Happy indeed are the Hesperides, the goddesses who live and rule in that place. Sky, earth, and sea were all bathed in countless colours, and when she stepped down into the land of the Hesperides, its radiance seemed to enfold her like an aura, holding her momentarily spellbound. The journey to that earthly paradise was enchanting the further west she journeyed, the more beautiful everything around her became. “That is where I shall hide my daughter,” Rhea cried, and swift as the wind she set out for the distant, brightly-coloured West. Above all, Cronus’ affairs never carried him so far afield he had never visited the land of the Hesperides. The land of the Hesperides lay far away, its shores beyond the reach of man and it was not until much later that it was visited by the mythical heroes Heracles and Perseus. There lived the three daughters of Hesperus and Night, and now the time had come when she had need of them. She remembered that beneath those parti-coloured clouds lay the fairest land in all the world, the land of the Hesperides. As she gazed out upon the magnificent sunset a thought suddenly crossed her mind. It was the hour when the sun sinks towards its rest, and a breathtaking view spread itself before her. Now she held her little daughter Hera in her arms and racked her brains trying to think of a place where she could hide her. Her face was sad and her expression thoughtful – and with good reason: She wished to save her children from her husband, whose one desire was to destroy them all lest they topple him from his throne. The name of this goddess was Rhea, and she was Cronus’ wife. In the days before the rise of Zeus, when the fearsome Titan Cronus ruled over gods and men, a goddess sat upon a rock, holding a little girl in her arms. Extract from the book The Music of the Gods:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |