04-21-2017, 11:15 AM
First Monster
Everyone has seen the Nemean Lion
once. He was a workaday,
unassuming terror
sponsored by Hera
born to Typhon out of Echidna
(or however elder monsters reproduce
Echidna having given birth
or life or its equivalent
to many) with a plain, serviceable pair
of attributes, to wit
twice a normal lion’s size
hide impenetrable to men’s weapons.
That’s the lot.
Set to terrorize Nemea
which was favored by Zeus
Hera’s husband, with whom
she was quarreling due
to his extracurricular affairs
(does this sound familiar?)
So Herakles, a hero
just starting out
was sent to collect this monster’s skin
(another turn of Olympian politics,
Herakles being outcome
of a Zeus affair).
Lion duly dispatched:
chased into cave, strangled;
all rules observed.
Then stranger things began
to happen. First, Herakles displayed
those smarts which complemented
plain heroic strength: how peel off
an impenetrable hide?
Use beast’s own claws to cut it.
Then even stranger, Herakles
delivering pelt as ordered
also kept it as his trophy, cape,
and armor (impenetrable, remember).
That hero was no fool.
But last and strangest, Hera placed
lion Leo up 'midst constellations
incidentally bestowing what he’d never
had in earthly monster life: a name.
Why such an honor - highest
to which godlings could aspire?
Well, what are monsters’ wages, after all -
offspring? (Ask tired Echidna.)
No, it’s immortality (for all monsters are
despite their other attributes
mortal enough to be slain)
and Leo - Nemean Leo - has received
his due. He looks down yet
star-jeweled in the Zodiac
long after Hera, Typhon, even Herakles
having nothing more (and many less)
to be remembered by:
an unassuming monster
twinkling down upon us
as if winking at
his fellow wage-slaves prowling on below.
Everyone has seen the Nemean Lion
once. He was a workaday,
unassuming terror
sponsored by Hera
born to Typhon out of Echidna
(or however elder monsters reproduce
Echidna having given birth
or life or its equivalent
to many) with a plain, serviceable pair
of attributes, to wit
twice a normal lion’s size
hide impenetrable to men’s weapons.
That’s the lot.
Set to terrorize Nemea
which was favored by Zeus
Hera’s husband, with whom
she was quarreling due
to his extracurricular affairs
(does this sound familiar?)
So Herakles, a hero
just starting out
was sent to collect this monster’s skin
(another turn of Olympian politics,
Herakles being outcome
of a Zeus affair).
Lion duly dispatched:
chased into cave, strangled;
all rules observed.
Then stranger things began
to happen. First, Herakles displayed
those smarts which complemented
plain heroic strength: how peel off
an impenetrable hide?
Use beast’s own claws to cut it.
Then even stranger, Herakles
delivering pelt as ordered
also kept it as his trophy, cape,
and armor (impenetrable, remember).
That hero was no fool.
But last and strangest, Hera placed
lion Leo up 'midst constellations
incidentally bestowing what he’d never
had in earthly monster life: a name.
Why such an honor - highest
to which godlings could aspire?
Well, what are monsters’ wages, after all -
offspring? (Ask tired Echidna.)
No, it’s immortality (for all monsters are
despite their other attributes
mortal enough to be slain)
and Leo - Nemean Leo - has received
his due. He looks down yet
star-jeweled in the Zodiac
long after Hera, Typhon, even Herakles
having nothing more (and many less)
to be remembered by:
an unassuming monster
twinkling down upon us
as if winking at
his fellow wage-slaves prowling on below.
Non-practicing atheist