Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Horse & The Olive (Premium)

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

This is a preview episode. Get the full episode, and many more, ad free, on our supporter's feed: https://getsleepy.com/support. The Horse & The Olive  Narrated by Thomas Jones. Fall asleep to the Greek story of how Athens, horses, and olives were created.     About Get Sleepy Premium: Help support the podcast, and get: Monday and Wednesday night episodes (with zero ads) The exclusive Thursday night bonus episode Access to the entire back catalog (also ad-free) Premium sleep meditations, extra-long episodes and more! We'll love you forever. ❤️ Get a 7 day free trial, and join the Get Sleepy community here https://getsleepy.com/support. And thank you so, so much.  Tom, and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, Thomas here. You're listening to a preview episode. You can enjoy the entire story tonight by subscribing to our supporters' feed. There you'll get access to the entire back catalogue, bonus episodes, and more, and it's all completely ad-free. Click the link below to learn more and thank you so so much. Me and the team really appreciate your support. On a steep, stony hill in Greece, they lived in early times, a few people who did not yet learn to build houses. They made their homes in little caves which they dug in the earth or hollowed out among the rocks. They lit fires in the caves for warmth, and their food was wild animals, which they hunted in the woods, with now and then a few berries or nubs.

They did not even know how to make bows and arrows, but use 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, saved by a single, narrow footpath, which was always guarded by someone at the top. It allowed them to observe the surrounding land, both for intruders and food. One day, when these people were hunting in the woods, they found a strange young boy, like no one they'd ever seen before.

His face was so fair, and he was dressed so beautifully that they could hardly believe him to be a man like themselves. His body was so slender and graceful and he moved so nimly among the trees that they fancied him to be a serpent in the guise of a human being. They stood still in wonder and alarm when they saw him. The young man approached and 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 of him.

At they being like the wild men of the woods, they might have captured him at once, but they wanted their fellows to see the serpent man as they called him, and hear him talk, and so they let 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 fenced 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'd been for many a day. In a short time he learned to talk their language, and he told them that his name was Seacrops. He had been shipwrecked on the Seacos not far away. He told them many strange things about the land from which he came from, and to which he would never be able to return. The poor people listened and wondered how he opened their minds to a vast world beyond their knowledge and understanding.

It wasn't long until they began to love him and to look up to him as one wiser than themselves. He knew ways of making their lives easier and better. So 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 Seacrups, 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 catch fish with hooks and nets.

He led them against the savage wild men of the woods and helped them build protections against the fierce beasts that had been so great a terror to them. He showed them how to build houses of wood and to thapst them with the reeds which grew in the marshes. He taught them how to live in families, instead of herding together like beasts as they'd done before. And he told them about great Jupiter and the mighty folk who lived amid the clouds on the mountain top. in top. As time passed, the poor people and their way of life began to change dramatically. Instead of homes and caves among the rocks, there was now a little town on the top of the hill, with neat houses and a marketplace. And around it was a strong wall with a single narrow gate just where the footpath began to descend to the plain. But despite all of this, the place,

this little town on the hill still had no name.