Athena - My life as a goddess
Author's note
When I finished "The memoirs of Hera" a while back I got several requests to continue, but since I felt the Hera story well finished with her marriage to Zeus I didn't want to do that. Then I decided to let another goddess be the narrator, and I settled for Athena, IMO one of the most interesting personalities of the Greek myths. So this is her story.
And this is my own take of the Greek Myths, it's set in its own universe, quite different from the original tales, rather modernized and with some characters borrowed from other myths, like Egypt, Celtic, Norse et cetera. In this first chapter I introduce Athena and her family.
Some character explanations.
¤ Oreynadan – I needed a spouse for Demeter, and since the myths lacked anything reasonable he's my own invention
¤ Minos and Dardanos are lesser sons of Zeus in the Greek myths
¤ Amaterasu is a Japanese sun goddess and her daughter with Zeus, Sakura is my own invention
¤ Auroanos is a son of Zeus existing only in a rennaicanse poem being the god of persuasion. Here I let him be a diplomatic son of Zeus and Hera
¤ Astraea is the goddess of stars and a lesser daughter of Zeus. No mother is mentioned in the myths and I let her become a daughter of Hera
¤ Irdonan - Athena's maternal older brother does not exist in the myths other than as the nameless god of virtue, son of Metis and with unknown father
My first memory is about daddy. I remember him playing with me, throwing me a couple of metres up in the air and catching me when I'm coming down. Several times he does this. At that time he seemed larger than life to me (to be honest, he still seems that way to a lot of people). I remember the sun shining upon him from behind - or was it his inner light - and making his blond hair and golden headband almost blinding me.
I remember laughing and I remember him smiling at me, his blue eyes full of joy and warmness. And the next moment I remember him holding me and all felt cozy and safe.
Dad was there all the time in my first memories. There were other people too - women. Demeter with her hair full of colourful pearls which I tried to pull off. Hestia who played with fire to amuse me and told me scary stories she made up. Eos could sing and was always smelling so good and beautiful Iris was also good at telling stories, although hers were more about princes and princesses than ghosts and monsters. Leto was mother to two of my older siblings and was always busy with them. But most of the time I was around dad who played with me and showed me amazing things. Or just let me sit beside him and play or draw while he was working.
There were men too, even if I sorted them out later. Oreynadan is married to Demeter. He's fun and relaxed and my first memories of him are about him always carrying around heaps and heaps of papers and folders. Things he was working on, helping dad with. He had been in the war just like dad and most of the rest of the grown-ups, but he fought on the Eastern sub-continent and he was telling other stories than dad. It wasn't until the last year of the war he had ended up with dad and his Order of Warsisters and -brothers.
Helios and Poseidon had been with dads group from the start and Astraios had not been in the war at all. He used to joke by label himself a coward when the war was mentioned. It was Astraios who taught me to play music. I wasn't that interested to start with. Not like Apollon - for him music is life, but after a while I sort of got the grip on it and found out that it was fun. But it never became my favourite interest.
Poseidon is of the sea-people. They look like us and can have children with our kind, but they are amphibian, meaning that they can breathe water as well as air. He was hardly around, it wasn't until I was four or five years old I understood that he was part of The House of Olympos too, not just some regular guest. I never saw much of Helios either during my early years. He was spending a lot of time at his sister Selene's pantheon and everyone was wondering if he was going to transfer pantheon. But I guess Olympos isn't a pantheon you leave. Not if you're interested in staying close to the Power.
I was about three when I understood that one is supposed to have a mother too. But the Titans had killed my mother just like they had killed dads and Demeter's mother and father and Helios' brother and Hestia's and Leto's whole families and a lot of other people in the war that lasted until dad killed the Titan leader, the cruel Chronos. A mother was supposed to do all those things Leto did with Apollon and Artemis and I cried quite a bit when I realised that I was different in the way of not having one. But eventually I got over it. I could always pretend that Hestia was my mother. In a way she looked like me. And I did have the best father in the world.
