Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, I do not own the legend of the Minotaur
and the Labyrinth, and I do not own Crete.
AN: Okay, several notes here. This is a repost. It is revised, and is now being continued (I took some time off to graduate and get a job (). It is a (late) answer to Chris-san's challenge to write Inuyasha as the Minotaur (only he's half dog, instead of half bull). Now, I'm a twisted college grad who took far too much Greek for a good Biology major, so I'm going to go ahead and use some rather non- canon conventions. ^_^ First, in places I will be making use of Greek concepts and occasionally words, such as hubris and arête. I encourage you to look them up, but if you're lazy, ask me and I'll tell you to the best of my knowledge (which may be iffy). Second, during the narrative portions of the story, I will tend to write in a more Greek style, including beginning sentences with "and" or "yet" and going on and on and on and on and on for far too long before the period (which useful punctuation the Ancient Greeks did not use). Third, THIS IS AN AU FIC! The relationships will be changed, obviously the setting is changed, and please remember that the background culture is now Greek instead of Japanese! Nevertheless, I will be attempting to remain true to character (as I perceive it) while remaining somewhat true to the ancient Hellene's (Greek's) cultural norms.
Mm, also.I am a native English speaker, and if I'm doing something incorrectly that bothers the heck out of you, feel free to informatively flame me and I'll try to fix it. Currently I do not have a beta reader, and anyone who would like to help me out with that would be very, very welcome.
One more thing.this is my first fic and it will definitely be a long one, so not only do I feel justified in a long author's note, but I dearly hope you enjoy my fic and review!
A Hellenic Fairy Tale: Prologue
Long, long ago in the age of heroes there lived a ferocious beast on the island of Crete. It was created through the wrath of the great god Poseidon and the hubris of the Cretan king Sesshoumaru. For many years, the people of the island feared its violent powers and the king lived miserably under the curse of its existence. This beast was named Inuyasha, for it was half human and half dog, and had the power of the very gods running through its blood.
*********
The people of Crete have always worshipped Poseidon, with drowned sacrifices and libations made with humble mien. For their faithfulness, the omens were usually fair, and only truly stupid or cursed men were lost at sea. For hundreds of years it continued in this manner, until there arose a great king whose arête (excellence) in all skills of war and learning were so great that his subjects and advisors began to think of him as a rival for the gods.
"Surely no human could be so talented and handsome," his subjects would say, "He must be a child of the gods or at least a favorite among them!" The king's advisor Jaken, a noisy and generally ignorant but amusing barbarian from the north, was especially loud in praising the king. He was always saying that Lord Sesshoumaru is so wise and so handsome!
He even declared that Lord Sesshoumaru must be as handsome and wise as the god Poseidon himself. "For is not the sea ashamed of its mixed and various colors and requires the adornments of its white caps and flirty foam? Yet our lord is paler than the sea foam and his skin and hair are smoother than the calmest sea. His eyes are the burnished gold of sunken treasure, and his lips are a pink more delicate than coral. And within his perfect form, there lies a wisdom at odds with his age, such that he confounds even the wisest of philosophers in conversation!"
Lord Sesshoumaru heard this praise constantly, and indeed he never met with anyone fairer than he, and the wisest men in the land were utterly boring to him and trivial in their concerns. And eventually his head was turned and he came to believe in the praises with which he was showered. He did not stop those unwise flatterers who poured libations in his honor, and he cut short the festivals of the gods in preference of the holidays of state, and he retained the choicest sacrifices from the god's feasts for his own use. His hubris grew swiftly, and his praises were trumpeted ever more loudly until they reached the ears of the gods upon the slopes of fair Olympus.
On that sweet mountain, the gods and goddesses amuse themselves with wine and feasts and merrymaking. And there they did first hear the new rumors of a fantastically handsome and overly proud mortal king upon the Isle of Crete. They laughed amongst each other and joked that Poseidon was too busy with his nymphs in his soggy sea bottom palace to take notice of this usurper to his rights. The ocean god thus provided sport for the heavenly gossips for several years before he visited the court and first learned of the insult King Sesshoumaru offered.
