Classic Myths Part 11

Gordius could not believe what he heard. But the chief men brought the crown and put it on his head and declared him king, and he agreed to do his best to deserve the honor.

The oak near which he had stopped was in front of a temple. Gordius gave away his oxen and, taking a heavy rope, tied his wagon with a tremendous knot to the oak. The priest came out and declared that whoever in times to come should be able to untie that knot would be king of all Asia. No one ever did untie it. But Alexander the Great came to Phrygia many years after and, failing to untie it, he took his sword and dealt the rope such a blow that one stroke cut through the magic knot.

A short time after he left Phrygia all Asia owned Alexander the Great as king, and maybe that was the way the knot was to be undone. Anyway, he did not give it up, and that is a good thing for us to remember. Cut the Gordian knots if they will not be untied.

The little boy who rode in the wagon with Gordius was Midas. After his father Gordius died, Midas was chosen King of Phrygia. He was kind and just to the people, as Gordius must have been, or they would not have chosen his son Midas to be their king.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Silenus Holding Bacchus. From a statue in Rome]

One day while Midas was king some peasants found an old man wandering about in the woods. The forest was strange to him and he had lost his way. Midas knew him as soon as the peasants had brought him to the king's palace. It was Silenus, a teacher whose fame had gone through all the world. Midas treated Silenus with the greatest respect. For ten days there was feasting and games in the palace in honor of Silenus. On the eleventh day Midas took him back to the house of his greatest pupil.

This pupil was more than mortal, so the story goes. His name was Bacchus. Midas told him all about the finding of Silenus, and Silenus told all about the pleasant time he had at the king's palace. Then the wonderful Bacchus told Midas he might have anything he should wish for as a reward.

Now Gordius, his father, had always wished for more money, though he had been made king and there was more gold for him and his good queen to spend than you would think he could manage. Midas, too, had wished for money. Yet all his life, since that lucky wagon ride, Midas had seen riches and jewels enough to make him grow tired of such things. But, no; when Bacchus asked him what he would have, Midas said, "Let everything I touch turn into gold."

If you had been there and could have had your choice, what would you have wished for? Can you tell? Never wish for anything quite so foolish as King Midas did, for see what trouble it made him.

After making the wish, King Midas leaped into his chariot to return home. As soon as his feet touched the chariot floor, it turned into solid gold. The reins in his hands became gold. He returned to his palace and the people thought it must be Apollo come to earth, everything was so glorious. His wife met him in the palace halls. One touch and she was turned into a golden statue. No help, no rescue! Midas went out into his garden and reached for the fruit that hung on the trees. Nothing but gold after he had touched it. Gold, gold, gold! How he hated the sight of it! His food and drink were gold. His friends, his home, even his pillow was cold hard gold.

In a few hours he raised his arms, glittering with cloth of gold, in prayer, beseeching Bacchus to take his gift away. Bacchus was kind and said:

"Go to the river Pactolus, find its fountain head, plunge in, and when your body is covered your fault will be washed away."

Poor King Midas did just as he was told. When he touched the water the strange power went into the river. The river sands changed into gold, and to this day grains of gold are found by the river Pactolus.

After that, Midas lived in the country and dressed as plainly as the poorest peasant. He was so thankful to be free from his terrible gift that he never wanted anyone to remind him of the time when everything he touched turned to gold. But even in the country, the yellow plums, pears, and apples reminded Midas of the fruit he had touched in his own garden.

In autumn, when golden leaves are falling everywhere and the grain is waving in the field, one may fancy King Midas is in our own land.

OLD GRa.s.sHOPPER GRAY

_Greek_

"O, gra.s.shopper, gra.s.shopper gray, Give me mola.s.ses and then hop away."

That is what Bessie Allen said to the little creature she held between her thumb and fingers. Did you ever say that rhyme? I should not wonder if you had said it an hundred times.

The gra.s.shopper in Bessie's fingers seemed very ready to give her brown mola.s.ses from his little mouth and then she let him hop away while she went to catch another. She did not want that mola.s.ses; all she wanted was the fun of catching the little "hoppity-hops," as she sometimes called them.

"Come, catch me! I'm a hopper," called her five-year-old brother Willie.

And she saw the little fellow hopping through the gra.s.s.

Bessie had so much fun trying to catch this new "gra.s.shopper gray," that she forgot all about the little creatures she had been pinching.

At last she had her arms around her brother Willie.

"Now you are caught," she said. "Give me some mola.s.ses."

And then they both laughed so hard that their mother heard as she came to the door to look for them.

That night their mother said to their father:

"I have a new name for Willie."

"What is it?" asked their father.

"t.i.thonus," said their mother.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AURORA, THE G.o.dDESS OF THE DAWN. From a painting on an old vase.]

"When I was in school one of my lessons was about the beautiful G.o.ddess Aurora. She was said to open the rosy gates of dawn with her own fingers, so that the wonderful horses of Apollo might pa.s.s through to follow their s.h.i.+ning track through the sky. She was so beautiful that t.i.thonus, who lived on the earth, always watched for the sunrise, that he might see Aurora. After a while she began to watch for him, too. She looked down every morning on the wakening world and found that he was almost the only one among mortals who enjoyed the glorious colors Apollo painted in the sky with his arrows of light. One morning she dared to sing to him, and then he answered that it was Aurora, and not Apollo, for whom he was watching each morning at sunrise. She loved him for this and became his wife.

"Being a G.o.ddess, she could live for ever, and she wanted t.i.thonus to live forever, too. The G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses never drink wine or water, but ambrosia from golden goblets. She brought a golden goblet of ambrosia to t.i.thonus on the earth, and, after he had taken a drink, told him the happy news that now he should live forever. But she had forgotten to ask of the G.o.ds for him the gift of eternal youth.

"For many years they loved each other dearly. Then Aurora saw that t.i.thonus was growing into a little old man.

"When he was one hundred years old he was shrunken to the size of a boy of ten.

"When he was two hundred years old he was no larger than a baby, only he was very lively, and could run as fast as a man.

"When he was three hundred years old Aurora could scarcely find him, save as his song told her where he was. With his head bent down to the ground he did not look like a man, and he made his home by the dusty roadside. But every sunrise he sat upon the tallest spear of gra.s.s he could find and chirped to Aurora as she opened the gates of dawn for Apollo. After years and years Aurora forgot all about the little gray gra.s.shopper, but I don't think t.i.thonus has forgotten her, for he and all his gra.s.shopper friends chirp the same song as when he first came to live among them."

"Poor old t.i.thonus!" said Bessie.

"Why, no," said her father; "mother said he could never die. Maybe it was t.i.thonus who gave you mola.s.ses to-day. Yes, perhaps that was ambrosia instead of mola.s.ses that the gray gra.s.shopper dropped from his lips."

"Oh, don't tell any more!" laughed both Willie and Bessie. "We won't catch another gra.s.shopper."

WHERE THE FROGS CAME FROM

_Roman_

You see the sun every bright day, don't you?

And you see the moon every moons.h.i.+ny night.

Now, listen, and I'll tell you a story about their mother. No, not about their mother, but about the mother of the G.o.d of the sun, and of the G.o.ddess of the moon, whose names were Apollo and Diana.

It is about Apollo's and Diana's mother this story is to be.

Once when they were little twin babies their mother was in great trouble. She had to wander around and around, and get food and drink wherever she could find them.