Chapter I: Front Matter

THE STORY OF GREECE

THE
STORY OF GREECE

TOLD TO BOYS AND GIRLS BY

MARY MACGREGOR

AUTHOR OF ‘THE STORY OF ROME’
‘THE STORY OF FRANCE,’ ETC.

WITH NINETEEN PLATES IN COLOUR
BY WALTER CRANE

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD.
35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH

TO
JOYCE MOFFAT SCOTT

DEAR LITTLE JOYCE,--One of the reasons why this book is to be your very own is that the story it tells begins in Wonderland, and that is a land in which you and all other little people wander at will.

Grown up children, men and women as we call them, do not know the secrets of this strange land, yet there are a few who can always find their way across its border, as they used to do when they were small like you. Some few others there are who remember its secrets well.

Shall I tell you some of the things you hear and see and do in Wonderland?

Why, when the wind blows soft, faint whispers reach your ear, but you alone know what the whispers tell. When the brooks gurgle you hear joyous laughter, and in the springs of water you see the sparkle of elfin eyes.

As the bluebells shake in the breeze, your tiny feet march to the music of fairy bands, as the raindrops fall you gather pearls with your little hands.

The secrets of this strange Wonderland make you so glad that you laugh and dance and sing.

‘Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast,
World you are wonderfully drest.’

The ancient Wonderland of Hellas, of which this story tells, was unlike your Wonderland in this, that men and women dwelt in it as well as boys and girls, and they, too, saw and heard its secrets. And this was because, in a way not known to-day, each had kept the heart of a little child.

So it was that these men and women heard voices in the wind and laughter in the streams, so it was that they saw eyes in water springs and pearls in raindrops.

More even than these things the Hellenes saw. For across lone hillsides, through busy fields, in sacred groves and flower-sweet meadows, radiant figures sped. And the simple folk catching glimpses of these flitting forms said one to the other, ‘The gods have come to live among us. Their presence it is that makes the earth so fair, so wonderful.’ As the years passed and the Hellenes grew older, sterner times came. Cities sprang up on hillsides and by river-banks, and the gods were seldom seen. Men went to war, battles were lost and won.

But never, in victory or in defeat, did the people lose their early love of beauty, or that strange, dreamy sense of wonder, which from the beginning was ever plucking at their hearts.

They longed to fulfil their dreams of beauty, they wished to re-shape the world.

But, because the world was so great, so wide, they began with one of their cities, the one of which a poet sang,

‘O rich and renowned and with violets crowned,
O Athens the envied of nations.’

Here they built temples which became the wonder of the world, and in them they placed statues of the old gods of Hellas, beautiful statues wrought by master hands out of ivory and gold.

Poets and philosophers lived in Athens, too, and so literature and art spread the glory of Greece far and wide, moulding the thoughts and quickening the deeds of many peoples.

Before the glory of Greece faded, Europe had learned from her to follow truth, to love beauty.

This story tells but a small part of the wonder of this land, yet I hope that it will make you love her and wish to learn more about her.--Your friend,

MARY MACGREGOR.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. WONDERLAND 1

