Heroes of Olympus

by Philip Freeman

  “FATHER, HELP!” she cried. “Let your waters change this beauty of mine into something the god will despise.”

  In an instant her limbs became numb and her skin began to harden. Her hair sprouted green leaves and her arms turned into branches. The legs that had run so fast became fixed in the earth and her head became the top of a laurel tree.

  A MAIDEN

  is stolen away by the

  god of the dead to be the queen

  of the underworld . . .

  A swift-footed

  WARRIOR

  WOMAN

  challenges suitors to

  a race for her hand . . .

  To save a kingdom,

  A PRINCE

  seeks out a terrifying Minotaur

  in the heart of a labyrinth . . .

  From the triumphs of Theseus to the adventures of Atalanta, from the great romance of Orpheus and Eurydice to the trials of Hercules, Greek and Roman myths have captured our imagination. Readers of all ages still thrill at the heroic escapades of Jason and the Argonauts in pursuit of the Golden Fleece and are moved by the tragic story of Hades and Persephone.

  Based on scholar Philip Freeman’s Oh My Gods, a lively retelling of the classic myths, Heroes of Olympus is Laurie Calkhoven’s entertaining adaptation of the beloved stories for a new generation of fans.

  PHILIP FREEMAN

  is Qualley Professor of Classics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and a former professor of classics at Washington university in St. Louis. He earned the first joint PhD in classics and Celtic studies from Harvard university, and has been a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School, the American Academy in Rome, and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. The author of Alexander the Great, St. Patrick of Ireland, and Julius Caesar, he lives with his family in Decorah, Iowa. Visit him at www.philipfreemanbooks.com.

  LAURIE EALKHOVEN

  is the author of many books, including George Washington: An American Life and Harriet Tubman: Leading the Way to Freedom. She lives in New York City. Visit her at www.lauriecalkhoven.com.

  DREW WILLIS

  is an art director and illustrator working in New York City. He wishes he could invent a time machine to go back and tell his eight-year-old self that he is going to grow up to illustrate a book about mythology. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Lizzy, and his dog, mister man. Visit him at www.drewwillis.com.

  Jacket design by Lizzy Bromley

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2012 by Drew Willis

  Simon & Schuster

  Books for Young Readers

  Simon & Schuster. New York

  Meet the author,

  watch videos, and get extras at

  KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

  HEROES

  of OLYMPUS

  SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2012 by Philip Freeman

  Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Drew Willis

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

  is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Book design by Lizzy Bromley

  The text for this book is set in Janson and Yana.

  The illustrations for this book are rendered digitally.

  0312 FFG

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Calkhoven, Laurie.

  Heroes of Olympus / by Philip Freeman ; adapted by Laurie Calkhoven. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-4424-1729-8 (hardcover)

  1. Mythology, Classical—Juvenile literature. I. Freeman, Philip, 1961– Oh my gods.

  II. Title.

  BL725.C35 2012

  398.20938—dc23

  2011021078

  ISBN 978-1-4424-1732-8 (eBook)

  Acknowledgments

  Many thanks to all who helped this book become a reality, including David Gale, Joëlle Delbourgo, Bob Bender, and Johanna Li. My special thanks to Laurie Calkhoven for her fine adaptation and to Drew Willis for his wonderful illustrations.

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  CREATION

  GODS

  Zeus

  Poseidon

  Hades

  Apollo

  Hephaestus

  Ares

  Hermes

  Pan

  Helios

  Dionysus

  Cupid

  GODDESSES

  Hera

  Demeter

  Artemis

  Aphrodite

  Hecate

  Hestia

  Athena

  Eos

  The Muses

  The Fates

  Cybele

  HEROES

  Perseus

  Theseus

  Daedalus and Icarus

  Bellerophon

  Melampus

  Atalanta

  Procne and Philomela

  LOVERS

  Narcissus and Echo

  Pyramus and Thisbe

  Ceyx and Alcyone

  Glaucus and Scylla

  Hero and Leander

  Hypermnestra and Lynceus

  Baucis and Philemon

  Alpheus and Arethusa

  Pomona and Vertumnus

  Endymion and Selene

  Orpheus and Eurydice

  HERCULES

  OEDIPUS

  JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS

  TROY

  MYCENAE

  ODYSSEUS

  AENEAS

  ROME

  Romulus and Remus

  The Horatii Brothers

  One-eyed Horatius

  Scaevola

  Cloelia

  Lucretia

  GREEK AND ROMAN GODS

  DIRECTORY OF GODS, GODDESSES, MONSTERS, AND MORTALS

  GLOSSARY

  GENEALOGIES

  INDEX

  Introduction

  I love stories about ancient gods and heroes. Magical stories set in strange and ancient worlds were my favorite bedtime reading when I was young, and they still are today. What could be better than Zeus wielding his mighty thunderbolt or Hercules slaying monsters?

  When we use the word “myth” today, we usually mean a story that isn’t true. The ancient Greeks used the word “mythos” to mean anything spoken—tales told by great bards and poets in story and song. The Greek and Roman myths were traditional tales that held important meanings, whether they were true or not.

