On a steep stony hill in Greece there lived in early times a few very
poor people who had not yet learned to build houses. They made their
homes in little caves which they dug in the earth or hollowed out among
the rocks; and their food was the flesh of wild animals, which they
hunted in the woods, with now and then a few berries or nuts. They did
not even know how to make bows and arrows, but used slings and clubs and
sharp sticks for weapons; and the little clothing which they had was
made of skins. They lived on the top of the hill, because they were safe
there from the savage beasts of the great forest around them, and safe
also from the wild men who sometimes roamed through the land. The hill
was so steep on every side that there was no way of climbing it save by
a single narrow footpath which was always guarded by some one at the
top.
One day when the men were hunting in the woods, they found a strange
youth whose face was so fair and who was dressed so beautifully that
they could hardly believe him to be a man like themselves. His body was
so slender and lithe, and he moved so nimbly among the trees, that they
fancied him to be a serpent in the guise of a human being; and they
stood still in wonder and alarm. The young man spoke to them, but they
could not understand a word that he said; then he made signs to them
that he was hungry, and they gave him something to eat and were no
longer afraid. Had they been like the wild men of the woods, they might
have killed him at once. But they wanted their women and children to see
the serpent man, as they called him, and hear him talk; and so they took
him home with them to the top of the hill. They thought that after they
had made a show of him for a few days, they would kill him and offer his
body as a sacrifice to the unknown being whom they dimly fancied to have
some sort of control over their lives.
But the young man was so fair and gentle that, after they had all taken
a look at him, they began to think it would be a great pity to harm him.
So they gave him food and treated him kindly; and he sang songs to them
and played with their children, and made them happier than they had been
for many a day. In a short time he learned to talk in their language;
and he told them that his name was Cecrops, and that he had been
shipwrecked on the seacoast not far away; and then he told them many
strange things about the land from which he had come and to which he
would never be able to return. The poor people listened and wondered;
and it was not long until they began to love him and to look up to him
as one wiser than themselves. Then they came to ask him about everything
that was to be done, and there was not one of them who refused to do his
bidding.
So Cecrops--the serpent man, as they still called him--became the king
of the poor people on the hill. He taught them how to make bows and
arrows, and how to set nets for birds, and how to take fish with hooks.
He led them against the savage wild men of the woods, and helped them
kill the fierce beasts that had been so great a terror to them. He
showed them how to build houses of wood and to thatch them with the
reeds which grew in the marshes. He taught them how to live in families
instead of herding together like senseless beasts as they had always
done before. And he told them about great Jupiter and the Mighty Folk
who lived amid the clouds on the mountain top.