Gods and Heroes; or, The Kingdom of Jupiter — John Shaqi
Gods and Heroes; or, The Kingdom of JupiterFrancillon, R. E. (Robert Edward)
General
Gods and Heroes; or, The Kingdom of Jupiter
Francillon, R. E. (Robert Edward)
Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature
I have something to say about this story, which you may not quite
understand now, but which you will, some day, when you read it again.
Think how Man is made of dead common clay, but with one spark of
Heavenly Fire straight from the sky. Think how Woman is made, with
less clay, but with more of the Heavenly Fire. Think of that
"Afterthought," which saved Hope when there was nothing else to be
saved, and think of the Pain sent to gnaw the heart of Prometheus, who
used all his cleverness to make himself great in wrong-doing.
You will be glad to hear that, a long time afterwards, the greatest
and best man in all Mythology came and killed the vulture, and set
Prometheus free. You will read all about it in time. But I want you to
know and remember the man's name. It was Hercules.
PART III.--THE GREAT FLOOD; OR, THE STORY OF DEUCALION.
Prometheus turned out to be quite right in saying that men would give
more trouble to Jupiter than the Titans or the Giants, or anything
that had ever been made. As time went on, men became more and more
wicked every day.
* * * * *
Now there lived in Thessaly, on the banks of a river, a man and his
wife, named Deucalion and Pyrrha. I think they must have been good
people, and not like all the other men and women in the world. One
day, Deucalion noticed that the water in the river was rising very
high. He did not think much of it at the time, but the next day it was
higher, and the next higher still. At last the river burst its banks,
and spread over the country, sweeping away houses and drowning many
people.
Deucalion and Pyrrha escaped out of their own house just in time, and
went to the top of a mountain. But, to their terror, the waters still
kept on spreading and rising, until all the plain of Thessaly looked
like a sea, and the tops of the hills like islands.
"The water will cover the hills soon," said Deucalion, "and then the
mountains. What shall we do?"
Pyrrha thought for a moment, and then said:--
"I have heard that there is a very wise man on the top of Mount
Caucasus who knows everything. Let us go to him, and perhaps he will
tell us what to do and what all this water means."
So they went down the other side, and went on and on till they reached
the great Caucasian mountains, which are the highest in all Europe,
and are always covered with snow. They climbed up to the highest peak,
and there they saw a man, chained to the ice, with a vulture tearing
and gnawing him. It was Prometheus, who had made the first man.
Deucalion tried to drive the horrible bird away. But Prometheus
said:--
"It is no use. You can do nothing for me. Not even the Great Flood
will drive this bird away, or put me out of my pain."
"Ah! the Great Flood!" cried Deucalion and Pyrrha together. "We have
left it behind us--are we safe up here?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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