You must realize that most of the people in Ancient Hellas had never seen gold. The vast majority of the Hellenic population lived not in the cities, but on farms in the hills far removed from the great temples and agoras of recorded history. An ethnological study done in Hellas in the late 19th century found villagers who had never seen the sea 0r an olive tree. Most had never been further than a few kilometers from their villages in all their lives. They were born in their villages, lived their lives there, and died there. All they ever knew was what they had experienced in that tiny sphere and in it there was no gold. Hellas is a mountainous land with many isolated communities which are self sustaining and poor. In our world where everything is easily connected we cannot imagine the lack of communication of the ancient world's ordinary citizens. Nowadays everyone sees gold often; in those days most lived all their lives without ever actually seeing it. Although coins were used in the cities, gold coins were rare and in the rural areas barter still was the more usual means of trade. The word, "Crusos"(gold) would be known, but it would evoke no mental image if it had never been seen. It would have been to many, something fabulous. I present here a fable as it might have been told in a mountain village in ancient Hellas where gold had never been seen. Perhaps high in the mountains of Phocis where the treasures of Delphi would have been spoken of, but never seen. In a village high in the mountains near Delphi, an old man sat with a mouse on his knee. The mouse was called poutiki which means mouse in Greek and the mouse called the old man Pappous which means grandfather in the Greek language. They were great friends and Poutiki came to visit Pappous every day because Pappous told him stories and gave him bits of barley bread. On this day Pappous told Poutiki the fable of the golden sword.   THE FABLE OF THE GOLDEN SWORD There lived not so long ago, in a kingdom in the north, a great and mighty king named, Amyntas O Sophos. Although his warriors were many and strong and brave, his lands were surrounded by fierce barbarian tribes who constantly made war on the old king. No sooner had the king repulsed a tribe from one part of his kingdom than another invasion occurred in another part. The king devised a plan whereby he would find a great hero who would stop the constant wars in his land so that he and his people might live in peace. He sent heralds throughout the world calling for the greatest wizards and magicians to come to his court. He promised a fabulous prize to any who could solve his problem and many wise men appeared in his court to try their luck. The old king asked the wizards and magicians to fashion a sword which would be the best sword in all the world so that the strongest warrior in the kingdom could use it to subdue all the surrounding barbarian tribes.The Greek sage forged a great heavy blade of Bronze on on the hilt placed images of Herakles and secret incantations in the old script from before the greek alphabet. The old magician from Lydia made a black sword of iron carved with images of the god Marduk with strange signs no one understood and the sorcerer from Egypt forged a sword blade made of many strong layers of different metals. each covered with a strange Egyptian script even the priests had forgotten. An old woman from distant Thrace made a sword of copper with the image of a serpent, the symbol of the earth mother who reigns there. All were formidable and dangerous looking weapons. As they were presenting these swords to the king, a tall young man of unusual beauty approached the throne. He wore his hair in the old fashion of a knot at the back of his head and on his shoulder was a quiver of arrows and a bow. He held out to the king a sword of the purest gold. All were amazed at its beauty. It shone in the light and glittered with every movement. It seemed a living thing and clearly possessed a powerful magic of its own. The sword was so heavy that the warrior king himself, had trouble swinging it. When the king asked what reward the young man would have , the man laughed and said, "When you no longer want the sword, return it to me." He then walked out of the court and was never seen in the kingdom again. The king accepted all of the swords and heaped rich rewards upon all, but he declared that the golden sword was his choice and it would be carried by his champion, Atomo Sidirou in the the next battle with the barbarians. At the next battle with the barbarians, Atomo Sidirou carried the golden sword and charged at the head of the troops. The barbarian chief, Aistilf rushed forward to meet him at a gallop and with one great swing of his sword shattered the golden sword to pieces. The barbarians won the day and a vast part of the kingdom was ravaged by them. After the battle, the king was seen to dismount and pick up the pieces of the shattered sword of gold. King Amyntas O Sophos walked alone down out of the mountains and into the city of Delphi. he walked straight to the great temple of Apollo for he now knew from where the sword had come. It was Apollo, the god of beauty and reason and peace who had given it to him. He gave the broken sword of gold to the priests of Apollo with a tablet to be hung on the temple wall. Upon the tablet were inscribed these words;   The gift of beauty is a great blessing, but beauty without strength, is the greatest of curses.