Oh My Gods, page 4
But the anger of Zeus did not fall just on kings. The great physician Asclepius, a son of the god Apollo himself, was so skilled in his art that few of those he treated failed to recover. He even succeeded in raising mortals from the dead, using drops of blood from the right side of one of the snake-haired Gorgons to bring people back to life—blood from the left side caused death. Zeus could not allow such acts against the natural order to continue for he was afraid that if mortals learned the secret of eternal life they would become gods themselves. And so, much to the dismay of Apollo, Zeus killed the divine physician with a lightning bolt.
Zeus was the enforcer of cosmic justice, but he was noticeably iniquitous in many of his private dealings with mortals, especially young women. Although the king of the gods created women as a punishment for men, he spent a great deal of time seducing them, usually against their will. His human lovers often paid for this attention with severe punishment from Hera, his divine and very jealous wife. Zeus fathered many children with immortal goddesses, but his children by mortal women were even more numerous. Many of these offspring became great heroes of Greek mythology.
One of the first unlucky maidens to catch the eye of Zeus was Io, a virgin priestess at the temple of his own wife, Hera, near Mycenae in the Peloponnesus peninsula of southern Greece. Zeus had already seduced Io’s young niece Niobe, but this was not enough to quench his appetite for the beautiful women of her family. Every night he would come to Io in a vision with wooing words: “Most blessed maiden, why stay a virgin so long when you can have me, Zeus, in your bed? I am enflamed with love for you and would give anything to enjoy your pleasures. Go out now, child, to the wild meadows of the river Lerna among the flocks and cattle of your father. There I will come to you!”
The poor, unwilling girl was tormented by these nocturnal visions from Zeus until at last she went to her father Inachus for help. He was sympathetic to the pleas of his daughter and repeatedly sent messengers to the oracles at Delphi and Dodona to learn what he should do. As was often the case, the responses were ambiguous and offered no clear guidance to Inachus. But at last Io’s father received a message from an oracle of Zeus telling him to cast his daughter out of the house to wander unprotected on the borders of his land like a cow set aside for sacrifice. If he did not obey, Zeus would annihilate his entire family with a thunderbolt.
The heartbroken father had no choice and so exiled Io to face her fate alone. It did not take long for Zeus to find her. He surrounded her with a mist and raped her there in her father’s distant meadow. Hera was ever-watchful of her husband and noticed both his absence and the strange cloud of mist on an otherwise sunny day. She swept down at once from Olympus so fast that Zeus barely had time to hide his philandering, turning Io into a white cow. When Hera arrived at his side, he claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing and, perish the thought, would never touch a mortal woman when he had such a beautiful goddess as his wife. Hera was buying none of this and asked her husband for the lovely white cow as a gift. As his lust had been satisfied, he happily agreed to give the cow to his wife.
It was now that Io’s punishment began. Hera did not kill her, but instead placed her under the guard of the monster Argus, a creature with a hundred eyes. Argus tied her to a nearby olive tree and sat down to watch over her day and night. By this point Zeus was starting to feel guilty about his treatment of Io and sent Hermes, the god of thieves, to steal her away from Argus. But even Hermes had a difficult time as some of the monster’s eyes were always open and awake. At last he played a lullaby for Argus on his flute until one by one all his eyes closed. The god then quickly cut off the head of the monster so that Io could escape. When Hera found out about the deed she was furious and swore vengeance, but first she placed the hundred eyes of Argus onto the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her ever after.
It wasn’t long before Hera found Io wandering nearby and set upon her a gadfly to sting her mercilessly and drive her near to madness. The tormented girl, still in the form of a cow, then began an epic journey to escape the fury of Hera. She fled northwest across Greece to the sea, henceforth named Ionian after her, then beyond the mountains to Macedonia, followed by a long trek through Thrace to the waters separating Europe from Asia at the entrance to the Black Sea. She swam these narrow straits, which were later called the Bosporus, or “cow crossing,” for her. She wandered through the wilds of Scythia until at last she came to the barren Caucasus Mountains near the end of the earth and there found the Titan Prometheus chained to a rock.
