parts," and has "the massiveness and dignity of sculpture," to the
simplest idylls, such as the Japanese "White Aster," or that exquisite
French mediaeval compound of poetry and prose, "Aucassin et Nicolette."
Not only are both Christian and pagan epics impartially admitted in
this volume, but the representative works of each nation in the epic
field are grouped, according to the languages in which they were
composed.

Many of the ancient epics are so voluminous that even one of them
printed in full would fill twenty-four volumes as large as this. To
give even the barest outline of one or two poems in each language has
therefore required the utmost condensation. So, only the barest
outline figures in these pages, and, although the temptation to quote
many choice passages has been well-nigh irresistible, space has
precluded all save the scantiest quotations.

The main object of this volume consists in outlining clearly and
briefly, for the use of young students or of the busy general reader,
the principal examples of the time-honored stories which have inspired
our greatest poets and supplied endless material to painters,
sculptors, and musicians ever since art began.

THE BOOK OF THE EPIC

GREEK EPICS

The greatest of all the world's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are
attributed to Homer, or Melesigenes, who is said to have lived some
time between 1050 and 850 B.C. Ever since the second century before
Christ, however, the question whether Homer is the originator of the
poems, or whether, like the Rhapsodists, he merely recited extant
verses, has been hotly disputed.

The events upon which the Iliad is based took place some time before
1100 B.C., and we are told the poems of Homer were collected and
committed to writing by Pisistratus during the age of Epic Poetry, or
second age of Greek literature, which ends 600 B.C.

It stands to reason that the Iliad must have been inspired by or at
least based upon previous poems, since such perfection is not achieved
at a single bound. Besides, we are aware of the existence of many
shorter Greek epics, which have either been entirely lost or of which
we now possess only fragments.

A number of these ancient epics form what is termed the Trojan Cycle,
because all relate in some way to the War of Troy. Among them is the
Cypria, in eleven books, by Stasimus of Cyprus (or by Arctinus of
Miletus), wherein is related Jupiter's frustrated wooing of Thetis,
her