From the Preface:
As the stories from Homer and Virgil, in the versions here given, can only be looked upon as
introductory to more extended reading, and are, consequently, something with which scholarship can
have little if any quarrel, it has seemed desirable to make them as simple and clear as possible. For this
reason the Latin names for the gods and goddesses of the Greek mythology have been used throughout.
These names have been handed down to us in the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, and many
others, and usage has made them familiar. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Diana and Neptune, are old friends
whose attributes are recognized at once, while to many the Grecian Zeus, Hera, Ares, Artemis and
Poseidon are strangers whose names might have to be looked up in the classical dictionary. With the
exception of a word here and there, there has been no editing of the stories, but occasional passages that
delayed the movement of a story have been omitted