VftSW: Friends Thou Hast, and Their Adoption Tried

Derby and Hilde spent Halloween night together in the garage as we entertained a dinner guest and the horde of ghosts and goblins that trampled our front steps.  This worked much better, than listening to Hilde’s yaps from her kennel every time little hands rapped at our door.   The only time we heard from them was that moment when every evening when some stray dog runs by the side of the house and stops to investigate the back porch.  When the excitement of the evening ended and Hilde came in, the storm hit for real.  The roof rumpled as the wind trampled over it and the rain rapped on the windows.  I heard Derby whimpering then and brought her into the study with me.  After a while with me and kiss for our guest, she was happy to head to bed.  The morning we rose in the dark on the tail of the storm and began our walk.  A young black Labrador came to visit us.  It was skittish and wouldn’t come close.  I encouraged it with words and Derby with the wagging of her tail, but it vanished into the dark.  Regardless of Derby’s insistent calls it wouldn’t return and I dragged my “pretty little girl” on down the road.   We moved away so naturally it had to follow.  We got to the empty lot at the end of the road and we waited for Derby’s friend to catch up.  It zoomed on by and ran towards the other end of the side street..  In the rain and bluster Derby could see it watching us from the shadows at the far end of the street.  But, all her whimpering and tail waging couldn’t summon a new friend.

TFBT; Friendship Amongst the Gods

“Helios who had taken him up (Hephaestus) in his
chariot when he sank exhausted on the battlefield
of Phlegra.” – Apollo Rhodius, Argonautica 3.211


For the purposes of this essay I will define evidence of “friendship” as deities fond of one another’s company and who seem to swap favors. Obvious family groupings will be disqualified, as well as spouses and lovers. The best example of friendships amongst the gods appears to be Helios and Hephaestus.

Helios rides the blazing sun-chariot; he shines upon men and deathless gods. His piercing eyes gaze from within his golden helmet. Bright rays beam dazzlingly from him, and his bright locks streaming from the temples of his head gracefully enclose his far-seen face: a rich, fine-spun garment glows upon his body and flutters in the wind: and stallions carry him. Then, when he has stayed his golden-yoked chariot and horses, he rests there upon the highest point of heaven, until he marvelously drives them down again through heaven to the River Oceanus. [i] Glowing Helios whom mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far-shining one, bare to the Titan Hyperion For Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaessa or some say Theia, his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos, rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios who is like the deathless gods.

Like the “deathless gods” but never quite an Olympian. He is close to his sisters. They were presumably raised by loving parents whom Helios and his sisters possibly betrayed during the Titanomachy. He drives the chariot of the sun across the sky each day and is presented as handsome and all seeing.

Hephaestus is the smith of the Olympians. Strong, mighty Hephaestus, bearing splendid light, unwearied fire, with flaming torrents bright: strong-handed, deathless, and of art divine, pure element, all-taming artist,[ii] "Hephaestus goes with the pride of his great strength limping, and yet his shrunken legs move lightly beneath his massive neck and hairy chest."[iii] He is a cripple from birth; born lame and ugly. Both parents brutally rejected him by flinging down from Olympus.

Helios and Hephaestus don’t appear to have been childhood friends nor share many myths until the adultery of Hephaestus’ wife; Aphrodite with Ares. All-seeing Helios must have seen a lot but no myths report him blabbing, until cornered by Hecate and Demeter searching for Persephone and “the bright goddess enquired of him”. [iv] But in the case of Aphrodite and Ares, “…Helios the sun god had seen them in their dalliance and hastened away to tell Hephaestus”[v] In revenge Aphrodite “loads the whole race of Phoebus (Helios) with shame unspeakable”[vi], when it comes to affairs of the heart. In revenge Hephaestus curses the whole race of Harmonia (the produce of that illicit affair) with the Necklace of Harmonia[vii].

