Books with title The Heroes: or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children

Once upon a time there were two princes who were twins... begins Charles Kingsley in his 1856 rendering of Greek mythological heroes for children. Featuring the many exploits of Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts, and Theseus, this timeless collection of myths is a rich tapestry of adventure celebrated in early Greek lore. Kingsley's Heroes is a classic book that will please listeners of all ages.

Once upon a time there were two princes who were twins. Their names were Acrisius and Prœtus, and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas. They had fruitful meadows and vineyards, sheep and oxen, great herds of horses feeding down in Lerna Fen, and all that men could need to make them blest: and yet they were wretched, because they were jealous of each other. From the moment they were born they began to quarrel; and when they grew up each tried to take away the other’s share of the kingdom, and keep all for himself. So first Acrisius drove out Prœtus; and he went across the seas, and brought home a foreign princess for his wife, and foreign warriors to help him, who were called Cyclopes; and drove out Acrisius in his turn; and then they fought a long while up and down the land, till the quarrel was settled, and Acrisius took Argos and one half the land, and Prœtus took Tiryns and the other half. And Prœtus and his Cyclopes built around Tiryns great walls of unhewn stone, which are standing to this day.

Work by Charles Kingsley, a prolific English novelist and author whose main power lay in his descriptive faculties. Kingsley's interest in history spilled over into his writings, which include The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children (1856), a children's book about Greek mythology, and several historical novels, of which the best known are Hypatia (1853), Hereward, the Last of the English (1865), and Westward Ho!