MYTHS THAT EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES 3
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

II. THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS 27
(Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales")

III. THE CHIMÆRA 65
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

IV. THE GOLDEN TOUCH 92
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

V. THE GORGON'S HEAD 112
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

VI. THE DRAGON'S TEETH 140
(Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales")

VII. THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER 174
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

VIII. THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 107
(Hawthorne's "Wonder Book")

IX. THE CYCLOPS 216
(Church's "Stories from Homer")

X. THE ARGONAUTS 227
(Kingsley's "Greek Heroes")

XI. THE GIANT BUILDER 299
("In Days of Giants")

XII. HOW ODIN LOST HIS EYE 308
("In Days of Giants")

XIII. THE QUEST OF THE HAMMER 316
("In Days of Giants")

XIV. THE APPLES OF IDUN 330
("Norse Stories")

XV. THE DEATH OF BALDER 337
("Norse Stories")

XVI. THE STAR AND THE LILY 348
(Miss Emerson's "Indian Myths")



CHAPTER I

THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES


Did you ever hear of the golden apples that grew in the garden of the
Hesperides? Ah, those were such apples as would bring a great price, by
the bushel, if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of
nowadays! But there is not, I suppose, a graft of that wonderful fruit
on a single tree in the wide world. Not so much as a seed of those
apples exists any longer.

And, even in the old, old, half-forgotten times, before the garden of
the Hesperides was overrun with weeds, a great many people doubted
whether there could be real trees that bore apples of solid gold upon
their branches. All had heard of them, but nobody remembered to have
seen any. Children, nevertheless, used to listen, open-mouthed, to
stories of the golden apple tree, and resolved to discover it, when they
should be big enough. Adventurous young men, who desired to do a braver
thing than any of their fellows, set out in quest of this fruit. Many of
them returned no more; none of them brought back the apples. No wonder
that they found it impossible to gather them! It is said that there was
a dragon beneath the tree, with a hundred terrible heads, fifty of
which were always on the watch, while the other fifty slept.