Monsters of Greek Mythology, Volume Two Read online

  Monsters of Greek Mythology

  Volume 2

  Bernard Evslin

  Contents

  THE HYDRA

  CHAPTER I

  War of the Winds

  CHAPTER II

  Young Hercules

  CHAPTER III

  The Frost Demons

  CHAPTER IV

  Daughter of the Rainbow

  CHAPTER V

  An Angry Goddess

  CHAPTER VI

  Iole’s Plan

  CHAPTER VII

  Blood Price

  CHAPTER VIII

  New Girl at the Palace

  CHAPTER IX

  The Little Tailors

  CHAPTER X

  The Lion’s Hide

  CHAPTER XI

  The Hydra

  LADON

  CHAPTER I

  Food that Isn’t Fish

  CHAPTER II

  The Harpy Queen

  CHAPTER III

  Flight of the Rainbow

  CHAPTER IV

  A Suitable Monster

  CHAPTER V

  Another Hunger

  CHAPTER VI

  The War God

  CHAPTER VII

  An Amazon’s Dream

  CHAPTER VIII

  Thyone Goes Hunting

  CHAPTER IX

  Artemis in Scythia

  CHAPTER X

  Hecate’s Idea

  CHAPTER XI

  The Raid

  CHAPTER XII

  The Hippocrene Spring

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Silver Stag

  CHAPTER XIV

  Hero Meets Monster

  MEDUSA

  CHAPTER I

  A Fearsome Brood

  CHAPTER II

  The Necklace

  CHAPTER III

  Family Council

  CHAPTER IV

  Bride of the Sea

  CHAPTER V

  The Curse

  CHAPTER VI

  Guests of the Tyrant

  CHAPTER VII

  The Dream Tinker

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Pledge

  CHAPTER IX

  The Gray Ones

  CHAPTER X

  The Apple Nymphs

  CHAPTER XI

  The Gorgons

  CHAPTER XII

  Fruit of Victory

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Princess of Joppa

  CHAPTER XIV

  A Hero Comes Home

  THE MINOTAUR

  CHAPTER I

  The Singing Bones

  CHAPTER II

  Son of the Sea God

  CHAPTER III

  The Tyrant

  CHAPTER IV

  Aphrodite’s Vengeance

  CHAPTER V

  The New Monster

  CHAPTER VI

  The Tribute

  CHAPTER VII

  Theseus Embarks

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Castaway

  CHAPTER IX

  The Sacrifice

  CHAPTER X

  Hero Meets Monster

  THE NEMEAN LION

  CHAPTER I

  Zeus Is Uneasy

  CHAPTER II

  The Waif

  CHAPTER III

  Vengeance of the Hive

  CHAPTER IV

  The Haunted Healer

  CHAPTER V

  The Garden

  CHAPTER VI

  Transformation

  CHAPTER VII

  The Stretching

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Nemean Lion

  PROCRUSTES

  CHAPTER I

  The Robber Clan

  CHAPTER II

  The Wager

  CHAPTER III

  The Skull

  CHAPTER IV

  Basher

  CHAPTER V

  Bender

  CHAPTER VI

  Shady

  CHAPTER VII

  The Inn

  CHAPTER VIII

  Evander

  CHAPTER IX

  The Great Sow

  CHAPTER X

  Wild Mushrooms

  CHAPTER XI

  Rehearsal for Vengesnce

  CHAPTER XII

  The Bent Pine

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Man with the Club

  CHAPTER XIV

  The Edge of the Cliff

  CHAPTER XV

  The Procrustean Bed

  SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS

  INTRODUCTION

  The Cretan Ships

  CHAPTER I

  Shapherds and Wolves

  CHAPTER II

  The Stone Crone

  CHAPTER III

  An Egyption Prince

  CHAPTER IV

  Cobra and Cat

  CHAPTER V

  The Bronze Giant

  CHAPTER VI

  Prince and Wolf-girl

  CHAPTER VII

  The Beast-gods Strike

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Wolf Pack

  CHAPTER IX

  The Invasion

  CHAPTER X

  Transformations

  CHAPTER XI

  Charybdis

  CHAPTER XII

  Between Scylla and Charybdis

  THE SIRENS

  CHAPTER I

  The Owl Goddess

  CHAPTER II

  The Isle of Sobs

  CHAPTER III

  The Sirens Sing

  CHAPTER IV

  Cannibal Fat

  CHAPTER V

  The Meadow Nymphs

  CHAPTER VI

  A Fatal Gift

  CHAPTER VII

  Manhunt

  CHAPTER VIII

  Butes

  CHAPTER IX

  A Taste of Nectar

  CHAPTER X

  Ulysses and the Sirens

  THE SPHINX

  CHAPTER I

  Enter the Sphinx

  CHAPTER II

  An Unlikely Match

  CHAPTER III

  The Ferryman

  CHAPTER IV

  Menthe

  CHAPTER V

  The Barley Mother

  CHAPTER VI

  Infernal Plans

  CHAPTER VII

  Advice Underseas

  CHAPTER VIII

  Dream-Trinkering

  CHAPTER IX

  An Unwilling Bride

  CHAPTER X

  Instructing the Sphinx

  CHAPTER XI

  Another Abduction

  CHAPTER XII

  Demeter Strikes

  CHAPTER XIII

  Chaining a Poet

  CHAPTER XIV

  Before the Battle

  CHAPTER XV

  The Battle, and After

  About the Author

  THE HYDRA

