The Endymid: A New Chapter in Greek Mythology

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

[spoiler=Prologue: Girl Meets Boy]Two slivers of light marked the horizon as the stars glimmered in the pitch-dark air over Rome. As the minutes ticked by, guided eternally by the stolid, cold Fates, golden light waxed to the east, as silver waned in the west. The stars receded slowly into a honeyed sky as sunlight bathed the idyllic pastures and glistening palaces of Italy's most radiant city.

 

Few would witness the glowing glory of sunrise, as most were still sound asleep, enfolded in their blankets, whether those be the straw available to the inhabitants of agrarian one-roomed huts to the south, or the fine linens granted to the more luxurious rich to the north. But there were two beings who beheld the spectacle, as they did day by day, unfailingly, not once absent from the brilliant light. Though their schedules fluctuated almost randomly, they always coincided with each other's, and with the sunrise itself.

 

They were Artemis and Apollo, twin siblings, children of Zeus, and Deities of the Moon and Sun. Whenever Apollo saw fit to begin the delicate process of introducing day to the Roman Empire, Artemis would leave her miniature fortress on Luna, the realm over which she held dominion, and begin pulling the moon into the Middle East. From there, if the transition went correctly (as it had for roughly one and a half million years), the momentum would mingle with African tribal prayers and carry the enormous Moon all the way around while Apollo began to work up more momentum. So the cycle had always gone.

 

At this moment, Artemis was moving at roughly twice the speed of a modern bullet having just been fired from an M14 assault rifle. Propelled by her own divine powers, she was at the moment rocketing towards a mountain, which looked, if formidable, ordinary as mountains go. Roughly two miles high, with a multitude of peaks, crags, and crevasses, there was nothing abnormal about it.

 

Until Artemis slammed into the peak, that is. At that point, she decelerated at a physically impossible rate, touched down gently, and glanced down the two glistening, white, pillar-lined corridors that had appeared on either side of her.

 

She brushed a bit of her ebony hair out of her eyes, squinting down the corridor to her left. After several seconds, she determined that there were no signs of devastation in that direction, and began to stroll down the hallway, eager to return to the safety and relative isolation of her forest. Her father and older brother were prone to destructive rampages...

 

...and, after a deafening crash, she realized too late that the latter had been set off. Artemis was a prodigiously intelligent girl, but such an admirable intellect was hardly necessary to realize that a being in the presence of an angered Heracles was not an admirable fate.

 

It was, however, required to ascertain that he was frighteningly close by. Not wanting to chance the corridor's collapse, she dived between the nearest two pillars, one of which was an elegant Ionic and the other a garishly elaborate Corinthian. There was a quick shimmer of prismatic light —

 

and she found herself in a dim, humid room she'd never seen before. Massaging her bare shoulder where it had contacted the rich wooden floor, Artemis shook her head a bit to clear her thoughts up. She coughed as her lungs adjusted to the dusty air. Finally, she got a chance to look around.

 

The room was tiny, like the closet of some minor immortal whose master or mistress had little grace. The only plainly visible objects in the room were the column-portals through which she had passed to enter; the others were all lit by four dim candles at the corners of the room, each on wooden panels supported by miniscule buttresses. In front of her was a table upon which an object suspiciously akin to a coffin was laid, and —

 

She involuntarily drew a hand-and-a-half longsword from a sheath at her waist. She wasn't alone. Fortunately, they were just two of the dark, wispy Muses. Muses tended not to annoy immortals, especially those as reclusive and short-tempered as she. She replaced her sword and turned to leave, but much to her surprise, one of them began to drone out some prophetic message.

 

"Behold, O Goddess. A terrifying tale of heroic intrigue, of a wicked traitor who sought to undermine even the power of ægis-great Zeus, and to rule over both Heaven and Earth."

 

Now, Artemis was interested. She never could resist a proper adventure story, and she might as well get some entertainment while she was trapped here. Heracles's rages didn't have time limits, after all.

 

"Behold, O Goddess. A story which even we have never beheld, for the terrifying success of this villain, a thief of knowledge and of power, who came too close to usurping the great and mighty Zeus, Lord of Olympia."

