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part 2 of the story
Yahweh vs Zeus

James Correnti

II
A Season of Tenuous Peace

    Zeus’ personal life blossomed carelessly and profusely after the first war. He married Metis, his first of many wives, and after impregnating her, swallowed her and out of his head burst Athena. He married six more times with his last being to his sister Hera, who became the Queen of gods and heaven. His wives and lovers conceived at least thirty-seven of his children. With Hera, he fathered six, the most important being Ares, god of war. Hera, alone, conceived the lame and ugly Hephaestus as a reprisal for Zeus’ lone conception of Athena. Hera was jealous of Zeus’ many affairs and conspired with others to retaliate against him and his mistresses. Thus, Zeus was preoccupied with ruling the known universe, skirmishes between minor gods, his entangled love life, and most importantly, rumors of an insurrection.
    Along with his four guards, Zeus loved the company of his two virgin daughters Artemis and Athena. Athena was his most cherished child. She was the goddess of wisdom and warfare. He trusted only her with his deathly thunderbolt.
    During this time period, Athena wished to become the patron goddess of her namesake city, Athens. However, Poseidon also courted the Athenians in an effort to add land to his sea empire.
    He addressed the citizens of Athens, “I will strike the sacred rock of Acropolis with my trident and bring forward a fountain of water.”
    They tasted the salty water and looked to Athena.
    She proclaimed, “With my spear I will give Athens prosperity for the future.”
    She quickly touched the ground with her weapon and brought forth the first of many olive trees that brought them riches. The Athenians proclaimed Athena their patron. Now, Poseidon hated not only Zeus but his daughter.
    Artemis was Zeus’ most complicated child. At her third birthday, she amazed Zeus with surprising requests. She wished never to get married, freedom to wear a knee-length hunting tunic unlike any other goddess, a bow and arrow made by the Cyclopes, and to rule all the mountains. Neither gods nor men could tame this virgin goddess of the hunt and wild things.
    She was also another thorn in the side of Poseidon. Her control of the moon, and therefore tides, undermined Poseidon’s total rule of the seas. His son, Orion, was Artemis’ hunting companion. They loved each other but Artemis preferred her virgin status. Her jealous twin brother Apollo tricked her into killing Orion, deepening Poseidon’s grudge against Zeus.
    Apollo was the most popular god of Olympus. As god of the light, music, health, and poetry, he always spoke the truth. Evidently, the murder of Orion was an exception. He was Zeus’ conduit to earthlings and was a most formidable deity to all but his father and mother, Leto. He broke that relationship with his father when one of many minor skirmishes broke out. Hera and Poseidon convinced him to help overthrow Zeus. She drugged Zeus and while he slept the two gods tied him to his throne. Briareus, one of the Hecatoncheires guarding Tartarus, overheard the arguments when Zeus woke up, broke the chains. The three conspirators begged for forgiveness.
    Zeus did not want to imprison those rebels in Tartarus where they would be influenced further by the Titans. He humiliated the two gods by forcing them to work for mortal wages for a year and punished Hera by hanging her from the sky. She cried in pain throughout the night. The next morning, he freed her with the promise she would never go against him again.
    All indulged Hermes, Zeus’ youngest and mischievous child. Despite his lies and tricks, Zeus was fond of him and amused by him. In his role as herald and messenger of Zeus, Hermes enjoyed the rare privilege of crossing all the boundaries between realms. He was a graceful shrewd god who valued an extremely close relationship with his father.
    Many other gods emerged during this period of the regime, and Zeus had a primary role in creating that population who inhabited Olympus. But only three more of this new generation of Olympians were involved in The Last War. They were in a complicated love triangle which included his daughter Aphrodite, the loveliest and most enchanting of all the goddesses. She mesmerized both men and gods. Zeus had her married off to Hera’s ugly son, Hephaistos. However, Aphrodite took on many lovers, with Ares, Zeus and Hera’s only son, being her favorite.
