale-faced queen.\n\nAnd when she was told how Alcestis, so young and beautiful, had given\nher life to save that of her husband, she was moved with pity; and she\nbade the Shadow Leader take her back again to the joy and sunlight of\nthe Upper World.\n\nSo it was that Alcestis came to life; and for many years she and Admetus\nlived in their little kingdom not far from the sea; and the Mighty Ones\non the mountain top blessed them; and, at last, when they had become\nvery old, the Shadow Leader led them both away together.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCADMUS AND EUROPA.\n\nI. THE BULL.\n\n\nIn Asia there lived a king who had two children, a boy and a girl. The\nboy's name was Cadmus, and the girl's name was Europa. The king's\ncountry was a very small one. He could stand on his house top and see\nthe whole of it. On one side of it there were mountains, and on the\nother side was the sea. The king thought that it was the center of the\nworld, and he did not know much about other lands and people.\n\nYet he was very happy in his own little kingdom, and very fond of his\nchildren. And he had good reason to be proud of them; for Cadmus grew up\nto be the bravest young man in the land, and Europa to be the fairest\nmaiden that had ever been seen. But sad days came to them all at last.\n\nOne morning Europa went out into a field near the seashore to pick\nflowers. Her father's cattle were in the field, grazing among the sweet\nclover. They were all very tame, and Europa knew every one of them by\nname. The herdsman was lying in the shade under a tree, trying to make\nmusic on a little flute of straw. Europa had played in the field a\nthousand times before, and no one had ever thought of any harm befalling\nher.\n\nThat morning she noticed that there was a strange bull with the herd. He\nwas very large and as white as snow; and he had soft brown eyes which\nsomehow made him look very gentle and kind. At first he did not even\nlook at Europa, but went here and there, eating the tender grass which\ngrew among the clover. But when she had gathered her apron full of\ndaisies and buttercups, he came slowly towards her. She was not at all\nafraid of him; and so she stopped to look at him, he was so handsome. He\ncame close to her, and rubbed her arm with his nose to say\n\"Good-morning!\"\n\nShe stroked his head and neck, and he seemed much pleased. Then she made\na wreath of daisies, and hung it round his neck. He looked at her with\nhis soft kind eyes, and seemed to thank her; and in a little while, he\nlay down among the clover. Europa then made a smaller wreath, and\nclimbed upon his back to twine it round his horns. But all at once he\nsprang up, and ran away so swiftly that Europa could not help herself.\nShe did not dare to jump off while he was going so fast, and all that\nshe could think to do was to hold fast to his neck and scream very\nloud.\n\nThe herdsman under the tree heard her scream, and jumped up to see what\nwas the matter. He saw the bull running with her towards the shore. He\nran after them as fast as he could, but it was of no use. The bull\nleaped into the sea, and swam swiftly away, with poor Europa on his\nback. Several other people had seen him, and now they ran to tell the\nking. Soon the whole town was alarmed. Everybody ran out to the shore\nand looked. All that could be seen was something white moving very fast\nover the calm, blue water; and soon it was out of sight.\n\nThe king sent out his fastest ship to try to overtake the bull. The\nsailors rowed far out to sea, much farther than any ship had ever gone\nbefore; but no trace of Europa could be found. When they came back,\neverybody felt that there was no more hope. All the women and children\nin the town wept for the lost Europa. The king shut himself up in his\nhouse, and did not eat nor drink for three days. Then he called his son\nCadmus, and bade him take a ship and go in search of his sister; and he\ntold him that, no matter what dangers might be in his way, he must not\ncome back until she was found.\n\nCadmus was glad to go. He chose twenty brave young men to go with him,\nand set sail the very next day. It was a great undertaking; for they\nwere to pass through an unknown sea, and they did not know what lands\nthey would come to. Indeed, it was feared that they would never come to\nany land at all. Ships did not dare to go far from the shore in those\ndays. But Cadmus and his friends were not afraid. They were ready to\nface any danger.\n\nIn a few days they came to a large island called Cyprus. Cadmus went on\nshore, and tried to talk with the strange people who lived there. They\nwere very kind to him, but they did not understand his language. At last\nhe made out by signs to tell them who he was, and to ask them if they\nhad seen his little sister Europa or the white bull that had carried her\naway. They shook their heads and pointed to the west.\n\nThen the young men sailed on in their little ship. They came to many\nislands, and stopped at every one, to see if they could find any trace\nof Europa; but they heard no news of her at all. At last, they came to\nthe country which we now call Greece. It was a new country then, and\nonly a few people lived there, and Cadmus soon learned to speak their\nlanguage well. For a long time he wandered from one little town to\nanother, always telling the story of his lost sister.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE PYTHIA.\n\nOne day an old man told Cadmus that if he would go to Delphi and ask the\nPythia, perhaps she could tell him all about Europa. Cadmus had never\nheard of Delphi or of the Pythia, and he asked the old man what he\nmeant.\n\n\"I will tell you,\" said the man. \"Delphi is a town, built near the foot\nof Mount Parnassus, at the very center of the earth. It is the town of\nApollo, the Bringer of Light; and there is a temple there, built close\nto the spot where Apollo killed a black serpent, many, many years ago.\nThe temple is the most wonderful place in the world. In the middle of\nthe floor there is a wide crack, or crevice; and this crevice goes down,\ndown into the rock, nobody knows how deep. A strange odor comes up out\nof the crevice; and if any one breathes much of it, he is apt to fall\nover and lose his senses.\"\n\n\"But who is the Pythia that you spoke about?\" asked Cadmus.\n\n\"I will tell you,\" said the old man. \"The Pythia is a wise woman, who\nlives in the temple. When anybody asks her a hard question, she takes a\nthree-legged stool, called a tripod, and sets it over the crevice in\nthe floor. Then she sits on the stool and breathes the strange odor; and\ninstead of losing her senses as other people would do, she talks with\nApollo; and Apollo tells her how to answer the question. Men from all\nparts of the world go there to ask about things which they would like to\nknow. The temple is full of the beautiful and costly gifts which they\nhave brought for the Pythia. Sometimes she answers them plainly, and\nsometimes she answers them in riddles; but what she says always comes\ntrue.\"\n\nSo Cadmus went to Delphi to ask the Pythia about his lost sister. The\nwise woman was very kind to him; and when he had given her a beautiful\ngolden cup to pay her for her trouble, she sat down on the tripod and\nbreathed the strange odor which came up through the crevice in the rock.\nThen her face grew pale, and her eyes looked wild, and she seemed to be\nin great pain; but they said that she was talking with Apollo. Cadmus\nasked her to tell him what had become of Europa. She said that Jupiter,\nin the form of a white bull, had carried her away, and that it would be\nof no use to look for her any more.\n\n\"But what shall I do?\" said Cadmus. \"My father told me not to turn back\ntill I should find her.\"\n\n\"Your father is dead,\" said the Pythia, \"and a strange king rules in\nhis place. You must stay in Greece, for there is work here for you to\ndo.\"\n\n\"What must I do?\" said Cadmus.\n\n\"Follow the white cow,\" said the Pythia; \"and on the hill where she lies\ndown, you must build a city.\"\n\nCadmus did not understand what she meant by this; but she would not\nspeak another word.\n\n\"This must be one of her riddles,\" he said, and he left the temple.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE DRAGON.\n\nWhen Cadmus went out of the temple, he saw a snow-white cow standing not\nfar from the door. She seemed to be waiting for him, for she looked at\nhim with her large brown eyes, and then turned and walked away. Cadmus\nthought of what the Pythia had just told him, and so he followed her.\nAll day and all night he walked through a strange wild country where no\none lived; and two of the young men who had sailed with Cadmus from his\nold home were with him.\n\nWhen the sun rose the next morning, they saw that they were on the top\nof a beautiful hill, with woods on one side and a grassy meadow on the\nother. There the cow lay down.\n\n\"Here we will build our city,\" said Cadmus.\n\nThen the young men made a fire of dry sticks, and Cadmus killed the cow.\nThey thought that if they should burn some of her flesh, the smell of it\nwould go up to the sky and be pleasing to Jupiter and the Mighty Folk\nwho lived with him among the clouds; and in this way they hoped to make\nfriends with Jupiter so that he would not hinder them in their work.\n\nBut they needed water to wash the flesh and their hands; and so one of\nthe young men went down the hill to find some. He was gone so long that\nthe other young man became uneasy and went after him.\n\nCadmus waited for them till the fire had burned low. He waited and\nwaited till the sun was high in the sky. He called and shouted, but no\none answered him. At last he took his sword in his hand and went down to\nsee what was the matter.\n\nHe followed the path which his friends had taken, and soon came to a\nfine stream of cold water at the foot of a hill. He saw something move\namong the bushes which grew near it. It was a fierce dragon, waiting to\nspring upon him. There was blood on the grass and leaves, and it was not\nhard to guess what had become of the two young men.\n\nThe beast sprang at Cadmus, and tried to seize him with its sharp claws.\nBut Cadmus leaped quickly aside and struck it in the neck with his long\nsword. A great stream of black blood gushed out, and the dragon soon\nfell to the ground dead. Cadmus had seen many fearful sights, but never\nanything so dreadful as this beast. He had never been in so great danger\nbefore. He sat down on the ground and trembled; and, all the time, he\nwas weeping for his two friends. How now was he to build a city, with no\none to help him?\n\n\nIV. THE CITY.\n\nWhile Cadmus was still weeping he was surprised to hear some one calling\nhim. He stood up and looked around. On the hillside before him was a\ntall woman who had a helmet on her head and a shield in her hand. Her\neyes were gray, and her face, though not beautiful, was very noble.\nCadmus knew at once that she was Athena, the queen of the air--she who\ngives wisdom to men.\n\nAthena told Cadmus that he must take out the teeth of the dragon and sow\nthem in the ground. He thought that would be a queer kind of seed. But\nshe said that if he would do this, he would soon have men enough to help\nhim build his city; and, before he could say a word, she had gone out of\nhis sight.\n\n[Illustration: \"SOON THEY BEGAN TO FIGHT AMONG THEMSELVES.\"]\n\nThe dragon had a great many teeth--so many that when Cadmus had taken\nthem out they filled his helmet heaping full. The next thing was to find\na good place to sow them. Just as he turned away from the stream, he saw\na yoke of oxen standing a little way off. He went to them and found that\nthey were hitched to a plow. What more could he want? The ground in the\nmeadow was soft and black, and he drove the plow up and down, making\nlong furrows as he went. Then he dropped the teeth, one by one, into the\nfurrows and covered them over with the rich soil. When he had sown all\nof them in this way, he sat down on the hillside and watched to see what\nwould happen.\n\nIn a little while the soil in the furrows began to stir. Then, at every\nplace that a tooth had been dropped, something bright grew up. It was a\nbrass helmet. The helmets pushed their way up, and soon the faces of men\nwere seen underneath, then their shoulders, then their arms, then their\nbodies; and then, before Cadmus could think, a thousand warriors leaped\nout of the furrows and shook off the black earth which was clinging to\nthem. Every man was clothed in a suit of brass armor; and every one had\na long spear in his right hand and a shield in his left.\n\nCadmus was frightened when he saw the strange crop which had grown up\nfrom the dragon's teeth. The men looked so fierce that he feared they\nwould kill him if they saw him. He hid himself behind his plow and then\nbegan to throw stones at them. The warriors did not know where the\nstones came from, but each thought that his neighbor had struck him.\nSoon they began to fight among themselves. Man after man was killed, and\nin a little while only five were left alive. Then Cadmus ran towards\nthem and called out:\n\n\"Hold! Stop fighting! You are my men, and must come with me. We will\nbuild a city here.\"\n\nThe men obeyed him. They followed Cadmus to the top of the hill; and\nthey were such good workmen that in a few days they had built a house on\nthe spot where the cow had lain down.\n\nAfter that they built other houses, and people came to live in them.\nThey called the town Cadmeia, after Cadmus who was its first king. But\nwhen the place had grown to be a large city, it was known by the name of\nThebes.\n\nCadmus was a wise king. The Mighty Folk who lived with Jupiter amid the\nclouds were well pleased with him and helped him in more ways than one.\nAfter a while he married Harmonia, the beautiful daughter of Mars. All\nthe Mighty Ones were at the wedding; and Athena gave the bride a\nwonderful necklace about which you may learn something more at another\ntime.\n\nBut the greatest thing that Cadmus did is yet to be told. He was the\nfirst schoolmaster of the Greeks, and taught them the letters which were\nused in his own country across the sea. They called the first of these\nletters _alpha_ and the second _beta_, and that is why men speak of the\n_alphabet_ to this day. And when the Greeks had learned the alphabet\nfrom Cadmus, they soon began to read and write, and to make beautiful\nand useful books.\n\nAs for the maiden Europa, she was carried safe over the sea to a distant\nshore. She may have been happy in the new, strange land to which she was\ntaken--I cannot tell; but she never heard of friends or home again.\nWhether it was really Jupiter in the form of a bull that carried her\naway, nobody knows. It all happened so long ago that there may have been\nsome mistake about the story; and I should not think it strange if it\nwere a sea robber who stole her from her home, and a swift ship with\nwhite sails that bore her away. Of one thing I am very sure: she was\nloved so well by all who knew her that the great unknown country to\nwhich she was taken has been called after her name ever since--Europe.\n\n[Illustration:]\n\n\n\n\nTHE QUEST OF MEDUSA'S HEAD.\n\nI. THE WOODEN CHEST.\n\n\nThere was a king of Argos who had but one child, and that child was a\ngirl. If he had had a son, he would have trained him up to be a brave\nman and great king; but he did not know what to do with this fair-haired\ndaughter. When he saw her growing up to be tall and slender and wise, he\nwondered if, after all, he would have to die some time and leave his\nlands and his gold and his kingdom to her. So he sent to Delphi and\nasked the Pythia about it. The Pythia told him that he would not only\nhave to die some time, but that the son of his daughter would cause his\ndeath.\n\nThis frightened the king very much, and he tried to think of some plan\nby which he could keep the Pythia's words from coming true. At last he\nmade up his mind that he would build a prison for his daughter and keep\nher in it all her life. So he called his workmen and had them dig a deep\nround hole in the ground, and in this hole they built a house of brass\nwhich had but one room and no door at all, but only a small window at\nthe top. When it was finished, the king put the maiden, whose name was\nDana\u00eb, into it; and with her he put her nurse and her toys and her\npretty dresses and everything that he thought she would need to make her\nhappy.\n\n\"Now we shall see that the Pythia does not always tell the truth,\" he\nsaid.\n\nSo Dana\u00eb was kept shut up in the prison of brass. She had no one to talk\nto but her old nurse; and she never saw the land or the sea, but only\nthe blue sky above the open window and now and then a white cloud\nsailing across. Day after day she sat under the window and wondered why\nher father kept her in that lonely place, and whether he would ever come\nand take her out. I do not know how many years passed by, but Dana\u00eb grew\nfairer every day, and by and by she was no longer a child, but a tall\nand beautiful woman; and Jupiter amid the clouds looked down and saw her\nand loved her.\n\nOne day it seemed to her that the sky opened and a shower of gold fell\nthrough the window into the room; and when the blinding shower had\nceased, a noble young man stood smiling before her. She did not\nknow--nor do I--that it was mighty Jupiter who had thus come down in the\nrain; but she thought that he was a brave prince who had come from over\nthe sea to take her out of her prison-house.\n\nAfter that he came often, but always as a tall and handsome youth; and\nby and by they were married, with only the nurse at the wedding feast,\nand Dana\u00eb was so happy that she was no longer lonesome even when he was\naway. But one day when he climbed out through the narrow window there\nwas a great flash of light, and she never saw him again.\n\nNot long afterwards a babe was born to Dana\u00eb, a smiling boy whom she\nnamed Perseus. For four years she and the nurse kept him hidden, and not\neven the women who brought their food to the window knew about him. But\none day the king chanced to be passing by and heard the child's prattle.\nWhen he learned the truth, he was very much alarmed, for he thought that\nnow, in spite of all that he had done, the words of the Pythia might\ncome true.\n\nThe only sure way to save himself would be to put the child to death\nbefore he was old enough to do any harm. But when he had taken the\nlittle Perseus and his mother out of the prison and had seen how\nhelpless the child was, he could not bear the thought of having him\nkilled outright. For the king, although a great coward, was really a\nkind-hearted man and did not like to see anything suffer pain. Yet\nsomething must be done.\n\nSo he bade his servants make a wooden chest that was roomy and\nwatertight and strong; and when it was done, he put Dana\u00eb and the child\ninto it and had it taken far out to sea and left there to be tossed\nabout by the waves. He thought that in this way he would rid himself of\nboth daughter and grandson without seeing them die; for surely the chest\nwould sink after a while, or else the winds would cause it to drift to\nsome strange shore so far away that they could never come back to Argos\nagain.