A Book of Worthies - 1882 Author:Charlotte Mary Yonge Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HECTOR. The first of the three Worthies of the classic world chosen by our forefathers was Hector. It is strange to pass from the most true to the most uncert... more »ain, but as we are here trying to tread as far as possible in the steps of our ancestors in our study of great examples ; and also since we have just seen the highest models of the Heroic which were held up to those who lived under Divine revelation; it is well to pass to the grandest portraits of character invented by the human mind when left to itself. It is scarcely true, however, to say that Hector was the highest ideal of the ancients themselves. Circumstances led to his being the favourite in the Middle Ages, partly because the classic heroes had become chiefly known through Latin writings which were favourable to Hector's cause, and partly because there are elements in his nature, as originally depicted, which are more congenial to a Christian than are the dispositions of his enemies. In order to have any understanding of the persons we have to study, it is needful to know what were the objects of their chief admiration, and therefore, together with Hector, we will try to describe the other two chief Heroes who were admired in ancient times, namely, Achilles and Ulysses, the three together perhaps making the highest perfection that the Greeks could conceive. According to the old attempts at chronology, these personages shouldhave been placed before, instead of after, David, as they were supposed to be contemporary with Saul; but in very truth the whole of their adventures are so unhistorical, that it is a futile endeavour to assign to them any date. All that we do know is that the glorious poems of Homer which have endeared them to all ages, were current among the Greeks, and known by heart by every educated m...« less