The Life of Hercules: The Hero's Death

Tenth (and last) of a series. Here are the earlier posts:

The Life of Hercules: Birth and Childhood

The Life of Hercules: The First Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: The Final Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: Digression into the Underworld

The Life of Hercules: Another Digression (The Calydonian Boar)

The Life of Hercules: The Centaurs and the Erymanthian Boar

The Life of Hercules: The Golden Fleece (The Young Jason)

The Life of Hercules: The Argonauts

The Early Adventures in the Quest for the Golden Fleece

Nessus, Heracles, & Deianeira
Black-figured hydria, 6th c. BC, Louvre
http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentaurosNessos.html

       The following utilizes the text of Robert Graves' Greek Myths:       

       Herakles had many women and other wives, but his most important liaison was with Deianeira.  Deianeira was considered the daughter of Oeneus and the sister of Meleager, but she was really a daughter of Dionysus.  She was courted by the River God Achelous, who often appeared as a bull or a bull-headed man, and the prospect of marrying him revolted her.  Herakles was also in contention for her hand and he fought Achelous and won the battle, snapping off one of his bull's horns (I used this, in much adapted form. in The Storm-Wing, when Ki'shto'ba fought the lightning reptile and broke off his horn).  Thus Herakles acquired the hand of Deianeira in marriage.

       They had four sons and one daughter, including a son named Hyllus.  The children that the mad Herakles killed, however, were from a different wife, Megara.

       There is no denying that Herakles was never faithful to Deianeira.  One day in crossing a river, the Centaur Nessus offered to carry Deianeira across on his back while Herakles swam.  Instead, Nessus galloped off and tried to violate Deianeira.  Herakles heard her screams and pursued, shooting an arrow through Nessus's breast.

     For revenge, the dying Centaur told Deianeira that he would give her a charm to ensure Herakles's faithfulness -- that she should take blood from the wound, mix it with olive oil, and seal it up in a jar, then later on apply it to one of Herakles' shirts.  This she did without telling anyone.

       Later, when Herakles was preparing a thanksgiving sacrifice for a particular festival, he sent the courier Lichas to Deianeira for a fine shirt and cloak.  Deianeira was being forced to live in the same household as one of her husband's mistresses, and so at this point she availed herself of Nessus's love charm, impregnating a piece of wool in the mixture and rubbing the shirt with it.  After the clothing was dispatched to Herakles, she flung the piece of wool into the courtyard and to her horror watched as it ate into the pavement, causing red foam to boil up from it.  Realizing that Nessus had deceived her, she dispatched another courier, but it was too late - Herakles had already donned the shirt.  Herakles' arrow had infused Nessus's blood with the poisonous blood of the Hydra and this caused Herakles to burn with hideous fire.  As he ripped off the shirt, his flesh came with it, exposing the bone.

       Unable to find relief, Herakles raged across the countryside and killed the unfortunate courier Lichas, who was not at all at fault, by flinging him into the sea, where he became a rock of human shape, known as Lichas even to this day.  Then Herakles sent for his son Hyllus and asked to be carried away to die in solitude.  Meanwhile, Deianeira killed herself either by hanging herself or by the sword. [Here is a minor irritation - I know I read somewhere that another alternative death for Deianeira was by flinging herself off a cliff, but can I find that now?  Doing a little checking, I discovered that in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Deianeira threw herself off a cliff, but I never watched those early episodes.]

       Hyllus assured the vengeful Herakles that Deianeira was innocent, so Herakles forgave her and shared only with Hyllus Zeus's prophecy: "No man alive may ever kill Herakles; a dead enemy shall be his downfall."  Herakles then lay down on his own pyre and ordered its kindling.  Lightning bolts came from the sky and reduced the whole pile to ashes.

      Zeus then took Herakles' spiritual remains up to heaven (apotheosis), made him one of the Twelve Olympians, and persuaded Hera to adopt him (unlikely scenario!) by producing him from beneath her skirt.  He was then given Hebe in marriage, and he became the porter of Heaven while his mortal phantom stalks Tartarus, still looking like the shaggy earthly hero we all know well.

       Those of you who have read the six volumes of the Ki'shto'ba series will see the quite ingenious connections that I was able to draw between Herakles and my own more peaceable and humane Champion.  One plot problem lay with the sexual motivation, since termites feel no such thing as sexual jealousy.  They do, however, experience the desire for revenge and the instincts of compassion and forgiveness.  I won't spoil the final volumes of the series by giving any additional explanation.

