DIANA

Life Stories for Young People

GODS AND HEROES

Translated and adapted from the German of
Ferdinand Schmidt and Carl Friedrich Becker

BY
GEORGE P. UPTON
Author of “Musical Memories,” “Standard Operas,” etc.
Translator of “Memories,” “Immensee,” etc.

WITH FRONTISPIECE

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1912

Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1912
Published September, 1912

THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS
[W·D·O]
NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A

Translator’s Preface

In a rare little volume in my possession, writtenby William Sheldon, F.A.S., and published byIsaiah Thomas, Jr., at Worcester, Mass., in1810, over a century ago, the author introduces his“History of the Heathen Gods and Heroes of Antiquity”in the following quaint manner: “People ofweak minds and of little learning, who have tastedthe Pierian spring but not drunk deep at it, whenthey read an account of the Heathen Gods and Goddessesand of the images dedicated to them, andhear that the heathens were Idolators, or worshippersof Images, give credit to these stories, withoutany further inquiry or trouble. It may not, therefore,be unnecessary to inform persons of this description,that the people of all the nations which everexisted under heaven have believed that thereexisted one God, who is Almighty and the Makerof all things. But there have been people whobelieved also in inferior or subordinate gods, whowere agents or mediators between God and man;and who were employed in carrying on the worksof Providence and of the creation or Nature.”

This quaint effort to show the impropriety oftreating any description of religion with unnecessarydisrespect applies to this volume, which thetranslator has adapted from the German. Our oldauthor might have added to his statement thatthere is rare beauty and fascination in many of theseGrecian myths and that many a one has wishedwith Wordsworth that he might

The old gods and minor deities in these “shortstories” also appeal to us by their human qualities,and many an important moral lesson may beread in the fate of unfortunate minor deities whooffended the higher gods. The sketches are instory form and are told in a refined and entertainingmanner. Several of the higher gods and goddessesare not included in this volume, as theyappear most interesting in the other volumes in thisseries—“Achilles,” “Ulysses,” “Argonauts’ Expeditionand Labors of Hercules.”

G. P. U.

Chicago, May, 1912.

Contents

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