The Heroes; Or, Greek Fairy Tales for My ChildrenKingsley, Charles
General
The Heroes; Or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children
Kingsley, Charles
Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature
And when they died, the ancients say, Athené took them up into the sky,
with Cepheus and Cassiopoeia. And there on starlight nights you may see
them shining still; Cepheus with his kingly crown, and Cassiopoeia in her
ivory chair, plaiting her star-spangled tresses, and Perseus with the
Gorgon’s head, and fair Andromeda beside him, spreading her long white
arms across the heaven, as she stood when chained to the stone for the
monster.
All night long, they shine, for a beacon to wandering sailors; but all
day they feast with the Gods, on the still blue peaks of Olympus.
STORY II.—THE ARGONAUTS
PART I
HOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES ON PELION
I have told you of a hero who fought with wild beasts and with wild men;
but now I have a tale of heroes who sailed away into a distant land, to
win themselves renown for ever, in the adventure of the Golden Fleece.
Whither they sailed, my children, I cannot clearly tell. It all happened
long ago; so long that it has all grown dim, like a dream which you
dreamt last year. And why they went I cannot tell: some say that it was
to win gold. It may be so; but the noblest deeds which have been done on
earth have not been done for gold. It was not for the sake of gold that
the Lord came down and died, and the Apostles went out to preach the good
news in all lands. The Spartans looked for no reward in money when they
fought and died at Thermopylæ; and Socrates the wise asked no pay from
his countrymen, but lived poor and barefoot all his days, only caring to
make men good. And there are heroes in our days also, who do noble
deeds, but not for gold. Our discoverers did not go to make themselves
rich when they sailed out one after another into the dreary frozen seas;
nor did the ladies who went out last year to drudge in the hospitals of
the East, making themselves poor, that they might be rich in noble works.
And young men, too, whom you know, children, and some of them of your own
kin, did they say to themselves, ‘How much money shall I earn?’ when they
went out to the war, leaving wealth, and comfort, and a pleasant home,
and all that money can give, to face hunger and thirst, and wounds and
death, that they might fight for their country and their Queen? No,
children, there is a better thing on earth than wealth, a better thing
than life itself; and that is, to have done something before you die, for
which good men may honour you, and God your Father smile upon your work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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