Five-minute digest
The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children
Summary
The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children is Charles Kingsley's retelling of three Greek hero legends, Perseus, the Argonauts and Theseus, written for his children Rose, Maurice and Mary. The preface is signed from Farley Court in Advent 1855, and the book was published by Macmillan in 1856. The library text follows the 1889 Macmillan edition. In a long preface addressed to My dear children, Kingsley explains what the world owes to the old Greeks, or Hellens, and presents their gods as dim memories of the true God; he cites St. Paul at Athens and Clement of Alexandria to show that God taught the heathen too. A hero, he says, was a man who left his country better than he found it, and the meaning of the stories, though not every fact in them, is true: do right, and God will help you. The story of Perseus, in five parts, begins when Danae and her baby are cast into the sea in a chest by King Acrisius and drift to Seriphos. Grown up, Perseus rashly vows to bring the Gorgon's head to the tyrant Polydectes. Athene and Hermes appear to him on the cliffs and give him a mirror-bright shield, a diamond sword and winged sandals; he visits the Gray Sisters, the Hesperides and Atlas, slays Medusa, rescues Andromeda from the sea-monster in the land of the Aethiops, turns Polydectes to stone, and at the games at Larissa accidentally kills his grandfather with a quoit, as the oracle foretold. The Argonauts, in six parts, opens with the centaur Cheiron training young heroes on Mount Pelion, among them Jason, Heracles, Peleus and Asclepius. Jason loses a sandal carrying an old woman, who is Hera in disguise, across the flooded Anauros, and his uncle Pelias sends him for the Golden Fleece. The Argo is built with a speaking bough from Dodona; the heroes lose Hylas, free Phineus from the Harpies, slip between the blue rocks, and reach Colchis, where Medeia's charms let Jason yoke the fire-breathing bulls, defeat the earth-born warriors and take the fleece from the sleeping dragon. Fleeing, they are driven into the unknown northern and western seas, past Ierne, until they reach the Phaeacians and home; Orpheus outsings the Sirens. A sad last part tells of Medeia's revenge and Cheiron's death. Theseus, in four parts, lifts the stone at Troezen to find his father's sword and sandals, clears the road to Athens of robbers such as Sinis, Sciron and Procrustes, escapes Medeia's poison at the court of Aegeus, and kills the Minotaur with Ariadne's help. Forgetting the white sail, he causes his father's death. He rules Athens well, but grows proud, goes with Peirithoos to carry off Persephone, is chained below until Heracles frees him, and dies in exile on Scuros. Kingsley ends by praying that God will keep pride from his readers.
Top Lessons
Do right, and God will help you
Kingsley tells his children plainly that the stories are not all true, but that their meaning is true for ever. Perseus succeeds because he dares what is right and accepts the help of the gods, and Kingsley reads that help as a picture of God's help to anyone who tries to do right.
A sharper trial for the one who overcomes
When Athene appears to Perseus, she tells him that whoever overcomes in one trial deserves a harder one. Perseus has stood up to Polydectes, so now he is offered the Gorgon. Kingsley shows children that growing in courage means being trusted with bigger tasks, and that the hero must count the cost before he begins.
Each of us has a Golden Fleece to seek
Before the voyage of the Argo, Kingsley compares the Argonauts with explorers in the frozen seas, nurses in the hospitals of the East and soldiers who went to war, all of whom sought honour rather than money. He tells his children that each of them has a golden fleece to seek, a wild sea to cross and dragons to fight.
Good ends and evil means
Jason wins the fleece through Medeia's witchcraft, and the story ends sadly: she tricks Pelias's daughters, and later takes a revenge on Jason too terrible to tell. Kingsley warns that we must not seek help from evil persons or gain good ends by evil means, because an adder used against our enemies turns and stings us.
How Theseus fell by his pride
Theseus begins as a model hero, choosing the dangerous road to clear it of robbers and offering himself as one of the youths sent to the Minotaur. After his triumph he grows proud, breaks the laws of God and man, and ends chained below the earth and later dying in exile. Kingsley closes the book with a prayer that God will keep pride from us after we have done good deeds.
Verified Quotes
Frequently cited
“The stories are not all true, of course, nor half of them; you are not simple enough to fancy that; but the meaning of them is true, and true for ever, and that is—Do right, and God will help you.”
“And we call such a man a hero in English to this day, and call it a ‘heroic’ thing to suffer pain and grief, that we may do good to our fellow-men.”
“he who overcomes in one trial merits thereby a sharper trial still.”
“Better so than live here, useless and despised”
Frequently cited
“for each of us has a Golden Fleece to seek, and a wild sea to sail over ere we reach it, and dragons to fight ere it be ours.”
“it stands for ever as a warning to us not to seek for help from evil persons, or to gain good ends by evil means.”
“But if men grow proud and self-willed, and misuse God’s fair gifts, He lets them go their own ways, and fall pitifully, that the glory may be His alone.”
Medical Lens
Medicine enters through the education of heroes and the poisons of myth. On Pelion, Cheiron teaches the virtues of healing herbs; Asclepius walks apart with his herbs and snake and later goes to work his cures, and Jason learns to heal wounds so that Cheiron names him the healer. Kingsley's introduction to the Argonauts mentions the women who went out to drudge in the hospitals of the East, a contemporary reference to the Crimean War nurses of 1854-1855. Cheiron dies in agony from one of Heracles's poisoned arrows after the centaurs fight over a wine-jar, crying that wine is the bane of his race, and gives away his immortality to escape the pain. Medeia's cauldron, which seems to make an old ram young, and her attempt to poison Theseus, are classic images of the sorceress as drug-maker. King Athamas's madness and murder of his son appear in the prehistory of the fleece.
- The Argonauts, Part I
Cheiron teaches the virtues of all healing herbs; Asclepius carries herbs and a snake; Jason learns to cure wounds and is called the healer.
- The Argonauts, Part I (introduction)
Kingsley praises the ladies who went the year before to work in the hospitals of the East, alongside explorers and soldiers.
- The Argonauts, Part VI
Cheiron is wounded by a poisoned arrow after the fight over Heracles's wine-jar and, unable to die, gives his immortality to Prometheus to end his pain.
- The Argonauts, Part VI
Medeia appears to make an old ram young in her cauldron and tricks Pelias's daughters; the songs say she restored Jason's father.
- Theseus, Part II
Medeia prepares a poisoned cup for Theseus at the court of Aegeus.