\n\nAll day and all night and then another day, fair Dana\u00eb and her child\ndrifted over the sea. The waves rippled and played before and around the\nfloating chest, the west wind whistled cheerily, and the sea birds\ncircled in the air above; and the child was not afraid, but dipped his\nhands in the curling waves and laughed at the merry breeze and shouted\nback at the screaming birds.\n\nBut on the second night all was changed. A storm arose, the sky was\nblack, the billows were mountain high, the winds roared fearfully; yet\nthrough it all the child slept soundly in his mother's arms. And Dana\u00eb\nsang over him this song:\n\n\"Sleep, sleep, dear child, and take your rest\nUpon your troubled mother's breast;\nFor you can lie without one fear\nOf dreadful danger lurking near.\n\nWrapped in soft robes and warmly sleeping,\nYou do not hear your mother weeping;\nYou do not see the mad waves leaping,\nNor heed the winds their vigils keeping.\n\nThe stars are hid, the night is drear,\nThe waves beat high, the storm is here;\nBut you can sleep, my darling child,\nAnd know naught of the uproar wild.\"\n\nAt last the morning of the third day came, and the chest was tossed upon\nthe sandy shore of a strange island where there were green fields and,\nbeyond them, a little town. A man who happened to be walking near the\nshore saw it and dragged it far up on the beach. Then he looked inside,\nand there he saw the beautiful lady and the little boy. He helped them\nout and led them just as they were to his own house, where he cared for\nthem very kindly. And when Dana\u00eb had told him her story, he bade her\nfeel no more fear; for they might have a home with him as long as they\nshould choose to stay, and he would be a true friend to them both.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE MAGIC SLIPPERS.\n\n\nSo Dana\u00eb and her son stayed in the house of the kind man who had saved\nthem from the sea. Years passed by, and Perseus grew up to be a tall\nyoung man, handsome, and brave, and strong. The king of the island, when\nhe saw Dana\u00eb, was so pleased with her beauty that he wanted her to\nbecome his wife. But he was a dark, cruel man, and she did not like him\nat all; so she told him that she would not marry him. The king thought\nthat Perseus was to blame for this, and that if he could find some\nexcuse to send the young man on a far journey, he might force Dana\u00eb to\nhave him whether she wished or not.\n\nOne day he called all the young men of his country together and told\nthem that he was soon to be wedded to the queen of a certain land beyond\nthe sea. Would not each of them bring him a present to be given to her\nfather? For in those times it was the rule, that when any man was about\nto be married, he must offer costly gifts to the father of the bride.\n\n\"What kind of presents do you want?\" said the young men.\n\n\"Horses,\" he answered; for he knew that Perseus had no horse.\n\n\"Why don't you ask for something worth the having?\" said Perseus; for\nhe was vexed at the way in which the king was treating him. \"Why don't\nyou ask for Medusa's head, for example?\"\n\n\"Medusa's head it shall be!\" cried the king. \"These young men may give\nme horses, but you shall bring Medusa's head.\"\n\n\"I will bring it,\" said Perseus; and he went away in anger, while his\nyoung friends laughed at him because of his foolish words.\n\nWhat was this Medusa's head which he had so rashly promised to bring?\nHis mother had often told him about Medusa. Far, far away, on the very\nedge of the world, there lived three strange monsters, sisters, called\nGorgons. They had the bodies and faces of women, but they had wings of\ngold, and terrible claws of brass, and hair that was full of living\nserpents. They were so awful to look upon, that no man could bear the\nsight of them, but whoever saw their faces was turned to stone. Two of\nthese monsters had charmed lives, and no weapon could ever do them harm;\nbut the youngest, whose name was Medusa, might be killed, if indeed\nanybody could find her and could give the fatal stroke.\n\nWhen Perseus went away from the king's palace, he began to feel sorry\nthat he had spoken so rashly. For how should he ever make good his\npromise and do the king's bidding? He did not know which way to go to\nfind the Gorgons, and he had no weapon with which to slay the terrible\nMedusa. But at any rate he would never show his face to the king again,\nunless he could bring the head of terror with him. He went down to the\nshore and stood looking out over the sea towards Argos, his native land;\nand while he looked, the sun went down, and the moon arose, and a soft\nwind came blowing from the west. Then, all at once, two persons, a man\nand a woman, stood before him. Both were tall and noble. The man looked\nlike a prince; and there were wings on his cap and on his feet, and he\ncarried a winged staff, around which two golden serpents were twined.\n\nHe asked Perseus what was the matter; and the young man told him how the\nking had treated him, and all about the rash words which he had spoken.\nThen the lady spoke to him very kindly; and he noticed that, although\nshe was not beautiful, she had most wonderful gray eyes, and a stern but\nlovable face and a queenly form. And she told him not to fear, but to go\nout boldly in quest of the Gorgons; for she would help him obtain the\nterrible head of Medusa.\n\n\"But I have no ship, and how shall I go?\" said Perseus.\n\n\"You shall don my winged slippers,\" said the strange prince, \"and they\nwill bear you over sea and land.\"\n\n\"Shall I go north, or south, or east, or west?\" asked Perseus.\n\n\"I will tell you,\" said the tall lady. \"You must go first to the three\nGray Sisters, who live beyond the frozen sea in the far, far north. They\nhave a secret which nobody knows, and you must force them to tell it to\nyou. Ask them where you shall find the three Maidens who guard the\ngolden apples of the West; and when they shall have told you, turn about\nand go straight thither. The Maidens will give you three things, without\nwhich you can never obtain the terrible head; and they will show you how\nto wing your way across the western ocean to the edge of the world where\nlies the home of the Gorgons.\"\n\nThen the man took off his winged slippers, and put them on the feet of\nPerseus; and the woman whispered to him to be off at once, and to fear\nnothing, but be bold and true. And Perseus knew that she was none other\nthan Athena, the queen of the air, and that her companion was Mercury,\nthe lord of the summer clouds. But before he could thank them for their\nkindness, they had vanished in the dusky twilight.\n\nThen he leaped into the air to try the Magic Slippers.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE GRAY SISTERS.\n\n\nSwifter than an eagle, Perseus flew up towards the sky. Then he turned,\nand the Magic Slippers bore him over the sea straight towards the north.\nOn and on he went, and soon the sea was passed; and he came to a famous\nland, where there were cities and towns and many people. And then he\nflew over a range of snowy mountains, beyond which were mighty forests\nand a vast plain where many rivers wandered, seeking for the sea. And\nfarther on was another range of mountains; and then there were frozen\nmarshes and a wilderness of snow, and after all the sea again,--but a\nsea of ice. On and on he winged his way, among toppling icebergs and\nover frozen billows and through air which the sun never warmed, and at\nlast he came to the cavern where the three Gray Sisters dwelt.\n\nThese three creatures were so old that they had forgotten their own age,\nand nobody could count the years which they had lived. The long hair\nwhich covered their heads had been gray since they were born; and they\nhad among them only a single eye and a single tooth which they passed\nback and forth from one to another. Perseus heard them mumbling and\ncrooning in their dreary home, and he stood very still and listened.\n\n\"We know a secret which even the Great Folk who live on the mountain top\ncan never learn; don't we, sisters?\" said one.\n\n\"Ha! ha! That we do, that we do!\" chattered the others.\n\n\"Give me the tooth, sister, that I may feel young and handsome again,\"\nsaid the one nearest to Perseus.\n\n\"And give me the eye that I may look out and see what is going on in the\nbusy world,\" said the sister who sat next to her.\n\n\"Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes!\" mumbled the third, as she took the tooth and\nthe eye and reached them blindly towards the others.\n\nThen, quick as thought, Perseus leaped forward and snatched both of the\nprecious things from her hand.\n\n\"Where is the tooth? Where is the eye?\" screamed the two, reaching out\ntheir long arms and groping here and there. \"Have you dropped them,\nsister? Have you lost them?\"\n\nPerseus laughed as he stood in the door of their cavern and saw their\ndistress and terror.\n\n\"I have your tooth and your eye,\" he said, \"and you shall never touch\nthem again until you tell me your secret. Where are the Maidens who keep\nthe golden apples of the Western Land? Which way shall I go to find\nthem?\"\n\n\"You are young, and we are old,\" said the Gray Sisters; \"pray, do not\ndeal so cruelly with us. Pity us, and give us our eye.\"\n\nThen they wept and pleaded and coaxed and threatened. But Perseus stood\na little way off and taunted them; and they moaned and mumbled and\nshrieked, as they found that their words did not move him.\n\n\"Sisters, we must tell him,\" at last said one.\n\n\"Ah, yes, we must tell him,\" said the others. \"We must part with the\nsecret to save our eye.\"\n\nAnd then they told him how he should go to reach the Western Land, and\nwhat road he should follow to find the Maidens who kept the golden\napples. When they had made everything plain to him Perseus gave them\nback their eye and their tooth.\n\n\"Ha! ha!\" they laughed; \"now the golden days of youth have come again!\"\nAnd, from that day to this, no man has ever seen the three Gray Sisters,\nnor does any one know what became of them. But the winds still whistle\nthrough their cheerless cave, and the cold waves murmur on the shore of\nthe wintry sea, and the ice mountains topple and crash, and no sound of\nliving creature is heard in all that desolate land.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE WESTERN MAIDENS.\n\n\nAs for Perseus, he leaped again into the air, and the Magic Slippers\nbore him southward with the speed of the wind. Very soon he left the\nfrozen sea behind him and came to a sunny land, where there were green\nforests and flowery meadows and hills and valleys, and at last a\npleasant garden where were all kinds of blossoms and fruits. He knew\nthat this was the famous Western Land, for the Gray Sisters had told him\nwhat he should see there. So he alighted and walked among the trees\nuntil he came to the center of the garden. There he saw the three\nMaidens of the West dancing around a tree which was full of golden\napples, and singing as they danced. For the wonderful tree with its\nprecious fruit belonged to Juno, the queen of earth and sky; it had been\ngiven to her as a wedding gift, and it was the duty of the Maidens to\ncare for it and see that no one touched the golden apples.\n\nPerseus stopped and listened to their song:\n\n\"We sing of the old, we sing of the new,--\nOur joys are many, our sorrows are few;\n  Singing, dancing,\n  All hearts entrancing,\nWe wait to welcome the good and the true.\n\nThe daylight is waning, the evening is here,\nThe sun will soon set, the stars will appear.\n  Singing, dancing,\n  All hearts entrancing,\nWe wait for the dawn of a glad new year.\n\nThe tree shall wither, the apples shall fall,\nSorrow shall come, and death shall call,\n  Alarming, grieving,\n  All hearts deceiving,--\nBut hope shall abide to comfort us all.\n\nSoon the tale shall be told, the song shall be sung,\nThe bow shall be broken, the harp unstrung,\n  Alarming, grieving,\n  All hearts deceiving,\nTill every joy to the winds shall be flung.\n\nBut a new tree shall spring from the roots of the old,\nAnd many a blossom its leaves shall unfold,\n  Cheering, gladdening,\n  With joy maddening,--\nFor its boughs shall be laden with apples of gold.\"\n\n[Illustration: Perseus stopped and listened to their song]\n\nThen Perseus went forward and spoke to the Maidens. They stopped\nsinging, and stood still as if in alarm. But when they saw the Magic\nSlippers on his feet, they ran to him, and welcomed him to the Western\nLand and to their garden.\n\n\"We knew that you were coming,\" they said, \"for the winds told us. But\nwhy do you come?\"\n\nPerseus told them of all that had happened to him since he was a child,\nand of his quest of Medusa's head; and he said that he had come to ask\nthem to give him three things to help him in his fight with the Gorgons.\n\nThe Maidens answered that they would give him not three things, but\nfour. Then one of them gave him a sharp sword, which was crooked like a\nsickle, and which she fastened to the belt at his waist; and another\ngave him a shield, which was brighter than any looking-glass you ever\nsaw; and the third gave him a magic pouch, which she hung by a long\nstrap over his shoulder.\n\n\"These are three things which you must have in order to obtain Medusa's\nhead; and now here is a fourth, for without it your quest must be in\nvain.\" And they gave him a magic cap, the Cap of Darkness; and when they\nhad put it upon his head, there was no creature on the earth or in the\nsky--no, not even the Maidens themselves--that could see him.\n\nWhen at last he was arrayed to their liking, they told him where he\nwould find the Gorgons, and what he should do to obtain the terrible\nhead and escape alive. Then they kissed him and wished him good luck,\nand bade him hasten to do the dangerous deed. And Perseus donned the Cap\nof Darkness, and sped away and away towards the farthermost edge of the\nearth; and the three Maidens went back to their tree to sing and to\ndance and to guard the golden apples until the old world should become\nyoung again.\n\n\nV. THE DREADFUL GORGONS.\n\nWith the sharp sword at his side and the bright shield upon his arm,\nPerseus flew bravely onward in search of the dreadful Gorgons; but he\nhad the Cap of Darkness upon his head, and you could no more have seen\nhim than you can see the wind. He flew so swiftly that it was not long\nuntil he had crossed the mighty ocean which encircles the earth, and had\ncome to the sunless land which lies beyond; and then he knew, from what\nthe Maidens had told him, that the lair of the Gorgons could not be far\naway.\n\nHe heard a sound as of some one breathing heavily, and he looked around\nsharply to see where it came from. Among the foul weeds which grew\nclose to the bank of a muddy river there was something which glittered\nin the pale light. He flew a little nearer; but he did not dare to look\nstraight forward, lest he should all at once meet the gaze of a Gorgon,\nand be changed into stone. So he turned around, and held the shining\nshield before him in such a way that by looking into it he could see\nobjects behind him as in a mirror.\n\nAh, what a dreadful sight it was! Half hidden among the weeds lay the\nthree monsters, fast asleep, with their golden wings folded about them.\nTheir brazen claws were stretched out as though ready to seize their\nprey; and their shoulders were covered with sleeping snakes. The two\nlargest of the Gorgons lay with their heads tucked under their wings as\nbirds hide their heads when they go to sleep. But the third, who lay\nbetween them, slept with her face turned up towards the sky; and Perseus\nknew that she was Medusa.\n\nVery stealthily he went nearer and nearer, always with his back towards\nthe monsters and always looking into his bright shield to see where to\ngo. Then he drew his sharp sword and, dashing quickly downward, struck a\nback blow, so sure, so swift, that the head of Medusa was cut from her\nshoulders and the black blood gushed like a river from her neck. Quick\nas thought he thrust the terrible head into his magic pouch and leaped\nagain into the air, and flew away with the speed of the wind.\n\nThen the two older Gorgons awoke, and rose with dreadful screams, and\nspread their great wings, and dashed after him. They could not see him,\nfor the Cap of Darkness hid him from even their eyes; but they scented\nthe blood of the head which he carried in the pouch, and like hounds in\nthe chase, they followed him, sniffing the air. And as he flew through\nthe clouds he could hear their dreadful cries and the clatter of their\ngolden wings and the snapping of their horrible jaws. But the Magic\nSlippers were faster than any wings, and in a little while the monsters\nwere left far behind, and their cries were heard no more; and Perseus\nflew on alone.\n\n\n\n\nVI. THE GREAT SEA BEAST.\n\n\nPerseus soon crossed the ocean and came again to the Land of the West.\nFar below him he could see the three Maidens dancing around the golden\ntree; but he did not stop, for, now that he had the head of Medusa safe\nin the pouch at his side, he must hasten home. Straight east he flew\nover the great sea, and after a time he came to a country where there\nwere palm trees and pyramids and a great river flowing from the south.\nHere, as he looked down, a strange sight met his eyes: he saw a\nbeautiful girl chained to a rock by the seashore, and far away a huge\nsea beast swimming towards her to devour her. Quick as thought, he flew\ndown and spoke to her; but, as she could not see him for the Cap of\nDarkness which he wore, his voice only frightened her.\n\nThen Perseus took off his cap, and stood upon the rock; and when the\ngirl saw him with his long hair and wonderful eyes and laughing face,\nshe thought him the handsomest young man in the world.\n\n\"Oh, save me! save me!\" she cried as she reached out her arms towards\nhim.\n\nPerseus drew his sharp sword and cut the chain which held her, and then\nlifted her high up upon the rock. But by this time the sea monster was\nclose at hand, lashing the water with his tail and opening his wide jaws\nas though he would swallow not only Perseus and the young girl, but even\nthe rock on which they were standing. He was a terrible fellow, and yet\nnot half so terrible as the Gorgon. As he came roaring towards the\nshore, Perseus lifted the head of Medusa from his pouch and held it up;\nand when the beast saw the dreadful face he stopped short and was turned\ninto stone; and men say that the stone beast may be seen in that\nselfsame spot to this day.\n\nThen Perseus slipped the Gorgon's head back into the pouch and hastened\nto speak with the young girl whom he had saved. She told him that her\nname was Andromeda, and that she was the daughter of the king of that\nland. She said that her mother, the queen, was very beautiful and very\nproud of her beauty; and every day she went down to the seashore to look\nat her face as it was pictured in the quiet water; and she had boasted\nthat not even the nymphs who live in the sea were as handsome as she.