Great Goddesses

by Nikita Gill

  Hippolyta Speaks to the Gods

  Bless this world in lifeblood.

  Bless it with the stories

  of the women who bled with me.

  Who did not have a belt of immortality.

  Who followed me into battle,

  with nothing but love for each other and me.

  Bless it with the sisterhood

  it may never see again.

  Bless it with a story where

  this land, made of women

  and wanton wilderness is left untouched.

  We still sing songs and dance together,

  fashion armour, put flower crowns

  in each other’s hair, where no one but

  us have a say, where at full moon

  we all bleed together.

  Bring me back to this,

  where we can still watch our daughters grow.

  Love each other the same way.

  Where the moonlight meets morbid

  and they call magic by its name.

  This is how it should be.

  An eternity crafted from our

  own bonds and secret games.

  For what good is it to be the daughter

  of the vicious God of War?

  What good is it to be the leader

  of a legendary tribe of women

  who do not bow and do not break,

  If the myth still ends this way?

  With the same message every time:

  ‘You are powerful. You are revered.

  But still you will meet your end

  At the hands of men.’

  Io Explains Recovery to Europa

  Steal normal away from normal. Turn tragedy on its head. When the nightmares come, grit your teeth but do not scream. Glare into the skies every morning, promise yourself, ‘This is not the end of you, this is not the end of you, this is not the end of you.’ Bathe with ice-cold water of the ocean just to feel something again. Trauma isn’t going to win today. Remember how Daphne turned into the laurel tree? This is what you must do too. Form your own roots, feed from the earth that still loves you. Remember how. Take the day one cautious step at a time. Remember how fearless tastes. Remember how your grandmother told you ‘always prepare for the worst of situations by being the best of yourself’. Try not to think how the worst-case scenario will now be everyday in these once hallowed halls. Your father could be a River God, an emperor, a Titan. Even that did not save you. Do not rely on anyone but yourself. Do not avoid anyone’s eyes. You’ve done nothing to be ashamed of, and it is not you who should be looking away. If it’s easier, become stone for the day. When he sees you, meet his gaze cold as the ice you know his heart is. Do not call him Sky Father. Do not bow to him. Do not look away, he doesn’t deserve that luxury. When he says your name, refuse to look like prey. Instead, hold your head up high and let him see the blade you hide in your eyes. So what if he is a God. So what if he is a God. So what if he is even King of all the Gods. Do not let him forget he was wrong.

  Ariadne

  If they tell you of a girl, full of mourning

  and family secrets, a princess with

  a terrible heritage, allow me to change that

  to a slightly different perspective of more

  than a woman who had a monster for a brother.

  I was born Helios and Zeus’s granddaughter,

  but dance and balance were in my blood.

  This is why I gave Theseus the way to murder

  my own blood. I sent Asterion the compassion

  he needed in the form of an ending to his suffering,

  and named the labyrinth for what it was,

  a cage and a mass grave.

  When Theseus left me I was not surprised;

  he did not want a girl who could draw blood

  in brutal ways, for remorselessness is only seen

  as pretty on men. He was too mortal for me

  anyway, and I have spent too much time

  in the company of darkness to become

  wholesome when my quiet comes

  from the corners of a labyrinth that

  holds the bones of many heroes like him.

  Dionysus found me soon after,

  and loved every quiet darkness in me.

  This is why I gave him my heart willingly,

  for I found him a worthier lover.

  After all, why should I settle for human

  when I could have my own wild God?

  Aftermath

  Atlas, in Our Era

  The star had not, contrary to popular opinion, lost her way. No, she knew exactly what she was doing. She had fallen on purpose, much to the shock of her siblings and her parents and her ancestors. No one in her constellation had ever decided to take such a drastic step. But she had always been a strange little star, glowing in the rightmost corner of this forgotten constellation, and she was not content. From when she was conceived as nebulae, she had been trouble and her parents knew it, even crafting the molecular structure.

