Riding the Bull
On her way down to the lake Europa meets an amazing stranger- who is actually Zeus, the King of the Gods himself, on yet another love adventure. My own way of telling the classic myth and with some liberties taken.
"You go ahead, girls! I'll catch up later, I just need a word with the professor", Europa let her friends know as they were preparing to leave the academy after the last class of the day. It was a wonderful day, one of the first real warm days that spring and the sun was beckoning everyone outside, promising delight and beautiful sceneries of green meadows and budding spring flowers.
"We're going down to the lake," her best friend Melianthe replied.
"Hurry!" Phoebe chimed in.
"We might as well stop at the bakery; get some goodies," the third girl suggested. "You may catch up with us there. "
"Good idea, Deidamia!" Phoebe smiled.
"There goes my diet out the window," Melianthe mock-pouted.
"Oh, you don't need to diet," Deidamia commented. "You have perfect shapes. Come on now!"
Chatting the three girls led the way out of the school house as Europa walked up to the worn oak desk where professor Polymedon sat, his wrinkled and freckled old man's hand swiftly folding trough heaps of papers. When Europa approached him he looked up, gazing with gray orbs at his young student. Polymedon, professor of the Greek language, was nearing the sixties, still his lined face showed chiseled handsomeness and women his own age found him very attractive.
That was nothing that crossed Europa's mind though when she asked for a word with the professor.
"How may I help you?" Polymedon smiled lightly.
"About my poetry, Europa said. You gave me a D. Second lowest on the scale. Now I wonder what I did wrong, how I can become better."
"Europa, Europa," Polymedon smiled. "That was a try at erotic poetry, right?" When Europa nodded he went on: "Well people tend to write well about things they have experiences of. And I can tell you're still a virgin my friend. Your writing wasn't exactly… I don't urge you to go out there and get laid, but would recommend you to write about something you're familiar with. "
"Like what?" Flowers and moonshine, that's so - well mundane. I want to…"
"There's nothing wrong with flowers and moonshine, my dear. Perhaps an overused subject, that's true. But I'll give you some extra homework. Set your heart on trying to find something unique. Something original. And then write some poetry about that instead. And then I'll let that little try at eroticism be forgotten. After all we all need to try and to fail to get anywhere."
"Thanks, professor!" Europa bowed lightly before Polymedon, and knowing she was dismissed she left the class room and the imposing academy building and went out in the sun, heading for the lake to catch up with her friends.
O0O0O
Something unique? Something original? How was she going to find that? Wasn't all the subjects already covered? At least here in the Corinth area where there were as many poets as there were pillars in the temples of the gods? Europa kicked at some stones, she couldn't deny that most of her friends were way more experienced in the sexual area than she was. She had made it all up, that story with the hunter and the nymph. And it had sounded good when she wrote it, but now she could see what Polymedon had meant. It was dull and boring, probably because there was no life in it, no sense of presence, no partaking. It was as erotic as a grocery list, Europa realized with a sad shrug.
Then her thoughts were interrupted by the strangest of noises. A racketing and rhythmic huffing and puffing together with rattling metal. And it was getting louder, a clear sign that whatever was making that noise was getting nearer.
Europa spun around and first she didn't see anything special, just the usual dusty main road lined with high, blossoming chestnut trees. Then around the corner came the strangest thing she had ever seen. It looked remotely like a chariot, built from black iron, with four big, spiked wheels and a large grille up front like teeth of a grinning beast. And from a large cylinder pipe in the rear end dark smoke came puffing. And the strangest thing of it all - it was moving all by itself, no horses or oxen were pulling it, and still it was coming nearer with a steady speed.
"Now what in the name of the gods is that?" Europa asked herself. Next thing she noted the man. As the strange vehicle drove closer she saw a tall, broad shouldered man in a red jacket sitting on top of the vehicle, the sun shining off blonde locks beneath a cap in the same red fabric as the jacket. Golden buttons were gleaming both from the cap and the jacket.
When the vehicle came nearer it slowed down and pulled to a stop right beside Europa.
"Hello there!" the man in the red jacket called out. "Where is such a beauty heading all by herself on this seemingly endless road? "
Europa gazed up at the man on the machine, pushing some dark locks away from her forehead. He sure was good looking with smiling sky-blue eyes in a handsome and honest face. What could he be, her own age? Perhaps two or three years more? At least he couldn't be over 21, that magic year when all people became grown-ups and life suddenly became so much more boring.
"I'm… I'm going to the lake," she heard herself say. "It's not far from here. "
"Want a ride?" the man asked. When Europa hesitated he smiled even more and held out a large hand.