\nWhen the sea nymphs heard about this, they were very angry and asked\ngreat Neptune, the king of the sea, to punish the queen for her pride.\nSo Neptune sent a sea monster to crush the king's ships and kill the\ncattle along the shore and break down all the fishermen's huts. The\npeople were so much distressed that they sent at last to ask the Pythia\nwhat they should do; and the Pythia said that there was only one way to\nsave the land from destruction,--that they must give the king's\ndaughter, Andromeda, to the monster to be devoured.\n\nThe king and the queen loved their daughter very dearly, for she was\ntheir only child; and for a long time they refused to do as the Pythia\nhad told them. But day after day the monster laid waste the land, and\nthreatened to destroy not only the farms, but the towns; and so they\nwere forced in the end to give up Andromeda to save their country. This,\nthen, was why she had been chained to the rock by the shore and left\nthere to perish in the jaws of the beast.\n\nWhile Perseus was yet talking with Andromeda, the king and the queen and\na great company of people came down the shore, weeping and tearing their\nhair; for they were sure that by this time the monster had devoured his\nprey. But when they saw her alive and well, and learned that she had\nbeen saved by the handsome young man who stood beside her, they could\nhardly hold themselves for joy. And Perseus was so delighted with\nAndromeda's beauty that he almost forgot his quest which was not yet\nfinished; and when the king asked him what he should give him as a\nreward for saving Andromeda's life, he said:\n\n\"Give her to me for my wife.\"\n\nThis pleased the king very much; and so, on the seventh day, Perseus and\nAndromeda were married, and there was a great feast in the king's\npalace, and everybody was merry and glad. And the two young people lived\nhappily for some time in the land of palms and pyramids; and, from the\nsea to the mountains, nothing was talked about but the courage of\nPerseus and the beauty of Andromeda.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE KING SAW IT AND WAS TURNED INTO STONE.\"]\n\n\n\n\nVII. THE TIMELY RESCUE.\n\n\nBut Perseus had not forgotten his mother; and so, one fine summer day,\nhe and Andromeda sailed in a beautiful ship to his own home; for the\nMagic Slippers could not carry both him and his bride through the air.\nThe ship came to land at the very spot where the wooden chest had been\ncast so many years before; and Perseus and his bride walked through the\nfields towards the town.\n\nNow, the wicked king of that land had never ceased trying to persuade\nDana\u00eb to become his wife; but she would not listen to him, and the more\nhe pleaded and threatened, the more she disliked him. At last when he\nfound that she could not be made to have him, he declared that he would\nkill her; and on this very morning he had started out, sword in hand, to\ntake her life.\n\nSo, as Perseus and Andromeda came into the town, whom should they meet\nbut his mother fleeing to the altar of Jupiter, and the king following\nafter, intent on killing her? Dana\u00eb was so frightened that she did not\nsee Perseus, but ran right on towards the only place of safety. For it\nwas a law of that land that not even the king should be allowed to harm\nany one who took refuge on the altar of Jupiter.\n\nWhen Perseus saw the king rushing like a madman after his mother, he\nthrew himself before him and bade him stop. But the king struck at him\nfuriously with his sword. Perseus caught the blow on his shield, and at\nthe same moment took the head of Medusa from his magic pouch.\n\n\"I promised to bring you a present, and here it is!\" he cried.\n\nThe king saw it, and was turned into stone, just as he stood, with his\nsword uplifted and that terrible look of anger and passion in his face.\n\nThe people of the island were glad when they learned what had happened,\nfor no one loved the wicked king. They were glad, too, because Perseus\nhad come home again, and had brought with him his beautiful wife,\nAndromeda. So, after they had talked the matter over among themselves,\nthey went to him and asked him to be their king. But he thanked them,\nand said that he would rule over them for one day only, and that then he\nwould give the kingdom to another, so that he might take his mother back\nto her home and her kindred in distant Argos.\n\nOn the morrow therefore, he gave the kingdom to the kind man who had\nsaved his mother and himself from the sea; and then he went on board his\nship, with Andromeda and Dana\u00eb, and sailed away across the sea towards\nArgos.\n\n\n\n\nVIII. THE DEADLY QUOIT.\n\n\nWhen Dana\u00eb's old father, the king of Argos, heard that a strange ship\nwas coming over the sea with his daughter and her son on board, he was\nin great distress; for he remembered what the Pythia had foretold about\nhis death. So, without waiting to see the vessel, he left his palace in\ngreat haste and fled out of the country.\n\n\"My daughter's son cannot kill me if I will keep out of his way,\" he\nsaid.\n\nBut Perseus had no wish to harm him; and he was very sad when he learned\nthat his poor grandfather had gone away in fear and without telling any\none where he was going. The people of Argos welcomed Dana\u00eb to her old\nhome; and they were very proud of her handsome son, and begged that he\nwould stay in their city, so that he might some time become their king.\n\nIt happened soon afterwards that the king of a certain country not far\naway was holding games and giving prizes to the best runners and leapers\nand quoit throwers. And Perseus went thither to try his strength with\nthe other young men of the land; for if he should be able to gain a\nprize, his name would become known all over the world. No one in that\ncountry knew who he was, but all wondered at his noble stature and his\nstrength and skill; and it was easy enough for him to win all the\nprizes.\n\nOne day, as he was showing what he could do, he threw a heavy quoit a\ngreat deal farther than any had been thrown before. It fell in the crowd\nof lookers-on, and struck a stranger who was standing there. The\nstranger threw up his hands and sank upon the ground; and when Perseus\nran to help him, he saw that he was dead. Now this man was none other\nthan Dana\u00eb's father, the old king of Argos. He had fled from his kingdom\nto save his life, and in doing so had only met his death.\n\nPerseus was overcome with grief, and tried in every way to pay honor to\nthe memory of the unhappy king. The kingdom of Argos was now rightfully\nhis own, but he could not bear to take it after having killed his\ngrandfather. So he was glad to exchange with another king who ruled over\ntwo rich cities, not far away, called Mycenae and Tiryns. And he and\nAndromeda lived happily in Mycenae for many years.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF ATALANTA\n\nI. THE BEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN.\n\n\nIn a sunny land in Greece called Arcadia there lived a king and a queen\nwho had no children. They wanted very much to have a son who might live\nto rule over Arcadia when the king was dead, and so, as the years went\nby, they prayed to great Jupiter on the mountain top that he would send\nthem a son. After a while a child was born to them, but it was a little\ngirl. The father was in a great rage with Jupiter and everybody else.\n\n\"What is a girl good for?\" he said. \"She can never do anything but sing,\nand spin, and spend money. If the child had been a boy, he might have\nlearned to do many things,--to ride, and to hunt, and to fight in the\nwars,--and by and by he would have been king of Arcadia. But this girl\ncan never be a king.\"\n\nThen he called to one of his men and bade him take the babe out to a\nmountain where there was nothing but rocks and thick woods, and leave it\nthere to be eaten up by the wild bears that lived in the caves and\nthickets. It would be the easiest way, he said, to get rid of the\nuseless little creature.\n\nThe man carried the child far up on the mountain side and laid it down\non a bed of moss in the shadow of a great rock. The child stretched out\nits baby hands towards him and smiled, but he turned away and left it\nthere, for he did not dare to disobey the king.\n\nFor a whole night and a whole day the babe lay on its bed of moss,\nwailing for its mother; but only the birds among the trees heard its\npitiful cries. At last it grew so weak for want of food that it could\nonly moan and move its head a little from side to side. It would have\ndied before another day if nobody had cared for it.\n\nJust before dark on the second evening, a she-bear came strolling down\nthe mountain side from her den. She was out looking for her cubs, for\nsome hunters had stolen them that very day while she was away from home.\nShe heard the moans of the little babe, and wondered if it was not one\nof her lost cubs; and when she saw it lying so helpless on the moss she\nwent to it and looked at it kindly. Was it possible that a little bear\ncould be changed into a pretty babe with fat white hands and with a\nbeautiful gold chain around its neck? The old bear did not know; and as\nthe child looked at her with its bright black eyes, she growled softly\nand licked its face with her warm tongue and then lay down beside it,\njust as she would have done with her own little cubs. The babe was too\nyoung to feel afraid, and it cuddled close to the old bear and felt that\nit had found a friend. After a while it fell asleep; but the bear\nguarded it until morning and then went down the mountain side to look\nfor food.\n\nIn the evening, before dark, the bear came again and carried the child\nto her own den under the shelter of a rock where vines and wild flowers\ngrew; and every day after that she came and gave the child food and\nplayed with it. And all the bears on the mountain learned about the\nwonderful cub that had been found, and came to see it; but not one of\nthem offered to harm it. And the little girl grew fast and became\nstrong, and after a while could walk and run among the trees and rocks\nand brambles on the round top of the mountain; but her bear mother would\nnot allow her to wander far from the den beneath the rock where the\nvines and the wild flowers grew.\n\nOne day some hunters came up the mountain to look for game, and one of\nthem pulled aside the vines which grew in front of the old bear's home.\nHe was surprised to see the beautiful child lying on the grass and\nplaying with the flowers which she had gathered. But at sight of him she\nleaped to her feet and bounded away like a frightened deer. She led the\nhunters a fine chase among the trees and rocks; but there were a dozen\nof them, and it was not long till they caught her.\n\nThe hunters had never taken such game as that before, and they were so\nwell satisfied that they did not care to hunt any more that day. The\nchild struggled and fought as hard as she knew how, but it was of no\nuse. The hunters carried her down the mountain, and took her to the\nhouse where they lived on the other side of the forest. At first she\ncried all the time, for she sadly missed the bear that had been a mother\nto her so long. But the hunters made a great pet of her, and gave her\nmany pretty things to play with, and were very kind; and it was not long\ntill she began to like her new home.\n\nThe hunters named her Atalanta, and when she grew older, they made her a\nbow and arrows, and taught her how to shoot; and they gave her a light\nspear, and showed her how to carry it and how to hurl it at the game or\nat an enemy. Then they took her with them when they went hunting, and\nthere was nothing in the world that pleased her so much as roaming\nthrough the woods and running after the deer and other wild animals. Her\nfeet became very swift, so that she could run faster than any of the\nmen; and her arms were so strong and her eyes so sharp and true that\nwith her arrow or her spear she never missed the mark. And she grew up\nto be very tall and graceful, and was known throughout all Arcadia as\nthe fleet-footed huntress.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE BRAND ON THE HEARTH.\n\n\nNow, not very far from the land of Arcadia there was a little city named\nCalydon. It lay in the midst of rich wheat fields and fruitful\nvineyards; but beyond the vineyards there was a deep dense forest where\nmany wild beasts lived. The king of Calydon was named OEneus, and he\ndwelt in a white palace with his wife Althea and his boys and girls. His\nkingdom was so small that it was not much trouble to govern it, and so\nhe spent the most of his time in hunting or in plowing or in looking\nafter his grape vines. He was said to be a very brave man, and he was\nthe friend of all the great heroes of that heroic time.\n\nThe two daughters of OEneus and Althea were famed all over the world for\ntheir beauty; and one of them was the wife of the hero Hercules, who\nhad freed Prometheus from his chains, and done many other mighty deeds.\nThe six sons of OEneus and Althea were noble, handsome fellows; but the\nnoblest and handsomest of them all was Meleager, the youngest.\n\nWhen Meleager was a tiny babe only seven days old, a strange thing\nhappened in the white palace of the king. Queen Althea awoke in the\nmiddle of the night, and saw a fire blazing on the hearth. She wondered\nwhat it could mean; and she lay quite still by the side of the babe, and\nlooked and listened. Three strange women were standing by the hearth.\nThey were tall, and two of them were beautiful, and the faces of all\nwere stern. Althea knew at once that they were the Fates who give gifts\nof some kind to every child that is born, and who say whether his life\nshall be a happy one or full of sadness and sorrow.\n\n\"What shall we give to this child?\" said the eldest and sternest of the\nthree strangers. Her name was Atropos, and she held a pair of sharp\nshears in her hand.\n\n\"I give him a brave heart,\" said the youngest and fairest. Her name was\nClotho, and she held a distaff full of flax, from which she was spinning\na golden thread.\n\n\"And I give him a gentle, noble mind,\" said the dark-haired one, whose\nname was Lachesis. She gently drew out the thread which Clotho spun, and\nturning to stern Atropos, said: \"Lay aside those shears, sister, and\ngive the child your gift.\"\n\n\"I give him life until this brand shall be burned to ashes,\" was the\nanswer; and Atropos took a small stick of wood and laid it on the\nburning coals.\n\nThe three sisters waited till the stick was ablaze, and then they were\ngone. Althea sprang up quickly. She saw nothing but the fire on the\nhearth and the stick burning slowly away. She made haste to pour water\nupon the blaze, and when every spark was put out, she took the charred\nstick and put it into a strong chest where she kept her treasures, and\nlocked it up.\n\n\"I know that the child's life is safe,\" she said, \"so long as that stick\nis kept unburned.\"\n\nAnd so, as the years went by, Meleager grew up to be a brave young man,\nso gentle and noble that his name became known in every land of Greece.\nHe did many daring deeds and, with other heroes, went on a famous voyage\nacross the seas in search of a marvelous fleece of gold; and when he\nreturned to Calydon the people declared that he was the worthiest of the\nsons of OEneus to become their king.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE GIFTS ON THE ALTARS.\n\n\nNow it happened one summer that the vineyards of Calydon were fuller of\ngrapes than they had ever been before, and there was so much wheat in\nthe fields that the people did not know what to do with it.\n\n\"I will tell you what to do,\" said King OEneus. \"We will have a\nthanksgiving day, and we will give some of the grain and some of the\nfruit to the Mighty Beings who sit among the clouds on the mountain top.\nFor it is from them that the sunshine and the fair weather and the moist\nwinds and the warm rains have come; and without their aid we could never\nhave had so fine a harvest.\"\n\nThe very next day the king and the people of Calydon went out into the\nfields and vineyards to offer up their thank offerings. Here and there\nthey built little altars of turf and stones and laid dry grass and twigs\nupon them; and then on top of the twigs they put some of the largest\nbunches of grapes and some of the finest heads of wheat, which they\nthought would please the Mighty Beings who had sent them so great\nplenty.\n\nThere was one altar for Ceres, who had shown men how to sow grain, and\none for Bacchus, who had told them about the grape, and one for\nwing-footed Mercury, who comes in the clouds, and one for Athena, the\nqueen of the air, and one for the keeper of the winds, and one for the\ngiver of light, and one for the driver of the golden sun car, and one\nfor the king of the sea, and one--which was the largest of all--for\nJupiter, the mighty thunderer who sits upon the mountain top and rules\nthe world. And when everything was ready, King OEneus gave the word, and\nfire was touched to the grass and the twigs upon the altars; and the\ngrapes and the wheat that had been laid there were burned up. Then the\npeople shouted and danced, for they fancied that in that way the thank\nofferings were sent right up to Ceres and Bacchus and Mercury and Athena\nand all the rest. And in the evening they went home with glad hearts,\nfeeling that they had done right.\n\nBut they had forgotten one of the Mighty Beings. They had not raised any\naltar to Diana, the fair huntress and queen of the woods, and they had\nnot offered her a single grape or a single grain of wheat. They had not\nintended to slight her; but, to tell the truth, there were so many\nothers that they had never once thought about her.\n\nI do not suppose that Diana cared anything at all for the fruit or the\ngrain; but it made her very angry to think that she should be forgotten.\n \"I'll show them that I am not to be slighted in this way,\" she said.\n\nAll went well, however, until the next summer; and the people of Calydon\nwere very happy, for it looked as though there would be a bigger harvest\nthan ever.\n\n\"I tell you,\" said old King OEneus, looking over his fields and his\nvineyards, \"it pays to give thanks. We'll have another thanksgiving as\nsoon as the grapes begin to ripen.\"\n\nBut even then he did not think of Diana.\n\nThe very next day the largest and fiercest wild boar that anybody had\never seen came rushing out of the forest. He had two long tusks which\nstuck far out of his mouth on either side and were as sharp as knives,\nand the stiff bristles on his back were as large and as long as knitting\nneedles. As he went tearing along towards Calydon, champing his teeth\nand foaming at the mouth, he was a frightful thing to look at, I tell\nyou. Everybody fled before him. He rushed into the wheat fields and tore\nup all the grain; he went into the vineyards and broke down all the\nvines; he rooted up all the trees in the orchards; and, when there was\nnothing else to do, he went into the pasture lands among the hills and\nkilled the sheep that were feeding there. He was so fierce and so fleet\nof foot that the bravest warrior hardly dared to attack him. His thick\nskin was proof against arrows and against such spears as the people of\nCalydon had; and I do not know how many men he killed with those\nterrible razor tusks of his. For weeks he had pretty much his own way,\nand the only safe place for anybody was inside of the walls.