Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 10 (of 15), Greek — John Shaqi
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 10 (of 15), GreekMorris, Charles
History
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 10 (of 15), Greek
Morris, Charles
Greece -- History
Some of the Greek warriors reached home speedily and were met with
welcome, but others perished by the way, while Agamemnon, their leader,
returned to find that his wife had been false to him, and perished by
her treacherous hand. Menelaus wandered long through Egypt, Cyprus, and
elsewhere before he reached his native land. Nestor and several others
went to Italy, where they founded cities. Diomedes also became a founder
of cities, and various others seem to have busied themselves in this
same useful occupation. Neoptolemus made his way to Epirus, where he
became king of the Molossians. AEneas, the Trojan hero, sought Carthage,
whose queen Dido died for love of him. Thence he sailed to Italy, where
he fought battles and won victories, and finally founded the city of
Rome. His story is given by Virgil, in the poem of the "AEneid." Much
more might be told of the adventures of the returning heroes, but the
chief of them all is that related of the much wandering Ulysses, as
given by Homer in his epic poem the "Odyssey."
The story of the "Odyssey" might serve us for a tale in itself, but as
it is in no sense historical we give it here in epitome.
We are told that during the wanderings of Ulysses his island kingdom of
Ithaca had been invaded by a throng of insolent suitors of his wife
Penelope, who occupied his castle and wasted his substance in riotous
living. His son Telemachus, indignant at this, set sail in search of his
father, whom he knew to be somewhere upon the seas. Landing at Sparta,
he found Menelaus living with Helen in a magnificent castle, richly
ornamented with gold, silver, and bronze, and learned from him that his
father was then in the island of Ogygia, where he had been long detained
by the nymph Calypso.
The wanderer had experienced numerous adventures. He had encountered the
one-eyed giant Polyphemus, who feasted on the fattest of the Greeks,
while the others escaped by boring out his single eye. He had passed the
land of the Lotus-Eaters, to whose magic some of the Greeks succumbed.
In the island of Circe some of his followers were turned into swine. But
the hero overcame this enchantress, and while in her land visited the
realm of the departed and had interviews with the shades of the dead.
He afterwards passed in safety through the frightful gulf of Scylla and
Charybdis, and visited the wind-god AEolus, who gave him a fair wind
home, and all the foul winds tied up in a bag. But the curious Greeks
untied the bag, and the ship was blown far from her course. His
followers afterwards killed the sacred oxen of the sun, for which they
were punished by being wrecked. All were lost except Ulysses, who
floated on a mast to the island of Calypso. With this charming nymph he
dwelt for seven years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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