文档介绍：Tales of Troy
Tales of Troy
by Andrew Lang
1
Tales of Troy
THE BOYHOOD AND PARENTS
OF ULYSSES
Long ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of Greece,
there lived a king named Laertes. His kingdom was small and
mountainous. People used to say that Ithaca "lay like a shield upon the
sea," which sounds as if it were a flat country. But in those times shields
were very large, and rose at the middle into two peaks with a hollow
between them, so that Ithaca, seen far off in the sea, with her two chief
mountain peaks, and a cloven valley between them, looked exactly like a
shield. The country was so rough that men kept no horses, for, at that
time, people drove, standing up in little light chariots with two horses;
they never rode, and there was no cavalry in battle: men fought from
chariots. When Ulysses, the son of Laertes, King of Ithaca grew up, he
never fought from a chariot, for he had none, but always on foot.
If there were no horses in Ithaca, there was plenty of cattle. The
father of Ulysses had flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, and wild goats,
deer, and hares lived in the hills and in the plains. The sea was full of
fish of many sorts, which men caught s, and with rod and line and
hook.
Thus Ithaca was a good island to live in. The summer was long, and
there was hardly any winter; only a few cold weeks, and then the swallows
came back, and the plains were like a garden, all covered with wild
flowers--violets, lilies, narcissus, and roses. With the blue sky and the
blue sea, the island was beautiful. White temples stood on the shores;
and the Nymphs, a sort of fairies, had their little shrines built of stone,
with wild rose-bushes hanging over them.
Other islands lay within sight, crowned with mountains, stretching
away, one behind the other, into the sunset. Ulysses in the course of his
life saw many rich countries, and great cities of men, but, wherever he was,
his heart was always in the little isle