It was not till toward the end of the thirteenth century that the prose romances began to appear.
The earliest form in which romances appear is that of a rude kind of verse.
The word "Chivalry" is derived from the French Cheval, a horse.
The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long and arduous.
We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean.
Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated.