A Dream Come True

3. Wars among the Gods

Wars among the Gods

“Why would gods fight against other gods?” asked Yasmin, staring into the growing darkness. “You were just saying the Greeks didn’t make a sharp division between good and evil the way a lot of modern religions do. What did they have to fight over?”

“The same things people have to fight over,” Thanos replied. “Remember that the Greeks, like most ancient people, didn’t conceive of the kind of infinite God that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam visualize. Instead, their gods were anthropomorphic.”

“Anthropowhatic?” asked Patrick.

“Human in form,” said Keisha tiredly. “They had greater abilities than humans, but they also had human flaws.”

“So what was the fight about?” asked Mateo.

“Cronus hated his father. I don’t think the myths ever explain why,” replied Keisha.

“He was kind of like a rebellious teenager—only in a very dysfunctional family,” said Yong. “Instead of just acting out, he turned to violence.”

“He went Menendez brothers on his father?” asked Patrick, suddenly more interested.

“He had more motivation that just anger at his father, though,” Thanos pointed out. “His mother, Gaia, was angry because Uranus had imprisoned some of her children.”

“He kept his own children captive?” asked Fatima, sounding as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah,” answered Thanos, “but only the ones that weren’t physically perfect in his judgment. That meant the Cyclopes, because they had only one eye in the center of their forehead, and the Hecatoncheires, because each one had one hundred arms and fifty heads.”

“So he had a bias against people with disabilities?” asked Fatima, even more incredulous than before. “And…and they were his own children?”

“The ultimate dysfunctional family,” said Mateo.

“The really odd thing is that Uranus felt that way even though the children who disappointed him were actually better than average in everything except appearance. The Cyclopes were very clever and good with their hands when given half a chance, and the Hecatoncheires were mighty warriors. Hesiod says they were the ‘most terrible’—in other words, the fiercest in battle.

“Anyway, Gaia, who always seemed to love her children, turned to Cronus for help. Since he hated his father anyway, he was more than willing.”

“I can’t see what’s happening anymore,” said Yasmin. Their window had gone completely black, darker even than the primal emptiness before the emergence of Eros. Not only that, but the ground shook beneath their feet.

“Earthquake?” asked Patrick, looking around worriedly.

“More like a dreamquake,” replied Yong, though he too looked a little anxious.

“Perhaps Gaia trembled at Cronus’s horrendous attack on his father, even though she put him up to it,” suggested Thanos.

At that moment they heard a scream so loud that the surface of their window cracked a little. Several seconds passed before anyone could move.

“What was that?” Fatima finally managed to ask.

“Cronus must have just attacked Uranus,” replied Thanos. He used a stone sickle his mother had given him to castrate his own father.

“What’s castrate?” asked Patrick.

“Trust me, man, you so do not want to know,” said Mateo.

“It’s a kind of mutilation that renders a man incapable of having s*x,” said Keisha, trying to be clinical, though she had to admit she enjoyed Patrick’s wince just a little.

They heard no more screams, though the ground continued to vibrate under their feet, a bit unnerving for people who grew up in California.

“Strangely, Cronus’s violence brought forth new life,” said Thanos, though even he sounded a little shaky. “Where his blood fell on the ground, the Erinyes, or Furies, were born—fitting, since they punished certain crimes against family members.”

By now the darkness had cleared, and they could watch the grim Erinyes marching around, their eyes constantly searching for a crime to punish. Those eyes had no pity in them, and their faces had no more humanity than those of statues.

“Giants also came from the blood of Uranus,” Thanos mentioned, and sure enough, they actually saw enormous drops of blood strike the earth. Then the gory ground exploded, and when the dust cleared, they could see an army of fully armored giants, each with a spear as long as the tallest tree.

“The giants, born from violence and blood, naturally loved war,” continued Thanos, “and eventually they fought against the gods themselves. However, the blood of Uranus also created the Meliae, nymphs of the ash tree.”

Coming forth more gently than the giants had, the nymphs, every bit as beautiful as the Erinyes were frightening, rose and sought out the trees they would claim as their own.

“Something’s happening over there, in the sea,” said Mateo, pointing at a large glob of foam.

“The flesh of Uranus—the part Cronus removed—the conquering Titan threw into the sea, and over time, Aphrodite, goddess of love, was born.

Keisha had to snicker. She and other girls had embarrassed themselves by getting hot and bothered over Eros, but now it was the guys’ turn. As Aphrodite emerged from the sea foam, looking even more lovely than Botticelli had painted her, the guys’ eyes focused unblinkingly at the window. Keisha was sure if she took their pulses, they would be racing faster than horses in the Kentucky Derby.

“Isn’t Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus?” asked Yasmin.

Figuring Thanos was not going to answer, Keisha said, “That’s one of the spots where the myths are inconsistent. Hesiod tells the story we’ve just seen, but there are other origin stories which make Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus and Dione, one of the daughters of Oceanus. The same thing happened with Eros. Hesiod has him as one of the primal forces emerging from chaos, while later stories make him the son of Aphrodite, with the father sometimes being Zeus and sometimes Ares.”

“Why aren’t they more consistent?” asked Yasmin.

“I’d guess it could have something to do with the differences among the groups that eventually formed Greek society, as we discussed earlier. It could also be that, because transportation and communication were much slower than they are today, people who lived some distance apart had less contact and might more easily develop different stories. Some scholars believe ancient people may not have cared much about the details, anyway, at least not enough to try to standardize the tales.”

“The rule of Cronus is another example,” said Thanos. He and the other guys had unglued themselves from the window, so Keisha figured Aphrodite must be offstage for the moment.