    The other warrior, demigod Heracles, was the son of Zeus and Alemena, a mortal. He was admired by many of the Olympians. They respected his strength and courage, and showered him with many godlike weapons and gifts.
    This period between the Titanomachy and Gigantomachy Wars many mortals will recognize. Writers have chronicled, both fact and fiction, on the escapades of these and other gods. Worshipers have summoned them, victims have suffered, and soldiers have won and lost wars with them at their side. It was also the period when Zeus married his last wife, Hera. However, now is the time to see how they prevailed in the second war.

III
Gigantomachy
The Cause and Aftermath

    Hermes forced his way into the King’s chamber and shouted, “The giants are revolting!!!”
    Zeus’ suspicions had come to fruition. With all her offspring imprisoned or on Zeus’ side, Gaia needed new allies to free her favorite sons from Tartarus. Because of either loyalty to Zeus or fear of Zeus, no other gods would support Gaia for this monumental task. However, the Gigantes, the approximately one hundred bizarre giant demigods that spewed from the blood, of Uranus’ castration which coalesced upon Gaia, were pleased to fulfill her mission. This desperate attempt to overthrow Zeus sealed Gaia’s future obscurity in the heavens, therefore very little has been reported about her existence post Gigantomachy. She will again surface as a revengeful manipulative matriarch during telling of The Last War.
    This second war, against the Gigantes resulted in the nearly total annihilation of these monster gods. They were enormous creatures violent, slovenly, and humanoid in appearance with legs consisting of serpents. With Gaia’s urging, Eurymedon, their king, led the them to war and ruin. From this contingent of giants, that numbered more than five times that of the Olympians, only Aristaeus and Syceus managed to survive and escape with the help of Gaia. On the other hand, not one of Zeus’ fighters was impaired. This was not the same Olympian army that had conquered the Titans. Some of these fighters were Zeus’ aforementioned favorite children. As a king, he felt triumphant; as a father, he felt proud. The other unmentioned heroes who killed many of the giants were also related to Zeus. Dionysus was Zeus’ party and drinking son that every family loves to hate. Zeus honored his niece Hecate with gifts of the sky, earth, sea, and more. She was the moon/night goddess respected by most of the gods, and Helios, Zeus’ cousin, possessed the power to move the sun east to west. The last of this group were his three daughters, the Moerae or Fates.
    As retaliation to the victorious gods, Gaia took the joyful Nymphs, Nereids, and Satyrs with her into hiding leaving all realms, and morphing into her primary roots far from the gods. This caused Zeus much consternation. Not only were the sea and earth barren of the creatures of innocence, his empire would never see peace with her still unhappy. There were no known gods that were likely to support Gaia in her quest but Zeus knew his shrewd grandmother was not through. Unknowingly to all, the weapons, skills, and courage displayed by his combatants in the Gigantomachy were to be a rehearsal for a cataclysmic war supported by Gaia. He remembered the warning, “trust only Styx and her children”, that was given to him before his children were born. He needed to know if his favorites were trustworthy. For in the heavens, where power and jealously reigned, could father, mother, child, or anyone or anything be trusted? He summoned Themis.
    While Olympus recuperated from that wasteful war with the giants, the gods and goddesses active in the Gigantomachy retreated to their labyrinthine lives. Hecate frequented many temples throughout earthworld for her spiritual nourishment. She received much of her goddess strength from the worship of the witches at the Temple of Thessaly. Now far away from Olympus, she brought Zeus’ two daughters for a short visit to affirm their oath to virginity. Hecate was mentor to Artemis and Athena, and the three faced much pressure from the male gods who wished to defile them. They had become stronger by frequently repelling misogynist challenges. They needed each other for protection from aberrant gods and jealous goddesses. The three together were unassailable and loyal to their king who loved and trusted them.
    The rest of the warriors assembled in the central hall at Zeus’ Palace on Mount Olympus. Unlike his upper private chamber, from where he viewed his domain and where he sat after the Titanomachy with his first wife Metis at his side, this spacious gallery also included an empty throne for his last wife, Hera. This Queen of Olympus was notably absent from the proceedings. The four loyal guards surrounded these thrones as Zeus sat and scanned the room for the rest of the giant killers. He knew his two virgin daughters were safe in Hecate’s secure temple. Helios and all Zeus’ children faithfully made their appearance. But, Hephaestus and Ares, where were they?
