Read Online Monsters of Greek Mythology, Volume Two by Bernard Evslin - Free Book Online Page B

you. Iris overheard our conversation about the Hydra’s poison fangs and sent her daughter to warn Hercules that he must wear lion-skin armor.”
    â€œHow did you find out?”
    â€œI caught a flower nymph and tortured her a bit. She wasn’t much fun. I’d hardly gotten started before she yammered out all she knew.”
    â€œVery well,” said Hera. “Let’s go catch them. We’d better hurry, though. Iris may suspect something. She can read my mood even at a distance.”
    â€œI’m ready,” said Hecate.
    Hera whistled up her swan chariot. In a rush of white wings the great birds drew the chariot to the garden. Hera jumped in. The swans beat their wings again and the chariot arose. Hecate spread her wings and flew easily alongside.
    They sped high and low, searching sky and earth. They dipped into the valleys, searched the slopes, skimmed the treetops. Hecate descended sometimes to question birds. But search as they might, they could find no trace of the rainbow goddess or her daughter.

4
    A Suitable Monster
    Hera prowled the mountaintop, raging. “What’s the use of being Queen of the Gods if I’m thwarted every place I turn? I can’t punish Iris or Iole because I can’t find them. Nor can I find a suitable task for Hercules. Since he slew the Hydra, monster activity has slowed down to a crawl. All the best serpents and dragons and spear-birds and giant boars seem to be stuck in their holes or dens or undersea caverns or wherever the hell they lurk … This can’t go on. Surely, somewhere, there’s some powerful, murderous beast I can use. But I hear of no countryside being ravaged, no crops uprooted, no herds devoured, no villagers massacred. And that muscle-bound young lout is lolling at his ease somewhere, safe from my vengeance. It’s unbearable! I simply must find a suitable monster and arrange a fatal encounter.”
    On impulse she whistled up her chariot and ranged over the Middle Sea from the southern shore of Attica to the northern edge of Africa. For the most dreadful monsters, she knew, were to be found in the sea.
    Flying west toward Iberia, she saw a three-decked ship running before the wind. She watched it idly as the wind dropped and the sail flapped, causing the men to spring onto the rowing benches and unship their long oars. The oar blades flashed and the ship crawled over the glittering water. Then she saw something else.
    A huge, wedge-shaped head poked out of the sea. Coil upon coil, the impossibly long body of a serpent heaved out. The head swiveled toward the ship; its loops flattened and it began to swim after the vessel. It seemed to be gliding through the water without effort, yet it was catching up to the ship.
    The sailors hadn’t seen it. They kept rowing, and sang as they rowed. Hera had dipped her chariot closer and could hear them sing. But the song turned to wild yells as the serpent cut in front of the bow and began to uncoil. Up, up it went until it towered above the mast. The men had cast away their oars and were wielding swords and spears and axes.
    The serpent flexed until its head was level with the deck. Then it opened its jaws, and the horrified seamen were looking down a hundred yards of gullet, lined with teeth. The jaws closed over the entire ship from stem to stern. Hera heard the hull cracking, heard muffled screams as the men vanished.
    The serpent lifted itself slightly again and spat out mast, oars, cordage, weapons, bits of sail. The debris floated in the reddening water. The serpent slid under and was gone.
    â€œMagnificent!” cried Hera. “That’s the monster for me! I must find out more about him.”
    She returned to Olympus and sent a message to Tartarus, summoning Hecate, who came immediately. This time Hera received the Harpy queen in the courtyard of the cloud castle, and described what she had seen the day before.
    â€œSounds like Ladon,” said