Picture of a Raven: Wilderness Classroom

    My mother spoke much to me as a child about the characteristics of Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Pluto, but little of Hades except for one bed-time story which never left me: The War of the Titans. Yesterday Hades called me to his palace but he was not there. His book sat on a high golden table next to his throne. I became curious.  I never read from the book, I only wrote the new chapters. There were literally thousands of chapters in the book written millennia before my time. I realized then a piece of its magic. As I turned each page, new pages would appear. With the constant creation of new pages, the book should have become thicker than I was tall, but its size strangely remained the same.

    I knew what I wanted to find: The War of the Titans, the story my mother used to account for me in such great detail before I slept. Were all the legends true? I found the chapter after some exhaustion; it was simply titled “The Titans." The following is an excerpt of what I read from Hades’ own words:

   
    “When I was born, my father, Cronos, swallowed me in his belly, along with several of my brothers and sisters, for it was prophesied by my grandmother Gaia, the earth, and my grandfather Uranus, the sky, that one of my father’s children would overthrow him as leader of the Gods. My brother Zeus alone survived the barbarism of my father. My mother Rhea, called "mother of the gods" by mortal men, had not the power to battle Cronos so she hid Zeus, the youngest of the children, away on Mount Ida until he grew to full strength. While away, Zeus fell in love with a beautiful Sea God, Metis, daughter of Oceanus. When Zeus was full grown, he, with the help of Metis and my mother, poisoned Cronos. My unsuspecting father began to vomit forth his sons and daughters one at a time. I was set free and was near full grown, though it took me some time to gain my strength.

    “My father and mother were of the first line of Gods, the Titans, a very powerful and vengeful race, who were gargantuan in stature. It was prophesied by Gaia that Zeus would need the Titans to overthrow my father and his followers.  So Zeus, Poseidon, and I travelled  to Tartarus in the underworld; in the depths of hell where the most abdominal and powerful creatures were kept locked away, we slew the gatekeeper and freed them. Three Cyclopes were freed, the sons of Uranus, who had kept them prisoner under the earth for fear of their power. The three Cyclopes gave us great weapons in return for their freedom. To Zeus they gave the power of the lightning bolt, to Poseidon they gave the trident, and to me they gave the helmet of invisibility. We also freed the "Hundred-Hands," gigantic creatures, also the sons of Uranus and Gaia, superior even to the Titans. There were three and each had one hundred hands and fifty heads. They were horrible to gaze upon but they were powerful unlike any creature I had ever seen.

    “Once we had gathered all of our forces we attacked the Titans. The war was terrible. We shook the ground and cracked the earth. We rattled the heavens and created great tidal waves that washed over the earth in destruction. Although my brothers and I were very powerful, we were hard matched against the Titans, all except my brother Zeus who had honed his skills of war and grown to great strength in exile. While my strength was not of Zeus’ yet, my cunning carried me far. I placed the helmet of invisibility on top of my brow and fought heartily. My duty was a dangerous but all-important one. I would sneak behind the Titans' lines, invisible to their eyes, and slay them with my sword one by one. I hated fighting in hiding, so cowardly, but their numbers far outmatched ours and there was more at stake than my pride.

    “After ten years of fighting, my brothers and I felt that the wars were coming to an end. The Gods who had survived all gathered unto a valley in the earth surrounded by vast Ocean. I took the helmet off, refusing to fight another moment under the cover of invisibility. My brothers dissented but eventually understood. The final battle ensued. Zeus showed all of his fury, I had never seen him in full might. He unleashed hundreds of lightning bolts, striking and killing dozens of Titans. Poseidon unleashed the waves which crashed the rocks around the Titans and made them crumble into the earth. But in the end it was the "Hundred-Hands" that doomed the Titans. Each one of the three took a hundred rocks into their hands and hurled them at Cronos and the Titans. The rocks buried the Titans underneath the earth, confining them to Tartarus. We gave the "Hundred-Hands" charge of the captives, and there they stayed for all eternity. Zeus thanked the Cyclopes and in return for their service he let them dwell upon the earth as long as they agreed to stay far away from the lands of men. So the Cyclops confined themselves to the islands on the far spaces of the earth.

    “Zeus, Poseidon, and I drew lots to find who would rule the different sections of the world. Zeus chose the Sky, Poseidon the Sea and I chose the vastness of the Underworld to live forever. My strength is great now and I wish nothing more than the battles of old. I only hope one day I can show my might amongst the other Gods. I have hung up the helmet of invisibility and sworn to never wear it again. It is my shame.”

   
    I sat in thought. The story had more detail of the events of the war than anything I had ever heard. One thing rang in my mind however, over and over: The helmet of invisibility. Hades said he hung it somewhere after the war; where could it be? That could be my way out.

    At that moment I could hear Hades and his three-headed hound Cerberus, who normally guards the gates of the Underworld, making their way into the palace. I quickly placed the book on its table and knelt down in show of respect as he entered. Here I sit again in the “Well of the Damned,” as I have come to call it, alone and in thought.  I sit now counting the deaths that roll past.  A day, a night is no longer; there is no rising of the sun and no falling of the moon.  All my mind has been bent on, for the last three thousand deaths, is the helmet and where it lies.