  In a way, no one was surprised when she fell. Yet at once, everyone was surprised when she fell. Cascading through the galaxy, burning brighter than ever before, the star finally met her destination. A two thousand five hundred foot-wide mountain range on a small, sapphire planet. As she landed – a shuddering going through the planet, a deep, sepia stardust-filled crater widening under the impact – she changed herself into the spiritless molecular form all stars take when they meet where they are about to fall.

  ‘Hello.’ She spoke softly and clearly to the mountains. At first, there was nothing. No response. The mountains looked cold, laden with a dappled blanket of fog. A gloom radiated from them, and for a long time the star just waited. Just as she was about to give up, a voice resonated from the depths of the fog.

  ‘Hello’ – the fog trembled as the rumble shook through all two thousand five hundred feet of the mountain. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘To see you,’ said the formless shape that was once a nebula. ‘Why do you still hold up the cosmos, Titan? The era of the Gods has passed. Zeus has closed his doors on the earth forever. Man no longer needs the Gods and Gods no longer need man.’

  A quaking, then a shape began to form in the side of the mountain. A face, large, older than anything anyone could have ever dreamt, somewhere between the face of a giant and a God spoke: ‘I know this. You tell me nothing new.’

  ‘You have freedom now to leave. Nothing stops you from doing so,’ continued the star, as though she had never been interrupted.

  Atlas was silent. ‘And where would I go?’

  ‘Home.’

  The Titan released a sound from his mountain-made mouth which was almost a laugh and it made the planet shake. ‘This is home for me.’

  The star was surprised. She had fallen all this way to tell Atlas that he was finally free but the Titan didn’t seem to want to budge. Instead, he continued to hold the weight of the cosmos. As the star looked up, she saw all of her family twinkling at her worriedly and dangerously.

  There was a myth that each star passed to their child once they were born, and that was the myth of a Titan, on a sapphire blue planet, holding the cosmos up so they didn’t fall. That he had kneeled for ages, long after the Gods who made it so were gone. The stars, the planets, the galaxies lived in fear that one day the Titan would learn what had come to pass and finally leave his post. And they all kept wishing no one ever told this Titan so.

  This had struck the little star as grossly unjust and she had thought that this, if anything, was a good reason to fall. Someone had to tell the Titan that he was free. After all, a universe held up by a force kept captive defeated the entire purpose of its existing from its own free will. A paradox of the highest proportions.

  But here, the star had found that the Titan .
. . had always known.

  ‘I am the father of gardens and gardeners. I cannot leave, or who will tend to the graveyards of the stars?’ asked Atlas gently.

  ‘They’ll be fine,’ said the star glaring up at her family who twinkled nervously in response.

  Atlas was silent. ‘Have they ever told you that love is the oldest form of conservation and preservation? When I was a young Titan, I tended my gardens for eons, watched Gods fall and heroes die in a second to claim what was in them. A garden is an invention of patience. Of effort, and of pain and of endlessness.’

  ‘So you won’t leave then?’ asked the star, slowly beginning to understand.

  ‘No. Never. I still have the largest garden of all to maintain.’

  ‘But . . . there is no one to stop you, did you not hear me? All the old Gods are dead! Zeus cannot force his old rules upon you.’

  ‘If I leave, the cosmos will descend into chaos.’

  ‘But, that’s not your problem.’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘For this is my nature, child.’ Atlas smiled, unexpectedly tender on such a large face turned to stone. ‘My mother nearly named me Pistis.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means loyal one.’

  A Glossary

  Achilles: Greek hero warrior of Troy. His Goddess mother Thetis (a Nereid, water nymph) dipped him in the river Styx to give him invulnerability but had to hold him by one of his heels, thus making it his only weak spot. Lover of Patroclus.

  Aether: Personification of the upper sky and light. Son of primordials Nyx (Night) and Erebus (Darkness) and brother of Hemera (Day).

