Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and GirlsBailey, Carolyn Sherwin
General
Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and Girls
Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin
Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature
The Greeks named a hill for him near Athens, and here was held a court
of justice for the right decision of cases involving life and death.
That put Mars to work in a very different way. And the Romans gave him a
great field for military manoeuvres and martial games. We would call it
a training camp to-day. There, in Mars Field, chariot races were held
twice a year and there were competitions in riding, in discus and spear
throwing, and in shooting arrows at a mark. Once in five years the
able-bodied young men of Rome came to Mars Field to enlist for the army,
and no Roman general started out to war without first swinging a sacred
shield and spear which hung there and saying,
"Watch over me, O Mars." For Mars could put muscle into a man's arm, and
the heroes themselves were learning to choose the good fight.
HOW MINERVA BUILT A CITY
The sea that broke in surf on the shore of Attica became suddenly as
smooth as a floor of crystal. Over it, as if he had leaped from the
caverns of rock in its depths, dashed Neptune, the god of the sea, his
trident held high, his horses' golden manes flowing in the wind, and
their bronze hoofs scarcely touching the water as they galloped toward
the shore.
At the same moment a war-like goddess appeared on the edge of the land.
She was as tall and straight and strong as Mars, but her armor shone
like gold while his was often tarnished. She held the storm shield of
her father, Jupiter and carried a dart of lightning for her spear.
Minerva, the other god of war, she was, as fearful and powerful as a
storm, but also as gentle and peaceful as the warmth of the sky when it
shines down on the fields when the storm is over.
"Why have Neptune and Minerva met?" the fishermen and sailors who
crowded the beach asked.
"They have come together for a contest to see which shall have the
honor of building a City," some of the wise men told them, and then
these Greeks drew aside and waited to see what would happen, for with
them was to rest the judgment in the matter.
Neptune drove his chariot up onto the land, dismounted, and blew a
mighty blast on his trumpet to call the nymphs of the waters and the
spirits of the winds to his aid. Then he ascended to a barren rock that
lifted its head above the surrounding hills, bleak and without a single
blade of grass to soften it. The Greeks watched Neptune breathlessly as
he stood on its top, a mighty figure in his cloak of dripping seaweed
and the white of sea salt in his flowing, dark green hair. He raised his
trident, struck the rocks with it, and the age-old stone cracked in a
deep fissure. Out of the crack in the rock burst a spring of water where
there had been not a drop through all the centuries before.
"Neptune wins! None of the gods can excel this feat of bringing water
out of bare rock," the cry went up from the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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