TFBT: Ten Things you did not know from Greek Mythology

1. Helen of Troy had two brothers that were demi-gods and heroes. Maybe you heard of them. The Dioscuri? Castor and Polydeuces? Castor and Pollux? How about the zodiac sign; the Gemini Twins? They went to their reward well before the action in The Iliad, hence their obscurity. The Spartans worshipped all three of the siblings along with their spouses as gods.

2. Achilles should have ruled the universe. We know Achilles from The Iliad along with his tendon, which was struck by Paris’ poison arrow. He was a heartthrob during the medieval ages and Brad Pitt played him in the movie “Troy”. Both Zeus and his brother Poseidon wooed Achilles mother Thetis. Thetis was a Nereid with great influence upon Olympus. (Thetis was Hera’s foster daughter and helped Zeus once during a revolt.) Thetis had her pick of any of the mightiest gods in Greek mythology as husband. Then either Themis or Prometheus let slip that her child would be greater than his father. Which suggested to the Olympians that the Thetis' divine child would overthrow the government of the world and assume Zeus’ throne. Consequently, they forced Thetis to marry a mortal. Rather than the crown that was his birthright, Achilles received unending glory. That is why we are still talking about him three thousand years later.

3. Ares, Hephaestus and Hades were the only strictly heterosexual gods on Olympus. The goddesses Athena, Artemis and Hestia always remained virgins. Which might explain the behavior of the other Olympian males!

4. The Sun once landed on Earth. Helios is probably most famous for rashly allowing his mortal son Phaethon to drive the solar chariot. The boy lost control. The horses ran towards earth, scorching the land and setting the forests ablaze. Zeus threw a lightning bolt at the boy. The steeds of the solar chariot, like good post horses everywhere, found their own way home. However, there was a time when Helios landed his chariot on the earth. It was during the Gigantomachy when all the gods and goddess of Olympus battled the earth-born giants. Hephaestus the smithy-god was taking on three giants at once and not doing well.
“Helios who had taken him up (Hephaestus) in his chariot when he sank exhausted on the battlefield of Phlegra.” – Apollo Rhodius, Argonautica 3.211Read more about the two of them in my essay; “Friendship Among the Gods”
5. Hera was foster mother to most the monsters in Greek mythology; the brood of Echidna. She pretty much created Typhon, Echidna’s husband. Typhon was unbelievably huge and monstrous. (He actually defeated Zeus in some accounts while all the other gods were hiding in Egypt.) She wet-nursed both the multi-headed Hydra and the Lion of Nemea. In addition, she sent the Sphinx to devour the youth of Thebes. An odd little aside here. When she wet-nursed these little beasties, she used her left breast, the one that had been poisoned by one of Heracles’ arrows. Heracles poisoned his arrow tips by dipping them in the blood of the Hydra. Hey, wait a minute….

6. Homer thought the world is round. According to him;
“the Aithiopes, who are divided in two, the most remote of men: Some, where Helios sets, others where he rises“ - Odyssey I 23-24So, Aithiopes lies in the far west and in the far east, which would make it the same country if the world is round. Right? See the full argument at Homer Says the World is Round.


7. Cadmus the founder of Thebes was a god. Well maybe not a god, but you tell me how to describe him. He helped defeat the monster Typhon. He married the Olympian goddess Harmonia; the illicit daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. His daughters included the goddesses Thyone and sailor-saving Leucothea. Another daughter married the god Aristaeus. His grandsons included the sea god Palaemon and the Olympian Dionysius.

8. The Greek gods had a real aversion to death, old age and all those other unpleasant demons that leaped from Pandora’s box. Artemis coldly abandons her favorite Hippolytus at the moment of his death, by saying “Farewell: it is not lawful for me to look upon the dead or to defile my sight with the last breath of the dying. And I see that you are already near that misfortune.” Demeter can command Limos the demon of hunger, but loathes standing near. And Aphrodite refers to the demon Geras as ruthless old-age even dreaded by the gods.

