The book of Greek & Roman folktales, legends, & myths

SAGES AND PHILOSOPHERS. Truth and Wisdom

The Seven Sages and the Prize of Wisdom

Thales on Life and Death

A Question of Responsibility

A Problem of Identity

Secundus the Silent Philosopher

Converting to Philosophy

Plato

Axiothea

Epicurus

Benefits and Perils of Philosophy

Aristippos on the Philosopher's Advantage

Aristippos on the Benefits of Philosophy

Antisthenes on the Benefits of Philosophy

Diogenes on the Benefits of Philosophy

Krates on the Benefits of Philosophy

The Most Useful Man in Ephesos

Protagoras's Books Burned

Sinning against Philosophy

The Philosophic Life

Thales in the Well

Thales and the Olive Presses

Wealth vs Wisdom

Simonides's View

Aristippos's View

The Cynics

Diogenes on Being Laughed At

Diogenes and the Lantern

The Meeting of Diogenes and Alexander

Alexander's Offer

Diogenes on Personal Attire

Diogenes on Temple Theft

Diogenes on a Public Reading

Diogenes Visits a Brothel

Diogenes on the City of Myndos

Watch Out!

Krates and Hipparchia

Monimos on Wealth

Philosophers Criticize One Another

Diogenes Criticizes Plato

Plato Criticizes Diogenes

Plato Characterizes Diogenes

Diogenes on Plato's Theory of Ideas

Diogenes on a Definition of Plato's

Diogenes on the Impossibility of Motion

Education and Learning

A Song before Dying

The Entrance to Plato's Classroom

The Delian Problem

The Worst Punishment

Discoveries and Inventions

The Invention of Hunting

The Invention of Board Games

The Original Language

Thales Inscribes a Triangle in a Circle

Thales Measures the Height of the Pyramids

Thales Predicts an Eclipse

The Pythagorean Theorem

Eureka!

Happiness and Contentment

The Origin of Human Miseries

The Rock of Tantalos

The Sword of Damocles

King Midas

Wealth and Happiness

Water and a Loaf of Bread

Gold vs Figs

Untouched by Grief

The Happy Mute

Pyrrhos and Kineas

Drinking

The Third Cup of Wine

On Behaving Like Animals

The Different Stages of Life

The Different Kinds of People

The Different Kinds of Women

Aesopic Fables

The Fox and the Crane

The Dog with a Piece of Meat

The Raven with a Piece of Meat

The King of the Apes

The Ape with Important Ancestors

The Sour Grapes

The Ant and the Cicada

The Lion's Share

The Race of the Tortoise and the Hare

The Lion and the Mouse

The Plump Dog

The Transformed Weasel

The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs

The Tortoise That Wishes to Fly

The King of the Frogs

The Astronomer

The Shepherd Who Cries -Wolf !

Here Is Rhodes!

The Belly and the Feet

The Oak and the Reed

Short Fables

The Mountain in Labor

The Attentive Donkey

NUMSKULLS AND SYBARITES. Traditional Numskulls

Margites

Meletides

Koroibos

Morychos

Akko

The Foolish Kymaians

The Foolish Abderites

Other Numskulls

Carrying the Load

Acquiring Sense

Seeing the Doctor

The Trained Donkey

The Books

The Slave

A Call of Nature

The Twins

The Funeral

The Ball in the Well

The Educated Son

The Travelers

The Grateful Father

A Pair of Twins

The Fugitives

The Pillow

Wits

Too Healthy

What Does It Taste Like?

All in the Family

The Strongest Thing

Caesar's Soldiers Sing

Miscellaneous

Not at Home

The Portent

The Deaf Judge

The Scythian

The Cold Reading

The Covetous Man and the Envious Man

The Delicate Sybarites

Uncomfortable Sleep

The Suitor

Noise Policy

The Affliction of Work

Excursions to the Country

Chamber Pots

Piped Wine

Policy on Parties

Dancing Horses

Tall Tales

Topsy-Turvy Land

Frozen Speech

Thin Men

Appendix Across the Genres: Ancient Terms, Belief, and Relative Numbers

Notes on the Tales

Glossary

Bibliography

Ancient Sources

List of International Stories.

