After these observations, there is no occasion to explain why I have made a point of employing Latin names and Latin spelling.
Another point to which I should call attention is the attempt to cover (within limits) the whole ground, so that the reader may not be left in ignorance of any considerable tract of the realm of Jove. The stories are not detached; they are brought, so far as I have been able to bring them, into a single saga, free from inconsistencies and contradictions. Omissions owing to the necessarily prescribed limits will, I think, always find a place to fall into. Altogether, the lines of the volume diverge so entirely from those of Kingsley, or Hawthorne, or any other story-teller known to me, that I may feel myself safe from the danger of fatal comparisons. Of course this aim at a certain completeness has implied the difficult task of selection among variants of the same story or incident. Sometimes I have preferred the most interesting, sometimes the version most consistent with the general plan. But I have endeavored, as a rule, to adopt the most usual or familiar, as being most in accordance with my original intention.
I need not, however, enumerate difficulties, which, if they are overcome, need no apology; and, if they are not, deserve none. The greatest and most obvious, the strict observance of the “Maxima reverentia,” will, and must always remain, crucial. In this, at least, I trust I have succeeded, in whatever else I may have failed. These stories were begun for one who was very dear to me, and who was their first and best critic; and I shall be glad if what was begun, in hope, for him should be of use to others.
R. E. F.
Note.—Quantity is marked in proper names, when necessary, at their first occurrence.
CONTENTS.
| Page | |||
| SATURN | [1] | ||
| JUPITER AND JUNO: | |||
| PART | I.— | THE GODS AND THE GIANTS | [6] |
| PART | II.— | THE FIRST MAN; OR, THE STORY OF PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA | [11] |
| PART | III.— | THE GREAT FLOOD; OR, THE STORY OF DEUCALION | [18] |
| APOLLO: | |||
| PART | I.— | THE STORIES OF LATONA AND NIOBE | [24] |
| PART | II.— | THE FLAYED PIPER; OR, THE STORY OF MARSYAS | [28] |
| PART | III.— | TOO MUCH GOLD; OR, THE FIRST STORY OF MIDAS | [33] |
| PART | IV.— | THE CRITIC; OR, THE SECOND STORY OF MIDAS | [40] |
| PART | V.— | SOME FLOWER STORIES: | |
| I.— | THE LAUREL | [44] | |
| II.— | THE HYACINTH | [47] | |
| III.— | THE SUNFLOWER | [49] | |
| IV.— | THE NARCISSUS | [52] | |
| PART | VI.— | PRESUMPTION; OR, THE STORY OF PHAËTHON | [57] |
| DIANA; AND THE STORY OF ORION | [62] | ||
| MINERVA; OR, WISDOM | [69] | ||
| VENUS: | |||
| PART | I.— | THE GOD OF FIRE | [72] |
| PART | II.— | LOVE AND THE SOUL; OR, THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE | [80] |
| MERCURY AND IRIS | [105] | ||
| NEPTUNE | [109] | ||
| HADES: | |||
| PART | I.— | THE KING AND QUEEN OF THE DEAD | [115] |
| PART | II.— | THE KINGDOM | [122] |
| PART | III.— | ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE | [129] |
| PART | IV.— | THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED | [134] |
| THE ADVENTURES OF PERSEUS | [137] | ||
| THE GOLDEN FLEECE | [162] | ||
| A LOST SECRET | [185] | ||
| THE CHAMPION OF ATHENS | [194] | ||
| THE HERO OF HEROES: | |||
| PART | I.— | THE ORACLE | [210] |
| PART | II.— | HIS FIRST LABOR: THE LION | [217] |
| PART | III.— | HIS SECOND LABOR: THE HYDRA | [220] |
| PART | IV.— | HIS THIRD LABOR: THE STAG | [224] |
| PART | V.— | HIS FOURTH LABOR: THE BOAR | [227] |
| PART | VI.— | HIS FIFTH LABOR: THE AUGEAN STABLE | [233] |
| PART | VII.— | MORE LABORS: AND THE CATTLE OF GERYON | [237] |
| PART | VIII.— | HIS ELEVENTH LABOR: THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES | [245] |
| PART | IX.— | HIS TWELFTH LABOR: THE DESCENT INTO HADES | [253] |
| PART | X.— | THE CHOICE OF HERCULES | [260] |
| PART | XI.— | THE TUNIC OF NESSUS | [266] |
| THE APPLE OF DISCORD | [276] | ||
| Pronouncing Vocabulary of Proper Names | [287] | ||
SATURN.
ONCE upon a time, the Sky married the Earth. The Sky’s name was Cœlus, and the Earth’s was Terra. They had a great many children: one of these, the eldest, was called Titan, and another was called Saturn.
Terra, their mother Earth, was very good and kind; but their father, Cœlus, was very unkind and cruel. He hated his own children, and shut them all up under ground, so that he might get rid of them—all of them, that is to say, except Saturn, whom he allowed to have his freedom. Saturn grew up; and he thought of nothing but how to set his brothers free. At last one day he went to his mother, and asked her what he could do. Terra had come to hate her husband for his cruelty: so she gave Saturn all the iron she had in her veins—(you know that iron comes from what are called the Veins of the Earth)—and he made a great scythe with it. With this scythe he wounded and punished his father so terribly that old Cœlus was never good for anything again—in fact, we never hear of him any more, except when we turn his name into Cœlum, which is the Latin for “the sky,” as you know.