\n\nWhen he had laid waste the whole country he went back into the edge of\nthe forest; but the people were so much afraid of him that they lived in\ndread every day lest he should come again and tear down the gates of the\ncity.\n\n\"We must have forgotten somebody when we gave thanks last year,\" said\nKing OEneus. \"Who could it have been?\"\n\nAnd then he thought of Diana.\n\n\"Diana, the queen of the chase,\" said he, \"has sent this monster to\npunish us for forgetting her. I am sure that we shall remember her now\nas long as we live.\"\n\nThen he sent messengers into all the countries near Calydon, asking the\nbravest men and skillfullest hunters to come at a certain time and help\nhim hunt and kill the great wild boar. Very many of these men had been\nwith Meleager in that wonderful voyage in search of the Golden Fleece,\nand he felt sure they would come.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE HUNT IN THE FOREST.\n\n\nWhen the day came which King OEneus had set, there was a wonderful\ngathering of men at Calydon. The greatest heroes in the world were\nthere; and every one was fully armed, and expected to have fine sport\nhunting the terrible wild boar. With the warriors from the south there\ncame a tall maiden armed with bow and arrows and a long hunting spear.\nIt was our friend Atalanta, the huntress.\n\n\"My daughters are having a game of ball in the garden,\" said old King\nOEneus. \"Wouldn't you like to put away your arrows and your spear, and\ngo and play with them?\"\n\nAtalanta shook her head and lifted her chin as if in disdain.\n\n\"Perhaps you would rather stay with the queen, and look at the women\nspin and weave,\" said OEneus.\n\n\"No,\" answered Atalanta, \"I am going with the warriors to hunt the wild\nboar in the forest!\"\n\nHow all the men opened their eyes! They had never heard of such a thing\nas a girl going out with heroes to hunt wild boars.\n\n\"If she goes, then I will not,\" said one.\n\n\"Nor I, either,\" said another.\n\n\"Nor I,\" said a third. \"Why, the whole world would laugh at us, and we\nshould never hear the end of it.\"\n\nSeveral threatened to go home at once; and two brothers of Queen Althea,\nrude, unmannerly fellows, loudly declared that the hunt was for heroes\nand not for puny girls.\n\nBut Atalanta only grasped her spear more firmly and stood up, tall and\nstraight, in the gateway of the palace. Just then a handsome young man\ncame forward. It was Meleager.\n\n\"What's this?\" he cried. \"Who says that Atalanta shall not go to the\nhunt? You are afraid that she'll be braver than you--that is all. Pretty\nheroes you are! Let all such cowards go home at once.\"\n\nBut nobody went, and it was settled then and there that the maiden\nshould have her own way. And yet the brothers of Queen Althea kept on\nmuttering and complaining.\n\nFor nine days the heroes and huntsmen feasted in the halls of King\nOEneus, and early on the tenth they set out for the forest. Soon the\ngreat beast was found, and he came charging out upon his foes. The\nheroes hid behind the trees or climbed up among the branches, for they\nhad not expected to see so terrible a creature. He stood in the middle\nof a little open space, tearing up the ground with his tusks. The white\nfoam rolled from his mouth, his eyes glistened red like fire, and he\ngrunted so fiercely that the woods and hills echoed with fearful sounds.\n\n[Illustration: YOU OUGHT TO HAVE SEEN THE TALL HUNTRESS MAIDEN THEN]\n\nThen one of the bravest of the men threw his spear. But that only made\nthe beast fiercer than ever; he charged upon the warrior, caught him\nbefore he could save himself, and tore him in pieces with his tusks.\nAnother man ventured too far from his hiding-place and was also\novertaken and killed. One of the oldest and noblest of the heroes\nleveled his spear and threw it with all his force; but it only grazed\nthe boar's tough skin and glanced upward and pierced the heart of a\nwarrior on the other side. The boar was getting the best of the fight.\n\nAtalanta now ran forward and threw her spear. It struck the boar in the\nback, and a great stream of blood gushed out. A warrior let fly an arrow\nwhich put out one of the beast's eyes. Then Meleager rushed up and\npierced his heart with his spear. The boar could no longer stand up; but\nhe fought fiercely for some moments, and then rolled over, dead.\n\nThe heroes then cut off the beast's head. It was as much as six of them\ncould carry. Then they took the skin from his great body and offered it\nto Meleager as a prize, because he had given the death wound to the wild\nboar. But Meleager said:\n\n\"It belongs to Atalanta, because it was she who gave him the very first\nwound.\" And he gave it to her as the prize of honor.\n\nYou ought to have seen the tall huntress maiden then, as she stood among\nthe trees with the boar's skin thrown over her left shoulder and\nreaching down to her feet. She had never looked so much like the queen\nof the woods. But the rude brothers of Queen Althea were vexed to think\nthat a maiden should win the prize, and they began to make trouble. One\nof them snatched Atalanta's spear from her hand, and dragged the prize\nfrom her shoulders, and the other pushed her rudely and bade her go back\nto Arcadia and live again with the she-bears on the mountain side. All\nthis vexed Meleager, and he tried to make his uncles give back the spear\nand the prize, and stop their unmannerly talk. But they grew worse and\nworse, and at last set upon Meleager, and would have killed him if he\nhad not drawn his sword to defend himself. A fight followed, and the\nrude fellows struck right and left as though they were blind. Soon both\nwere stretched dead upon the ground. Some who did not see the fight said\nthat Meleager killed them, but I would rather believe that they killed\neach other in their drunken fury.\n\nAnd now all the company started back to the city. Some carried the\nboar's huge head, and some the different parts of his body, while others\nhad made biers of the green branches, and bore upon them the dead bodies\nof those who had been slain. It was indeed a strange procession.\n\nA young man who did not like Meleager, had run on in front and had\nreached the city before the rest of the company had fairly started.\nQueen Althea was standing at the door of the palace, and when she saw\nhim she asked what had happened in the forest He told her at once that\nMeleager had killed her brothers, for he knew that, with all their\nfaults, she loved them very dearly. It was terrible to see her grief.\nShe shrieked, and tore her hair, and rushed wildly about from room to\nroom. Her senses left her, and she did not know what she was doing.\n\nIt was the custom at that time for people to avenge the death of their\nkindred, and her only thought was how to punish the murderer of her\nbrothers. In her madness she forgot that Meleager was her son. Then she\nthought of the three Fates and of the unburned firebrand which she had\nlocked up in her chest so many years before. She ran and got the stick\nand threw it into the fire that was burning on the hearth.\n\nIt kindled at once, and she watched it as it blazed up brightly. Then\nit began to turn into ashes, and as the last spark died out, the noble\nMeleager, who was walking by the side of Atalanta, dropped to the ground\ndead.\n\nWhen they carried the news to Althea she said not a word, for then she\nknew what she had done, and her heart was broken. She turned silently\naway and went to her own room. When the king came home a few minutes\nlater, he found her dead.\n\nSo ended the hunt in the wood of Calydon.\n\n\n\n\nV. THE RACE FOR A WIFE.\n\n\nAfter the death of Meleager, Atalanta went back to her old home among\nthe mountains of Arcadia. She was still the swift-footed huntress, and\nshe was never so happy as when in the green woods wandering among the\ntrees or chasing the wild deer. All the world had heard about her,\nhowever; and the young heroes in the lands nearest to Arcadia did\nnothing else but talk about her beauty and her grace and her swiftness\nof foot and her courage. Of course every one of these young fellows\nwanted her to become his wife; and she might have been a queen any day\nif she had only said the word, for the richest king in Greece would have\nbeen glad to marry her. But she cared nothing for any of the young men,\nand she liked the freedom of the green woods better than all the fine\nthings she might have had in a palace.\n\nThe young men would not take \"No!\" for an answer, however. They could\nnot believe that she really meant it, and so they kept coming and\nstaying until the woods of Arcadia were full of them, and there was no\ngetting along with them at all. So, when she could think of no other way\nto get rid of them, Atalanta called them together and said:\n\n\"You want to marry me, do you? Well, if any one of you would like to run\na race with me from this mountain to the bank of the river over there,\nhe may do so; and I will be the wife of the one who outruns me.\"\n\n\"Agreed! agreed!\" cried all the young fellows.\n\n\"But, listen!\" she said. \"Whoever tries this race must also agree that\nif I outrun him, he must lose his life.\"\n\nAh, what long faces they all had then! About half of them drew away and\nwent home.\n\n\"But won't you give us the start of you a little?\" asked the others.\n\n\"Oh, yes,\" she answered. \"I will give you the start by a hundred paces.\nBut remember, if I overtake any one before he reaches the river, he\nshall lose his head that very day.\"\n\nSeveral others now found that they were in ill health or that business\ncalled them home; and when they were next looked for, they were not to\nbe found. But a good many who had had some practice in sprinting across\nthe country stayed and made up their minds to try their luck. Could a\nmere girl outrun such fine fellows as they? Nonsense!\n\nAnd so it happened that a race was run almost every day. And almost\nevery day some poor fellow lost his head; for the fleetest-footed\nsprinter in all Greece was overtaken by Atalanta long before he could\nreach the river bank. But other young men kept coming and coming, and no\nsooner had one been put out of the way than another took his place.\n\nOne day there came from a distant town a handsome, tall young man named\nMeilanion.\n\n\"You'd better not run with me,\" said Atalanta, \"for I shall be sure to\novertake you, and that will be the end of you.\"\n\n\"We'll see about that,\" said Meilanion.\n\nNow Meilanion, before coming to try his chance, had talked with Venus,\nthe queen of love, who lived with Jupiter among the clouds on the\nmountain top. And he was so handsome and gentle and wise that Venus took\npity on him, and gave him three golden apples and told him what to do.\n\nWell, when all was ready for the race, Atalanta tried again to persuade\nMeilanion not to run, for she also took pity on him.\n\n\"I'll be sure to overtake you,\" she said.\n\n\"All right!\" said Meilanion, and away he sped; but he had the three\ngolden apples in his pocket.\n\nAtalanta gave him a good start, and then she followed after, as swift as\nan arrow shot from the bow. Meilanion was not a very fast runner, and it\nwould not be hard for her to overtake him. She thought that she would\nlet him get almost to the goal, for she really pitied him. He heard her\ncoming close behind him; he heard her quick breath as she gained on him\nvery fast. Then he threw one of the golden apples over his shoulder.\n\nNow, if there was anything in the world that Atalanta admired, it was a\nbright stone or a pretty piece of yellow gold. As the apple fell to the\nground she saw how beautiful it was, and she stopped to pick it up; and\nwhile she was doing this, Meilanion gained a good many paces. But what\nof that? In a minute she was as close behind him as ever. And yet, she\nreally did pity him.\n\nJust then Meilanion threw the second apple over his shoulder. It was\nhandsomer and larger than the first, and Atalanta could not bear the\nthought of allowing some one else to get it. So she stopped to pick it\nup from among the long grass, where it had fallen. It took somewhat\nlonger to find it than she had expected, and when she looked up again\nMeilanion was a hundred feet ahead of her. But that was no matter. She\ncould easily overtake him. And yet, how she did pity the foolish young\nman!\n\nMeilanion heard her speeding like the wind behind him. He took the third\napple and threw it over to one side of the path where the ground sloped\ntowards the river. Atalanta's quick eye saw that it was far more\nbeautiful than either of the others. If it were not picked up at once it\nwould roll down into the deep water and be lost, and that would never\ndo. She turned aside from her course and ran after it. It was easy\nenough to overtake the apple, but while she was doing so Meilanion\ngained upon her again. He was almost to the goal. How she strained every\nmuscle now to overtake him! But, after all, she felt that she did not\ncare very much. He was the handsomest young man that she had ever seen,\nand he had given her three golden apples. It would be a great pity if he\nshould have to die. And so she let him reach the goal first.\n\nAfter that, of course, Atalanta became Meilanion's wife. And he took her\nwith him to his distant home, and there they lived happily together for\nmany, many years.\n\n[Illustration:]\n\n\n\n\nTHE HORSE AND THE OLIVE\n\nI. Finding a King.\n\n\nOn a steep stony hill in Greece there lived in early times a few very\npoor people who had not yet learned to build houses. They made their\nhomes in little caves which they dug in the earth or hollowed out among\nthe rocks; and their food was the flesh of wild animals, which they\nhunted in the woods, with now and then a few berries or nuts. They did\nnot even know how to make bows and arrows, but used slings and clubs and\nsharp sticks for weapons; and the little clothing which they had was\nmade of skins. They lived on the top of the hill, because they were safe\nthere from the savage beasts of the great forest around them, and safe\nalso from the wild men who sometimes roamed through the land. The hill\nwas so steep on every side that there was no way of climbing it save by\na single narrow footpath which was always guarded by some one at the\ntop.\n\nOne day when the men were hunting in the woods, they found a strange\nyouth whose face was so fair and who was dressed so beautifully that\nthey could hardly believe him to be a man like themselves. His body was\nso slender and lithe, and he moved so nimbly among the trees, that they\nfancied him to be a serpent in the guise of a human being; and they\nstood still in wonder and alarm. The young man spoke to them, but they\ncould not understand a word that he said; then he made signs to them\nthat he was hungry, and they gave him something to eat and were no\nlonger afraid. Had they been like the wild men of the woods, they might\nhave killed him at once. But they wanted their women and children to see\nthe serpent man, as they called him, and hear him talk; and so they took\nhim home with them to the top of the hill. They thought that after they\nhad made a show of him for a few days, they would kill him and offer his\nbody as a sacrifice to the unknown being whom they dimly fancied to have\nsome sort of control over their lives.\n\nBut the young man was so fair and gentle that, after they had all taken\na look at him, they began to think it would be a great pity to harm him.\nSo they gave him food and treated him kindly; and he sang songs to them\nand played with their children, and made them happier than they had been\nfor many a day. In a short time he learned to talk in their language;\nand he told them that his name was Cecrops, and that he had been\nshipwrecked on the seacoast not far away; and then he told them many\nstrange things about the land from which he had come and to which he\nwould never be able to return. The poor people listened and wondered;\nand it was not long until they began to love him and to look up to him\nas one wiser than themselves. Then they came to ask him about everything\nthat was to be done, and there was not one of them who refused to do his\nbidding.\n\nSo Cecrops--the serpent man, as they still called him--became the king\nof the poor people on the hill. He taught them how to make bows and\narrows, and how to set nets for birds, and how to take fish with hooks.\nHe led them against the savage wild men of the woods, and helped them\nkill the fierce beasts that had been so great a terror to them. He\nshowed them how to build houses of wood and to thatch them with the\nreeds which grew in the marshes. He taught them how to live in families\ninstead of herding together like senseless beasts as they had always\ndone before. And he told them about great Jupiter and the Mighty Folk\nwho lived amid the clouds on the mountain top.\n\n\n\n\nII. CHOOSING A NAME.\n\n\nBy and by, instead of the wretched caves among the rocks, there was a\nlittle town on the top of the hill, with neat houses and a market place;\nand around it was a strong wall with a single narrow gate just where the\nfootpath began to descend to the plain. But as yet the place had no\nname.\n\nOne morning while the king and his wise men were sitting together in the\nmarket place and planning how to make the town become a rich, strong\ncity, two strangers were seen in the street. Nobody could tell how they\ncame there. The guard at the gate had not seen them; and no man had ever\ndared to climb the narrow footway without his leave. But there the two\nstrangers stood. One was a man, the other a woman; and they were so\ntall, and their faces were so grand and noble, that those who saw them\nstood still and wondered and said not a word.\n\nThe man had a robe of purple and green wrapped round his body, and he\nbore in one hand a strong staff with three sharp spear points at one\nend. The woman was not beautiful, but she had wonderful gray eyes; and\nin one hand she carried a spear and in the other a shield of curious\nworkmanship.\n\n\"What is the name of this town?\" asked the man.\n\nThe people stared at him in wonder, and hardly understood his meaning.\nThen an old man answered and said, \"It has no name. We who live on this\nhill used to be called Cranae; but since King Cecrops came, we have been\nso busy that we have had no time to think of names.\"\n\n\"Where is this King Cecrops?\" asked the woman.\n\n\"He is in the market place with the wise men,\" was the answer.\n\n\"Lead us to him at once,\" said the man.