by Brian Smith
Zeus then went back to his old ways, commanding the other Gods to do his bidding and, most irksome to Hera, continuing his affairs with sundry Goddesses.
Hera pretended not to see and was full of smiles when Zeus looked at her, but all the while her cunning mind which still smarted from the
Briareus
humiliating failure of her revolt, was seeking a way to have revenge.
Then one day, it was about the time that Alexander's invincible armies were charging across the Persian Empire, Hera came to a decision. "Iris, my voice's trustiest messenger, hie thee quickly to the drowsy hall of Hypnos, and bid him send a Dream to Zeus of being in a banquet with Dionysos and Aphrodite, and let Dionysos replenish his chalice with wine so that it is never empty, and let Aphrodite weave a passionate love dream around him from which there is no awakening."
Then Iris, in her thousand hues enrobed traced through the sky her arching bow and
Hera
reached the cloud-hid palace of the God of Sleep. Around him everywhere in various guise lie empty Dreams, countless as ears of corn at harvest time or sands cast on the shore or leaves that fall upon the forest floor.
There Iris entered, brushing the Dreams aside, and the bright sudden radiance of her robe lit up the hallowed place; slowly the god his heavy eyelids raised, and sinking back time after time, his languid drooping head nodding upon his chest, at last he shook himself out of himself, and leaning up he recognized her and asked why she came, and she replied "Hypnos, quietest of the gods, peace of all the world, balm of the soul, who drives care away, who gives ease to weary limbs after the hard day's toil and strength renewed to meet the morrow's tasks, bid now thy Dreams, whose perfect mimicry matches the truth, in the likeness of a banquet to appear to Zeus and feign the presence of Dionysos and Aphrodite to fill him with wine and his heart with passion. So Hera orders."
Hypnos did Hera's bidding and not long after Zeus fell into a deep sleep whose delightful and unending dream kept him from knowing that he was no longer awake.
Freed from his supervision the Gods began to forget about human affairs and rather chose to live among their own kind. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire saw people abandon the old Gods whose temples were turned into churches. The middle ages bore witness to the fanatical hatred and violence with which the new creeds had taken control over human affairs. Even later, closer to our own time, people forsook the belief in the divine altogether and found faith in their own ability to control the world and shape their destiny.
Six runners - in full Greek battle gear - raced the six miles up Mount Olympus, home of the gods, with their shields and long spears clanking. It was the opening to the annual Prometheia festival in which the dodecatheon, the twelve main Gods of ancient Greece, was celebrated. During the three days of the festival there were public prayers, two marriages, and a naming ceremony, where followers, who considered Greece to be a country under Christian occupation chose an ancient name - like Calisto, Hermis or Orpheus - and 'cleansed' themselves of their modern Christian ones.
It was the first time Chara had joined the festival and she was enthusiastic. "I love the energy this place has," she said to her boyfriend Leonidas. "It's going back to the roots. It makes me feel the continuation through the millennia."
Leonidas didn't answer her. He had only joined the event out of love for her and because she had asked him very much, well, and if he was honest with himself, he was also a bit curious. Deep down, however, he felt very ill at ease. As a devout Christian it felt wrong to attend a festival that celebrated the ancient pagan Gods. He was a fighter pilot in the Greek air force. He was of medium build with dark hair and brown eyes and his interest in outdoor activities had given him a swarthy complexion which stood in stark contrast to Chara. She seldom spent time in the sunshine and her tender features, her pale skin and silky hair lent her a degree of beauty that Helen of Troy would have been proud of. She taught Art and History at a secondary school. People sometimes wondered why she was together with Leonidas, a man she didn't seem to have much in common with, but she didn't mind. "Let people think what they will," she said. "I love him and that's all that matters."
The following Sunday Leonidas attended church service where the priest railed against the Prometheia festival and denounced its followers as 'miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion'. This made Leonidas feel even more guilty and he decided to help Chara get away from the pagan Gods. In his eyes her interest, indeed her adoration of them, was as bad as being addicted to heroin or cocaine.
Meanwhile, high up in a place no mortal could espy, mighty Zeus was stirring in his sleep. Any dream may lose its attraction when it has been dreamed too long, and even though Dionysos and Aphrodite themselves were granting Zeus everything he desired, he was beginning to tire of their presence after more than 2300 years. His dream was in a land without time and he didn't realize how long he had slumbered, indeed he didn't even know that he was merely living in a dream, until worshippers at the Prometheia invoked his name and shook him free of his dream. No one had called his name for such a long, a very long time, that a single person calling to him almost came as a shock. He sat up in his divine bed and understood that none of the things that had passed between him and Aphrodite were true. He knew that he had been cruelly deceived. Vexed he called for Hera, but there was no reply. In fact no matter who he called the result was the same. But his greatest surprise came when he gazed down to Earth and didn't recognize the world anymore. The stench and noise of modern transport made him irate. He took a deep breath and inhaled the history that had passed since he fell asleep. The lost centuries appeared before his eyes and he was wroth. But when he saw how He and the other Gods were derided and ignored, how humans prayed to strange deities he had never heard of, and how many mortals worshipped no one at all, he was incandescent with rage. He took his mighty sceptre and shook it with a violence he would not have thought himself capable of. The largest and most powerful flash of lightning ever seen left his sceptre and struck the White House. It was blown to smithereens.
"I will teach you to incur My wrath," Zeus shouted and shook his sceptre again. This time lightning struck the entrance to the underworld leaving the gates wide open. Hades, the Lord of the dead and ruler of the underworld, heard his furious brother shouting. With the gates to the underworld flung open he saw his chance to escape the nether realm and retake the land of the living. He let loose Cerberus, the three headed hound that guarded the underworld so that the dead could not return to the land of the living, put on his helmet that made him invisible and strode forth to investigate.
With Hades and Cerberus gone from the underworld the dead rejoiced and thronged towards the exit themselves. Ere long the entire underworld was on its feet and billions of ghoulish wanderers were headed towards the land of the living in the vain hope of regaining their own former existence. Even in the Tartarus, the nethermost part of the underworld where the most evil beings are sent, news spread. The first to leave was the many headed hydra that was once defeated by Hercules, and behind the vicious serpent came an army of terror.
When Hades emerged from his shadowy realm he saw part of what had enraged his brother Zeus. People digging treasures from the earth without the least sign of gratitude or even sacrifice to the Gods. Pestilential vehicles that poisoned the air all around and made so much noise that the mortals couldn't hear the Gods anymore. There were people flocking to strange cults around the planet worshipping non-existent deities, and far and wide temples that had once honoured the Gods lay in ruins. Where were the people who had once sacrificed black sheep to Hades with their faces averted lest they attracted his attention? Hades decided to let the dead come out of the underworld unhindered to teach mortals a lesson and to enrich his realm with the sighs and tears of the mortals.
When Zeus saw Hades he looked at his brother suspiciously. "I suppose you were in the plot with my dear wife, too," he said angrily.
"I know nothing," Hades replied. "All I know is tha
t the mortals have gone mad."
"When were they ever sane?" Zeus replied. "Have you seen Hera? Have you seen anyone?"
Hades shook his head. "No one, brother. Ah, it's been a long time, such a very long time since we were together. It's good to see you again after all. What about the mortals?"
"Let them do what they do best - die. I want Hera and Hypnos. Who else could have tricked me in so vile a way."
"She will come to you soon enough, brother. You know her weakness for the mortals. Behold the Earth! See what Cerberus and Hydra are doing. See the unending number of the dead sweep across the land of the living. Soon the mortals will be but a distant memory."
Zeus nodded. "Your council is wise,