       This concludes my series on the Life of Hercules.  However, I may supplement it with some additional myths which apply to the sequel volume (yes, there has to be a sequel volume, to tie up loose ends), so stay tuned.

The Life of Hercules: The Golden Fleece (The Young Jason)

Seventh of a series. Here are the earlier posts:

The Life of Hercules: Birth and Childhood

The Life of Hercules: The First Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: The Final Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: Digression into the Underworld

The Life of Hercules: Another Digression (The Calydonian Boar)
The Life of Hercules: The Centaurs and the Erymanthian Boar




Here is a detail of one of my drawings, showing Is'a'pai'a
 carrying ta'ta'wa'tze| on its back across the river.
Believe it or not, I couldn't find a really appropriate
 classical picture showing either the crossing of the river
 or the first meeting of Jason with Pelias.

       Hercules was an Argonaut -- a member of Jason's crew on the ship Argo who shared in all the fantastic adventures of this crew of doughty Champions. Hercules was not a major participant and he left the Quest before it was finished, but since it was important in his life, I had to take it into consideration as part of my series The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head.

       Those of you who are reading the series may have guessed that Is'a'pai'a, the young outcast Tramontane Warrior, is the stand-in for Jason. The early part of Jason's life forms a fascinating story of its own.
       (Parenthetically, the name "Jason" means "Healer," and so I called my character "Is'a'pai'a," which in the Shshi language means "Healing Warrior.")
       When you read The Wood Where the Two Moons Shine, you should see many parallels with the early life of of Jason.  It's a little complicated in its relationships, so I'm going to quote directly from Robert Graves' Greek Myths (section 148, "The Argonauts Assemble"):

       "After the death of King Cretheus the Aeolian, Pelias, son of Poseidon, already an old man, seized the Iolcan throne from his half-brother Aeson, the rightful heir.  An oracle presently warning him that he would be killed by a descendant of Aeolus, Pelias put to death every prominent Aeolian he dared to lay hands upon, except Aeson, whom he spared for his mother Tyro's sake, but kept a prisoner in the palace, forcing him to renounce his inheritance."
       In my rendition, Pelias is Wei'thel'a'han, believed to be an offspring of the Highest Mother's Sea King.  He is a tyrant from across the sea who invaded and seized the fortress of Hwai'ran'chet (Iolcus), only to find that the current Mother's primary King happens to be Wei'thel'a'han's sibling, both hailing from the fortress of Fet'ro'chet.  At that point the Seer/Sorcerer No'tuk'a'nei (who has no direct equivalent in this part of the myths, except as the oracle who predicted the death of Pelias) foretells that a scion of the fortress Fet'ro'chet would cause Wei'thel'a'han's death.  So Wei'thel'a'han, who is desperately afraid of death, commits a great atrocity, slaughtering every individual, nymph, and egg in Hwai'ran'chet who was laid after the coming of Fet'ro'hma'no'tze, the King in question.  However, Wei'thel'a'han is quite superstitious and fears to kill  its own sibling, so Fet'ro'hma'no'tze is simply removed from the presence of the Mother and imprisoned.
       Can you see the parallels?  Fet'ro'chet the King represents Aeson.

       Graves continues, "Now, Aeson had married Polymele [equivalent to the Mother Ti'gan'ta'zei in Hwai'ran'chet] ... and bore him one son.  ...  Pelias would have destroyed the child without mercy, had not Polymele summoned her kinswomen to weep over him, as though he were still-born, and then smuggled him out of the city to Mount Pelion; where Cheiron the Centaur reared him, as he did ... with ... Achilles ... and other famous heroes."
       In my rendition, the fortress's former Seer smuggles out one small, shriveled egg after telling everyone that it surely was infertile and offering to take it to the Charnel herself.  Instead, she takes it into the Spirit Hills, to Zan'tet, the principal fortress of the Yo'sho'zei (equivalent to the Centaurs), where Vai'zei'a'parn the Leader of the Yo'sho'zei, cares for it.  Ultimately, it hatches into a little nymph whom Seers name Is'a'pai'a.  These same Seers then caution Vai'zei'a'parn that when Is'a'pai'a passes its fourth molt, it must be sent away to seek a great northern hero who would teach it how to be a true Champion.  (I think I just invented this last part, but it certainly makes sense.  Nobody would want Wei'thel'a'han to learn of the existence of Is'a'pai'a before it matured, and this was a way to get Ki'shto'ba into the story.)

