The Rhythm of Immortality

Modern Greek Mythology

Hestia comforts the children of broken homes, she appears to them as a school councilor that always has cookies. They cry in her arms, and she lets them stay with her for as long as she can. She stopped calling home, stopped making strongly worded comments to the parents. All there is left are broken homes and suffering children.

Hera sits next to her sister, holds her hand and thinks about the broken marriages that lead to broken homes. She listens to the couples yelling at each other while she walks on the streets. She holds the crying women, she listens to the hopeless men. All of the power that a goddess of marriage possesses cannot help the people who were betrayed by their closest ones.

After a long day, Demeter sits on the ground in her garden, holds a cup of tea in hands that have dirt all over them. She wishes that more people would remember what is under all of the concrete. She feels the dying of her world, and curses those who do not care for it.

Poseidon cannot bring himself to go to the oceans anymore. Every time he visits the beaches there is more trash, more dead animals, more people who disrespect the water and its vastness. He is helpless against it.

With every year, Hades clings onto his wife more and more. With every year, he sees more and more souls arrive in his kingdom, souls who left before their time was due. He goes out to surface and tries save as many as he can. But he cannot save them all, and too many still slip through his protective fingers.

Zeus doesn't gather any pleasure from his mistresses, more times than ever before he looks to his wife for comfort. The humans have long forgotten who he really is, the no longer fear him, they no longer respect him. He doesn't care for them either, and doesn't understand why his family keeps trying to make this world turn.

Aphrodite soothes the scars that girls give themselves because they believe they are not enough. She speaks at support groups, she visits every person she can, trying to teach them that they are beautiful no matter what society says. She tells them that she loves them even when they can't bring themselves to do it.

Ares hands out blankets and food at refugee camps, the god of war does not look over the soldiers any longer. He becomes whatever the victims of war need him to be, a doctor, a cook, a pair of strong arms to hold them when the will to live leaves them.

Athena is right there with her brother, she organizes the rescue missions, goes into the burning buildings, the crumbling buildings. She carries people out on her back, she looks over the innocents, she teaches all those who would listen. Late at night, after all of the troubled souls have fallen asleep, Athena is held by Ares while she weeps over the graves of those she couldn't save.

Apollo holds back the hair of a girl vomiting in the back of an alley, while his sister stands guarding their backs. He volunteers at the local hospital, singing to the patients while helping them recover. He cannot use his powers anymore, but he tries to anyways. At nights he plays in the streets, and even wrapped in the protectiveness of the dark ruled by his sister, Apollo still stands out. He still holds out for hope. Artemis is less hopeful, but the twins learned to find comfort in each other.

Artemis set aside her bow and quiver, they stood out too much. She carries knives instead, and has lost how many times she saved an innocent soul from assault. She cannot get drunk, but sometimes she wishes she could. As she stands outside yet another bathroom where a drugged child is helpless even at the hands of her brother, she yells at Dionysus to watch the drinks.

Dionysus shakes his head, even he cannot look after everything. When he is not drinking at the bar, he is usually behind it. He flirts with the cute boys and girls, and finds them a safe way home if he sees they need his help. They usually do. He doesn't ever go to the theatre anymore, but when he does he sees musicals with Apollo. Sometimes he jokes they're the last good thing left in the world.

Hephaestus sips coffee with the engineering students, and to them he is the quirky handicapped TA from their class. He rolls around college campuses in his wheelchair, feeling lucky that his fire has found a new outlet. He is presents at every rocket launch, and blames himself for every death that happened related to it. In times of personal turmoil Hephaestus finds himself back in his workshop, and it seems that Aphrodite is more keen on accepting his gifts now more than ever.

Hermes still carries the messages for his family, however little they may speak now. He detests what some people call jokes now, but still finds himself in the comedy clubs late at night trying to get people to laugh anyways. He sits in hostels around the world, swapping stories with curious college students. At the end of the day, Hermes still tries to fulfill his purpose, no matter how hard it became.

Persephone, much like her mother, sits on the ground in the fruit gardens. Her book on her lap, she looks around at the fruit, the grass, and the blue sky. She thinks a lot, about her husband, her mother, the world itself. Persephone wonders if all of the efforts were worth it, but shoos the lonely thoughts away. She just wishes more people would stop and smell the flowers.

--Lady Spaghetti

http://ladyspaghetti.tumblr.com/