I guess it's because of him I never was a shy or scared child. He always encouraged me to do all the things I wanted and try what I might have thought scary, like climbing the almost vertical mountain walls at the upper parts of Mount Olympos, diving deep down in the sea, patting large animals - or always approaching strangers with a smile and open mind.
- A smile wins over most suspicious minds, dad told me. And there's no-one out there to harm you. You're still a child, and with a big ability of putting on the charm. Use that, and there's nothing to be afraid of.
The next revelation was that father was so much more than just my dad. He's in fact ruler of all the immortals in the world. He's Zeus of Olympos and he's loved, admired, feared, worshipped, adored, envied, hated and he is looked upon for safety, help, council and support. People put all their trust in him - come to him and ask for justice, healing, advises and all kind of impossible things. Some wait for hours just to get a glimpse of him and others get scared and run for cover when he comes around. I soon realised that being Divine King isn't an easy task, even for a man like dad. Even if he has all those people helping him out, I sometimes hear him complain that it was all too much and that if he could do it all over again he wouldn't have reached for such a large amount of power.
But most of the time he likes his job. He likes being trusted and sought for and he loves being admired and regarded as a glorious state-man and all-father. He cares about his followers and worshippers, giving them reason to put their trust in him. On top of that he always seeks to find opportunity for quality time with his family. He has also got used to the fact that he's not everybody's choice of ruler.
The Union is dads creation. The Union - the powerful commonwealth which these days covers almost half the world and spans over three continents - was created by dad and his Order friends during the years after the defeat of Chronos. It has become so strong and great because it thrives on prosperity and diversity and is very liberal and forgiving. And because it's a working democracy - with dads rule as a balancing power, protecting it from the worst failures. This creation of the Union is also an ongoing, almost organic process. According to dad a project like the Union is never finished, because there's always improvements that can be made and developments that this commonwealth can benefit from.
That's why my dad is working all the time. If it isn't about the day-to-day work demanded of the Divine King there's new things being applied to the ruling, like changes in the constitution and other legislations, negotiations, budget work and official reports. And even if he has dozen and dozen of helpers he's the ultimate one who takes all the responsibility and has to deal with the things that go really wrong.
Dad is also pantheon head of The House of Olympos. And that's some extended family! It was created in the Union foundation days as the leftovers of the old warrior Order dad had lead against the Titans. Most of the Order members had scattered like autumn leaves in the wind when there was no mutual enemy tying them together. Only dads best friends had remained. Out of these comrades family ties were formed, like when Demeter married Oreynadan or when Zeus and Leto had children. Then - as the decades passed by - the House of Olympos became more and more about all of us sisters and brothers who are the Children of Zeus.
I started off with four older siblings. One sister - Artemis, and three brothers - Apollon, Irdonan and Dardanos. The sturdy, redheaded Irdonan is my mothers son. The rest of them are dads children. Dardanos is living with his mother in Troy and I never saw that much of him during my childhood and even lesser later. He has his responsibilities as guardian of Troy which he takes very seriously.
Apollon and Artemis are twins and children of Leto. Apollon is blond like dad, and more slender built which makes him look taller than my broad shouldered, heavy-muscled dad, which he in fact is not. And Artemis is dark and with olive complexion, but as blue-eyed as her brother. Apparently dad and Leto never were a couple in a real sense. Leto just wanted children and found out that a one night stand with dad was an easy way to get them.
Originally Leto had planned to go away and restart her old pantheon with her twins, but dad insisted on her staying and letting him share the responsibility for Apollon and Artemis. So Leto remained with dad instead and helped him found what was going to be the Olympos pantheon. That's why Leto has hardly had any problems with the comings and goings of later lovers of dad; like Hera, Mnemosyne, Amaterasu and my mother Metis.
