PREFACE
Reading edition
The apology offered for adding yet another book of Classical Stories to the endless existing versions, ancient and modern, in verse and in prose, is the plea that Vivien offers to Merlin for her "tender rhyme":
"It lives dispersedly in many hands, And every minstrel sings it differently."
"You Greeks," said the Egyptian priest to Herodotus, "are always children," and Greece will never lose the secret of eternal youth. The tale of Troy divine, of Thebes and Pelops' line, the song of sweet Colonus, the most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby, Dido with a willow in her hand—these old stories of Homer and Sophocles, of Virgil and Ovid, have not lost their gloss and freshness. "The innocent brightness of a new-born day is lovely yet." They have been sung or said by Wace and Caxton, by Chaucer and Wordsworth, by Keats and William Morris; they have been adapted for young readers by Fénelon, by Niebuhr, by Kingsley, by Hawthorne, and yet the last word has not been said. Each new editor makes his own selection, chooses some new facet, or displays the jewel in a new light. As Sainte-Beuve remarks of "Don Quixote" and other world classics, "One can discover there something more than the author first of all tried to see there, and certainly more than he dreamed of putting there."
The present collection of Fifty Stories (there might well have been five hundred) makes no pretense either of completeness or of uniformity. Some of the contributors have followed closely the texts, others have given free play to their fancy, but in every case the myths have been treated simply as stories and no attempt has been made either to trace their origin or to indicate their religious or ethical significance. Most of the stories point their own moral, and need no more commentary than Jack the Giant-killer or the Sleeping Beauty. Young readers of to-day resent the sermons even of a Kingsley. From "Tanglewood Tales," a book that was the joy of our childhood, we have borrowed ten stories, and have taken the liberty of dividing into chapters and slightly abridging the longest of Hawthorne's Tales. All but one of the remaining forty are original versions.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Pluto and Proserpine1
By H. P. Maskell
Pan and Syrinx5
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
The Story of Phaeton13
By M. M. Bird
Arethusa19
By V. C. Turnbull
The Story of Daphne24
By M. M. Bird
Deucalion and Pyrrha28
By M. M. Bird
Epimetheus and Pandora33
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Europa and the God-Bull50
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Cadmus and the Dragon's Teeth65
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Orpheus and Eurydice83
By V. C. Turnbull
Hercules and the Golden Apples89
I. Hercules and the Old Man of the Sea
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hercules and the Golden Apples98
II. Hercules and Atlas
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hercules and Nessus107
By H. P. Maskell
The Quest of the Golden Fleece111
By M. M. Bird
How Theseus Found His Father124
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Theseus and the Witch Medea131
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Theseus Goes to Slay the Minotaur138
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Theseus and Ariadne144
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Paris and Œnone154
By V. C. Turnbull
Iphigenia161
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
Protesilaus166
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
The Death of Hector173
By V. C. Turnbull
The Wooden Horse180
By F. Storr
The Sack of Troy185
By F. Storr
The Death of Ajax191
By F. Storr
The Flight of Æneas from Troy196
By F. Storr
Æneas and Dido201
By V. C. Turnbull
Æneas in Hades209
By V. C. Turnbull
Nisus and Euryalus217
By F. Storr
Ulysses in Hades224
By M. M. Bird
Circe's Palace232
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ulysses and the Cyclops262
By Hope Moncrieff
The Sirens271
By V. C. Turnbull
The Story of Nausicaa275
By M. M. Bird
The Homecoming of Ulysses283
By M. M. Bird
Baucis and Philemon292
By H. P. Maskell
Hypermnestra296
By V. C. Turnbull
Œdipus at Colonos302
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
Midas308
By H. P. Maskell
Perseus and Andromeda313
By V. C. Turnbull
Meleager and Atalanta320
By H. P. Maskell
The Story of Dædalus and Icarus326
By M. M. Bird
Scylla, the Daughter of Nisus330
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe340
By M. M. Bird
Hero and Leander344
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
Pygmalion and the Image352
By F. Storr
Cephalus and Procris359
By H. P. Maskell
Echo and Narcissus364
By Thomas Bulfinch
The Ring of Polycrates369
By M. M. Bird
Romulus and Remus375
By Mrs. Guy E. Lloyd
ILLUSTRATIONS
Hercules and the Golden ApplesFrontispiece
FACING PAGE
The Story of Daphne26
Hercules and Nessus108
Theseus Goes to Slay the Minotaur138
Æneas in Hades212
Ulysses and the Cyclops266
Perseus and Andromeda316
Romulus and Remus380
HALF A HUNDRED HERO TALES