FAVORITE GREEK MYTHS - Yesterday's Classics
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHS
VARVAKEION STATUETTEAntique copy of the Athena of PhidiasNational Museum, Athens
FAVORITEGREEK MYTHSBYLILIAN STOUGHTON HYDEYESTERDAY’S CLASSICSCHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA
Cover and arrangement 2008 Yesterday’s Classics, LLC.This edition, first published in 2008 by Yesterday’sClassics, an imprint of Yesterday’s Classics, LLC, isan unabridged republication of the work originallypublished by D. C. Heath and Company in 1904.For the complete listing of the books that arepublished by Yesterday’s Classics, please visitwww.yesterdaysclassics.com. Yesterday’s Classics isthe publishing arm of the Baldwin Online Children’sLiterature Project which presents the completetext of hundreds of classic books for children atwww.mainlesson.com.ISBN-10: 1-59915-261-4ISBN-13: 978-1-59915-261-5Yesterday’s Classics, LLCPO Box 3418Chapel Hill, NC 27515
PREFACEIn the preparation of this book, the aim has beento present in a manner suited to young readers theGreek myths that have been world favorites throughthe centuries, and that have in some measure exerciseda formative influence on literature and the fine arts inmany countries. While a knowledge of these mythsis undoubtedly necessary to a clear understanding ofmuch in literature and the arts, yet it is not for thisreason alone that they have been selected; the mythsthat have appealed to the poets, the painters, and thesculptors for so many ages are the very ones that havethe greatest depth of meaning, and that are the mostbeautiful and the best worth telling. Moreover, thesemyths appeal strongly to the child-mind, and should bepresented while the young imagination can make themlive. In childhood they will be enjoyed as stories; but inlater years they will be understood as the embodimentof spiritual truths.
CONTENTSIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiPrometheus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1How Troubles Came into the World . . . . . . .5The Great Deluge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Apollo and Daphne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13How Apollo Got his Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Mercury and Argus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Ceres and Proserpine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Phaethon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Clytie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40The Seven Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43Endymion’s Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Why Cadmus Founded a City . . . . . . . . . . . . .48Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Narcissus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Hyacinthus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57Perseus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Arachne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Jason and the Golden Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . .82Hylas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Procne and Philomela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Bellerophon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Tithonus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Comatas and the Honey-Bees . . . . . . . . . . . 111Adonis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114King Midas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116The King and the Oak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Juno and Halcyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Hercules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Theseus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Philemon and Baucis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Orpheus and Eurydice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Ganymede . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189The Bag of Winds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Circe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Arion and the Dolphin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Psyche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Pronouncing and Explanatory Guide. . . 221
INTRODUCTIONMany thousands of years ago there lived a raceof people whom we call the Aryans. To this peopleeverything seemed alive. When they looked up into theblue sky, where there were white clouds moving, theyfancied that they saw a sea on which ships were sailing.Or, if the clouds were numerous and moved swiftly inone direction, driven by the wind, they believed thatthey saw cows driven by an invisible herdsman. In theireyes the dark storm-clouds were gigantic birds whichflew over the sky carrying worms in their beaks. Thelightning flashes were the worms, which these birdssometimes let fall. Or, the lightning was a fish, dartingthrough the sea of cloud; or a spear, or a serpent. Thestorm-cloud was a dragon.These people never tired of looking at the sky.They sometimes called the clouds treasure mountains,and the lightning an opening in the rock, which gave aglimpse of the bright treasure within. In time they cameto think that the bright blue sky of day was a person, towhom they gave the name Father Dyaus (which meansFather Sky), saying, because the sky seemed so highabove everything else, that Father Dyaus ruled overall things. They also called the sun a shining wanderer,the golden-eyed and golden-handed god, and said thatxi
