The third Cyclops, Steropes, was continuing to smite and smite a lump of golden metal. Little by little, in the heart of the fire, the burning metal was taking form. Hermes saw first one, then two, and then three long, sharp points emerge. “The thunderbolt!” he murmured in amazement. “He is forging the thunderbolt, my father’s weapon…” The Cyclops bent one knee down on the ground, and then proffered the terrible thunderbolt to Zeus with the words:
“Here, this is what will make you everlasting master of the world.”
To be continued…
EPISODE 28
IN WHICH HERMES SAVES HIS FATHER
Previously: Zeus and his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, are ready for the oncoming battle. The Cyclopes have forged a trident for Poseidon, a helmet which makes one invisible for Hades and the thunderbolt for Zeus.
Never since he had been born had Hermes heard such an awful racket. And never had he seen such violence. The Titans and the Olympians were battling one another so ferociously that the mountains were crumbling down one after the other. Immense chasms opened in the ground. Hermes had the feeling that he was witnessing the end of the world. Zeus was hurling his thunderbolt incessantly against the Titans of Cronus. With all these bolts of lightning, it was as though the sky itself had gone mad. A rain of ashes was coming crashing down on the warriors. Finally, the hundred-handed Giants broke off enormous boulders of rock with which they pelted the Titans. Some rocks fell into the sea, forming islands. Others struck the Titans of Cronus. Little by little, the Titans were crushed under the stones. Wearing his helmet of invisibility, Hades stole away from Cronus his last remaining weapons. The old god had been vanquished.
Zeus condemned Atlas, the eldest of the Titans, to hold up the earth and the sky on his shoulders for all eternity. The other Titans were imprisoned inside Tartarus, the very depths of the earth. And as the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed Giants threatened to go on fighting, Zeus sent them too for ever into Tartarus. There remained only the victorious Olympians. They chose Zeus as their king.
The new king would, however, have to triumph over one last and terrible obstacle before he could reign. Gaia, furious to see her children locked up in Tartarus again, sent forth the most monstrous of all her offspring. All of a sudden, the earth began to shake. Someone was approaching. Someone so enormous that each of his steps caused the ground to quake. Hermes was struck with horror. The monster that he then saw appear was more appalling that anything he had ever seen before. His huge black wings hid the sun. His head touched the stars. It was composed of hundreds of hissing vipers. His eyes launched flames and his mouth spewed forth flaming rocks. His body consisted of a multitude of serpent coils. This gigantic monster was called Typhon. Hermes had barely enough time to take shelter behind a rock. The monster had gone past. Typhon attained Olympus. Bewildered, the gods fled running, leaving Zeus to face the monster alone. Zeus tried to hurl his thunderbolt, but Typhon coiled his monstrous serpent’s rings around the god of gods and stole from him the tendons of his heels. Zeus, vanquished and bereft of his tendons, was now unable to move. Typhon laid himself down before him and fell asleep.
Fortunately, Hermes was there. He had seen everything. He entered the palace of Olympus on the tips of his toes. In one of the rooms he found the helmet of Hades, who had dropped it in his flight. He put it on and became instantly invisible. In this way, Hermes approached Typhon without difficulty. The monster was clutching Zeus’ tendons tight in his terrible clawed foot. Hermes gently loosened the claws and stole the tendons. Then, still invisible, he slipped quietly next to Zeus. The god sensed a presence, but he did not see his son returning his tendons to him. He realized immediately that he could use his legs once more and could stand up. He leapt to his feet, seized his thunderbolt and struck Typhon down. The sun reappeared the instant the monster was dead. A sudden gust of wind carried Typhon’s body far away above the seas. And this is why terrible tempests are born sometimes in the ocean, arising from nowhere, and devastating everything in their passage. These raging and violent winds come from the body of Typhon. This time, the very last monster had been eliminated. Zeus would be able to build an earth governed by harmony and to establish order in all things. Hermes could feel his breast swell with pride at the idea that it was he who had saved his father.
