Monday, December 3, 2012

The Daphne and Leukippos story in one post.

Because it was spread over two.  (One.  Two.)

Peneios married the nymph Kreusa and they had Hypseus, Stilbe, Daphne, Menippe, and Orseis.

Hypseus became the king of the proud Lapithai.

Stilbe with Apollo bore Lapithes and Kentauros.

Apollo wanted Daphne as well, but Daphne did not want him.  Actually, that's getting ahead of myself a bit. Daphne didn't want any man, and there aren't a lot of patrons for such women, especially if you're not interested in going to war and Athene is probably the least woman-like goddess in the pantheon for myriad reasons, many of which can probably be attributed to being stuck inside of Zeus' head for a while on her journey out of his body.

Anyway, most women/demi-gods/whatever who aren't into standard Greek sexuality tend to take a sort of Artemis way out of things.  So this is what Daphne did.  She kept only the company of women and lived as a hunter.  Artemis took notice and blessed her with the ability to shoot straight.  Not shoot very well; shoot straight.  Perfectly, impossibly, straight.

That is in no way important to the story, but as gifts go it's pretty nifty.

It came to pass that Daphne and her company of hunters were passing through Elis and there crossed paths with Leukippos, the son of Oinomaus (prince of Pisa).  Leukippos is said to have fallen in love with her, but how much love there could be when Daphne was avoiding interaction with men as much as possible is sort of subject to debate.

What is true is that he wanted to be with her and was willing to change his entire life to do it.  It was the custom in those times for boys and young men to grow their hair long, dedicating the uncut locks to the local river god.  Leukippos was growing his hair long for Alpheios.  He braided it the style of women, he bought women's clothes, and he left his male life behind.

He introduced himself as his father's daughter, and asked to join Daphne on her hunt.  He was allowed to do so and as time went on the two did become close and the feeling between them could truly be described as love.

Indeed they had become inseparable, Daphne would scarcely let him leave her sight, and they had many warm embraces.

Exactly what would have happened had the relationship played out is impossible to say, because it never got the chance.

Apollo did something very, very stupid.

Seeing the younger Eros, Aphrodite's son, he took a single look at the winged god's bow and laughed.  Then he boasted.  He spoke of how his aim was true, and how his arrows wounded.  He spoke of the damage he could do to beast and man, of a battle recently won.  And he told Eros to lay down his bow because only he was worthy of being a god with a bow.  (Had his sister been listening she doubtless would have shot him in the back of the head there and then.)

While he was the younger Eros, and while his form still resembled that of a boy, save for the wings, he was a much older god than Apollo and understood his own power far better than Apollo did.  He quickly said that his arrows could bring down Apollo, and fired one straight into him.  No wound was produced, what was produced was a lust that could only be quenched by Daphne.

At first Apollo tried to fight Eros' power over him, that lasted about thirty seconds.  Then he tried to channel it into more rational means.  He thought about what needed to be done to get her and the first thing was to get the person she was already in love with out of the way.

So he instilled the group of huntresses with a desire to bathe and swim.  The nearest spot was on the banks of Ladon, Daphne's uncle.

Leukippos was very uneasy the entire way there, trying to find some way out of what was coming, but he saw none, and as the rest of the party stripped to bathe they started to notice that Leukippos wasn't joining them.  At first there was curiosity and teasing, but the more he avoided revealing the truth, the more they wanted to know what was being hidden under those clothes, and finally some were torn from him.

First there was a moment of shock.  Then a mad scramble for weapons.  Everyone in motion except Daphne and Leukippos.  She simply stared.  He hung his head.  He made no attempt to run.  It wouldn't have mattered and he didn't care.

As Apollo had hoped, many spears were thrown but then, by the will of gods other than Apollo (and the younger Eros for that matter) Leukippos disappeared spears passed through empty space where he had been, and landed harmlessly on and in the ground.

And it was at about this point that Apollo lost control of the fire the younger Eros had lit inside him.  He rushed toward Daphne and words didn't even need to be exchanged.  She saw the look in his eyes and swam across the river as fast as she could.  As she pulled herself up on the opposite bank, she stole a look back and saw Apollo not far behind.

