The First Book of the Olympnomachi: Melinoë The Most Evil of Olympos' Daughters

Yes the tale continues

Hera for her own part had no great love either for Hephaestus, yet between their tormenting of him and of Emperor Throrain, she could foresee that great pains would yet result from their cruelty. Zeus as always scorned her words, having no great love for her and little respect for her wisdom despite his fear of her wrath, he sneered at her before he wandered off to find himself another maiden to begat a child upon.

Shaking her head at his weakness for his daughters and niece, Hera avoided thence the two dark goddesses preferring to avoid coming to harm herself than to temp them. She also counselled the only one of her daughters whom she loved, Hebe who being wiser than either of the two goddesses heeded her mother’s words even as she demonstrated compassion towards Hephaestus, who was she knew her half-brother. One that Hebe had always been close to as she shared his great love for labour and hard-work, as well as good things wrought by mortals.

Moved by her words, Hephaestus had her cult spread amongst the Dwarves who held up the goddess as one of their chief-most deities, worshipping her as Ulmungr (youthful beauty), the goddess of all women’s crafts and the lady of the hearth. This pleased Hera, and almost moved her to make peace with her son, with this not going unnoticed by either of the trickster goddesses.

It was Melinoë who wrought the great cruelty that followed, as Até had some wisdom in her and was more than familiar with how terrible wrath her father could wield when angered. She nonetheless knew of her cousin’s plans and did little to expose them, and even facilitated them to an extent, as she agreed to act as messenger to the demon-lord Búseyra of Jotunheimr. Going to his palace to promise him in Melinoë’s name the hand of Hebe, and giving many of the goddess’s jewels as part of the pact, with this pleasing the demon who thought longingly of the beautiful goddess and pleased listened to the advice of Até on how best to seize Hera’s daughter.

Hebe who adored flowers especially at the base of Mt-Olympos, descended as was her wont to pick them for her mother as much as she did for sisters was thence swept away by Búseyra. Who flew there in the shape of a giant vulture, grabbing her in his talons having been told how to best recognise her and where to find her by Melinoë, who had also sewn a wedding dress in mockery of her cousin.

Seeing this, Heimdall in the north sent Hermod the son of Oðinn, to warn the goddess’s mother and Zeus who full of wroth took up the shape of eagles themselves to give chase. As he had the raiment of an eagle in his palace as such raiments which are dearly beloved by Freyja were originally from the west. Full of rage, it came to pass that the king and queen united for once and tore apart Búseyra with their beaks once they had caught up to him.

Once they had returned home, they never allowed Hebe to descend down the mountain, without a full guard fearful as they were of a repeat of this particular sort of incident. This greatly displeased the daughter in question, who had always treasured her freedoms and swore to discover who had sold her to Búseyra. She had no need to search for long, as Búseyra’s brother, Glaumarr (his name means uproar in the Giant’s tongue) swept into the palace of Olympos to demand compensation for the murder of his brother which he claimed to be unjust. He came very near to losing his head, yet Até and Ares begged in favour of his suit, with the latter merely doing so to counter Athene who brayed for the demon’s blood.

Hera for her own part was of a similar mind as the two, if only to shield her favourite daughter from the depredations of the demons. Zeus felt much the same, though he also felt discomfort towards slaying Glaumarr in the sanctity of his home, as guest-rights had been called upon. Melinoë for her part warned Glaumarr that Zeus intended to have him cast out of his house or killed, yet assisted him in the stealing away of one of Athene’s handmaidens. This act done as much for her own amusement, as was the brutal murder of another handmaiden which she claimed Glaumarr had committed, did little to inspire further love for her by Zeus and his household. Notably since all suspected her, to have had her hand in the two misdeeds due to her involvement in the previous attempt to be rid of Hebe.

“Something must be done, to be rid of her,” Zeus muttered to himself just before he ordered her to be flogged, thinking it might serve as a good lesson for his niece. She however had seduced Hermes who was to transmit the order to Ares, to seize her thus did she flee this time to the north where she hoped to gain the protection of Asgard.

This she won for herself for a brief time, thanks to the assistance of the wily Loki, however when the time came a few mere dozen years after for him to slay Balðr, she was left without any defender. By that time though, she had learnt of the location of Ve and had formed a pact of a sorts with him, along with having seduced Oðinn’s young son Meili who had become smitten with her and desired marriage though his parents forbade it. For they knew what lay in her heart, and greatly feared and disliked it, still though he would not be refused and persisted in following her wherever she went.

