Classicsness ❧ Classical Culture

The hush of burning noon had fallen like a spell over the Valley of Roses. The grasshoppers were silent in the long grass; the brown lizards basked motionless on sun-scorched patches of rock; even the bees were asleep, cradled each in the heart of a dreaming flower. Not a leaf stirred in the bronze-green towers of shade that beech and walnut reared, singly or in groups, on the lower slopes; above, on the sheer hillsides, the serried ranks of stone pines had the luster and the rigidity of burnished metalwork. The air, aquiver with heat, seemed curling in bluish, filmy wreaths about the pine stems, as if the trees sent forth visibly their pungent incense; and ever and again warm gusts of that heady aroma swept the valley, overpowering the sweeter breath of its leagues of bloom. From end to end, the levels of the long, narrow glen were incarnadined with the triumph of one flower — Aphrodite’s own.

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📚 Source: Evergreen Stories (1920?) by W. M. L. Hutchinson (1868-1936).

You have come to understand, by this time, that the Shining People were the greatest magicians that ever came, with their enchantments, among the human beings who walk the world. It would take dozens of books to tell you of even half their deeds. But certainly one of the most wonderful of all was something that Aphrodite did for a king called Pygmalion.

This king did not care about fighting, like other monarchs who lived near. Nor did he want to hunt, nor feast, nor show his strength in the great games that everybody played. Instead, he was always carving, either in ivory or marble. He said he would never marry, for the maidens he carved with his marvelous chisel were more beautiful than any princess he was ever likely to meet. So he shut himself up in his studio and worked at his creations in dreamy solitude.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

One dark night, a prince, young and handsome, but very worn and weary, lay fast asleep beside a fountain in a wood. The trees waved softly above him; the stars shone like distant jewels; and the sound of the water mingled with the soft stirring of the breeze. But the prince, whose name was Bellerophon, moved uneasily in his sleep. He was dreaming not of the scents and the dews of the forests, but of a horrible monster that the king of the country had ordered him to go and kill, a beast even worse than the Minotaur, for it had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a dragon’s tail, and it breathed fire every time it opened its enormous mouth.

Poor Bellerophon had not done anything to deserve such a task, but the king’s daughter, who was the queen of another country, disliked him and had plotted to get rid of him. As a result of her plot, he had been commanded to go and slay the monster, of which everybody in the country was terribly afraid. He did not think he could possibly do this, but he was brave and had made up his mind to try. While thinking of the best way to begin, he sat down by the fountain and fell asleep. Then, overhead, came the gleam of wings among the stars — wings that stretched out far, far wider than an eagle’s, and that shone, silver and beautiful, under the crescent moon. The wings belonged, not to a great bird, but to a white horse! Round and round this beautiful creature flew, now circling high above the sleeping prince’s head, now poised in the air like an enormous, glittering hawk. Never was there such a sight on any mountain as that of this bright, winged steed, hanging, starry and wonderful, between the shadowed forest and the silver-studded, purple-blue sky of night.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

Once again, then, Odysseus and his men found themselves sailing the high seas, where the halcyons called to each other across the lonely waves. Presently, all soft and silver-misted on the horizon, they caught sight of a new land; and, by the sudden hush that fell over the ocean, and by a dim sweet echo of far-away music, Odysseus knew that his vessel was drawing near to the sirens’ Enchanted Isles.

This was one of the dangers from which Circe had taught him the way of escape. So, while the crew took up oars to row the ship through the calm water, the king sat in the bows, busily making little balls of soft wax. By and by, he rose from his seat and approached the sailors; and, one by one, he stopped up their ears with the wax balls, having first explained to them what they were to do when they were no longer able to hear his orders. In obedience to what he had commanded, the seamen —who were, of course, all made deaf by the rolls of wax in their ears— took their king respectfully by his royal shoulders and bound him, as tightly as they could, to the mast of the vessel. Then they lifted their oars again, and, once more, rowed steadily in the direction of the Enchanted Isles.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

After Odysseus had escaped from the cave of the terrible one-eyed giant, he and his companions went sailing onwards, hoping, yet not knowing, that they were on their way to Greece. But Poseidon was very angry, for the Cyclops whose eye had been put out by “Noman” was the son of the sea king. Odysseus, knowing that Poseidon would do all he could to raise storms about his ship, made his way to the island of Aeolus, the king of the winds, who lived in a fine brazen palace on top of the cliffs, Aeolus was so delighted with the tales of Odysseus’s bravery that he promised to help him; and, in order that no more tempests should trouble him, gave him all the strong and angry winds tied up by force in a big leather bag. Only one wind was left outside; this was Zephyr, the gentle west breeze, which had once been so kind to Psyche, and which was always ready to be nice and gracious to men.

