THE GODS OF OLYMPUS

EXCERPT

This is a tale like no other you have ever heard. It begins in a time long, long ago, deeper in the past than any tale which has ever been told. To begin our story at its beginning we must go back countless centuries and move ever further backwards in time, searching for the beginning, the beginning of time which never was.

In that far distant age there lived, as there had always lived, a god named Chaos. He was all alone, and round him there was nothing but utter emptiness. In those times there was neither sun, nor light, nor earth, nor sky. There was nothing but a formless void and thick darkness stretching to infinity.

Untold centuries rolled by like this until, at last, Chaos grew tired of living by himself. It was then that he first thought of creating the world.

The first thing he did was to bring the goddess Earth into being. She was lovely beyond description; filled with strength and life, she grew and spread and enfolded huge expanses within her embrace. On her our world was founded.

Then Chaos created fearsome Tartarus and black Night, and straight after that the lovely and radiant Day.

The kingdom of Tartarus was deep and dark beyond imagining, as far within the earth as chaos was above it. If one dropped an iron anvil from that void it would go on falling for nine days and nine nights, and only at dawn on the tenth day would it reach the earth. And then, if it went on falling from the earth towards Tartarus, it would go on down for another nine days and nine nights and only on the morning of the tenth day would it reach those depths. That is how deep within the earth Tartarus lies, and that is why the darkness there is so thick and black. And Tartarus is boundless. If you entered it, you would move endlessly onwards, dragged on and buffeted by raging whirlwinds, and even in a year you would be unable to reach the far side.

In the heart of this frightful region, which even the immortal gods are afraid of, rise the dark courts of Night, forever wrapped in black clouds. Here Night sits all day, and when dusk falls, he spreads out over the earth.

Copyright © by Dimitris Stefanidis. All rights reserved.