       Now, a second oracle warned Pelias to beware a one-sandalled man, and one day on the seashore he encounters exactly that.  Graves writes, "The other sandal he had lost in the muddy river Anaurus ... by the connivance of a crone who, standing on the farther bank, begged passersby to carry her across.  None took pity on her, until this young stranger courteously offered her his broad back; but he found himself staggering under the weight, since she was none other than the goddess Hera in disguise.  For Pelias had vexed Hera, by withholding her customary sacrifice, and she was determined to punish him for this neglect."

       Therefore, when Pelias asks for the name and lineage of this stranger, Jason blurts out the truth.  "Pelias glared at him balefully.  'What would you do,' he inquired suddenly, 'if an oracle announced that one of your fellow citizens were destined to kill you?'

       "'I would send him to fetch the golden ram's fleece from Colchis,' Jason replied, not knowing that Hera had placed those words in his mouth." 

       Of course, this is exactly what is destined to happen, and so the Quest for the Golden Fleece was launched.  The problem is, how does one adapt all that to the termite culture?  Termites don't wear sandals, after all.  And how can Is'a'pai'a carry the Mother Goddess on its back?  But it makes very good sense that the same vengeful Highest-Mother-Who-Has-No-Name who engineered the downfall of Thel'or'ei for violating the prime directive of the Shshi worship system: thou shalt not harm the progenitors who give you life! -- that this same goddess would be enraged at Wei'thel'a'han for its own violent treatment of the life force. 

       Anyway, I'm not going to tell you how I did it!  In the picture above I purposely blocked out the lower part of Is'a'pai'a's six legs!  It's a pivotal event in the latest volume to be published, The Wood Where the Two Moon Shines, and if you want to know, you'll just have to read the book, or preferably the whole series, first!  

 

The Life of Hercules: Another Digression (the Calydonian Boar)

Fifth of a series. Here are the earlier posts:

The Life of Hercules: Birth and Childhood

The Life of Hercules: The First Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: The Final Six Labors

The Life of Hercules: Digression into the Underworld 

 



Thel'tav'a employing her
dart shooter
(I couldn't find a picture I liked
of the boar hunt, so here is my
rendition of my Atalanta character
in v.4 of the Ki'shto'ba series)

       Heracles himself didn't take part in the Great Hunt for the Calydonian Boar, and neither does Ki'shto'ba in my version of it.  However, Atalanta did, and Atalanta was one of the participants in the Quest for the Golden Fleece, so I wanted an equivalent character in my version.  That character is Thel'tav'a the Intercaste, who turned out to be an excellent addition to the storyline. 
       Meleager was the son of Oeneus, the King of Calydon, but was said to actually have been fathered by Ares (those gods really did get around, didn't they?)  The Fates informed Meleager's mother Althaea that Meleager would live only as long as a certain brand in her fireplace remained unburned, so Althaea immediately extinguished the brand and hid it away.
       When King Oeneus failed to include Artemis in his yearly sacrifices, she sent an enormous and vicious boar to kill his cattle.  Oeneus then invited all the great warriors of the region to hunt the boar, with its tusks and pelt being the prize. 
       Atalanta was the daughter of Iasus, who was so disappointed that she was a girl that he exposed the infant in the forest and left her to die.  (Again, this happens.)  Artemis sent a bear to suckle her and then she was raised by a clan of hunters.  She remained a virgin and always carried arms, including bow and arrows.
       Atalanta came to Calydon intending to join the boar hunt, and Meleager immediately took a fancy to her.  Many of his men, but especially his uncles (his mother's brothers), objected to including a woman in the hunt, but Meleager maintained that if Atalanta was not allowed to participate, he would cancel the hunt altogether.  Thus, the hunt began under poor auspices.
       Two Centaurs were taking part in the hunt and they decided to rape Atalanta, but she shot and killed them and continued with the hunt.  Several others hunters were killed (including some by "friendly fire") in an ill-advised and somewhat comedic melee.  In the process Atalanta wounded the boar with an arrow, and ultimately Meleager moved in and finished off the creature.  He then flayed it and presented the pelt and tusks to Atalanta, saying that her strike would have soon been fatal in any event and so she deserved the prize.
       This mightily offended Meleager's uncles, one of whom maintained that if Meleager wanted to give away the prize, he should have had it on the basis of seniority.  In a rage Meleager killed this uncle, after which the other two uncles went to war against him.  Meleager killed both of them, whereupon the Furies drove his  grieving mother Althaea to commit the act which would doom her son:  she burned the fated brand.  Still on the field of battle, Meleager felt "felt a sudden scorching of his inwards" (as Robert Graves phrases it) and his enemies easily killed him.  Althaea then hung herself.  Thus the Greek tragedy unfolds.