Zephyr, left alone on the sea, filled the sails of the king’s vessel; and, with songs and laughter, the lost Greeks sailed onward over the calm, blue water. Then, one night, they saw their own friendly lighthouse, and, as dawn broke, recognized the mountains of their long-lost country. How delighted they were! Odysseus, for the first time for ten days, left the helm and went below to get an hour’s sleep. But, while he slept, his companions did a shocking and treacherous thing.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

And what had Odysseus been doing through all these long years, before he came under the enchantment of Calypso in her vine-draped cave?

Well, first of all, he had nearly fallen a prey to the magic of the lotus eaters. They were the laziest people in all the world, and they lived on an island where lotus trees grew everywhere, bearing fruits most lovely to look at and delicious to eat. But whoever tasted the lotus apples never wanted to do anything but sit under the shade of the trees and eat the enchanted fruit forever. Luckily for Odysseus, when he and his crew landed on the island he did not taste the fruit himself; but three of his men gathered and ate from the laden boughs, and, settling down immediately to rest on the flowery grass, declared they never intended to go home to their wives and families again. So Odysseus and the other seamen took them back to the ship by main force, and then they sailed away as fast as they could before any more of the crew could taste the fruit that was so delicious, but that made people lazy and useless for the rest of their lives.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

For many years, as you know, Odysseus fought with the other kings and captains in front of the walls of Troy. But when the city fell and the conquering armies set off in their ships for their own lands, they were all broken up and divided by quarrels among themselves, and also by violent storms at sea. Some of the kings after a time reached their homes in safety; but sweet Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, waited in vain for her husband’s return.

She did her best to rule the kingdom for him and to bring up her little son, Telemachus, in the way Odysseus would have liked, but she found the task very difficult. The nobles of the country began to do just as they chose and treated the palace of Odysseus exactly as if it were their own. Not only that, but one by one they came to Penelope, and, declaring that the king was dead, made her offers of marriage. Almost every morning one or another of them would seek out the queen, and, putting on quite absurd airs and graces, would propose to her! Penelope began by refusing them all indignantly, but her refusals made no difference. They kept on proposing as regularly as before. So at last, in despair, she called these foolish suitors together and made a bargain with them.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

You have heard how Troy fell, and no doubt felt you wanted to know what all the fighting was about. Well, it is a story that began with another golden apple.

There was a wedding, one day, of a sea nymph to a mortal king, and a very grand feast was going on in the caves of the sea — a feast to which all the immortals had come down from Olympus. Suddenly, at the banqueting table, appeared a being whom nobody loved, whose hair was snaky, and whose eyes were cruel and hard. She was the spirit of Discord, and she had, naturally, not been invited to the wedding, which was the last place where anyone wished to see her. With angry looks, she threw a golden apple upon the table and then vanished. When one of the guests picked up the fruit, everybody saw that on it were written the words: “For the fairest!”

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

Athena was the wisest among the immortals, just as Aphrodite was the most beautiful. The vigorous and lovely maiden who had sprung out of the king’s head was always ready to teach and help mortals who wanted to do brave and good things. The Romans called her Minerva, but the Greeks called her Athene or Pallas Athena; and, one day when she saw some people building a fine and beautiful city in Greece, she went to Zeus and said that she would like to take the city under her special protection and name it Athens, after herself.

Zeus was willing, and everything was about to be settled without dispute. But, at that moment, tramping heavily up the mountainside, his crown of shells and pearls pulled down over his angry eyes, and the sea anemones dropping from his wet robes among the wood anemones that bloomed in the path, Poseidon, the sea king, himself arrived on Olympus, most terribly annoyed.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).

Sailors of today who come back from far countries will often tell stories of the marvels they have seen, but these marvels are nothing compared with the wonders met with by the seamen of old Greece. Of course, they might, any day, come across Poseidon, with his green sea ladies, his blue and white horses, and his dolphins wagging their curly tails; not to speak of Aphrodite, floating along on her pretty silver shell, with her fairies playing around her. These people were generally the sailors’ friends; but there were also among the ocean folk some horrible monsters, of which the very worst were two witch-like creatures called Scylla and Charybdis.

Scylla had once been a beautiful princess, but she had been turned into a monster as a punishment for a very shocking thing she had done. Her father’s country was invaded by a neighboring monarch, with whom she fell in love. She knew that, among her father’s silvery hair, one lock was colored purple and hung in this strange tint over his wrinkled forehead. She also knew that so long as the purple lock grew safely among the white hairs of the old king, his country could never be taken from him. So, because she was in love with the enemy king, she crept one night into her father’s bed chamber and cut off the purple lock while he slept. Then, with the little tuft of hair in her hand, she went to the camp of the invading king and, offering him the purple lock, told him what she had done for his sake.

👉 And that's it for now! Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already: Classicsness.com. And if you want to know more about classics and even learn Latin online, check out LatinFromScratch.com.

📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).