The Greek Gods

The Greek Gods are reborn in the twentieth century. Find out who they are.

The Greek Gods

by Svava Piast

            Heather Macbeth went to high school with the Greek Gods.  When Heather was born, the Greek Gods had also been born to meet Heather.  Heather was the most powerful princess to ever born in Europe so the Greek Gods wanted to help raise her.  Plus, Heather was Zeus' favorite princess, and when Heather was born, Zeus ordered everyone at Mt. Olympus to be born with Heather to help raise her.  Going to high school with the Greek Gods was a unique experience.  Hera was always mothering you.  Aphrodite was so affectionate.  Demeter was kind and generous.  Persephone was cute and spontaneous.  Dionysus would talk about the virtues of partying.  Zeus was a wise and a good leader.  Poseidon was strong and supportive.  Athena was strong and decisive.  Mostly, the Greek Gods provided a fun and supportive environment where individuality and spirit were valued.  They had made Heather's youth fun, dynamic and exciting. 

            The Greek Gods excelled in sports.  They were the original Olympians.  Even if the Olympics are on every four years, Heather had the Olympics every day after school in her sports teams that she was in high school.  There was simply no one faster than Hermes on the track field, no one with faster reflexes than Hercules who was a soccer goalie, no one stronger than Poseidon in swimming, and no one more agile than Zeus or Dionysus on the soccer field.  Through her years playing sports in high school with the Greek Gods, the Greek Gods taught Heather the value of the competitive spirit.  The Greek Gods were simply unbeatable as a team, and Heather and the Greek Gods took home every district championship.  They were simply an impossible team to beat. 

            More than anything, the Greek Gods taught Heather the importance of individualism and individual self-expression.  They taught Heather to always have confidence in her own self, as well as to believe in her own pursuits.  This was important to Heather because she could be a bit of an oddball and was always going against the grain.  At 13, she decided that she wanted to be a Communist even if she was from the upper class neighborhood.  At 18, she decided not to go to an Ivy League school but to a small, independent, artsy, relatively unknown liberal arts college.  And as a Communist, she also decided she wanted to be a businesswoman and to go to business school, somewhat of an anathema.  She also wanted to not only be a historian but also a hand transplant surgeon.  Heather is a bit strange.  Heather had so many different pursuits and had broken a lot of barriers.  She is the only Communist on Wall Street with a Communist company and the only Communist student at the Wharton School of Business.  Heather is always being different!  But the Greek Gods taught Heather to always believe in herself which helped Heather break so many barriers in her life.  She did not know people who had more self-confidence than the Greek Gods and learning from their self-confidence always helped Heather when she needed to break another barrier in her life.  The Greek Gods gave Heather the confidence to not only get through life, but to really achieve.  Heather thought the Greek Gods had the strongest competitive spirit which she had seen time and time again on the athletic field.  When people saw Heather being really tough, especially on Wall Street, they did not know she got her steely competitive spirit from the Greek Gods themselves.   

            The Greek Gods also taught Heather about religion.  The Greek Gods taught Heather that religion was about individualism and individual self-expression.  The Greek Gods were all incredibly individualistic.  This helped Heather greatly because most religions in the world are based on conformity and homogeneity.  This was not the case in Europe.  Even if Europe was largely Christian, the Greek Gods did not change their ways or their religious beliefs to conform to the masses.  They knew they were the original religion of Europe, and that they had the right religion for their continent.  The Greek Gods continued their beliefs in their selves, and mostly, their belief in the importance of religion being based on individual freedoms, individual diversity and individual self-expression.  In a word, their religion promoted individual freedoms and diversities not found in any organized religion in the world.  Because of the Greek Gods, Heather had a difficult time being a believer of any religion.  In the end, Heather did not join any official religion.  It was not only because she was a Communist, she had learned important lessons of religion from the Greek Gods, and she was not going to give those lessons up!  Heather could not join any organized religion that did not emphasize like the Greek Gods individualism and individual self-expression. 

            The Greek Gods made Heather love being European.  In Hera, the mother of Europe, Heather saw Europe.  Heather thought no one looked more European than Hera.  Hera had a strong and powerful body.  Anything that happened in Europe, Hera felt in her own body.  That was the kind of caring and involved mother she was.  When Europe was ravaged by war, Hera became sick and ill.  When Europe was flourishing, Hera was strong and lively.  In their capable hands, Heather believed Europe would always be safe and well-protected.  They had looked after Europe for centuries, and when Heather was born, the Greek Gods had looked after her.  She felt nowhere safer than in Zeus' and Hera's capable hands.  Heather knew with the Greek Gods, Europe would always be safe.  Heather was glad in Europe her individuality would always be protected.  Heather felt privileged and lucky to have grown up with the mysterious Greek Gods of Mt. Olympus.  And even if it was something silly like partying which Dionysus would talk about with such passion, he did it with such individualism and self-belief, Heather could not help but admire him, even if in her youth, she thought he was superficial and shallow to enjoy partying so much. 