    After the encounters they had had in this second war, Hephaestus appeared to avoid contact with Zeus. He ensconced himself in his own palace on Olympus making dwellings, furnishings, and weapons for the gods. He was appreciated by the immortals for his workmanship. And except for participating in the Gigantomachy, he rarely visited the Earth, the sea, or the heavens.
    Ares, and his forbidden lover Aphrodite, both resented Zeus. He was Zeus and Hera’s only son who was hated by both parents for his arrogance and his despicable love of war and hatred of peace. After Hera alone conceived the ugly Hephaestus, Zeus maimed him out of jealousy and forced the beautiful desirable Aphrodite to marry him. Zeus’ typical outrageous behavior led to this dysfunctional family of five.
    After the central hall emptied and the gods retired to their nearby chambers, Themis miraculously appeared before Zeus. He escorted her to his upper private chamber where he ordered Nike and her siblings to guard the entrance to ensure his privacy. Themis silently paused, looked out upon Zeus’ distant empire, and serenely whispered, “I do not know why my fervor tells me that all Olympus is fragile.”
    “It is not fragile! The Cyclops have made it unassailable. The gates they fabricated are strong, and bestowed upon us the most formidable weapons.
    Themis confessed, “I have disconcerting premonitions. I know that your enemies here on the earth, the heavens, the sea, and below cannot directly hurt you. Yet I see the walls of Olympus defiled.”
    “By whom? Themis, your council has guided Olympus through the most treacherous attacks. Now you confuse me. Are your powers waning?”
    “I do not know. I can not foretell the intrusion from an alien force I do not understand. The speed of light is turbulent. I feel an influence from another time bending a path through space toward Olympus. My powers are weak when space and time become unstable. I can only predict the future when time travels forward. Now is the moment when we must assemble our special daughters, the three Horae, guardesses of the Gates of Olympus and weavers of Time, and the three Moerae who control fate. Have faith in them my lord. We must determine if they have the power to comprehend and repulse any intrusion upon Olympus. Perhaps then my vague impressions of the future will become clear.”
    Zeus, in thought, “Sometimes I do not comprehend what I create. Perhaps it is time for my mystic daughters to come to the aid of Olympus with their unique gifts.”

BOOK TWO
I
The Encounters

    Many light-years from Galaxy Milky Way, in the depths of an unseen unnamed galaxy, a sun, similar to earth’s, began its inevitable spiral of death. This apocalyptic event will not affect the occupants of the Seven Heavens above. However, it threatens to vaporize the home of their mortal worshippers. With little hope of saving them, the Supreme God Yahweh, with a choir of angels and future demons of every sort, will disappear into the dark matter on a journey of spiritual hunger seeking new worshippers. Monitoring the cosmos for direction, Yahweh had perceived many mortal voices from many directions, but focused on the loudest enticements from earthlings Abraham and Moses. In a strange language they call him Aravat. This all powerful creator will look to the seven trumpet angels to lead his thousands of followers to this new robust planet with its abundance of sustenance.
    But first, Yahweh orders an advance party of twenty angels to reconnoiter the planet’s solar system. These angels are not the lovely creatures represented to you by your artists or the protective guardians found in your clergys’ sermons. These are seasoned warrior angels who are capable of rampaging from mortal planet to mortal planet doing Yahweh’s bidding.
    They must determine if any other god nation occupies that space, and if the mortals inhabiting any of those planets have evolved spiritually. The detachment must find the wormhole within the dark matter where time/space twists and curves directly into the obscure galaxy and solar system, containing that mortal life. These shortcuts through space/time are only for gods, angels, and other spirit life. Mortals have not evolved enough to survive travel through these pathways in dark matter.
