War of the Titans (Part 5)

Gaia went home, took a small jar of aphrodisiac oil and then went straight to the house of a beautiful nymph whom she had saved from a pack of wild dogs two years ago. The grateful nymph always treated Gaia with respect and did whatever Gaia asked of her, without any question whatsoever.

“Dear Mother and my savior, what brought you to my house today? The nymph asked cheerfully.

“O dear child, I wish my own children treat me as respectfully as you do. But that is not why I came here. I need you to do something for me, my dearest child.”

“Just tell me what and it shall be done.”

“Tomorrow the Titans shall hold the games and Cronus shall be there to judge. I want you to put this oil on you before that games start then sit on the highest seat you can find. The wind shall blow from you to Cronus and you shall arouse his desire. You are to do everything necessary to keep him enamored in your house for as long as you can.”

“That shall be done, my Dear Mother.”

***

True to her word, the nymph woke up early the next morning. She went to the stream and bathed thoroughly. Then she applied Gaia’s aphrodisiac oil all over her body. The oil instantly aroused her senses and awoke her desires. She could not wait to go to the stadium, she would try to seduce Cronus even if Gaia had not asked her to.

The nymph got to there before anyone else and so she had no trouble finding the highest seat directly on Cronus’s line of sight. She sat there and waited, full of anticipation what Cronus would do to her, and what she would like to do to him.

She did not have to wait long before the stadium filled up. Finally Cronus and the other Titans arrived. The nymph was so aroused at the sight of Cronus’s powerful body that she was completely oblivious of all the secret and not-so-secret oglings she received.

A gentle breeze blew from her to Cronus; and the effect was immediate. Cronus took his eyes from the on-going competitions and directed them at her. As she had planned, the nymph got up and navigated her way out of the stadium, knowing full well that Cronus would soon follow.

Seeing the nymph diminished Cronus’s interest in the competitions, seeing her leave left him no reason to remain there.

So Cronus turned to Oceanus and asked him to be the judge in his place and then hurried to follow the nymph out of the stadium.

Cronus followed the nymph as she walked to her favorite stream. As she walked her hips swayed seductively, and drove him wild as he imagined how wonderful it would feel to have her on top of him.

The nymph shed her clothes when she was a several feet from the water, giving Cronus a chance to admire the back of her body. When her right foot touched the water, she turned around, allowing him to see all that he had come for and then ran toward the water.

Cronus sprinted and caught her. He lifted her up and carried her to a soft patch of grass. He did everything she had imagined--and hoped--he would do to her. In the next round, she did everything she had planned to do to him. They both squealed with delight like young lovers who had just discovered sex for the first time.

Cronus had never had such an adventurous lover before, so he was thrilled when invited him to her house. There he would spend his time carefree, eating, drinking, sleeping, and exploring new ways to enjoy their carnal pleasures.

***

Despite her desperation Rhea still had a wonderful dream: she gave birth to a beautiful boy who was whisked away to safety by forces much, much less divine than he. Her son would someday avenge her and become king of gods and men. She saw, in her dream, how glorious he looked the day he ascended to the throne, even if she would not be there to celebrate it. She saw, in her dream, how magnificent the new era he would usher in, even if she would not really be a part of it. She felt, in her heart, completely happy about what she saw, even if she would be as marginalized as she was now.

Rhea smiled and the smile was still on her face when Gaia returned. Gaia had been spying on Cronus and the nymph to make sure that everything went according to her plan.

“Wake up my dear child,” Gaia said as gently as she could.

Rhea woke up instantly. “I had a wonderful dream, more wonderful than I had dared to imagine,” Rhea said, still euphoric from her dream.

“I know, my child. It is not just a dream, it is a prophecy. I had that dream, too. It was what brought me to you.”

“But it shall not come to pass, Mother,” her misery returned and Rhea began to sob again.

“Yes, it shall,” Gaia assured Rhea. “Now you have to go home to get ready to give birth to Zeus. Cronus shall not be home to swallow the child; he shall be with a nymph until your child has been carried to safety. Please trust me, my dear child. Now, please get up and follow me.”

***

Cronus was not home when Rhea returned with her mother, as Gaia had expected. Gaia led Rhea to her bedroom and said, “Stay here and rest, my dear child, while I go to find what we shall need to save your child.”

