Page 36 of Mythology


  In wondrous beauty once again.

  The dwellings roofed with gold.

  The fields unsowed bear ripened fruit

  In happiness forevermore.

  Then would come the reign of One who was higher even than Odin and beyond the reach of evil—

  A greater than all.

  But I dare not ever to speak his name.

  And there are few who can see beyond

  The moment when Odin falls.

  This vision of a happiness infinitely remote seems a thin sustenance against despair, but it was the only hope the Eddas afforded.

  THE NORSE WISDOM

  Another view of the Norse character, oddly unlike its heroic aspect, is also given prominence in the Elder Edda. There are several collections of wise sayings which not only do not reflect heroism at all, but give a view of life which dispenses with it. This Norse wisdom-literature is far less profound than the Hebrew Book of Proverbs; indeed it rarely deserves to have the great word “wisdom” applied to it, but the Norsemen who created it had at any rate a large store of good sense, a striking contrast to the uncompromising spirit of the hero. Like the writers of Proverbs the authors seem old; they are men of experience who have meditated on human affairs. Once, no doubt, they were heroes, but now they have retired from battlefields and they see things from a different point of view. Sometimes they even look at life with a touch of humor:—

  There lies less good than most believe

  In ale for mortal men.

  A man knows nothing if he knows not

  That wealth oft begets an ape.

  A coward thinks he will live forever

  If only he can shun warfare.

  Tell one your thoughts, but beware of two.

  All know what is known to three.

  A silly man lies awake all night,

  Thinking of many things.

  When the morning comes he is worn with care,

  And his trouble is just as it was.

  Some show a shrewd knowledge of human nature:—

  A paltry man and poor of mind

  Is he who mocks at all things.

  Brave men can live well anywhere.

  A coward dreads all things.

  Now and then they are cheerful, almost light-hearted:—

  I once was young and traveled alone.

  I met another and thought myself rich.

  Man is the joy of man.

  Be a friend to your friend.

  Give him laughter for laughter.

  To a good friend’s house

  The path is straight

  Though he is far away.

  A surprisingly tolerant spirit appears occasionally:—

  No man has nothing but misery, let him be never so sick.

  To this one his sons are a joy, and to that

  His kin, to another his wealth.

  And to yet another the good he has done.

  In a maiden’s words let no man place faith,

  Nor in what a woman says.

  But I know men and women both.

  Men’s mind are unstable toward women.

  None so good that he has no faults,

  None so wicked that he is worth naught.

  There is real depth of insight sometimes:—

  Moderately wise each one should be,

  Not overwise, for a wise man’s heart

  Is seldom glad.

  Cattle die and kindred die. We also die.

  But I know one thing that never dies,

  Judgment on each one dead.

  Two lines near the end of the most important of the collections show wisdom:—

  The mind knows only

  What lies near the heart.

  Along with their truly awe-inspiring heroism, these men of the North had delightful common sense. The combination seems impossible, but the poems are here to prove it. By race we are connected with the Norse; our culture goes back to he Greeks. Norse mythology and Greek mythology together give a clear picture of what the people were like from whom comes a major part of our spiritual and intellectual inheritance.

  Genealogical Tables

  The Principal Gods

  Descendants of Prometheus

  Ancestors of Perseus and Hercules

  Ancestors of Achilles

  The House of Troy

  The Family of Helen of Troy

  The Royal House of Thebes and the Atreidae

  The House of Athens

  Illustrations

  The Greeks, unlike the Egyptians, made their gods in their own image

  Olympus

  The rape of Persephone (Proserpine)

  Pandora lifted the lid and out flew plagues and sorrows for mankind

  The rape of Europa

  Psyche gazed at the sleeping Cupid

  Pygmalion and Galatea

  The Harpies and the Argonauts

  Bellerophon on Pegasus killing the Chimaera

  Perseus holding Medusa’s head

  The Minotaur in the Labyrinth

  Hercules carrying Cerberus

  Atalanta and the golden apples

  The Judgment of Paris

  The wooden horse

  Odysseus and Circe

  Aeneas and the Sibyl enter Charon’s boat

  Clytemnestra and Orestes

  Oedipus and the Sphinx

  Athena appears to Creüsa and Ion

  Glaucus and Scylla

  Brynhild on a couch surrounded by fire

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  * See Part Three, Chapter I.

