Circe’s Palace _Frontispiece illustration in color from the painting by Maxfield Parrish_ THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE The Heroes Sail Away in Search of the Golden Fleece _From the painting by Maxfield Parrish_ ON THE BANK OF ANAUROS SAT A WOMAN, ALL WRINKLED, GRAY, AND OLD How Jason Lost His Sandal _From the painting by T. H. Robinson_ JASON AND THE TALKING OAK How They Built the Ship Argo _From the painting by Maxfield Parrish_ CHIRON, THE CENTAUR How the Argonauts Sailed to Colchis _From the painting by Maxfield Parrish_ PARIS CARRIED HER TO TROY The Trojan War _From the painting by R. von Deutsch_ THEN AUTOMEDON YOKED THE HORSES TO THE CHARIOT The Deeds and Death of Patroclus _From the painting by H. Regnault_ PREFACE Homer, that king of story-tellers, traveller and well-loved school teacher, is supposed to have lived in Greece about three thousand years ago. Trained story-tellers or bards, with extraordinary memories, were not rare in that simple age. Many argue that writing for literary purposes was not used by the Greeks at that time, and that Homer recited his tales to groups of friends, to his school children, and at the great yearly festivals. It is amazing what memories people had in the days when there were no books, when there were not a thousand and one things to distract them; yet we have proof that such memories are possible in our time. About fifty years ago, poor, uneducated Blind Jamie was a well-known character in the town of Stirling, in Scotland. He could recite the Bible from beginning to end, without mistake, and could even repeat any verse from any part of the Bible. From the mass of old folk tales that he gathered on his travels, Homer, the inspired minstrel, wove one continuous story, the greatest epic poems of all time, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Later, one of the Greek chroniclers tells us, Pisistratus edited them with taste and care, “in the order in which we have them.” Although the world we visit in Homer’s pages is a Greek world, it is singularly like our own in many respects. His men and women face the same problems of war and peace, of triumph and defeat, of pleasure and pain, as we do. His soldiers and sailors in the spirit-stirring war might be men of to-day. And best of all, he makes us see, feel, hope, fear, laugh and cry through these marvellous pages, over which, for hundreds of years, boys and girls of all countries have lingered, entranced.