  In one version of this tale, it was not Hercules but

  the heroic physician, Asclepius, who fought the

  monster and cut off its hundred poison heads—

  which immediately turned into a hundred streams

  of pure healing waters. And this, in turn, led to a

  whole theory of pharmacology. In the spirit of that

  earlier legend, I dedicate this book to

  BILL EVSLIN

  wonderful son and superb doctor

  Contents

  CHAPTER I

  War of the Winds

  CHAPTER II

  Young Hercules

  CHAPTER III

  The Frost Demons

  CHAPTER IV

  Daughter of the Rainbow

  CHAPTER V

  An Angry Goddess

  CHAPTER VI

  I
ole’s Plan

  CHAPTER VII

  Blood Price

  CHAPTER VIII

  New Girl at the Palace

  CHAPTER IX

  The Little Tailors

  CHAPTER X

  The Lion’s Hide

  CHAPTER XI

  The Hydra

  Characters

  Gods

  Zeus

  (ZOOS)

  King of the Gods

  Hera

  (HEE ruh)

  Zeus’s wife, Queen of the Gods

  Hermes

  (HUR meez)

  Zeus’s son, the Messenger God

  Hecate

  (HECK uh tee)

  Queen of the Harpies

  Iris

  (EYE rihs)

  Rainbow Goddess, messenger to Hera

  Titans

  Boreas

  (BOH re ahs)

  The North Wind

  Eurus

  (YOO ruhs)

  The East Wind

  Notus

  (NOH tuhs)

  The South Wind

  Zephyrus

  (ZEF ehr uhs)

  The West Wind

  Mortals

  Hercules

  (HER ku leez)

  Strongest man in the world

  Iole

  (EYE oh lee)

  Daughter of Iris, a very determined girl

  Eurystheus

  (yoo RISS thee uhs)

  King of Mycenae, Hercules’ taskmaster

  Copreus

  (COH pre uhs)

  Doer of dirty jobs for Eurystheus

  Monsters

  The Hydra

  (HY druh)

  A hundred-headed reptile, extremely lethal

  Cancer

  A giant crab

  Others

  Meadow Nymphs

  Frost Demons

  Arctic Wolves

  Arctic Owls

  Polar Bears

  A Flock of Tiny Tailors

  1

  War of the Winds

  Long ago, when the world was very new, the silver-eyed Titan, Astraeus, trysted in a corner of the sky with Eos, the dawn goddess, siring the Four Winds and a litter of stars.

  The Wind Titans quartered the earth, each dwelling in his own castle—Notus in an ivory pile on the southern edge of things; Eurus in a jade palace on the eastern edge; kindly Zephyrus in an oaken tower on the western rim, while brutal, blustering Boreas dwelt in the north in a castle whose beams were walrus tusk and mammoth bone, whose walls were solid blocks of ice.

  Boreas slept through the summer and awoke in early autumn, raging with hunger and evil tempered, ready to howl across the sky, bending trees and breaking ships, toppling hillside villages into the valleys below, and sweeping coastal villages into the sea.

  Eurus, the East Wind, was of a less violent nature than Boreas but could be deadly in his own way, striking suddenly out of fair skies. He was a menace to shipping when his mood was foul, and was much feared by mariners. He was especially cruel and capricious in the springtime, and seamen then were careful to keep lee shore to the eastward. At other times he would hover over swampland, drawing in great breaths of pestilential air and letting them out in malarial gusts so that people sickened and died.

  Notus was also treacherous. At times he would blow warmly out of the south, scattering clouds and drying the fields. Often, though, he drove cold rain before him, and savage hailstorms that could scythe down a season’s crop in a single night.

  But the West Wind, Zephyrus, was a friend to man. He came in the spring with warm gentle showers. And the waters of the melting snow and the warm rain sank into the earth and brought up flowers and young trees and all the crops that feed mankind.

  The Wind brothers were not sociable. They did not mingle with the other Titans, nor, indeed with any of the god tribe—with one exception.

  They passionately followed Iris, the rainbow goddess, who appeared after storms, casting her arch of colors across the new-washed sky. The Winds hovered, watching as she danced on her radiant bow and sang a fair-weather song. For three of the winds had fallen madly in love with her.

  But she ignored the tempestuous wooing of Boreas, and the rich gifts of Eurus, and the honeyed words of Notus. She preferred Zephyrus—who loved someone else.

