The Story of the Greeks (Yesterday's Classics)
by
H. A. Guerber
Yesterday's Classics
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Cover and Arrangement © 2010 Yesterday's Classics, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.
This edition, first published in 2010 by Yesterday's Classics, an imprint of Yesterday's Classics, LLC, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by American Book Company in 1896. This title is available in a print edition (ISBN 978-1-59915-011-6).
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Yesterday's Classics
Yesterday's Classics republishes classic books for children from the golden age of children's literature, the era from 1880 to 1920. Many of our titles are offered in high-quality paperback editions, with text cast in modern easy-to-read type for today's readers. The illustrations from the original volumes are included except in those few cases where the quality of the original images is too low to make their reproduction feasible. Unless specified otherwise, color illustrations in the original volumes are rendered in black and white in our print editions.
This elementary history of Greece is intended for supplementary reading or as a first history text-book for young pupils. It is therefore made up principally of stories about persons; for, while history proper is largely beyond the comprehension of children, they are able at an early age to understand and enjoy anecdotes of people, especially of those in the childhood of civilization. At the same time, these stories will give a clear idea of the most important events that have taken place in the ancient world, and, it is hoped, will arouse a desire to read further. They also aim to enforce the lessons of perseverance, courage, patriotism, and virtue that are taught by the noble lives described.
A knowledge of ancient history, however superficial, is of very great value; and the classic legends are almost equally worth knowing, because of the prominent part they play in the world's literature. These tales make a deep impression on the minds of children, and the history thus learned almost in play will cling to the memory far more tenaciously than any lessons subsequently conned.
Many children leave school unacquainted with any history except that of the United States; which, dealing with less simple and primitive times than that of Greece, is apt to be so unattractive that the child never afterwards reads any historical works. It has been my intention to write a book which will give children pleasure to read, and will thus counteract the impression that history is uninteresting.
A few suggestions to teachers may not be considered superfluous. In the first place, I have found historical anecdotes an excellent aid in teaching English. Pupils find it far from irksome to relate the stories in their own words, and to reproduce them in compositions. Secondly, whenever a city or country is mentioned, every pupil should point out its location on the map. By such means only can any one properly understand an historical narrative; and in the present case there is the added reason that the practice will go far towards increasing the child's interest in geography. Lastly, the teacher should take great care that the proper names are correctly pronounced. The most common errors are provided against in the text; for, on the first occurrence of such a word, it is divided into syllables, with the accent marked. It remains for the teacher to enforce the ordinary rules as to the proper sounds of vowels and consonants.
| H. A. G. |
Chapter I. Early Inhabitants of Greece
Chapter II. The Deluge of Ogyges
Chapter III. The Founding of Many Important Cities
Chapter IV. Story of Deucalion
Chapter V. The Story of Dædalus and Icarus
Chapter VI. The Adventures of Jason
Chapter VII. Theseus Visits the Labyrinth
Chapter VIII. The Terrible Prophecy
Chapter IX. The Sphinx's Riddle
Chapter X. Blindness and Death of Œdipus
Chapter XI. The Brothers' Quarrel
Chapter XII. The Taking of Thebes
Chapter XIII. The Childhood of Paris
Chapter XIV. The Muster of the Troops
Chapter XV. The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
Chapter XVI. The Wrath of Achilles
Chapter XVII. Death of Hector and Achilles
Chapter XVIII. The Burning of Troy
Chapter XIX. Heroic Death of Codrus
Chapter XXI. The Rise of Sparta
Chapter XXII. The Spartan Training
Chapter XXIII. The Brave Spartan Boy
Chapter XXIV. Public Tables in Sparta
Chapter XXVI. The Messenian War
Chapter XXVII. The Music of Tyrtæus
Chapter XXVIII. Aristomenes' Escape
Chapter XXIX. The Olympic Games
Chapter XXXI. The Jealous Athlete
Chapter XXXII. The Girls' Games
Chapter XXXIII. The Bloody Laws of Draco
Chapter XXXIV. The Laws of Solon
Chapter XXXVI. The Tyrant Pisistratus
Chapter XXXVII. The Tyrant's Insult
Chapter XXXVIII. Death of the Conspirators
Chapter XXXIX. Hippias Driven out of Athens
Chapter XLI. Hippias Visits Darius
Chapter XLII. Destruction of the Persian Host