She quickly considered her situation and found it hopeless.  Her bow, her knife, her spear all lay on the far shore.  As did her clothes.  She couldn't hope to outrun Apollo, and she had nothing in the way of resources, though divine herself, she couldn't fight him off while he was armed and she was naked.

So she ran anyway, and said a prayer as she did: That she not be taken by Apollo.  Just as he grabbed her and stopped her motion, the prayer was answered.

Her feet sank into the earth, lengthening as they did, her toes grew long and thick and branched out beneath her, her skin grew tough, her body reshaped itself, he legs joining together as one, parts growing, parts shrinking. The bark that her skin had become sprouted new branches, and where first just the hairs on her head had been turning green and widening into a flat glossy green lances, now all of her branches sprouted leaves, especially her arms.

Apollo was confused when his lips touched bark, but still in raging lust he didn't want to leave her, and so he made a crown of leaves.  To this day the laurel leaf is associated with Apollo, and the Greeks know the bay laurel as Daphne.

But this story has been told a thousand times.  And one question always seems to linger.  What the hell happened to Leukippos?

It says quite clearly in texts dating back more than two thousand years that he disappeared, and that was quoting earlier texts now lost to us.  It says it was by the will of the gods.  Which gods? Certainly not Apollo.  Nor the younger Eros, who had prepared a second arrow (gold for love, lead for the opposite) but in truth never needed to use it.

And what did Leukippos do after that? The gods don't just pluck someone out of certain death to then have them do nothing.

Kalliope, a little help here?

In a barren stretch of land that might as well be the middle of nowhere though it was far enough from anywhere important that its distance had never been measured, Leukippos awoke with an aching body and a mind that felt like it was on fire.  At first he didn't remember who he was, or was it she? The second felt more natural these days.

Memories came back that definitely tended toward he, but she decided she was going with she, even as the memory of betrayal in the various huntresses faces returned when they saw his body.


She gathered her clothes, quite torn, as well as she could, tying knots here or there to try to make them cover the disagreement between "he" and "she" and when she finally decided that half naked was as good as she could hope for, slowly, unsteadily got to her feet.


She tried to get her bearings but failed.


"Well, that went well," came a sarcastic voice from behind her.  She spun to see a woman she'd never seen before.  A strange glow about her.  Impossible.


Just as her mind was beginning to process what that meant: Goddess, another voice, "What the... the... eleleu eleleu just happened?" Again behind her, though this time more off to the left than straight behind.  Another woman she had never seen before.


Also glowing.  Also a goddess.  A bow, a quiver, arrows tipped with silver points.  Artemis.


"I do believe-"


"Oimoi," she said, why did they always have to appear behind her.  A man.  With wings.  Also glowing.  Also armed.  Big bow, probably doesn't like being interrupted.


"that we all tried to move the mortal out of the way at the same time," he continued without any indication of annoyance.  Perhaps he didn't mind being interrupted.


"In different directions," the first goddess said, a sort of glee in her voice.


"What are you even doing here?" Artemis asked.


"Mostly I was messing with Apollo, but don't think that screwing around with your namesake," the first goddess gestured to the male god, "wasn't an incentive too."


There was a pause.  Then the same goddess asked, "What are you doing here?"


"I happen to like Daphne and she would have felt bad if he died right in front of her."


Leukippos weakly said, "She."


"That's an understa-" the male god began.  Then he quickly asked.  "What was that?"


Leukippos looked at the ground as she answered, "I'm 'she', not 'he'."


"Well that simplifies things," Artemis said.


"Disharmony between body and mind," the first goddess said. "I love it."


"You would," the male god said.


All the spinning to look at the divinities speaking was making Leukippos so dizzy she was worried she'd collapse to the ground, and she still had no idea where she was or who these divinities were.  Two thirds of them at least.


"Only when she acts on it, if she just went on pretending everything was fine there'd be no me in it."


That made so much sense.  So very much.  If by "so much" one meant "none at all."  Leukippos wanted to scream, and decided, 'Where am I?' was a better question then, 'Who are you?' but when she asked it wasn't a scream, it was a soft, meek, question.  "Where am I?" in the broken voice of one who has just lost the love of her life, left with nothing but looks of shock and betrayal and more than a few deadly weapons hurled, and is now surrounded by ones who could destroy with no effort at all.


"That's not important, what is important is what to do with you now," Artemis said.