    Samyaza, a future demon angel, was the leader of this detachment of fighters called Watchers. Lucifer, Yahweh’s most loyal, powerful and intelligent creation, accompanies this angelic group and will report directly to Yahweh upon their return. He was the one who carefully listened at each spherical hole’s entrance for the earthling’s cries for salvation. Upon finding the inviting portal, it took only moments to enter the heliosphere on the edge of earth’s solar system.
    They soared past the organically dead outer planets searching for mortal voices that were issuing from the small cloudy azure planet. Lucifer and the twenty watchers hovered above the heavens that concealed them from the magnificent domain of pure crystalline structures. They found Olympus. And the voices that streamed up through their ranks from that enchanted paradise were not those of mortals. While all were transfixed upon the alluring palaces, and apprehensive about what to do next, they did not perceive Hermes. In his many travels through all realms he had followed a strong foreign presence in the heavens. This free floating messenger god of boundary crossings was more curious than feaful. He was born well after his family’s patriarch had invaded the Primitve gods, and had never seen a foreign spirit force. Undismayed by these intruders, wishing to get their attention, he began playing his lyre softly.
    The newcomers observed that these beautiful notes came from a singular athletic male with a playful smile and wings on his sandels and cap. They too were not threatened after being discovered by this innocuous young man.
    Lucifer approached Hermes and asked, “Who are you?”
    “I am the god Hermes, son of the King of Gods, Zeus, who rules the world. Who are you? Where are you from?”
    “I am Lucifer, Yahweh’s first angel. I am from a place where mortals will no longer exist. Our worshippers will die. We are answering a call made to us from beings on your nearby planet.”
    Hermes confused, “Angel? What is an angel?” You are like Nike, our goddess with wings on her back.”
    “You are a god? Zeus is a god? Nike is a goddess? We have only one god, Yahweh. The choir of thousands of angels serve our creator.”
    “We have no angels in Olympus; only god life resides here.”
    Lucifer looking down from the heavens, “Is that Olympus?”
    “Yes, my father’s house.”
    “It is magnificent. I would like to have counsel with your Zeus.”
*        *        *
    In his private quarters atop of Olympus, Zeus rested on his throne while Themis sat at a table with their six gifted daughters. The puzzled young women look back and forth at each other for answers.
    Zeus warns, “There is apprehension in Olympus. We may be facing a crises of which we know nothing about.”
    Looking intensely at Themis, “Your mother has told me it is beyond her power to comprehend this thing.”
    Now perusing the daughters, “You must stop your work on Earth now, and look outside the world of Olympus to foresee our destiny. No one else has your powers of shaping fate and altering time.”
    The three Moerae were dressed in white robes with hoods that didn’t quite conceal their somber features. Their primary assignment was not a joyous one. They controlled the thread and allotment of life for mortals. Their powers, to deterrmine life and death, was one of the few that Zeus had no control over. This rare meeting was uncomfortable for them. They seldom left their vocation of instructing Thanatos as to which bodiless human spirits to carry to the underworld to face their final sacrifice to the gods.
    Contrarily, the Horae were clothed in soft flowing gowns each representing the colors of spring, summer, and fall. A tiara of flowers matching the gowns graced their heads.The chroma of their long hair changed with the color and fragrance of the seasons. Most importantly, they were the goddesses of time. If Olympus was to be assailed, they would be the first line of defense as guards of the Gates of Olympus.
    Eirene, dressed as the spring, favored peace and would seldom fight. She spoke gently to her enemy in compromise. She answered softly, “Father, we have used our powers only on mortals. Time for each mortal is unswerving. We determine the speed and direction of their time on earth. Our sisters determine the fate that befalls them. We have never interfered with godlife in that way. Are you are asking us to use our powers to look outside Olympus to the unknown?”
    “Yes, it is that time. We have no other alternative. We can not sit here and wait for outside forces to decide our fate.”
    He looked into the eyes of the seven goddesses. They had never heard him talk with such gravity before. There was anguish and pleading in his voice, “By combining your powers, you must determine when and what our fate bears. We do not know what to prepare for. We have no other choice.”