        Afterward, Atalanta went home and her father accepted her as his offspring. Of course like any good parent he couldn't wait to marry her off.  However, oracles had warned the swift-footed Atalanta not to marry and so she announced that she would marry only a suitor who could beat her in a foot race.  If they couldn't beat her, she would proceed to kill them.  Many suitors lost their lives, but Melanion (with Aphrodite's help) devised a trick.  The Goddess of Love gave him golden apples and told Melanion to leave them at places along the race route, and sure enough Atalanta couldn't resist stopping to pick them up.  Thus Melanion was able to beat her and she was forced to marry him.  After this, the myths become garbled, with several versions.  The gist is, Atalanta and her spouse profaned a temple (either of Zeus or of Cybele) by having sex therein.  As punishment they were turned into lions (who, Graves says, are known to mate only with leopards and so the pair could no longer enjoy each other) and they were set to pulling Cybele's chariot.

       So how in the world can these tales be adapted to my termite culture?  It was easier than you might think!  The story does not happen in real time but is narrated by the Remembrancer of the fortress of Ra'ki'wiv'u.  The egg from which Thel'tav'a (Atalanta) hatched was part of a culling that some Shshi fortresses carry out when they become overcrowded.  The fortress of Ra'ki'wiv'u exposes these doomed eggs in the nearby forest rather than chopping them up outright in the Charnel Hall.  The termite planet has no mammals, so a big reptilian rather than a bear nurtures the nymph for a while, after which it was reared by one of the Casteless Ones, whom we first met in v.2: The Storm-Wing.  She turned out to be an Intercaste, a genetic sport with characteristics of both Warrior and Alate.  Living on her own in the forest, she never learns how to speak, but she is a formidable hunter and fighter, as well as the fastest runner around, and she invents the bow and arrow ("dart shooter") to supplement her weak jaws.  Finally, she is rescued by her home fortress and taught how to speak, although she never fully masters the art.
       So what did I do about the male-female attraction part?  Termites have no sex drive, as I've said many times.  Instead, the High Chief Bao'kai'zei (Meleager) becomes her mentor and when a giant carnivorous ground bird shows up in the neighborhood, a hunt is organized and everything plays out as in the myth.  You may recall that the Yo'sho'zei fill the role of Centaurs, so it's quite possible for Thel'tav'a to kill two of these (they see her as their strongest rival and hence try to kill her, since raping doesn't work).  The hunt itself is portrayed as just as inept as in the myth, and the Mother of the fortress has hatchmates who represent the uncles.  Since the Shshi have never tamed fire, what do I do about the brand?  I make it a branch from a tree called a "flame tree" that must never be eaten and it's hidden away until in her grief the Mother brings it out and consumes it, thus dooming her offspring.  She can't hang herself, but she can starve herself to death.  It's amazing how these things can be successfully modeled.
       Ra'ki'wiv'u is known for its annual festival and Warriors' Competition.  Thel'tav'a obviously answers prophecies about the 10th Companion, but she refuses to abandon the memory of her mentor Bao'kai'zei and give her loyalty to another Champion unless that Champion can defeat her in the competition, and particularly in a footrace.  Ki'shto'ba is not known for its speed, so the situation seems hopeless.  How that is all resolved I'll leave for you to read in the book! 
      
       And I might make two other points.  The name Thel'tav'a means "loyal to the good" and the name Atalanta (according to Robert Graves) means "unswaying."  Close enough, don't you think?  Finally, if you're like me, you haven't got a clue as to how to pronounce "Meleager."  In Xena: Warrior Princess (where Meleager is turned into a totally different character), they called it "Me-lee-gar."  That's only one of several pronunciation errors I spotted in Xena.   The dictionary says "mel-ee-ey-jer" and Wikipedia gives the IPA equivalent of the same, so I'm sticking with that.   