So much spinning they were blurring together and the ground was becoming dangerously unstable: wobbling this way and that.  "Who are you?"


"Well," the first goddess said, "I'm Eris.  He's the reason you fell in love with-"


The male god interrupted, "I had no more part in that than you had in making Apollo mouth off to-"


"Oh I know, it's wonderful when it happens on its own isn't it? It's you, but it's you without effort.  It's like a perfect moment."


The male god made a low guttural sound, almost a growl.  Then he turned to Leukippos, "I'm Eros."


"Hence the golden wings," Eris said at the same time Artemis said, "The Elder, not to be confused with Aphrodite's kid."


"I'm Artemis, by the way."


"I'd actually guessed that," Leukippos admitted, now looking at the ground again, when surrounded by gods she should know her place, "It's the other two I..." a place that probably didn't involve calling them 'the other two'.  "What do you want with me?"


"Well," Artemis said, "Once we turn your body female I don't see any reason why we can't put you right back where we found you."


"Uh..." Eris started.  "You do realize that Daphne's been turned into a tree."


"What!" Leukippos shouted.


"That's not good," Eros said.


"Relax." Eris said.  "It's just her body.  She was a nymph anyway, why not be a tree?"


"Because trees can't hunt." Artemis said.


"Or love." Eros said.


"Who says trees can't love?" Eris asked.


"You know exactly what I meant."


"Yes.  But I'm not going to let you get off without saying it."


"The two should have sex."


Eris turned her attention to Leukippos, "He's talking about your sex life right in front of you, how does that make you feel?"


"Stop trying to ... to ... to be you.  This is a serious problem," Artemis said.


"If a spirit isn't enough for you we can always make her a second body, the first humans were made out of clay or some such," Eris said.


"Prometheus is still chained to a rock," Artemis said.


"Yeah, I should do something about that."


"Zeus would kill you."


"I mean I should get someone else to do something about it."


"Can we stick to the matter at hand," Eros asked in a way that was more of an order.


"How did she become a tree?" Leukippos asked, trying to make sense of the strange conversation happening around her.


"It's a long and boring story," Eris said.


"Not that long," Artemis said.


"You're the one that didn't know it happened."


"We haven't been here for that long."


"Fine," Eris said angrily.  "Apollo wanted your girlfriend, she didn't want him, she prayed he wouldn't get her, someone or other turned her into a tree by way of answering that prayer." She turned to Artemis, "Happy?" she snapped.


"Delighted."


"Oh, the me in you is strong."


"It's about time you're on the receiving end for a change."


"You have no idea what I've been through."


"The point!" Eros interrupted.


"We can make Daphne a new body and she can live a human life with her lover, all is well." Eris said.  "Or we could take Daphne's soul and lover here down to Taratros and they could spend eternity together there, all is well.  Just promise me I get to tell Apollo that his would-be love is living happily ever after with someone else."


"You do realize that the only people who actually like Tartaros are your blood relatives," Artemis said.


"Hades doesn't seem to mind."


"Ok, your family and my weird uncle."


"The point?" Eros asked.


"The point is that it's not exactly a noted social venue," Artimis said.  "Only Eris could see that as happily ever after.  I didn't save Leukippos just to send her to the afterlife while still alive."


"Neither did I."


"Then we make her a new body," Eris said.


"Why can't you just turn her back?" Leukippos asked.


"That's like asking why there can only be twelve thrones on Olympos."


"It's magic woven deeply into the world from ages long ago," Artemis explained.


"Otherwise known as stupid rules put in place by stupid gods but so powerful that overturning them would do more harm than good," Eris said.


"For once we agree."


"We do?" Eris couldn't hide the shock in her voice, and didn't think to try.


"So we make Daphne a new body," Eros said.


"Then we transfer the soul."


"But that would have the side effect of making her mortal," Artemis said.


"Leukippos already is.  So what? Their lives end and they come to Tartaros like everyone else," Eris said.  "It's a long way off." She turned to Leukippos, "And don't worry about it.  My whole family lives there, it's a fine place."


There was a pause.

"I'll go to Prometheus," Eris said.


"He'll trust you?" Eros asked.


"He and I can stir up trouble like no one else.  We're close."