Minos is six years younger than I. He was the result of some kind of a set up. This woman - Europa - wanted to climb the ladder of society and she used dad as a stepping stone. (Serves him right by the way - he thought he was the one using her, for pleasure.) Europa made sure she got pregnant, and the result was Minos. This dark-blond man with freckles all over him might not be the brightest brother I have, but he has got a long way on his rowdy charm and no-nonsense attitude. And he's always ready for a good time. A good result of a set up I guess. But just as Dardanos he doesn't live at the Olympos. Instead he lives at Crete, where he is some sort of governor deity.
Sakura, one year younger than Minos, is the daughter of Amaterasu, a Hyperpantheon delegate who had a brief relationship with dad the year before he got together with Hera. Since Amaterasu lives and works in Ekarantanni Sakura came to spend more and more time at the Olympos, and in the end she decided to move in with us. She's cute and funny and good at jokes that are not exactly meant for children's ears. And I've always envied her her hair. Jet-black, shining and straight as a horses tail. Not like the blond disaster area I've inherited from dad.
Sakura has the same electro-magnetic powers as I do, another heritage of dad. So as a kind of initiation when she moved up home, we made this practical joke with all the kitchen stuff. Apollon and Artemis gathered all the iron they could find, from tiny spoons to large pots, Sakura and I turned them magnetic and then we collected it all in a bundle on the kitchen floor.
Meanwhile we placed Ares as a guard, to check out that no adult was coming, a duty he took very seriously. Little Auroanos was around too, but he was mostly getting in the way.
The kitchen-nymphs were in tears when they found out that they couldn't separate the utensils because of the magnetic force, and they all ran to dad for help. He, of course, had no problem neither with turning off the magnetic nor with finding the ones behind the deed. He had more problem though with trying to appear stern and lecturing when confronting us, the twinkle in his eyes and the ticks around his lips gave him away.
These days I have so many brothers and sisters that I have lost count and have to keep a file of them and letting my secretary buy birthday gifts and so-on. There have been mortal sisters and brothers during the years that I only saw maybe once or twice during their entire lifetime. That's what happens when you have a dad who can hardly look at a beautiful woman without wanting to take her to bed. And usually succeeding in those ventures too.
Falling in love is for Zeus an entirely different story. I know that a lot of people doubt dads ability to really love and care for a woman. But I know he does. I've seen him when he has been on the brink of losing the love of his life. His soul just an open wound. Then he stops for nothing until he gets her back with him again. And she - is Hera.
When I was nine daddy married Hera, who had entered my life about two years earlier. I remember the first time I met her. It was at Hestia's birthday lunch and at that moment Hera was just Hestia's best friend or something. And she was absolutely oozing cool - from that long, pinned up blue hair adorned with pearls and down through classy make up and expensive clothes to her golden sandals. All blue, green and golden she seemed so strong and brave - just like a fancy version of the warrior queen daddy had described her as. There was also something more - a great sadness deep down in her large, brown eyes. Maybe it had something to do with her being a part of the Olympos family long ago but leaving when she became mad at dad over something.
But dad had made her coming back. He wanted her to lose this sadness in her eyes and in the venture he fell in love with her. So eventually Hera returned to our pantheon and moved in at our mountain top.
Mountain top, yes. The House of Olympos is residing on top of a 1000 metres high mountain which has given its name to the pantheon. The mountain is sort of cone-shaped with flack foot-hills but getting steeper and steeper the higher you get. That's why only immortals have access to the top. Dad is firm about that rule being upheld. Olympos is our private home. If mortals would began to be let in we would never be left alone. There are enough sites where gods and mortals can meet anyway. Like the Union Nexus or the various temples.
