and radiance, Persephone the fragrance and the freshness of all the flowers of spring; Pallas Athene gave her curious knowledge and pleasant speech; and, lastly, the Seaborn Goddess breathed upon her and gave her the beauty of the rose, the pearl, the dew, and the shells and the foam of the sea.  But, alas! the King and Queen had forgotten to ask one guest.  The Goddess of Envy and Discord had been left out, and she came unbidden, and when all the gods and goddesses had given their gifts, she said:  ’I too have a gift to give, a gift that will be more precious to her than any.  I will give her a heart that shall be proof against all the onsets of the world.’  So saying the Goddess of Envy took away the child’s heart and put in its place a heart of stone, hard as adamant, bright and glittering as a gem.  And the Goddess of Envy went her way mocking.  The King and Queen were greatly concerned, and they asked the gods and goddesses whether their daughter would ever recover her human heart.  They were told that the Goddess of Envy would be obliged to give back the child’s heart to the man who loved her enough to seek and to find it, and this would surely happen; but when and how it was forbidden to them to reveal.

“The child grew up and became the wonder of the world.  She was married to a powerful King, and they lived in peace and plenty until the Goddess of Envy once more troubled the child’s life.  For owing to her subtle planning a Prince was promised for wife the fairest woman in the world, and he took the wife of the powerful King and carried her away to Asia to the six-gated city.  The King prepared a host of ships and armed men and sailed to Asia to win back his wife.  And he and his army fought for ten years until the six-gated city was taken, and he brought his wife home once more.  Now during all the time the war lasted, although the whole world was filled with the fame of the King’s wife and of her beauty, there was not found one man who was willing to seek for her heart and to find it, for some gave no credence to the tale, and others, believing it, reasoned that the quest might last a life-time, and that by the time they accomplished it the King’s wife would be an old woman, and there would be fairer women in the world.  Others, again, could not believe that in so perfect a woman there could be any fault; they vowed her heart must be one with her matchless beauty, and they said that even if the tale were true, they preferred to worship her as she was, and they would not have her be otherwise or changed by a hair’s breadth for all the world.  Some, indeed, did set out upon the quest, but abandoned it soon from weariness and returned to bask in the beauty of the great Queen.