"Fine.  I'll distract Zeus," Artemis said.


"No," Eros said, "I can do a better job of it.  You should look after Daphne and this one."


"It's agreed then?" Artemis asked.


The other two gods nodded, and then disappeared.


Artemis approached Leukippos, "Let's get your body into better shape, and get you some better clothes." She placed her right hand on Leukippos shoulder, and her left hand on her hip.


The changes were gradual, and Leukippos had no real sense of what they were coming to.  Then Artemis smiled.  "Come with me." She grabbed hold of Leukippos.  A blur of colors and shapes, then they were at a pond, its water perfectly still.


Artemis gestured for the young woman to look at her reflection.  The face was the same, but not the same.  Small changes in almost imperceptible ways made it more feminine, the way her body moved as she bent forward to look at the reflection was different too.  The sensations on her chest stood out, of course, but so too did the change in her center of balance.


She almost regretted that Artemis had replaced her torn clothes with garments perfect as if freshly made.  She wanted to see what her body actually looked like.


"Bathe," Artemis commanded.


And suddenly she was much less concerned about what her body looked like beneath her clothes, and much more concerned with modesty.  "What?"


"Bathe.  It's what made things go wrong in the first place, let's see how it would work now."


Leukippos looked around, the small pond was empty except for them.  There was no one to see her but the goddess.


She took a moment.  Took a deep breath.  Took another moment.  And then did as commanded.  She was clearly female in body now.  But her body hadn't been all that worried her.  She looked up at the goddess, standing on the shore, and asked, "What if she doesn't forgive me?"


"For what?"


"For lying to her about... who I was, what I was.  What if she doesn't love me anymore?"


"What if Metis claws her way out of Zeus, bears a son, and we have to deal with a new ruler of the universe? What if Eris betrays us all and we're imprisoned like the Titans who sided with Khronos?"


Later, Leukippos, fully clothed and cleaner than before, and Artemis came to the first bay laurel in existence.  Artemis placed a hand on it and spoke, "From one granddaughter of a Titan to another, the person I bring with me is a woman, and she's very sorry for any deceit she may have used in the past and any pain she may have caused.


"The two of you will be together again.  I'm working with gods older than my father, and we have a plan."


[And then I went to sleep at a time that on most days I might be waking up.  Got three hours or so.  Continued that day.]

Kalliope, I'm going to asking for some help again.  Clearly there's a bit more to tell.

Leukippos sat beside the laurel tree that had been Daphne.  Looking across the river at the spot where everything had gone wrong.

"I'm sorry," she finally said.

A tear formed in her left eye.  "I'm sorry that I lied to you.  I'm sorry that I never told you the truth." The tear became too large for her eye and dripped down her cheek.  "I just- I never- I didn't-" tears were coming out of both eyes now.

"I didn't know how to tell you I'd been lying from the beginning because... because it meant that everything between us was built on a lie and I was worried that..." she had to catch her breath.

"I thought that if you learned about the lie you'd think that everything true was a lie too and you'd never forgive me, and I'd never see you again and that would be unbearable."

There was a long silence.

Leukippos looked at the laurel, "And now you're a tree."

Another silence.

"Can you forgive me?  Because it's not a lie anymore, and that was the only lie I ever told to you."

The tree said nothing.

Eris' voice intruded, "...and did you get the-"

"Yes!" Artemis interrupted.  "Whatever you were going to ask, yes.  I got everything on your list of ingredients."

"Prometheus' list."

"Whoever's list.  Stop acting like I don't know what I'm doing."

"Did I miss anything," the Elder Eros asked, descending from the sky on golden wings.

"We're ready to start," Eris said, kneeling down and beginning to gather loose earth and clay. "Assuming silver bow here," she gestured to Artemis, "got the right ingredients."

"How is that even when you're helping you're still an ass?" Artemis asked, joining her on the ground, and helping to form the growing pile.

"An ass is a noble animal."

Eros joined them, saying nothing.  Artemis and Eris continued.

"You just bray bray bray all the time hoping that if you do it enough someone will snap and-"

"Prometheus was very specific about how he-"

"He didn't create women, only men. It was my family that-"

"Don't you dare suggest that I've forgotten Pandora," Eris snapped.  The shape they were creating began to take on a vaguely recognizable form.  "She freed many of my children when she opened that jar.  Some of my siblings too.  Pandora will always be honored by the line of Nyx."