This led to her attempting to brave the icy realm of the Frost-Giants, with the goddess keen to recruit them and to without Meili or Ve’s knowledge sell the former to them. She it was who not only broke her promise to Ve but perverted it, by requesting the secret of the location of the eggs of a great many dragons that he had hidden whilst the majority of his children were hidden away. It was she who took these eggs away, this she did after she tricked Meili into a midnight rendezvous in the realm of the lord Ultorvak who keen to hold a son of Oðinn prisoner, ambushed the son of Oðinn. Playing at being ambushed also, Melinoë ‘escaped’ to inform Ve of what had happened, and tricked him into hurrying to the rescue of Meili. This allowed her to slip into his secret estate in Jotunheimr (which none of the demons/Giants knew was his abode) to sneak away the dragon’s eggs from there, so as to work dark-magicks upon them. This she did with the assistance of her old friend Até and the Giants in order to work dark magicks upon them, even Zeus it is said knew of this, and was bemused by it. Whilst he had come to despise Melinoë, he detested Ve all the more, and thus encouraged his daughter’s nefarious actions. Actions that led to the creation of the first hydras, scyllas and wyverns; all of them dark perversions of the dragons whom Ve had spilled so much love and care into.

Discovering his abode plundered and in ruins, upon slipping his nephew from the dungeons of Ultorvak, the Drago-Father knew at once that Olympos now knew of his hiding place. He also sensed the foul sorcery at work, ruining his beloved eggs and was thus filled with hatred for not only the lines of Ultorvak and Zeus, but also that of his former-friend Hades. A careful god though, he had other greater dragon-nests and hideaways yet was still enraged by this foul betrayal. “Thrice bedamned and mayest she be thrice-cursed for her oath-breaking and foul sorcery upon my children and their eggs! I shalt not rest until she hast been laid low, and slain along with Ultorvak and Até for this foul misdeed!”

Meili strove to sooth his uncle’s fury, refusing to believe in the worst in his first love; however Ve was full of wroth and refused to ever tolerate any further dealings with her. He fled for the wilderness in the east, where he was always welcomed and where there were dragons’ in-plenty thanks, to his oldest friend the sun-goddess Amaterasu-omikami. Who welcomed him at her court, with a great many sobs of relief and clasped him to her to his distinct embarrassment, for she had not seen him for a great many centuries and had begun to fear the worst.

If the Drago-Father departed for the east, to rebuild what he had lost, and to take comfort in his children who had not been sealed there, Meili had no such comforts. He trailed after Melinoë to strive to redeem her however this was to no avail, for she was resolved to now test the patience of those gods in the south, under the kingship of Amun-Re. Who for his own part though pressured by Isis to welcome the goddess into his court, preferred to heed the counsel of his Queen Hathor, and to refuse her entry altogether.

Indignant, Melinoë devised a new scheme; she attempted to have Amun-Re’s boat that sailed the heavens during the day, attacked by one of Ultorvak’s men. Hurtling a great javelin at the sun-god whilst he was still a child in the early part of the day, the boat near tipped over, with Set the guardian of the King of those gods enraged, and desiring to give pursuit after the dark goddess. She thus led him into a trap in Jotunheimr wherefore he was hard-put to fight off several of Ultorvak’s finest warriors. It was only by the trickery of Meili that he escaped with his life and limbs intact, with the son of Oðinn taking on the raiment of Ultorvak’s own flesh and imitating his voice in order to confound the warriors. Taking advantage of this confusion, jackal-headed Set tore through several of their numbers and escaped, with the lord of travelers shifting into the shape of a falcon so as to take flight himself also.

This heroic deed on the part of Meili earned him much favour with strong-armed Set, though it forever marked out the clever son of Oðinn as an enemy of Isis, who hated her brother and dreamt of rule over the south. Melinoë attempted several more diverse tricks against the gods of the south, but when her attempt to dig a tunnel connecting Amun-Re’s palace to that of Hel was exposed by Horus the Elder, she was chased out from there. Hers being a cursed name now there too, it was to such an extent that numerous representatives traveled to Erebus whereupon they demanded that Hades seize her and put her in her proper place.

This he wished to do, and sent many vassals to reclaim her yet all her were rebuffed or tricked into going elsewhere. In exasperation he sent his Queen Persephone, her own mother whereupon Melinoë ever the ungrateful daughter made league once more with Ultorvak to give unto him her mother, as his concubine. This Persephone escaped by transforming herself into a dove, and taking flight westwards to her half-brother, Hephaestus’s palace to the south of the Koraxian lands. There she hid for a time, wounded from Ultorvak’s eagle-claws whence he took that shape to attempt to capture her.

Bemused by this turn of events, Melinoë’s evil at last caught up to her when Ultorvak demanded that since Persephone had evaded him, it was for her daughter to become his. Refusing at once, Melinoë angered him and as she evaded him she was struck by one of Zeus’s thunderbolts as punishment for her multitude of sins against Olympos and her own mother.

Broken by this loss Persephone wept bitterly for the death of her daughter, with her husband meeting with her in her temple in secret. It was there as he comforted her that she conceived their twin children, whilst Ultorvak was driven back by Ares, back into the realm of Jotunheimr.