Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Part 8: The interest of Zeus

Now Zeus was the fairest of the gods, a god of great stature, with an internal light that came from his purity of thought and life, or so the scribes he hired have written of him. He was a large god in form, not that any god could be considered small. Zeus strode with a purpose over the surface of Elysium, or sat regally on the throne of Zeus where he dispensed justice and wisdom to his fellow deities.

Now, Rah had followed his charges, the Serrun-D’La, to earth in the hopes of persuading them to not end up beached on Jehovah’s legendary anger. Rah was an odd one, with a bird face. Many have believed he was a deity of the Egyptians, but he was nothing of the sort; the Egyptians were confused and were following the tattered remnants of a much earlier religion, that of the confused Serrun-D’La.

When a new creation gets advanced enough to no longer believe in its gods, the gods lose influence in the world and must learn to leave them alone, a lesson Rah never learned. His charges settled earth long before the flood, even before Adam and Eve were chased out of the garden. Rah continued to try to convince them to leave earth. These are those the scribes speak of when they say that ‘in those days there were giants in the land’.

Zeus heard through Hades’ friend Hel that Lucifer, earth’s planetary prince, so dubbed by himself, with no contest so far, had been off to talk to the Allfather about this particular planet, something to do with the behavior of its plenipotentiary deity, one Jehovah of the Council of the Most High.

Rumors had it that there was at least one elder god on the planet as well, Atum. Drawn by parties thrown by Lucifer, dubbed the devil by Jehovah, who styled himself simply as god, Atum had taken up residence in the Nile Delta area and proceeded to drink himself into a stupor on a daily basis.

Now the Serrun-D’La were majestic, large and varied. Some of them bore heads similar to animals found on earth, so were considered monsters by those who saw them. The greatest of the Serrun-D’La, however, looked like a large man. Cronus was not a particularly evil man, er, person, although he held on to his rule with an iron fist. He’d killed his father to get the job, being a relatively young ruler.

So long had the Serrun-D’La existed they no longer believed in Rah. Further, they figured themselves the apex of creation, almost gods, and, lo, the worlds they strode on trembled at the striding. Yet when they witnessed the arrival of Zeus they felt threatened.

On the fourth day of the seventh month of the tenth year after the flood did Zeus descend to earth in the area known as Greece. Zeus arrived as befits the god of the sky, on a cloud with thunder and lightning and the light of the sun radiating from his person.

It was not possible for Cronus to ignore this. His racial memory allowed him to ignore Rah, who was just a silly beak-faced monster to scare the children, but nothing like this Zeus arrival had ever happened, and so obviously. Cronus would not allow it, not another enslaver like the Rah of the ancient scripts. Cronus was the god of this world and none would dare dispute it. Well, Jehovah had tried to dispute it, but the council of the most high was interested in this Rah subplot so denied his request to swab them cleanly off his planet. Besides, as the council wisely, er, snidely, pointed out, god had still not created anything at all on his pet planet when the Serrun-D'La had arrived.

Cronus gathered his council together and prepared for war. The council of his best and strongest warriors called themselves the Titans. “My fellow Titans,” Cronus said, “today we defend our freedom, our way of life, our very identity. Today we take the war to the gods themselves. We are the rulers of this world. We shall prevail. And, when we do, we shall be gods!”

Well, most of them were not titans of intellect, these Titans, or they might have spent a few minutes in meditation on the chances of defeating a god, but they were titans of emotion, titans of courage, and in possession of titanic egos, so with a thunderous roar, most of the Titans rose up and strode out to meet Zeus. They did not go as one, however; many of them stayed back, some fearful of Zeus and of attacking a god and some certain of Cronus’ eventual comeuppance. Some even stole away in secret to aid Zeus.

The battle was met in classic style, with the army of Cronus drawn up on the northern end of the Island of Crete, so chosen because there was little there in those days, it being shortly after the flood, and the army of Zeus drawn up on the southern end of the island.

The battle was joined and fiercely did they fight. Zeus led charge after charge against Cronus, while Cronus led charge after charge against Zeus. It seemed that a creature may triumph over a god and upset the natural order of things, as Zeus' fury was unable to put a dent in the Titans' resolve.

A relatively unknown Serrun-D’La, Gaia, approached Zeus one day after nearly ten years of fighting and timidly told him of the Serrun-D’La Cronus had locked up in the Underworld, a vast subterranean complex built by the Titans as a base on their rise to power. Zeus, accompanied by Gaia as a guide, went down there, killed the guard, and freed the prisoners, some truly frightful and gigantic monsters. They swore allegiance to Zeus and explained some of the deep magic of this world to him, allowing him full use of his powers, and gave him magical talismans from 'the god of this world', to give him power over lightning and thunder.

On ascending to the surface, Zeus led his army in a vicious charge straight at Cronus’ side, only to find Atlas, Cronus’ lieutenant, commanding the host of the Titans. Upset about this, they stalked about searching Cronus, finally finding him in his citadel at Tartarus, where Zeus and his new allies killed Cronus.

Today, many believe the Titans remain imprisoned in Tartarus, believing them to be as immortal as they believed themselves to be. However, in the collapsed and crumbling citadel, long since covered by a relentless planet, with both water and rock, rest nothing but bones of those who would challenge the gods.

Zeus was not a vindictive god, and raised many of the Serrun-D’La who stood with him to godhood on this planet, some of which remain Egyptian deities to this day, and many of whom reigned with him in Athens on Mount Olympus.

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