The Heroes: Greek Fairy Tales for my Children

By Charles Kingsley

In his classic 1855 book, British author Charles Kingsley retells some of the most famous Green myths filtered through a decidedly Christian lens, for (as he notes in his Prefact), " They worshipped no idols, as far as I can find; and they still believed in the last six of the ten commandments, and knew well what was right and what was wrong.  And they believed (and that was what gave them courage) that the gods loved men, and taught them, and that without the gods men were sure to come to ruin.  And in that they were right enough, as we know—more right even than they thought; for without God we can do nothing, and all wisdom comes from Him."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Aug 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781479452293

Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley was born in Holne, Devon, in 1819. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Helston Grammar School, before moving on to King's College London and the University of Cambridge. After graduating in 1842, he pursued a career in the clergy and in 1859 was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria. The following year he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, and became private tutor to the Prince of Wales in 1861. Kingsley resigned from Cambridge in 1869 and between 1870 and 1873 was canon of Chester cathedral. He was appointed canon of Westminster cathedral in 1873 and remained there until his death in 1875. Sympathetic to the ideas of evolution, Kingsley was one of the first supporters of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), and his concern for social reform was reflected in The Water-Babies (1863). Kingsley also wrote Westward Ho! (1855), for which the English town is named, a children's book about Greek mythology, The Heroes (1856), and several other historical novels.

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