  So the Winds went to war.

  Eurus and Notus, although rivals for Iris’s affections, were quite willing to join forces against Boreas, who was much the strongest of the brothers. Once rid of him, they thought, they would be able to fight it out between themselves on more or less equal terms.

  Choosing a time when Boreas was sleeping his summer sleep, the South Wind blew into the arctic wastes, melting the ice floes, making the sea swell into a mighty flood. The East Wind, who had been waiting to strike, now blew at an angle, whipping the swollen seas into a huge torrent that rushed toward the North Wind’s castle, threatening to drown him as he slept.

  But it was very dangerous to arouse Boreas. Awakened too soon by the roaring of a strange surf, he saw a mass of wind-driven waters cresting toward his castle. Angrier than he had ever been before in his wrathful life, he filled his chest with icy air and blew it out in a blast that froze the waters, forming an ice mountain where there had been a flat stretch of permafrost.

  But the stilling of the waters did not quench his fury. He immediately launched a counterattack. Blackening the sky with his cape, he stormed out of the north, hurling gales before him—which grew to hurricane force as their coldness met the warmer airs. Leaving a swath of destruction in his wake, Boreas flew farther south than he had ever been—over deserts and jungles. And the people there, and the apes and elephants and lions and zebras, whimpered and shuddered and stared at the sky from which strange white stuff was falling. The terrible cold whiteness lay on the ground like a shroud. Indeed, hordes of those who dwelt in southern lands froze to death.

  Then the North Wind turned east. He roared over the rain forests, freezing man and beast, and sheathing the trees in ice so that they glittered and chimed. All the way to the eastern rim of the world Boreas flew, and blew down the wonderful jade palace belonging to Eurus before turning north again.

  Eurus and Notus knew when they were beaten. They sent messages of surrender to Boreas, humbly begging his pardon and asking to meet with him so that they might apologize properly. Traveling north in abjectly gentle breezes they visited Boreas in his ice castle, and begged him to grant a truce.

  Huge, fur clad, he sat on his walrus-ivory throne, frowning down at them as they stammered out their apologies. In the enormous, freezing throne room, where arctic wolves prowled like hounds and great white arctic owls flew like parakeets, the North Wind sat in state, and his younger brothers trembled before him.

  “I shall pardon you on one condition,” he growled. “You must promise to abandon all claim to Iris.”

  “We do! We do!” cried Eurus.

  “But,” said Notus slyly, “we are not the problem, you know. She looks with favor upon none of us. For some weird reason she seems to prefer Zephyrus.”

  “Nonsense!” roared Boreas. “Where did you get that idea?”

  “I happened to meet a meadow nymph whose clan gathers wildflowers for the colors that Iris flings across the sky. And she told me that all the nymphs are gossiping about this. For when Iris touches earth, she wanders about, murmuring ‘Zephyrus … Zephyrus …’ and gazes yearningly westward.”

  “I’ll give those gabby sluts something else to wag their tongues about,” said Boreas. “Iris will be mine before the month is out.”

  “How will you manage that, noble sir?” asked Notus.

  “In my own way, the simple direct North Wind way. I’ll snatch her out of the sky and bring her here. And keep her close until she agrees to marry me.”

  “A brilliant plan,” cried Eurus. “Bold and brilliant. Is there any way we can help?”

  “I need no help from pitiful puling puffs of nothing like you two. Just skulk back to your own lai
rs and stay there until I give you permission to leave.”

  “Thank you, mighty Brother,” cried Notus. “May your courtship be prosperous.”

  “Get out,” growled Boreas.

  And the South Wind and the East Wind bowed and smirked their way out of the ice castle, vowing to each other never to cross their powerful brother again, no matter what.

  2

  Young Hercules

  At the age of fifteen Hercules was still only half grown, but bigger than most men, and much stronger. He had stopped wrestling with other boys because he was afraid of hurting them. Yet, he knew, he had to find some way of using the perilous strength he had been given. At times he felt that only the iron hoops of his ribs kept his energy caged, kept it from bursting his keg of a chest and splitting him like an overripe melon.

  So he sought ways of spending his energy. He uprooted small trees and wrestled yearling bears. It was at this time that the vengeful North Wind blew too far south, bringing arctic weather to places that had never known real winter before. And when Hercules went out that day to seek bears to wrestle, he found a land transformed by snow. Although his body was almost hairless, his skin was tough as horsehide, and he was untroubled by the cold. In fact, he found the snow helpful. It held animal tracks, among them the imprint of bear paws—and this clear spoor, he knew, would save him hours of searching.

  Now he had wrestled all the yearling bears in the Theban forests. They knew him well and enjoyed the wrestling as much as he did, and never used their teeth and claws against him. And now, when Hercules heard a bear growling savagely in the underbrush, he couldn’t believe it was growling at him, but that it had been attacked by a lion—the only beast about that would dare attack a bear.