Chapter XLIII. The Advance of the Second Host
Chapter XLIV. The Battle of Marathon
Chapter XLV. Miltiades' Disgrace
Chapter XLVI. Aristides the Just
Chapter XLVII. Two Noble Spartan Youths
Chapter XLVIII. The Great Army
Chapter XLIX. Preparations for Defense
Chapter L. Leonidas at Thermopylæ
Chapter LII. The Burning of Athens
Chapter LIII. The Battles of Salamis and Platæa
Chapter LIV. The Rebuilding of Athens
Chapter LV. Death of Pausanias
Chapter LVI. Cimon Improves Athens
Chapter LVIII. The Age of Pericles
Chapter LIX. The Teachings of Anaxagoras
Chapter LX. Beginning of the Peloponnesian War
Chapter LXI. Death of Pericles
Chapter LXII. The Philosopher Socrates
Chapter LXIII. Socrates' Favorite Pupil
Chapter LXIV. Youth of Alcibiades
Chapter LXV. Greek Colonies in Italy
Chapter LXVI. Alcibiades in Disgrace
Chapter LXVII. Death of Alcibiades
Chapter LXVIII. The Overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants
Chapter LXIX. Accusation of Socrates
Chapter LXX. Death of Socrates
Chapter LXXI. The Defeat of Cyrus
Chapter LXXII. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand
Chapter LXXIII. Agesilaus in Asia
Chapter LXXIV. A Strange Interview
Chapter LXXV. The Peace of Antalcidas
Chapter LXXVI. The Theban Friends
Chapter LXXVII. Thebes Free Once More
Chapter LXXVIII. The Battle of Leuctra
Chapter LXXIX. Death of Pelopidas
Chapter LXXX. The Battle of Mantinea
Chapter LXXXI. The Tyrant of Syracuse
Chapter LXXXII. Story of Damon and Pythias
Chapter LXXXIII. The Sword of Damocles
Chapter LXXXIV. Dion and Dionysius
Chapter LXXXV. Civil War in Syracuse
Chapter LXXXVII. Philip of Macedon
Chapter LXXXVIII. Philip Begins His Conquests
Chapter LXXXIX. The Orator Demosthenes
Chapter XC. Philip Masters Greece
Chapter XCI. Birth of Alexander
Chapter XCII. The Steed Bucephalus
Chapter XCIII. Alexander as King
Chapter XCIV. Alexander and Diogenes
Chapter XCV. Alexander's Brilliant Beginning
Chapter XCVI. The Gordian Knot
Chapter XCVII. Alexander's Royal Captives
Chapter XCVIII. Alexander at Jerusalem
Chapter XCIX. The African Desert
Chapter CII. The Return to Babylon
Chapter CIII. Death of Alexander the Great
Chapter CIV. The Division of the Realm
Chapter CV. Death of Demosthenes
Chapter CVI. The Last of the Athenians
Chapter CVII. The Colossus of Rhodes
Chapter CVIII. The Battle of Ipsus
Chapter CIX. Demetrius and the Athenians
Chapter CXI. Division in Sparta
Chapter CXIII. The War of the Two Leagues
Chapter CXIV. The Last of the Greeks
Chapter CXV. Greece a Roman Province
A
LTHOUGH
Greece (or Hellas) is only half as large as the state of New York, it holds a very important place in the history of the world. It is situated in the southern part of Europe, cut off from the rest of the continent by a chain of high mountains which form a great wall on the north. It is surrounded on nearly all sides by the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which stretch so far inland that it is said no part of the country is forty miles from the sea, or ten miles from the hills. Thus shut in by sea and mountains, it forms a little territory by itself, and it was the home of a noted people.
The history of Greece goes back to the time when people did not know how to write, and kept no record of what was happening around them. For a long while the stories told by parents to their children were the only information which could be had about the country and its former inhabitants; and these stories, slightly changed by every new teller, grew more and more extraordinary as time passed. At last they were so changed that no one could tell where the truth ended and fancy began.
The beginning of Greek history is therefore like a fairy tale; and while much of it cannot, of course, be true, it is the only information we have about the early Greeks. It is these strange fireside stories, which used to amuse Greek children so many years ago, that you are first going to hear.
About two thousand years before the birth of Christ, in the days when Isaac wanted to go down into Egypt, Greece was inhabited by a savage race of men called the Pelasgians. They lived in forests, or in caves hollowed out of the mountain side, and hunted wild beasts with great clubs and stone-tipped arrows and spears. They were so rude and wild that they ate nothing but raw meat, berries, and the roots which they dug up with sharp stones or even with their hands.
For clothing, the Pelasgians used the skins of the beasts they had killed; and to protect themselves against other savages, they gathered together in families or tribes, each having a chief who led in war and in the chase.
There were other far more civilized nations in those days. Among these were the Egyptians, who lived in Africa. They had long known the use of fire, had good tools, and were much further advanced than the Pelasgians. They had learned not only to build houses, but to erect the most wonderful monuments in the world—the Pyramids, of which you have no doubt heard.