|
|
The Music of the Spheres
The Tales of Lyra
Chapter 3: Zeus's Children
Aphrodite always gained her power after
men thought a battle was over. This time was no different than the
last. After the long war, Zeus could think of nothing but love.
Little did he know that his desires would make him another victim
of Aphrodite. "I'll make him fall in love with a Titan, his enemy,"
she whispered, smiling wickedly while twisting a strand of hair
around her finger. "He shall fall in love with Metis."
While Aphrodite made Zeus fall in love with Metis, she did nothing
to make Metis care for Zeus. With each of Zeus' advances, Metis
was repulsed. "He's such a bother," she said. "I don't care if he
is the ruler of heaven. What can I do to get rid of him?" She thought
a while, then she changed herself into a sparrow. She was pleased
with her clever trick but, as she looked around, there he was again.
He had changed himself into a hawk.
"Well, that didn't work," she thought, so she turned herself into
a mouse and scurried into a hole. Soon a snake slithered in behind
her. "Oh, no, not him again. What will I do now?" But she had no
time to do anything else for the snake held her tightly and impregnated
her.
As the time for his child's birth drew near, Zeus could think of
nothing but how he had overthrown his own father and his father
had deposed his. "I'll ask Mother Earth what will happen," he decided.
"This child will be a wise daughter," Earth said to her grandson,
"but Metis' second child will be a son and he will overthrow you,
just as you did to Kronos and as Kronos did to Uranos."
When he returned to Olympus, he spied Metis curled upon some cushions,
resting peacefully. His response was automatic. While asleep, he
grabbed her up and swallowed her whole. He thought all was well
until the next day, when his head began to ache until it felt like
his brain would burst through his skull. "I'll go for a walk," he
said, "that should help this pain go away." His head continued to
pound as he walked farther and farther until finally, while walking
by Lake Triton, his pounding head split open and a grown goddess
burst from his brain. Her blue-gray eyes flashed like a glint of
sunlight off a steel blade and her golden hair brushed the glistening
armor she was born wearing.
"My name is Athena and I am ready for battle," she said to her father.
"I am your equal in strength and wisdom, but you needn't worry for
I will not fight you; instead I was born to inspire mortals to just
and moral actions," she said as Zeus sighed with relief.
Athena was not Zeus' only child, for he married his great-aunt Themis
and she gave birth to the Hours, Order, Justice and Peace. Then
she gave birth to the three Fates, named Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos,
who determined the future for all mortals and gave them their good
and evil natures.
Zeus mated with Oceanus's daughter, Eurynome. She gave birth to
Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia, the three Graces. Zeus impregnated
his sister, Demeter by the use of a lightning bolt. She gave birth
to Persephone. With his great-aunt Mnemosyne, he sired the nine
Muses. Then he spied another beautiful Titaness whose name was Leto.
Like Metis, not only was she a Titaness, but she wanted nothing
to do with Zeus and, to escape him, she changed herself into a quail.
By this time, Zeus was adept at transformations. He wasted no time
and immediately changed into a quail himself and impregnated her.
Leto gave birth to twins who were born to be the guardians of the
sun and the moon. Their names were Apollo and Artemis.
Finally, he married his sister Hera and she gave birth to Hebe,
Ares and Eileithyia. Marriage did nothing to stop Zeus from his
philandering, so he and Hera frequently argued. Angry with his unfaithfulness,
Hera alone gave birth to a god named Hephaestus. Although the fatherless
Hephaestus was born with deformities, he became the finest craftsman
in the universe. Meanwhile Zeus selected Maia to be his next lover.
Maia was a shy goddess
who lived deep within a cave and shunned the company of the Olympians.
Solitude did not spare her from the lusty, roaming eyes of Zeus.
Every evening, after Hera fell asleep, he sneaked away to Maia's
bed and made love with her until dawn. In nine months there was
a new god in the pantheon and his name was Hermes.
When Hermes was born his cry accompanied the first rays of dawn,
when light cuts through night like a prism in the east. By noon,
Hermes was bored and impatient, for he had had enough of sleep and
mother's milk. With Maia resting from her labor, Hermes climbed
out of bed and crawled into the midday sunlight.
In the grass he found a tortoise and, grabbing a twig, he tapped
the creature's shell, giggling in delight at the lovely sound it
made. "Oooh," gurgled Hermes, as a thought came to him about what
he could do with the shell. "You wandered into the mountains, little
tortoise," thought Hermes, "and that is no place for you as you
will surely die up here. However, I can make you immortal so you
can bring pleasure to many. Isn't that wonderful?" Hermes took no
time in deciding that the tortoise agreed and he grabbed a sharp
rock, cutting off the turtle's head and legs and scooping out the
marrow, leaving only the shell. Then he looked around for other
things and spied some reeds growing by the river. Lifting himself
up, he waddled to the riverbank, broke off the stalks, and measuring,
cut them to fit.