     

 



The Life of Hercules: Birth and Childhood

    

Herakles as a boy strangling a snake.
Marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE
Public Domain, from
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules

       You all know I based my series The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head on the mythical character of Hercules (Herakles or Heracles in transliterated Greek).  Hercules is a familiar figure in literature and popular culture -- the mighty invincible hero character who happens to be a real hunk -- including innumerable movie and television renditions, TV adaptations, and frequent depictions in graphic arts and sculpture.  (Who wouldn't want to sculpt all those giant muscles?  Even this Baby Hercules had already developed some significant abs!)  I used to watch Kevin Sorbo's version in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys  (although I came to it late and never saw the beginning, and preferred the Xena spin-off).  That version left much to be desired, I thought, but it was fun. 

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
depicted as the infant Hercules
grappling with the Standard Oil Company
Public Domain, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_in_popular_culture

       When I decided to base my series on Hercules, I used Robert Graves' compilation Greek Myths as my source and I had to do two things: first, I had to familiarize myself with the events of Hercules' life and, second, I had to choose which events would be adaptable to my termite culture.  Two of the events at the start of the hero's life seemed essential: how he came to be born and how and why he killed his first monster.

       Here is a summary:

      Amphitryon was married to Alcmene.  Zeus wanted to beget a great Champion, so while Amphitryon was away avenging the deaths of Alcmene's brothers, the King of the Gods ordered time to be suspended for 36 hours so he would have plenty of time to achieve his goal.  He then assumed Amphitryon's form and dallied with Alcmene for the entire time.  When Amphitryon returned the next day, Alcmene refused to sleep with him, saying they had just spent a whole night of pleasure together.  Amphitryon consulted the Seer Teiresias, who informed him he had been cuckolded by Zeus. 
       Zeus couldn't resist boasting about his exploit, even announcing that his son would be called Heracles ("Glory of Hera").  You can imagine how well this went over with Hera (Zeus's consort).  She laid a plot, saying that whoever was born before nightfall on the day of the birth would be the King of the House of Perseus, an honor Zeus intended for Heracles.  Then she worked to hasten the birth of Eurystheus, and she slowed the birth of Heracles by sitting in the doorway of Alcmene's room with her clothing tied in knots and her fingers locked together.  Hence Eurystheus was born first and the infuriated Zeus, who had gone along with Hera's pronouncement, was forced to make Eurystheus King.  However, Zeus forced Hera to agree that, if Heracles successfully performed Twelve Labors that Eurystheus set upon him, Heracles could become a god.

       Now those of you who have read The War of the Stolen Mother can see right away how I adapted this: Lo'zoi'ma'na'ta is clearly Alcmene and Bai'go'tha the Tyrant of To'wak is clearly Eurystheus.  Zeus is the consort of the Highest-Mother-Who-Has-No-Name, and Teiresias can be none other than the Seer Thru'tei'ga'ma.  I couldn't have Hera be the schemer, because the Highest Mother wouldn't be that petty; she wants Ki'shto'ba to be hatched probably more than her kingly consort does, so I turn the Amphitryon character into the bad guy who tinkers with the eggs in order to make sure Bai'go'tha hatches first.  Thus the premise of Eurystheus/Bai'go'tha assigning the Twelve Labors is set up in both stories, although the motivation for Ki'shto'ba's acceptance of the tasks is quite different from Heracles's (but that's for another post).

       Now, when Heracles was born, he had a twin whose name was Iphicles.  Twin kings or heroes were very important for the Greeks, and thus I introduced the character of A'zhu'lo, a lesser Warrior, obviously not an identical twin.  Iphicles doesn't play much of a part in Heracles's life story, but A'zhu'lo plays a significant part in Ki'shto'ba's story.  The twins are close and love each other very much, yet a certain sibling rivalty exists between them.  This leads to some of the strongest and most poignant plot episodes.

       When Heracles was somewhere between eight months and one year old, he and Iphicles were sleeping when Hera sent two "prodigious azure-scaled serpents" (Robert Graves' description) to attack and kill Heracles.  The babies made a ruckus and Amphitryon rushed in with his sword, only to find Heracles strangling the serpents, one in each hand.  "As they died, he laughed, bounced joyfully up and down, and threw them at Amphitryon's feet."

