Beware Of Greeks by Paul Curtis (english novels for students TXT) 📕

/> The Delphic oracle punished him for the murders
By ordering him to perform the Twelve Labors
The labors were set by king Eurystheus his cousin
The ninth Labor took Him to the land of the Amazon
To retrieve the belt of the amazon queen Hippolyte
A magical girdle for which he must probable fight
A race of fierce warrior women and great archers
Who were the first people to use mounted fighters
To get the belt as a gift for the daughter of Eurystheus
Heracles used other heroes among them Theseus
But as it turned out, the Amazon queen Hippolyte
Willingly gave Hercules her belt perhaps to be polite
But Hera was not about to let the hero off so easily
The goddess stirred up the Amazons very cleverly
With a rumor Heracles had captured their queen
And a great battle then ensued to vent their spleen
But Heracles made off with the belt of Hippolyte
And Theseus an Amazon princess to their delight

THE LABORS OF HERACLES # 10: THE CATTLE OF GERYON

Heracles when driven mad by the goddess Hera
Murdered his three children and his wife Megara
The Delphic oracle punished him for the murders
By ordering him to perform the Twelve Labors
The labors were set by king Eurystheus his cousin
His tenth labor was stealing the cattle of Geryon
The three headed Geryon owned the herd of cattle
It was he and two headed Orthrus he had to battle
After clubbing the hound with just a single blow
Heracles stole the cattle dispatching Geryon also


THE LABORS OF HERACLES # 11: THE APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES

Heracles when driven mad by the goddess Hera
Murdered his three children and his wife Megara
The Delphic oracle punished him for the murders
By ordering him to perform the Twelve Labors
The labors were set by king Eurystheus his cousin
Get the apples of the Hesperides was labor eleven
The Hesperides or even the Daughters of Evening
Were nymphs assigned by Hera to do the guarding
They were a special type of apples that’s evident
Which the goddess received as a wedding present
They were kept in a grove in the Far Western lands
In the mountains named after Atlas of the Titans
The grove was guarded by a many-headed dragon
A most fearsome babbling creature named Ladon
Each head had its own tongue making no sense at all
And finally the grove was surrounded by a high wall
In order for his eleventh labor to be of any success
Heracles was told he would need help from Atlas
Atlas the Titan was brother to Zeus’s father Cronus
But in the war against Zeus backed the wrong horse
And so for all time Atlas must support the heavens
By means of a pillar on his shoulders as a penance
So he asked Atlas to get the apples from the garden
The Titan agreed, as it relieved him of his burden
He told Heracles to hold the pillar while he went
Into the grove to retrieve Hera’s wedding present
Heracles first needed to deal with the dragon, Ladon
This he did with an arrow over the wall to the garden
Then Heracles took the pillar while Atlas was gone
He returned with the apples and the job was done
But atlas had forgotten how pleasant life could be
Without keeping heaven and earth apart for eternity
So he told Heracles he would have to fill in for him
For an indeterminate period of time just on a whim
Heracles feigned agreement to the Titans suggestion
But said that he needed for his shoulder a cushion
So he asked if Atlas would take back the burden
While he went to fetch one and come back again
The Titan graciously obliged him without concern
And Heracles then strolled away never to return


THE LABORS OF HERACLES # 12: THE CAPTURE OF CERBERUS

Heracles when driven mad by the goddess Hera
Murdered his three children and his wife Megara
The Delphic oracle punished him for the murders
By ordering him to perform the Twelve Labors
The labors were set by his cousin king Eurystheus
Heracles final labor was the capture of Cerberus
He was instructed to bring the up The hellhound
From Hades the kingdom of the dead underground
You must first cross the river Styx to reach Hades
Which for the first problem for our hero Heracles
In order to cross the river you must first be dead
If not, have a bribe for Charon the boatman instead
Heracles met neither condition aggravating Charon
But He simply glowered fiercely at the ferryman
And Charon meekly conveyed him across the river
The greater challenge was yet to come however
Cerberus had three heads and all had razor teeth
Covered with snakes on its back and underneath
It also had another great venomous snake for a tail
And over this hellhound Heracles had to prevail
The venomous snakes lashed out at Heracles wildly
While Cerberus lunged at the heroes throat directly
Fortunately he was wearing his lion's skin cape
The impenetrable hide and helmet with jaws agape
He eventually choked Cerberus into submission
And dragged it to Tiryns for his due recognition


THE NINE MUSES OF THE ARTS – TERPSICHORE (MUSE OF DANCING)

The nine muses
Daughters of Zeus
Inspiring of mortals
And nurturers of the arts
The seventh was,
The divine Terpsichore,
Delight of dancing,
Muse of choral songs and dance
A lyre in her hand
Accompanies the dancers
Terpsichore muse of dance
Mother of the sirens


