Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Greek & Roman

Andrew Lang drew upon his classical learning to recreate the Greek myths for children. He follows Ulysses from his boyhood, thorugh the Trojan Wars, to his voyage to seek the son of Achilles. The story of Helen of Troy, and the Trojan Horse, is told with the pace of a modern adventure. Lang's collection of retold myths includes Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, and recounts the lives and heroic deeds of two other major figures: Theseus, who slew the Minotaur; and Perseus, who freed the princess Andromeda as one of his many tests, with the helo of the gorgon's head. Perseus, Andromeda, and her parents, Cephus and Cassiopeia, are remembered in the constellations of the summer sky. Not only will theres tales bring to life for children of all ages the quest for good and the struggle against eveil embodied in the myths, they also reveal the roots of characters referenced throughout Western litereature from Shakespeare's time to the present day. In the true spirit of adventure, Lang dedicated his book to H. Rider Haggard.

Jason is born the son of King Aeson. His destiny is to rule Iolcus, the land that his father's brother, King Pelias, has taken from him. When Jason comes of age, he returns to Iolcus. But the king is not yet willing to give up his throne. So he cunningly persuades Jason to accept a dare to bring back the famous Golden Fleece of Colchis. Jason accepts the challenge, unaware that he is being conned into a dangerous and perhaps fatal journey far, far from the land he loves.

It is both amazing and wonderful that so much of the richness of our language and our moral education still owes a huge debt to a Greek slave who was executed over 2,000 years ago. Yet "sour grapes", "crying wolf", "a dog in a manger", "actions speak louder than words", "honesty is the best policy", and literally hundreds of other metaphors, axioms, and ideas that are now woven into the very fabric of Western culture all came from Aesop's Fables.