Then she couldn't hesitate anymore but let the stranger help her up to sit beside her.
"You sure going to enjoy riding 'The Bull'," he said and started the engine again.
"'The Bull'?" Europa almost had to scream to make herself heard over the noise.
"That's what I'm calling him, my steam engine car," the man smiled. "I'm Tharidion, what's your name?"
"Europa. Of the house of Agenor. "
"Hello Europa! Off we go," Tharidion said and soon the big wheels were turning and the strange vehicle was moving all by itself again down the road. Tharidion did drive her to the lake, and when Europa saw her friends she began to hail them, but the girls became scared and ran in among the trees instead, disappearing in the scrub.
"Tharidion, stop, stop!" Europa called out at the driver. "You're scaring them. "
"Oh, that's too bad;" Tharidion said and stopped the engine. Europa jumped down, intent to run after her friends but she misjudged the height and the uneven ground beneath her and fell, hurting her ankle.
"Ai!" she cried out as she almost fell to the ground, but Tharidion was there to catch her. At that moment it didn't surprise her how fast he seemed to have gotten down from 'The Bull'. Instead she was more anxious with her injury and her friends who had ran off.
"Let me help you!" Tharidion sat her down on the ground and began to examine her ankle.
"It hurts, I think I sprained it," Europa gritted her teeth. But Tharidion laid his large, tanned hand upon her slender, white leg, and the next second the pain was gone, like it had never been there.
"It's not that bad," Tharidion said and looked up at her, blue eyes meeting green.
"I could've sworn…"
"Don't do that. Where these your friends, Europa? "
"Yes…"
"Well you can run after them if you want. Or you can stay here with me for a while if you want to experience something unique and original."
"Unique and original," Europa echoed. That was just what professor Polymedon had said. Now this Tharidion sure was unique and original, and so was his 'Bull'. "What kind of vehicle is that?" she went on.
"It's a steam engine," Tharidion told. "It runs on heated coals which produce steam to propel pistons forward to run the wheels making the engine roll. The engine holds as much power as a strong ox, that's why I called it 'The Bull'. Because after all a bull is a bit more virile than a castrated ox. And virile is what I like to think my machine as.
"You've created this one all by yourself?" Europa asked with awe in her voice, Tharidion nodded.
"That's correct."
"So you're an inventor? Just as Automedon down in Eastern ground. "
"Well only at my spare time," Tharidion replied.
"Your spare time? What do you do for a living then? Or are you still in school," she guessed, looking at his unlined, youthful face.
"I… well, I'm a kind of executive really. Working for the government. "
"Here in Corinth? Well then you might know who my father is, he's…"
"Not here. A bit up north though, Thessaly to be true."
"Thessaly? That's far! You mean you rode 'The Bull' all the way down here? What for?"
"Adventure," Tharidion told. "Adventure and experience. And to see how much a machine like this really might stand. "
"It took you to Corinth at least. "
"And I'm planning to go to Crete. Showing it to king Minos in Knossos. They say he like new inventions and useful novelties. If I can make him interested in these kinds of vehicles my future might look bright. What do you say about that, Europa? Going to Crete to me?"
"By the gods, Tharidion, we've know each other for a quarter of an hour and you want to take me to Crete! Riding this machine? Are you always acting on whims like that?"
"It happens," Tharidion confessed. Europa didn't know what she wanted to with her hands so she absentmindedly picked some spring flowers and started to make a wreath. Tharidion was looking at her fingers as she was working, and for a while none of them said anything.
"I'm in literature class," Europa said. "In the Corinth academy. My parents both work for the government. But I plan to become a writer. Only that it doesn't go that well. My last work got a D. But I guess that's because I try to write about things I don't have any experience of."
"Why do you do that?" Tharidion asked and shifted position so he came to sit a bit closer to Europa.
"Because nothing ever happens to me that can be described as nearly exciting. I go here every day in the city, to and from the academy, spending time in the class room or with my friends. Hoping to… one day… "
"If you come along to Crete I can promise you it will be exciting. No," he laid a finger on her rosy lips, "you don't have to decide anything today. I might stay around a few days and then you can get the chance to make up your mind. I just want to say that you are a very beautiful woman and that whatever excitement you want out of life you'll have if you just take the chances to make it happen. Coming with me doesn't have to be your only option. "
"Tharidion… You're… You look like you're 19 but you talk like one of the professors in the academy. And you've built this machine. You sure are special."
"Thanks," he smiled. The sun itself seemed to glitter from his blue eyes. Europa turned the finished wreath of flowers in her hand and suddenly she took off Tharidion his cap and placed the wreath of flowers there instead. His hair shone like woven gold and Europa hadn't realized until now how handsome he really was. At that moment she sure wanted to follow him to the end of the world.
