Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable

“Your arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike you.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“So near the track of the stars are we,That oft, on night's pale beams,The distant sounds of their harmonyCome to our ears, like dreams.The Moon, too, brings her world so nigh,That when the night-seer looksTo that shadowless orb, in a vernal sky,He can number its hills and brooks.To the Sun god all our hearts and lyres,By day, by night, belong;And the breath we draw from his living firesWe give him back in song,””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“I come from a land in the sun-bright deep,         Where golden gardens glow,      Where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep,         Their conch shells never blow.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“and since here we have passed our lives in love and concord, we wish that one and the same hour may take us both from life, that I may not live to see her grave, nor be laid in my own by her.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“There is another deity who is described as the calumniator of the gods and the contriver of all fraud and mischief. His name is Loki. He is handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood and most evil disposition. He is of the giant race, but forced himself into the company of the gods, and seems to take pleasure in bringing them into difficulties, and in extricating them out of the danger by his cunning, wit, and skill.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“Then he struck her with a magic wand, and she was changed back into a young woman, the fairest ever seen.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“a ship without ballast is tossed hither and thither on the sea, so the chariot, without its accustomed weight, was dashed about as if empty. They””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“Then, for the first time, the Great and Little Bear were scorched with heat, and would fain, if it were possible, have plunged into the water; and the Serpent which lies coiled up round the north pole, torpid and harmless, grew warm, and with warmth felt its rage revive.””

— Thomas Bulfinch

“the boundless plain of the universe lies open before them. They dart forward and cleave the opposing clouds, and outrun the morning breezes which started from the same eastern goal.””

— Thomas Bulfinch