Dionysus and Heather were really close.  They had the closest relationship among the Greek Gods.  All the Greek Gods were especially caring and attentive with Heather, but Heather always knew, even when she was young, that Dionysus cared about her the most.  He made sure he was always there for her, and Heather knew that she could always count on him.  He would never, ever let her down!  They had a special friendship.  Heather knew Dionysus would never, ever let her down.  He had always been there for Heather her whole life. 

Dionysus had even given up his hard partying ways because Heather had thought it was stupid when she was young.  In her youth, Heather did not know that Dionysus was the Greek God of partying.  Dionysus lived for partying - that was his job and his religious duty.  Still the more serious-minded Heather would always roll her eyes at Dionysus when he talked about the joys of partying.  Because of Heather, Dionysus became more serious-minded and stopped his hard-partying ways.  He grew up and gained a gravitas that he never had before because of Heather's criticisms.  He never was the loose and wild Dionysus of his youth ever again and became a serious and contemplative person.  When she was older, Heather realized that her friend was Dionysus, the Greek God of partying, and she felt awful.  She could not believe that she had destroyed one of the most important Gods in Greek mythology.  Heather learned her lesson.  Around the Greek Gods, it was important to keep your mouth shut, or you could destroy valuable European culture.  Heather was only a princess.  She did not know anything when compared to the Greek Gods who were wise and perfect.  Because of her, Europe lost its idol and model for revelry.  It was an important cultural component of Europe that was now lost, never to be regained.  It was all Heather's fault because she had told Dionysus that he was stupid for partying so much in their youth!  Heather had destroyed partying for all of Europe with her harsh criticisms of Dionysus when she was just a teenager.  Dionysus was never wild and loose ever again and grew serious, conservative and grave, odd personality characteristics for the Greek God of partying.     

            The best thing about growing up with the Greek Gods and Goddesses were just all the silly times that they had.  Being teenagers, there were a lot of these moments.  The Greek Gods were ridiculously silly and funny, particularly Dionysus and Poseidon.  In hindsight, it seemed blasphemous to have had such silly moments with the Greek Gods and Goddesses.  But religion is often seen as a serious subject, Heather can say that while the Greek Gods and Goddesses can be serious, they are not serious in the dour sense and certainly not about life.  To the Greek Gods and Goddesses, life is all about having fun, and they taught Heather that just because religion is a serious business it does not mean you have to be dour and not fun.  The Greek Gods and Goddesses were some of the most fun people Heather had ever met.  They taught Heather that religion was not about being dour and strict, and that religion along with its many responsibilities also has to account for the liveliness and fun of life.     

            But Heather was the closest to Zeus.  Zeus and Heather had a special relationship.  They were extremely close.  Heather could never be far away from Zeus, or Zeus would have to find her and comfort her, like his own daughter, and tell her to come near him.  Zeus was always doing this, ever since they were just high school teenagers, telling Heather to come close to him.  This was odd because Zeus was haughty and arrogant, he never let anyone near him as the highest God of Europe, not even his own wife, Hera, or his own daughter, Athena.  But with Heather, Zeus was a kind and affectionate father, he knew better than anyone that if Heather was not near him, she would be upset.  Because Zeus loved Heather, he never allowed that.  He was always inviting Heather to be near him.  He always kindly and gently reminded Heather not to forget him when she would get really busy with her life or travel away from home and forget to check in with him.  Zeus knew that he had to be always foremost in Heather's mind.  Even if Zeus had a wife, Hera, and a daughter, Athena, he was closest to Heather.  Out of all the people in Europe, only Heather missed him when he was not near.  Not even his own wife, Hera, and his own daughter, Athena, missed him as much or gave him as much affection as Heather.  With Heather, Zeus got the love and affection he never had gotten before from Europe, not even from his own wife and daughter.  Thus, Zeus always kept Heather close to him.  For once, it felt nice to be loved and appreciated, after years of being ignored, Heather was the one who gave him the love he deserved.  Heather was not ever allowed to live more than 30 minutes away from Zeus, and Zeus made Heather check him with him periodically, and he kept close tabs on Heather's activities. 

Zeus knew he could never lose Heather.  She was the only one who had ever given him the love and affection that he deserved as the God of Europe.  Zeus never wanted to lose Heather.  At Mount Olympus, Heather would always sit at Zeus' feet, rather than Hera or Athena.  That was how close Heather was to Zeus.  Heather was Zeus' favorite out of all the peoples in Europe and all the Gods of Mt. Olympus. 

Reviews

[Elly_Green]

I greatly enjoyed the beginning of this story. The story of Heather growing up with the gods had me believing you were talking metaphorically. That the story was going to be about their influence in her life. I did not expect that you meant literally - it was an interesting surprise! This story has a lot of potential and with a little tweaking and some editing could be very strong and entertaining.