BAUCIS AND PHILEMON

. . . in which the mighty Zeus visits the earth and decides to make some changes.

Words We Need To Know:

disguise [dis GIZE]-to make yourself look like somebody else

Mary pinned up her hair and disguised herself as a boy.
magnificent [mag NIF I sent]-wonderful; very good or large
There are many magnificent buildings in New York City.
messenger [MES en jer]-someone whose job it is to carry messages or small packages
Bill worked as a messenger during his summer vacation.
paving stones [PAY ving STONZ]-blocks of stone used make streets or roads
Years ago many streets were made of paving stones.
temple [TEM pel]-a large building used for religious services
Some temples in Greece are over two thousand years old.
vehicles [VEE I kelz]-cars, trucks, buses, wagons, car etc.
Long ago vehicles were pulled by horses.

In the last story, we read that the god’s favorite creature was man. The gods were supposed to have found
men interesting. Really, thought it was the other way around. It was the Greeks who found the gods interesting. For
in truth, the gods lived only in the minds of the Greeks.

At first the Greeks really believed in the gods. Then they learned more about science. They no longer
needed the gods to explain things couldn’t understand. But the Greeks kept on making up stories about the
wonderful gods they had invented. These new tales didn’t explain anything. They were just good stories.

Our next story is just a tale. It tells of pitcher that never grew empty, and of a love that never grew old.

Zeus was very worried. From his palace high on Mount Olympus, the great king of the gods looked down
at the earth. Far below him, people hurried about like tiny ants. Men seemed to be very busy with their new fire and
new troubles. Humans had begun to build town and cities. Roads, once a little more than crooked paths through the
woods, were now wide and straight. Someone had invented the wheel, and wagons, carts and chariots moved in long
lines along the new roads.
“It looks as if man now can do anything he wants,” Zeus said to himself. “The trouble is, how I can know
what he will what to do next.”
Zeus sent for Hermes [HUR meez], his messenger. Hermes was the fastest of the gods. His shoes had little
wings on them. He could almost fly through the air.
“I want you to go down to earth,” Zeus told Hermes when he arrived. “I want to know what men are talking
about. I want to know if men still remember the gods. See if they think well of us, or if they are planning war.”
Zeus watched Hermes step off into the air. Then he sat down to a meal of ambrosia and nectar. As Zeus ate,
he thought about man. Everything-all Zeus’s plans for the future of human race-seemed to have gone wrong. Part of
the trouble had been the work of Prometheus and his fire. But the rest had been Zeus’s own fault. He should’ never
had put Pandora in the same house as the box full of troubles. Zeus had planned to use troubles to punish men if they
ever forgot the gods.
Hermes had good news when he returned. “Everywhere I went,” he told Zeus, “the people cheered me and
held big parades. The leaders all made long speeches welcoming me to their fair cities. Here, look at these.” From
his pockets Hermes took enough keys to open a hundred gates. “The keys to the cities of earth,” he told Zeus.

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 Zeus took the keys, but he didn’t seem interested to them. “Yes,” he said, laying the keys to one side. “Now
tell me, do humans still remember the gods?”
“The name of Zeus is always on their lips,” Hermes answered. “Before almost every sentence they say your
name.”
Zeus smiled. “Tell me about the temples they have built to worship me,” he ordered. “Are they made of
gold, or just plain silver?”
Hermes pulled on his ear. “I didn’t notice any temples.”
“What!” cried Zeus. “You didn’t notice any temples? Why, a temple should be the biggest building in a
city.” Zeus pointed down toward the earth. “Then tell me, what are those big building down there?”
“They call them stadiums,” Hermes said. “Teams of men play games in them, and thousands of people sit
and watch.”
Zeus shook his head sadly. “I fear, dear Hermes, that the earth people do not love us as much as you think.
They saw you coming, and they put on a big show. But now I know that they have no temples. How can the gods be
worshiped without temples?”
Hermes thought for a moment. As always, Zeus was right. “Yes,” Hermes agreed, “I was fooled.”
A frown appeared on Zeus’s face. Fire and troubles had made men very wicked indeed. It was bad enough
for men to do an evil thing, like forgetting the gods. It was much worse for them to pretend they were doing the right
thing. Who could tell just how wicked humans had become?
“You will have to go to earth again,” Zeus told Hermes. “This time I want you to travel in disguise. Take
the wings off your shoes and dress like an old beggar. Have Venus paint lines on your face, so you’ll look like an
old, old man. She can also color your hair grey.”
Hermes smiled at this idea. “This is going to be fun.” He said.
“It will be fun,” Zeus agreed. In fact, I shall go with you! Together we shall see just what man has made of
himself.”
A few hours later, two old beggars passed through the gate of clouds. Slowly they made their way down
Mount Olympus. They made a strange sight as they bent forward over their walking sticks and dragged their rag-
covered along the road.
The road grew wider when it reached the earth. It was covered with paving stones. Vehicles pulled by
horses filled the road, so Zeus and Hermes had to walk in the ditch. The first town was still miles ahead of them.
Hermes was not used to the little steps of a man. His legs grew tired. “Let’s get a ride in the first empty
wagon,” he said.
The two gods leaned on their walking sticks until a wagon came along. Zeus held up his right hand and
smiled at the driver. The horses stopped. “Would you be so kind as you give two old men a ride?” Zeus asked.
“Have you got any money?” the driver wanted to know.
“We are poor travellers,” Zeus said. “We have no money.”
“No money, no ride,” replied the driver. His whip cracked over the horses’ ears. The wagon rumbled on
down the road.
“It was worse than I thought,” Zeus told Hermes. “Men have become selfish. The village lay in a valley at
the foot of a mountain. Zeus and Hermes stopped at the first they came to. Hermes knocked at the front door.
The door opened-and just quickly slammed in their faces. Before either of the gods could speak, they heard
the click of a back door opening. Around the corner of the house came a barking dog. Zeus and Hermes had to run
for their lives.