"Only you could see opening the jar as a good thing."

Eris rolled her eyes, but ignored the statement.  "The thing about Pandora is that she was created by all the Olympians working in unison, we're just three."

"This was your idea."

"More than that the most important to the task was the lame god."

"He has a name."

"Your father's wife's son.  With whom you share no relation.  Both of you bastards, after all."

"Hephaistos." Artimis' voice was sharp.  "His name is Hephaistos."  Beat.  "And if you think he's necessary I could have convinced him to come."

"No, start telling others and soon we'll have the whole of Olympos knowing, your twin will find out, he'll come after Daphne again, she'll have to be turned into a tree again, and we'll be right back where we started."

"Bray, bray, bray."

The figure they were working on was now distinctly human in shape, and along the way Artemis and Eris had been adding ingredients from Prometheus' list.

"My point is not that we should have more company, Prometheus created man by his lonesome, it's just that we should be very careful to get things right."

"Your point is to be annoying."

Eros got up and walked over to Leukippos, who hadn't moved at all or made a sound.  "Are you ok?" the god asked.

"What if she doesn't-"

"She does," Eros answered.  "If you want something to be worried about, be worried about this working.  Not feelings.  She feels for you as you feel for her.

"And be worried about those two," Eros gestured with a wing toward Eris and Artemis.

"She can't feel the same way," Leukippos said.  "She never betrayed me."

Eros considered describing how many successful relationships had begun with a bit of dishonesty, but decided it would teach the wrong lesson.  That good can come of bad is true, but it can be seen to excuse the bad.  Instead he simply put a arm and a wing around Leukippos, and warmed the young woman with the friendly embrace.

The constant back and forth between Artemis and Eris washed over them unnoticed.

They stayed there until Eros said, "It's almost time.  Stand with me."

They stood and walked toward the clay figure the goddesses were molding, now almost an exact replica of Daphne.  Eros said, "You know, if there's anything about her body you'd like to change-"

"I just want her the way she was."

"That's the plan anyway. I remember exactly the way she was," Artemis said.

"Taking a peek under the maiden's clothing were we?" Eris asked.

Artemis didn't even use words to express her disdain for Eris.  A rough exhale was enough.  The finishing touches completed Artemis walked to the bay laurel.  "You understand, Daphne, that this might not work, and if it does part of you will always be in contact with this tree, while the rest of you will live a mortal life in that body.  Are you sure you want to go through with this."  She placed her hand on the bark of the trunk.

If you've ever felt a tree give assent with the fullness of its being, you know what Artemis felt when she placed her hand upon the trunk.  If you haven't, it's one of those things you just have to experience first hand.

"Of course she won't age." Eris said.  "This recipe for human being predates old age.  I'll have to ask Geras leave that one," she pointed at Leukippos, "alone, otherwise they'll be terribly mismatched in the end."

"You can do that?" Artemis asked.

"One of the benefits of being an ass is that asses can have children unlike certain other beings."

"I can have children, it's just that-"

"Like my ability to sprout rainbows from my fingers you've never felt the need to show it off."

"I took an oath of chastity!"

"As I recall you also were granted the right to change your mind which calls into question the validity of any oath you swear."

"You don't get to question my integrity!"

Eros had finally had enough.  "If the two of you don't stop bickering I swear by Khaos whence I came that I will make you both fall in love," neither goddess seemed to notice, "with each other."

Eris and Artemis' attention immediately snapped to Eros.  Then to each other.  Finally they said, "Truce," in unison.

"Now," Eros said, "Let's do this."

"Once we do the Moirai will know," Artemis said.  "In essence we're creating a mortal life, and they are present at the beginning of every mortal life.  That doubles the amount of gods who know."

"They're my sisters, they can be trusted," Eris said.

"And my relatives can't?" Artemis pushed the anger from her voice and quickly said to Eros, "Sorry."  Eris' eyes grew wide with fear when she realized why Artemis had felt the need to apologize to Eros.

Eros smiled, "You haven't crossed the line."  After relief settled over the two goddesses he added, "Yet."

"I'll separate the soul from the tree," Eris said, "I'm good at driving things apart."