  Agamemnon: King of Mycene and Commander of the united Greek forces who fought the battle of Troy. Father of Iphigenia.

  Amphitrite: Sea Goddess and wife of Poseidon; also an older Goddess of Titan blood because she is an Oceanid (daughter of Oceanus and Tethys).

  Andromeda: Daughter of Ethiopian king Cepheus and queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia’s hubris about Andromeda’s beauty drew the ire of the Gods and Poseidon demanded the sacrifice of Andromeda to a sea monster as restitution for the insult.

  Apate: Personification of deceit. Daughter of Nyx (the night).

  Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, Beauty and Passion. Born of the castration of Ouranos and sea foam. One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Apollo: God of the Sun, Music and Healing, son of Zeus and Leto (Titan Goddess of motherhood) and twin brother of Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Ares: God of War. Son of Hera and Zeus. One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Argos: Faithful dog of Odysseus. Left in Ithaca, when Odysseus returned Argos was very old and close to death. Unfortunately, as Odysseus could not risk being recognised, he could not give Argos a pat and say goodbye.

  Ariadne: Daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae of Crete, she helped Theseus escape the Labyrinth after he killed the Minotaur. She was left by Theseus on the shores of Naxos where the God Dionysus discovered and then wed her.

  Aristaeus: God of Rural Arts and Practices – bee-keeping, animal husbandry, herbalism. Son of Apollo and Cyrene (Queen and ruler of the city of Cyrene).

  Artemis: Goddess of the Moon, the Wild and the Hunt. Daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister of Apollo. One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Asclepius: God of Medicine. Son of Apollo with Coronis (Thelessian princess who went on to become the constellation Corvus). The rod of Asclepius is a symbol of medicine to this day.

  Asteria: Titan Goddess of Nocturnal Oracles and Falling Stars. Mother of Hecate and wife to Perseus, Titan God of Destruction.

  Asterion: The Minotaur, a bull-headed monster that lived in the Labyrinth at Crete.

  Athena: Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. Patron of Athens. Daughter of Zeus and Metis (Titan Goddess of Cunning). One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Atlas: A Titan condemned to hold the heavens on his shoulders for all eternity. He was the son of one of the original Titans, Iapetus, and Oceanid Asia.

  Atropos: One of the Three Fates, also known as the Moirai. She was the one who decided the end of mortals’ lives by cutting their threads with her shears.

  Briseis: Princess of Lyrnessus, a city allied with Troy. She was captured by Achilles when he burned down her city and killed her family and that of her husband.

  Brontes: A giant with one eye, one of the three original Cyclopes – all blacksmiths that worked in Haephestus’s volcano.

  Calliope: Chief of the Nine Muses, Muse of Epic Poetry. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory personified).

  Cerberus: Hound of Hades who had three heads and a serpent’s tail. He was the guardian of the gates of the Underworld who prevented the dead from leaving and the living from entering.

  Cetus: Sea monster sent by Poseidon to devour Andromeda.

  Charybdis: Originally a nymph who was the daughter of Poseidon, and helped him with his feud against Zeus. Zeus cursed her by turning her into a monster with an unquenchable thirst for the sea. She and Scylla made a treacherous strait together.

  Circe: Goddess of Magic and Witch of Aeaea. Daughter of the Titan Sun God Helios. She turned men who visited her island into pigs.

  Clotho: One of the Three Fates or Moriai. She spun the thread of human life.

  Cyclopes (pl.): Children of Ouranos and Gaia. Along with the Hecatoncheires, they were thrown into Tartarus by their father because of how they looked.

  Danaë: Mother of Perseus. Zeus impregnated her by becoming golden rain that fell on her through the cracks of her ceiling. Her father had hoped to keep her childless because of the prophecy that he would be killed by his daughter’s son. He tossed her and the baby in a box into the sea to be rid of them.

