Pompous, Grandiose Pretensions
The gray-eyed goddess kneeled
she said, "My Lord, Almighty Ruler of the Universe,
most just, most wise, I pray you, do not forget the needs
of Corinth, Queen of Cities. I have tended her lovingly,
cherished her, guided her gently through stunning catastrophes.
Throne after throne I have watched kicked down through the whimsical will
of malicious, barbarous gods -- gods who amuse themselves
like boys pulling wings off butterflies. Yet I've kept her pillars,
shrine of the arts, seat of all taste and nobility.
Preserve my work! Give Jason the throne -- for the city's sake.
Surely a city means more in your sight than one mere woman!
Pity Athena as she'd have you pity our beloved Aphrodite!
Grant my request, and grant Aphrodite some other gift
still dearer to her."
Hera smiled, but the gray-eyed Athena
maintained her mask of innocence. Those who attended her
bowed, heavy with solemnity, and tapped their scrolls,
their money-boxes, crowns, harps. Aphrodite's cheek
burned dark red. Zeus said nothing.
Her head bent
as in in supplication to the Father of the Gods, Aphrodite
rolled her eyes toward her sister. "Don't play games with me,"
she whispered, "immortal bitch! How wonderfully reasonable
you always make your desires sound! Do you think they're fooled,
these gods you play to? They know what you're after. Power, goddess!
You want your way no matter what -- no matter who you walk on.
But you can't come right out and say it, can you? That wouldn't be civil,
and the lovely Athena is NOTHING if not civil! -- Well, so are
sewers! indoor toilets!" She trembled with rage. Athena
smiled, as calm and serene as the moon above roiling, passionate
seas. Suddenly the goddess of love burst into tears,
wept like a shepherdess betrayed. The gray-eyed goddess of cities,
magnificent queen of mind, shot a quick glance at Zeus, then widened
her eyes as if in amazement. "Why Aphrodite!" she exclaimed,
"my poor, poor love!" She gathered her sister goddess gently
in her arms like a child, and Aphrodite cried on Athena's breast.
Hera smiled.
But the brow of Zeus was troubled. He looked
from the love-goddess to Athena. "Enough!" he said. The hall
grew still. The stillness expanded. The eyes of the Father God
were like thunderheads. After some minutes had passed, he said,
"You're clever, Athena. You'd outfox a gryphon. Yet even so,
you may be wrong, and Aphrodite right. You talk
of cities, of how they're more important than a single life.
But the city in which that's true would be not worth living in.
I've known such cities. One by one I've ground them underfoot,
slaughtered their poets and priests and planted their vineyards to salt.
You pleaded against such a city yourself for Antigone, goddess!
Has it slipped your mind? 'Where the dead are left to the crows,' you said,
'where a life means nothing, let the whole white hovel be crows' fodder.'
Justice demands that I grant Aphrodite's wish." He was silent.
Then Hera turned to him. Her eyes flamed. "And my wish, sir?"
she hissed. "I knew I was a fool to leave my business to Athena!
How can mere reason compete with THAT?" She pointed. Aphrodite
covered her bosom, blushing. "I agree,
it's wrong to make cities more important than the poeple who live in them.
Cities exist to make possible the splendid life -- the life
of mind and sense in harmony, fulfilled to the utmost. Good!
But what of Jason's life? But that doesn't matter, of course. Not to you!
Not with HER there, pleading with her big pink boobs! What counts with you,
O mixed-up Master Planner? You reason by whim, like the rest of us,
for all your pompous, grandiose pretensions. Fact!
You purse your lips, you muse in beatific silence, you nod,
and you do what you damn well please! Well no to me, husband!
I want what I want, and I'm not putting elegant names on it."
Hardly moving, Zeus glanced at her. The queen's lips closed.
posted by The Indifferent Monkey @ 9:56 PM
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