The God of Olympus (13 page)

“He did it to hurt you,” said Phil
octetes. “To anger you.”

“And he succeeded!”
Hercules moved over to a tree, a tree by where he often set watch over the sheep, and there he looked down and saw his old shepherd’s staff. The sheep were all gone, but the staff remained.               “This is all I have to remember them by,” said Hercules. “This shepherd’s staff, which I used to keep track of all their sheep.  I roamed through these hills for miles with the sheep there by me. I now see that some will have to die in order for my mission to be accomplished…Phil, I must go. I must go to Hades’ abode where he will suffer for this evil!”

“No Hercules! 
You cannot go! You will be…what about your sword?”

“I will
not need it,” replied Hercules.  “I must show him that this is not an act of war, but of justice. All I will bring is my staff as a sign to him of what has happened!”

             
Philoctetes sighed.  “I suppose you are right.  There is now but one choice.  You must go to Hades.  But make no deals with him Hercules or that will be your downfall!”

             
“Where is he?” asked Hercules.  “How will I find him?”

             
Philoctetes looked sad.  “Hades dwells south of the Greek mainland in an underworld on the island of Crete.  You may fly there with Pegasus, but I will not go down to that place, for it is far darker and more evil than for my liking!”

             
Hercules, with his shepherd’s staff in hand and the lion skin over his shoulders, got up on Pegasus and yelled, “Pegasus, take me to Hades’ abode!”

Pegasus then lifted himself up into the air and flew off into the distance, with Philoctetes looking onward.
  “May the Gods protect you Hercules!”

******

              After several hours of flying both Hercules and Pegasus saw the island of Crete come into view.  What Hercules saw was not as he expected.  Dark, mountainous cliffs lingered all throughout the island, making it look like a jagged, spiked rock wasteland.  “This is it?” said Hercules to Pegasus.  “Who would want to live here?”  Hercules motioned for Pegasus to land.  “This is weird Pegasus.  I don’t see any way to get into his underworld.  It just looks like an abandoned island to me.” 

             
But then Pegasus saw something and moved towards it.  It was a large gate built into a large rock.  The gate was unlike anything Hercules had ever before seen.  It looked just as jagged as the mountain cliffs that surrounded it, except that it was smooth and shiny, as if it had been magically polished.

             
Hercules stood before the gate of Hades’ abode and yelled, “Hades!  God of the Underworld!  This is Hercules, and I demand that you open the gate!”

             
Hercules waited a few moments.  At first he thought that Hades was not there, or that he was simply not going to open the gate, but then he heard a sound and watched as the massive gate magically creaked open.  Then, who above all people moved forward.  He smiled insidiously, and let his black robes hang down.  “Hercules, Hercules, Hercules! I am delighted to see that you have come!”

             
Immediately Hercules wanted to lunge at Hades with all his might for killing his parents, but he knew, as a hero, he could not and thus resisted.  “Hades, you did not need to kill my parents!”

             
“Yes, I am truly sorry about that Hercules,” replied Hades.  “Just business you know.”  Hercules wanted to punch Hades, but Pegasus leapt in front of him to hold him back.  “Well, thank you for coming all the way here to my great underground palace!  Come Hercules, you must walk through my abode and behold its greatness!  Of course, your great steed is not allowed!”

             
Pegasus looked down towards the ground with disappointment.  “Stay here,” said Hercules softly.  “I will be back.”

Then Hades led Hercules forward into his dark, cavernous underworld.  “Let me give you the grand tour of my underground palace!
  I have created a magnificent world here, even in a place where light does not extend!”

             
The cave into Hades’ mansion was full of jagged rocks and massive, elegantly carved rock pillars.  Before him was a great hallway.  The hallway was at least thirty feet wide, a hundred feet high, and seemed to be miles long.  Along the sides were torched that came out of the wall.  All of them were lit.

             
After several minutes of walking Hercules began to see something that frightened him greatly.  There, in the cave, as Hercules passed, he spotted many sad workers who held long black pick axes in their hands and chiseled away at the rock.  Others looked at Hercules insidiously or with great sadness.  The workers all had skin that looked crinkly and old, and hair that was almost entirely gone, or wet, soggy, and frayed.

“As you know I am a man of deals,” said Hades. “This is, after all, how I got all of this.
”

“You got all this by doing deals with people?” ask
ed Hercules, slightly in shock.

“Any
Gods have the ability to make covenants with mortals Hercules…even me the God of the Underworld!  People here are those who have made deals with me, deals to work in my great underground labyrinth! It is not by strength of arms that I won all of this Hercules, for unlike you I was not born with great talent or ability. No, instead, I had to work at it. You see, let me tell you the story of the three brothers!”

Th
en Hades began telling him a great story, “There were once three brothers, so named Zeus, Poseidon, and myself, Hades. These three brothers were the first people on earth, and were originally wanderers, wandering over the cold, hard plain. The one who sent us down to earth and released us in this wasteland said, “You may each choose the pathway that is best for you to follow, and to that pathway shall your inheritance be. So we wandered through the land for a long time, but eventually each parted our own ways.  We could not agree on where to go together and were too different to remain as one.  In the end of our travels Zeus ended up at Mount Olympus, where he was given the heavens. Poseidon ended up at the ocean so he was given the great waters as his inheritance. Then I ended up at a cave, a land of the dead in the dark abyss of the world, a land people call the underworld. So I was cast out here, given this wretched land as my inheritance. But it was in this land, that I found, paradoxically, new life. Death fascinated me. I remained here and began to understand the power of death—something that Zeus, Poseidon, or any such God on Mount Olympus couldn’t understand.  Why?  Because they were immortal!  Eventually humans were placed on the earth, by the very same being that placed us on the earth.  Humans, unlike Gods, were familiar with death and that gave me, the great King of the Underworld and Master of Death, so much more advantage over them!  Don’t you understand Hercules? Death is something that you must understand if you are to truly be a God of Mount Olympus! This is something that Zeus could never understand! Oh to be a God on Olympus how ignorant you must truly be!  You see Hercules, I know much more about people than you do.”  Hades smiled as he said.  “Death is the ultimate champion.  Everyone fears death!”

