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    Favorite Greek Myths
    Favorite Greek Myths
    Favorite Greek Myths
    Ebook97 pages1 hour

    Favorite Greek Myths

    By Bob Blaisdell

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Greek myths have intrigued countless generations of readers with their exciting tales of adventure, calamity, and conquest. This entertaining collection — excellently retold for young audiences by Bob Blaisdell — invites children to relive the memorable experiences of familiar characters from Greek mythology.
    Taken directly from the writings of Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and other ancient storytellers, the myths recount the stirring and imaginative tales of Pandora's box, Prometheus, the dreaded Cyclops, the labors of the mighty Hercules, the captivating stories of Narcissus and Echo, Aphrodite and Eros, Daedalus and Icarus, Hades and Persephone, and many more.
    Set in large, easy-to-read type and enhanced by six full-page black-and-white illustrations, these enduring fables from the fountainhead of Western civilization will thrill and delight new generations of adventure-seekers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateFeb 29, 2012
    ISBN9780486110301
    Favorite Greek Myths
    Author

    Bob Blaisdell

    Bob Blaisdell is professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. He is author of Creating Anna Karenina: Tolstoy and the Birth of Literature's Most Enigmatic Heroine; Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius; and Well, Mr. Mudrick Said . . . A Memoir. In addition, he is editor of more than three dozen literary anthologies.

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      I knew a few these myths but. I like doing them all you should read this book

    Book preview

    Favorite Greek Myths - Bob Blaisdell

    Odyssey

    Chapter I

    Gods and Titans

    GAIA IS sometimes known as Mother Earth. She is the oldest of all the gods and gives food to every living being. She was created out of Chaos, the swirling formless beginning of all things. By herself Gaia gave birth to Ouranos (the Sky), Ourea (the Mountains) and Oceanus (the Sea).

    With her husband Ouranos, she had tremendous children, known as Titans, the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed brutes named Briareus, Gyges and Cottus. Ouranos felt disgust at these monsters and so buried them deep within the earth, in fathomless Tartaros, a gloomy pit as far below the underworld Hades as dark Hades is below the shining heavens.

    Gaia grew angry at Ouranos’ treatment of their children, and she plotted revenge.

    She went to Tartaros and asked, offering a long-bladed sickle, Which of you, my children, will avenge me on heartless Ouranos? Only her youngest son, Kronos, accepted the task. The others were frightened.

    Handing Kronos the sickle, she warned him, You must wait until your father is asleep. That night, Kronos sneaked up on Ouranos and cut him with the sickle, dreadfully wounding him. Kronos then forced his bleeding father into fathomless Tartaros. As Ouranos was transported through the air, some of his blood mingled with the ocean foam; from this immortal mixture of Ouranos and ocean, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born.

    Now Kronos was master of the Titans, and he married the Titaness Rhea. Gaia warned her son, Just as you were greater than your father, beware or one of your sons shall be greater than you. To prevent this, Kronos imprisoned the immortal babies Rhea had borne him by swallowing them up. The last of these children was shining Zeus. Rhea, instead of allowing Kronos to have baby Zeus as well, fed her husband a stone wrapped in a blanket. Brutal Kronos did not notice the difference but patted his stomach and smiled.

    After Zeus had safely grown up in a distant cave, far out of sight of his father, he asked the wise, ever-changing sea nymph Metis to concoct a potion. This potion, said Zeus to Metis, must cause my wicked father to cough up my brothers and sisters. I need my siblings to help me, and they cannot do that inside Kronos’ belly.

    Metis brewed a stomach-turning drink for Kronos and brought it to the terrible Titan.

    Kronos sipped and liked the taste. He gulped down the rest, and a moment later out of his big mouth erupted his children—Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera and Hestia.

    I’ve been tricked! cried Kronos. Now my children are loose!

    Indeed they were, delighted to be once again in the fresh air. They thanked Zeus for their rescue and he quickly organized them against their father.

    To arms! Zeus declared. Now that we’re free, we must defeat him. The gods uprooted mountains and flung them at their father.

    Hard-hearted Kronos and many mighty Titans hurled mountains in return; the warfare sounded like thunder on top of thunder. Zeus used the aegis, his tremendous shield, to defend himself from his father’s attacks and blasted Kronos and the Titans with terrible lightning bolts that the hard-working Cyclopes forged for him. With Kronos and the Titans dizzy and flat on their backs, Zeus and his siblings imprisoned their foes under mountain ranges or in the pits of Tartaros. The crushed and defeated Titans kicked and stormed, hot with anger, exploding the tops off the mountains that pressed them down. We see even today the fiery volcanos that spew the Titans’ fury. Their strong legs still push against the earth’s crust, causing earthquakes, but they cannot get out again. With the war’s end, Zeus and his brothers divided up their new possessions. This was how Zeus became the god of heaven and ruler of all the gods, and how Poseidon became god of the sea and Hades the god of the underworld.

    It was during the peace following the clash of the gods and Titans that wise Metis became pregnant by Zeus. However, Gaia, Mother Earth, warned Zeus that if Metis had a son, he would be greater than Zeus himself. Taking an example from the defeat of cruel Kronos, Zeus swallowed up Metis. Many months later, he had a terrible headache. He went among his friends and begged them to split his head open and allow the pain to get out. None of the gods or Titans dared do such a thing—none but Prometheus, the far-thinking Titan. So far-thinking was he that he had sided with Zeus in the recent war with Kronos, and was thus rewarded with a place among the gods.

    Zeus used the aegis, his tremendous shield, to defend himself from his father’s attacks.

    The pain will be sharp, said Prometheus, but then you’ll feel better.—Now put your hands over your eyes. Zeus did so. Down came Prometheus’ axe, and crack went Zeus’s skull!

    Out of his forehead leapt Zeus’s brilliant new daughter, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, dressed in a warrior’s glimmering armor.

    Prometheus quickly patched up with clay the split in Zeus’s head, while Zeus roared with laughter. What an entrance for a child! Full-grown and only seconds old.

    Father, dear, she said, I have many things in mind.

    Indeed you have, as I shared all my thoughts with you before you were born, said Zeus.

    Soon after this, Zeus married Hera, his sister. He loved many other immortal and mortal women as well, and had many important children by them. These offspring included the Muses, the Seasons, the Fates, the Graces, the maiden Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hermes and, of course, the great and mighty Hercules.

    The Story of Prometheus

    Though the gods Zeus, Hades and Poseidon shared power on earth, they were not interested in the clay-like creatures known as mankind. Men did not know how

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