       I needed to make very little change to that episode, except for the fact that the snakes' origin is left ambiguous.  One might say the Highest Mother did send them, to test Ki'shto'ba and to foreshadow its future power.  I must also say that the Roman statue of the event seems curiously passive -- Heracles might just be having a mild-mannered conversation with the snake, and only one snake is depicted.  As for the political cartoon version, well, it goes to show that ordinary people must have been more highly schooled in classical allusions than they are today -- how many people these days would know about how Hercules strangled snakes when he was in his cradle?

       One other quotation from Graves might be illustrative here: "One Termerus used to kill travelers by challenging them to a butting match; Heracles' skull proved stronger, and he crushed Termerus's head as though it had been an egg.  Heracles was, however, naturally courteous, and the first mortal who freely yielded the enemy their dead for burial." Ah, the Huge-Head, the stone-headed Warrior!  And anyone who has read any of the Ki'shto'ba stories knows our Champion is invariably courteous.

       And one final note ...  This prophecy of Zeus was spoken: "No man alive may ever kill Heracles; a dead enemy shall be his downfall."  I put my version in the mouth of Thru'tei'ga'ma/Teiresias and I phrased it thus: "No Shi would ever witness the death of the second-hatched nymph, nor would anyone ever eat its dead flesh."  And from a later Seer, "A dead foe, but no treachery, shall be [Ki'shto'ba's] ruin."  These two prophecies play a huge part in the unfolding of the Huge-Head's story.  Ki'shto'ba is close to invincible as long as other Shshi are present, and the ambiguity of the prophecy of its cause of death is a constant source of debate throughout the books.  In fact, v. 6 will be called The Revenge of the Dead Enemy.

       If you want to read the totality of my adaptation of these elements of the early life of Hercules, you can buy The War of the Stolen Mother at Amazon or Smashwords, or if you want a foretaste, you can read the pertinent chapter in the sample listed above as SM, Ch.4 (The Tale of the Huge-Head's Hatching and Nymphhood).

               

Bird Myths, Pt. 4: Greece and the Middle East

Added on 5/6/13: I discovered a Young Adult book called Faizah's Destiny by Marva Dasef in which you can read about the Simurgh, which is one of the mythical birds mentioned below.  See it at Amazon.

*     *     *      

       The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, (see the Prologue and first eight chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

 

       The following passage is narrated by the very attractive Griek Prf. Linna Katsopolos, a veteran of the original interstellar program who later became a temporal quantum physicist and helped to build the Ariana's engine.  She is taking part in the voyage as a Mission Specialist to run an assessment of the engine's functioning.  She also happens to be the Captain's current love interest.

  



The Bennu Bird
From http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/benu.htm
(source of image not given)

“Robbie, I wish you could have warned us before the voyage that you were planning something like this.  It seems like you take birding stuff with you even when there’s no chance of seeing a bird, but unfortunately I didn’t bring any of my own resources.  I took some classes in myth and ancient culture at university because I’d always been interested in the subject and it was a nice change of pace from physics, but I haven’t thought about it for a while and I had to dredge down pretty deep to come up with something to say.

“I can’t think of any big Garuda-like bird who ranks high among the Griek gods.  There is the tale of Ikarus, but it’s not about a real bird or even gods – it’s about a man who builds wings for himself out of wax and feathers.  He then proceeds to fly too close to the sun so that his wings melt and he falls into the sea and is drowned.  It’s viewed more as a parable of humanity overreaching itself.  It seems that the ancients’ imaginations were better than their technology!

“Griek bird-figures are mostly hybrid monsters.  The harpies, who chase and harass people, have the faces of hideous women and the bodies of birds.  Then the Sirens … they were supposed to live on some of the Griek islands and lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful songs.  They are often depicted as birds but sometimes as beautiful women in their upper halves with bird bodies below. 

“But there are also the Stimfalian birds, which were probably modeled on real marsh birds.  The Sixth Labor of Herakles… oh, dear, probably some of you don’t know who Herakles was – let’s just say he was the consummate Griek mythical hero.  One of his twelve great feats consisted of confronting these enormous, man-eating birds who lived in the Stimfalian Marshes.  They were pets of the God of War, and they had brass claws and metallic feathers that they would pluck out and hurl like darts, and they would also squirt toxic excrement at their victims.  Obviously, they made pretty formidable adversaries.  Herakles could get no foothold in the marshy ground, so he defeated them by making a racket with bronze clappers and scaring them into flight.  Once they were in the air, he was able to shoot them down with his arrows.

