The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales For My Children

by Charles Kingsley
PREFACE

MY DEAR CHILDREN,
Some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of

you, as you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those
of you who are boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time

in reading Greek books; and the girls, though they may not
learn Greek, will be sure to come across a great many stories

taken from Greek history, and to see, I may say every day,
things which we should not have had if it had not been for

these old Greeks. You can hardly find a well-written book
which has not in it Greek names, and words, and proverbs; you

cannot walk through a great town without passing Greek
buildings; you cannot go into a well-furnished room without

seeing Greek statues and ornaments, even Greek patterns of
furniture and paper; so strangely have these old Greeks left

their mark behind them upon this modern world in which we now
live. And as you grow up, and read more and more, you will

find that we owe to these old Greeks the beginners of all our
mathematics and geometry - that is, the science and knowledge

of numbers, and of the shapes of things, and of the forces
which make things move and stand at rest; and the beginnings

of our geography and astronomy; and of our laws, and freedom,
and politics - that is, the science of how to rule a country,

and make it peaceful and strong. And we owe to them, too,
the beginning of our logic - that is, the study of words and

of reasoning; and of our metaphysics - that is, the study of
our own thoughts and souls. And last of all, they made their

language so beautiful that foreigners used to take to it
instead of their own; and at last Greek became the common

language of educated people all over the old world, from
Persia and Egypt even to Spain and Britain. And therefore it

was that the New Testament was written in Greek, that it
might be read and understood by all the nations of the Roman

empire; so that, next to the Jews, and the Bible which the
Jews handed down to us, we owe more to these old Greeks than

to any people upon earth.
Now you must remember one thing - that 'Greeks' was not their

real name. They called themselves always 'Hellens,' but the
Romans miscalled them Greeks; and we have taken that wrong

name from the Romans - it would take a long time to tell you
why. They were made up of many tribes and many small

separate states; and when you hear in this book of Minuai,
and Athenians, and other such names, you must remember that

they were all different tribes and peoples of the one great
Hellen race, who lived in what we now call Greece, in the

islands of the Archipelago, and along the coast of Asia Minor
(Ionia, as they call it), from the Hellespont to Rhodes, and

had afterwards colonies and cities in Sicily, and South Italy
(which was called Great Greece), and along the shores of the

Black Sea at Sinope, and Kertch, and at Sevastopol. And
after that, again, they spread under Alexander the Great, and

conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Persia, and the whole East.
But that was many hundred years after my stories; for then

there were no Greeks on the Black Sea shores, nor in Sicily,
or Italy, or anywhere but in Greece and in Ionia. And if you

are puzzled by the names of places in this book, you must
take the maps and find them out. It will be a pleasanter way

of learninggeography than out of a dull lesson-book.
Now, I love these old Hellens heartily; and I should be very

ungrateful to them if I did not, considering all that they
have taught me; and they seem to me like brothers, though

they have all been dead and gone many hundred years ago. So
as you must learn about them, whether you choose or not, I

wish to be the first to introduce you to them, and to say,
'Come hither, children, at this blessed Christmas time, when

all God's creatures should rejoice together, and bless Him
who redeemed them all. Come and see old friends of mine,

whom I knew long ere you were born. They are come to visit
us at Christmas, out of the world where all live to God; and

to tell you some of their old fairy tales, which they loved
when they were young like you.'

For nations begin at first by being children like you, though
they are made up of grown men. They are children at first

like you - men and women with children's hearts; frank, and
affectionate, and full of trust, and teachable, and loving to

see and learn all the wonders round them; and greedy also,
too often, and passionate and silly, as children are.

Thus these old Greeks were teachable, and learnt from all the
nations round. From the Phoenicians they learnt

shipbuilding, and some say letters beside; and from the
Assyrians they learntpainting, and carving, and building in

wood and stone; and from the Egyptians they learntastronomy,
and many things which you would not understand. In this they

were like our own forefathers the Northmen, of whom you love
to hear, who, though they were wild and rough themselves,

were humble, and glad to learn from every one. Therefore God
rewarded these Greeks, as He rewarded our forefathers, and

made them wiser than the people who taught them in everything
they learnt; for He loves to see men and children open-

hearted, and willing to be taught; and to him who uses what
he has got, He gives more and more day by day. So these

Greeks grew wise and powerful, and wrote poems which will
live till the world's end, which you must read for yourselves

some day, in English at least, if not in Greek. And they
learnt to carve statues, and build temples, which are still

among the wonders of the world; and many another wondrous
thing God taught them, for which we are the wiser this day.

For you must not fancy, children, that because these old
Greeks were heathens, therefore God did not care for them,

and taught them nothing.
The Bible tells us that it was not so, but that God's mercy

is over all His works, and that He understands the hearts of
all people, and fashions all their works. And St. Paul told

these old Greeks in after times, when they had grown wicked
and fallen low, that they ought to have known better, because

they were God's offspring, as their own poets had said; and
that the good God had put them where they were, to seek the

Lord, and feel after Him, and find Him, though He was not far
from any one of them. And Clement of Alexandria, a great

