Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece

  Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

  Copyright © 1946 by Pantheon Books,

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  Copyright renewed 1974 by Random House, Inc.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American

  Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by

  Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York,

  and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,

  Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by

  Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1946.

  Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 47-878

  eISBN: 978-0-307-80518-8

  v3.1

  TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN TEXT

  AND ITS GREEK SOURCES BY

  OLGA MARX AND ERNST MORWITZ

  INTRODUCTION BY WERNER JAEGER

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  INTRODUCTION BY WERNER JAEGER

  PART I

  PROMETHEUS

  THE AGES OF MAN

  PYRRHA AND DEUCALION

  ZEUS AND Io

  PHAETHON

  EUROPA

  CADMUS

  PENTHEUS

  PERSEUS

  CREUSA AND ION

  DAEDALUS AND ICARUS

  THE STORY OF THE ARGONAUTS Jason and Pelias

  The Cause and the Outset of the Voyage of the Argonauts

  The Argonauts at Lemnos

  The Argonauts in the Land of the Doliones

  Heracles Left Behind

  Polydeuces and the King of the Bebrycians

  Phineus and the Harpies

  The Symplegades

  Further Adventures

  Jason in the Palace of Aeetes

  Medea and Aeetes

  The Counsel of Argus

  Medea Promises to Help the Argonauts

  Jason and Medea

  Jason Does the Bidding of Aeetes

  Medea Takes the Golden Fleece

  The Argonauts are Pursued and Escape with Medea

  The Argonauts on their Homeward Journey

  The Colchians Continue their Pursuit

  The Last Adventures of the Argonauts

  Jason’s End

  MELEAGER AND THE BOAR

  TANTALUS

  PELOPS

  NIOBE

  SALMONEUS

  HERACLES The Infant Heracles

  The Rearing of Heracles

  Heracles at the Crossroads

  The First Adventures of Heracles

  Heracles Fights the Giants

  Heracles and Eurystheus

  The First Three Labors of Heracles

  The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Labors of Heracles

  The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Labors of Heracles

  The Last Three Labors of Heracles

  Heracles and Eurytus

  Heracles and Admetus

  Heracles in the Service of Omphale

  Subsequent Exploits of Heracles

  Heracles and Deianira

  Heracles and Nessus

  Heracles, Iole, and Deianira. His End

  BELLEROPHON

  THESEUS His Birth and his Youth

  His Journey to his Father

  Theseus in Athens

  Theseus and Minos

  King Theseus

  The War with the Amazons

  Theseus and Pirithous

  Theseus and Phaedra

  Theseus and Helen

  The End of Theseus

  THE STORY OF KING OEDIPUS The Birth of Oedipus, his Youth, his Flight, and the Murder of his Father

  Oedipus in Thebes

  The Discovery

  Jocasta and Oedipus Inflict Punishment upon Themselves

  Oedipus and Antigone

  Oedipus at Colonus

  Oedipus and Theseus

  Oedipus and Creon

  Oedipus and Polynices

  THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES Polynices and Tydeus as the Guests of Adrastus