“Some writers describe the time he and Rhea were king and queen of the gods as a golden age of peace and prosperity. It’s hard to visualize Cronus as a good ruler, though, because in some ways he seems even worse than Uranus.

“How so?” asked Mateo.

“First, Cronus betrayed his mother by keeping the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires imprisoned. Even worse, though, Uranus had cursed Cronus for attacking him, and Gaia predicted that Cronus would be overthrown by his own son just as Cronus had overthrown his own father. Rather than risk that, Cronus took his children from Rhea as they were born and ate them.”

“He was a cannibal?” asked Mateo, clearly shocked. “And he ate his own children?”

“Sort of,” said Thanos. “As it turns out, he didn’t actually digest them, perhaps because they were immortal. Essentially, he kept them prisoner in his stomach.”

“Except for the fact that his victims didn’t die, he was basically a serial killer. So, yeah, how he could have ruled over a golden age I don’t know,” added Yong.

“If he wasn’t technically a serial killer, he was definitely a serial child abuser,” said Yasmin. “And he did it all just to keep power.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t sit well with the women,” said Mateo.

“That’s right,” said Keisha, though she thought that if he’d done the reading, he wouldn’t need to guess. “Rhea was constantly grieving for her swallowed children, and Gaia remained angry over her children that Cronus had left imprisoned. When Rhea came for help to Gaia and Uranus, who wasn’t exactly a member of the Cronus fan club either, they were willing enough to aid their daughter. They devised a plan in which Rhea gave birth to her next child, Zeus, on Crete, and Gaia took care of him and hid him away underground until he had time to grow up. Meanwhile, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped up like a baby, and the distracted Titan swallowed it without realizing it wasn’t really a child.”

“Not very observant of him,” said Mateo.

“The ancient Greeks weren’t always interested in details like that, but I would bet Rhea was clever about presenting the stone,” said Thanos. “Much later, when Zeus was grown and ready, Rhea and Gaia somehow got Cronus to vomit up his other children (Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia) who then escaped while their father was recovering and naturally joined Zeus. Zeus had other allies as well, because he released the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes from prison. The Hecatoncheires were formidable fighters, and the Cyclopes, who were great craftsmen, fashioned weapons appropriate for such an important battle. For Zeus they made his signature thunderbolts that could destroy anything they hit. For Poseidon they made a trident that could create earthquakes when it struck the earth or tidal waves when it struck the ocean. For Hades they made a vaguely described weapon, perhaps a kind of staff, which could also shake the earth and which had a touch deadly to any living thing—and probably at least painful to an immortal.”

Hearing the rumbling of distant thunder, they gathered around the window to watch the battle, which Thanos told them was called the Titanomachy. Cronus and some of the Titans fought fiercely against the younger gods, but even their best efforts failed. Thunderbolts crackled from Zeus’s hands one by one in rapid succession, searing the Titans and keeping them from getting close enough to fight the children of Cronus hand to hand. The earth shook as Poseidon and Hades struck it again and again, making the very ground beneath the Titans’ feet unreliable and opening chasms that led to the Underworld itself. With Cronus and his allies so thoroughly battered, they were easy prey for the Hecatoncheires, and for Zeus’s siblings. Once the Titans had been subdued, most of them were hurled by Zeus straight down to Tartarus, which became their prison, guarded by the very Hecatoncheires Cronus had kept as prisoners for so long.

“Was there peace then?” asked Fatima.

“Eventually,” said Thanos, “but the gods had one more challenge first. Look!”

What Thanos was pointing at was not hard to see. It was a monster of some kind, a giant, but with the heads of a hundred serpents growing from his shoulders, each breathing fire like a dragon, and each uttering a different kind of animal cry.

“Where did that…that thing come from?” asked Mateo, looking glad that they were a safe distance away from it.

“Gaia was still not satisfied, for though Zeus had freed her children whom Cronus imprisoned, he had now imprisoned the Titans.”

“Who seem as if they deserved it,” Yasmin pointed out.

“I guess we could say Gaia wanted all her children free regardless of what they had done,” Thanos replied. “Through Tartarus she became mother to Typhoeus, the monster you see advancing on Olympus.”

“How did she have s*x with a pit?” asked Patrick. “That is what Tartarus is, right?”

Keisha tried to conceal her shock that Patrick had actually been listening. “The Greeks must have assumed that even the abstract gods or those who represented geographical features also had human forms to use—or maybe they just didn’t think it through.”

“Zeus is coming down to face him…but why is he alone?” asked Yasmin.

“Typhoeus frightened the others away,” suggested Thanos. “Don’t worry, though. Some time had passed since the war with the Titans, and Zeus was much surer of his power.”

Typhoeus took an incredible amount of damage and stayed on his feet. However, by the time the scent of burning flesh filled the air like a cloud around him, and all of the hundred heads had burned away, he could fight no longer. He finally fell with a crash so loud the crack in the window was joined by several others, and the ground beneath the students’ feet shook again, even more violently than before.

Zeus threw what was left of Typhoeus into Tartarus and looked around, surveying the damage. The long battle had bathed the earth in fire and lightning, scorching a great part of it and boiling away most of the sea. Standing in the middle of the devastation, the king of the gods looked smaller than he had before.

“Is Gaia going to lay off now?” asked Mateo. “Will there be peace?”

Thanos nodded. “Long enough for earth and sea to heal, but this was not the last major challenge Zeus had to face.

“You see, Zeus himself was destined to be overthrown.”