Wrath of the Gods Page #9

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were pretty much garden variety—minor deities of a far-lessthan

Olympian order, mildly powerful in their own limited

way, but not even immortal, and confined in their scope

of operation to a given body of water. For just as dryads

(DRY-adz) are fairy creatures attached to trees, and Nereids

(NEE-ree-ids) are ocean-going, naiads are nymphs that live in

ponds and pools. Thus when the handsome youth Narcissus

(nar-SISS-us) fell in love with his own reflection in the surface

of a pool, he broke the heart of the nymph dwelling therein,

who was condemned only to repeat Narcissus’s sighs and

murmur like an echo (in fact, Echo was her name). And thus

when the handsome youth Hylas (HYE-lus) strayed while

fetching water for his shipmates on the Argo, some nymphs

at the waterhole were so smitten that they yanked him

underneath the surface to dwell with them forever—much to the

despair of Heracles, whose squire he was.

One version of the Perseus myth holds that the naiads he

sought were special indeed, having as their domain the

dark and lifeless waters of the river Styx, in the deepest

Underworld. They were also reputed to have such bad

personal habits that they could be smelled from a great

distance. Such is perhaps understandable given the dubious

cleansing powers of a river in hell, but it would hardly

apply to a nymph dwelling in a pool within the precincts of

a temple. Such pools, being used for ritual bathing of those

seeking to approach the shrine, might be held to have had a

particularly cleansing and purifying effect. And any nymph

dwelling therein could reasonably be expected to smell as

sweet as the flower named for Narcissus.

As you enter this scene, a Nymph surfaces in the temple

pool.

NYMPH:

Don’t be shy. Dive in!

If you click on the pool, you jump in and submerge. The

Nymph submerges too, smiling. Cut to yourself and the

Nymph underwater.

NYMPH:

(chattering happily away)

Blub blub blub blub blub.

You are holding your breath with your cheeks puffed out,

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about to burst. You pop back above the surface and gasp for

air. The Nymph pops up too, looking very happy. If you talk

to her:

NYMPH:

Stay forever and be my friend!

If you talk to her again:

NYMPH:

We can bake cupcakes together.

If you click on the shore, you exit the pool.

NYMPH:

(puzzled, hurt)

What’s the matter? Was it something I said?

If you jump back in:

NYMPH:

You’ve come back to play with me!

This pool is also your refuge from the bees in the adjacent

scene (next page). If you haven’t been in the water before,

when you first click on it, the Nymph invites you to dive in

and the sequence is the same as before. When you submerge,

the bees fly away and leave you in peace.

When you return to this scene after being told you must

purify yourself before entering the Temple (page 50), you jump

in the water and submerge. You bob up again. The Nymph

surfaces beside you.

NYMPH:

(grouchily)

Okay, so you’re purified.

If you talk to her again:

NYMPH:

You’re still no fun. Oh, I almost forgot. There’s

something I’m supposed to give you. It’s a helmet of

invisibility.

She dons the helmet and disappears. The helmet pings into

your inventory.

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TEMPLE WITH OLIVE TREE. You come upon a beehive in

the trunk of a hollow tree. The bees are buzzing and flying

around. Bees played a vital role in the everyday world of

the ancient Greeks. Honey was the sweetener that made

all manner of otherwise unpalatable food and drink fit

for human consumption. Wine was often flavored with

honey to take the edge off inferior grapes, while honey was

added to a porridge of barley to elevate it from staple to

treat. In fact, it is held by some that ambrosia, a delicacy so

precious that it was reserved for the gods, was made from

honey, olive oil, barley, cheese, water, and fruit. And nectar,

the special beverage of the Olympians, was made from

fermented honey. Nor does that exhaust the catalog of the

bee’s importance to the Greeks. In point of fact, beeswax

can lay claim to consideration as the most valuable

substance in all of Greek myth. To keep his ship from

leaking when Jason set out with the Argonauts, he caulked

the seams in the hull with beeswax. When Daedalus (DEEDuh-

lus) taxed his inventive genius to the full to find some

means of escape from the Labyrinth (LAB-i-rinth), he hit

upon melted beeswax as the ideal glue to adhere feathers

to a framework which became a pair of wings. And when

Odysseus (oh-DISS-ee-us) wanted to hear the fabled song

that the Sirens (SYE-rinz) sang from their rock in the western

sea, a melody so sweet that passing sailors lost all thought

of duty and abandoned their ships to crash, he had his

shipmates lash him to the mast. But first he stopped their

ears with beeswax. And thus they rowed on obliviously

while Odysseus, his ears exposed to the enchanting strains

of the beautifully wicked mermaids, rained pleas upon

Bees

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his unheeding shipmates to alter their course toward the

treacherous shoals in the lee of Siren rock.

Clicking on the tree causes you to reach into the hole in the

tree and pull out a lump of beeswax. The bees swarm out

and follow you around in an angrily buzzing cloud for one

scene in either direction. You swat at them a few times, to

no avail. If you bought the bee-sting ointment at the Market

(page 112), you can select it in your inventory and click it on

yourself. This causes you to slather it on your body—to

no avail. The bees will still wait to pester you every time

you pass through this scene, and they’ll preclude you from

getting into the Temple—until you get rid of them by diving

into the pool in the Nymph scene (page 46).

TEMPLE EXTERIOR. The magnificent temple known

as the Parthenon (PAR-theh-non) was built on the peak of

the Acropolis (a-KROP-uh-lis) of Athens during that city’s

golden age. Pericles (PARE-uh-kleez), the great orator and

statesman, commissioned its construction. This was during

the era long after that of the mythological heroes, but

the sculptures which decorated the building’s exterior

celebrated their feats, together with those of the immortal

gods. They showed Lapiths (LAP-iths) fighting centaurs

(SEN-tawrs), Olympians battling giants, and perhaps scenes

from the Trojan War. The Parthenon symbolized the power

and religious devotion of Athens. In later years it became a

church and then, when Greece became part of the Turkish

empire, a mosque. It survived relatively intact until 1687,

Temple

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when the Venetians, bombarding the Turks, inadvertently

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