  The Heroes Set Out. Hypsipyle and Opheltes

  The Heroes Arrive in Thebes

  Menoeceus

  The Attack upon Thebes

  Brothers in Single Combat

  Creon’s Resolve

  Antigone and Creon

  Haemon and Antigone

  Creon’s Punishment

  The Burial of the Heroes of Thebes

  THE EPIGONI

  ALCMAEON AND THE NECKLACE

  THE HERACLIDAE The Heraclidae Come to Athens

  Demophoon

  Macaria

  The Battle

  Eurystheus and Alcmene

  Hyllus and His Descendants

  The Heraclidae Divide Up the Peloponnesus

  Merope and Aepytus

  PART II

  TALES OF TROY The Building of Troy

  Priam, Hecuba, and Paris

  The Rape of Helen

  The Argives

  The Argives Send Priam a Message

  Agamemnon and Iphigenia

  The Argives Set Out. Philoctetes is Abandoned

  The Argives in Mysia. Telephus

  Paris Returns

  The Argives before Troy

  Fighting Begins. Protesilaus. Cycnus

  The Death of Palamedes

  Achilles and Ajax

  Polydorus

  Chryses, Apollo, and the Wrath of Achilles

  Agamemnon Tries the Argives

  Paris and Menelaus

  Pandarus

  The Battle. Diomedes

  Glaucus and Diomedes

  Hector in Troy

  Hector and Ajax in Single Combat

  The Truce

  A Trojan Victory

  The Argives Send a Message to Achilles

  Dolon and Rhesus

  Another Argive Defeat

  The Fight at the Wall

  The Struggle for the Ships

  Poseidon Strengthens the Achaeans

  Apollo Revives Hector

  The Death of Patroclus

  The Grief of Achilles

  Achilles Newly Armed

  Achilles and Agamemnon Reconciled

  The Battle of Gods and Men

  Achilles Fights the River-God Scamander

  The Battle of the Gods

  Achilles and Hector Before the Gates

  The Death of Hector

  The Funeral of Patroclus

  Priam Visits Achilles

  Hector’s Body in Troy

  Penthesilea

  Memnon

  The Death of Achilles

  Funeral Games for Achilles

  The Death of Ajax the Great

  Machaon and Podalirius

  Neoptolemus

  Philoctetes on Lemnos

  The Death of Paris

  The Storming of Troy

  The Wooden Horse

  The Destruction of Troy

  Menelaus and Helen. Polyxena

  Departure from Troy. Ajax of Locris Dies

  THE LAST TANTALIDES Agamemnon’s Line and House

  Agamemnon’s End

  Agamemnon is Avenged

  Orestes and the Furies

  Iphigenia in the Land of the Tauri

  ODYSSEUS Telemachus and the Suitors

  Telemachus and Nestor

  Telemachus in Sparta

  The Suitors’ Plot

  Odysseus Leaves Calypso and is Shipwrecked

  Nausicaa

  Odysseus and the Phaeacians

  Odysseus Tells the Tale of his Wanderings to the Phaeacians. The Cicones. The Lotos-Eaters. The Cyclopes. Polyphemus

  Odysseus Continues his Tale.
The Leather Bag of Aeolus. The Laestrygonians. Circe

  Odysseus Continues his Tale. The Realm of Shades

  Odysseus Continues his Tale. The Sirens. Seylla and Charybdis. Thrinacia and the Herds of the Sun-God. Shipwreck. Odysseus and Calypso

  Odysseus Bids the Phaeacians Farewell

  Odysseus Reaches Ithaca

  Odysseus Visits the Swineherd

  Telemachus Leaves Sparta

  With the Swineherd

  Telemachus Returns

  Odysseus Reveals Himself to his Son

  The City and the Palace

  Telemachus, Odysseus, and Eumaeus Reach the City

  Odysseus, the Beggar, in the Hall

  Odysseus and the Beggar Irus

  Penelope and the Suitors

  Odysseus Mocked Again

  Odysseus Alone with Telemachus and Penelope

  Night and Morning in the Palace

  The Feast

  The Contest with the Bow

  Odysseus Reveals Himself to the Good Herdsmen

  Vengeance

  The Servants are Punished

  Odysseus and Penelope

  Odysseus and Laertes

  Athene Calms Rebellion in the City

  Odysseus the Victor

  Acknowledgement

  INTRODUCTION

  OFTEN have I told my youngest daughter the legends of ancient Greece, and have found myself wishing that I could give her a book that would show her more of that magic world which was the delight of my own youth, and to which I love to return, now that I am older. But I have wished in vain. Then a while ago I heard of the plan of a publisher who had had a similar experience with his son, and I hailed his project. He had had the happy thought of preparing an English edition of Gustav Schwab’s Die Sagen des Klassischen Altertums, and at once I declared I was eager to help him realize this plan. Of course there are other books of this kind in English, but most of them, at any rate, fill a different need from the one I felt. They are intended to appeal primarily to children, though no one would deny that they are entitled to their share of these wonderful old tales. The Greeks themselves thought so. Plato wanted the future citizens of his ideal republic to begin their literary education with the telling of myths rather than with mere facts or rational teachings. This plan of the great philosopher of education mirrors the life of Greece as it then was, for there too the education of man—the paideia—began with the telling of myths, just as later, in the Christian era, Bible stories and legends of the lives of the saints were the basis of all education.

  But in the life of a Greek of the classical age myths never ceased to be a subject of deep interest. In early childhood they were the first food for his spirit, which he sucked in, as it were, with his mother’s milk. And as he grew older, he returned to them again on a higher plane when he was introduced to the masterpieces of the Greek poets. Now it is true that even today millions of people learn the ancient Greek myths through reading Homer in modern translations; but at that time the mythical tradition reached Greek youth through hundreds of other channels, beside the stories of the Trojan cycle which survive in the Iliad and the Odyssey, for the poetry as well as the art of Greece was chiefly concerned with shaping the traditional legends. What the boy had eagerly absorbed as exciting stories, the youth found brought in its most perfect form in the art and poetry of his people. And later, when he grew to manhood, Homer’s characters passed before his eyes on the stage of the Greek theater, in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, where their destinies no longer seemed a tale of long ago, but of immediate, dramatic interest. The audience which filled the benches at these performances regarded the events and sufferings they beheld as the most profound expression of the meaning of all human life.