Father of the Church, who was as wise as he was good, said
that God had sent down Philosophy to the Greeks from heaven,

as He sent down the Gospel to the Jews.
For Jesus Christ, remember, is the Light who lights every man

who comes into the world. And no one can think a right
thought, or feel a right feeling, or understand the real

truth of anything in earth and heaven, unless the good Lord
Jesus teaches him by His Spirit, which gives man

understanding.
But these Greeks, as St. Paul told them, forgot what God had

taught them, and, though they were God's offspring,
worshipped idols of wood and stone, and fell at last into sin

and shame, and then, of course, into cowardice and slavery,
till they perished out of that beautiful land which God had

given them for so many years.
For, like all nations who have left anything behind them,

beside mere mounds of earth, they believed at first in the
One True God who made all heaven and earth. But after a

while, like all other nations, they began to worship other
gods, or rather angels and spirits, who (so they fancied)

lived about their land. Zeus, the Father of gods and men
(who was some dim remembrance of the blessed true God), and

Hera his wife, and Phoebus Apollo the Sun-god, and Pallas
Athene who taught men wisdom and useful arts, and Aphrodite

the Queen of Beauty, and Poseidon the Ruler of the Sea, and
Hephaistos the King of the Fire, who taught men to work in

metals. And they honoured the Gods of the Rivers, and the
Nymph-maids, who they fancied lived in the caves, and the

fountains, and the glens of the forest, and all beautiful
wild places. And they honoured the Erinnues, the dreadful

sisters, who, they thought, hauntedguilty men until their
sins were purged away. And many other dreams they had, which

parted the One God into many; and they said, too, that these
gods did things which would be a shame and sin for any man to

do. And when their philosophers arose, and told them that
God was One, they would not listen, but loved their idols,

and their wicked idol feasts, till they all came to ruin.
But we will talk of such sad things no more.

But, at the time of which this little book speaks, they had
not fallen as low as that. They worshipped no idols, as far

as I can find; and they still believed in the last six of the
ten commandments, and knew well what was right and what was

wrong. And they believed (and that was what gave them
courage) that the gods loved men, and taught them, and that

without the gods men were sure to come to ruin. And in that
they were right enough, as we know - more right even than

they thought; for without God we can do nothing, and all
wisdom comes from Him.

Now, you must not think of them in this book as learned men,
living in great cities, such as they were afterwards, when

they wrought all their beautiful works, but as country
people, living in farms and walled villages, in a simple,

hard-working way; so that the greatest kings and heroes
cooked their own meals, and thought it no shame, and made

their own ships and weapons, and fed and harnessed their own
horses; and the queens worked with their maid-servants, and

did all the business of the house, and spun, and wove, and
embroidered, and made their husbands' clothes and their own.

So that a man was honoured among them, not because he
happened to be rich, but according to his skill, and his

strength, and courage, and the number of things which he
could do. For they were but grown-up children, though they

were right noble children too; and it was with them as it is
now at school - the strongest and cleverest boy, though he be

poor, leads all the rest.
Now, while they were young and simple they loved fairy tales,

as you do now. All nations do so when they are young: our
old forefathers did, and called their stories 'Sagas.' I

will read you some of them some day - some of the Eddas, and
the Volusp? and Beowulf, and the noble old Romances. The

old Arabs, again, had their tales, which we now call the
'Arabian Nights.' The old Romans had theirs, and they called

them 'Fabulae,' from which our word 'fable' comes; but the
old Hellens called theirs 'Muthoi,' from which our new word

'myth' is taken. But next to those old Romances, which were
written in the Christian middle age, there are no fairy tales

like these old Greek ones, for beauty, and wisdom, and truth,
and for making children love noble deeds, and trust in God to

help them through.
Now, why have I called this book 'The Heroes'? Because that

was the name which the Hellens gave to men who were brave and
skilful, and dare do more than other men. At first, I think,

that was all it meant: but after a time it came to mean
something more; it came to mean men who helped their country;

men in those old times, when the country was half-wild, who
killed fierce beasts and evil men, and drained swamps, and

founded towns, and therefore after they were dead, were
honoured, because they had left their country better than

they found it. And we call such a man a hero in English to
this day, and call it a 'heroic' thing to suffer pain and

grief, that we may do good to our fellow-men. We may all do
that, my children, boys and girls alike; and we ought to do

it, for it is easier now than ever, and safer, and the path
more clear. But you shall hear how the Hellens said their

heroes worked, three thousand years ago. The stories are not
all true, of course, nor half of them; you are not simple

enough to fancy that; but the meaning of them is true, and
true for ever, and that is - Do right, and God will help

you.'
FARLEY COURT,

ADVENT, 1855.
STORY I. - PERSEUS

PART I - HOW PERSEUS AND HIS MOTHER CAME TO SERIPHOS
ONCE upon a time there were two princes who were twins.

Their names were Acrisius and Proetus, and they lived in the
pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas. They had

fruitful meadows and vineyards, sheep and oxen, great herds
of horses feeding down in Lerna Fen, and all that men could

need to make them blest: and yet they were wretched, because
they were jealous of each other. From the moment they were

born they began to quarrel; and when they grew up each tried
to take away the other's share of the kingdom, and keep all

for himself. So first Acrisius drove out Proetus; and he
went across the seas, and brought home a foreign princess for

his wife, and foreign warriors to help him, who were called
Cyclopes; and drove out Acrisius in his turn; and then they

fought a long while up and down the land, till the quarrel
was settled, and Acrisius took Argos and one half the land,

and Proetus took Tiryns and the other half. And Proetus and
his Cyclopes built around Tiryns great walls of unhewn stone,

which are standing to this day.
But there came a prophet to that hard-hearted Acrisius and

prophesied against him, and said, 'Because you have risen up