9. The Greek gods did not weep; certainly not for the death of a mortal. Once again Artemis speaking to the dying Hippolytus; “Aye, and would weep for thee, if gods could weep.” (Euripides, Hippolytus). Statius in The Thebiad says of one of the gods, “He spoke and almost his inviolable face was stained with tears.”
10. 1. The beds of the gods are always fruitful. As Deborah Lyons points out in Gender and Immortality, “Zeus' list of conquests reveals … (that)…Inevitably, each one of these encounters results in a child.” Imagine that rate of reproduction! No wonder river gods swim the Grecian creeks, satyrs haunt the wilderness,dryads run through the forests, naiads populate the springs and rivers, limnades the lily pad gilded pools, oreads the mountains, napaea the valleys and alseids the fair groves.

TFBT:Homer Says the World is Round

Gregory Nagy in his odyessean volume “The Best of the Achaeans” presents some excellent Homeric arguments that the world is round. [i] Nagy lays these gold crowns at the reader’s feet and then strolls away without comment.

First Nagy begins by discussing Memnon; son of rosy-fingered Eos and King of the Aethiopians. As he puts it, “king of the realms along the banks of the Oceanus in the extreme East and West”

“the Aithiopes, who are divided in two, the most remote of men: Some where Helios sets, others where he rises “ - Odyssey I 23-24
I would like to pick up this argument by posing a question for the imaginative reader, but first two points. 1) If you travel West from holy Delphi for quite a ways, you will discover a happy people called the “Hawaiians”. They live on the shore of the Pacific Ocean and are ruled by Governor Linda Lingle. 2) If you travel East from holy Delphi for some time you will arrive among a group of islanders also called the “Hawaiians”. This happy race also lives on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and is shepherded by the same Governor Linda Lingle. So here is my question wise reader, with the two facts above disclosed do you assume that I’m talking about two different states of the union or that the world is round? Hint; there is no great freshwater river girdling the ancient world. The earth is not flat. Likewise, Memnon ruled on group of people. The world is round.[ii]

The second of Nagy’s points is that “from the overall plot of the Odyssey, we know that Odysseus is wandering in the realms of the extreme West when he come upon the island of Aiaia …Later on the way back the from the underworld, the ship of Odysseus has to leave the Oceanus before returning to Aiaia, which is now described as situated not in the extreme West but in the extreme East.

“the island Aiaia – and there are the abode and dancing places of early-born Eos and the sunrises of Helios” Odyssey XII XXXX
Aiaia can easily be in the far West and the extreme East at the same time if the world is round.

Thirdly, Homer describes tireless Helios as he rises in the East from Oceanus. (Iliad VII 421) Later poets tell of a most magnificent palace of Helios in the east a gift from his grateful friend Hephaestus. Homer speaks only of the gates of Helios in the west, later writers mention a second palace in the west and the golden barge in which the sun god slumbers upon the earth girdling river in route to the east again. Apparently, for Homer Helios’ only home is Aiaia.

And finally to use a non-Homeric example; Jason’s adventures with Medea take place on the eastern edge for the known world, followed quickly by adventures on the far western edge of the world. Later authors came up with some incredible explanation of how this was possible. Robert Graves explains these theories;
“…at first, to have returned from the Black Sea by way of the Danube, the Save, and the Adriatic; then when explorers found that the Save does not enter the Adriatic, a junction was presumed between the Danube and the Po, down which the Argo could have sailed; and when later, the Danube proved to be navigable only up to the Iron Gates and not to join the Po, she was held to have passed up the Phasis into the Caspian Sea and thus into the Indian Ocean and back by way of the Ocean Stream and Lake Tritonis. The feasibility of this third route too, being presently denied, mythographers suggested that the Argo had sailed up the Don, presumed to have its source in the Gulf of Finland from which she could circumnavigate Europe and return to Greece through the Straits of Gibraltar.”[iii]
An easier explanation is that they simply sailed back into the known world by sailing around the smaller Homeric planet. In short, the world is round.

[i] “coincidentia oppositroum” pages 205-207
[ii] Roll up a map by Anaximander or Hecataeus of Miletus. Compare two points on that map to a world atlas for a ratio. My estimate is a circumference of 3700 miles
[iii] Robert Graves, The Greek Myths Vol. 2 pages 243-244

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: You Don't Have to Tell Deliberate Lies

The ornate silver fork fell from Maeve’s hand into her porcelain dinner plate and rattled to a stop on the gold-trimmed edge. Sir Mark Roofer, their self-possessed host continued glibly protesting his innocence to his guests and the young women who accompanied them. He appeared tall and long faced. At first appearing blonde, but on second glance his white hair proved bleached in places by the South African sun. He might once have been handsome. But he surely always had that touch of “goofiness” in his features. He certainly didn’t look like a criminal mastermind. His practiced, polished performance contained just the right amount of pathos with all the innate charm that an English accent can bring to these moments. He never noticed Maeve and Roxanne’s response. However, his mother , the former prime minister of the world’s largest commonwealth did.