When he did discover the perfidy of his Cretan worshippers, the god was beyond furious. Behind his back, his most ardent of followers had found a new idol and were turning to a stinking, moronic, cur of a mortal! In his anger, he formed huge funnel-storms upon the seas and created storms that left the seas and skies black for days. Entire navies were wrecked and the bodies of sailors lay strewn for miles along the shores. Then he quieted, and began to plot . . .
King Sesshoumaru had a wife who, though a beauty in mortal terms, was yet far less fair than he. Lady Amata possessed long black hyacinth hair, growing in tight ringlets down to her knees, and her eyes were an amazing amethyst hue. She was devout in her worship of Poseidon, but proud also of her husband. Although she and her lord had been married for five years, ever since she was fourteen, she had never yet borne him a child. However, the lord was fond of his lady and refused to put her aside for a fertile wife, for she amused him with her songs and witticisms.
This was the weakness that Poseidon finally settled on for having his revenge against the arrogant Sesshoumaru. He planned to take the lady away or kill her, and his glee at the thought of his prize soon became known to the other gods. Now, the gods were concerned with Poseidon's obsession, for the last time Poseidon had taken revenge upon a mortal was that Odysseus man, and they all remembered what a nuisance that episode had turned out to be. So they conferred and decided to send one of their number to try to reason with him, and calm him down. The one chosen was Athena, for her cool- headed wisdom and her smooth tongue, and for the fact that she was not one of the gossips whose taunting had inflamed the unruly sea god.
Athena mounted her windborne chariot drawn by sparrows, which she had made and then borrowed from her sister Aphrodite, and flew quickly to Poseidon's palace. When she came before him she brought her newest servant lad, to play upon the lyre and make a soothing noise for the tempestuous sea god.
"O Poseidon, what cause do you have to be moaning and blustering so as you have been these past few months? Do not your nymphs still delight you? Are not your sacrifices satisfying?" She asked him, with an innocent air. "See what a gift I have brought for you, this talented lad to fill your rooms with music! You should always be happy and joyful, for you are powerful and envied by every man! Instead I find you down in the mouth over some little pampered king who has not even a flicker of your grace and power. Cheer up!"
The sea god cast her a chilly look, and stated calmly, "I know why you are here, gray-eyed Athena. That king has slighted me and has taken sacrifices which are mine by right. His subjects have begun to worship him over me, and I will not stand for it."
The divine maiden paused at this, for it was true that justice demanded retribution for the God. She pondered and finally replied, "As a patron of justice, I can understand your need for revenge. But what have you planned which has you so pleased with yourself?"
The god gave a cold smile and replied, "I shall steal the upstart's wife away from him, for she is very fair and a devout worshipper of myself. He does not deserve to keep her, and her loss will cause him much pain."
Now the goddess was exasperated, this was a plan that several male deities had hit upon in the past, and it always created a mess in the end. In fact . . . "Zeus has forbidden such actions, ever since that last time, O Earth- shaker, surely you can give this mortal another chance to remember his place, before you destroy him. Please let us think on another way to test him, and discover for sure whether or not he really deserves such punishment."
Poseidon grumbled unhappily, but he flushed too, since he also remembered the troubles he'd gotten into last time. "I will send him a sacrifice which is fit only for a god. If he keeps it instead, and sacrifices it for himself at one of his state festivals, then I will punish him in truth. I will send one of the magical white dogs which draw my chariot along the ocean waves and watch to see what he does."
With this Athena had to be satisfied, and she withdrew reluctantly . . .
AN: Ok, I know that Poseidon's chariot is actually drawn by horses, and that in fact he is a patron god of horses, but for rather obvious reasons I'm going to be changing that to dogs. Also, Athena usually drives a pretty regular war chariot, drawn by horses. However, since she was the inventor of the chariot, and with Hephaestus designed and built the chariots for the gods, I figured she could borrow her sister's car for her little jaunt over to Poseidon's house. ^_^
"Immortal Aphrodite of the elaborate throne, wile-weaving daughter of Zeus; I beseech thee! Do not with pangs and torments crush down my soul! But if ever before you have heard my pleadings then return, as once before when you left your father's golden house; you yoked to your gleaming chariot your wing-whirring sparrows; swirling down through the sky's bright ether. On they brought you over the earth's black bosom, swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance, Goddess, before me . . . ."
Ah, you've gotta love Sappho. This is partly my own translation, partly not, since I'm just not that facile with translations.