During the Gigantomachy when it was Hephaestus that “sank exhausted on the battlefield of Phlegra” it was Helios who took him up in his chariot. (Oddly enough Hephaestus is the only deity that could have ridden in the blazing sun chariot.) Hephaestus gave many gifts as a thank-offering to Helios[viii] [ix]" For example, the palace of Helios,[x] his high chariot, [xi] the boat that carries him home and the marvels that Hephaestus the great Engineer contrived for the palace Aeetes, son of Helios.”[xii]

The only other myth they share is the blinding of Orion and strange curing. Blinded by King Oinopion, Orion found his was to Hephaestus’ forge. Hephaestus gave him an apprentice named Cedalion to guide him to the dawn where Helios cured the giant’s blindness

So, why were Helios and Hephaestus friends? They have a little in common: certain solar attributes. Both sink from Heaven only to rise again and then repeat the process. Helios could present celestial fire while Hephaestus’ subterranean forges light the underworld. And when Helios steps from the edge of knowing each evening and rides the golden boat home on the River Oceanus, Hephaestus replaces him in the sky by ascending to his palace on Olympus. Some authors name one or the other as the source of Promethean fire.[xiii] If Helios wanted a day off could he have called upon Hephaestus? There are no myths to support that and Nonnus says specifically not.[xiv] This leaves us with two marginalized brotherless, fatherless friends indebted to one another.

Hecate also is brotherless an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more still, for Zeus honours her.[xv] He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. Hekate, lovely dame, of earthly, watery, and celestial frame, sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed, pleased with dark ghosts that wander through the shade;solitary goddess, hail! The world’s key-bearer, never doomed to fail; in stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen, and drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen; Leader, Nymphe, nurse, on mountains wandering, hear the suppliants who with holy rites thy power revere, and to the herdsman with a favouring mind draw near." [xvi] Few are then myths about the Hecate, she who is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. The prime exception being the “Hymn to Demeter” where bright-coiffed Hekate came near to Demeter and Persephone, and often did she embrace the daughter of holy Demeter: and from that time the lady Hekate was minister and companion to Persephone."[xvii] This is all I have to say on the classically and scholarly assumed friendship of Hecate and Persephone, except to point out that Persephone too was brotherless.

Likewise Leto was brotherless, dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympos.[xviii] Leto rich-haired[xix] "Neat-ankled Leto[xx], goddess of the gold spindle."[xxi] According to Deborah Lyons in Gender and Immortality; “A fragment of Sappho (frg. 142 L-P) calls Niobe and Leto true companions (hetairai), pointing to a time before Niobe's hybris shattered their friendship”,


[i] Homeric Hymn 31 to Helius
[ii] Orphic Hymn 66 to Hephaestus
[iii] Homer, Iliad 20. 37 ff
[iv] Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter
[v] Homer, Odyssey 8.260
[vi] Seneca, Phaedra 124
[vii] Statius, Thebaid 2.265
[viii] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.211
[ix] American Journal of Archaeology; Vol 86, No 2 pp 227-229
[x] Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 1 ff
[xi] Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 104
[xii] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 215 ff
[xiii] Michael Grant, Myths of the Greeks and Romans, pp108
[xiv] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 38. 90 ff :
[xv] ." Hesiod, Theogony 404 ff

[xvi] - Orphic Hymn 1 to Hecate
[xvii] Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 436 ff :
[xviii] Hesiod, Theogony 404 ff
[xix] Homeric Hymn 3 to Delian Apollo 177 ff :
[xx] Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis 14 ff
[xxi] Pindar, Nemean Ode 6. 36 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :

M&R; No Worry

His wife’s brother-in-law wanted to discuss going to Greece in the fall. Stan mumbled in reply before looking up from his breakfast. His large right hand crumbled the stiff linen napkin lying across his stout thighs. It plunged it into his water glass. He gently lifted it to his best friend’s face. Blood leaked from John’s nose.

“You’ve been sniffling. What happen?”

“Your sister-in-law and I were making the bed this morning. I stuffed my extra firm down pillow into the pillowcase just a little before she did. “Pillow fight!” I announce and bounce mind off her. She smiles. Then she nails me down low followed by a whack in the face. I forgot she has a buckwheat hull pillow.”