By this time, he could balance on two feet. Slowly and deliberately,
he walked back to the cave and on the way he found some ox-hide
and seven strings of sheep-gut. Intently, he fastened the reeds
across the back of the tortoise shell. He stretched the ox-hide
over the fanned reeds and strung the sheep gut over the smoothly
resonant surface. With his fingernail he picked at one string, then
he picked at another. Tightening the strings different amounts,
he created many sounds. He discovered he could make even more tones
by using the fingers of one hand to hold the strings against the
stretched hide as he plucked them with the other hand. "Oooh, this
is wonderful. Lyre," he said, naming the instrument as he turned
it over in his hands. Hermes giggled with delight with the sounds
from his own throat. He found he could vary the tones that came
from himself just as he could change the sounds of his instrument.
Experimenting, he sang and played songs in praise of his mother,
and of father Zeus, and of the tortoise and the trees and stream.
"Now," said Hermes, "I must find more to sing about." Off he wandered
with his lyre, in search of adventure.
Watching the river run downstream, Hermes reasoned that the water
was going somewhere, so he would go there too. By sunset he came
to where the river emptied into the sea, and there on the banks
grazed a large herd of cattle.
"There certainly are a lot of cattle," thought Hermes. "There are
too many for any one person to care for, so I shall help the owner
out and care for some of them myself." He quickly separated fifty
from the rest of the herd and chased them along the river toward
his mother's cave. Hermes noted that the hoof prints left a very
obvious trail so he tied together an armful of twigs and leaves
and rubbed out the hoof marks. While he was doing this, following
behind his new herd, he walked backward to make it seem that he
walked toward the sea instead of from it. Hermes was very proud
of his clever trick. No one would ever figure this out.
"What are you doing with Apollo's cattle, little man?" An old farmer
who was tilling a roadside vineyard called to him.
"What cattle?" asked Hermes. "Your beautiful vines are thick with
grapes. I think you have been drinking the fruit of your labors,
for I have no cattle." Hermes was content that he had settled his
problem. He chased the cattle to a meadow near his mother's cave.
There he built a fire and, worn out from the activities of his first
day, he quickly fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Apollo came to check on his herd. When he found that
a quarter of the herd had disappeared, he began to search. It was
as though they had sprouted wings and flown away for the only tracks
Apollo found were footsteps leading toward his cattle. "I may as
well follow these," he thought, "as there is nothing else to go
on." The trail took him to an old man harvesting grapes by moonlight.
Apollo called to him and asked if he had seen a herd of cows.
"I thought I saw a baby with a herd of Apollo's cattle," responded
the vintner. "They went up the riverbank, in the direction where
you're heading."
"What baby could do this?" Apollo asked himself. "Unless, of course
. . . father Zeus must have had another child." Apollo followed
the riverbank, spied a fire in the meadow and heard the cattle from
a distance. As he approached the fire he saw a baby curled up beside
it. He was soundly asleep and had an innocent look upon his face.
"Who are you and what are you doing with my cattle?" Apollo screamed.
Hermes awoke with a start to see his angry half-brother towering
above him. "I'm your half-brother, Hermes, and I was born yesterday,"
he said with all the charm he could muster, but Apollo remained
angry. "Yes, brother, I took your cattle and I am sorry. To apologize
for my mistake I would like to give you a gift." Hermes pulled out
the lyre and began to play and sing a song about the sea and Apollo
and the cattle, then he handed the instrument to his big brother.
"This is brilliant," he thought as he handled the instrument. He
shook his head in wonder at this infant's genius, and said, "Please
take this staff. It will bring peace." Hermes grasped the staff
tightly in his hand. Just then he saw two snakes fighting and their
bodies tightly coiled around each other. "Stop fighting," he said,
placing the staff between them. The snakes immediately stopped.
"Those snakes would make a nice decoration for this staff," thought
Hermes. As he spoke, the snakes turned to gold and Hermes placed
them intertwined upon the rod as a symbol of peace.
The lyre became Apollo's favorite possession and whenever he wasn't
carrying the sun through the sky, he spent his time playing his
instrument and singing songs. Then, after many years, Apollo had
a son named Orpheus. "I must give him the lyre and teach him how
to sing and play," Apollo said, so he told Orpheus all the stories
of the gods and gave his son his instrument of song, sending him
to the land of Thrace on earth.
Tales of
the Immortal Night ©2003, J.J. Kuhl
|
|