Io begged the far-seeing Prometheus for news about how long she would have to suffer. Would she ever be free from Hera’s anger? In between bouts of having his liver eaten by Zeus’ eagle, Prometheus told Io her fate. She still had far to go, over mountains and through deserts, escaping violence and dangers along the way. She would narrowly avoid the Graeae, three gray-haired hags, never young, who dwell in darkness sharing only a single eye and tooth between them. She would also find their sisters, the snake-haired Gorgons, at the ends of the earth. But at last she would find her rest in Egypt. He also revealed that she would be the ancestor of a man thirteen generations hence who would at last free him from his chains. He also told the eager Io that Zeus himself would one day fall to a son of his own loins, just as Father Sky had been defeated by Cronus, and Cronus in turn had been bested by Zeus. The only one who could save Zeus from this destruction was Prometheus himself, though he was in no mind to help someone who had done such evil to him.
Taking heart from the vengeance that she hoped would one day fall on the head of Zeus, Io left the Caucasus and roamed the lands of Europe, Asia, and Africa until she at last came to the banks of the Nile River near Memphis in Egypt. There she collapsed in exhaustion only to be discovered by Zeus once again. This time the god was more gentle and impregnated her with the mere touch of his finger. He also restored Io at last to her human form so that she gave birth as a woman to a child she named Epaphus, meaning “touched by the god.” Hera, however, always vigilant and vengeful, sent divine spirits to kidnap the child and take him to Syria. The distraught mother finally found her child there cared for by the queen of Byblos and returned with the boy to Egypt, where she married the Egyptian king Telegonus and settled down to a peaceful life. It was said she brought the worship of Demeter to the Egyptians, who called the Greek goddess of grain Isis in their own language. It was also said that Isis was worshiped in the form of a woman with the horns of a cow in memory of the struggles of long-suffering Io.
As the years went by, Io’s son Epaphus grew up and had a daughter of his own named Libya. This girl had twin sons, Agenor and Belus, by the god Poseidon, brother of Zeus. Belus reigned over the land of Egypt, but Agenor went to Lebanon and there married a princess named Telephassa. The royal couple had three sons, Phoenix, Cilix, and Cadmus, along with one daughter, a beautiful maiden named Europa. Like her ancestor Io, Europa was troubled by dreams. In a vision one night, she saw two women fighting over her, one like a woman of her own country trying to hold her and another like a foreign woman from across the sea trying to steal her away. The foreigner said she had been sent by Zeus himself to bring her to a distant country.
When she woke from this troubling vision, she sought out her own friends among the young women of the royal court to ease her mind. They ran to a seaside meadow and there laughed as they chased each other across the grass and gathered flowers.
Zeus looked down from Mount Olympus and spied the girls in the meadow, but his eye lingered on Europa alone. The maiden was every bit as beautiful as Io had once been and his heart was overcome with desire. But how could he go to the girl without Hera discovering him? He immediately hit upon a clever plan and flew down to the seashore, transforming himself into a handsome white bull with horns like the crescent moon. He paused at the edge of the meadow where the young women were playing and walked forward as gentle as a lamb. They had never seen such a lovely animal before and approached slowly so as not to frighten it away. But the bull was not at all afraid and inched toward the girls to stand before Europa. He began gently to lick her neck as she laughed and at last placed a kiss upon its cheek. The bull had a wonderful smell and lowed deeply as it knelt before the princess and urged her with its eyes to mount its back.
The other maidens were too frightened to climb onto an unknown bull, but Europa told her friends not to worry. “Look at this loveable creature,” she told them. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” She then sat down on the broad back of the bull—but suddenly it rose up and began to move toward the sea. Her friends called to Europa to jump off, but the bull was in the water before the maiden could move, charging headlong into the waves. Out to sea the bull swam with Europa until the shore of her homeland was left far behind. The terrified girl clasped her purple robe tightly around herself as hour after hour they traveled on. Dolphins accompanied them like wedding guests as the bull made its way west toward the island of Crete, the very place where Zeus had been raised secretly as a child.