"I'll put the soul into the body," Artemis said.

"And I'll breathe life into the body," Eros said.

"What do I do?" Leukippos asked.

"Carry the body closer to the tree," Artemis said.

"And stand her upright," Eros said.

The body, a clay duplicate of Daphne, was naked.  Leukippos had been trying, rather hard, not to look at it.  She stammered at the gods, "I... I'm... it's not my place..."

Eris giggled when she realized what the problem was.  "You've seen her naked before.  You must remember.  Your clothes torn from you, deadly weapons rushing toward you, and then the three of us saved you." Beat "In different directions and inelegantly, but we did save you."

"I'll conjure up some clothes," Artemis said.

"I still shouldn't..."

"How many times have you handled each other when hunting together?  To help one through difficult terrain, to pull one out of the way.  All you have to do is move her from the good clay, to the tree."  She knelt beside the body, placed a hand upon it and clothing appeared.

"You made them match," Eris said in disgust, looking at the clothing of Leukippos and the clay Daphne.  Artemis locked eyes with Eris, then turned her eyes toward Eros, then looked back at Eris.  Eris hastily added, "Which is a perfectly wonderful thing to do."

Leukippos picked up the body and carried it to the tree.  The gods silently prepared themselves.  Eris placing one hand on the tree and the other in Artemis' hand.  Artemis placing her free hand on the body, Eros getting ready to breathe life in through the body's nostrils, took the longest to prepare.  When he was ready he took the body from Luekippos, who took a few steps back.

Leukippos would never be able to describe what she felt, but everything around her was somehow charged for a few moments, then Eros stepped aside,and where the clay body had been stood Daphne.

Daphne exhaled, then opened her eyes.

She ran to Leukippos and hugged her.  Eros smiled and then turned his attention to a newly arrived god.  Neither Daphne nor Leukippos noticed.  Suddenly, still embracing Leukippos, Daphne exclaimed, "I have a voice!"  There was a pause then, "Thank the gods-"

"Three in particular," Leukippos said.

"There's been so much I've wanted to say.  I forgive you, how are you not dead, when did your sex change, I love you too, why those three gods?"  The sentences ran together she spoke so fast.

"Um... Those three because Artemis likes you, Eros likes our relationship, and Eris wanted to screw up Apollo's plan.  I don't know when I became female, but my body did when Artemis made it that way.  I didn't die because all three tried to spirit me away to different places, and I uh, were there other questions?"  Leukippos said.  Then Daphne silenced her with a kiss.

-

Meanwhile, the gods were dealing with a new visitor.  The Moirai did indeed notice the creation of a new mortal.  Only Lakhesis made an appearance.  Eris and Artemis went to greet her immediately, Eros soon followed.

After greetings were exchanged Lakhesis said, "Interesting project you've got here."

Eris said, "We were hoping to keep it quiet.  There's only one god we don't want finding out, but the fewer who know the less likely it is he'll find out."

"That's not a problem."

"Thank you," Artemis said.

"The only reason I came was to ask how long you wanted the thread to be."

"As long as the other mortal girl's," Eros said.  "Let them both pass at the same time, whenever that may be."

"Simple enough to do."

"Thank y-" Eris started, but Lakhesis silenced her with a gesture.  She looked Leukippos, with a growing sense of confusion and recognition.

"Wasn't she a baby boy when I saw her last?" Lakhesis asked.

"It's a long and boring story," Eris said.

"Not that long," Artemis said.

"We've been here before."

"Yes, we have."

Then, as they prepared for a bout of verbal sparring, they simultaneously remembered Eros's threat.  They said, "Sorry," in unison.

"I turned her body female," Artemis explained.   That seemed to satisfy Lakhesis.

"Thank you sister," Eris said.  And then Lakhesis was gone.

The three gods returned to the two mortal women.

"You'll have to leave your old lives behind," Artemis told them.  "If my brother finds out you're still alive he'll come after you again."

"No one will recognize your equipment," Eris said.  "Which is, for the record, exactly where you left it."  She gestured to the opposite bank of the river.  "But you'll need new names."

"Stay together and you should be fine." Eros said.  Then he took to the air on his golden wings.

"Keep up the hunt," Artemis said, before leaving herself.