\n\nWhen Cecrops saw the two strangers coming into the market place, he\nstood up and waited for them to speak. The man spoke first:\n\n\"I am Neptune,\" said he, \"and I rule the sea.\"\n\n\"And I am Athena,\" said the woman, \"and I give wisdom to men.\"\n\n\"I hear that you are planning to make your town become a great city,\"\nsaid Neptune, \"and I have come to help you. Give my name to the place,\nand let me be your protector and patron, and the wealth of the whole\nworld shall be yours. Ships from every land shall bring you merchandise\nand gold and silver; and you shall be the masters of the sea.\"\n\n\"My uncle makes you fair promises,\" said Athena; \"but listen to me.\nGive my name to your city, and let me be your patron, and I will give\nyou that which gold cannot buy: I will teach you how to do a thousand\nthings of which you now know nothing. I will make your city my favorite\nhome, and I will give you wisdom that shall sway the minds and hearts of\nall men until the end of time.\"\n\nThe king bowed, and turned to the people, who had all crowded into the\nmarket place. \"Which of these mighty ones shall we elect to be the\nprotector and patron of our city?\" he asked. \"Neptune offers us wealth;\nAthena promises us wisdom. Which shall we choose?\"\n\n\"Neptune and wealth!\" cried many.\n\n\"Athena and wisdom!\" cried as many others.\n\nAt last when it was plain that the people could not agree, an old man\nwhose advice was always heeded stood up and said:\n\n\"These mighty ones have only given us promises, and they have promised\nthings of which we are ignorant. For who among us knows what wealth is\nor what wisdom is? Now, if they would only give us some real gift, right\nnow and right here, which we can see and handle, we should know better\nhow to choose.\"\n\n\"That is true! that is true!\" cried the people.\n\n\"Very well, then,\" said the strangers, \"we will each give you a gift,\nright now and right here, and then you may choose between us.\"\n\nNeptune gave the first gift. He stood on the highest point of the hill\nwhere the rock was bare, and bade the people see his power. He raised\nhis three-pointed spear high in the air, and then brought it down with\ngreat force. Lightning flashed, the earth shook, and the rock was split\nhalf way down to the bottom of the hill. Then out of the yawning crevice\nthere sprang a wonderful creature, white as milk, with long slender\nlegs, an arching neck, and a mane and tail of silk.\n\nThe people had never seen anything like it before, and they thought it a\nnew kind of bear or wolf or wild boar that had come out of the rock to\ndevour them. Some of them ran and hid in their houses, while others\nclimbed upon the wall, and still others grasped their weapons in alarm.\nBut when they saw the creature stand quietly by the side of Neptune,\nthey lost their fear and came closer to see and admire its beauty.\n\n\"This is my gift,\" said Neptune. \"This animal will carry your burdens\nfor you; he will draw your chariots; he will pull your wagons and your\nplows; he will let you sit on his back and will run with you faster than\nthe wind.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"OUT OF THE YAWNING CREVICE THERE SPRANG A WONDERFUL\nCREATURE\"]\n\n\"What is his name?\" asked the king.\n\n\"His name is Horse,\" answered Neptune.\n\nThen Athena came forward. She stood a moment on a green grassy plot\nwhere the children of the town liked to play in the evening. Then she\ndrove the point of her spear deep down in the soil. At once the air was\nfilled with music, and out of the earth there sprang a tree with slender\nbranches and dark green leaves and white flowers and violet green fruit.\n\n\"This is my gift,\" said Athena. \"This tree will give you food when you\nare hungry; it will shelter you from the sun when you are faint; it will\nbeautify your city; and the oil from its fruit will be sought by all the\nworld.\"\n\n\"What is it called?\" asked the king.\n\n\"It is called Olive,\" answered Athena.\n\nThen the king and his wise men began to talk about the two gifts.\n\n\"I do not see that Horse will be of much use to us,\" said the old man\nwho had spoken before. \"For, as to the chariots and wagons and plows, we\nhave none of them, and indeed do not know what they are; and who among\nus will ever want to sit on this creature's back and be borne faster\nthan the wind? But Olive will be a thing of beauty and a joy for us and\nour children forever.\"\n\n\"Which shall we choose?\" asked the king, turning to the people.\n\n\"Athena has given us the best gift,\" they all cried, \"and we choose\nAthena and wisdom!\"\n\n\"Be it so,\" said the king, \"and the name of our city shall be Athens.\"\n\nFrom that day the town grew and spread, and soon there was not room on\nthe hilltop for all the people. Then houses were built in the plain\naround the foot of the hill, and a great road was built to the sea,\nthree miles away; and in all the world there was no city more fair than\nAthens.\n\nIn the old market place on the top of the hill the people built a temple\nto Athena, the ruins of which may still be seen. The olive tree grew and\nnourished; and, when you visit Athens, people will show you the very\nspot where it stood. Many other trees sprang from it, and in time became\na blessing both to Greece and to all the other countries round the great\nsea. As for the horse, he wandered away across the plains towards the\nnorth and found a home at last in distant Thessaly beyond the River\nPeneus. And I have heard it said that all the horses in the world have\ndescended from that one which Neptune brought out of the rock; but of\nthe truth of this story there may be some doubts.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS.\n\nI. AEGEUS AND AETHRA.\n\n\nThere was once a king of Athens whose name was AEgeus. He had no son; but\nhe had fifty nephews, and they were waiting for him to die, so that one\nof them might be king in his stead. They were wild, worthless fellows,\nand the people of Athens looked forward with dread to the day when the\ncity should be in their power. Yet so long as AEgeus lived they could not\ndo much harm, but were content to spend their time in eating and\ndrinking at the king's table and in quarreling among themselves.\n\nIt so happened one summer that AEgeus left his kingdom in the care of the\nelders of the city and went on a voyage across the Saronic Sea to the\nold and famous city of Troezen, which lay nestled at the foot of the\nmountains on the opposite shore. Troezen was not fifty miles by water\nfrom Athens, and the purple-peaked island of AEgina lay between them;\nbut to the people of that early time the distance seemed very great, and\nit was not often that ships passed from one place to the other. And as\nfor going by land round the great bend of the sea, that was a thing so\nfraught with danger that no man had ever dared try it.\n\nKing Pittheus of Troezen was right glad to see AEgeus, for they had been\nboys together, and he welcomed him to his city and did all that he could\nto make his visit a pleasant one. So, day after day, there was feasting\nand merriment and music in the marble halls of old Troezen, and the two\nkings spent many a happy hour in talking of the deeds of their youth and\nof the mighty heroes whom both had known. And when the time came for the\nship to sail back to Athens, AEgeus was not ready to go. He said he would\nstay yet a little longer in Troezen, for that the elders of the city\nwould manage things well at home; and so the ship returned without him.\n\nBut AEgeus tarried, not so much for the rest and enjoyment which he was\nhaving in the home of his old friend, as for the sake of AEthra, his old\nfriend's daughter. For AEthra was as fair as a summer morning, and she\nwas the joy and pride of Troezen; and AEgeus was never so happy as when\nin her presence. So it happened that some time after the ship had\nsailed, there was a wedding in the halls of King Pittheus; but it was\nkept a secret, for AEgeus feared that his nephews, if they heard of it,\nwould be very angry and would send men to Troezen to do him harm.\n\nMonth after month passed by, and still AEgeus lingered with his bride and\ntrusted his elders to see to the affairs of Athens. Then one morning,\nwhen the gardens of Troezen were full of roses and the heather was green\non the hills, a babe was born to AEthra--a boy with a fair face and\nstrong arms and eyes as sharp and as bright as the mountain eagle's. And\nnow AEgeus was more loth to return home than he had been before, and he\nwent up on the mountain which overlooks Troezen, and prayed to Athena,\nthe queen of the air, to give him wisdom and show him what to do. Even\nwhile he prayed there came a ship into the harbor, bringing a letter to\nAEgeus and alarming news from Athens.\n\n\"Come home without delay\"--these were words of the letter which the\nelders had sent--\"come home quickly, or Athens will be lost. A great\nking from beyond the sea, Minos of Crete, is on the way with ships and a\nhost of fighting men; and he declares that he will carry sword and fire\nwithin our walls, and will slay our young men and make our children his\nslaves. Come and save us!\"\n\n\"It is the call of duty,\" said AEgeus; and with a heavy heart he made\nready to go at once across the sea to the help of his people. But he\ncould not take AEthra and her babe, for fear of his lawless nephews, who\nwould have slain them both.\n\n\"Best of wives,\" he said, when the hour for parting had come, \"listen to\nme, for I shall never see your father's halls, nor dear old Troezen, nor\nperhaps your own fair face, again. Do you remember the old plane tree\nwhich stands on the mountain side, and the great flat stone which lies a\nlittle way beyond it, and which no man but myself has ever been able to\nlift? Under that stone, I have hidden my sword and the sandals which I\nbrought from Athens. There they shall lie until our child is strong\nenough to lift the stone and take them for his own. Care for him, AEthra,\nuntil that time; and then, and not till then, you may tell him of his\nfather, and bid him seek me in Athens.\"\n\nThen AEgeus kissed his wife and the babe, and went on board the ship; the\nsailors shouted; the oars were dipped into the waves; the white sail was\nspread to the breeze; and AEthra from her palace window saw the vessel\nspeed away over the blue waters towards AEgina and the distant Attic\nshore.\n\n\n\n\nII. SWORD AND SANDALS.\n\n\nYear after year went by, and yet no word reached AEthra from her husband\non the other side of the sea. Often and often she would climb the\nmountain above Troezen, and sit there all day, looking out over the blue\nwaters and the purple hills of AEgina to the dim, distant shore beyond.\nNow and then she could see a white-winged ship sailing in the offing;\nbut men said that it was a Cretan vessel, and very likely was filled\nwith fierce Cretan warriors, bound upon some cruel errand of war. Then\nit was rumored that King Minos had seized upon all the ships of Athens,\nand had burned a part of the city, and had forced the people to pay him\na most grievous tribute. But further than this there was no news.\n\nIn the meanwhile AEthra's babe had grown to be a tall, ruddy-cheeked lad,\nstrong as a mountain lion; and she had named him Theseus. On the day\nthat he was fifteen years old he went with her up to the top of the\nmountain, and with her looked out over the sea.\n\n\"Ah, if only your father would come!\" she sighed.\n\n\"My father?\" said Theseus. \"Who is my father, and why are you always\nwatching and waiting and wishing that he would come? Tell me about him.\"\n\nAnd she answered: \"My child, do you see the great flat stone which lies\nthere, half buried in the ground, and covered with moss and trailing\nivy? Do you think you can lift it?\"\n\n\"I will try, mother,\" said Theseus. And he dug his fingers into the\nground beside it, and grasped its uneven edges, and tugged and lifted\nand strained until his breath came hard and his arms ached and his body\nwas covered with sweat; but the stone was moved not at all. At last he\nsaid, \"The task is too hard for me until I have grown stronger. But why\ndo you wish me to lift it?\"\n\n\"When you are strong enough to lift it,\" answered AEthra, \"I will tell\nyou about your father.\"\n\nAfter that the boy went out every day and practiced at running and\nleaping and throwing and lifting; and every day he rolled some stone out\nof its place. At first he could move only a little weight, and those who\nsaw him laughed as he pulled and puffed and grew red in the face, but\nnever gave up until he had lifted it. And little by little he grew\nstronger, and his muscles became like iron bands, and his limbs were\nlike mighty levers for strength. Then on his next birthday he went up on\nthe mountain with his mother, and again tried to lift the great stone.\nBut it remained fast in its place and was not moved.\n\n\"I am not yet strong enough, mother,\" he said.\n\n\"Have patience, my son,\" said AEthra.\n\nSo he went on again with his running and leaping and throwing and\nlifting; and he practiced wrestling, also, and tamed the wild horses of\nthe plain, and hunted the lions among the mountains; and his strength\nand swiftness and skill were the wonder of all men, and old Troezen was\nfilled with tales of the deeds of the boy Theseus. Yet when he tried\nagain on his seventeenth birthday, he could not move the great flat\nstone that lay near the plane tree on the mountain side.\n\n\"Have patience, my son,\" again said AEthra; but this time the tears were\nstanding in her eyes.\n\nSo he went back again to his exercising; and he learned to wield the\nsword and the battle ax and to throw tremendous weights and to carry\ntremendous burdens. And men said that since the days of Hercules there\nwas never so great strength in one body. Then, when he was a year older,\nhe climbed the mountain yet another time with his mother, and he stooped\nand took hold of the stone, and it yielded to his touch; and, lo, when\nhe had lifted it quite out of the ground, he found underneath it a sword\nof bronze and sandals of gold, and these he gave to his mother.\n\n\"Tell me now about my father,\" he said.\n\n[Illustration: \"SHE BUCKLED THE SWORD TO HIS BELT.\"]\n\nAEthra knew that the time had come for which she had waited so long, and\nshe buckled the sword to his belt and fastened the sandals upon his\nfeet. Then she told him who his father was, and why he had left them in\nTroezen, and how he had said that when the lad was strong enough to\nlift the great stone, he must take the sword and sandals and go and seek\nhim in Athens.\n\nTheseus was glad when he heard this, and his proud eyes flashed with\neagerness as he said: \"I am ready, mother; and I will set out for Athens\nthis very day.\"\n\nThen they walked down the mountain together and told King Pittheus what\nhad happened, and showed him the sword and the sandals. But the old man\nshook his head sadly and tried to dissuade Theseus from going.\n\n\"How can you go to Athens in these lawless times?\" he said. \"The sea is\nfull of pirates. In fact, no ship from Troezen has sailed across the\nSaronic Sea since your kingly father went home to the help of his\npeople, eighteen years ago.\"\n\nThen, finding that this only made Theseus the more determined, he said:\n\"But if you must go, I will have a new ship built for you, stanch and\nstout and fast sailing; and fifty of the bravest young men in Troezen\nshall go with you; and mayhap with fair winds and fearless hearts you\nshall escape the pirates and reach Athens in safety.\"\n\n\"Which is the most perilous way?\" asked Theseus--\"to go by ship or to\nmake the journey on foot round the great bend of land?\"\n\n\"The seaway is full enough of perils,\" said his grandfather, \"but the\nlandway is beset with dangers tenfold greater. Even if there were good\nroads and no hindrances, the journey round the shore is a long one and\nwould require many days. But there are rugged mountains to climb, and\nwide marshes to cross, and dark forests to go through. There is hardly a\nfootpath in all that wild region, nor any place to find rest or shelter;\nand the woods are full of wild beasts, and dreadful dragons lurk in the\nmarshes, and many cruel robber giants dwell in the mountains.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Theseus, \"if there are more perils by land than by sea,\nthen I shall go by land, and I go at once.\"\n\n\"But you will at least take fifty young men, your companions, with you?\"\nsaid King Pittheus.\n\n\"Not one shall go with me,\" said Theseus; and he stood up and played\nwith his sword hilt, and laughed at the thought of fear.\n\nThen when there was nothing more to say, he kissed his mother and bade\nhis grandfather good-by, and went out of Troezen towards the trackless\ncoastland which lay to the west and north. And with blessings and tears\nthe king and AEthra followed him to the city gates, and watched him until\nhis tall form was lost to sight among the trees which bordered the shore\nof the sea.\n\n\n\n\nIII. ROUGH ROADS AND ROBBERS.\n\n\nWith a brave heart Theseus walked on, keeping the sea always upon his\nright. Soon the old city of Troezen was left far behind, and he came to\nthe great marshes, where the ground sank under him at every step, and\ngreen pools of stagnant water lay on both sides of the narrow pathway.\nBut no fiery dragon came out of the reeds to meet him; and so he walked\non and on till he came to the rugged mountain land which bordered the\nwestern shore of the sea. Then he climbed one slope after another, until\nat last he stood on the summit of a gray peak from which he could see\nthe whole country spread out around him. Then downward and onward he\nwent again, but his way led him through dark mountain glens, and along\nthe edges of mighty precipices, and underneath many a frowning cliff,\nuntil he came to a dreary wood where the trees grew tall and close\ntogether and the light of the sun was seldom seen.\n\nIn that forest there dwelt a robber giant, called Club-carrier, who was\nthe terror of all the country. For oftentimes he would go down into the\nvalleys where the shepherds fed their flocks, and would carry off not\nonly sheep and lambs, but sometimes children and the men themselves. It\nwas his custom to hide in the thickets of underbrush, close to a\npathway, and, when a traveler passed that way, leap out upon him and\nbeat him to death. When he saw Theseus coming through the woods, he\nthought that he would have a rich prize, for he knew from the youth's\ndress and manner that he must be a prince. He lay on the ground, where\nleaves of ivy and tall grass screened him from view, and held his great\niron club ready to strike.\n\nBut Theseus had sharp eyes and quick ears, and neither beast nor robber\ngiant could have taken him by surprise. When Club-carrier leaped out of\nhis hiding place to strike him down, the young man dodged aside so\nquickly that the heavy club struck the ground behind him; and then,\nbefore the robber giant could raise it for a second stroke, Theseus\nseized the fellow's legs and tripped him up.