Hercules did not agree
.  “Some come to embrace death, to look forward to what future may come after it.”

Hades laughed.  “Not many.”

Hades then continued leading Hercules forward.  There in the abyss, amidst the charcoal rock and rivers, were dark figures.  They were entirely cloaked and wandered amidst that dark labyrinth without direction. Hercules felt a dark presence, such as he had never before felt.

“The
se are wraiths and were once humans Hercules, humans that feared death so much I gave them a way to avoid it! Oh the terrible sting of death did afflict these people—people who would in their heart of hearts seek for any way to avoid it.  So what did I do? In my kindness and mercy I gave them a way to avoid it!  I let them sell their soul to me and I, as master of death, gave them the ability to be immortal!  These are they who have gone too far away from the light, who have become wraiths, barely even human.  They have lost all direction because for so long they have been away from the light.  They do not have much memory of their life as mortals and do not remember their own parents.  This is all they know now and they only obey me, as my servant.  Now they have little hope and all because your parents, Zeus and Hera, used all of their strength to create you.  In essence, your parents abandoned these people to this fate because of you…you are the reason that these people wander so amidst this dark place.”

He didn’t say a word.  Instead, he felt terribly sad.  He could picture these wraiths as once grand and noble beings, beings that he now could not change, no matter how much he wanted to.

“It was not my parents fault and it is not my fault,” said Hercules.

“Very well,” said Hades.  “You may think that now
, but in time you will come to see what people are truly like without a God to come to their aid, and without someone to support them.”

H
ades then led Hercules to the “grand arena,” as Hades called it, of his underworld.  This was, by far, the most massive underground room he had ever seen.  It was hundreds of feet wide and at least a hundred and fifty feet tall.

The room was, for most part dark, except for the
torchlights that lined the outside of the cave.  How the torches were able to be lit Hercules did not know, but he figured there must be some kind of air in this dark cave.

In this place
Hercules saw far more pain and suffering than he ever wanted to see.  Thousands of servants lingered in that room, each carving away at their own small tunnels, that like spider-legs, each jutted off into a different direction.  Each servant saw Hades come into the room, and each one looked woefully up at him.  Hades smiled, and raised his staff.  “Come my servants!  We must welcome the great Hercules, who has come to pay us a visit!”  Hercules noticed that each servant had two shiny silver bands around their arms.

             
“Who are these people?” asked Hercules. “And what have you done to them?”

             
“These are mortals,” replied Hades.

             
“The evil ones?” said Hercules.

             
“No, actually these are the good ones of your world Hercules,” replied Hades. “These are people who sinned and then felt terribly bad. Because they felt so bad they went to seek out forgiveness, but, since none know where Zeus is and certainly couldn’t get to him even if they wanted to, they could not have their burdens removed. So I came to them and offered them a deal.”

             
“What kind of insidious deal did you offer them?”

             
“I offered them what they wanted,” said Hades.

             
“It is terrible that people be enslaved so,” said Hercules.

             
“You see Hercules, while you were busy growing up and trying to find yourself and who you are I was gathering souls.”

“Ga
thering souls?  What do you mean?”

“You see He
rcules, since your parents isolated themselves on Mount Olympus the poor mortals have had no true God to look to.  Yes, they had the other Gods, but they didn’t have the God—Zeus.  And because of this mortals have not been able to find relief from their own evil.  They have been searching the heavens for a God, but they haven’t found one.  So then I present myself to them and give them a way out of the spiritual pain they suffer.  In short, I let them sell their soul to me and in doing so I take upon myself their sins and iniquities.  This is good for them because they finally have relief and good for me because I own them until the time comes that I rise to the stature of ultimate Godhood, having an army that I can use until the end of the earth!”

Hades laughed. 
“I think you do not understand Hercules.  Just as a God who drinks a mortal potion must become mortal and subject to the mortal world, so too must a person who sins become miserable.  And this combination, mortality and sin, can make some individuals terribly tormented, seeking relief in any way they can from the toils of this mortal world.  And who can provide true relief from this burden?  Not Zeus!  He is stuck on Mount Olympus and can no longer provide help to these people.  Instead, while you were growing up and later off on your adventures, slaying great beasts, and attempting to understand yourself and who you are, I was saving people!”

“Saving people?” replied Hercules.
“How do you call this ‘saving’ people?”

Hades smiled and beckoned Hercules forward, down a long rock stairway to the grand arena.

“You see, I can give people what they truly want—without true Gods to protect them, without hope, without faith, they are left with nothing to sustain them—to keep them at peace with their world.  So what do I do?  I let themselves bind themselves me.  They then become immortal and need not fear death.”

“But in doing so they forfeit everything th
at makes this life worth living,” replied Hercules. “In doing so they forfeit any hope for forgiveness, any hope for returning, any hope for joy!”