    Just then a pounding on the door stunned everyone. Hermes with his guests, Lucifer and Samyaza, had approached Nike and the guards. He insisted that they let them in to see Zeus. Hermes was the only god allowed to intrude on Zeus’ private quarters. But Nike was suspicious of these strange creatures and also knew the importance of the meeting. She held Hermes back. He pushed past her striking the door and shouting, “Father we have visitors from a foreign world. They wish to speak to you.”
    The guests in the room were stunned. Zeus opened the door and saw the two strangers. He pulled his son into the room and told Nike to look after the aliens.
    Zeus, becoming even more alarmed, said, “What do we have here?”
    Hermes replied, “Two angels from another world that is dying. I think they have something very important to ask you.”
    “I do not trust them.” He turned to the goddesses at the table, “Watch these angels carefully and tell me their intentions.”
    He looks back at Hermes, “Tell Nike and the others to escort them into this proceeding.”
    Space was made at the table for the two newcomers while the guards surrounded Zeus’ throne. Samyaza, quickly looking past the Horae, perused the three Moerae. He thought, “What secrets are hidden beneath those cloaks.”
    Atropos, who choose the manner of each mortals death, never looked anyone in the eye for fear of ending their life. She lured Samyaza’s look from her sisters to her intriguing hidious eyes.
    Zeus took command, “Who are you? What do you want?”
    “I am Lucifer. I have come here with Samyaza and his twenty Watchers. We are angels from the Seven Heavens. Our leader Yahweh sent us to find the mortals who called out to him.”
    “What are your angels?”
    “They are created by Yahweh to serve in the heavens and planet Itnerroc.”
    “Do you not have your own mortals on Itnerroc?”
    “They will die with the star that has sustained them.”
    “The mortals on earth are our worshippers. We are extremely close to them. Some mortals are mothers of our children. You can not have any of them.”
    Lucifer and Samyaza were visibly shocked.
    Samyaza spoke up, “You copulate with your mortals? Yahweh forbids that on Itnerroc.”
    After a pause, Samyaza mumbled under his breath to Lucifer. Then he said out loud, “With your permission Zeus, I would like to speak to Lucifer for a monemt outside these quarters.”
    Zeus nodded to the guards who escorted them out of the room.
    Within moments they reappeared. Lucifer addressed Zeus, “Can any god take an mortal woman?”
    “Yes, that is part of their sacrifice to the gods. Gods may take a man or woman. I have had many wives both mortal and goddess.”
    Lucifer confesses, “We have come here to determine if gods occupied this world and, if so, can they defend it from us. Yahweh is very strong with thousands of angels. You are vunerable to his power.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    “Yahweh requires us to bow to mortals and would punish us severely if we coveted a mortal on Itnerroc. It is difficult to obey Yahweh. You are a generous king. We want to remain here. In Olympus, we detect a unique freedom never known in the Seven Heavens. Yahweh is rigid and cruel. He will destroy all you’ve built and banish you from this Olympus. Our Watchers will help you defend your pristine palace.”
    “What else do you know?’
    “Yahweh expects us to return to the his heaven soon to tell him about this place. If we reveal to him that there are no gods or mortals on earth, he would not believe us. He heard the pleadings from your enslaved mortals. Our only choice is to stay here. We know that Yahweh will find us when we do not return. We will devise a plan of defense with you.”
    Zeus needed time to appraise the situation,“I will confer with my confidants. Then I will decide what to do. In the meantime, your angels may visit earth and delight in mortal carnality. Since you are not of Olympus, the mortals will not recognize you as a god. They will fear you. You must shapeshift into a pleasant mortal form and court the earthlings first.”
    “Angels always appear as human when visiting mortals,” Lucifer smiled.
    He dismissed Lucifer and Samyaza. Before clearing the rest of the room, Zeus instructed all present not to reveal the angel’s visit. He thought, “Themis was right. The unknown threat to Olympus was certain. These strange creatures from an unheard of sphere were impossible for her or the daughters to comprehend. They worried.”

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