\n\nClub-carrier roared loudly, and tried to strike again; but Theseus\nwrenched the club out of his hands, and then dealt him such a blow on\nthe head that he never again harmed travelers passing through the\nforest. Then the youth went on his way, carrying the huge club on his\nshoulder, and singing a song of victory, and looking sharply around him\nfor any other foes that might be lurking among the trees.\n\nJust over the ridge of the next mountain he met an old man who warned\nhim not to go any farther. He said that close by a grove of pine trees,\nwhich he would soon pass on his way down the slope, there dwelt a robber\nnamed Sinis, who was very cruel to strangers.\n\n\"He is called Pine-bender,\" said the old man; \"for when he has caught a\ntraveler, he bends two tall, lithe pine trees to the ground and binds\nhis captive to them--a hand and a foot to the top of one, and a hand and\na foot to the top of the other. Then he lets the trees fly up, and he\nroars with laughter when he sees the traveler's body torn in sunder.\"\n\n\"It seems to me,\" said Theseus, \"that it is full time to rid the world\nof such a monster;\" and he thanked the kind man who had warned him, and\nhastened onward, whistling merrily as he went down towards the grove of\npines.\n\nSoon he came in sight of the robber's house, built near the foot of a\njutting cliff. Behind it was a rocky gorge and a roaring mountain\nstream; and in front of it was a garden wherein grew all kinds of rare\nplants and beautiful flowers. But the tops of the pine trees below it\nwere laden with the bones of unlucky travelers, which hung bleaching\nwhite in the sun and wind.\n\nOn a stone by the roadside sat Sinis himself; and when he saw Theseus\ncoming, he ran to meet him, twirling a long rope in his hands and crying\nout:\n\n\"Welcome, welcome, dear prince! Welcome to our inn--the true Traveler's\nRest!\"\n\n\"What kind of entertainment have you?\" asked Theseus. \"Have you a pine\ntree bent down to the ground and ready for me?\"\n\n\"Ay; two of them!\" said the robber. \"I knew that you were coming, and I\nbent two of them for you.\"\n\nAs he spoke he threw his rope towards Theseus and tried to entangle him\nin its coils. But the young man leaped aside, and when the robber rushed\nupon him, he dodged beneath his hands and seized his legs, as he had\nseized Club-carrier's, and threw him heavily to the ground. Then the two\nwrestled together among the trees, but not long, for Sinis was no match\nfor his lithe young foe; and Theseus knelt upon the robber's back as he\nlay prone among the leaves, and tied him with his own cord to the two\npine trees which were already bent down. \"As you would have done unto\nme, so will I do unto you,\" he said.\n\nThen Pine-bender wept and prayed and made many a fair promise; but\nTheseus would not hear him. He turned away, the trees sprang up, and the\nrobber's body was left dangling from their branches.\n\nNow this old Pine-bender had a daughter named Perigune, who was no more\nlike him than a fair and tender violet is like the gnarled old oak at\nwhose feet it nestles; and it was she who cared for the flowers and the\nrare plants which grew in the garden by the robber's house. When she saw\nhow Theseus had dealt with her father, she was afraid and ran to hide\nherself from him.\n\n\"Oh, save me, dear plants!\" she cried, for she often talked to the\nflowers as though they could understand her. \"Dear plants, save me; and\nI will never pluck your leaves nor harm you in any way so long as I\nlive.\"\n\nThere was one of the plants which up to that time had had no leaves, but\ncame up out of the ground looking like a mere club or stick. This plant\ntook pity on the maiden. It began at once to send out long feathery\nbranches with delicate green leaves, which grew so fast that Perigune\nwas soon hidden from sight beneath them. Theseus knew that she must be\nsomewhere in the garden, but he could not find her, so well did the\nfeathery branches conceal her. So he called to her:\n\n\"Perigune,\" he said, \"you need not fear me; for I know that you are\ngentle and good, and it is only against things dark and cruel that I\nlift up my hand.\"\n\nThe maiden peeped from her hiding-place, and when she saw the fair face\nof the youth and heard his kind voice, she came out, trembling, and\ntalked with him. And Theseus rested that evening in her house, and she\npicked some of her choicest flowers for him and gave him food. But when\nin the morning the dawn began to appear in the east, and the stars grew\ndim above the mountain peaks, he bade her farewell and journeyed onward\nover the hills. And Perigune tended her plants and watched her flowers\nin the lone garden in the midst of the piny grove; but she never plucked\nthe stalks of asparagus nor used them for food, and when she afterwards\nbecame the wife of a hero and had children and grandchildren and\ngreat-grandchildren, she taught them all to spare the plant which had\ntaken pity upon her in her need.\n\nThe road which Theseus followed now led him closer to the shore, and by\nand by he came to a place where the mountains seemed to rise sheer out\nof the sea, and there was only a, narrow path high up along the side of\nthe cliff. Far down beneath his feet he could hear the waves dashing\nevermore against the rocky wall, while above him the mountain eagles\ncircled and screamed, and gray crags and barren peaks glistened in the\nsunlight.\n\nBut Theseus went on fearlessly and came at last to a place where a\nspring of clear water bubbled out from a cleft in the rock; and there\nthe path was narrower still, and the low doorway of a cavern opened out\nupon it. Close by the spring sat a red-faced giant, with a huge club\nacross his knees, guarding the road so that no one could pass; and in\nthe sea at the foot of the cliff basked a huge turtle, its leaden eyes\nlooking always upward for its food. Theseus knew--for Perigune had told\nhim--that this was the dwelling-place of a robber named Sciron, who was\nthe terror of all the coast, and whose custom it was to make strangers\nwash his feet, so that while they were doing so, he might kick them over\nthe cliff to be eaten, by his pet turtle below.\n\nWhen Theseus came up, the robber raised his club, and said fiercely: \"No\nman can pass here until he has washed my feet! Come, set to work!\"\n\nThen Theseus smiled, and said: \"Is your turtle hungry to-day? and do you\nwant me to feed him?\" The robber's eyes flashed fire, and he said, \"You\nshall feed him, but you shall wash my feet first;\" and with that he\nbrandished his club in the air and rushed forward to strike.\n\nBut Theseus was ready for him. With the iron club which he had taken\nfrom Club-carrier in the forest he met the blow midway, and the robber's\nweapon was knocked out of his hands and sent spinning away over the edge\nof the cliff. Then Sciron, black with rage, tried to grapple with him;\nbut Theseus was too quick for that. He dropped his club and seized\nSciron by the throat; he pushed him back against the ledge on which he\nhad been sitting; he threw him sprawling upon the sharp rocks, and held\nhim there, hanging half way over the cliff.\n\n\"Enough! enough!\" cried the robber. \"Let me up, and you may pass on your\nway.\"\n\n\"It is not enough,\" said Theseus; and he drew his sword and sat down by\nthe side of the spring. \"You must wash my feet now. Come, set to work!\"\n\nThen Sciron, white with fear, washed his feet.\n\n\"And now,\" said Theseus, when the task was ended, \"as you have done unto\nothers, so will I do unto you.\"\n\nThere was a scream in mid air which the mountain eagles answered from\nabove; there was a great splashing in the water below, and the turtle\nfled in terror from its lurking place. Then the sea cried out: \"I will\nhave naught to do with so vile a wretch!\" and a great wave cast the body\nof Sciron out upon the shore. But it had no sooner touched the ground\nthan the land cried out: \"I will have naught to do with so vile a\nwretch!\" and there was a sudden earthquake, and the body of Sciron was\nthrown back into the sea. Then the sea waxed furious, a raging storm\narose, the waters were lashed into foam, and the waves with one mighty\neffort threw the detested body high into the air; and there it would\nhave hung unto this day had not the air itself disdained to give it\nlodging and changed it into a huge black rock. And this rock, which men\nsay is the body of Sciron, may still be seen, grim, ugly, and desolate;\nand one third of it lies in the sea, one third is embedded in the sandy\nshore, and one third is exposed to the air.\n\n\n\n\nIV. WRESTLER AND WRONG-DOER.\n\n\nKeeping the sea always in view, Theseus went onward a long day's journey\nto the north and east; and he left the rugged mountains behind and came\ndown into the valleys and into a pleasant plain where there were sheep\nand cattle pasturing and where there were many fields of ripening\ngrain. The fame of his deeds had gone before him, and men and women\ncame crowding to the roadside to see the hero who had slain Club-carrier\nand Pine-bender and grim old Sciron of the cliff.\n\n\"Now we shall live in peace,\" they cried; \"for the robbers who devoured\nour flocks and our children are no more.\"\n\nThen Theseus passed through the old town of Megara, and followed the\nshore of the bay towards the sacred city of Eleusis.\n\n\"Do not go into Eleusis, but take the road which leads round it through\nthe hills,\" whispered a poor man who was carrying a sheep to market.\n\n\"Why shall I do that?\" asked Theseus.\n\n\"Listen, and I will tell you,\" was the answer. \"There is a king in\nEleusis whose name is Cercyon, and he is a great wrestler. He makes\nevery stranger who comes into the city wrestle with him; and such is the\nstrength of his arms that when he has overcome a man he crushes the life\nout of his body. Many travelers come to Eleusis, but no one ever goes\naway.\"\n\n\"But I will both come and go away,\" said Theseus; and with his club upon\nhis shoulder, he strode onward into the sacred city.\n\n\"Where is Cercyon, the wrestler?\" he asked of the warden at the gate.\n\n\"The king is dining in his marble palace,\" was the answer. \"If you wish\nto save yourself, turn now and flee before he has heard of your coming.\"\n\n\"Why should I flee?\" asked Theseus. \"I am not afraid;\" and he walked on\nthrough the narrow street to old Cercyon's palace.\n\nThe king was sitting at his table, eating and drinking; and he grinned\nhideously as he thought of the many noble young men whose lives he had\ndestroyed. Theseus went up boldly to the door, and cried out:\n\n\"Cercyon, come out and wrestle with me!\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said the king, \"here comes another young fool whose days are\nnumbered. Fetch him in and let him dine with me; and after that he shall\nhave his fill of wrestling.\"\n\nSo Theseus was given a place at the table of the king, and the two sat\nthere and ate and stared at each other, but spoke not a word. And\nCercyon, as he looked at the young man's sharp eyes and his fair face\nand silken hair, had half a mind to bid him go in peace and seek not to\ntest his strength and skill. But when they had finished, Theseus arose\nand laid aside his sword and his sandals and his iron club, and stripped\nhimself of his robes, and said:\n\n\"Come now, Cercyon, if you are not afraid; come, and wrestle with me.\"\n\nThen the two went out into the courtyard where many a young man had met\nhis fate, and there they wrestled until the sun went down, and neither\ncould gain aught of advantage over the other. But it was plain that the\ntrained skill of Theseus would, in the end, win against the brute\nstrength of Cercyon. Then the men of Eleusis who stood watching the\ncontest, saw the youth lift the giant king bodily into the air and hurl\nhim headlong over his shoulder to the hard pavement beyond.\n\n\"As you have done to others, so will I do unto you!\" cried Theseus.\n\nBut grim old Cercyon neither moved nor spoke; and when the youth turned\nhis body over and looked into his cruel face, he saw that the life had\nquite gone out of him.\n\nThen the people of Eleusis came to Theseus and wanted to make him their\nking. \"You have slain the tyrant who was the bane of Eleusis,\" they\nsaid, \"and we have heard how you have also rid the world of the giant\nrobbers who were the terror of the land. Come now and be our king; for\nwe know that you will rule over us wisely and well.\"\n\n\"Some day,\" said Theseus, \"I will be your king, but not now; for there\nare other deeds for me to do.\" And with that he donned his sword and\nhis sandals and his princely cloak, and threw his great iron club upon\nhis shoulder, and went out of Eleusis; and all the people ran after him\nfor quite a little way, shouting, \"May good fortune be with you, O king,\nand may Athena bless and guide you!\"\n\n\n\n\nV. PROCRUSTES THE PITILESS.\n\n\nAthens was now not more than twenty miles away, but the road thither led\nthrough the Parnes Mountains, and was only a narrow path winding among\nthe rocks and up and down many a lonely wooded glen. Theseus had seen\nworse and far more dangerous roads than this, and so he strode bravely\nonward, happy in the thought that he was so near the end of his long\njourney. But it was very slow traveling among the mountains, and he was\nnot always sure that he was following the right path. The sun was almost\ndown when he came to a broad green valley where the trees had been\ncleared away. A little river flowed through the middle of this valley,\nand on either side were grassy meadows where cattle were grazing; and on\na hillside close by, half hidden among the trees, there was a great\nstone house with vines running over its walls and roof.\n\nWhile Theseus was wondering who it could be that lived in this pretty\nbut lonely place, a man came out of the house and hurried down to the\nroad to meet him. He was a well-dressed man, and his face was wreathed\nwith smiles; and he bowed low to Theseus and invited him kindly to come\nup to the house and be his guest that night.\n\n\"This is a lonely place,\" he said, \"and it is not often that travelers\npass this way. But there is nothing that gives me so much joy as to find\nstrangers and feast them at my table and hear them tell of the things\nthey have seen and heard. Come up, and sup with me, and lodge under my\nroof; and you shall sleep on a wonderful bed which I have--a bed which\nfits every guest and cures him of every ill.\"\n\nTheseus was pleased with the man's ways, and as he was both hungry and\ntired, he went up with him and sat down under the vines by the door; and\nthe man said:\n\n\"Now I will go in and make the bed ready for you, and you can lie down\nupon it and rest; and later, when you feel refreshed, you shall sit at\nmy table and sup with me, and I will listen to the pleasant tales which\nI know you will tell.\"\n\nWhen he had gone into the house, Theseus looked around him to see what\nsort of a place it was. He was filled with surprise at the richness of\nit--at the gold and silver and beautiful things with which every room\nseemed to be adorned--for it was indeed a place fit for a prince. While\nhe was looking and wondering, the vines before him were parted and the\nfair face of a young girl peeped out.\n\n\"Noble stranger,\" she whispered, \"do not lie down on my master's bed,\nfor those who do so never rise again. Fly down the glen and hide\nyourself in the deep woods ere he returns, or else there will be no\nescape for you.\"\n\n\"Who is your master, fair maiden, that I should be afraid of him?\" asked\nTheseus.\n\n\"Men call him Procrustes, or the Stretcher,\" said the girl--and she\ntalked low and fast. \"He is a robber. He brings hither all the strangers\nthat he finds traveling through the mountains. He puts them on his iron\nbed. He robs them of all they have. No one who comes into his house ever\ngoes out again.\"\n\n\"Why do they call him the Stretcher? And what is that iron bed of his?\"\nasked Theseus, in no wise alarmed.\n\n\"Did he not tell you that it fits all guests?\" said the girl; \"and most\ntruly it does fit them. For if a traveler is too long, Procrustes hews\noff his legs until he is of the right length; but if he is too short, as\nis the case with most guests, then he stretches his limbs and body with\nropes until he is long enough. It is for this reason that men call him\nthe Stretcher.\"\n\n\"Methinks that I have heard of this Stretcher before,\" said Theseus; and\nthen he remembered that some one at Eleusis had warned him to beware of\nthe wily robber, Procrustes, who lurked in the glens of the Parnes peaks\nand lured travelers into his den.\n\n\"Hark! hark!\" whispered the girl. \"I hear him coming!\" And the vine\nleaves closed over her hiding-place.\n\nThe very next moment Procrustes stood in the door, bowing and smiling as\nthough he had never done any harm to his fellow men.\n\n\"My dear young friend,\" he said, \"the bed is ready, and I will show you\nthe way. After you have taken a pleasant little nap, we will sit down at\ntable, and you may tell me of the wonderful things which you have seen\nin the course of your travels.\"\n\nTheseus arose and followed his host; and when they had come into an\ninner chamber, there, surely enough, was the bedstead, of iron, very\ncuriously wrought, and upon it a soft couch which seemed to invite him\nto lie down and rest. But Theseus, peering about, saw the ax and the\nropes with cunning pulleys lying hidden behind the curtains; and he saw,\ntoo, that the floor was covered with stains of blood.\n\n\"Now, my dear young friend,\" said Procrustes, \"I pray you to lie down\nand take your ease; for I know that you have traveled far and are faint\nfrom want of rest and sleep. Lie down, and while sweet slumber overtakes\nyou, I will have a care that no unseemly noise, nor buzzing fly, nor\nvexing gnat disturbs your dreams.\"\n\n\"Is this your wonderful bed?\" asked Theseus.\n\n\"It is,\" answered Procrustes, \"and you need but to lie down upon it, and\nit will fit you perfectly.\"\n\n\"But you must lie upon it first,\" said Theseus, \"and let me see how it\nwill fit itself to your stature.\"\n\n\"Ah, no,\" said Procrustes, \"for then the spell would be broken,\" and as\nhe spoke his cheeks grew ashy pale.\n\n\"But I tell you, you must lie upon it,\" said Theseus; and he seized the\ntrembling man around the waist and threw him by force upon the bed. And\nno sooner was he prone upon the couch than curious iron arms reached out\nand clasped his body in their embrace and held him down so that he could\nnot move hand or foot. The wretched man shrieked and cried for mercy;\nbut Theseus stood over him and looked him straight in the eye.\n\n\"Is this the kind of bed on which you have your guests lie down?\" he\nasked.\n\nBut Procrustes answered not a word. Then Theseus brought out the ax and\nthe ropes and the pulleys, and asked him what they were for, and why\nthey were hidden in the chamber. He was still silent, and could do\nnothing now but tremble and weep.