AN: Okay, several notes here. This is a repost. It is revised, and is now being continued (I took some time off to graduate and get a job (). It is a (late) answer to Chris-san's challenge to write Inuyasha as the Minotaur (only he's half dog, instead of half bull). Now, I'm a twisted college grad who took far too much Greek for a good Biology major, so I'm going to go ahead and use some rather non- canon conventions. ^_^ First, in places I will be making use of Greek concepts and occasionally words, such as hubris and arête. I encourage you to look them up, but if you're lazy, ask me and I'll tell you to the best of my knowledge (which may be iffy). Second, during the narrative portions of the story, I will tend to write in a more Greek style, including beginning sentences with "and" or "yet" and going on and on and on and on and on for far too long before the period (which useful punctuation the Ancient Greeks did not use). Third, THIS IS AN AU FIC! The relationships will be changed, obviously the setting is changed, and please remember that the background culture is now Greek instead of Japanese! Nevertheless, I will be attempting to remain true to character (as I perceive it) while remaining somewhat true to the ancient Hellene's (Greek's) cultural norms.
Mm, also.I am a native English speaker, and if I'm doing something incorrectly that bothers the heck out of you, feel free to informatively flame me and I'll try to fix it. Currently I do not have a beta reader, and anyone who would like to help me out with that would be very, very welcome.
One more thing.this is my first fic and it will definitely be a long one, so not only do I feel justified in a long author's note, but I dearly hope you enjoy my fic and review!
A Hellenic Fairy Tale: Prologue
Long, long ago in the age of heroes there lived a ferocious beast on the island of Crete. It was created through the wrath of the great god Poseidon and the hubris of the Cretan king Sesshoumaru. For many years, the people of the island feared its violent powers and the king lived miserably under the curse of its existence. This beast was named Inuyasha, for it was half human and half dog, and had the power of the very gods running through its blood.
*********
The people of Crete have always worshipped Poseidon, with drowned sacrifices and libations made with humble mien. For their faithfulness, the omens were usually fair, and only truly stupid or cursed men were lost at sea. For hundreds of years it continued in this manner, until there arose a great king whose arête (excellence) in all skills of war and learning were so great that his subjects and advisors began to think of him as a rival for the gods.
"Surely no human could be so talented and handsome," his subjects would say, "He must be a child of the gods or at least a favorite among them!" The king's advisor Jaken, a noisy and generally ignorant but amusing barbarian from the north, was especially loud in praising the king. He was always saying that Lord Sesshoumaru is so wise and so handsome!
He even declared that Lord Sesshoumaru must be as handsome and wise as the god Poseidon himself. "For is not the sea ashamed of its mixed and various colors and requires the adornments of its white caps and flirty foam? Yet our lord is paler than the sea foam and his skin and hair are smoother than the calmest sea. His eyes are the burnished gold of sunken treasure, and his lips are a pink more delicate than coral. And within his perfect form, there lies a wisdom at odds with his age, such that he confounds even the wisest of philosophers in conversation!"
Lord Sesshoumaru heard this praise constantly, and indeed he never met with anyone fairer than he, and the wisest men in the land were utterly boring to him and trivial in their concerns. And eventually his head was turned and he came to believe in the praises with which he was showered. He did not stop those unwise flatterers who poured libations in his honor, and he cut short the festivals of the gods in preference of the holidays of state, and he retained the choicest sacrifices from the god's feasts for his own use. His hubris grew swiftly, and his praises were trumpeted ever more loudly until they reached the ears of the gods upon the slopes of fair Olympus.
On that sweet mountain, the gods and goddesses amuse themselves with wine and feasts and merrymaking. And there they did first hear the new rumors of a fantastically handsome and overly proud mortal king upon the Isle of Crete. They laughed amongst each other and joked that Poseidon was too busy with his nymphs in his soggy sea bottom palace to take notice of this usurper to his rights. The ocean god thus provided sport for the heavenly gossips for several years before he visited the court and first learned of the insult King Sesshoumaru offered.
When he did discover the perfidy of his Cretan worshippers, the god was beyond furious. Behind his back, his most ardent of followers had found a new idol and were turning to a stinking, moronic, cur of a mortal! In his anger, he formed huge funnel-storms upon the seas and created storms that left the seas and skies black for days. Entire navies were wrecked and the bodies of sailors lay strewn for miles along the shores. Then he quieted, and began to plot . . .
