The following are stories from the book Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930). The author tells the myths in a way closer to fairy tales than to traditional classical myths.
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- The Olympians, the Shining People of the Mountain
- Echo and Narcissus: the Loving Nymph and the Fair White Flower
- The Abduction of Persephone: the Pretty Maiden and the Dark-Eyed King
- Cupid and Psyche: the Enchanted Palace
- Perseus: the Prince with the Golden Hair
- Psyche as Serving Maid
- The Strange People of the Woodlands
- Hero and Leander, the Bravest Swimmer in the World
- Theseus and the Minotaur, the Monster in the Maze
- The Princess and the Sea Monster
- The Strong Man and His Wonderful Deeds
- The Golden Fleece
- The Secret of the Casket
- The Magic of the Herbs
- The King with the Touch of Gold
- Golden Apples
- Some Old, Old Travellers’ Tales
- The Mysterious Wooden Horse
- The Arrows of Troy
- The Wise Old Man of the Sea
- The Lost King and the One-Eyed Giant
- The Beautiful Enchantress and the Pigs
- Who can Bend the Great Bow?
- Heroes of the Sky
- Some Wonderful Enchantments
Preface
This preface is included in the original book.
The stories in this book are all derived from the beautiful literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Just as they have inspired the finest poetry and painting of the world, so they cannot fail to delight any child who loves a tale about princes and princesses, enchanted forests, sparkling water nymphs, scaly dragons, stags with golden hoofs, and horses with silver wings. Never was there a finer fairy palace than that which sheltered Psyche, never were there seas so marvelous as those Ulysses sailed “once upon a time”.
The stories have been handed down to the children of the new world from the children of the old — those little Greek maidens who, on the eve of marriage, placed their hair nets, their pretty balls, their tambourines, their dolls, and their dolls’ dresses on Diana’s altar, and those little shepherd lads who laid baskets of fruit upon the shrines of Pan.
Source, etc.
The scanned book is available on Archive.org. I at LatinFromScratch.com have proofread, edited, etc., the OCR version. Minor changes have been made, but, in general, every spelling, word, sentence, paragraph, etc., is as in the original (however, most changes are about having more paragraphs for a more effortless reading experience, and occasionally some old-fashioned spellings such as to-morrow → tomorrow). Proper names have been changed from the Latin version into the Greek version (e.g. Athena instead of Minerva, etc.); also, some passages might be considered politically incorrect nowadays, or too condescending or patronizing for children, etc.
Images haven’t been included, since the illustrator, Harry G. Theaker, died in 1954, so his illustrations aren’t in the public domain in many countries (for example, Spain).