As soon as Rhea climbed to her bed and lay down, Gaia hurried out of the door. She headed straight to the part of the river where she had found a smooth, elongated oval-shaped stone the size of a newborn baby. She picked it up and without much effort she brought it back to Rhea’s house.

Rhea had already fallen asleep when she got back. Gaia wrapped it in thick cloths and hid it under Rhea’s bed and then sat on a chair and waited.

Rhea gave birth to baby Zeus two weeks later. For the very first time Rhea was able to hold her child in her arms. She was overjoyed with happiness one minute and overcome with sorrow the next. She kept alternating between happiness and sorrow, between hope and despair, between laughing and crying, until she fell asleep from exhaustion.

No sooner than Rhea fell asleep that Gaia carefully took the baby and replaced it with the stone that she had hidden under the bed.

Gaia took the baby to Cynosura, a nymph she had adopted as her own child years before, after a Titan had abandoned her.

Gaia said to Cynosura as she handed her the child, “My dear child, this baby is very dear to me and he is destined for greatness. Please raise him and protect him as if he were your very own. Please keep him from being known by the Titans, for they shall try to kill him if they know about him. It shall not be long before he grows up and fulfill his destiny. Please you what I have asked of you and you shall be amply rewarded.”

Cynosura instantly fell in love with baby Zeus. His majestic glow told her that Gaia was telling the truth, that he was destined for greatness. So she kissed him gently and said, “Dear Mother, I shall raise this baby as my very own. I shall keep him from the eyes and ears of the Titans. And I shall tell him that I am his mother until he is ready to fulfill his destiny.”

Gaia smiled when she heard those words. She kissed Zeus on his cheeks and then kissed Cynosura on her forehead. Then she left.

***

Cronus rolled off the nymph’s beautiful naked body after their lovemaking had reached an explosive climax. Lying on his back, completely satisfied, Cronus looked at the ceiling and let his mind go where it wanted to go while the nymph was falling asleep.

Gradually his thoughts turned to Rhea and the way he had treated her. He wanted very much to be a good husband--at least to treat her better than he had had to, and he wanted to be a good father, to play with his children once in a while, the way some of his brothers had. He would have been both if it were not for the prophecy. Curse that prophecy!

Suddenly Cronus felt the ground underneath him shook violently. Intense burning sensation hit several spots on his body, as if he were hit by thunderbolts. Then a headache came and pounded his head continuously as if he were hit by waves of massive rocks. Everything around him was engulfed in lights so bright that he couldn’t see anything but pure brilliant lights. Then everything went into total darkness.

Cronus wanted to scream for help, but concerns for his reputation kept him from doing so. He willed himself to lie still while trying to figure out what was happening. What seemed like eternity eventually came to pass and everything became exactly the way it was before; the nymph was sleeping peacefully. Cronus realized it was all in his head, nothing had actually happened.

The prophecy, that cursed prophecy! Cronus sprang to his feet, snatched his clothes off the floor, and put them on. He leaped out of the door and dashed home.

He found Rhea asleep holding a new baby in her arms. Cronus yanked the baby and shoved it down his throat. Rhea woke up dazed and confused, then she realized what had happened and started wailing.

Cronus grabbed her hair with one hand and her ankle with another. He lifted her up and threw her against the wall. Not caring where Rhea landed, Cronus turned around, walked out of the door, and strode back to the nymph’s house.

***

Cynosura neither realized that she had accepted Zeus too readily from Gaia nor understood the full implication of raising and keeping him safe from the Titans until Gaia had left her.

For a long time Cynosura was at a loss about what to do next. Her sense of self-pride and honor prevented her from trying to return the baby, but the dread of raising him and the changes in her life that would entail had begun to sink in. She would have to be constantly on guard for herself and for Zeus until he is old enough to fulfill his destiny.

Despite her outward cheeriness she loathed being a nymph, for nymphs were third- or fourth- class citizens, generally no more than sexual playthings--objects of spur-of-the-moment desires and instant gratification--for the Titans and their offsprings. Nymphs were to be toyed with, used, and then forgotten about.

Cynosura had nurtured a deep resentment of the injustice and its perpetrators ever since her first coerced sexual encounter with a Titan and the eventual abandon by him. And ever since she dreamed of revenge, but she knew that it was just a dream and she wisely kept it to herself.