  Thus the entire humanistic education of the Greeks was welded into unity through the majesty and spiritual force which myths exerted on all stages of the inner development of the individual. And this continued to be so, even when—in the course of time—other branches of human knowledge and more and more applied arts were added to the traditional education. Ancient legends continued to be the source of all poetry and art for the nation, and the basic element of the literary education of the individual. They were also the point of departure for all philosophical thought, for the entire development of the Greek intellect. The fact that the Greek people was destined to be the nation of philosophers and the creator of western culture was certainly connected with its wealth of heroic legends and the overwhelming amount of its mythical speculation about the world, gods, and men. This tradition has been an inexhaustible mine of treasure for the poetry and philosophy of the Greeks themselves and of later centuries. Our completely rational civilization can boast of nothing comparable to this. Rome took over the legends of the Greeks because she had none of her own. And even in the Middle Ages, when new peoples came into the foreground of history, peoples who had national legends of their own, the Greek gods and heroes held their place and were no less popular than the new heroes of new nations. Thanks to their deep human significance which remains valid for all men, the Greek myths were universally recognized, and their characters live on to this day, either in simple tales or in the poetry of all the peoples in the cycle of western civilization. This survival of the myth—and it is by no means the only heritage we have taken over from the Greeks—reminds us that our so-called Christian civilization does not spring from Jewish-Christian sources alone, but is deeply rooted also in classical Greek and Roman tradition. The world of Greek myths is a constantly visible and effective symbol of this truth.

  Realizing this fact, we want to reveal this world not only to the enraptured eyes of children but also to the more deeply searching vision of the young student, who is driven to probe for the universal significance of these tales beneath their poetic beauty. This was what Gustav Schwab had in mind when he went about retelling the legends of classical antiquity, simply but movingly. His book has delighted many generations, and no similar work has surpassed it. It owes its freshness and color to the wise restraint the author imposed on himself. He was neither the philosopher who expounds the meaning of myths, nor the scholar who investigates their source and ultimate significance and tries to restore them to their original form. Since this was not the author’s aim, his book is of little interest to the learned mythologists of our own day and age. He wrote for the average reader and wanted to convey the legends in the form they have come down to us from the classical period of antiquity. He was enchanted by the great art with which Greek and Roman poets—from the epics of Homer to the Heroides and Metamorphoses of Ovid—shaped and reshaped these myths; and whoever knows the texts he drew from, feels in every line of his book the profound effect they had on his imagination. Because of his naïveté and complete lack of scholarly ambition, the poetic power with which the poets of antiquity told these tales is preserved in Schwab’s retelling—often to an astonishing degree. He is, so to speak, the last of the mythographers of ancient times who retold the myths they found in the works of poets in their own language and style, and thus made them accessible to a wide circle of readers.

  His close adherence to the models of the individual stories resulted in something the critical reader is sure to observe, in a change of tone from one tale to the next. To give a few examples chosen at random, the tale of Prometheus, which opens the book, is based mainly on Hesiod, the didactic Boeotian poet who probably lived in the eighth century B.C. To him mythical tradition was the source of all wisdom and all knowledge of the past. To him it provided the answer to all the enigmas of life. Prometheus, his favorite character, appears both in his Theogony, an epic on the dynasties of the gods and their origin, and in his Works and Days, a didactic poem full of wise sayings designed for all the days and all the exigencies of peasant life. In each of these works the poet is concerned with the problem of the origin of the evil from which the world suffers. The story of Prometheus provided him with an explanation for the otherwise incomprehensible fact that the life of ma
n is full of sickness and need. The race of man shares in atoning for the guilt which Prometheus, the mythical helper of man, took on himself when he stole the fire from Olympus and brought it to helpless mortals. Hesiod’s attitude toward this myth is sober and devout reflection. He accepts it as an instrument for his own meditations on the origin of toil and suffering on earth, the “social problem” as we should call it. Obviously, Hesiod welded together a number of legends which were originally independent into a long drawn-out, carefully constructed story. The tale of the theft of fire and the fact that Prometheus was punished for this deed, which many people must have regarded as meritorious, had to be motivated by some previous fault which had called forth the anger of the gods and determined Zeus to withhold fire from man. Hesiod found the cause of this anger in the myth of the bone-sacrifice in Mecone, a tale which originally had nothing whatsoever to do with the theft of fire but merely served to explain an old religious rite. A certain type of myth, called aition, was devised to give explanations of this kind. The seams in Hesiod’s fabric are quite visible to the practiced eye: his style is not very smooth. His attempt to weave his scattered sources closely together and his superimposed theological interpretation of events are quite apparent.

  The next story in our book is that of Phaethon, the son of the sun-god, who begged his father to let him drive the chariot of the sun for one whole day, and plunged headlong from the heights of heaven because he did not know how to manage the immortal horses. This tale is vivid and colorful, and told with brilliant technique, but with a tendency to rhetorical effect and a touch of the didactic. Here Schwab follows Ovid, who tells the story in his Metamorphoses, and we cannot fail to admire the sophisticated artistry of this Roman poet who wrote in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, even though it is far removed from the naïveté and the gravity and devoutness of Hesiod. Ovid deals with the myth to suit himself; now he uses it merely as a means to exhibit his masterly style, now he is swept away by the charm of the story itself and succeeds in sweeping away his readers. The scholar cannot deal with the tales of Hesiod and Ovid on the same plane. In Hesiod’s telling, one still feels the living breath of an era which reshaped and expanded myths, an age in which myths possessed deep meaning; while in Ovid one sees only mythology. But aside from the fact that nowhere else can we find the Phaethon episode told as fully as in Ovid, no one else could have told it so fascinatingly; and so Schwab accepted what each poet had to say for the story in it.