What would you consider to be the two greatest gifts in history? Do mythological gifts count? Do real gifts count? In terms of real gifts, there are two that come first.



Statue of Liberty

As far as gifts go, this may be the biggest in history. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the French presented this statue to the United States as a gift of friendship. The Americans built the base for the statue, while the statue itself was constructed by the French under the guidance of Frederic Bartholdi.

The Trojan Horse

Some gifts seem like gifts, but are in fact, traps. That was the case during the Trojan War when the Greeks built a horse and filled it with Greek warriors before putting it in front of the gates. It was customary in ancient times for a defeated general to surrender his horse, so the symbolic gift of the horse seemed to Trojans to be a notice of surrender from the Greeks. The trap worked and the Trojans were defeated because of one of the most cunning military ploys in history.

In terms of mythological or fictional gifts, you can't beat these two:

Fire

According to Greek mythology, we can thank one god for the gift of fire - Prometheus. Prometheus, who also gave humanity writing, mathematics, agriculture, and medicine, stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humanity. For his betrayal of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle came every day to rip out his liver, which grew back every time.

The Gift of the Magi

In this book written in 1906, Jim and Della Dillingham Young are a couple in love, but who can barely afford their apartment. For Christmas, Della buys Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father. She pays for it by cutting off her long hair and selling it to make a wig. Unknown to her, Jim sells his pocket watch to buy her a beautiful set of combs so she can comb her long hair.

The moral in that story, written by William Porter, is that sometimes material possessions are not the greatest gift you can get, and sometimes unselfish love is the greatest of all gifts.