LESSON 1 SOME FAVOURITE GREEK MYTHS

SOME FAVOURITE GREEK MYTHS

PEOPLE have always tried to explain the wonders by which they were surrounded; and the way in which, thousands of years ago, the people of that day thought about many things, seems very strange to us now. From the Greeks who lived nearly three thousand years ago, we have many stories which tell us how they explained things then. These stories are called myths.

To the ancient Greeks everything seemed to be alive. The sun was the golden-haired god, Apollo, who drove through the heavens in his chariot ［1］ of fire. The clouds were his cattle, feeding in the fields of heaven. The moon was his twin sister, the goddess Diana, who rode through the sky in her silver car.

The earth was called Ceres, the mother of all things. All the winter she was said to mourn for her lost daughter, Spring, who had been stolen from her, and could only return each year to spend a few months with her mother.

The sea was looked upon as the angry god, Neptune, the earth-shaker, who was in love with Ceres; while the wind was the swift-footed Mercury, who stole the clouds, the cattle of the sun, and, by playing among the trees, was the inventor of music.

Some of the most interesting of the old Greek myths are those which were used to explain the presence of certain flowers on the earth. The lovely purple hyacinth ［2］ , for example, was said to have come about in this way.

Hyacinthus was a beautiful Greek boy who was greatly beloved by Apollo. The two often spent the whole day together in hunting or fishing, in running races or playing games.

One day, the story goes, they were playing at their favourite game of quoits, when Apollo's quoit struck the boy on the head. The purple blood flowed in a rapid stream from a great gash in the boy's temple; it was clear that he had but a few moments to live.

Quickly, ere it was too late, Apollo whispered over him a few magic words, which had the effect of changing the youth into a lovely flower. Every year, as the purple hyacinth put forth its bloom, it reminded the Greeks of the purple blood which had flowed from the temple of Hyacinthus.

The narcissus ［3］ was said to have been a beautiful boy, who, looking one day into a clear fountain, fell in love with his own likeness. He died of this love-sickness, and on the spot where he breathed his last sprang up the flower which still bears his name.

If you watch a sunflower, you will see that its face is always turned to the sun. The Greeks explained this in the following way.

They said there was a beautiful young girl called Clytie, who loved Apollo, and who sat in the fields all day looking at him, as he rode through the heavens in his chariot. Day after day she sat and looked after him with longing eyes, but Apollo never seemed to see her.

Every day poor Clytie grew more and more unhappy, until the gods in pity changed her into a sunflower. But she did not forget Apollo, and to this day she turns her face towards him, from morn till night, as he drives across the sky.

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［1 ］ chariot:An ancient Roman vehicle.

［2 ］ hyacinth: A plant with a pretty flower, which grows from a bulb.

［3 ］ narcissus: Another kind of bulbous plant with a small star-like flower.