EPISODE 31

WHICH SEES THE EXTRAORDINARY BIRTH OF ATHENA

Previously: Hermes has great admiration for the intelligence of his father Zeus. He would like to penetrate its mystery.

Pausania was spinning wool when Hermes arrived at her cave.

She did not lift her eyes from her work.

“You are already back so soon, my child,” said the old woman. “Don’t you know enough yet about the birth of the world?”

“O beloved nurse, there is one more thing I ask myself: how did my father come to possess such matchless cunning and intelligence?”

Pausania pushed her work away. The grinding of the wheel spinning the wool stopped. Hermes rested his head on her lap and his eyes closed instantly.

When Hermes opened his eyes again, he immediately recognized the place where he found himself: it was the seashore in front of Metis’ cave, the Titanide with the night-blue eyes with whom Zeus had fallen in love as a young man. The day had barely broken; the beautiful Metis was lying on the sand still asleep. Hermes saw immediately from her round belly that she was expecting a child. Zeus, who was resting beside her, suddenly sat bolt upright. A voice had just awakened him; it was the voice of his grandmother Gaia, the Earth Mother. He rose to his feet and walked a few paces along the shore. “Be on your guard, Zeus, be on your guard. Metis carries inside her a girl. Yet on the day that she will bring a boy into the world, that boy will do to you what you did to your father Cronus, and what Cronus did to Uranus, his own father: he will take your place!” Upon hearing Gaia, Hermes shuddered. What was Zeus going to do? The god of gods went slowly back towards Metis, who was still asleep; he looked at her tenderly, then he lay down beside her once more.

Dawn came. Metis opened her eyes and smiled at Zeus. She was herself the very essence of cunning and she already suspected that something was not quite right. Zeus, however, asked her: “Metis, do you remember the day when I met you? You had turned yourself into a butterfly under my very eyes, then into a titmouse, then into a rabbit, and finally into a doe. Would you also know how to change yourself into a lioness?” Without replying, Metis instantly became a lioness. Her roaring and the stabs of her claws frightened Hermes, who was hiding behind a rock. “Well done!” exclaimed Zeus. “Well done! And would you also be able to turn yourself into a drop of water?” Metis did it right away. She had hardly turned herself into a drop when Zeus swallowed her! “I am really sorry, my dear Metis, but it had to be done,” said the god of gods aloud. “I could not take the risk of you one day bringing into the world a boy who would dethrone me… and besides, I need your cunning, don’t you see, to govern the universe. From now on, I shall have intelligence within me, since you are for ever inside me.” Hermes at last understood why his father knew how to foresee everything, predict everything and master everything.

His father, however, who had sat on a rock, suddenly seemed to be suffering violent pangs of pain. He groaned, holding his head with both hands. The more time passed, the more the pain increased. The groans became screams. “Ah, it is too dreadful! It hurts too much! Quick, someone open up my skull to let this pain out!” Zeus was howling. Hermes did not know what to do. Zeus was all alone on that beach and the pain seemed unbearable. Hermes suddenly had an idea how to allay his father’s pain. And there was not a moment to lose.

He ran back to Pausania. “Good nurse, I implore you: you absolutely must allow me to return to the past accompanied by someone,” he told her.

“All right,” said Pausania, “but your companion shall have to forget everything once he returns to the present.”

The messenger of the gods then hurried to his brother Hephaestus to convince him to come with him quickly. He went back with him to the beach where Zeus was writhing with pain.

“Take your axe, my brother,” Hermes said to him, “and go and split Zeus’ head open to release the pain!”

And so the mighty god raised his formidable axe and cleaved Zeus’ skull in two. At that very instant the earth shook and Hermes and Hephaestus saw an extraordinary thing: a woman in full armour was coming out of Zeus’ skull!

“Look,” Hephaestus exclaimed, “it is the goddess Athena!”

The young woman wore a helmet and armour, and she bore a spear, all made of metal. She held herself straight and was casting a proud gaze upon the world around her. Zeus seemed completely relieved. He did not once look at Hermes and Hephaestus, but took the young female warrior in his arms. Seeing Zeus hold her tight against his heart, Hermes understood why Athena would always be the favourite daughter of the master of Olympus: Zeus had brought her into the world himself. Hermes and Hephaestus went discreetly away. Hermes had no idea that another extraordinary meeting awaited him.

 

To be continued…