“Who are you?” Europa cried at last to the bull. With a bellow the animal answered, “I am Zeus, king of the gods, and I can take any form I wish. I came to you in the meadow because of my burning desire. You won’t be a virgin long, for I am taking you to Crete to share my bed.” The poor girl was too frightened to say anything more, but clung to the horns of the bull until they at last made their way onto the shore of the distant island. There Zeus wasted no time in taking on human form and stripped Europa of her clothes. He had his way with her until he was at last satisfied, then left her, alone and pregnant, in a foreign land. But he did give her three remarkable gifts. The first was a hound that always caught its prey, the second a spear that never missed its mark, and the third a giant bronze man named Talus who ran around the island of Crete three times each day throwing rocks at any ship that tried to land there. In time, Europa gave birth to three sons by Zeus—Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys, and Minos. The king of Crete, Asterius, took pity on Europa and married her, raising her sons as his own.
Europa’s father, Agenor, was distraught when he heard the news of his daughter’s disappearance and was determined to recover her at any cost. He sent out his wife along with his three sons to search every land. He warned them not to return without Europa. After endless seeking there was still no sign of her, so the brothers decided to settle abroad to found their own kingdoms. Phoenix stayed close to the shore of Lebanon, afterward named Phoenicia for him, while Cilix established the royal house of Cilicia to the north. Cadmus, however, took his mother all the way to Greece and there founded the city of Thebes on a new continent named after his lost sister.
Of all the places of the earth, the favorite of Zeus was Arcadia, a verdant land of forests, springs, and mountains in the Peloponnesus. One day when Zeus was visiting there he saw a young woman hunting in the woods. Her hair was tied back so that she could chase her prey and a simple brooch held her short dress to her body. In her hand was a polished spear with a quiver and a bow slung over her shoulder. She was Callisto, a sworn virgin dedicated to Artemis, the maiden goddess of the hunt.
As Zeus watched, Callisto removed her weapons, unstrung her bow, and lay down on the soft grass to rest. The king of the gods could not resist such a beautiful and unprotected girl.
“Hera will never see me here in these thick woods,” Zeus said to himself. “And even if she does, the pleasure will be worth the price.”
Immediately Zeus took on the form of Artemis herself and approached Callisto. The girl sprang up with joy to see her patroness and ran to embrace her.
“Callisto, loveliest of all my maidens,” spoke the false Artemis, “where have you been hunting all day long?”
“Here in these woods, my lady, greatest of all the gods—and thus I would call you even if Zeus himself were to hear my words.”
Zeus laughed and kissed her, not as one innocent girl might kiss another but with a passion that surprised Callisto. She began to tell the divine visitor about her hunting that day, but before she knew it, the god had returned to his true form and threw her on the ground. She tried to resist but was no match for Zeus. After he had raped her and departed, the shattered young woman struggled to her feet and wandered away in shock, barely remembering to take her quiver and bow.
A few days later the true Artemis with her band of virgin hunters appeared to Callisto and called on her to join them. The distraught girl obeyed, but followed the goddess with downcast eyes, ashamed that she had lost her virginity. Artemis noticed the sadness in Callisto’s eyes, but thought little of it as the months went by. After nine moons had come and gone, Artemis and her maidens came one hot day to a pool in the woods where they all stripped for a welcome swim in the cool water. Artemis told Callisto to join them, but the girl hesitated and made excuses. At last the goddess grew angry and demanded Callisto remove her clothing. Her swollen belly told the tale all too clearly and Artemis was in no mood for excuses.
“Get out of here!” the goddess proclaimed. “You defile the purity of our sacred pool with your shameful state. You are no longer one of my followers.”
Shattered by this rejection, Callisto ran away in disgrace from her friends and the goddess she loved. Soon she gave birth alone to a son she named Arcas.
