CHAPTER IV. NURSERY TALES AND LULLABIES.

The Nurse in Education—First Lessons Imparted by Means of Tales—Isolated Traces of Nursery Tales—Held in Contempt by the Greeks—Apotropaic Tales—Lamia—Gorgon—Mormolyke—Acco— Alphito—Empusa—Strigla—Wolf—Example from Theocritus—from Callimachus—Mormo—Bad Effects of these Tales—Protreptic Tales—Subject Matter—Censorship by Plato and Aristotle— Immoral effects of Stories about the Gods—Hermes—Hercules— Odysseus—Theseus and Ariadne—Magic Rings—Rings of Gyges— Tales Told for Comfort and Consolation—Festival of the Oschophoria—Style—Purpose—Aesopic Tales—Libyan—Cyprian— Sybaritic—Traces of Lullabies—Metrical Humming—Peculiar Tune—Imitations of Lullabies—Lullaby of Alcmena—Lament of Danae—Chorus in Philoctetes—in Orestes 34