- Antigone's Sisterly Devotion.— Antigone's Burial.— Penelope.-- Statue to Modesty.— Ulysses.— Penelope's suitors.—
Penelope's Web
Chapter XVII
Orpheus's Lyre.— Unhappy Prognostics at Orpheus's Marriage.—
Eurydice's Death.— Orpheus Descends to the Stygian Realm.—
Orpheus Loses Eurydice Forever.— Thracian Maidens.— Honey.—
Aristaeus's Loss and Complaint.— Cyrene's Apartments.— Proteus
Captured.— His Directions to Orpheus.— Swarm of Bees.—
Celebrated Mythical Poets and Musicians.— First Mortal Endowed
with Prophetic Powers
Chapter XVIII
Adventures of Real Persons.— Arion, Famous Musician.—
Description of Ancient Theatres.— Murder of Ibycus.— Chorus
Personating the Furies.— Cranes of Ibycus.— The Murderers
Seized.— Simonides.— Scopa's Jest. Simonides's Escape.—
Sappho.— "Lover's Leap"
Chapter XIX
Endymion.— Mount Latmos. Gift of Perpetual Youth and Perpetual
Sleep.— Orion.— Kedalion.— Orion's Girdle.— The Fatal Shot
The Pleiads.— Aurora.— Memnon.— statue of Memnon.— Scylla.—
Acis and Galatea.— River Acis
Chapter XX
Minerva's Competition.— Paris's Decision.— Helen.— Paris's
Elopement.— Ulysses's Pretence.— The Apple of Discord.— Priam,
King of Troy.— Commander of Grecian Armament.— Principal
Leaders of the Trojans.— Agamemnon Kills the Sacred Stag.—
Iphigenia.— The Trojan War.— The Iliad.— Interest of Dods and
Goddesses in the War.— Achilles's Suit of Armor.— Death of
Hector.— Ransom Sent to Achilles.— Achilles Grants Priam's
Request.— Hector's Funeral Solemnities.
Chapter XXI
Achilles Captivated by Polyxena.— Achilles' Claim.— Bestowal of
Achilles' Armor.— The Hyacinth.— Arrows of Hercules.— Death of
Paris.— Celebrated Statue of Minerva.— Wooden Horse.— Greeks
Pretend to Abandon the Siege.— Sea Serpents.— Laocoon.— Troy
subdued.— Helen and Menelaus.— Nepenthe.— Agamemnon's
Misfortunes.— Orestes.— Electra.— Site of the City of Troy
Chapter XXII
The Odyssey.— The Wanderings of Ulysses.— Country of the
Cyclops.— The Island of Aeolus.— The Barbarous Tribe of
Laestrygonians.— Circe.— The Sirens.— Scylla and Charybdis.—
Cattle of Hyperion.— Ulysses's Raft.— Calypso Entertains
Ulysses.— Telemachus and Mentor Escape from Calypso's Isle
Chapter XXIII
Ulysses Abandons the Raft.— The Country of the Phaeacians.—
Nausicaa's Dream.— A Game of Ball.— Ulysses's Dilemma.—
Nausicaa's Courage.— The Palace of Alcinous.— Skill of the
Phaeacian Women.— Hospitality to Ulysses.— Demodocus, the Blind
Bard.— Gifts to Ulysses
Chapter XXV
Virgil's Description of the Region of the Dead.— Descend into
Hades.— The Black River and Ferryman.— Cape Palinurus.— The
Three-Headed Dog.— Regions of Sadness.— Shades of Grecian and
Trojan Warriors.— Judgment Hall of Rhadamanthus.— The Elysian
Fields.— Aeneas Meets His Father.— Anchises Explains the Plan
of Creation.— Transmigration of Souls.— Egyptian Name of
Hades.— Location of Elysium.— Prophetic Power of the Sibyl.—
Legend of the Nine Books
Stories of Gods and Heroes.
Chapter I
Introduction
The literature of our time, as of all the centuries of Christendom, is full of allusions to the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans. Occasionally, and, in modern days, more often, it contains allusions to the worship and the superstitions of the northern nations of Europe. The object of this book is to teach readers who are not yet familiar with the writers of Greece and Rome, or the ballads or legends of the Scandinavians, enough of the stories which form what is called their mythology, to make those allusions intelligible which one meets every day, even in the authors of our own time.
The Greeks and Romans both belong to the same race or stock. It is generally known in our time as the Aryan family of mankind; and so far as we know its history, the Greeks and Romans descended from the tribes which emigrated from the high table- lands of Northern India. Other tribes emigrated in different directions from the same centre, so that traces of the Aryan language are found in the islands of the Pacific ocean.
The people of this race, who moved westward, seem to have had a special fondness for open air nature, and a willingness to personify the powers of nature. They were glad to live in the open air, and they specially encouraged the virtues which an open-air people prize. Thus no Roman was thought manly who could not swim, and every Greek exercised in the athletic sports of the palaestra.
The Romans and
