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
(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.