Stan’s eyebrows rise. His broad swimmer’s chest expands. His massive hand relinquishes the water soaked napkin to John. The concern on his face melts into a smile as a silent chuckle begins to shake his frame.

“To me clear,” John jokes as he daps at his nose, “my wife hit me with a bag of grain!”

Stan throws back his head and chuckles aloud. A perplexed, attentive waiter rushed to John’s side with a similar red napkin stuffed with ice. John mumbled his apologizes to all and headed to the men’s room.

Visibly upset, the owner approached Stan who’d returned to eating his breakfast. Stan’s sea green rose from his oatmeal as the trembling shadow fell across the Irish linen covering their table. The small man stood before him trying to figure out what to say.

Stan helped, by explaining that Monsier Sienna was fine and added, “His wife hit him with a bag of fagopyrum.”

That didn’t help. The man’s teary expression twisted as his brow furled and eyelids fluttered in confusion. But, an audible sigh assured Stan that the man understood that the bloody nose wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. Apparently, he worried about losing their business.

“We’ve been coming here for generations.” assured him waving away the idea as he’d seen his wife do on a thousand occasions.

That man stood beside John’s empty seat, hesitant to leave. Finally, “Generations pass, I mean time passes-”

“Not us, we’re Christians. We are going to live forever.” Stan replied with a chuckle.

His fair complexion flushed in merriment.

The little man didn’t laugh. Stan making an effort to speak gently commanded the man to sit. He mentioned that his daughters eat at the proprietor's fine establishment “all the time”, that his wife and sister-in-law ate lunch here constantly and then he himself ate more dinners here than at home.

“ Shoot! You have your best table set aside with this fancy tablecloth.”

As he spoke, Stan hefted the handsome woven red tablecloth then indicated with a sweep of his large hand the rest of the restaurant decorated in clean plain white linen. The owner smiled weakly at the big man and let his gaze fall to the table. Actually, the Irish linen on their special table had more to do with spilled red wine and beef tartar, then the special relation his family shared with the Sienna family for the last three generations.

He glanced up at Monsieur Scamander and admitted that sometimes he worried about the future. Stan’s responded with a quizzical squint of his eyes. Stan glanced around the room as though more perplexed by the abstract notion than the little man’s personal problems. The larger man mentioned that the little man’s grandfather kept the place open during the Nazi occupation. He knew the Frenchman could handle whatever minor things came up now. The little French man sat up straighter at the reference to his grandfather; the resistance fighter, and his proud family heritage. Seeing the smile on the owners face, Stan returned to his meal, then stopped with the spoon mid-air,

“It’s not a financial problem is it? We have money?’

The owner promptly replied “No.” in a hurried whisper. He almost touched Stan’s arm in an effort to stop the too public conversation, but he then thought better.

Stan waited until the small hand retreated to its rightful position, then leaned in conspiratorially. “If it is any sort of problem, anything at all, we can help. We know people.” His emphasized “know”. Stan made the word “people” sound like a curt double-entendre

“Nothing like that Monsieur Scamander. I just am reaching-” he sighed again “ retirement age.” He didn‘t know how to phrase his thoughts, so he asked for Stan‘s. “Monsieur, don‘t you ever worry about the future?”

“No.”

The little man took the simple straightforward reply as a curt dismissal and scurried away. In truth, Stan never worried about the future. He had plenty of money, but he and Roxanne never really needed money. He’d never worried about the girls growing up and then turned out fine. He had no concern about his wife’s affection ever ending. He didn’t doubt that his best friend would always be at his side. If he envisioned a future for the grandchildren, it would obviously be a bright one. His prayers were the “Prayers of the Church”; he never needed anything personally. He simply had no concerns about health or aging. He recalled, distractedly, that John wanted to talk about their trip to Greece. Stan had a cousin with a barley or fagopyrum farm outside Athens. They’d stay there for the season.