“Are you alright, Mrs. Sienna?”

Maeve, was still too dumbstruck by the realization to respond.

“Oh, I was just telling her a joke.” Her sister Roxanne Scamander explained. “Are you familiar with Halloween?” The elderly stateswoman sitting on the other side of Maeve nodded pleasantly and waited for the red-head to continue. “In the United States the children dress up on the eve of All Saints Day, as demons, hobgoblins and … fairy princess…” That finally provoked a response from Maeve; a smile and a smirk. “and go door to door begging for treats.”

“It's more like exhortation.” Maeve corrected. “It’s called, trick or treat.” She explained while glancing pointed at the tines of her upturned fallen fork.

The former prime minister chuckled. She’d shrunk since her hay-days. Her hair was still robust but now white. She wore a matronly outfit and seemed overdressed for the weather. She seemed quick, lively and as sharp mentally as ever. Her laughter proved an honest, deep, hollow noise. Roxanne liked Baroness Roofer, but that was a given they both being red-heads once upon a time.

“Anyway,” she continued, “ one boy came to my friend’s door. He carried a knife, was covered in blood and was collecting his treats in a large “Rice Crispies” box. ‘Do you know what I am?’ he says to my friend. She said, no. ‘I’m a serial killer.”

Baroness Margaret Roofer did just exactly what everyone else does when Roxanne tells the joke; she grinned widely with a blush and laughed loudly. Roxanne was delighted, as the triumph shake of her cascading coppery locks revealed.

“I’m so glad your girls sat with me!” Margaret hooted.

Actually it was Margaret who insisted “the girls” sit with her. The Scamanders and Siennans had been invited to a “barbeque in the country” by some friends. They’d driven into the country with their friends to a rambling home at the foot of a forested mountain overlooking a vast plain. Their husbands arrived at the party in their swim suits, Hawaiian shirts and barefoot. Worse yet, Maeve and Roxanne wore Mumu’s matching their husband’s shirts. Instead of steaks on the grill, they arrived at a catered formal dinner where the men wore linen jackets and their “girlfriends” wore short sequined cocktail dresses. They quickly reassured their host that they’d be changing before dinner. Mr. Sienna’s valet fetched wraps and jewels for the Maeve and Roxanne and suits for their husbands. Margaret later told them tongue in cheek that they “cleaned up real good.” However, changing clothes in the pool house (and donning shoes) made them last to sit down for dinner. There were two seats at one table and two at another. Margaret had called “Please sit here ladies.” While patting the empty seat nearness. Maeve and Roxanne accepted her invitation and their husband’s sat at the adjoining table. Margaret introduced her husband Dennis on her right and the ladies were chatting when their host began pontificating.

“So tell us about your children?” Roxanne suggested.

“My son, the baronet, of course.” The baroness began. He raised a water glass before her mouth to cover the conversation, but her subject was oblivious to everything but what he said. “As you can tell he has a charming little bracelet on his ankle and hasn’t been off the property for a few months; an investment in an oil exploration company that went bad. This is his crowd. I can usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.” Roxanne nodded vigorously, until she realized they were talking about a different kind of “sizing up.” Margaret’s eyes lead the gaze of the sisters’ around the room from right to left, naming a few as they went. The threesome exchanged looks at several of the more notorious names. “All of whom, including my son, the papers described at one time or another as “nefarious.” In response Maeve and Roxanne could only smile and go back to eating. “Oh, and I have a daughter of course.”

“A journalist…” Maeve said with an approving nod of encouragement.

“Well, if being a journalist is writing books and filming documentaries about your parents, she is one. I think she’s used up all her childhood memories and family connections. She makes her living now as a celebrity in reality television. No man, no children. Of course, Mark has two darling little tikes. And you ladies?”