  The Greeks had their own stories, but they were also a people of the wine-dark sea. Everywhere Greek colonists settled, the stories of their gods and heroes flourished. They were quick to adopt new tales, and stories flowed into Greece from places like Asia Minor, the Nile valley, and Mesopotamia. When Phoenician traders introduced their alphabet to the area around the Aegean Sea, the Greeks adapted the symbols to their own language and began to write their stories down.

  Sometime around the year 750 BC, a poet named Homer recorded the greatest of all the Greek storie
s: the story of the Trojan War. Others wrote down other tales as well, and throughout Greece, festivals were devoted to tragedies and comedies about the gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters of ancient times.

  Far to the west, a small village on the banks of the Tiber River in Italy had begun to expand beyond its seven hills. The Romans inherited a rich mythology from their own ancestors, but they added many of the Greek stories and made them their own. As Rome grew and its power extended across the Mediterranean and beyond, the Romans spread the ancient myths throughout their empire.

  In this book you’ll find modern retellings of all the major Greek and Roman myths. These stories are so full of beauty and magic and disturbing twists that today’s readers can still find truths in the ancient tales.

  May you never lose your love for old stories.

  Creation

  In the beginning there was Chaos—a great, bottomless pit in a dark universe. Out of Chaos came the green Earth and the black hole of Tartarus below. Eros, or love, also sprang from Chaos, followed by Erebus, the underworld, and his sister, Night.

  The family of Chaos bore untold sons and daughters. Some were children of beauty and hope, but most were of darkness and despair.

  Earth gave birth to starry Sky who became her husband. Their twelve children were the first gods and goddesses. The youngest, Cronus, was the most stubborn and clever of them all.

  Earth also gave birth to creatures like the violent and brutal Cyclopes with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. Three of Earth’s children were huge monsters with a hundred arms and fifty heads each.

  Father Sky hated his children. As soon as they were born, he shoved them into a hole in the ground and would not let them see the light of day. Mother Earth groaned in pain. She missed her children, and she wanted revenge on Father Sky. She made a sharp sickle, a curved knife, out of the hardest rock and showed it to her children.

  “Who will dare strike back against Sky?” she asked.

  Only the youngest of the gods, Cronus, spoke: “Mother, I will do it. I am not afraid of Sky.”

  Mother Earth gave her son the sickle with its jagged teeth. When night drew near, and Sky stretched himself across the Earth, Cronus sprang from his hiding place. With a single swing of the sickle, he slashed Sky’s flesh. Blood spattered across Earth.

  Spiteful Furies, wicked giants, and nymphs rose from the bloody Earth.

  Pieces of Sky sailed through the air and landed in the sea. They floated to the island of Cyprus. The pounding waves created a white foam on the beach. Inside the foam, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born.

  Now it was Father Sky who groaned in pain. He cursed his children and called them Titans. He swore that one day Cronus would pay for his wicked deed.

  Now that Cronus had defeated his father, the young Titan ruled all of heaven and earth. He married his sister, Rhea, and fathered five children. Like their parents, the children were immortal, which means they will never die. There was Hestia, goddess of home and hearth, then Demeter who ripens the fruits of the earth, and Hera, goddess of marriage and women. Rhea also gave birth to mighty Hades, ruler of the underworld, and Poseidon, shaker of the Earth.

  Cronus had learned from his parents that he would lose his power to one of his children. When each child was born, he snatched it from Rhea and swallowed it whole.

  Rhea suffered from losing her children. She went to her parents, Earth and Sky, and asked how she might punish Cronus. They told her what they had told Cronus: that he would one day lose his throne to a son. They also told Rhea to go to the island of Crete to give birth to her sixth child. Alone in a cave high on a mountain, she gave birth to Zeus. Earth took her grandson away to hide in a secret place.

  Cronus arrived and demanded his newborn child. Earth had given Rhea a stone wrapped in cloth. Rhea handed the stone to Cronus. He snatched the bundle and shoved it down his throat. He never suspected that he had been fooled.

  As the years passed, Earth raised Zeus on Crete, hidden from the eyes of his father. The boy grew wise and strong. One day he left his hiding place and hatched a plan with Metis, the daughter of Ocean. She offered Cronus a potion for his health. It made him vomit up his children. The children banded together with Zeus and challenged their father in the greatest battle the world will ever see.

  For ten long years the younger gods battled their elders. It seemed as if Zeus would never be able to defeat his father. Then Zeus’s grandmother, Earth, came to him with wise advice. Cronus and the other Titans were afraid of the Cyclopes and the hundred-armed monsters and had left them imprisoned in Tartarus, which was both a place and the god who ruled this black hole. Earth told her grandson that with the help of the Cyclopes and these three monsters, he might be able to defeat his father.

  Zeus sped to Tartarus and brought them all back to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. He fed them nectar and ambrosia, the food and drink of the gods. Then he spoke to them: “Children of Sky and Earth, for ten long years we have been fighting the Titans. Neither side can win. I call on you to help us, to remember who it was who freed you from the darkness of Tartarus.”