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 When the gods were safely in the middle of the town, they turned in another house. “This time you try to
hold the door open,” Zeus told Hermes.
A tired-looking woman with a baby in one arm opened the door. The baby looked at the two beggars and
started to cry. Hermes held the door open with his foot. “Would you give the two old men something to eat?” Zeus
asked.
The woman just stood there.
“Please, let the two old beggars look through your garbage,” the king of gods asked. “In the name of Zeus.”

“Don’t talk about Zeus to me!” cried the woman. “The only thing your great Zeus ever did was to fill the world with
troubles.”
Zeus looked angry. Then he looked as though his heart would break. He did not know what to say.
“Zeus is a mighty god,” spoke up Hermes. “He might do you favours if you worshipped him properly.”
“Go worship him yourself,” replied the woman. She looked the strangers over from head to foot. “Look
there at those rags you’re wearing. You seem to need his favours more than I do!”
Zeus shook his head. “Take care,” he warned. “Zeus might punish you someday.”
The woman laughed and close the door.
Tire, hungry, and sad of a heart, the two gods turned away from the door and walked out the yard. Boys
threw stones at them as they walked the main street of the town. Soon they had left the village behind. The road
ahead went almost straight up the side of the mountain. Neither Zeus nor Hermes spoke as they started to climb.
A small cottage soon appear ahead of them. Its walls were gray with age. There was no glass in the
windows. In a garden beside the cottage, an old man went over a hoe. A big white goose in the yard saw the gods
coming and made a loud hissing noise.
The old man looked up when the goose hissed. “Welcome, strangers,” he called. “What brings you this
way? Only an errand for the mighty Zeus could send me along this road with night falling.”
The two gods stopped and stood looking at each other. They were too surprised to speak. Here was a man
who remembered Zeus!
“Why not stop here for the night?” said the old man. “You can go on in the morning.”
Gratefully, Zeus and Hermes said there was nothing they would rather do. The old man, whose name was
Philemon [fi LEE mon], called his wife Baucis [BAW sis], from the house.
Baucis smiled at the travellers. “What we have is not much,” she said, “but you are welcome to it.” Then
Baucis took a quick look at the goose. She nodded to her husband. Philemon jumped toward the goose with his arm
stretched out before him. The big bird hissed and ran around a corner of the cottage. Philemon followed it, as fast as
his old legs would carry him. Hissing and honking, the goose led Philemon around and around the cottage.
“Stop!” cried Zeus, when he saw what the old man was going to do. “Don’t kill your goose. We are used to
hunger, and can eat but little.”
Philemon stopped running. His face was red, and he was too short of breath to speak. Baucis asked the two
gods into the cottage.
The inside of the cottage looks older than the outside. Summer rains had leaked through the roof and left
dark, cloud-shaped stains on the walls and ceiling. The feet of Baucis and Philemon had worn paths in the dirt floor.
Baucis put two old chairs in front of a cold fireplace. She asked her guests to make themselves more comfortable
while she set the table.

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 In a few minutes Philemon brought a tiny cabbage in from the garden. Then he reached up in the chimney
and took out a little piece of bacon. A small pitcher half full of wine was put on the table, and the four old people sat
down to eat.
The food was not enough for two people, let alone four. The wine glasses were less than half full. The two
man tried to act as if they didn’t notice how small the servings were. But their hosts could not be fooled. Baucis and
Philemon wear faces of shame. When Hermes picked up the pitcher to refill his glass, Baucis was so ashamed that
she shut her eyes. She knew that she had just poured the last of the wine herself.
Then Baucis heard a strange sigh escape Philemon’s lips. She opened her eyes. Hermes was filling the
fourth glass with wine! Baucis watched with her mouth open as Hermes set the pitcher down on the table.
The pitcher was full to the brim, as if nothing could have been poured out!
“Look!” Philemon pointed a shaking finger at the pitcher. “It was empty, and now it’s--------------”
Philemon never finished his sentence. His eyes met his wife’s. at once they knew that their guests were not
beggars, but gods.
“Forgive us,” Baucis and Philemon asked together, falling to their knees beside the table. “Forgive us for
insulting the gods with such poor food.”
Zeus stood up. He put his right hand on Philemon’s shoulder, and is left on the white head of an old
woman. Then he started to speak, in his god’s voice for the first time. “You gave all you had,” he said. “No one can
give more. Come, stand up now. I want you to step outside and look at the town.”
Zeus and Hermes led their shocked hosts out into the yard. In the valley where the town had been, a huge
lake now lay peacefully in the light of rising moon. The whole town was under water!
The eyes of the old people grew wide with wonder. It was Zeus who finally broke the silence. “Now,
Baucis and Philemon, turn around and look at your house.”
Behind them, their old cottage stood no longer. In its place was a magnificent temple, covered with silver
that gleamed in the moonlight. On the very top of the temple stood a go0lden statue of Zeus.
“A temple of Zeus!” cried Philemon.
“Yes,” Zeus said. “I have placed it here so people would never forget again the gods. And you good people,
who never did forget us, you will watched over this temple as long as you live.”
Baucis and Philemon lived out their lives looking after the temple of Zeus. When they died, Zeus saw that
they were buried beside the temple, in the same ground that had once been Philemon’s garden.
If you go to Greece today, people will show you this temple that Zeus is supposed to have built. They will
also show you the old trees that now mark the graves of the gentle Baucis and the good Philemon. Some say if you
listen carefully, you can still hear the two trees talking together, whispering their prayers to the all-knowing Zeus.

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