Roxanne had already pulled out her “Grandma’s Brag Book”. The Baroness was engulfed by a photographs of dark-haired tan children, most of whom had bewilderingly similar names and features. Sir Roofer or “Surfer” as his cronies called him nodded to his majordomo. Sherry and cigars were passed around as the chatter’s people cleared the dinner dishes. All his coarse acquaintances happily accepted a Cuban or two. Their dates did not. When the box passed by Sir Dennis and Baroness Roofer, they both took one. Maeve and Roxanne shook their heads and whispered, no thanks.

“Oh goodness. My manners. Would you ladies mind if we smoke?”

“Not at all.” Maeve responded with a sad smile. “My first husband smoked. I’ve always loved the smell of tobacco smoke.”

This comment got a surprised look from her sister but Roxanne had no chance to speak as “Surfer” rose from is chair, sherry in hand. “Before our guest of honor enlightens us with a few words about the future of this continent.” Roxanne and Maeve leaned forward to follow their hosts gaze and on the other side of Sir Dennis spotted the octogenarian prime minister and gasped. “I would like us to raise our glasses in honor of absent friends. In particular to Simon Black whose been unbelievable accused of leading a coup d’état in Buranda. Here’s hoping our friends…” here is shifty eyes returned to his parents and guest of honor. “…can use their influence for his speedy release.” He put on a gracious smile and then added confidentially, “ You don't have to tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive. To Simon!”

Margaret groaned in recognition of the quote. It was from her political days. Sir Dennis grunted quietly in disgust at his son, but all raised their glasses politely. As the crowded returned to their sherry and conspiratorial whispers. Margaret turned to find, the two sisters wide-eyed and preparing to vacant their seats.

“We didn’t realize this was the main table.” Maeve apologized as she prepared to leave.

“Maeve! Roxanne! Please don’t leave.” Margaret exuded. “They always put such bores next to me at theses thinks. If you leave one of Mark’s parasitic thugs will move over here with his moll. Plus I was so excited when I discovered that Ralf and Jenny had invited you. While in the government I’d heard so much about your family’s import/export business and I so wanted to meet you both.”

Roxanne and Maeve promptly and proudly sat back down. For all the trappings of a far-flung commercial empire and their vast influence in society, the sisters were generally so preoccupied with grandchildren, family and planning birthdays, graduations and weddings that they little knew nor actually cared what other’s thought of their family.

“Really?”

“Ladies, I happen to know that “Forbes” actually estimates your family’s wealth as “endless” rather than the smaller number they list annually. And from personal experience I know your influence is unimaginable. Trust me. Governments all over the world talk about your family business all the time. Now, to what does South Africa and I owe the pleasure of your company?”

Roxanne’s ruby cheeks glowed in response. “My oldest daughter is getting married this weekend at Crystal Mountains National Park. She and her fiancée visited there a few years ago and fell in love with the place. Have you been there?”

Margaret shook her head and Roxanne went on to describe, a high-altitude forest rich in orchids and begonias, with the highest species count of butterflies in the world. She spoke of crystalline pinnacles rising sporadically above the oasis of fog shrouded juggle below. And high in the stratosphere; the “Elfin Forests”; The pygmy bonsai trees growing between the thin air and the mossy carpet.

“Isn’t that on the Buranda border?” the baroness asked absently. Easing closer to her new friends . “That wouldn’t have been too good if there had been a coup d’état in Buranda.” She winked and then glanced about the room to see if anyone paid attention. “I’ve heard…” she whispered “…that the Siennans have the best private intelligence network since the Rothschilds. I’ve heard how you handled the kidnapping of your youngest son’s fiancée. No one will ever touch any of your grandchildren after that. I also happen to know that an anonymous tip alerted the Rhodesian authorities to the 737 full of heavily armed “oil workers” stopping to refuel at their capital. “

Maeve and Roxanne exchanged knowing looks with the former prime minister, but said nothing until the guest of honor rose to speak. At which point Maeve whispered, “All I can say is you don't have to tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive”

TLtS: Am I a God or a Star?

I was battle-born.
I sprang forth from my mother,
Fully-armed like
Athena from her father.
I am cyclopean,
A giant dressed in bronze armor

Like they born
From the blood of Uranus
I sprang up; enormous
With the steed Pegasus

Upon the western shore
Of the River Oceanus
I, Chrysaor, in my hands
A falchion held
Of beamy gold
Which my mother felled

I am Pegasus’ twin brother
I am the spirit of bia, Might;
A warrior of stout heart
And powerful-mind

My brother is Wisdom,
metis; and inspiration.