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHSthe darkness of night was a serpent, slain by their sungod’s arrows.A time came when many tribes of this Aryanrace moved on to other lands. Some of them settledin the land we now call Greece, taking with them theirquaint stories of the sky and the clouds, of Father Dyaus,and the herdsman of the cloud-cattle, and the goldeneyed sun-god.In Greece these stories and others were handeddown from one generation to another through thousands of years; and while those who told these storiesundoubtedly believed that every word was true, andtook great pains to tell them exactly as they had heardthem, yet in time the stories changed and grew.After the Aryan tribes who moved into Greecehad lived in that country for a long time, they forgot thatFather Dyaus (Dyaus pitar) was the blue sky. Insteadof calling him by his old name of Father Dyaus, theycalled him Father Zeus (Zeus-pater), the king and fatherof gods and men, while other Aryan tribes, who wereafterward called Romans, knew him as Jupiter (Ju-piter).In the same way these people forgot, in time, that theherdsman who drove the cloud-cattle was the wind;they thought him a real person, or a god, and calledhim Hermes, or Mercury. In this way the old Greeks(that is, the descendants of the Aryans who had settledin Greece) came to believe in many gods, and it wasa long, long time after this before they knew anythingabout the true God.As time went on, every little kingdom in Greecexii
INTRODUCTIONhad its own version of these old stories, or myths. Theywere told again and again, in the twilight, by the firesidesof the people, and were often sung or chanted in kings’houses to the music of the lyre. In comparativelymodern times, but still some thousands of years ago,the poets wrote them down, some writing one versionand some another. Many of the books they wrote maystill be read to-day.According to the old Greek myths, Jupiter wasthe king and father of gods and men. He, with the othergods, lived high up on Mount Olympus, above the clouds.He was by far the strongest of the gods. His weaponwas the thunderbolt; for the Greeks believed that thelightning flash was a kind of magic stone, shaped likea spear or an arrow, which Jupiter threw at his enemies,or at wrongdoers among men. The storm-loving eaglewas Jupiter’s bird, and it carried the thunderbolts inits claw.Neptune and Pluto were brothers of Jupiter.Neptune ruled the sea, and Pluto was the king of theunderworld, a dark, gloomy place where people weresupposed to go after death. Juno was Jupiter’s queen,and therefore the most powerful of the goddesses.Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, of war for aright cause, and of the arts of peace. She gave the olivetree to the Greeks, and taught the Greek women howto spin and weave. She was the special protectress andhelper of heroes.Apollo was the god of prophecy, music, andpoetry. Later, he was the god of the sun, especially ofxiii
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHSthe light which comes from the sun, while Helios wasthe god of the sun itself. The rays of sunlight, whichmight sometimes be seen across a dark cloud, wereApollo’s golden arrows. These arrows might bring deathto mortals.Diana was the twin sister of Apollo. Just as Apollowas the god of the light of the sun, she was the goddessof the light of the moon, while Selene, the real moongoddess, was the goddess of the moon itself. Dianawas a huntress who wandered over the mountains,carrying a bow and a quiverful of silver arrows. Hersilver arrows, like Apollo’s golden ones, were sometimesused to punish the guilty. She wore a crown shaped likethe new moon, and her favorite animal was the stag.Venus was the goddess of love and beauty. Shewas born from the foam of the sea, and was the mostbeautiful of all the goddesses. When she went abroad,her chariot was drawn by doves and surrounded byflocks of little singing birds.Mars was the god of war in a bad sense. He lovedfighting and bloodshed for its own sake.Mercury was the herald and swift-footedmessenger of the gods. He was the patron of herdsmen,travellers, and rogues. He wore a winged cap and wingedsandals, and carried, as the sign of his office, a goldenwand or staff, which had two wings at the top and twogolden snakes twined around it. This staff was calledthe caduceus.Ceres was the goddess of all that grows out ofthe earth, and was called the Great Mother.xiv
INTRODUCTIONBesides these great ones, there were others, notso strong and wonderful, who instead of living onMount Olympus, above the clouds, had their homesin certain quiet places of the earth. These humblerones were called nymphs, fauns, satyrs, river gods, andTritons. The nymphs were everywhere; they hauntedthe meadows, groves, and mountains, and one of themwas sure to be found at the bottom of every spring andfountain; they inhabited the trees; they lived in the sea.Fauns were the followers of Pan, the god of shepherdsand other country folk. Like Pan, the fauns had littlehorns, pointed ears, and legs like a goat. Satyrs werethe followers of Bacchus, the god of the vine. They hadpointed ears, and little horns among their curls, butotherwise were very much like men. Tritons were saidto have the upper part of the body like that of a manand the lower part like that of a fish. They lived in thesea, and could quiet its waters by blowing on their shelltrumpets.In those days there were no solitary places; eventhe desert had its giants and its pygmies. That time ofwhich the old myths tell us must have been wonderfulindeed.xv