To be continued…
EPISODE 29
IN THE COURSE OF WHICH ZEUS FALLS IN LOVE WITH EUROPA
Previously: Hermes has witnessed the war of the gods. It was Zeus who won the victory in the end. And now he is king of the world.
As he was returning home, Hermes could feel that he had grown up. He knew now by what means his father had conquered power. Zeus alone had known how to bring order to the disorder.
Hermes was happy to find himself again on Olympus. Zeus was leaning against the parapet of one of the terraces of the palace when Hermes arrived. He was so busy looking at something on earth that he did not see his young son come near him. Hermes leant over to see what was fascinating his father down below, and he too was seduced by the sight.
In the middle of a flowering meadow by the seashore, a group of young girls were chasing one another, laughing. Their arms were laden with spring flowers. One could see the purple of the bluebells, the white of the daffodils, the yellow of the crocuses and the red of roses blending with the green, wavy grass—and it was a glorious image. One of the young girls attracted their gaze more than the others. She was wearing a long red dress, her hair was braided and she carried in her arms a basket glinting with gold. Hermes looked at his father and understood immediately: once again Zeus had fallen in love.
When Zeus finally became aware of Hermes’ presence, he beckoned to him to follow him. The two of them descended on earth, and in order to approach the young girls without frightening them, they sneaked in among a herd of cows grazing nearby. Zeus turned himself into a splendid bull. He had a silver disc in the middle of his forehead, a horn in the shape of a crescent moon and his skin was a beautiful chestnut colour. The young girls were instantly attracted by the exceptional beauty of this bull. The one with whom Zeus had fallen in love approached the animal. She began to stroke it gently, to decorate its horns with garlands of flowers, and to hum in its ear. Her companions, seeing her go off side by side with the bull, called her back: “Europa, come back!” they cried.
Europa no longer listened to them, however. She had reached the seashore and was still playing with the bull. Hermes, who had assumed the form of a cow, was laughing inwardly at his father’s ruse. He saw him lie down on the sand, in this manner inviting Europa to climb on his back. The young girl did not hesitate and she sat astride the bull. He dashed off immediately into the sea. He entered the tide and began to swim as fast as he could, carrying off Europa with him. They were getting far away from the shore and soon they were surrounded by a shoal of sea deities: there were Nereids, the deities of the Water, astride dolphins, and there were Tritons, who were half-men and half-fish, and who blew into great conch shells; even Poseidon escorted them, standing on his chariot, his trident in his hand.
“Where are you taking me? And who are you?” cried Europa in the bull’s ear, a little frightened by these strange companions.
“Have no fear, beautiful child, I am the all-powerful Zeus, and I am taking you to Crete, the island where I was raised. You will be well received there,” answered the god of gods.
Hermes watched this splendid procession spellbound. Europa’s long red dress flapped in the wind almost like a ship’s sail.
Soon the island of Crete came into sight. Zeus thanked all who had accompanied them and sent them back into the sea. He set Europa down gently on the sand and resumed his true form. Then he discreetly bid Hermes farewell, and the young messenger left his father to his new love.
When he reached Olympus once more, Hermes was astonished that the jealous white-armed Hera had not interfered. But she was too busy looking after her young son Ares, the god of War. Ares never stopped bragging. “I am th
e strongest. I am the best,” he repeated all day long. This little upstart had managed to irritate all the gods and goddesses of Olympus. Yet the worst of it was that Ares tried to pick a fight with everyone. He bumped into people without apologizing, or he made fun of them, or again he insulted them. The moment he crossed paths with anyone, it always ended up in a quarrel.