He is a horse, I a mortal
I a demigod, he immortal

I human, he a beast of feather
He and I are a centaur together

I road upon his back to Olympus
Enthroned on winged Pegasus

I left beneath holy earth,
And soared to Olympus; and there abode
In palaces of Zeus and to the god
Deep-counseled, bear flaming arrow and bolt. [i]

I rode between the Deep and Heaven.[ii]

I wed beautiful-flowing Callirrhoe,
Daughter of glorious Oceanus
Blending in love, lying in his embrace
She bore me two fine children of my mother’s race.

Like the stars before the Sun
I faded before the onset of history
.
I faded dew-liked before the day
From all time and all history[iii]

Who was I? What happen to me?

I was flung to earth by Zeus
Same as his fiery son Hephaestus

But like an immortal star
As each day grows fainter

I am rising out of the sea,
Beamy gold and shining
Leaving the arms of Callirrhoe
Forever tender, soft and inviting

Thus over the ocean and forth
Trailed the gleam of my falchion far
Riding inside Night’s gleaming car
Am I a god or a star?

I return to Olympus
Summoned secretly each day by Zeus.[iv]

I am a winged boar with sharpened tusk

I am the All Father’s right hand
I am the slayer of Typhoeus,
The conqueror of the Titans
I was the gold falchion hidden in Tartarus

The one who dubs heroes
Upon Pegasus’ hooves a thundering
I am the thunderbolt[v]
I am Chrysaor the Lightning

[i] Hesiod’s Theogony, translated by Charles Abraham Elton

[ii] Awakening Osiris by Normandi Ellis

[iii] Helen in Egypt, HD

[iv] Longfellow

[v] Awakening Osiris by Normandi Ellis

M&R: There is Forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be Feared.

The unfurled flowers that once decorated, the chain of rolling "muskegs" alongside the river were gone! Instead, across the swampy shores marched the twilight millions of grass blades; in metallic gray, steel blue, gleaming gold, brash bronze, tin, rust and frosted green. Dueling clumps of contrasting colored blades cluttered the rolling lumpy fields. Here and there a lone yellow stalk stood above the fray like an ashen spear. It was autumn in Southeast Alaska, but here up the glittering Stikine River the warm Canadian wind rushing down river still ruled the landscape. Five mile downstream where the cold jade-green waters of the Gulf of Alaska surged upstream with the tide, the reign of the warm winds was not so secure and three foot chop upon the waters of eastern Sumner Straits indicated the battle line.

Here, upstream the silty waters of the Stikine calmly rambled and meandered across the wide valley beneath the high peaks of the Alaska Coastal Range, freshly dusted with new snow. The 16ft Lund with a drivers console on the port side raced by a tidal sandbar where seals had warmed themselves in the sun the afternoon before.

“Maeve, did your husband ever tell you about the best job in the world? He says the story has saved his life twice.”

The breeze coming across the bow carried bursts of Roxanne’s words to their grandsons sitting behind them. Maeve’s sharp oval eyes, swapped a knowing glance with Roxanne. They’d both heard snatches of the same conversation coming from the boys something about “-flipped the zodiac”. Her husband taught her years ago that she could hear all sorts of things if the kids didn’t think she was listening and she didn’t interrupt.

“I only remember the once that it saved his life.” Roxanne explained rotely, as she turned to face her sister and hence better hear the stories the boys in the back of the skiff swapped. A few strands of her sun-streaked red hair escaped the coarse braids she’d wrapped around her head like a halo. “We left Flagstaff headed west in that burnt orange Chevy of his. Around Quartzite, the road races through some hilly country.” Her ringless hand rises and falls in a wavy motion, which neither woman looks at. “It was a new two lane black top with wide shoulders. Your husband started telling the story. His dad was a big fan of Coors and he decided to put his money where his mouth was and bought shares in the company. Anytime they were anywhere near Golden they took the tour. “

“- the falls…two feet high“

“Now your husband and his brother were little kids being dragged along by the hand, bored to tears with the adult lectures given on the tour. But something caught their eye. There was a guy on the production floor sitting in a chair doing nothing but staring at bottles of beers as they passed a sheet of well lit paper. There were no labels on the bottles yet. Well, they knew exactly what this was about; a mouse had recently been found in a Pepsi bottle. It was all over the news, so apparently Coors was taking no chances. As the boys discussed this they noticed the worker glance at a bottle coming down the line. He’d spotted something! He kept watching the other bottles as they passed but also kept track of where that one bottle was as it approached his station. He leaned forward. He’d spotted something in the bottle! He snatched it from the production line as it tried to pass, popped the cap off and took a swig!”