“Then there are other birdlike hybrids that didn’t originate in Griece but came mostly from the Middle East, the area where Avi’s people used to live.  There’s the griffon, which was four-legged, with the body of a lion and head of an eagle; it could kill a cow and carry it away, just like Avi’s Ziz.  They were supposed to have claws the size of an ox’s horns and feathers strong enough to use for lances, like our Stimfalian friends.  You can see how these myths often merge.  There was also the hippogriff, which had the head, wings, and front legs of a griffon and the back parts of a horse.  And then Pegassus, which was a winged horse – more horse than bird – a really beautiful flying horse.

“And all these creatures get called by different names in different places.  In Parsia, the Ziz-like or griffon-like creature was called the Simurg or the Chamrosh; it was as big as thirty normal birds and usually considered benevolent.  It was said to be able to speak; in fact I remember something about how some of holy literature of that region is supposed to be uttered in the language of birds.  Isn’t that a lovely notion?  Really flash!”

“I know about something like that!” piped up Moosie Jaballa.  “There’s a story about God teaching King Solomon the language of birds!  And I remember reading somewhere that ancient Ejipt had a bird-god whose cry created the world.”

“We Jues believe that God created the world out of words – out of Hebru letters, that is,” said Avi, keeping his tone whimsical, “but I’ve never heard a bird speaking Hebru.”

Linna grinned and said, “Maybe they think in Hebru.  The verbs are strange enough to have come from another species.”

Avi made a wry face at her and said, “The Kristen scriptures have a saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’  Maybe it should have been ‘In the beginning was the Bird.’”

Amid titters, Linna said, “Anyway, Moosie, now I remember that Ejiptian myth you were talking about.  The bird was called the Bennu.  It’s the Ejiptian version of the Phenix.  As for the Phenix itself, some of you may have already researched it, but I’ll give you a capsule version of its story.  The Phenix was gorgeous, with gold and crimson plumage, and even though it resembled an eagle, it had a beautiful song.  It didn’t eat normal bird food but only aromatic gums like frankincense … ”

“Oh!” exclaimed Robbie.  The word rang a bell, but he couldn’t place it.

Linna cocked a questioning eyebrow at the Captain and he said again, “Oh!”  He had just remembered; frankincense was one of the gifts that the Wise Men of the kraytch brought to the newborn Haysus in Romisher beliefs.  He beamed on an uncomprehending Linna, pleased with himself for making the connection, and added, “Never mind me.  Go on.”

She blinked and continued.  “The Phenix was identified with the sun and with a sun-temple in ancient Egypt – there’s your Bennu-bird connection.  ”Only one of them could be alive at a time and it was extremely long-lived, with various stories giving it a lifespan of 500 all the way up to 13,000 years.  But inevitably the time would come for it to die, and then it would build itself a nest of spices and aromatic gums and set itself ablaze.  In three days a new bird would begin to regenerate from the ashes, destined to begin the cycle all over again.  So you can see that the Phenix is quite an apt metaphor for our interstellar program.” 

Lt.  Du spoke up.  “In Chiness culture we have a big bird called the Fung-Huang.  It’s said to have three legs and live in the sun, and sometimes it’s depicted as beautiful, but at other times it becomes one of those hybrid monsters, with a rooster’s beak, a snake’s neck, the  back end of a stag, and a fishtail.”

“Holy cry!” said Robbie.  “Astonishing what the human imagination can cook up!”

“And then finally there is the Rook, or Rukh, if you prefer,” said Linna, “which is closer to Avi’s Ziz than to the Phenix.  It was supposed to be big enough to carry away and eat elephants.  Some think it was inspired by the three-meter tall elephant bird that was native to the island of Magascar.  It went extinct about the middle of the 2nd millennium.”

“Yeah, Aepyornis,” said Robbie.  “But it was a ratite, like an ostrich.  It didn’t fly.” 

“Well, folk memories don’t exactly reflect scientific facts, you know,” said Linna.  And then she said, “Have any of you people ever heard of Sinbad?”

 

Coming next ...

Sinbad and the Rukh