\n\n\"Is it true,\" said Theseus, \"that you have lured hundreds of travelers\ninto your den only to rob them? Is it true that it is your wont to\nfasten them in this bed, and then chop off their legs or stretch them\nout until they fit the iron frame? Tell me, is this true?\"\n\n\"It is true! it is true!\" sobbed Procrustes; \"and now kindly touch the\nspring above my head and let me go, and you shall have everything that I\npossess.\"\n\nBut Theseus turned away. \"You are caught,\" he said, \"in the trap which\nyou set for others and for me. There is no mercy for the man who shows\nno mercy;\" and he went out of the room, and left the wretch to perish by\nhis own cruel device.\n\nTheseus looked through the house and found there great wealth of gold\nand silver and costly things which Procrustes had taken from the\nstrangers who had fallen into his hands. He went into the dining hall,\nand there indeed was the table spread with a rich feast of meats and\ndrinks and delicacies such as no king would scorn; but there was a seat\nand a plate for only the host, and none at all for guests.\n\nThen the girl whose fair face Theseus had seen among the vines, came\nrunning into the house; and she seized the young hero's hands and\nblessed and thanked him because he had rid the world of the cruel\nProcrustes.\n\n\"Only a month ago,\" she said, \"my father, a rich merchant of Athens, was\ntraveling towards Eleusis, and I was with him, happy and care-free as\nany bird in the green woods. This robber lured us into his den, for we\nhad much gold with us. My father, he stretched upon his iron bed; but\nme, he made his slave.\"\n\nThen Theseus called together all the inmates of the house, poor wretches\nwhom Procrustes had forced to serve him; and he parted the robber's\nspoils among them and told them that they were free to go wheresoever\nthey wished. And on the next day he went on, through the narrow crooked\nways among the mountains and hills, and came at last to the plain of\nAthens, and saw the noble city and, in its midst, the rocky height where\nthe great Temple of Athena stood; and, a little way from the temple, he\nsaw the white walls of the palace of the king.\n\nWhen Theseus entered the city and went walking up the street everybody\nwondered who the tall, fair youth could be. But the fame of his deeds\nhad gone before him, and soon it was whispered that this was the hero\nwho had slain the robbers in the mountains and had wrestled with Cercyon\nat Eleusis and had caught Procrustes in his own cunning trap.\n\n\"Tell us no such thing!\" said some butchers who were driving their\nloaded carts to market. \"The lad is better suited to sing sweet songs to\nthe ladies than to fight robbers and wrestle with giants.\"\n\n\"See his silken black hair!\" said one.\n\n\"And his girlish face!\" said another.\n\n\"And his long coat dangling about his legs!\" said a third.\n\n\"And his golden sandals!\" said a fourth.\n\n\"Ha! ha!\" laughed the first; \"I wager that he never lifted a ten-pound\nweight in his life. Think of such a fellow as he hurling old Sciron from\nthe cliffs! Nonsense!\"\n\nTheseus heard all this talk as he strode along, and it angered him not a\nlittle; but he had not come to Athens to quarrel with butchers. Without\nspeaking a word he walked straight up to the foremost cart, and, before\nits driver had time to think, took hold of the slaughtered ox that was\nbeing hauled to market, and hurled it high over the tops of the houses\ninto the garden beyond. Then he did likewise with the oxen in the\nsecond, the third, and the fourth wagons, and, turning about, went on\nhis way, and left the wonder-stricken butchers staring after him,\nspeechless, in the street.\n\nHe climbed the stairway which led to the top of the steep, rocky hill,\nand his heart beat fast in his bosom as he stood on the threshold of his\nfather's palace.\n\n\"Where is the king?\" he asked of the guard.\n\n\"You cannot see the king,\" was the answer; \"but I will take you to his\nnephews.\"\n\nThe man led the way into the feast hall, and there Theseus saw his fifty\ncousins sitting about the table, and eating and drinking and making\nmerry; and there was a great noise of revelry in the hall, the minstrels\nsinging and playing, and the slave girls dancing, and the half-drunken\nprinces shouting and cursing. As Theseus stood in the doorway, knitting\nhis eyebrows and clinching his teeth for the anger which he felt, one of\nthe feasters saw him, and cried out:\n\n\"See the tall fellow in the doorway! What does he want here?\"\n\n[Illustration: \"'GREAT KING,' HE SAID, 'I AM A STRANGER IN ATHENS.'\"]\n\n\"Yes, girl-faced stranger,\" said another, \"what do you want here?\"\n\n\"I am here,\" said Theseus, \"to ask that hospitality which men of our\nrace never refuse to give.\"\n\n\"Nor do we refuse,\" cried they. \"Come in, and eat and drink and be our\nguest.\"\n\n\"I will come in,\" said Theseus, \"but I will be the guest of the king.\nWhere is he?\"\n\n\"Never mind the king,\" said one of his cousins. \"He is taking his ease,\nand we reign in his stead.\"\n\nBut Theseus strode boldly through the feast hall and went about the\npalace asking for the king. At last he found AEgeus, lonely and\nsorrowful, sitting in an inner chamber. The heart of Theseus was very\nsad as he saw the lines of care upon the old man's face, and marked his\ntrembling, halting ways.\n\n\"Great king,\" he said, \"I am a stranger in Athens, and I have come to\nyou to ask food and shelter and friendship such as I know you never deny\nto those of noble rank and of your own race.\"\n\n\"And who are you, young man?\" said the king.\n\n\"I am Theseus,\" was the answer.\n\n\"What? the Theseus who has rid the world of the mountain robbers, and of\nCercyon the wrestler, and of Procrustes, the pitiless Stretcher?\"\n\n\"I am he,\" said Theseus; \"and I come from old Troezen, on the other side\nof the Saronic Sea.\"\n\nThe king started and turned very pale.\n\n\"Troezen! Troezen!\" he cried. Then checking himself, he said, \"Yes! yes!\nYou are welcome, brave stranger, to such shelter and food and friendship\nas the King of Athens can give.\"\n\nNow it so happened that there was with the king a fair but wicked witch\nnamed Medea, who had so much power over him that he never dared to do\nanything without asking her leave. So he turned to her, and said: \"Am I\nnot right, Medea, in bidding this young hero welcome?\"\n\n\"You are right, King AEgeus,\" she said; \"and let him be shown at once to\nyour guest chamber, that he may rest himself and afterwards dine with us\nat your own table.\"\n\nMedea had learned by her magic arts who Theseus was, and she was not at\nall pleased to have him in Athens; for she feared that when he should\nmake himself known to the king, her own power would be at an end. So,\nwhile Theseus was resting himself in the guest chamber, she told AEgeus\nthat the young stranger was no hero at all, but a man whom his nephews\nhad hired to kill him, for they had grown tired of waiting for him to\ndie. The poor old king was filled with fear, for he believed her words;\nand he asked her what he should do to save his life.\n\n\"Let me manage it,\" she said. \"The young man will soon come down to\ndine with us. I will drop poison into a glass of wine, and at the end of\nthe meal I will give it to him. Nothing can be easier.\"\n\nSo, when the hour came, Theseus sat down to dine with the king and\nMedea; and while he ate he told of his deeds and of how he had overcome\nthe robber giants, and Cercyon the wrestler, and Procrustes the\npitiless; and as the king listened, his heart yearned strangely towards\nthe young man, and he longed to save him from Medea's poisoned cup. Then\nTheseus paused in his talk to help himself to a piece of the roasted\nmeat, and, as was the custom of the time, drew his sword to carve\nit--for you must remember that all these things happened long ago,\nbefore people had learned to use knives and forks at the table. As the\nsword flashed from its scabbard, AEgeus saw the letters that were\nengraved upon it--the initials of his own name. He knew at once that it\nwas the sword which he had hidden so many years before under the stone\non the mountain side above Troezen.\n\n\"My son! my son!\" he cried; and he sprang up and dashed the cup of\npoisoned wine from the table, and flung his arms around Theseus. It was\nindeed a glad meeting for both father and son, and they had many things\nto ask and to tell. As for the wicked Medea, she knew that her day of\nrule was past. She ran out of the palace, and whistled a loud, shrill\ncall; and men say that a chariot drawn by dragons came rushing through\nthe air, and that she leaped into it and was carried away, and no one\never saw her again.\n\nThe very next morning, AEgeus sent out his heralds, to make it known\nthrough all the city that Theseus was his son, and that he would in time\nbe king in his stead. When the fifty nephews heard this, they were angry\nand alarmed.\n\n\"Shall this upstart cheat us out of our heritage?\" they cried; and they\nmade a plot to waylay and kill Theseus in a grove close by the city\ngate.\n\nRight cunningly did the wicked fellows lay their trap to catch the young\nhero; and one morning, as he was passing that way alone, several of them\nfell suddenly upon him, with swords and lances, and tried to slay him\noutright. They were thirty to one, but he faced them boldly and held\nthem at bay, while he shouted for help. The men of Athens, who had borne\nso many wrongs from the hands of the nephews, came running out from the\nstreets; and in the fight which followed, every one of the plotters, who\nhad lain in ambush was slain; and the other nephews, when they heard\nabout it, fled from the city in haste and never came back again.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL ARTISAN.\n\nI. PERDIX.\n\n\nWhile Athens was still only a small city there lived within its walls a\nman named Daedalus who was the most skillful worker in wood and stone\nand metal that had ever been known. It was he who taught the people how\nto build better houses and how to hang their doors on hinges and how to\nsupport the roofs with pillars and posts. He was the first to fasten\nthings together with glue; he invented the plumb-line and the auger; and\nhe showed seamen how to put up masts in their ships and how to rig the\nsails to them with ropes. He built a stone palace for AEgeus, the young\nking of Athens, and beautified the Temple of Athena which stood on the\ngreat rocky hill in the middle of the city.\n\nDaedalus had a nephew named Perdix whom he had taken when a boy to teach\nthe trade of builder. But Perdix was a very apt learner, and soon\nsurpassed his master in the knowledge of many things. His eyes were ever\nopen to see what was going on about him, and he learned the lore of the\nfields and the woods. Walking one day by the sea, he picked up the\nbackbone of a great fish, and from it he invented the saw. Seeing how a\ncertain bird carved holes in the trunks of trees, he learned how to make\nand use the chisel. Then he invented the wheel which potters use in\nmolding clay; and he made of a forked stick the first pair of compasses\nfor drawing circles; and he studied out many other curious and useful\nthings.\n\nDaedalus was not pleased when he saw that the lad was so apt and wise,\nso ready to learn, and so eager to do.\n\n\"If he keeps on in this way,\" he murmured, \"he will be a greater man\nthan I; his name will be remembered, and mine will be forgotten.\"\n\nDay after day, while at his work, Daedalus pondered over this matter,\nand soon his heart was filled with hatred towards young Perdix. One\nmorning when the two were putting up an ornament on the outer wall of\nAthena's temple, Daedalus bade his nephew go out on a narrow scaffold\nwhich hung high over the edge of the rocky cliff whereon the temple\nstood. Then, when the lad obeyed, it was easy enough, with a blow of a\nhammer, to knock the scaffold from its fastenings.\n\nPoor Perdix fell headlong through the air, and he would have been\ndashed in pieces upon the stones at the foot of the cliff had not kind\nAthena seen him and taken pity upon him. While he was yet whirling\nthrough mid-air she changed him into a partridge, and he flitted away to\nthe hills to live forever in the woods and fields which he loved so\nwell. And to this day, when summer breezes blow and the wild flowers\nbloom in meadow and glade, the voice of Perdix may still sometimes be\nheard, calling to his mate from among the grass and reeds or amid the\nleafy underwoods.\n\n\n\n\nII. MINOS.\n\n\nAs for Daedalus, when the people of Athens heard of his dastardly deed,\nthey were filled with grief and rage--grief for young Perdix, whom all\nhad learned to love; rage towards the wicked uncle, who loved only\nhimself. At first they were for punishing Daedalus with the death which\nhe so richly deserved, but when they remembered what he had done to make\ntheir homes pleasanter and their lives easier, they allowed him to live;\nand yet they drove him out of Athens and bade him never return.\n\nThere was a ship in the harbor just ready to start on a voyage across\nthe sea, and in it Daedalus embarked with all his precious tools and\nhis young son Icarus. Day after day the little vessel sailed slowly\nsouthward, keeping the shore of the mainland always upon the right. It\npassed Troezen and the rocky coast of Argos, and then struck boldly out\nacross the sea.\n\nAt last the famous Island of Crete was reached, and there Daedalus\nlanded and made himself known; and the King of Crete, who had already\nheard of his wondrous skill, welcomed him to his kingdom, and gave him a\nhome in his palace, and promised that he should be rewarded with great\nriches and honor if he would but stay and practice his craft there as he\nhad done in Athens.\n\nNow the name of the King of Crete was Minos. His grandfather, whose name\nwas also Minos, was the son of Europa, a young princess whom a white\nbull, it was said, had brought on his back across the sea from distant\nAsia. This elder Minos had been accounted the wisest of men--so wise,\nindeed, that Jupiter chose him to be one of the judges of the Lower\nWorld. The younger Minos was almost as wise as his grandfather; and he\nwas brave and far-seeing and skilled as a ruler of men. He had made all\nthe islands subject to his kingdom, and his ships sailed into every part\nof the world and brought back to Crete the riches of foreign lands. So\nit was not hard for him to persuade Daedalus to make his home with him\nand be the chief of his artisans.\n\nAnd Daedalus built for King Minos a most wonderful palace with floors of\nmarble and pillars of granite; and in the palace he set up golden\nstatues which had tongues and could talk; and for splendor and beauty\nthere was no other building in all the wide earth that could be compared\nwith it.\n\nThere lived in those days among the hills of Crete a terrible monster\ncalled the Minotaur, the like of which has never been seen from that\ntime until now. This creature, it was said, had the body of a man, but\nthe face and head of a wild bull and the fierce nature of a mountain\nlion. The people of Crete would not have killed him if they could; for\nthey thought that the Mighty Folk who lived with Jupiter on the mountain\ntop had sent him among them, and that these beings would be angry if any\none should take his life. He was the pest and terror of all the land.\nWhere he was least expected, there he was sure to be; and almost every\nday some man, woman, or child was caught and devoured by him.\n\n\"You have done so many wonderful things,\" said the king to Daedalus,\n\"can you not do something to rid the land of this Minotaur?\"\n\n\"Shall I kill him?\" asked Daedalus.\n\n\"Ah, no!\" said the king. \"That would only bring greater misfortunes upon\nus.\"\n\n\"I will build a house for him then,\" said Daedalus, \"and you can keep\nhim in it as a prisoner.\"\n\n\"But he may pine away and die if he is penned up in prison,\" said the\nking.\n\n\"He shall have plenty of room to roam about,\" said Daedalus; \"and if you\nwill only now and then feed one of your enemies to him, I promise you\nthat he shall live and thrive.\"\n\nSo the wonderful artisan brought together his workmen, and they built a\nmarvelous house with so many rooms in it and so many winding ways that\nno one who went far into it could ever find his way out again; and\nDaedalus called it the Labyrinth, and cunningly persuaded the Minotaur\nto go inside of it. The monster soon lost his way among the winding\npassages, but the sound of his terrible bellowings could be heard day\nand night as he wandered back and forth vainly trying to find some place\nto escape.\n\n\n\n\nIII. ICARUS.\n\n\nNot long after this it happened that Daedalus was guilty of a deed which\nangered the king very greatly; and had not Minos wished him to build\nother buildings for him, he would have put him to death and no doubt\nhave served him right.\n\n\"Hitherto,\" said the king, \"I have honored you for your skill and\nrewarded you for your labor. But now you shall be my slave and shall\nserve me without hire and without any word of praise.\"\n\nThen he gave orders to the guards at the city gates that they should not\nlet Daedalus pass out at any time, and he set soldiers to watch the\nships that were in port so that he could not escape by sea. But although\nthe wonderful artisan was thus held as a prisoner, he did not build any\nmore buildings for King Minos; he spent his time in planning how he\nmight regain his freedom.\n\n\"All my inventions,\" he said to his son Icarus, \"have hitherto been made\nto please other people; now I will invent something to please myself.\"\n\nSo, all through the day he pretended to be planning some great work for\nthe king, but every night he locked himself up in his chamber and\nwrought secretly by candle light. By and by he had made for himself a\npair of strong wings, and for Icarus another pair of smaller ones; and\nthen, one midnight, when everybody was asleep, the two went out to see\nif they could fly. They fastened the wings to their shoulders with wax,\nand then sprang up into the air. They could not fly very far at first,\nbut they did so well that they felt sure of doing much better in time.\n\nThe next night Daedalus made some changes in the wings. He put on an\nextra strap or two; he took out a feather from one wing, and put a new\nfeather into another; and then he and Icarus went out in the moonlight\nto try them again. They did finely this time. They flew up to the top of\nthe king's palace, and then they sailed away over the walls of the city\nand alighted on the top of a hill. But they were not ready to undertake\na long journey yet; and so, just before daybreak, they flew back home.\nEvery fair night after that they practiced with their wings, and at the\nend of a month they felt as safe in the air as on the ground, and could\nskim over the hilltops like birds.\n\nEarly one morning; before King Minos had risen from his bed, they\nfastened on their wings, sprang into the air, and flew out of the city.\nOnce fairly away from the island, they turned towards the west, for\nDaedalus had heard of an island named Sicily, which lay hundreds of\nmiles away, and he had made up his mind to seek a new home there.