PROMETHEUSThere once lived a race of huge giants calledTitans. These giants were fierce, turbulent, and lawless—always fighting among themselves and against Jupiter,the king of the gods.One of the Titans, whose name was Prometheus,was wiser than the rest. He often thought about whatwould be likely to happen in the future.One day, Prometheus said to his brother Titans:“What is the use of wasting so much strength? In theend, wisdom and forethought will win. If we are goingto fight against the gods, let us choose a leader and stopquarrelling among ourselves.”The Titans answered him by a shower of greatrocks and uprooted trees.Prometheus, after escaping unhurt, said tohis younger brother: “Come, Epimetheus, we can donothing among these Titans. If they keep on, they willtear the earth to pieces. Let us go and help Jupiter toovercome them.”Epimetheus agreed to this, and the two brotherswent over to Jupiter, who called the gods together andbegan a terrible battle. The Titans tore up enormousboulders and cast them at the gods, while Jupiter hurledhis thunderbolts and his lightnings in all directions.1
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHSSoon the sky was a sheet of flame, the sea boiled, theearth trembled, and the forests took fire and began toburn.At last the gods—partly by the help of the wisecounsel of Prometheus—conquered the Titans, tookthem to the ends of the earth, and imprisoned themin a deep underground cavern. Neptune, the sea-god,made strong bronze gates with heavy bolts and bars, tokeep the giants down, while Jupiter sent Briareus andhis brothers, three giants with fifty heads and a hundredhands each, to stand guard over them.All but one of the Titans who had fought againstthe gods were imprisoned in this cavern. This onewho was not shut in with the others was Atlas, whoseenormous strength was greater than that of his brothers,while his disposition was less quarrelsome. He was madeto stand and hold up the sky on his head and hands.As the Titans could now make no more trouble,there was comparative peace and quiet on the earth.Nevertheless, Jupiter said that, although the men whoremained on the earth were not so strong as the Titans,they were a foolish and wicked race. He declared thathe would destroy them—sweep them away, and havedone with them, forever.When their king said this, none of the gods daredto say a word in defence of mankind. But Prometheus,the Titan, who was earth-born himself, and loved thesemen of the earth, begged Jupiter so earnestly to sparethem, that Jupiter consented to do so.At this time, men lived in dark, gloomy caves.2
PROMETHEUSTheir friend, Prometheus, taught them to build simplehouses, which were much more comfortable than thecaves had been. This was a great step forward, but menneeded more help yet from the Titan. The beasts in theforests, and the great birds that built their nests on therocks, were strong; but men were weak. The lion hadsharp claws and teeth; the eagle had wings; the turtlehad a hard shell; but man, although he stood uprightwith his face toward the stars, had no weapon withwhich he could defend himself.Prometheus said that man should have Jupiter’swonderful flower of fire, which shone so brightly inthe sky. So he took a hollow reed, went up to Olympus,stole the red flower of fire, and brought it down to earthin his reed.After this, all the other creatures were afraid ofman, for this red flower had made him stronger thanthey. Man dug iron out of the earth, and by the helpof his new fire made weapons that were sharper thanthe lion’s teeth; he tamed the wild cattle by the fear ofit, yoked them together, and taught them how to drawthe plough; he sharpened strong stakes, hardeningthem in its heat, and set them around his house as adefence from his enemies; he did many other thingsbesides with the red flower that Prometheus had madeto blossom at the end of the reed.Jupiter, sitting on his throne, saw with alarmhow strong man was becoming. One day he discoveredthe theft of his shining red flower, and knew that3
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHSPrometheus was the thief. He was greatly displeasedat this act.“Prometheus loves man too well,” said he. “Heshall be punished.” Then he called his two slaves,Strength and Force, and told them to take Prometheusand bind him fast to a great rock in the lonely CaucasianMountains. At the same time he ordered Vulcan, thelame smith-god, to rivet the Titan’s chains—in a cunningway that only Vulcan knew.There Prometheus hung on the rock for hundredsof years. The sun shone on him pitilessly, by day—onlythe kindly night gave him shade. He heard the rushingwings of the sea-gulls, as they came to feed their youngwho cried from the rocks below. The sea-nymphs floatedup to his rock to give him their pity. A vulture, cruel asthe king of the gods, came daily and tore him with itsclaws and beak.But this frightful punishment did not last forever.Prometheus himself knew that some day he shouldbe set free, and this knowledge made him strong toendure.At last the time came when Jupiter’s throne wasin danger, and Prometheus, pitying his enemy, toldhim a secret which helped him to make everythingsafe again. After this, Jupiter sent Hercules to shoot thevulture and to break the Titan’s chains. So Prometheuswas set free.4
