Nature Myths and Stories for Little Children Part 19

He went straight to Zeus' throne and filled a ferule with it, and carried it to his people.

Then the people began to be wise.

He taught them to cook, and to build houses, and to sail their s.h.i.+ps upon the ocean.

He showed them how to get rich ores from the mountains and prepare them for use.

They learned how to plow and to reap and to store up their food for the winter.

Zeus was angry with Prometheus.

He chained him to a rock on the top of a high mountain.

He sent a great bird each day to torment him.

Zeus said that he must stay there until he repented and returned the fire to heaven.

There Prometheus stayed and suffered for many burning summers and long, cold winters.

Sometimes he grew faint-hearted and wished to be free.

Then he looked down and saw how the fire was helping the people and how happy they were, and he grew strong again.

After many, many years, a Greek hero who was sailing over the mountain in a golden cup, saw Prometheus.

It was Hercules. He shot the bird with a golden arrow, unbound the chains and set the wise Prometheus free.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

HERMES.

aeolus was the father of all the winds, great and small.

Long ago, they all lived happily together in a dark cave near the sea.

On holidays, North Wind, South Wind, East Wind and West Wind and their faithful sisters, came home and told of their travels.

The whirlwinds performed their most wonderful feats, and the zephyrs sang their sweetest songs.

These holidays, however, did not come often.

There were no idle children in the family of aeolus.

They swept and dusted the whole world. They carried water over all the earth. They helped push the great s.h.i.+ps across the ocean.

The smaller winds scattered the seeds and sprinkled the flowers, and did many other things which you may find out for yourselves.

Indeed, they were so busy that aeolus was often left alone in his dark home for several days at a time.

He was glad when one summer morning a baby came to the cave.

The baby's name was Hermes, but aeolus called him "Little Mischief,"

because he was so little and so full of tricks.

Zeus was Hermes' father and his mother was the beautiful Queen Maia. She was often called "Star of Spring," because people thought that wherever she stepped flowers sprang from under the snow.

aeolus loved Hermes dearly. He taught him many secrets which only the winds know.

Hermes was a wise baby and understood all that aeolus told him.

When he was only two days old he could run and whistle as well as North Wind.

One day while he was very young he climbed out of his cradle and ran down to the seash.o.r.e.

There he found an old tortoise sh.e.l.l. He picked it up and put a row of holes along each edge of the sh.e.l.l.

Through these holes he wove some reeds which he found upon the seash.o.r.e.

Then he blew softly upon the reeds.

The birds heard such wonderful music that they stopped to listen. The leaves on the trees began to dance, and nodded to the flowers to keep still.

The waves on the sh.o.r.e caught the tune and have been singing it ever since.

Hermes had invented the lyre and brought a new kind of music into the world. He soon tired of his lyre and went back to his cradle in the cave.

As he lay there he could see a beautiful blue meadow with many white cows upon it.

Hermes knew that the cows belonged to his brother, King Apollo.

"What fun," thought he, "I will go and make the cows run."

Off he ran after them until he was tired and out of breath.

Then he drove them all backward into a cave, and fastened them in.

King Apollo soon missed the cows and searched all the meadow for them.

He traced them to the cave, but when he came closer to it, he found that all the tracks led from the opening, not into it.

Near the cave he saw an old man who told him that he had seen the cows.

He said that with them he had seen a baby with wings on his cap and heels.

Apollo knew at once that the baby was his brother, Hermes.