Gods and Heroes / Life Stories for Young People

Series Title:    Life Stories for Young People
Translator:    Upton, George P. (George Putnam), 1834-1919

Contents    
Prometheus -- Deucalion and Pyrrha -- Hermes (Mercury) -- Phaëthon -- Orpheus -- Atalanta -- Tantalus -- Salmoneus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and Phlegyas -- Niobe -- Bellerophon -- Perseus -- Cadmus -- Dionysus (Bacchus) -- Actæon -- Dædalus and Icarus -- Philemon and Baucis -- Arachne -- Hyacinthus.

In a rare little volume in my possession, written by William Sheldon, F.A.S., and published by Isaiah Thomas, Jr., at Worcester, Mass., in 1810, over a century ago, the author introduces his “History of the Heathen Gods and Heroes of Antiquity” in the following quaint manner: “People of weak minds and of little learning, who have tasted the Pierian spring but not drunk deep at it, when they read an account of the Heathen Gods and Goddesses and of the images dedicated to them, and hear that the heathens were Idolators, or worshippers of Images, give credit to these stories, without any further inquiry or trouble. It may not, therefore, be unnecessary to inform persons of this description, that the people of all the nations which ever existed under heaven have believed that there existed one God, who is Almighty and the Maker of all things. But there have been people who believed also in inferior or subordinate gods, who were agents or mediators between God and man; and who were employed in carrying on the works of Providence and of the creation or Nature.”

This quaint effort to show the impropriety of treating any description of religion with unnecessary disrespect applies to this volume, which the translator has adapted from the German. Our old author might have added to his statement that there is rare beauty and fascination in many of these Grecian myths and that many a one has wished with Wordsworth that he might

“Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”

The old gods and minor deities in these “short stories” also appeal to us by their human qualities, and many an important moral lesson may be read in the fate of unfortunate minor deities who offended the higher gods. The sketches are in story form and are told in a refined and entertaining manner. Several of the higher gods and goddesses are not included in this volume, as they appear most interesting in the other volumes in this series—“Achilles,” “Ulysses,” “Argonauts’ Expedition and Labors of Hercules.”