The Kinds of Ancient Story -- The Present Book -- KINGS AND PRINCESSES. Cupid and Psyche -- The Treasury of Rhampsinitos -- The Pharaoh and the Courtesan -- GODS AND GHOSTS. Divine Epiphanies -- The Muses Appear to Hesiod -- The Muses Appear to Archilochos -- Thamyris Competes against the Muses -- Stesichoros's Palinode -- Asklepios Heals Pandaros -- Asklepios Reveals Secrets of the Gods -- Athena Saves the Lindians -- The Altar of the Vulture God -- A Fortune in Water -- The Rescue of Simonides -- Lower Mythology -- Narcissus -- Rhoikos and the Nymph -- The Great God Pan Is Dead! -- Bogies -- Shape-Changers -- The Werewolf -- The Empousa -- Ghosts -- Philinnion -- The Last Princess at Troy -- The Grateful Dead Man -- Murder at the Inn -- Letter from the Middle of the Earth -- The Haunted House -- The Haunted Baths -- The Haunted Battlefield -- The Hero of Temesa -- Periander's Wife -- Early Wonder-Workers -- Abaris the Hyperborean -- Aristeas of Prokonnesos -- Hermotimos of Klazomenai -- Epimenides of Crete -- Pherekydes of Syros -- Pythagoras -- Transmigration of Souls -- Pythagoras Remembers an Earlier Life -- Pythagoras Discerns a Friend's Soul in a Dog -- Empedokles Recalls His Earlier Lives -- The Woman Who Remembers Too Much -- Magicians and Witches -- Pases the Magician -- Attack by Star-Stroke -- A Woman Dies from Spells -- The Soul-Drawing Wand -- Apollonios Cures a Plague -- The Magician's Apprentice -- Evil Landladies -- Divination and Seers -- The Language of Birds -- The Acquisition of the Sibylline Oracles -- What the Sibyl ants -- Bacchus Forsakes Antony -- Cato Explains a Portent -- Cato on Soothsayers -- Fate -- Polykrates's Ring -- Zeus, Why Me? -- The Last Days of Mykerinos -- Kleonymos's Near-Death Experience -- Eurynoos's Near-Death Experience -- Curma's Near-Death Experience -- Jews, Christians, and Pagans -- The Origin of the Septuagint -- Miracles of Jesus -- Paul and Barnabas Mistaken for Pagan Gods -- The Discovery of the True Cross -- The Last Delphic Oracle -- You Have Won, Galilean! -- The Murder of Hypatia -- LEGENDS ON VARIOUS THEMES. The Bizarre -- Capture of a Satyr -- Capture of a Centaur -- Sightings of Mermen and Mermaids -- The Self-Sustaining Beast -- In Love with a Statue -- Animal Offspring -- The Ugly Man -- Male Parturition -- Sudden Change of Sex -- Periodic Ecstasy -- The Laughing Tirynthians -- The Man Who Loses His Laugh -- A Strange Tomb -- The Lame Man and the Blind Man -- Irony -- Intaphrenes's Wife -- A Parent's Request -- Plato's Characters -- The Unbreakable Glass Bowl -- Animals -- The Dolphin Rider -- The Grateful Dolphin -- Androkles and the Lion -- How Ophiteia Gets Its Name -- Xanthippos's Dog -- The Accidental Killing of a Cat -- Children -- The Children Play King -- The Children Play Priest -- The Children Play War -- A Child Steals from the Goddess -- Friends -- Damon and Phintias -- Friends Unknown -- Abauchas's Choice -- Rulers and Tyrants -- Plato Teaches a Tyrant about Democracy -- The City of Forbidden Expression -- Ismenias's Subterfuge -- Queen for a Day -- The Absentminded Emperor -- Justice -- Zeus's Ledger -- The Golden Ax -- The Judge of the Ants -- Tarpeia's Reward -- The Cranes of Ibykos -- The Murder of Mitys of Argos -- An Eye for an Eye -- The Trial of the Courtesan Phryne -- The Problem of Dreamt Sex -- The Disputed Child -- Abusive Son of an Abusive Father --