Maeve laughed her diabolically laugh as she had every time she’d ever heard this story. They both listened quietly to the joking youths in the back talk about emptying their pockets and taking off their boots before they tried it.

“So, your husband is telling me and Stan this tale as he drives us through the hilly country outside Quartzite. At one point he looks up and sees two semis in the opposite lanes headed side by side down the hill. Not wanting to deal with gusts of wind and flying gravel they’d be producing, he signaled moved into the right hand lane and kept talking. Eventually, he returned to our originally lane and finished the story with his usual flourish. Neither Stan nor I laughed. He asks us what was wrong? I exclaimed “We could have died!” He had no clue what I was talking about. He said the semis were in the east bound lanes, what was the big deal? I pointed out that it was a two lane road and that one of them was coming at us down hill head on. He’d signaled, dodged a reflector at 60mph, and moved to the shoulder without ever missing a beat in his story.”

By now the boys were leaning forward to hear.

“If he hadn’t been busy telling the Story of the Best Job in the World, he would have freaked out, hit the brakes and we all would have died!”

“What? What! Grandma, tell that again.” erupted from the back of the little boat, but they’d arrived at their destination.

The tanned boys, dark-haired like their Grandmother Maeve, untied the scuffed red rubber zodiac tied behind the skiff all this time. Promising to be careful, they intended to paddle down the meandering northern anabranch of the Stikine called the Ketili. They would spend the afternoon drifting down the shallow, cottonwood lined stream to the hot tubs fishing for Dolly Vardon and wayward salmon to where the rest of the family would be. Their grandmother turned the skiff around and headed back down to Chief Shakes Hot Springs below the rapids in Chief Shakes Creek running from iceberg-laden deep, cold, Shake’s Lake beneath the edge of the coastal range ice fields.

“So let’s see, when they came back from Shakes Lake two days ago, instead of carrying the zodiac around the falls, they decided to go over them; flipping the zodiac and losing the cooler and two paddles.” Maeve said with a scowl growing across her glacial features. “I can’t believe how they retold that whole story without even noticing we were here.”

“Well, it’s like when we were girls. You were too young to remember.” Roxanne said using the code phrase to denote an event that her adopted sister Maeve wasn’t actually attending. “Our parents use to spell things at the table when they didn’t want us girls to understand what they were talking about. Eventually, I could spell, but I couldn’t figure out the word in time to understand the context. So as they spelled the words, our sister would listen to the story and I’d feed her the words, and then she’d recite the whole thing back to us. Our parents were so busy talking they never noticed what we were saying.” Roxanne nodded her coppery head back to the boys they’d just left at the head of the Ketili. “It worked fine for a long time. Then one night at dinner, they stopped talking just as our sister was reciting the conversation back to us. The looks on their faces. They thought she could spell at 4 years old!” Roxanne exclaimed with a shout to the sunny heavens above and the heavily forested canyon walls.

Both women hooted. Maeve weakly estimated she recalled that. This got them even giddier.

“What were our grandsons thinking?” Maeve asked with a grin still on her face and a “boys-will-be-boys shake of her head

“”Well, dearie” Roxanne began, “They thought the tide was high enough. They’d seen their fathers do it plenty of times. They figured 5 out of 10 times they would have made it. ” she explained.

“Their fathers, apparently know all about this? Do you think their mothers know?”

“Not yet.”

When Maeve and Roxanne arrived at the two red-cedar hot tubs, Roxanne’s step-daughters and granddaughters soaked in the upper screened-in tub safe from mosquitoes and notorious no-seeums. The men and younger boys wrestled around the lower tub out in the open, cropped, grassy field alongside Ketili Slough. The older boys’ mothers found out about them going over the rapids and their father’s discretion soon enough.

That night, after dinner at the family A-frame when the older kids played outside and the younger were in bed, the adults had a few words on the front deck.

“When were you going to tell us about this?” one of Roxanne’s step-daughters asked the men folk.