On the top of Mount Olympos there's an area of about 500 acres. It's elliptic and slightly bulging with the main building in the south-west surrounded by our private houses and elegant gardens, like the Rose-Garden the Nippon-Garden the Dryad's Garden (a fancy version of a forest if you ask me) and the Cretan Garden. Then there's open fields, rocky hills, the tiny spring Little sparkle and two lakes, one "styled" - The Silver Coin and one more natural, The Blue Heart with a sandy beach. Then there's a cave with a hot spring where you can bath all winter long. The lakes are connected to each other and the spring through an intricate net of canals, ponds and waterfalls, and I lost count on how many times I fell in the water here or there during my early years.
The main building is the largest one at Olympos, filled with public areas like living rooms, dining rooms, lounges, music-rooms, party halls, a library, rooms for business meetings, an indoor swimming pool, a large winter garden, dads reception hall, you name it! It's this built around an inner courtyard where you can sit outdoors way into Autumn Month because the high walls protect it from the cold winds of winter season. Then there are some guest-houses and other buildings. I lived in dads airy house until I was 16, then I got my own little home.
Beneath the inhabited top are some big cavities: The Dungeons, some of them with hot springs and one of them even with a large lake in. When I was 8 Apollon tried to scare me and told me that a huge serpent-monster lived in that lake. This led me to jump in because I wanted to see the monster, and I dived and dived and no-one knew where I was. That was one of the few times dad was mad at me. Not so much for diving, but for not telling anyone what I was doing, why I disappeared. He was more angry with Apollon though.
When I was about the same age dad told me all about my mother – Metis. She had been dads second wife, and quite a bit older than him. (The first one had been a woman named Themis, whom dad divorced.) My mother died at an age of 316, and when I was still a baby. During the short five years she had known dad she taught him the lion's share of her extensive and ancient knowledge.
Now dad passed it on to me. There were knowledge about the dimensions beyond, where the death went, about the spiritual dimensions and about the speed of light – the upper level of speed in the 3:rd dimensional universe and about something dad called "the theory about relativity", a thing he said he didn't really understand. And he had learned old information about the energy lines in the Earth, as well as the corresponding ones in the human body. Information that could be used to cure as well as harm both the planet and humans. Dad taught me about the interlinking of human souls and about the energies that made the chakras spin. About yin and yang and the importance of balance.
- Nature needs balance, this is what Metis taught me, dad told. If there's no balance, things will break apart sooner or later. That's why I have deployed balance into the rule of the Union. The Nexus is balanced between mortals and immortals, between north and south, east and west, between rural and urban areas and between large and small provinces. On top of that my ruling balances the Nexus.
- Sounds wise.
- Yes it is. It's Metis' knowledge. Old knowledge that has proven the test of time.
Dad also told me about the oldest immortal Homo Sapiens. The first immortals of our kind had been born some 2800 years before our time, when the era of Chronos was still a young one. Dad told about their struggle for power and the founding of the first Aristocratic Houses: The Santori, The Denakiari, The Thanaderia, The Achaia, The Ayonia and The Warinikia. One of these elders was Phanes, a man who lived until as late as 26 years before the Union Foundation. Then the Chronites had killed him together with his wife and a large amount of his offspring. Phanes had been the founder of The House of Warinikia, Metis' pantheon.
What dad taught me was knowledge and wisdom that had been held by The house of Warinikia for centuries. Knowledge dad considered really belonging to me, since I, together with Irdonan, were among the last Warinikians. Irdonan's father had been a man named Thalotes. Another of these old, aristocratic immortals. A man who had fought side by side with dad and who died by the hand of some stray Titans during the first years of the Union.
I had a couple of friends from other places than Olympos. Mostly children of friends to the grown-ups. And most of them I "grew out of" when I got older. The only exception is Nike - my soul-mate. We sort of found each other immediately, we wanted the same thing, we had the same opinions about most things and we had the same strives. And this has lasted up until today. We can talk about everything and I trust her more than most of my sisters and brothers.
