Part 4 - The Mount Atlas

I don't know if there were carrier pigeons in the Greek Myths, but my story has them nevertheless. There's also that thing with Atlas not carrying heaven in my story. I'll get to that later.

The afternoon sun was beaming down from a cloudless sky and not a wind was moving in the little courtyard where Amphitrite was sitting in the shadow among the pillars and sipping on some nectar. The little fountain was full of bathing birds, Ami guessed they were hot too. Most of them were sparrows but there were two white doves there too. Carrier pigeons, her host's version of Hermes and Iris.

One of them was going to carry Amphitrite's letter to her parents, telling them that she was safe and sound and asking her father to reason with Poseidon, so this madness could finally come to an end. So she could be free to return to her home and live her life in peace, not having to be a runaway anymore.

She heard steps behind her, and then the creaking sound of a heavy form sitting down in one of the bamboo chairs.
- After more than a year one would guess Poseidon should see reason. But they're a stubborn lot these Olympians. Can be good sometimes, when difficult work needs to get done; but it sure is hard on the world when such a mighty god as Poseidon is upset. Too many storms and tsunamis. Too many mortals lost at sea.
- You think I should marry him too? Amphitrite turned to face the man.

Atlas - the old Titan who had accepted to take her in after Euandros' persuasions - looked like he was thinking over the answer. He was huge - taller than any man Ami had ever seen, with bulging muscles, bull's neck and upper arms as big as other men's tights.
- No I don't. Not if you don't want it yourself. No one should be forced into marriage, nothing good and healthy comes out of that. Just tell me one thing, why do you not want to marry the God of the Sea?
- Because I don't love him. I want to marry out of love. I want to look at someone and feel my heart race.

- Do you know how rare these feelings really are? Atlas asked and poured himself some nectar from the can after filling up Ami's cup. - No. But for an immortal... I guess it ought to happen sooner or later. And then I don't want to be married already and to a man I don't love. I want a clear start, a pure romance. Like in Apollo's songs.
- Poor Apollo. He sings so sweet about love and he always fails.

- He, who gets them all?
- Not the ones he want. Not Daphne nor Marpessa. Or Clythia. They all made his heart beat and they all turned him down one way or another. Daphne stayed in that tree for a week before Apollo tired and left.
- But Poseidon isn't tiring.
- I know that, I have after all been trying to reason with him earlier and in other matters. And he's one stubborn god. Zeus can see the point in meeting half-way now and then, but I guess that's because he's used to mediate and negotiate all the time to make this world tick. And on top of that he has to deal with all his children who seem to be at each others neck all the time.

- And he's smarter.
- I'm not so sure about that. Poseidon is not unintelligent, but his hot temper can make him appear a bit daft from time to time. Have you finished your letter, dear?
- Yes, here it is, Amphitrite handed a folded papyrus-sheet over to the Titan.

- I'll send it with Neena, Atlas said and whistled at one of his doves. The female came flying and sat down at the back of the empty chair beside Atlas. Atlas folded the letter once more and then he rolled it until it resembled a little pipe before tying it to the leg of Neena with a red-and-yellow ribbon. The colours of Atlas' coat-of-arms. He scratched the bird on her head and cooed something in dove-language and Neena looked at her master with inscrutable pepper eyes for a second before spreading her wings, taking off and disappearing with a flutter behind the red-bricked roof.

- I'm pretty sure this is going to work out, Atlas turned to his guest. After all Nereus is a father who is caring for his children's welfare. But I'm really going to miss you when you're gone, Ami. It has been a true bless having you here. You know sometimes it gets so lonely just me and the sky and the birds. And my daughters don't have the time to come to visit me so much these days.

- Perhaps you should find yourself a companion, Amphitrite suggested.
- I married once. Out of necessity, not out of love. I won't do that again. I know what you mean with feeling your heart race. Besides there's no one who want to stay with me up here for a longer time than some century.
- I see. Ami laid a hand upon Atlas' big one, poor you. But why don't you arrange parties sometimes. Or at least dinners so people can come visit you? You have a wonderful place and with the most breathtaking view!

- I don't know how to do these kind of things.
- Get someone to help you! I have sisters who absolutely love throwing parties. They don't care who they're doing it for or for what purpose; if they can just arrange food and beverage, music and entertainment and then send out invitations to people they are in a bliss. I can ask them if you want.
- I'll think of it, Atlas said.

ooo

Three days later Amphitrite was standing on the balcony to Atlas' large, rustic living room, looking out over the Great Western Ocean which stretched itself endlessly in every direction save from behind her. The setting sun was glittering in the water, painting a red road across the waves, and happy dolphins were jumping high in the air. Amphitrite loved dolphins. She loved them so much she had learned their language, and she always took the chance to play with them upon encountering some.

Oceanos ruled that large sea, and he was even more powerful than Poseidon. The thing was that he hardly used his power. He was more like her father, content with being a family man, spending time with his wife Thetys and all their children. So Poseidon used to roam these waters too, according to Atlas.