Her wandering mind returned to Zeus, and for the first time she studied him more carefully. There was just an indescribably magnificence about him. His whole being radiated power and majesty even though he was just a baby. She saw it, she felt it, and she knew it. Zeus was destined to be great. He might even be her avenger.

A chance of vengeance was all Cynosura needed and she made up her mind: she would raise Zeus and keep him safe from the Titans despite her fear and despite any change she would have to make.

***

Raising Zeus demanded much more courage than she initially possessed. It took months before she even dared to take the baby out of her own bedroom. Even then, she still had to ensure that all her doors were locked and every other creature was sound asleep.

Gradually Cynosura let Zeus explore the house and then let him venture outside in complete darkness. The more she let him explore his surrounding the more she felt that it was safe to let him do so. After all, what good would he do if he was kept confined in her house.

Eventually she mustered the courage to take him out for a walk in daylight. Zeus was insatiably observant and insatiably curious. Nothing escaped his keen eyes unobserved and nothing remained in his brilliant mind unknown.

In just a couple of years Zeus became fully grown. He was now slightly larger than the Titans and immeasurably stronger.

Cynosura kept finding ways to test the limit of Zeus’s strength and to compare it to those of the Titans, whom she had carefully observed in their competitions. She asked him to hurl stones that she knew the Titans could hardly lift, she asked him to jump over the mountains that she knew the Titans had trouble climbing to the top, or to jump over the rivers that she knew the Titans could barely swim across. To her satisfaction, Zeus was far superior to the ruling gods in every way.

***

Soon afterward Cynosura’s life with Zeus resembled that of any other mother’s and son’s. One day Cynosura and Zeus came out for a morning walk in a field to which no Titan had come before. As they passed by a cave Cynosura was startled by deep, booming male voices coming from somewhere to her left.

She instinctually turned her head to the left and scanned the field. Her face ashen, her jaw dropped, and her lips trembled when she saw, unmistakably, Cronus and three other Titans on the horizon. She grabbed Zeus’s hand and pulled him closer. “We have to run into that cave and hide,” she whispered in a trembling, barely audible voice.

Before Zeus had a chance to react, she tugged his hand and then ran as quickly as her wobbling legs could carry her to the cave.

“Why did we have to run and hide, Mother? Who are they and why were you so frightened of them?” Zeus asked after he had seen the Titans and had calmly but quickly followed her to the cave.

“They are the rulers of the universe and you are destined to challenge their rule. That makes you their mortal enemy. They are very powerful and they shall try to kill you if they see you and know who you are. They would kill me, too.”

“Who am I?” Zeus asked quietly; his curiosity piqued.

“I do not really know, Zeus. I love you more than anyone in this universe but I’m not your real mother.” Cynosura then told Zeus how he came to her care.

***

Cynosura’s confession left Zeus conflicted. Conflicted because the woman he had been calling his mother, the one he loved more than anyone else, was not the one who actually gave him his life. Conflicted because he knew instinctively he was destined for greatness through premeditated violence, yet he had been so used to and had fallen in love with his simple, peaceful life. Conflicted because he knew he had to be different from and to be better than his enemies, yet he wanted to be near them, and to emulate their confident swagger and their easy manners as rulers of the universe. Zeus wanted so much to be like the Titans, to join them rather than to fight them. Only if he could.

It did not take long before Zeus felt the urge to shadow the Titans everyday. He did not know why, he just felt compelled to do so.

Before long Zeus found himself a spectator at the Titans’ games. He made himself an observer rather than an observed. He sank and shrank, and he drooped and slouched. He lowered his head and averted his eyes when someone looked directly at him. He appeared timid and harmless, to casual observers.

What went on in his mind could not have been more different, however. Zeus committed to his memory the strengths and weaknesses of the Titans and made plans to fight each of them should he meet him or her in battle. The more Zeus observed them, the more confident he felt that he could defeat them when the time came.

Each thought of war made Zeus’s animosity toward the Titans more real than the last. That animosity grew and grew until Zeus barely could contain himself from charging at the jesting Titans. He would be if he had brothers and sisters. Now, more than ever, Zeus wished that he were not the only child.

“Be patient; the time shall come,” Zeus promised himself. It was a promise he very much intended to keep.