Hermes detested Ares. He tried to avoid meeting him in the corridors, preferring to keep as far away as possible from his violence. “I have to show myself as canny as my father,” he told himself. “He at least knows how to use his wits…”
To be continued…
EPISODE 30
IN WHICH APOLLO HIMSELF ALSO FALLS IN LOVE
Previously: Hermes has seen how his father Zeus fell in love with Europa and successfully abducted her. He would really like to be as fine a seducer as his father.
One day, while delivering a message to the river god Peneus, Hermes met one of his daughters, whose name was Daphne. This nymph had an artless and feral beauty. She ran about in the woods and the fields, a little bit like Artemis and her attendants. This was undoubtedly what Hermes liked in her. The young god became Daphne’s friend, and would come to see her regularly. Daphne just loved living free. She was not interested in anything that nymphs and goddesses usually enjoyed. She did not comb her hair artfully, rather she just let it grow any way it liked. She did not wear long dresses with neat pleats, but donned instead short white tunics, held in place by a simple plaited belt. She wore no jewellery, she never made up her face and she dreamt of one love only: the love of freedom. “I want neither husband nor child,” she had declared passionately to Hermes one day. “I love running alone in the wild too much for that.” And Hermes, who really enjoyed Daphne’s company, took good care not to fall in love with her.
Someone else, however, crossed the wild nymph’s path one day. And this someone was used to being loved. It was Apollo. The first time he met Daphne, he had been out hunting. He had dismounted from his horse and had gone into some bushes. He was following a hare that he believed to have wounded. But instead of finding the animal, he came face to face with a little wild child who was holding up the hare by its ears.
“Hand me back what’s mine. I am the one who killed it,” said Apollo, reaching out his hand towards the prey.
“Not at all,” Daphne retorted angrily, “you actually missed it! It was my arrow that killed it. Take a look!”
And she pulled out from the hare’s body the arrow that had killed it. There could be no doubt: this arrow had come from the young nymph’s own quiver. The god was slightly annoyed, yet he did not become angry. He was contemplating the nymph and he thought that she was gorgeous. With her hair in disarray, to which still clung pine needles and twigs, with her bare arms scratched by the branches and with her dark gaze, she was a picture of untamed nature. Apollo was instantly seduced. But the nymph had already gone away and vanished into the undergrowth.
From that moment on, Apollo wanted nothing more than to find the beautiful nymph again. He searched everywhere, questioned everyone, and finally he implored Hermes:
“My brother, go and find this nymph and tell her that I want her to be my wife.”
Hermes agreed to bear this message to Daphne. She, however, burst into laughter:
“Apollo? Really? Well, you may go and tell Apollo that I have taken a vow never to take a husband, and that no one could force me to break this vow, not even he.”
No one had ever turned Apollo down: he fell even more deeply in love with this nymph who could say no to him. He sought a way to seduce Daphne and he decided to abduct her. He therefore lay in wait for her in a wood where she was strolling alone, as usual. Then he approached her.
“Daphne, my beautiful Daphne, I am Apollo, and I lay my heart at your feet,” he said to her. The young girl, however, took to her heels. Apollo chased after her, while continuing to shout words of tender love. Yet Daphne was exceedingly good at racing and the god could not catch up with her. In her flight, Daphne called Hermes to her aid.
“Go and warn Zeus,” she cried, “ask on my behalf the protection of the god of gods!”
Hermes rushed to Zeus. Zeus did not want to anger his son Apollo—and yet he had to come to the aid of all those who asked for his protection.
Daphne could sense her forces weaken. Apollo was just about to catch up with her when she suddenly felt her feet push into the ground like roots; her body became covered with bark, her arms threw themselves up towards the sky like branches, and then were covered with leaves. She had just enough time to throw a smile of thanks to Hermes and to Zeus, before becoming completely transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo, seeing her changed into a beautiful tree of blue-tinted leaves, cried out: “O fairest of all young girls, I have lost you for ever. Yet the leaves of your tree will never leave my side. I shall make wreaths with them, which I shall carry constantly with me. I will offer these wreaths to all those who can recite beautiful poems and to all the victors. You, laurel tree, are now become my sacred tree.” Hermes had the impression that he saw the tree’s branches quiver, as though Daphne were accepting this tribute to her. She, the betrothed of nature, had been given back to nature.