TRICKSTERS AND LOVERS. Trickery and Cleverness -- Trophonios and Agamedes -- The Dishonest Banker -- The Joint Depositors -- The Two Thieves -- Aesop and the Figs -- Never Heard Before -- The Slaves Take Over -- The Milesians Hold a Party -- Saving Lampsakos -- The Suckling Daughter -- A Donkey's Shadow -- The Hoax -- Lovers and Seducers -- Zeus and Hera Wrangle over Sexuality -- The Affair of Ares and Aphrodite -- Iphimedeia Desires Poseidon -- Hippolytos and Phaidra -- The Husband's Untimely Return: 1 -- The Husband's Untimely Return: 2 -- The Signal -- The Widow of Ephesos -- Sleeping with a God -- The Pergamene Boy -- Aesop and the Master's Wife -- The King's Trusted Friend -- Dream-Lovers -- The Astute Physician -- Hero and Leander -- Xanthos, Who Longs for His Wife -- Ariston and His Friend's Wife -- Olympians in the Bedroom -- ARTISTS AND ATHLETES. Artists and the Arts -- Herakles Fooled -- Nature Fooled -- Painter Fooled -- The Sculptor Polykleitos -- Models for Helen of Troy -- Helen's Chalice -- Archilochos: Lethal Iambics -- Hipponax: More Lethal Iambics -- The Cicada -- A Singer's Compensation -- Pindar's Sacrifice -- Pindar's House -- Phrynichos Fined -- The Chorus of Aeschylus's Eumenides -- Sophocles on Himself and Euripides -- I See a Weasel -- Mother, I Call to You -- Saved by Euripides -- How Menander Composes His Plays -- The First Line of Plato's Republic -- Ovid's Worst Lines -- Athletes -- The Origin of the Stadium -- The First Marathon -- The Origin of Nude Athletes -- The Origin of Nude Trainers -- Polymestor the Sprinter -- Ageus the Long-Distance Runner -- Milon the Wrestler -- Eumastas the Strongman -- Theagenes's Statue -- Poulydamas the Pancratiast -- Kleomedes Runs Amok -- Astylos Angers His Hometown -- Exainetos Pleases His Hometown -- Glaukos the Boxer -- The Reluctant Dueler -- MEMORABLE WORDS, NOTABLE ACTIONS. Portents -- The Infant Pindar on Mt Helikon -- The Infant Plato on Mt Hymettos -- Young Demosthenes in Court -- Characterizations -- A Statue of Homer -- Themistokles and the Man from Seriphos -- Aristeides the Just -- Timon the Misanthrope -- The Arrest of Theramenes -- Socrates's Hardihood -- Socrates Ponders a Problem -- Demosthenes's Handicaps -- Delivery! -- Only Human -- What Alexander Sleeps Upon -- Cleopatra's Wager -- The Lamprey Pools -- A Principled Man -- Nero Fiddles -- Where Would He Be Now? -- A Slave's Eye -- The People of Akragas -- Laconic Spartans -- Too Many Words -- A Spartan Mother -- Discussion at Thermopylae -- Alexander the Great Becomes a God -- On Spartan Adultery -- Delusion -- Menekrates, Who Calls Himself Zeus -- Menekrates-Zeus Writes to King Philip -- Philip Hosts Menekrates -- Hannon's Birds -- The Woman Who Holds Up the World with Her Finger -- The House Called Trireme -- The Happy Shipowner -- The Happy Playgoer -- Memorable Words -- Ars Longa, Vita Brevis -- Which Came First? -- Alter Ego -- Give Me a Place to Stand, and I'll Move the World! -- Life Is Like the Olympic Games -- The Die Is Cast -- Et tu, Brute? -- In Hoc Signo Vinces -- Memorable Experiences -- Toxic Honey -- A Narrow Escape -- The Great Fish -- The Discovery of Archimedes's Tomb -- Summing Up and Last Words -- Counting One's Blessings -- Socrates -- Theophrastos's Lament -- Vespasian's Last Words -- Deaths -- Pythagoras -- Aeschylus -- Euripides -- Philemon -- Diogenes the Cynic -- Zenon -- Cleopatra -- Petronius Arbiter -- Archimedes --