She smiled back and on a whim she put his cap on her own dark head instead. Tharidion laughed and the next second he had taken her cheek in his hand and kissed her. Then it all happened very fast. Europa couldn't help herself, she was kissing him back, and his kisses, his touches were hot and sparkling like nothing she had ever felt before. The blunt tries her male friends had done at seducing her paled like a coin against the sun compared to what Tharidion was doing to her.
And when he unbuttoned her dress in the neck she knew that she should have stopped him, that she should have ran away from this mysterious man with his golden hair and strange vehicle, but for some reason her body did not obey her brain. Instead she did the same to Tharidion, opened each of his golden button on that red jacked and took it off, exposing a broad, lithe torso. He sure was… it!
Later Europa would always think back on that experience with a sense of unrealness. The way he helped her slid out of her dress, the way he laid back in the grass, placing her on top of himself, letting her feel his fit, naked body against hers, breath in his scent of honey, cinnamon and something else, more raw, less sweet - tea tree oil perhaps. The way he had caressed her back, the way he had kissed her on the lips, neck and further down.
The way she had reacted, with anticipation, anxiety. The way she had opened up to him, to let him enter. The effortless in his way of claiming her, like it was nothing strange at all in the world. She had heard that the first time would be painful, yet this was not. This was pleasant like heaven itself. This was magic, and now she knew why professor Polymedon had flunked her work. He knew about these things, he knew that they were not as she had described them in her dull poem.
"Who are you, master of 'The Bull'?" she asked when she was able to speak again, when he had emptied himself inside of her and she had shivered against him one last time. You seem to me - godlike!
Tharidion had laughed.
"Lets just say I'm a novelty. As an inventor as well as a lover. Sweet Europa, given time you will know that I'm not like the others. And if this makes you want to follow me or not - well I leave it in your hands, dearest. "
She had rested silent on his arm for a while, and then she had gone up, and started to put on her dress again.
"I don't know," she had said. "I'm…just… "
"Hush, sweetie. Too much talking only ruins special moments like this. Let me give you a ride home. Then I'll continue on my drive to Crete. "
"You don't want to take me with you anymore?" Europa almost felt tears sting her eyes, had he changed his mind? Was that the only thing he really had wanted with her - a moment of pleasure?
"No, that was not really such a good idea. I'm sorry, but you belong here. I can tell that you'll have a future as a writer and that you'll become famous in your own name. You don't need any more novelty men to accomplish that. Now, come on!" Tharidion had given Europa his hand, helped her up. And soon they had been sitting together on that large vehicle again, Tharidion had been turning it around and heading back to Corinth.
O0O0O
"I'll give you an A on that," professor Polymedon had said and clapped his hands. Especially the last part when the girl finds out that the inventor really is Zeus, that was a great twist of the story. The good old womanizing top god, it would be so him to build a steam engine bull to impress on a young princess.
Europa blushed at the praise.
"You like it so much?"
"Yes, I do. Because even if it was clearly your own imagination at work the writing held a feeling of presence and nearness, one almost felt like being there, experiencing the passion between the young princess and the great god. If you keep it up like this, I bet you're going to go far. I saw that strange vehicle you ad-libbed on in your story by the way. It passed by our house the other evening. Some blond guy driving. And although it looked impressing and the lad appeared proud, I don't think an engine like that is the answer to our dreams of the future. Too noisy, too awkward. Why would we need such a thing when we got the finest horses in the world?"
Europa had no answers to that. Instead she smiled at the professor, before saying good afternoon and walking out in the warm day. Melianthe was waiting beneath one of the cedars, her books in her lap.
"What gave you the idea with Zeus?" she asked Europa.
"The thunderstorm yesterday night. Those flashes and those rolling booms, they almost sounded like… I almost heard the engine sound. The engine of that 'Bull' thing. Like if my fairytale hero was riding the chariot of thunder instead of a steam engine. So I though it cool to turn him into Zeus. And by the way that's what we all know Zeus does. Seducing young ladies. "
"I wouldn't mind that", Melianthe laughed.
"You wouldn't mind Zeus?"
"Honestly not. "
"Well, pal, don't wish too hard, it might just come true!" Europa laid one arm around Melianthe's curved waist and together they began to giggle just like only young girls with no sorrows in the world can do.
O0O0O
And from the shade of a large elm a man with his arms crossed over a broad chest was watching the girls smiling. Zeus a.k.a Tharidion, adventuring without his steam engine this time.
"Melianthe" he whispered to himself. "Now that's another opportunity I'm not going to miss! "