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Atalanta
The innocent cause of so much sorrow was a maiden whose face
you might truly say was boyish for a girl, yet too girlish for a boy. Her fortune had been told, and it was to this effect:
"Atalanta, do not marry; marriage will be your ruin." Terrified by this oracle, she fled the society of men, and devoted herself
to the sports of the chase. To all suitors (for she had many) she imposed a condition which was generally effectual in relieving
her of their persecutions, - "I will be the prize of him who shall conquer me in the race; but death must be the penalty of
all who try and fail." In spite of this hard condition some would try. Hippomenes was to be judge of the race. "Can it be
possible that any will be so rash as to risk so much for a wife?" said he. But when he saw her lay aside her robe for the
race, he changed his mind, and said, "Pardon me, youths, I knew not the prize you were competing for." As he surveyed them
he wished them all to be beaten, and swelled with envy of any one that seemed at all likely to win. While such were his thoughts,
the virgin darted forward. As she ran she looked more beautiful than ever. The breezes seemed to give wings to her feet; her
hair flew over her shoulders, and the gay fringe of her garment fluttered behind her. A ruddy hue tinged the whiteness of
her skin, such as a crimson curtain casts on a marble wall. All her competitors were distanced, and were put to death without
mercy. Hippomenes, not daunted by this result, fixing his eyes on the virgin, said, "Why boast of beating those laggards?
I offer myself for the contest." Atalanta looked at him with a pitying countenance, and hardly knew whether she would rather
conquer him or not. "What god can tempt one so young and handsome to throw himself away? I pity him, not for his beauty (yet
he is beautiful), but for his youth. I wish he would give up the race, or if he will be so mad, I hope he may outrun me."
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Theseus
Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king
of Athens, and of Aethra, daughter of the king of Troezen. He was brought up at Troezen, and when arrived at manhood was to
proceed to Athens and present himself to his father. Aegeus on parting from Aethra, before the birth of his son, placed his
sword and shoes under a large stone and directed her to send his son to him when he became strong enough to roll away the
stone and take them from under it. When she thought the time had come, his mother led Theseus to the stone, and he removed
it with ease and took the sword and shoes. As the roads were infested with robbers, his grandfather pressed him earnestly
to take the shorter and safer way to his father's country - by sea; but the youth, feeling in himself the spirit and the soul
of a hero, and eager to signalize himself like Herakles, with whose fame all Greece then rang, by destroying the evil-doers
and monsters that oppressed the country, determined on the more perilous and adventurous journey by land.
His first day's journey brought him to Epidaurus, where dwelt a man named
Periphetes, a son of Hephaistos. This ferocious savage always went armed with a club of iron, and all travellers stood in
terror of his violence. When he saw Theseus approach he assailed him, but speedily fell beneath the blows of the young hero,
who took possession of his club and bore it eve afterwards as a memorial of his first victory.
Several similar contests with the petty tyrants and marauders of the country
followed, in all of which Theseus was victorious. One of these evil-doers was called Procrustes, or the Stretcher. He had
an iron bedstead, on which he used to tie all travellers who fell into his hands. If they were shorter than the bed, he stretched
their limbs to make them fit it; if they were longer than the bed, he lopped off a portion. Theseus served him as he had served
others [in other words, Theseus kicked the evil bottom of Procrustes, and there was much rejoicing].
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Perseus
Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae. His grandfather Acrisius,
alarmed by an oracle which had told him that his daughter's child would be the instrument of his death, caused the mother
and child to be shut up in a chest and set adrift on the sea. The chest floated towards Seriphus, where it was found by a
fisherman who conveyed the mother and infant to Polydectes, the king of the country, by whom they were treated with kindness.
When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the
country. She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Athena, the
goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel monster of
so frightening an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned into stone. All around the cavern where
she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified
with the sight. Perseus, favored by Athena and Hermes, the former of whom lent him her shield and the latter his winged shoes,
approached Medusa while she slept, and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in the bright
shield which he bore, he cut off her head and gave it to Athena, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis.
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