Hera saw all of this and realized what had happened. As ever, she could not strike back directly against Zeus, so she vented her fury on his victim.
“You whore!” the wife of Zeus cried when she found Callisto in the woods. “Did you really think you could get away with leading my husband astray and bearing him a son as proof of this scandal? You think you’re so pretty, do you? Well, that can change.”
With that she caught Callisto by the hair and threw her on the ground. The girl stretched out her arms to beg for mercy, but they were now covered with black, shaggy fur. She grew long claws instead of fingers and her once lovely face was replaced with broad, rough jaws and a large nose. So that she might not call on Zeus for help, Hera took away her voice and gave her a harsh, terrifying growl in its place. Callisto had become a wild bear of the mountains. Only her human mind remained unchanged as she reached her limbs up to the heavens, beseeching the ruler of the gods, but to no avail.
Callisto could no longer care for her son, so she left him to be raised by the local king. As a bear, she wandered the mountains and forests ever fearful of hunters, but equally scared of other bears she found in the woods. The years passed in misery for poor Callisto, until one day when young Arcas, who had grown to manhood, was hunting in the forest with his friends. They suddenly saw a bear watching them from behind a tree with a strange look upon its face. It seemed to know Arcas and moved toward him as if to speak. The young man grabbed his spear and was about to plunge it into his mother’s breast when Zeus had pity on Callisto at last and snatched her up into the heavens. He placed her as a constellation of stars in the sky to shine during the night.
This was still too much for Hera. She went to Tethys, goddess of the sea, and her husband Ocean to ask of them a favor.
“Isn’t it enough,” she sobbed, “that Zeus honors this harlot by placing her in the heavens for all to see? Grant to me that she may not bathe in your waters. Let her forever circle the sky without rest.”
And so Tethys and Ocean granted her request. Callisto remains to this day ever wandering, ever revolving around the pole star, a great bear who never vanishes below the horizon.
After Cadmus had founded the city of Thebes, rule of the town passed in time to a Greek named Nycteus, who had a beautiful daughter named Antiope. This maiden caught the eye of Zeus as he looked down from the heavens. He came to her in the form of a satyr, a half-man, half-goat creature known for crazed addiction to wine and sex. As with other young women in the past, he raped her and left her pregnant. When her father discovered her condition, he was furious and drove her away from Thebes. She fled south across Greece to the city of Sicyon, where the king of the city, Epopeus, took her in and married her.
Nycteus was angrier than ever at Antiope when he heard the news of her good fortune and was consumed with shame—not for driving his daughter away but because she had brought such disgrace to her family. He called his brother Lycus to his side, making him pledge to punish Antiope and exact revenge on the king who had treated her so kindly. Nycteus then killed himself. Lycus took the throne of Thebes and set about to follow his late brother’s wishes. He marched on Sicyon and destroyed the city, killing Epopeus and hauling Antiope out of the town in chains.
Antiope was nine months pregnant at the time and struggled to walk the rough roads back to Thebes with the victorious army. On the slopes of Mount Cithaeron near Thebes, she went into labor and crawled into the bushes to give birth. She bore twin sons, Amphion and Zethus, who were immediately taken by Lycus and left to die on the mountainside. After the army had marched on with the grieving Antiope trailing behind, a local shepherd found the boys and raised them secretly as his own sons.
At Thebes, Lycus handed Antiope over to his wife Dirce for punishment—a task the new queen took on with great pleasure. Every day for many years Dirce subjected Antiope to every cruel punishment she could think of, then chained her in a filthy hut to spend each miserable night alone.
Meanwhile the sons of Antiope grew into fine young men roaming the wilds of the mountains, unaware of who they were or of their mother’s fate. Zethus became a master herdsman and cattle breeder while Amphion excelled all others in playing the lyre. The two brothers were opposites in nature and taunted each other endlessly about their respective talents, but they were devoted to one another nonetheless.
