One of the best introductions to Greek mythology for children. Includes the stories of all the prominent gods and heroes, woven together into a continuous narrative, ending with a full treatment of the twelve labors of Hercules.
These stories will, I trust, explain their own purpose; but a few words touching their form are due to critical readers.
It will be seen that the Mythology adopted throughout is strictly of the old-fashioned kind which goes to Ovid as its leading authority, and ignores the difference between the gods of Greece and the gods of Rome. I have deliberately followed this plan because, while there is not the remotest fear—quite the contrary—that young people, when or if they become scholars, will not be duly initiated into the mysteries of scientific and comparative mythology, there is considerable danger that the stories of the gods and heroes which have saturated literature, and have become essential portions of the thought and life of ages, may become explained away only too thoroughly. It is easy for my readers to acquire the science of the subject hereafter; but where mythology is concerned, the poetry must come before the prose, and it will be a distinct loss for them if, under scientific teaching, they have never been familiar with the ancient stories as they were read by the makers of literature in the pre-critical times. Without the mythology of the Latin poets, modern literature in all languages becomes almost a dead letter: hundreds of allusions become pointless, and thousands of substances fade into shadows.
This book contain collection of 39 Short Stories:
1. Saturn
2. The Gods and the Giants
3. The First Man
4. The Great Flood
5. The Stories of Latona and Niobe
6. The Flayed Piper
7. Too Much Gold
8. The Critic
9. The Laurel
10. The Hyacinth
11. The Sun-Flower
12. The Narcissus
13. Presumption
14. Diana
15. Minerva
16. The God of Fire
17. Love and the Soul
18. Mercury and Iris
19. Neptune
20. The King and Queen of the Dead
21. The Kingdom
22. Orpheus and Eurydice
23. Man Who Never Died
24. The Adventures of Perseus
25. The Golden Fleece
26. A Lost Secret
27. The Champion of Athens
28. The Oracle
29. His First Labor: The Lion
30. His Second Labor: The Hydra
31. His Third Labor: The Stag
32. His Fourth Labor: The Boar
33. His Fifth Labor: The Augean Stable
34. More Labors
35. His Eleventh Labor: The Garden of the Hesperides
36. His Twelfth Labor: The Descent into Hades
37. The Choice of Hercules
38. The Tunic of Nessus
39. The Apple of Discord