Amphitrite had been here now for about a month, and for the first time in more than a year she felt she was living a normal life, sleeping in the same bed every night and eating the same things at the same breakfast table every morning. Reading a book in Atlas' library or soaking in the large tub. And she loved to have company. She liked talking with the old Titan who had so many stories to tell.

Atlas had told about the Titan wars that took place more than 600 years ago, when he - as a subject of Cronos - had fought on the Titan king's side. He told about his worries and insecurity when Cronos was starting to loose against Zeus and his allies, and about how Cronos kept promising to deploy a secret weapon that would eventually secure the Titan victory and get rid of the upstarts. But that weapon had failed to materialise and Cronos and his closest Titans had been banished to Tartarus, a terrible place beyond this universe.

- What's it like this Tartarus? Amphitrite had asked.
- You don't want to know, Atlas said. And to be honest I'm not really sure what it's really like. The mortals believe it's burning dungeons where Cronos lies chained, but I think it's much worse. A place beyond time and space. A place we can not understand.

- But why such a horrible punishment? Zeus doesn't seem cruel to me.
- It wasn't as much a punishment as a security measure. To keep Cronos and his closest associates away forever, so they couldn't return and resume the war. I was lucky, I had only been hurling stones at some of the Olympians, so I was banished to this place for 200 years.
- So why are you still here?
- I found out I'm needed here. To keep up law and order.

Amphitrite watched the sun sink behind the horizon, the last rays being sort of green. She wondered what it had been like fighting in a war and realising you were loosing. Perhaps Atlas had been ashamed too. That this shame was one of the reasons he stayed here all the time instead of coming to Olympos and all the other places where immortals gathered and parties and fiestas were held. Perhaps he felt out of place with those who had defeated his king once. Ami wondered if there was a way of changing that. She really liked Atlas and wanted to see him happy, enjoying himself in a friendly crowd.

- So what are you going to do when you get home? She suddenly heard the Titan behind her. Ami turned. Atlas was resting his big shoulders against the door-frame, looking at her with a bit of melancholy in his kind face, brown eyes reflecting the afterglow of the day, and the burning clouds.
- I - I don't know. I know that one of my sisters is a bit sad and I'm going to find out why. Then I guess I'm going to figure out something to do with my life. If there's one thing this year has taught me it is that partying and having fun isn't everything. And I've already seen the world - well at least some of it, and I have met more people this last year than in all the 19 before it.

- Good. There are gods out there 20 times as old as you who haven't realised that. Am I allowed to make a suggestion?
- Go ahead!
- Find a home.

- I have one. With my parents and sisters and...
- That's your childhood home. You're a grown-up woman now. The things you have been through have turned you from a happy-go-lucky party babe to a mature goddess, and going back living with your parents and sisters just wouldn't feel right. First it would be lovely of course being with the ones you love and have missed so much. Yet sooner or later you'd start to feel an itch in your mind as well as in your legs. The itch to go somewhere else. Without understanding what it means it will drive you crazy and you in turn will drive your surrounding crazy.

- Like my sisters Galathea, Nemertes and Eucrante? They fight all the time and get on everybody's nerves.
- I guess so. What you need - and probably they do too - is a new home. Where you'll find it and if you will live on your own or with someone special is more than I can say. You have to find that out for yourself. But promise me you move out from your parents home as soon as you feel that itch.

- I will. But I'm not sure I'm going to feel it.
- Trust me, you will! My daughter Maia lived at Olympos for some years, and when she returned she was as restless as one of the sparrows.
- She who became the mother of Hermes?
- The very one.
- But hadn't that more to do with - Zeus? And her child?

- Yes, it had. Because loving Zeus and being a mother made her grow up, and she was starting to see things in a different way. I told her what she had to do. Get a grown-up's life. So she moved to the Star-Court. She lives in the same estate as her sisters, the Pleiades, but she has her own home, her own life. And so should you.
- I will think about it. I know one thing nevertheless. I wouldn't like it in the Star-Court. It's too far from the sea. I must be near the sea.
- I guess so. Your father isn't called "The Old Man of the Sea" for nothing. Oh, look! There's Neena! And she has incoming mail too.

The bird landed on Atlas' outstretched hand and held up her little foot so he could pluck off the mail. There were two papers, one tied with the blue and silver that was Ami's fathers colours. The other one was purple and gold, so it was from Olympos. Strange, they seldom used pigeons, they had after all their messenger gods.

- I'm still a li'l kid when the mail comes, Atlas confessed. Exited. This one's for you. The Titan handed over the first roll to Amphitrite. She recognised her mother's handwriting. It was always Doris who took care of the mail in the Nereus family.

Ami folded up the scroll and read it, tears of emotions forming in her blue eyes. Doris hadn't any real news to tell but filled the paper with how much they all missed her and how much they wanted to see her, to hug her. And then, almost as a PS:
"Your father has been talking to the God of the Sea. And he is still not yielding. Poseidon do want you as his bride, my little girl".

- He hasn't... Amphitrite started but Atlas was holding out the other scroll to her, the one from the Olympos court:
- This one's for you too! You sure are a popular girl. Muted Ami took the scroll and unfolded it.

- Atlas, it's from him! What am I going to do?