This book was part of “The Juvenile Englishman’s Library”, Volume XIX.
Preface [vii-viii]
It may be proper to state that the peculiar style of the following tales, which, to an English reader might seem a mere imitation of the measured prose of Ossian, arises from the fact that many paragraphs are wellnigh only translations from Homer, whom, in his general style of narration, and (so to speak) technicalities of expression, the writer has endeavoured to imitate. It seemed desirable to familiarize those for whom this little book is intended, with the peculiar forms of language and expressions of sentiment which belong to the older Greek poets, so far as it might be done through the medium of a foreign language. Thus, the Homeric conventionalisms for the coming on of morning and evening, the appearance of the gods, and the like, have been carefully retained. It seems hardly necessary to defend the tone which has been adopted in the tales, as inculcating reverence for the truth and beauty of the myths themselves, disturbed though that truth and [viii] beauty too often are. If children are to be taught Mythology at all, – and that they must be under the present state of things, non will deny, – surely nothing can be more pernicious to their minds than the perpetual ridicule in which the general run of mythological books indulge, when treating on a subject which on the one hand shows the earnest yearnings of the natural sense after the One True God; on the other, the depths of wickedness into which unilluminated human nature must of necessity fall; a subject, therefore, which, whether viewed from its bright or dark side, ought to excite every other emotion rather than ridicule. It has been most truly observed, that Mythology is one of the subjects which the Church has failed to turn to her own purpose. The writer would be most thankful if this little book should tend, in any degree, to obviate this difficulty with members of the English Church. In conclusion, the writer has only to observe that he should never have attempted the stories relating to Ulysses, had he been acquainted, at the time of writing them, with Charles Lamb’s Tales from the Odyssey.
Sackville College, October, 1847
Contents
Introduction 1The Story of Perseus and the Gorgons 10
The First Story about Hercules; how he fought with the great Hydra that had an Hundred Heads 20
The Second Story about Hercules; how he entered into the Gardens of the Hesperides 31
The Story of Admetus and Alcestis 42
The Story of Melampus and Biss 51
The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur 57
The Story of the Lotus-Eaters 67
The Story of Ulysses and Circe 75
The Story of the Sirens 84
The Story of Cleobis and Biton 89
The Story of Arion and the Dolphin 92
The Story of Antigone 98
The Story of Pelops and Œnomaus 106
The Story of Demeter and Persephone 115
The Story of Phaeton 125
The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice 130
The Siege of Platæa 135
The Deliverance of Thebes 152
Alexander at Jerusalem 171
Conclusion 184