Hero Tales from History — Homer, The Hero Poet of Ancient Greece

HOMER, THE HERO POET OF ANCIENT GREECE

Long, long ago, when the world was young, and before men began to write books, a kind of men called “bards” used to wander about the land of Greece, from town to town and from court to court, playing the harp and singing of the deeds of the heroes of Greece.

As years went on there came to be very many such tales sung by the bards, and handed down from father to son.

At last, there came a day when men learned to write.

Then the person whom we call Homer, the earliest and greatest poet in the history of the world, gathered together these hero tales and wrote them in beautiful poetry.

This work of collecting these scattered stories of the exploits and adventures of the [Illustration: HOMER, THE BLIND POET, WAS LED FROM PLACE TO PLACE BY A YOUNG BOY WHEN HE WENT TO SING HIS SONGS AND RECITE HIS WONDERFUL POEMS OF ANCIENT GREECE.

] Greek gods and heroes and making them into one great hero poem, called an “epic,” was done nearly three thousand years ago.

Although nobody really knows anything surely about the life of this ancient Homer, the story goes that he was blind, and that he was very poor, as poets often are.

After his death, when his two great poems had made him famous, seven different cities in Greece claimed each to have been his home.

But the facts of his life matter very little when compared with the wonderful stories that he left for all the world to read.

His epics were imitated by the greatest poets of Rome, Italy, and England, and have been translated many times into both poetry and prose.

There were two of these epics--the “Iliad,” picturing the siege and downfall of ancient Ilium, or Troy; and the “Odyssey,” describing the ten years’ wanderings of Odysseus, or Ulysses, on his way back home after the destroying of Troy by the Greeks.

The war against Troy, which lasted ten years, was started because Paris, son of Priam, the old king of Troy, carried off from her home, Helen, the lovely wife of one of the Grecian kings.

The “Iliad” tells of the bold deeds of many heroes on both sides.

The strongest fighter in Troy was Hector, another son of King Priam.

Achilles was the greatest hero on the side of the Greeks.

One of the most beautiful scenes in art as well as in poetry is that of Hector saying good-bye to his wife and baby boy, and one of the best known examples of friendship is that of Achilles for his friend Patroclus.

The great gods and goddesses--for the early Greeks believed in many gods--all took sides in the struggle for Troy.

Apollo, Minerva, and Juno helped the Greeks; Mars and Venus helped the Trojans.

They chose the side of the people who had especially served and worshiped them, using their mighty power to help and direct in the long war.

After nine years the Greeks pretended that they were going to give up the struggle and sail away to their homes.

They built a huge wooden horse to leave as a peace offering, telling the Trojans that it was a gift for them to offer to their gods.

The Trojans were only too willing to think that the Greeks were giving up the fight.

They would not listen to the princess Cassandra, who warned them of danger, saying, “I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.

” In spite of her words the city fathers accepted the strange present and trundled the big horse within their walls.

That night some Greek soldiers who were hidden inside the hollow wooden figure jumped out of their hiding place, opened the six gates of Troy, and let in the Grecian army.

The great warriors waiting outside swarmed in and soon captured the city.

Helen, the stolen queen, sailed back home and lived there in her little Grecian kingdom for many years after her rescue by her royal husband and his brother, another king, with the help of the Greek heroes and the gods who sided with them.

Among the Greeks who fought at Troy was Ulysses.

His journeyings on the way from Troy to Ithaca, the rocky island where he was king, form a wonder story of ancient life and travel.

Ulysses’ ships were driven about to many strange places.

First he came to the land of the lotus eaters, where some of his men ate the lotus flowers and forgot their homes and friends.

The rest of them came next to the country of the Cyclops, giant monsters with only one eye in the middle of their foreheads.

The chief Cyclops caught the Greeks, shut them up in the cave where he kept his sheep, and ate two of them for his supper every day.

Ulysses was clever enough to think of a way by which he and his men might escape.

While the giant was out of the cave he sharpened a stake by burning it in the coals, and when the Cyclops fell asleep after his hearty supper, Ulysses and four of his men drove this sharp stake into his one eye, blinding him.

Then the leader tied each of his men under one of the Cyclops’ sheep, and himself clung to the long hair beneath the largest ram.

When the sheep crowded out of the cave the giant did not know that they were carrying his prisoners with them.

Before he discovered the trick the Greeks were safe on their ship.

After another voyage, Ulysses and his men landed on the island of Circe, a beautiful witch who turned the men all into swine and made them stay with her a long time.

But Apollo and Minerva helped Ulysses undo the spell of the charmer.

Circe warned Ulysses against the Sirens, who would tempt them by their singing only to destroy them all, and against Scylla and Charybdis--a risky place for a ship to pass, between a great rock and a dangerous whirlpool.

The wife of Ulysses also was beset with many trials and dangers.

She was surrounded by neighboring princes, each of whom wished to marry her and become king of Ithaca.

She kept on with her weaving, putting these suitors off by telling them she would give them her answer when she finished her weaving--but each night she unraveled all the weaving she had done in the daytime.

During the twenty long years of Ulysses’ absence, Penelope’s young son grew to manhood and started out to find his father.

He reached home, after a vain search, just at the time when Ulysses came back.

The king of Ithaca was disguised by the goddess Minerva as an old beggar, so that no one recognized him but his good old dog.

Ulysses arrived at his palace at the very moment when, the suitors having become too urgent, Penelope brought out Ulysses’ bow and agreed to marry the man who could bend it and shoot an arrow through six rings placed in a long line, as her heroic husband had been known to do.

The feeble looking beggar was allowed to look on while the princes tried frantically to win the hand and the throne of the fair Penelope.

One after another failed in the desperate attempt.

Then the seemingly aged stranger asked them to let him try to bend the great, stiff bow and shoot the heavy arrow.

They laughed at and insulted him, but he took the bow, bent it with ease, and shot the long arrow straight through all the rings, just as Ulysses used to do.