King Sesshoumaru had a wife who, though a beauty in mortal terms, was yet far less fair than he. Lady Amata possessed long black hyacinth hair, growing in tight ringlets down to her knees, and her eyes were an amazing amethyst hue. She was devout in her worship of Poseidon, but proud also of her husband. Although she and her lord had been married for five years, ever since she was fourteen, she had never yet borne him a child. However, the lord was fond of his lady and refused to put her aside for a fertile wife, for she amused him with her songs and witticisms.
This was the weakness that Poseidon finally settled on for having his revenge against the arrogant Sesshoumaru. He planned to take the lady away or kill her, and his glee at the thought of his prize soon became known to the other gods. Now, the gods were concerned with Poseidon's obsession, for the last time Poseidon had taken revenge upon a mortal was that Odysseus man, and they all remembered what a nuisance that episode had turned out to be. So they conferred and decided to send one of their number to try to reason with him, and calm him down. The one chosen was Athena, for her cool- headed wisdom and her smooth tongue, and for the fact that she was not one of the gossips whose taunting had inflamed the unruly sea god.
Athena mounted her windborne chariot drawn by sparrows, which she had made and then borrowed from her sister Aphrodite, and flew quickly to Poseidon's palace. When she came before him she brought her newest servant lad, to play upon the lyre and make a soothing noise for the tempestuous sea god.
"O Poseidon, what cause do you have to be moaning and blustering so as you have been these past few months? Do not your nymphs still delight you? Are not your sacrifices satisfying?" She asked him, with an innocent air. "See what a gift I have brought for you, this talented lad to fill your rooms with music! You should always be happy and joyful, for you are powerful and envied by every man! Instead I find you down in the mouth over some little pampered king who has not even a flicker of your grace and power. Cheer up!"
The sea god cast her a chilly look, and stated calmly, "I know why you are here, gray-eyed Athena. That king has slighted me and has taken sacrifices which are mine by right. His subjects have begun to worship him over me, and I will not stand for it."
The divine maiden paused at this, for it was true that justice demanded retribution for the God. She pondered and finally replied, "As a patron of justice, I can understand your need for revenge. But what have you planned which has you so pleased with yourself?"
The god gave a cold smile and replied, "I shall steal the upstart's wife away from him, for she is very fair and a devout worshipper of myself. He does not deserve to keep her, and her loss will cause him much pain."
Now the goddess was exasperated, this was a plan that several male deities had hit upon in the past, and it always created a mess in the end. In fact . . . "Zeus has forbidden such actions, ever since that last time, O Earth- shaker, surely you can give this mortal another chance to remember his place, before you destroy him. Please let us think on another way to test him, and discover for sure whether or not he really deserves such punishment."
Poseidon grumbled unhappily, but he flushed too, since he also remembered the troubles he'd gotten into last time. "I will send him a sacrifice which is fit only for a god. If he keeps it instead, and sacrifices it for himself at one of his state festivals, then I will punish him in truth. I will send one of the magical white dogs which draw my chariot along the ocean waves and watch to see what he does."
With this Athena had to be satisfied, and she withdrew reluctantly . . .
AN: Ok, I know that Poseidon's chariot is actually drawn by horses, and that in fact he is a patron god of horses, but for rather obvious reasons I'm going to be changing that to dogs. Also, Athena usually drives a pretty regular war chariot, drawn by horses. However, since she was the inventor of the chariot, and with Hephaestus designed and built the chariots for the gods, I figured she could borrow her sister's car for her little jaunt over to Poseidon's house. ^_^
"Immortal Aphrodite of the elaborate throne, wile-weaving daughter of Zeus; I beseech thee! Do not with pangs and torments crush down my soul! But if ever before you have heard my pleadings then return, as once before when you left your father's golden house; you yoked to your gleaming chariot your wing-whirring sparrows; swirling down through the sky's bright ether. On they brought you over the earth's black bosom, swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance, Goddess, before me . . . ."
Ah, you've gotta love Sappho. This is partly my own translation, partly not, since I'm just not that facile with translations.