 

The other Muse had spoken. She inwardly gasped at the marvel which she had uncovered. The story had to be true; any Muse who dared dream a tale in defiance of Zeus would be hurled to Tartarus before they could think another thought. If even the Muses hadn't seen this tale...

 

The first again: "Behold, O Goddess, for we cannot deny this knowledge to you, O great Goddess, daughter of Leta, in whose veins runs the blood of the great Zeus, who these tales threaten to destroy."

 

So they thought her safe because Zeus was her father? Well, he'd never actually raised her, and she certainly felt no affection for the megalomaniacal son of Kronos, but she had no personal aversion to his deeds, either... So in a way, they were right.

 

The second smoky Muse: "Behold, O Goddess. This is the traitor, condemned to the ultimate punishment of eternal youth in slumber. As he is never to die, his memories are yours to command." It extended a tendril of dark vapor towards the coffin mounted on the small table.

 

That was yet stranger. What Muse had heard of her special power? Only Athena knew she had the power to extract memories from other sentient beings, or so she had thought. Could she have been wrong? She was about to inquire when the Muses darkened and hurtled through the portal-columns.

 

She approached the coffin, which had a perfectly clear canopy for a cover, and was immediately glad the others had warned her of its incumbent's treachery: he was easily the most handsome person she'd seen in her life. His mere appearance could easily have dropped her carefully cultivated guard of guards, which had protected her even from the charms of dastardly Orion. His hair was only slightly lighter than hers; his face was smooth and clean-shaven; his eyelids were closed over peacefully. He couldn't have possibly appeared a day older than she did, Artemis reflected, acknowledging her own regrettable nubile beauty, and he resembled his state: sound asleep.

 

Still, the evidence granted by the Muses was enough to keep her focused on her task: to learn this forbidden truth kept even from the master of lore, the collective Musemind. She bent to read an inscription on the frame holding up the magically reinforced glass:

 

ENDYMION SON OF LACIUS

AEOLIAN KNIGHT/ASTRONOMER

CRIME: ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION

 

Worded that way, she thought shrewdly, it didn't sound all that bad. The hopeful girl's girl within her, the bit that had been completely disarmed by the boy's appearance, offered a protest that the whole of her took to considering: What if it isn't? A revolution would have been made an act of terrorism by...

 

She cut herself off, not wanting to raise her hopes. She grimly passed a hand over his gawkily attractive face, whispered the name, "Endymion," and visualized silver smoke rising from the coffin.

 

She was about to be plunged into the epic of an immortal lifetime by the prismatic liquid that engulfed her amongst the metallic steam that was filling the tiny chamber — and it would not all be in memory.

 

 

[spoiler=Plot Summary (If You're Familiar With Artemis and Endymion)]

This is the story of why Endymion was put to sleep, why Artemis (who rejected the even-prettier bishy Orion) fell in love with him, and what Artemis does about Zeus having put her new boyfriend to eternal sleep. That's one helluva lot of story, and it'll involve wyverns, politics, the armies of Typhœus, and a philosopher named Jesus. Happy day.

Let my contribution to the ranks of Homer and Virgil begin in all of its modern crappishness.

 

 

[spoiler=Plot Summary (For Those Unfamiliar With Endymion)]

This is inspired by a commonly exploited Greek myth amongst western artists. It depicts the moon goddess Artemis and an Aeolian astronomer named Endymion, the latter of whom was cursed by Zeus to remain forever young, yet forever asleep. In my tale, Endymion was cursed for a reason, and this tale is related as Artemis reads his memories. However, time does not come to a standstill on Mount Olympus, and happenings there become very threatening.

Let my contribution to the ranks of Homer and Virgil begin in all of its modern crappishness.

 

 

[Umbra]

At this moment, Artemis was moving at roughly twice the speed of a modern bullet having just been fired from an M14 assault rifle.

 

A story revolving around g®eek mythology, and you... compare a goddess to a bullet.

 

Apart from that, you're confusing me. The events are happening way too fast, and with no real connection. One second, she's flying God knows where, and the instant later, she's in some sort of corridor running away from Heracles.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

1. I did say modern.

2. The implication was a series of portals. Hit the mountain fast enough, and BAM, you're in the Olympian palace.

[Freeman The Master]

this is actually good and i almost missed this...