Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable. Bulfinch Thomas

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СКАЧАТЬ - 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

       Table of Contents

      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 СКАЧАТЬ