"And promise me that after you've lived out your lives I get to be the one to tell Apollo that he lost his great love to another woman," Eris said.

"Why are you helping us?" Daphne asked.

"Two young women running off into the woods together, loving each other and shunning male society?  You stand in opposition to everything that the dominant culture says is the way things should be.  You practically are me.  I hope you live a long happy life, I really do."  With that Eris walked off.

The two women were now alone by the river.

"Bathe with me," Daphne said to Leukippos.  And Leukippos did.

-

Artemis materialized beside Eris and said, "Wait a minute.  Geras isn't your son.  He's your brother."

Eris burst out laughing, finally managing to say, "It took you this long-"

"Why you little-"

Both suddenly froze in place.  Then they looked around frantically and when they spotted Eros flying high above shouted, "Sorry!" in unison.

Eros idly wondered how long the two would remember his threat.

-

If you were wondering about Daphne's siblings:

Menippe's son Phrastor became king of the Tyrrhenians in Italy.

Orseis married Hellen, the only [or is it eldest? need to dig deeper on two other names] son of Deukalion and Pyrrha, the two survivors from the third age of humanity.  Every mortal not descended from those two descends from the stones that became men and women after being thrown by them as the rest of humanity had been wiped out by flood.

Orseis and Hellen ended up ruling most of Greece.


-

[Rewriting Greek Myth Index]

12 comments:

  1. Have to say, I really enjoyed this.

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    1. I'm glad you did say, no one else has even commented on the story, at least not directly. One person did comment on the first post that part of the story appeared in, but there it was surrounded by other stories.

      I'm also glad you liked it.

      Delete
    2. I. Like. Your. Stories. If I didn't I wouldn't be here at all. But I can't leave repetitive "I like it" comments on every post I like. Sorry. You *do* know that I'm bad at commenting lately. So even when you don't see any comments from me, simply assume that I read it and liked it. Please.

      ---Redcrow

      Delete
    3. Redcrow, I'm not asking you to do anything you're not able to do. I know how bad times can be. I hope things get better for you.

      That's entirely aside from the fact that I like getting feedback. One is General ("Me Like Feedback") the other is specific ("You do whatever is best for you.")

      Also, regarding the other thread, I have nothing against the idea of posting fan fictiony things elsewhere, but being entirely outside of the fan fictiony community I have no idea where "elsewhere" would be.

      Finally:
      I. Like. Your. Stories.

      Thank you. I'm glad you do.

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    4. Sorry. And thank you.

      Well, there's AO3 (Archive Of Our Own). Also Fanfiction.net, of course. (I know that for most people the latter is synonymous with "badfic", but there are some well-written stories too.)

      Delete
    5. That was me, obviously.

      ---Redcrow

      Delete
  2. This is a delightful yarn, and officially part of my headcanon now.

    ...Artemis likes you, Eros likes our relationship, and Eris wanted to screw up Apollo's plan.

    HA! *cough sputter* Pardon me, I lol'd.

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    1. This is a delightful yarn, and officially part of my headcanon now.

      Waahoo!

      *looks around*

      That is all.

      Delete
  3. This is pretty awesome.
    The first bit is a really weird mix of styles. If this were a book, that should probably be in the prologue, and if you put it up on AO3 you could maybe link to some source for the myths you're discussing.

    I really think it could be a pretty awesome book, though. Not a novel, since there's not quite that much stuff to flesh out. Maybe a novella, or at least a hefty story. Because there are so many places you've summarized something that could be filled in with detail and with your unique voice. And I think it would help to do that, to give us more of a feel for the characters before they go through all this stuff. Definitely for the human-ish characters. And I think for the gods, too, because they are specific versions of themselves...

    I can also see this basic story working well in a different kind of fantasy setting, more modernized or scifi-ish or any number of different tones/shades/spins on the characters and setting.

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  4. This was very enjoyable -- thank you! However, as someone who is not as familiar with Greek mythology, could I ask you to explain who Eros' terrifying relative is, please? Thanks! :)

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    1. I went back to look for that quote but I couldn't find it.

      Chris doesn't have regular access to the internet currently.

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    2. I will have internet access this weekend and hopefully my computer will be back soon, so I may be able to answer your question, but I'm honestly not sure what you're asking. Could you be more specific perhaps?

      Delete