“We were going to have them tell their grandfather when he and your dad get here. The zodiac is company property.”

“When were you going to tell us?” asked another of the sisters with the emphasis on “us”.

Her husband replied that “It was their idea.” Trying to separate himself from his brother-in-laws.

“Come on girls. We’ve let those boys run skiffs up and down the river for two summers now.”

“Maybe that’s been a bad idea.”

“Who told you about this?”

One of the three sisters started to say “Mother, told us…”

“Aunt Roxanne, I appreciate we are talking about your grandsons, but…”

Maeve stepped between her offending son and Roxanne.

“I meant your mother.” his wife quickly explained as the younger generation feel silent under Maeve’s dark gaze.

The whole time, Roxanne looked at her step-daughters and sons-in-law with a bemused expression on her rosy features. A smiled sipped out of the firmly shut lips. She held herself, keeping her stout body still. Her laughing green eyes jumped from speaker to speaker. She held the satellite phone in her hand. Her only motion was to grab Maeve’s wrist when she’d stepped forward.

“Boys!” Roxanne called to the children. The older boys came running. She turned to her own sons and daughters-in-law. “Your sons are becoming quite the young men. You know, your father arrives tomorrow. Someone has to take the skiff across Sumner Strait to Mitkof Island and pick him and your Uncle Stan up. Your father thinks these young gentlemen are old enough to handle the trip. Don’t you?”

All around her, Roxanne saw jaws go slack, mouths fall open, and tense shoulders fall. She even heard a few sighs of relief exude from her loved ones. She beamed

M&R: There’s Always a Stick When you Need It

He gimped.

That’s not what caught the attention of Maeve and Roxanne. The big smile spreading sporadically across his face caught their eye. The dimple in a narrow chin covered with blonde stubble made them both do a double take. The way he held his thick chest out and shoulders square as he hurried to his gate across the glistening mosaic floor attracted everyone’s attention. The friendly greetings of “Buck!” he got from the other soldiers dressed in their desert khakis convinced everyone in the terminal to think of Buck in friendly terms. He had a baby face, but the graying short cut hair showed his true age. (Maeve thought maybe he should grow it a little longer so his ears didn’t stick out so much.) He joined some buddies at table in the lounge just next to their gate. Maeve watched when he got up and went to the bar.

“Dearie! What a lovely blouse.”

Maeve’s dark eyes turned to the passing short-haired, well-endowed brunette her sister addressed. The woman wore a beautiful red blouse of heavy cotton decorated a flattering angular ruffle. The woman gushed her thanks, admitted she made it herself from a pattern and apologized, but must meet some friends. She was a good looking woman. But, the raising of two (now grown) kids and the passing of her husband wore on her. She gained a few of the pounds that age inevitably brings. Her name was Linda. She seemed disappointed not to see her friends anywhere & went to stand in line at the bar behind the soldier. She ordered a virgin peach daiquiri. The soldier made a comment about a cherry daiquiri and they both laughed.

Even against the glare from the big windows overlooking the tarmac, Roxanne knew a “spark” when she saw it. She grinned at the unmitigated flattery the hero of the scene showered on the heroine. Roxanne nudged her sister Maeve, sitting beside her, also watching the middle aged strangers standing at the bar in front of them.

Maeve pushed back her hair in imitation of the Linda. She exchanged a grin and knowing look with Roxanne.

“You know dearie, when we were all younger, your husband use to wear a special tee-shirt at keggers.” Roxanne waited to make sure she got her sister’s attention. “It was a bunch of cartoons characters in an orgy. He’d work the room, asking guests which character they wanted to me. If he found two people who chose adjoining characters he’d introduce them.”

“Did that work?”

“Twice, I think. It was his effort at playing cupid.”

“Maybe we should mind our own business.” Maeve suggested weakly.

They exchanged a glance and burst into laughter, delighting those around them.

“Maeve, it is our Christian duty to set them up; Genesis 2:13 “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone;” I’m guessing that applies to women too!

“Well, then we need to find someone to play Cupid to those two.” Maeve whispered with an arch of her painted eyebrow.

Roxanne was still grinning at the love-struck couple. She started nodding her head, but stopped and her green eyes took a double take of her black eyed sister. “Dearie, we are talking about the winged cherub on Valentine’s Day? Right?”

