Identifier: storyofgreatestn01elli (find matches)
Title: The story of the greatest nations; a comprehensive history, extending from the earliest times to the present, founded on the most modern authorities, and including chronological summaries and pronouncing vocabularies for each nation; and the world's famous events, told in a series of brief sketches forming a single continuous story of history and illumined by a complete series of notable illustrations from the great historic paintings of all lands
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916 Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: World history
Publisher: New York : Niglutsch
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
THE LABORS OF HERCULES
(Hercules Pursues the Stag of Cerynea)
By the contemporary German artist, O. Schindler
—————
As the ancient legends of the Greeks descend from gods to men, we come to mention of a great and very ancient city, Argos. In this city, wherever it was situated, the Greeks first dwelt, and their earliest heroes ruled. By far the most celebrated of these was Hercules, a son of the great god Jupiter and of a queen of Thebes in Greece. The goddess Juno was his enemy through life and so afflicted him that at length Jupiter decreed that if Hercules could perform twelve great labors he should be raised upon his death to be one of the gods themselves.
      The fourth of these labors typical of the others was the capture of the wonderful stag of Cerynea, which had golden antlers and brazen hoofs and roamed with the speed of light among the wildest mountains of Greece. Hercules was to bring the stag unharmed into the presence of his cousin, King Eurystheus of Argos. Hercules chased the stag for a whole year over chasm and rock until at length he wore it down and captured it. Our picture shows him in full pursuit, with his lion skin streaming from his shoulder. This skin was stripped from a mighty lion whose slaying had been the first exploit of his early manhood.
      After accomplishing the twelve labors, Hercules did many other deeds of value for men, and became recognized as the great national hero of Greece. After his death, Jupiter fulfilled his promise of making Hercules a god.
Text Appearing After Image:
Greece—The Argonauts
legend, into which were gradually introduced all the heroes of both races? The story is of Jason, a descendant of Hellen, and a prince in the Greek kingdom of Thessaly. The king, Jason's uncle, desired to be rid of him—Jason being, as usual in such tales, the rightful heir to the throne. So the king commanded the youth to bring him the "golden fleece." This was the skin of a golden ram, which was kept as a talisman by the king of Colchis, the very farthest land of which the Greeks knew, way off at the eastern end of the Black Sea.
      Realizing the magnitude of his task, Jason sent through all the cities of Greece to ask for help; and all the noted heroes of the race gathered to his call. There were fifty of them in all, including Hercules and Orpheus, the Athenian hero Theseus, and the wise Nestor, who survived to take part as an aged counsellor of a later generation in the war with Troy. Jason built a great boat, the Argo, capable of holding all his friends, the biggest ship the Greeks had ever known. From it the voyagers were called the Argonauts.

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