Once more, Zeus had succeeded in provoking no one’s anger. Each time that he was called upon to settle a dispute, he always found a skilled way to satisfy everyone. “But how does my father manage to possess this cunning and this intelligence?” Hermes kept asking himself. He resolved to discover how his father had learnt that particular art.
To be continued…
EPISODE 31
WHICH SEES THE EXTRAORDINARY BIRTH OF ATHENA
Previously: Hermes has great admiration for the intelligence of his father Zeus. He would like to penetrate its mystery.
Pausania was spinning wool when Hermes arrived at her cave.
She did not lift her eyes from her work.
“You are already back so soon, my child,” said the old woman. “Don’t you know enough yet about the birth of the world?”
“O beloved nurse, there is one more thing I ask myself: how did my father come to possess such matchless cunning and intelligence?”
Pausania pushed her work away. The grinding of the wheel spinning the wool stopped. Hermes rested his head on her lap and his eyes closed instantly.
When Hermes opened his eyes again, he immediately recognized the place where he found himself: it was the seashore in front of Metis’ cave, the Titanide with the night-blue eyes with whom Zeus had fallen in love as a young man. The day had barely broken; the beautiful Metis was lying on the sand still asleep. Hermes saw immediately from her round belly that she was expecting a child. Zeus, who was resting beside her, suddenly sat bolt upright. A voice had just awakened him; it was the voice of his grandmother Gaia, the Earth Mother. He rose to his feet and walked a few paces along the shore. “Be on your guard, Zeus, be on your guard. Metis carries inside her a girl. Yet on the day that she will bring a boy into the world, that boy will do to you what you did to your father Cronus, and what Cronus did to Uranus, his own father: he will take your place!” Upon hearing Gaia, Hermes shuddered. What was Zeus going to do? The god of gods went slowly back towards Metis, who was still asleep; he looked at her tenderly, then he lay down beside her once more.
Dawn came. Metis opened her eyes and smiled at Zeus. She was herself the very essence of cunning and she already suspected that something was not quite right. Zeus, however, asked her: “Metis, do you remember the day when I met you? You had turned yourself into a butterfly under my very eyes, then into a titmouse, then into a rabbit, and finally into a doe. Would you also know how to change yourself into a lioness?” Without replying, Metis instantly became a lioness. Her roaring and the stabs of her claws frightened Hermes, who was hiding behind a rock. “Well done!” exclaimed Zeus. “Well done! And would you also be able to turn yourself into a drop of water?” Metis did it right away. She had hardly turned herself into a drop when Zeus swallowed her! “I am really sorry, m
y dear Metis, but it had to be done,” said the god of gods aloud. “I could not take the risk of you one day bringing into the world a boy who would dethrone me… and besides, I need your cunning, don’t you see, to govern the universe. From now on, I shall have intelligence within me, since you are for ever inside me.” Hermes at last understood why his father knew how to foresee everything, predict everything and master everything.
His father, however, who had sat on a rock, suddenly seemed to be suffering violent pangs of pain. He groaned, holding his head with both hands. The more time passed, the more the pain increased. The groans became screams. “Ah, it is too dreadful! It hurts too much! Quick, someone open up my skull to let this pain out!” Zeus was howling. Hermes did not know what to do. Zeus was all alone on that beach and the pain seemed unbearable. Hermes suddenly had an idea how to allay his father’s pain. And there was not a moment to lose.
He ran back to Pausania. “Good nurse, I implore you: you absolutely must allow me to return to the past accompanied by someone,” he told her.
“All right,” said Pausania, “but your companion shall have to forget everything once he returns to the present.”
The Adventures of Hermes, God of Thieves Page 8