  Delphin: God of the Dolphin, he became a constellation because he helped to convince Amphitrite to be Poseidon’s bride.

  Demeter: Goddess of the Harvest, Growth and Fertility of the Earth, mother of Persephone. One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Dionysus: God of Wine, Hedonism and Madness. Husband of Ariadne. Dionysus is twice born – once of his mortal mother Semele who was killed and then of Zeus, who brought the baby to full term by placing him in his thigh. One of the Twelve Olympians.

  Doris: One of the Oceanids and wife to Nereus, mother of the fifty Nereids.

  Echidna: Mother of Monsters, half woman, half snake, and wife to Typhon. Several of the most famous monsters were her children, including Cerberus, Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera and the Caucasian Eagle.

  Eos: The Goddess of Dawn, sister to Helios and Selene (the moon). Daughter of Hyperion.

  Erebus: The primordial personification of the darkness. Consort of Nyx, and child of Khaos.

  the Erinyes (pl.): Chthonic Goddesses of Vengeance and Justice, and punishers of Gods and mortals alike who break oaths, swear false oaths and betray.

  Europa: Mother of Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon, and one of the victims of Zeus. He abducted her in the form of a bull.

  Eurydice: Oak nymph and a wife to Orpheus (musician son of Apollo), who loved her so dearly he travelled to the Underworld to bring her back. Unfortunately, Orpheus failed and her soul returned to the Underworld.

  Eurynome: Pre-Olympian queen and the mother of all things according to at least one Pelasgian myth.

  Gaia (also Gaea): Personification of the Earth and first daughter of Khaos.

  Gorgon: mythical monstresses, most famously remembered as the mortal who was cursed to become a monster, Medusa, and the two immortal Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale.

  Hades: God of the Underworld and brother to Zeus and Poseidon.

  Hecate: Goddess of Necromancy, she was raised in the underworld after the death of her mother Asteria.

  Hecatoncheires: The three hundred-handed, fifty-headed children of Gaia and Ouranos. Ouranos cast them into Tartarus. According to
some myths, they made him so uncomfortable he pushed them back into Gaia’s womb.

  Hecuba: Wife of Priam and Queen of Troy, mother to Paris, Hector and seventeen other princes and princesses of Troy.

  Helen: Queen of Sparta and daughter of Zeus who ran away with Paris, leaving her husband Menelaus. Hers is the face that set sail a thousand ships.

  Helios: God of the Sun. Son of Hyperion and brother to Eos and Selene.

  Hemera: Primordial personification of the day. Daughter of Nyx and Erebus.

  Hephaestus: God of Blacksmiths, Volcanoes and Fire. Son of Hera and one of the Twelve Olympians.

  Hera: Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth and the Queen of the Gods. Wife of Zeus.

  Heracles: Hero of Greece, and son of Zeus and Alcmene. He murdered his wife and children in a fit of madness and was given twelve tasks to redeem himself.

  Hermes: God of Trade, Trickery and Heraldry. Son of Zeus and Maia, one of the Pleiades. He was also the messenger of the Olympians and played a significant role during the Titanomachy. He is one of the Twelve Olympians.

  Hestia: Virgin Goddess of Hearth, Architecture, Home and Family. Hestia used to be one of the Olympians, but vacated her spot on the council to live among mortals. The vacancy was filled by Dionysus.

  Hippolyta: Amazon queen and daughter to Ares. Her tribe was slaughtered by Heracles and his men on his twelve tasks.

  Hyperion: Titan God of Light, son of Ouranos and Gaia, and one of the original Twelve Titans.

  Icarus: Son of Daedalus, the greatest craftsman on earth and creator of the Labyrinth. Daedalus and Icarus were prisoners of Minos on the island of Crete, and Daedalus crafted wings for them both of feathers and wax. His warning to Icarus was not to fly too close to the sun as it would melt his wings. Icarus ignored the advice and fell into the sea and drowned.