Then Perseus did not tell his name, but went up to the games unknown, for he said, “If I carry away the prize in the games, my grandfather’s heart will be softened towards me.”

And when the games began, Perseus was the best of all at running and leaping, and wrestling and throwing.  And he won four crowns and took them.

Then he said to himself, “There is a fifth crown to be won.  I will win that also, and lay them all upon the knees of my grandfather.”

So he took the stones and hurled them five fathoms beyond all the rest.  And the people shouted, “There has never been such a hurler in this land!”

Again Perseus put out all his strength and hurled.  But a gust of wind came from the sea and carried the quoit aside, far beyond all the rest.  And it fell on the foot of his grandfather, and he swooned away with the pain.

Perseus shrieked and ran up to him, but when they lifted the old man up, he was dead.  Then Perseus rent his clothes and cast dust on his head, and wept a long while for his grandfather.

At last he rose and called to all people aloud and said, “The gods are true:  what they have ordained must be; I am Perseus the grandson of this dead man.”  Then he told them how a prophet had said that he should kill his grandfather.

So they made great mourning for the old King, and burnt him on a right rich pile.

And Perseus went to the temple and was purified from the guilt of his death, because he had done it unknowingly.

Then he went home and reigned well with Andromeda, and they had four sons and three daughters.

And when they died, the ancients say that Athene took them up to the sky.  All night long Perseus and Andromeda shine as a beacon for wandering sailors, but all day long they feast with the gods, on the still blue peaks in the home of the Immortals.

ODYSSEUS

ADAPTED BY JEANIE LANG

I

HOW ODYSSEUS LEFT TROYLAND AND SAILED FOR HIS KINGDOM PAST THE LAND OF THE LOTUS EATERS

In the days of long ago there reigned over Ithaca, a rugged little island in the sea to the west of Greece, a King whose name was Odysseus.

Odysseus feared no man.  Stronger and braver than other men was he, wiser, and more full of clever devices.  Far and wide he was known as Odysseus of the many counsels.  Wise, also, was his Queen, Penelope, and she was as fair as she was wise, and as good as she was fair.

While their only child, a boy named Telemachus, was still a baby, there was a very great war in Troyland, a country far across the sea.

The brother of the overlord of all Greece beseiged Troy, and the kings and princes of his land came to help him.  Many came from afar, but none from a more distant kingdom than Odysseus.  Wife and child and old father he left behind him and sailed away with his black-prowed ships to fight in Troyland.