  One of the hundred-armed monsters, Cottus, answered for all of them: “Son of Cronus, we know that you are wiser than your father and his brothers and sisters. We will fight with you and crush the Titans into dust.”

  The Cyclopes forged lightning bolts for Zeus and joined the young Olympians in war. They fought until the sky roared, the sea rolled, and the earth quaked. Zeus raged with all his might. He threw lightning bolts down on his enemies from the sky. Forests burst into flame and smoke rose to the heavens. At last, the tide of the battle turned. Cronus and the Titans tried to run, but they were captured and sent down into gloomy Tartarus. There they are guarded by the Cyclopes and will never again see the light of day. Except for Atlas. Zeus punished Atlas for siding with the Titans by forcing him to bear the weight of the heavens on his shoulders.

  Just when Zeus thought the war was over, Typhon, son of Tartarus, rose against the young immortals. He was a horrible creature with a hundred snake heads. He bellowed like a bull as he climbed Mount Olympus. The young gods panicked. Zeus took his weapons—thunder and lightning—down to face the creature and struck him again and again. Then Zeus picked up Typhon’s broken body and cast him down into Tartarus to live forever with the Titans. He rages there still, bellowing typhoons across the sea.

  Zeus was now the leader of the immortals from the shining heights of Mount Olympus. He was careful not to be overthrown like his father and grandfather before him. He took the stone Cronus had swallowed and set it up at the holy valley of Delphi beneath Mount Parnassus, in the center of the earth, as a monument to himself.

  Zeus was the most powerful of all the gods, but he knew he could not rule alone. He gambled with his brothers Poseidon and Hades to divide the world between them. Poseidon won the sea. Hades won the underworld, and Zeus, the sky. Earth and Mount Olympus belonged to all three brothers, but all the gods knew that Zeus was their king.

  The king of the gods decided he should marry. Earth and Sky had told Zeus that a son born to Metis would be more powerful than Zeus. So, Zeus chose Metis as his first wife. When she was pregnant, Zeus swallowed her whole. He thought he had seen the last of his bride and her child, but he had a terrible headache. He ordered Prometheus, a nephew of Cronus, to split open his head with an ax. Prometheus did, and out came the goddess Athena. She was the wisest of Zeus’s children. Her mother remained trapped inside Zeus as a source of good advice.

  Zeus’s second wife was Themis, goddess of order and justice. Some say she is the mother of the Fates, the rulers of human destiny. Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, was his next bride. She gave birth to the Graces, goddesses of beauty.

  When Zeus married Demeter, he fathered Persephone. Zeus’s next wife, Leto, gave birth to Apollo, the god of archery, and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Finally, he married his sister Hera and became the father of Hebe, Eileithyia, and Ares, the god of war. Some say He
phaestus was also their son.

  The earth below Mount Olympus was beautiful but empty except for wild animals and green plants. The gods looked down from Olympus and saw no one who could worship them. A few tales say it was Zeus who solved the problem, but most say it was clever Prometheus who first had the idea of creating mortals to serve the gods.

  Prometheus took clay from the earth and mixed it with water and then shaped it into men. They were formed in the image of gods with two legs so that they would walk upright and gaze at the stars. There were no women.

  Prometheus taught men to build houses and to track the movements of the stars across the night sky. He taught them mathematics, arts, medicine, how to work with metals, how to tell the future, and even how to write. He showed them how to grow food and tame wild horses. At last he led them to the shore and taught them how to build ships to sail across the seas.

  Men lived at peace with the gods and feasted with them. One day Zeus was invited to join a celebration in a seaside town. At such festivals the gods always chose the best portion of meat, leaving the mortal men skin and bones. Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus. He killed an ox for the feast. Then he roasted the animal over the fire and put the best meat inside the ox’s ugly stomach. He wrapped the bones in rich, juicy fat and laid both choices on the table.

  When Zeus took his seat at the head of the table, he was surprised at how Prometheus had divided the portions. “My good friend, great among the immortals, this doesn’t seem a fair choice.”

  Prometheus smiled. “Zeus, greatest of all the gods, please choose whichever part you desire.”

  Zeus suspected a trick, but the smell of the rich fat was too much to resist. He chose that portion only to discover that he had chosen a bag of bones. He was furious at Prometheus and at man. He stormed away from the feast and decided to take back the fire that he had given men to roast their food and keep themselves warm.

  Prometheus stole fire from heaven and, hiding it in the stalk of a fennel plant, brought it back to men.

  Zeus was angrier than ever. He punished Prometheus in a most terrible way. He ordered Power and Strength, sons of the goddess Styx, to take Prometheus to a cliff in the Caucasus Mountains and bind him to a pillar of stone. Then he sent an eagle to tear the god open and eat his liver. Because he was immortal, Prometheus could not die. His liver grew again each night, only to be eaten by the same eagle the next day. Prometheus was chained for eternity on a cold mountain at the end of the world.