Hera gave birth to Ares when I was ten years old, and two years later came Auroanos. Both of them dark-haired and with big, brown eyes like Hera but with Dads spirit, temper and restless energy. But while Ares gets into trouble and fights all the time Auroanos has the gift of words. He has become the one who usually ends up straightening out most of the quarrels among us - as well as among other groupings in the Union. Thus he was made into the god of diplomacy and negotiations.
My early teens were very much about trying to know myself. Who was this blond, blue-eyed and tanned girl who looked back at me in the full-body mirror in my dressing room? And why did I - over days it seemed - go from angular and boyish-looking to a tall girl with a front-zone that drew attraction from young gods who had never seen me before? And why did I just want them to go away? Yes - because all of them wanted to talk about stupid things. I was not interested in their opinion about my eyes, I wanted to know if they liked swimming with dolphins, diving into rain clouds or if they wanted to play square-board. (They almost never did, probably because I won over them.)
I tried to figure out why and how girls had to be different from boys (Spying a lot on Artemis, Hera, Eos and the likes) and I tried to master all kind of different subjects. I've always wanted to be the best in everything from maths and astronomy over athletic subjects to painting and singing. I soon realised that singing wasn't my thing and I was so-so at writing poetry. But I had a good memory and was gifted for abstract thinking. Maths was a piece of cake and I was good at handicraft and in the technical area. Economics was also a bit of a walk in the park. And philosophy - well I always won the arguments, but I never really knew if I actually had been right or not.
In the athletic area I liked fencing and martial arts a lot, but back then it was just a game. I had no idea that it would be getting real once. I also liked catch-ball and duck'n'chase, because I was good at manoeuvring in the sky, but the finer gymnastics bored me.
I spent a lot of these years talking to Artemis and Eos, both of them being some kind of mentors into womanhood for me. They were very different though. Artemis and I talked career - she wanted to be in politics, and Eos and I talked boys. She seemed like she always was in love, and she told me how to get hold of a boy. It wasn't really that hard as soon as you got the hang of it. It was harder to get rid of them.
Later on Hera was added to the mentor crew. I wanted to know all the little tricks you could do with your hair and with make-up to appear more beautiful or sexy or regal or whatever you wanted to look like. And she told me what colours to stay away from - green and earth hues a no-no, while I should go for primary colours like red, purple and blue. Hera was usually very busy, being the Chair Lady of the Nexus back then, but she always took her time with family matters.
Then I paid everything forward by teaching younger sisters both what I had been learned by others and what I had found out by experimenting myself. Like "if you really want a boy, don't beat him at anything, especially not at athletic subjects". (On the other hand Sakura started her relationship with Irdonan by throwing him to the mat in the pan-do ring).
Among the best part of those years were our "all-girls-nights" sittings in Hestia's cozy living room by her sparkling fire and talking. Besides Hestia there were usually Eos, Iris, Artemis and I and sometimes Hera and Leto were around too. And, maybe once or twice, Demeter. Iris was always the one who brought new and fresh gossip and jokes, Eos had love troubles and Artemis told anecdotes from the political arena. And whenever anyone had a problem Hestia was there to listen and offer advises. She is like the super mother to all of us.
Hestia's house is small, probably because she lives alone. Back then it was located a bit off, she has a huge need for solitude and privacy. And her home is not as airy as the rest of the houses. Hestia prefers carpets, draperies, warm colours and big, soft furnitures as well as brass vases with potted plants and large iron chandeliers where candles are as common as electric bulbs - and more often used. Easy for her with her accurate pyrotechnical power. She can light tenfolds of candles in a couple of seconds.
Dad and Hera's daughter Astraea was born on my fifteenth year. She was absolutely wild. You never knew what she was going to do next time. And I got to baby-sit her a quite bit, which meant running around trying to catch her. Maybe dad gave me that duty because I was the same as a small child and everybody had to run after me.
Then I reached sixteen, and was considered a grown up. That was weird. I had expected it to feel different, but it did not.
This become quite a feel-good start, but I promise more drama and action as the story moves on.