Greek and Roman
The Gullible Emperor
“But as he bowed his head and brought his mouth near to the mouth of one of the brothers, this one seized him firmly by the hair and the other brother cut off his head.” […]
Trickery
Human Affairs
The Sex-Trap
” His wiliness (said these) would be most readily detected, if a fair woman were put in his way in some secluded place, who should provoke his mind to the temptations of love; all men’s natural temper being too blindly amorous to be artfully dissembled, and this passion being also too impetuous to be checked by cunning. ” […]
Britons and Celts
The Cat Who Caught a Cock
“But I minding another thing, and seeing that scratching could not move him, suddenly I leapt up and caught him by the genitals with my teeth, and bit so hard, that at last he cried out.” […]
Greek and Roman
Get Rich Quick or Go Blind Trying
“They all agreed that the counsel was excellent; and casting lots, the chance fell upon the contriver of the expedient; whose eyes they immediately put out.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Origin of Suffering
“Zeus bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs.” […]
Medieval Mentality
Wisdom Wins the Day
“The twelve tall trees, each of which had thirty branches, are the twelve months of the year; twelve times the moon is renewed in her place, like a new king seated on his thrones, and each month has thirty days; this is how time passes.” […]
Britons and Celts
Demonic Efficiency
“When he left they questioned him closely and asked him who he really was. He said that he had been born to some rustic bedlam in the same parish, fathered on her by an incubus who had appeared in the shape of her husband.” […]
Medieval Mentality
Lucifer Makes His Move
“”Inasmuch as I am now an invisible spirit, I cannot visibly come to have speech with physical man, unless I adorn my ugly countenance with a certain corporeal beauty. I shall therefore enter this serpent which God has created with the face of a maiden and which most resembles man in beauty; and I shall speak with his tongue to Eve.” […]
Humor
Gotcha! I’m Your King Now!
“We both know the old adage that he who holds the sword of a man who is undoing his belt, will from then on be the lesser of the two. Therefore, you are now a king under my rule and you must endure this status as patiently as the others do.” […]
Britons and Celts
The Eternal Rider of the Wild Hunt
“Sir, I can hardly understand your speech, for you are a Briton and I a Saxon; but the name of that Queen I have never heard, save that they say that long ago there was a Queen of that name over the very ancient Britons, who was the wife of King Herla; and he, the old story says, disappeared in company with a pigmy at this very cliff, and was never seen on earth again, and it is now two hundred years since the Saxons took possession of this kingdom, and drove out the old inhabitants.” […]