II. THE GREAT GOD PAN 3

III. THE SIX POMEGRANATE SEEDS 6

IV. THE BIRTH OF ATHENE 11

V. THE TWO WEAVERS 13

VI. THE PURPLE FLOWERS 16

VII. DANAE AND HER LITTLE SON 18

VIII. THE QUEST OF PERSEUS 22

IX. ANDROMEDA AND THE SEA-MONSTER 26

X. ACRISIUS IS KILLED BY PERSEUS 29

XI. ACHILLES AND BRISEIS THE FAIRCHEEKED 32

XII. MENELAUS AND PARIS DO BATTLE 38

XIII. HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE 41

XIV. THE HORSES OF ACHILLES 44

XV. THE DEATH OF HECTOR 48

XVI. POLYPHEMUS THE GIANT 54

XVII. ODYSSEUS ESCAPES FROM THE CAVE 58

XVIII. ODYSSEUS RETURNS TO ITHACA 61

XIX. ARGUS THE HOUND DIES 64

XX. THE BOW OF ODYSSEUS 67

XXI. THE LAND OF HELLAS 72

XXII. LYCURGUS AND HIS LITTLE NEPHEW 76

XXIII. LYCURGUS RETURNS TO SPARTA 79

XXIV. THE TRAINING OF THE SPARTANS 82

XXV. THE HELOTS 85

XXVI. ARISTOMENES AND THE FOX 89

XXVII. THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 94

XXVIII. THE LAST KING OF ATHENS 97

XXIX. CYLON FAILS TO MAKE HIMSELF TYRANT 100

XXX. SOLON FREES THE SLAVES 102

XXXI. THE ATHENIANS TAKE SALAMIS 106

XXXII. PISISTRATUS BECOMES TYRANT 109

XXXIII. HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGITON 113

XXXIV. THE LAW OF OSTRACISM 116

XXXV. THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 118

XXXVI. DARIUS REWARDS HISTIAEUS 121

XXXVII. HISTIAEUS SHAVES THE HEAD OF HIS SLAVE 123

XXXVIII. SARDIS IS DESTROYED 126

XXXIX. THE SANDAL SEWN BY HISTIAEUS 129

XL. DARIUS DEMANDS EARTH AND WATER 131

XLI. THE BATTLE OF MARATHON 134

XLII. MILTIADES SAILS TO THE ISLAND OF PAROS 137

XLIII. ARISTIDES IS OSTRACISED 140

XLIV. THE DREAM OF XERXES 145

XLV. XERXES ORDERS THE HELLESPONT TO BE SCOURGED 148

XLVI. ‘THE BRAVEST MEN OF ALL HELLAS’ 153

XLVII. THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE 156

XLVIII. THE BATTLE OF ARTEMISIUM 161

XLIX. THEMISTOCLES URGES EURYBIADES TO STAY AT SALAMIS 163

L. THEMISTOCLES TRICKS THE ADMIRALS 167

LI. THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 169

LII. THE BATTLE OF PLATAEA 173

LIII. THE DELIAN LEAGUE 178

LIV. THEMISTOCLES DECEIVES THE SPARTANS 182

LV. THEMISTOCLES IS OSTRACISED 185

LVI. THE ELOQUENCE OF PERICLES 189

LVII. PERICLES AND ELPINICE 194

LVIII. THE CITY OF ATHENS 196

LIX. GREAT MEN OF ATHENS 200

LX. THE THEBANS ATTACK THE PLATAEANS 202

LXI. ATTICA IS INVADED BY THE SPARTANS 205

LXII. THE LAST WORDS OF PERICLES 207

LXIII. THE SIEGE OF PLATAEA 210

LXIV. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH 214

LXV. BRASIDAS LOSES HIS SHIELD 218

LXVI. THE SPARTANS SURRENDER 221

LXVII. BRASIDAS THE SPARTAN 225

LXVIII. AMPHIPOLIS SURRENDERS TO BRASIDAS 228

LXIX. ALCIBIADES THE FAVOURITE OF ATHENS 232

LXX. SOCRATES THE PHILOSOPHER 237

LXXI. ALCIBIADES PRAISES SOCRATES 240

LXXII. THE IMAGES OF HERMES ARE DESTROYED 244

LXXIII. ALCIBIADES ESCAPES TO SPARTA 247

LXXIV. THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE 249

LXXV. THE ATHENIAN ARMY IS DESTROYED 252

LXXVI. ALCIBIADES RETURNS TO ATHENS 255

LXXVII. ANTIOCHUS DISOBEYS ALCIBIADES 258

LXXVIII. THE WALLS OF ATHENS ARE DESTROYED 261

LXXIX. THE MARCH OF THE TEN THOUSAND 264

LXXX. PELOPIDAS AND EPAMINONDAS 269

LXXXI. THE SEVEN CONSPIRATORS 273

LXXXII. THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 277

LXXXIII. THE DEATH OF EPAMINONDAS 281

LXXXIV. THE TWO BROTHERS 286

LXXXV. TIMOLEON SENDS DIONYSIUS TO CORINTH 289

LXXXVI. ICETES TRIES TO SLAY TIMOLEON 293

LXXXVII. THE BATTLE OF CRIMISUS 296

LXXXVIII. DEMOSTHENES WISHES TO BECOME AN ORATOR 300

LXXXIX. DEMOSTHENES THE GREATEST ORATOR OF ATHENS 303

XC. THE SACRED WAR 306

XCI. ALEXANDER AND BUCEPHALUS 309

XCII. ALEXANDER AND DIOGENES 312

XCIII. THE BATTLE OF GRANICUS 315

XCIV. THE GORDIAN KNOT 318

XCV. DARIUS GALLOPS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD 321

XCVI. TYRE IS STORMED BY ALEXANDER 325

XCVII. THE BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA 328

XCVIII. ALEXANDER BURNS PERSEPOLIS 331

XCIX. ALEXANDER SLAYS HIS FOSTER-BROTHER 334

C. PORUS AND HIS ELEPHANT 338

CI. ALEXANDER IS WOUNDED 342

CII. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER 345

CIII. DEMOSTHENES IN THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON 349

INDEX 353

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

She changed her into a spider, _Frontispiece_

AT PAGE
Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan’s pipe, 6

Demeter rejoiced for her daughter was by her side, 10

The Wind-god sent a gust from the South, 18

For two days and two nights the boat was tossed hither and
thither, 20

Often she would stand upon the walls of Troy, 34

‘Yea, verily, thou art Odysseus,’ 68

In the earliest times, a simple foot-race was the only event, 96

Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens, 102

They crashed into the Persian army with tremendous force, 136

Ship dashed against ship, till the Persian dead strewed the deep
‘like flowers,’ 170

He stood silent before the king, 188

The figure of the goddess was a colossal one, 196

He became a target for every arrow, 220

He drank the contents as though it were a draught of wine, 238

The multitude saluted him with loud acclamations, 258

He left the assembly, hiding his face in his cloak, 304

He ran toward the horse and seized the bridle, 310

With an effort he looked at them as they passed, 348

THE STORY OF GREECE