“Well, you know me the one that “tames lions and tigers, breaks the thunderbolts of Zeus, deprives Heracles of his arms and carries on his sport with the monsters of the sea.” is more to my taste, but “the fairest of the deathless gods” will do.

Roxanne was grinning again. “Okay, how we going to do this?”

“Well, my husband says, “There’s always stick when you need one.”

“Pardon?” the red head asked, her ruddy features twisting in confusion.

“It’s what my husband says about stray dogs. If you see some strange dogs headed your way, you pick up a stick. Good dogs sit back on their haunches and wag their tails in hopes you will toss the stick for them. If they are bad dogs, they put their tails between their legs and skulk away. In which case you don’t throw the stick, because you’ll need it later when they sneak up on you.

“Oh.” says Roxanne, gazing into the Heavens. “Sort of like Cadmus tossing the bones of the Earth among the Sown-Men? What about “There’s always a stick when you need one?”

“Oh it’s a magic thing; there’s always a stick if you need it and not if you don’t. Now who we going to get to be Cupid?”

“Surely, he’s with some of the other soldiers. Maybe one of them. ” Roxanne said casting her admiring glance about the crowded terminal. “You know those new desert camouflage pants, the way they are cut sure does a good job of making the boy’s-”

“Roxanne!”

“Well, you know I’m a sucker for a man in uniform.” Roxanne was about to point out that when she first met her current husband he was wearing a uniform, but she thought better of it because Maeve would point out that in fact he was naked at the time!

“Well until we find our cupid, I know something you and I can do.”

“What’s that dearie?” Roxanne asked as Maeve took her by the hand and led her towards the bar.

“We’re loaded, why shouldn’t everyone else be?

Roxanne laughed her loud joyous laugh, hooked Maeve through the elbow, and now led the way herself.

“Excuse us...“ Roxanne said to the well dressed woman they’d been admiring, effectively shoving her into Buck‘s strong arms.

“Well…” Linda began harshly in response to being shoved, but then thought better of it when her gaze rose to Buck’s sparkling brown eyes, “ ...excuse me!” she finished with a laugh.

“…but, we’d like to order…“ Roxanne continued loudly. She winked at Maeve with whom she now held hands and led the way as they said in unison “…a round for the house!”

The crowd erupted around them, particularly the soldiers sitting at a table in the corner. She waved to the boys and gave a wink to the Linda and Buck beside them, while Maeve dug around in her purse. Maeve pulled out a handful of cash and laid it on the bar.

“Buy a round with these?”

“Dearie!” Roxanne burst out. “You can’t buy anything with those. They’re Francs!”

“Oh?” laughed Maeve, “I guess I haven’t used this purse in a while.”

“Maeve’s what you call ‘old money’.” Roxanne observed to the crowd as she pulled a handful of American bills from her purse.

Maeve slipped away when she saw the pilot and his “stick-buddy” approach the gate. She quickly spoke with the attendant, found the correct currency and returned to Roxanne’s side, empty handed. Roxanne handed her a glass of champagne. The soldiers and other gathered around, thanking the pair and shouting their orders to the bar maid. In effect pushing Linda more fully into Buck’s arms.

As the hubbub calmed a little, Roxanne turned to the Buck; “One of your friends looks so familiar to us.” She began glancing at the soldiers in the corner table. Is any of them named Rod?” Her index finger and thumb of each bejeweled hand encircled the imaginary rod , the length of which she indiciated by the spread of her hands.

“Lance?” Maeve suggested

“Dick?” Linda interjected with a laugh.

Buck with his arm around Linda’s waist guffawed.

Maeve and Roxanne didn’t get it until later so they continued with “Cain?” “Castor?” “Juan?”

Maeve was going to ask if any of them was a “Pole”, but gave up and turned instead to raising her glass in honor of “such a good looking couple”. Linda and Buck blushed and gushed and denied it, but their attraction was unavoidable and obvious to all. The flight attendant at the gate announced boarding for their flight. Maeve and Roxanne, being in first class, bid everyone adieu before Linda and Buck made their awkward goodbyes. Roxanne and Maeve handed their tickets to the attendant at the gate. They burst out laughing. When the coach class boarded, Buck and Linda entered together looking somewhat stupefied; first class tickets in hand.

“Oh dearies! Did that nice flight attendant, Mister Stickman upgrade you two?”