CREATURES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – HYDRA

There was a dreadful union between the giant immortal Typhon
And the black fearful eyed Echidne, Half serpent, half woman
The terrifying end result of this unnatural union was the hydra
A great many headed Drakon who inhabited the swamps of Lerna
It was the second labor of Heracles to kill the water Drakon
And the hero drew the great creature out to fight in the open
Then with his bronze sword he hacked off heads from the hydra
But for every head he severed two grew in place of the other
If that wasn’t bad enough the Hydra's breath was itself lethal
And even to smell its footprints was enough to kill any mortal
Very Soon the beast’s heads tangled around him like serpents
Iolaus his nephew comes to his aid and his death he prevents
As Heracles cut off its heads and to prevent new ones sprouting
Iolaus with a flaming torch sealed the wounds by cauterizing
Finally Heracles lopped off the last one and Hydra was dead
He buried deep below a boulder the Hydras one immortal head


CREATURES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – THE ERYMANTIAN BOAR

There was a dreadful union between the giant immortal Typhon
And the black fearful eyed Echidne, Half serpent, half woman
The terrifying result of this unnatural union was a huge boar
A great strong beast whose capture was Heracles fourth labor
The gigantic boar ravished farmland in the west of Arcadia
And Heracles had to capture it alive or he would fail his labor
So he had to force it into a snowdrift on mount Erymanthus
And snared it with a noose and took it to his cousin Eurystheus


HERO’S OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY - THESEUS

Once there was an heroic young boy named Theseus
Who was the only son of the king of Athens Aegeus
But was raised by the king of Troezen his grandfather
And also by the princess Aethra his devoted mother
Just before Theseus was born king Aegeus left Troezen
But before he left he placed beneath a boulder a token
Aegeus told Aethra that she must keep his identity secret
Until his son Theseus was old enough to understand it
His sword and sandals he had buried he told Aethra
Which his son must first lift off when he was older

Theseus grew into a strong and intelligent young man
And when he was sixteen, Aethra followed the plan
She took Theseus to the boulder and told him to lift it
Which if he did she would tell him his fathers secret
Theseus wrapped his mighty arms around the boulder
And he lifted it and threw it away as if it were paper
Neath the stone he found the tokens left by his father
He was told to take the sword and sandals by Aethra
Then Aethra could reveal the truth to young Theseus
That he was the son of the King of Athens Aegeus
Theseus was prompted by a sense of his heroic destiny
And to meet his father he set out forthwith on a journey

Aethra and her father begged Theseus to go to by sea
To avoid bandits who frequented the road habitually
But Theseus was young and bold so went by overland
After a few miles he met a man with a club in his hand
He was a giant of a man and His name was Periphetes
And his club was bronze and would have suited Heracles
Periphetes was going to kill him that was quite clear
But Theseus stood before him and showed him no fear
He managed to persuade him to let him see the weapon
Once in his hands he hit Periphetes with the bludgeon

After killing Periphetes he went down the road further
And he met another giant called Sinis the pine bender
Sinis tricked passers by to help him with tree bending
Then he’d tie them between the trees before releasing
As the pines snapped upright it caused decapitation
Spreading them over the landscape in every direction
When he tried to do the same thing to Theseus our hero
He tied Sinis between two bent pines and then let go
Then, not far from Athens, Theseus encountered Sciron
On the road along tall cliffs the brigand stood upon
To cross the cliffs He demanded a toll from travelers
And he would kill with his axe any attempted defaulters
The toll he demanded seemed to be reasonably fair
And was simply to wash his feet in the tub he had there
Then while they were busy washing his feet thoroughly
He would kick the unsuspecting traveler into the sea
And down below the tall cliffs in watery isolation
A huge man eating sea turtle waited in anticipation
So Theseus sat down and started to wash Sciron's feet
He looked over the cliff and saw the turtle not replete
When Sciron's foot came at him, Theseus jerked aside
And hurled Sciron into the foaming sea off the cliff side

The next challenge for Theseus our intrepid adventurer
Came in the form of a man called Procrustes an evildoer
Procrustes kept a house by the roadside where he offers
Hospitality in the form of a hot meal to passing strangers
Then they were invited to take a night's rest it was said
What Procrustes called a night in his very special bed
If a guest inquired of him what was so special about it
They were told whoever slept in it the bed adjusted to fit
Once in bed the guest was either stretched if to small
Or had limbs hacked off if they were too long or tall
Theseus one again turned the tables on his adversary
Just By adjusting Procrustes to fit his own bed fatally

When he reached Athens he was hailed by the Athenians
For he’d rid the highway of its highwaymen and brigands
In his honor he was invited to the palace