  * See Part Three, Chapter II.

  * See next chapter.

  * See Part Five, Chapter II.

  * See Part Three, Chapter III.

  * See Part Four, Chapters I and II

  Contents

  Welcome

  Preface

  Introduction to Classical Mythology

  The Mythology of the Greeks

  The Greek and Roman Writers of Mythology

  Part One: The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

  Chapter I: The Gods

  The Titans and the Twelve Great Olympians

  The Lesser Gods of Olympus

  The Gods of the Waters

  The Underworld

  The Lesser Gods of Earth

  The Roman Gods

  Chapter II: The Two Great Gods of Earth

  Demeter (Ceres)

  Dionysus or Bacchus

  Chapter III: How the World and Mankind Were Created

  Chapter IV: The Earliest Heroes

  Prometheus and Io

  Europa

  The Cyclops Polyphemus

  Flower-Myths: Narcissus, Hyacinth, Adonis

  Part Two: Stories of Love and Adventure

  Chapter I: Cupid and Psyche

  Chapter II: Eight Brief Tales of Lovers

  Pyramus and Thisbe

  Orpheus and Eurydice

  Ceyx and Alcyone

  Pygmalion and Galatea

  Baucis and Philemon

  Endymion

  Daphne

  Alpheus and Arethusa

  Chapter III: The Quest of the Golden Fleece

  Chapter IV: Four Great Adventures

  Phaëthon

  Pegasus and Bellerophon

  Otus and Ephialtes

  Daedalus

  Part Three: The Great Heroes before the Trojan War

  Chapter I: Perseus

  Chapter II: Theseus

  Chapter III: Hercules

  Chapter IV: Atalanta

  Part Four: The Heroes of the Trojan War

  Chapter I: The Trojan War

  Prologue: The Judgment of Paris

  The Trojan War

  Chapter II: The Fall of Troy

  Chapter III: The Adventures
of Odysseus

  Chapter IV: The Adventures of Aeneas

  Part One: From Troy to Italy

  Part Two: The Descent into the Lower World

  Part Three: The War in Italy

  Part Five: The Great Families of Mythology

  Chapter I: The House of Atreus

  Tantalus and Niobe

  Agamemnon and His Children

  Iphigenia Among the Taurians

  Chapter II: The Royal House of Thebes

  Cadmus and His Children

  Oedipus

  Antigone

  The Seven against Thebes

  Chapter III: The Royal House of Athens

  Cecrops

  Procne and Philomela

  Procris and Cephalus

  Orithyia and Boreas

  Creüsa and Ion

  Part Six: The Less Important Myths

  Chapter I: Midas—and Others

  Aesculapius

  The Danaïds

  Glaucus and Scylla

  Erysichthon

  Pomona and Vertumnus

  Chapter II: Brief Myths Arranged Alphabetically

  Part Seven: The Mythology of the Norsemen

  Introduction to Norse Mythology

  Chapter I: The Stories of Signy and Sigurd

  Chapter II: The Norse Gods

  The Creation

  The Norse Wisdom

  Genealogical Tables

  Illustrations

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  Copyright

  Copyright © 1942 by Edith Hamilton

  Copyright renewed © 1969 by Dorian Fielding Reid and Doris Fielding Reid

  Illustrations by Chris Wormell

  Cover design by Susan Zucker; cover art: Bernard Picart, Atlas Supports the Heavens on His Shoulders (engraving, 1731), © Bridgeman Art Library / Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection

  Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected] Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First ebook edition: June 2012

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  ISBN 978-0-316-03216-2

 


 

  Edith Hamilton, Mythology

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