HOW TROUBLES CAMEINTO THE WORLDA very long time ago, in the Golden Age, everyone was good and happy. It was always spring; the earthwas covered with flowers, and only gentle winds blewto set the flowers dancing.No one had any work to do. People lived onmountain strawberries, which were always to be hadfor the gathering, and on wild grapes, blackberries, andsweet acorns, which grew plentifully in the oak forests.Rivers flowed with milk and nectar. Even the bees didnot need to lay up honey, for it fell in tiny drops fromthe trees. There was abundance everywhere.In all the whole world, there was not a sword,nor any weapon by means of which men might fightwith one another. No one had ever heard of any suchthing. All the iron and the gold were buried deepunderground.Besides, people were never ill; they had notroubles of any kind; and never grew old.The two brothers, Prometheus and Epimetheus,lived in those wonderful days. After stealing the fire forman, Prometheus, knowing that Jupiter would be angry,decided to go away for a time on a distant journey; but5
FAVORITE GREEK MYTHSbefore he went, he warned Epimetheus not to receiveany gifts from the gods.One day, after Prometheus had been gone forsome time, Mercury came to the cottage of Epimetheus,leading by the hand a beautiful young woman, whosename was Pandora. She had a wreath of partly openedrosebuds on her head, a number of delicate gold chainstwisted lightly around her neck, and wore a filmy veilwhich fell nearly to the hem of her tunic. Mercurypresented her to Epimetheus, saying the gods had sentthis gift that he might not be lonesome.Pandora had such a lovely face that Epimetheuscould not help believing that the gods had sent her tohim in good faith. So he paid no heed to the warningof Prometheus, but took Pandora into his cottage, andfound that the days passed much more quickly andpleasantly when she was with him.Soon, the gods sent Epimetheus another gift.This was a heavy box, which the satyrs brought to thecottage, with directions that it was not to be opened.Epimetheus let it stand in a corner of his cottage; forby this time he had begun to think that the caution ofPrometheus about receiving gifts from the gods wasaltogether unnecessary.Often, Epimetheus was away all day, huntingor fishing or gathering grapes from the wild vines thatgrew along the river banks. On such days, Pandora hadnothing to do but to wonder what was in the mysteriousbox. One day her curiosity was so great that she liftedthe lid a very little way and peeped in. The result was6
HOW TROUBLES CAME INTO THE WORLDsimilar to what would have happened had she lifted thecover of a beehive. Out rushed a great swarm of littlewinged creatures, and before Pandora knew what hadhappened, she was stung. She dropped the lid and ranout of the cottage, screaming. Epimetheus, who wasjust coming in at the door, was well stung, too.The little winged creatures that Pandora had letout of the box were Troubles, the first that had everbeen seen in the world. They soon flew about andspread themselves everywhere, pinching and stingingwhenever they got the chance.After this, people began to have headaches,rheumatism, and other illnesses; and instead of beingalways kind and pleasant to one another, as they hadbeen before the Troubles were let out of the box, theybecame unfriendly and quarrelsome. They began togrow old, too.Nor was it always spring any longer. The freshyoung grasses that had clothed all the hillsides, andthe gay-colored flowers that had given Epimetheusand Pandora so much pleasure, were scorched by hotsummer suns, and
quaint stories of the sky and the clouds, of Father Dyaus, and the herdsman of the cloud-cattle, and the golden-eyed sun-god. In Greece these stories and others were handed down from one generation to another through thou-sands of years; and while those who told these stories undoubtedly believed that every word was true, and
Table of Contents Greek Myths Tell It Again! Read-Aloud Anthology Alignment Chart for Greek Myths .v Introduction to Greek Myths. .1 Lesson 1: The Twelve Gods of Mount Olympus . 11 Lesson 2: Prometheus and Pandora. . 24 Lesson 3: Demeter and Persephone. 36 Lesson 4: Arachne the Weaver .
Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook Basics of Biblical Greek Vocabulary Cards Basics of Biblical Greek Audio CD Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide The Morphology of Biblical Greek The Analytical Greek Lexicon to the Greek New Testament A Graded Reader of Biblical Greek The Zondervan Greek and English Interlinear New Testament (NASB/NIV)
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These are called ‘creation myths’ or ‘nature myths’. Here are some famous myths we’ve featured in Storytime magazine: Perseus and Medusa (Greek, Issue 1) Thor’s Stolen Hammer (Norse, Issue 3) The Hero Twins (Mayan, Issue 4) The Midas Touch (Greek, Issue 8) Theseus and the Minotaur (Greek, Issue 12)
Greek Myths Tell It Again! Read-Aloud Supplemental Guide Grade 2 Core Knowledge Language Arts Listening & Learning Strand. Greek Myths . English Language Learners and students with limited oral language skills may not necessarily know the meanings of all Tier 1 words, and may
Th is edition, fi rst published in 2008 by Yesterday’s Classics, an imprint of Yesterday’s Classics, LLC, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by D. C. Heath and Company in 1904. For the complete listing of the books
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Approaching the learning of Ancient Greek through Homeric Greek makes particular sense for the student of today, who often has only a year or two to spend on the study of Greek. Homeric Greek is somewhat simpler syntactically than Attic Greek, so that reading with some proficiency and even