\n\n[Illustration: \"HE FELT HIMSELF SINKING THROUGH THE AIR.\"]\n\nAll went well for a time, and the two bold flyers sped swiftly over the\nsea, skimming along only a little above the waves, and helped on their\nway by the brisk east wind. Towards noon the sun shone very warm, and\nDaedalus called out to the boy who was a little behind and told him to\nkeep his wings cool and not fly too high. But the boy was proud of his\nskill in flying, and as he looked up at the sun he thought how nice it\nwould be to soar like it high above the clouds in the blue depths of the\nsky.\n\n\"At any rate,\" said he to himself, \"I will go up a little higher.\nPerhaps I can see the horses which draw the sun car, and perhaps I shall\ncatch sight of their driver, the mighty sun master himself.\"\n\nSo he flew up higher and higher, but his father who was in front did not\nsee him. Pretty soon, however, the heat of the sun began to melt the wax\nwith which the boy's wings were fastened. He felt himself sinking\nthrough the air; the wings had become loosened from his shoulders. He\nscreamed to his father, but it was too late. Daedalus turned just in\ntime to see Icarus fall headlong into the waves. The water was very deep\nthere, and the skill of the wonderful artisan could not save his child.\nHe could only look with sorrowing eyes at the unpitying sea, and fly on\nalone to distant Sicily. There, men say, he lived for many years, but he\nnever did any great work, nor built anything half so marvelous as the\nLabyrinth of Crete. And the sea in which poor Icarus was drowned was\ncalled forever afterward by his name, the Icarian Sea.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE CRUEL TRIBUTE.\n\nI. THE TREATY.\n\n\nMinos, king of Crete, had made war upon Athens. He had come with a great\nfleet of ships and an army, and had burned the merchant vessels in the\nharbor, and had overrun all the country and the coast even to Megara,\nwhich lies to the west. He had laid waste the fields and gardens round\nabout Athens, had pitched his camp close to the walls, and had sent word\nto the Athenian rulers that on the morrow he would march into their city\nwith fire and sword and would slay all their young men and would pull\ndown all their houses, even to the Temple of Athena, which stood on the\ngreat hill above the town. Then AEgeus, the king of Athens, with the\ntwelve elders who were his helpers, went out to see King Minos and to\ntreat with him.\n\n\"O mighty king,\" they said, \"what have we done that you should wish thus\nto destroy us from the earth?\"\n\n\"O cowardly and shameless men,\" answered King Minos, \"why do you ask\nthis foolish question, since you can but know the cause of my wrath? I\nhad an only son, Androgeos by name, and he was dearer to me than the\nhundred cities of Crete and the thousand islands of the sea over which I\nrule. Three years ago he came hither to take part in the games which you\nheld in honor of Athena, whose temple you have built on yonder hilltop.\nYou know how he overcame all your young men in the sports, and how your\npeople honored him with song and dance and laurel crown. But when your\nking, this same AEgeus who stands before me now, saw how everybody ran\nafter him and praised his valor, he was filled with envy and laid plans\nto kill him. Whether he caused armed men to waylay him on the road to\nThebes, or whether as some say he sent him against a certain wild bull\nof your country to be slain by that beast, I know not; but you cannot\ndeny that the young man's life was taken from him through the plotting\nof this AEgeus.\"\n\n\"But we do deny it--we do deny it!\" cried the elders. \"For at that very\ntime our king was sojourning at Troezen on the other side of the Saronic\nSea, and he knew nothing of the young prince's death. We ourselves\nmanaged the city's affairs while he was abroad, and we know whereof we\nspeak. Androgeos was slain, not through the king's orders but by the\nking's nephews, who hoped to rouse your anger against AEgeus so that you\nwould drive him from Athens and leave the kingdom to one of them.\"\n\n\"Will you swear that what you tell me is true?\" said Minos.\n\n\"We will swear it,\" they said.\n\n\"Now then,\" said Minos, \"you shall hear my decree. Athens has robbed me\nof my dearest treasure, a treasure that can never be restored to me; so,\nin return, I require from Athens, as tribute, that possession which is\nthe dearest and most precious to her people; and it shall be destroyed\ncruelly as my son was destroyed.\"\n\n\"The condition is hard,\" said the elders, \"but it is just. What is the\ntribute which you require?\"\n\n\"Has the king a son?\" asked Minos.\n\nThe face of King AEgeus lost all its color and he trembled as he thought\nof a little child then with its mother at Troezen, on the other side of\nthe Saronic Sea. But the elders knew nothing about that child, and they\nanswered:\n\n\"Alas, no! he has no son; but he has fifty nephews who are eating up his\nsubstance and longing for the time to come when one of them shall be\nking; and, as we have said, it was they who slew the young prince,\nAndrogeos.\"\n\n\"I have naught to do with those fellows,\" said Minos; \"you may deal\nwith them as you like. But you ask what is the tribute that I require,\nand I will tell you. Every year when the springtime comes and the roses\nbegin to bloom, you shall choose seven of your noblest youths and seven\nof your fairest maidens, and shall send them to me in a ship which your\nking shall provide. This is the tribute which you shall pay to me,\nMinos, king of Crete; and if you fail for a single time, or delay even a\nday, my soldiers shall tear down your walls and burn your city and put\nyour men to the sword and sell your wives and children as slaves.\"\n\n\"We agree to all this, O King,\" said the elders; \"for it is the least of\ntwo evils. But tell us now, what shall be the fate of the seven youths\nand the seven maidens?\"\n\n\"In Crete,\" answered Minos, \"there is a house called the Labyrinth, the\nlike of which you have never seen. In it there are a thousand chambers\nand winding ways, and whosoever goes even a little way into them can\nnever find his way out again. Into this house the seven youths and the\nseven maidens shall be thrust, and they shall be left there--\"\n\n\"To perish with hunger?\" cried the elders.\n\n\"To be devoured by a monster whom men call the Minotaur,\" said Minos.\n\nThen King AEgeus and the elders covered their faces and wept and went\nslowly back into the city to tell their people of the sad and terrible\nconditions upon which Athens could alone be saved.\n\n\"It is better that a few should perish than that the whole city should\nbe destroyed,\" they said.\n\n\n\n\nII. THE TRIBUTE.\n\n\nYears passed by. Every spring when the roses began to bloom seven youths\nand seven maidens were put on board of a black-sailed ship and sent to\nCrete to pay the tribute which King Minos required. In every house in\nAthens there was sorrow and dread, and the people lifted up their hands\nto Athena on the hilltop and cried out, \"How long, O Queen of the Air,\nhow long shall this thing be?\"\n\nIn the meanwhile the little child at Troezen on the other side of the\nsea had grown to be a man. His name, Theseus, was in everybody's mouth,\nfor he had done great deeds of daring; and at last he had come to Athens\nto find his father, King AEgeus, who had never heard whether he was alive\nor dead; and when the youth had made himself known, the king had\nwelcomed him to his home and all the people were glad because so noble a\nprince had come to dwell among them and, in time, to rule over their\ncity.\n\nThe springtime came again. The black-sailed ship was rigged for another\nvoyage. The rude Cretan soldiers paraded the streets; and the herald of\nKing Minos stood at the gates and shouted:\n\n\"Yet three days, O Athenians, and your tribute will be due and must be\npaid!\"\n\nThen in every street the doors of the houses were shut and no man went\nin or out, but every one sat silent with pale cheeks, and wondered whose\nlot it would be to be chosen this year. But the young prince, Theseus,\ndid not understand; for he had not been told about the tribute.\n\n\"What is the meaning of all this?\" he cried. \"What right has a Cretan to\ndemand tribute in Athens? and what is this tribute of which he speaks?\"\n\nThen AEgeus led him aside and with tears told him of the sad war with\nKing Minos, and of the dreadful terms of peace. \"Now, say no more,\"\nsobbed AEgeus, \"it is better that a few should die even thus than that\nall should be destroyed.\"\n\n\"But I will say more,\" cried Theseus. \"Athens shall not pay tribute to\nCrete. I myself will go with these youths and maidens, and I will slay\nthe monster Minotaur, and defy King Minos himself upon his throne.\"\n\n\"Oh, do not be so rash!\" said the king; \"for no one who is thrust into\nthe den of the Minotaur ever comes out again. Remember that you are the\nhope of Athens, and do not take this great risk upon yourself.\"\n\n\"Say you that I am the hope of Athens?\" said Theseus. \"Then how can I do\notherwise than go?\" And he began at once to make himself ready.\n\nOn the third day all the youths and maidens of the city were brought\ntogether in the market place, so that lots might be cast for those who\nwere to be taken. Then two vessels of brass were brought and set before\nKing AEgeus and the herald who had come from Crete. Into one vessel they\nplaced as many balls as there were noble youths in the city, and into\nthe other as many as there were maidens; and all the balls were white\nsave only seven in each vessel, and those were black as ebony.\n\nThen every maiden, without looking, reached her hand into one of the\nvessels and drew forth a ball, and those who took the black balls were\nborne away to the black ship, which lay in waiting by the shore. The\nyoung men also drew lots in like manner, but when six black balls had\nbeen drawn Theseus came quickly forward and said:\n\n\"Hold! Let no more balls be drawn. I will be the seventh youth to pay\nthis tribute. Now let us go aboard the black ship and be off.\"\n\nThen the people, and King AEgeus himself, went down to the shore to take\nleave of the young men and maidens, whom they had no hope of seeing\nagain; and all but Theseus wept and were brokenhearted.\n\n\"I will come again, father,\" he said.\n\n\"I will hope that you may,\" said the old king. \"If when this ship\nreturns, I see a white sail spread above the black one, then I shall\nknow that you are alive and well; but if I see only the black one, it\nwill tell me that you have perished.\"\n\nAnd now the vessel was loosed from its moorings, the north wind filled\nthe sail, and the seven youths and seven maidens were borne away over\nthe sea, towards the dreadful death which awaited them in far distant\nCrete.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE PRINCESS.\n\n\nAt last the black ship reached the end of its voyage. The young people\nwere set ashore, and a party of soldiers led them through the streets\ntowards the prison, where they were to stay until the morrow. They did\nnot weep nor cry out now, for they had outgrown their fears. But with\npaler faces and firm-set lips, they walked between the rows of Cretan\nhouses, and looked neither to the right nor to the left. The windows and\ndoors were full of people who were eager to see them.\n\n\"What a pity that such brave young men should be food for the Minotaur,\"\nsaid some.\n\n\"Ah, that maidens so beautiful should meet a fate so sad!\" said others.\n\nAnd now they passed close by the palace gate, and in it stood King Minos\nhimself, and his daughter Ariadne, the fairest of the women of Crete.\n\n\"Indeed, those are noble young fellows!\" said the king.\n\n\"Yes, too noble to feed the vile Minotaur,\" said Ariadne.\n\n\"The nobler, the better,\" said the king; \"and yet none of them can\ncompare with your lost brother Androgeos.\"\n\nAriadne said no more; and yet she thought that she had never seen any\none who looked so much like a hero as young Theseus. How tall he was,\nand how handsome! How proud his eye, and how firm his step! Surely there\nhad never been his like in Crete.\n\nAll through that night Ariadne lay awake and thought of the matchless\nhero, and grieved that he should be doomed to perish; and then she began\nto lay plans for setting him free. At the earliest peep of day she\narose, and while everybody else was asleep, she ran out of the palace\nand hurried to the prison. As she was the king's daughter, the jailer\nopened the door at her bidding and allowed her to go in. There sat the\nseven youths and the seven maidens on the ground, but they had not lost\nhope. She took Theseus aside and whispered to him. She told him of a\nplan which she had made to save him; and Theseus promised her that, when\nhe had slain the Minotaur, he would carry her away with him to Athens\nwhere she should live with him always. Then she gave him a sharp sword,\nand hid it underneath his cloak, telling him that with it alone could he\nhope to slay the Minotaur.\n\n\"And here is a ball of silken thread,\" she said. \"As soon as you go into\nthe Labyrinth where the monster is kept, fasten one end of the thread to\nthe stone doorpost, and then unwind it as you go along. When you have\nslain the Minotaur, you have only to follow the thread and it will lead\nyou back to the door. In the meanwhile I will see that your ship is\nready to sail, and then I will wait for you at the door of the\nLabyrinth.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"THE JAILER OPENED THE DOOR AT HER BIDDING.\"]\n\nTheseus thanked the beautiful princess and promised her again that if he\nshould live to go back to Athens she should go with him and be his\nwife. Then with a prayer to Athena, Ariadne hastened away.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE LABYRINTH.\n\n\nAs soon as the sun was up the guards came to lead the young prisoners to\nthe Labyrinth. They did not see the sword which Theseus had under his\ncloak, nor the tiny ball of silk which he held in his closed hand. They\nled the youths and maidens a long way into the Labyrinth, turning here\nand there, back and forth, a thousand different times, until it seemed\ncertain that they could never find their way out again. Then the guards,\nby a secret passage which they alone knew, went out and left them, as\nthey had left many others before, to wander about until they should be\nfound by the terrible Minotaur.\n\n\"Stay close by me,\" said Theseus to his companions, \"and with the help\nof Athena who dwells in her temple home in our own fair city, I will\nsave you.\"\n\nThen he drew his sword and stood in the narrow way before them; and they\nall lifted up their hands and prayed to Athena.\n\nFor hours they stood there, hearing no sound, and seeing nothing but the\nsmooth, high walls on either side of the passage and the calm blue sky\nso high above them. Then the maidens sat down upon the ground and\ncovered their faces and sobbed, and said:\n\n\"Oh, that he would come and put an end to our misery and our lives.\"\n\nAt last, late in the day, they heard a bellowing, low and faint as\nthough far away. They listened and soon heard it again, a little louder\nand very fierce and dreadful.\n\n\"It is he! it is he!\" cried Theseus; \"and now for the fight!\"\n\nThen he shouted, so loudly that the walls of the Labyrinth answered\nback, and the sound was carried upward to the sky and outward to the\nrocks and cliffs of the mountains. The Minotaur heard him, and his\nbellowings grew louder and fiercer every moment.\n\n\"He is coming!\" cried Theseus, and he ran forward to meet the beast. The\nseven maidens shrieked, but tried to stand up bravely and face their\nfate; and the six young men stood together with firm-set teeth and\nclinched fists, ready to fight to the last.\n\nSoon the Minotaur came into view, rushing down the passage towards\nTheseus, and roaring most terribly. He was twice as tall as a man, and\nhis head was like that of a bull with huge sharp horns and fiery eyes\nand a mouth as large as a lion's; but the young men could not see the\nlower part of his body for the cloud of dust which he raised in running.\nWhen he saw Theseus with the sword in his hand coming to meet him, he\npaused, for no one had ever faced him in that way before. Then he put\nhis head down, and rushed forward, bellowing. But Theseus leaped quickly\naside, and made a sharp thrust with his sword as he passed, and hewed\noff one of the monster's legs above the knee.\n\nThe Minotaur fell upon the ground, roaring and groaning and beating\nwildly about with his horned head and his hoof-like fists; but Theseus\nnimbly ran up to him and thrust the sword into his heart, and was away\nagain before the beast could harm him. A great stream of blood gushed\nfrom the wound, and soon the Minotaur turned his face towards the sky\nand was dead.\n\nThen the youths and maidens ran to Theseus and kissed his hands and\nfeet, and thanked him for his great deed; and, as it was already growing\ndark, Theseus bade them follow him while he wound up the silken thread\nwhich was to lead them out of the Labyrinth. Through a thousand rooms\nand courts and winding ways they went, and at midnight they came to the\nouter door and saw the city lying in the moonlight before them; and,\nonly a little way off, was the seashore where the black ship was moored\nwhich had brought them to Crete. The door was wide open, and beside it\nstood Ariadne waiting for them.\n\n\"The wind is fair, the sea is smooth, and the sailors are ready,\" she\nwhispered; and she took the arm of Theseus, and all went together\nthrough the silent streets to the ship.\n\nWhen the morning dawned they were far out to sea, and, looking back from\nthe deck of the little vessel, only the white tops of the Cretan\nmountains were in sight.\n\nMinos, when he arose from sleep, did not know that the youths and\nmaidens had gotten safe out of the Labyrinth. But when Ariadne could not\nbe found, he thought that robbers had carried her away. He sent soldiers\nout to search for her among the hills and mountains, never dreaming that\nshe was now well on the way towards distant Athens.\n\nMany days passed, and at last the searchers returned and said that the\nprincess could nowhere be found. Then the king covered his head and\nwept, and said:\n\n\"Now, indeed, I am bereft of all my treasures!\"\n\nIn the meanwhile, King AEgeus of Athens had sat day after day on a rock\nby the shore, looking and watching if by chance he might see a ship\ncoming from the south. At last the vessel with Theseus and his\ncompanions hove in sight, but it still carried only the black sail, for\nin their joy the young men had forgotten to raise the white one.\n\n\"Alas! alas! my son has perished!\" moaned AEgeus; and he fainted and fell\nforward into the sea and was drowned. And that sea, from then until now,\nhas been called by his name, the Aegean Sea.\n\nThus Theseus became king of Athens.\n\n[Illustration]","title":"Old Greek Stories","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":43522}