Tales of Troy and Greece

Long ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of Greece, there lived aking named Laertes.

His kingdom was small and mountainous. People used to saythat 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 peakswith a hollow between them, so that Ithaca, seen far off in the sea, with her twochief mountain peaks, and a cloven valley between them, looked exactly like ashield.

The country was so rough that men kept no horses, for, at that time, peopledrove, standing up in little light chariots with two horses; they never rode, andthere was no cavalry in battle: men fought from chariots.

When Ulysses, the son ofLaertes, 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 Ulysseshad flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, and wild goats, deer, and hares lived in thehills and in the plains.

The sea was full of fish of many sorts, which men caught withnets, and with rod and line and hook.