Chapter I: Preface

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 præ-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. Of the three mythologies, the Greek, the Roman, and the Poetic or Conventional, I have selected the last, because--among other reasons--

It is as useful, and as needful to be known, as the others, on general grounds;

It is more useful, and more needful, than the others, as a portion of literature and as an intellectual influence;

It is preferable as a means of exciting an interest in the subject;

It is not in the remotest degree an obstacle to more accurate knowledge, for which indeed it is an almost indispensable preparation.

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