, and returned to their city, where they
settled, forcing all the people who dwelt in the neighborhood either to
leave the country or to serve them as their slaves.

The return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesus is the last event of
the Heroic Age, and now real history begins. After this, it is no longer
necessary to try to find out the truth hidden in the old tales which
were handed down from father to son, and which were the only fairy
stories the Greek children knew; for henceforth records were kept of all
the principal events.

XX. THE BLIND POET.

Three or four centuries after the siege of Troy, there lived a poor old
blind poet who wandered about from place to place, playing upon his
lyre, and reciting wonderful verses which told about the adventures of
the Greek heroes, and their great deeds during the Trojan War.

We are told that this old man, whose name was Ho'mer, had not always
been poor and blind, but that, having embarked by mistake upon a vessel
manned by pirates, he not only had been robbed of all his wealth, and
blinded, but had been left upon a lonely shore.

By some happy chance, poor blind Homer found his way to the inhabited
parts of the country, where he soon won many friends. Instead of
spending all his time in weeping over his troubles, Homer tried to think
of some way in which he could earn his living, and at the same time give
pleasure to others. He soon found such a way in telling the stories of
the past to all who cared to listen to them.

[Illustration: Homer.]

As the people in those days had no books, no schools, and no theaters,
these stories seemed very wonderful. Little by little Homer turned them
into verses so grand and beautiful that we admire them still; and these
he recited, accompanying himself on a lyre, which he handled with much
skill. As he wandered thus from place to place, old and young crowded
around him to listen to his tales; and some young men were so struck by
them that they followed him everywhere, until they too could repeat
them. This was quite easy to do, because Homer had put them into the
most beautiful and harmonious language the world has ever known. As soon
as these young men had learned a few of the tales, they too began to
travel from place to place, telling them to all they met; and thus
Homer's verses became well known throughout all Greece.

[Illustration: Telling Homer's Tales.]

The Greeks who could recite Homer's poems went next t