ese happy people had lived long enough they fell asleep, and
their bodies were seen no more. They flitted away through the air, and
over the mountains, and across the sea, to a flowery land in the distant
west. And some men say that, even to this day, they are wandering
happily hither and thither about the earth, causing babies to smile in
their cradles, easing the burdens of the toilworn and sick, and blessing
mankind everywhere.
What a pity it is that this Golden Age should have come to an end! But
it was Jupiter and his brothers who brought about the sad change.
It is hard to believe it, but men say that Jupiter was the son of the
old Titan king, Saturn, and that he was hardly a year old when he began
to plot how he might wage war against his father. As soon as he was
grown up, he persuaded his brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and his sisters,
Juno, Ceres, and Vesta, to join him; and they vowed that they would
drive the Titans from the earth.
Then followed a long and terrible war. But Jupiter had many mighty
helpers. A company of one-eyed monsters called Cyclopes were kept busy
all the time, forging thunderbolts in the fire of burning mountains.
Three other monsters, each with a hundred hands, were called in to throw
rocks and trees against the stronghold of the Titans; and Jupiter
himself hurled his sharp lightning darts so thick and fast that the
woods were set on fire and the water in the rivers boiled with the heat.
Of course, good, quiet old Saturn and his brothers and sisters could
not hold out always against such foes as these. At the end of ten years
they had to give up and beg for peace. They were bound in chains of the
hardest rock and thrown into a prison in the Lower Worlds; and the
Cyclopes and the hundred-handed monsters were sent there to be their
jailers and to keep guard over them forever.
Then men began to grow dissatisfied with their lot. Some wanted to be
rich and own all the good things in the world. Some wanted to be kings
and rule over the others. Some who were strong wanted to make slaves of
those who were weak. Some broke down the fruit trees in the woods, lest
others should eat of the fruit. Some, for mere sport, hunted the timid
animals which had always been their friends. Some even killed these poor
creatures and ate their flesh for food.
At last, instead of everybody being everybody's friend, everybody was
everybody's foe.
So, in all the world, instead of peace, there was war; i
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