The God of Olympus (4 page)

Chapter 3: Philoctetes

Before returning to Hercules’ adventure, something must be said of Philoctetes.  Philoctetes was an anomaly within the Greek world.  He was known by many but loved by few.  To both the mortals of the world and the Gods in heaven he was known as a failure.  He was once a mighty man and leader, of chosen lineage.  As the son of King Poeas he was a Greek hero.  His most famed skill was as an archer.  He fought in the Trojan War where he was a noble hero.

In fact, his performance during the Trojan War so impressed the
Gods that Zeus secretly appointed him to be a trainer of heroes—heroes that would help win the war of good and evil on the earth (while he fought against Hades in the heavens). Philoctetes obeyed the command of Zeus and raised up an army of the greatest heroes the world had ever seen. However, sadly to Philoctetes, Hades heard of what he was attempting to do, and secretly tempted each of the great heroes Philoctetes had trained (some with power, others with lust, and others will wealth). Then Zeus called for a great war to occur with Philoctetes and his great heroes against Hades and his armies on earth.

P
hiloctetes stood noble and erect as he looked out over the battlefield, a battle that he was sure they were going to win. Although they were far outnumbered, Philoctetes and his heroes and he knew that his men and women were far more prepared and trained than Hades. They were the elite, he knew, the most elite warriors the world had ever known! But in all of Philoctetes’ intelligence and experience he had failed to see that, regardless of their great skill in war, they may still fail due to internal malady.

The battle began but the heroes did not fight as their true selves.
They all fought with a loss of nobility, or a loss of life, as he did not suppose or foresee. Hades, on the other hand, laughed and mocked Philoctetes, by saying, “Your warriors do not fight for you, but for me, for they have all been ensnared by me, doomed to become my servants forevermore!”

Philoctetes
, at this time, did not understand that even the greatest of warriors derive their strength from spirit, and it was this spirit they did not have. Instead, they fought as if enslaved, for all had been enslaved by sin and guilt.  Then, eventually, many of them stopped fighting entirely or some even sided with Hades until Philoctetes was left alone against Hades and his armies.

It was then that
Philoctetes shot an arrow at Hades, trying in one last desperate attempt to defeat Hades, but it did not affect him. Hades then sent his favorite animal, his ferocious, venomous snake, forward and it bit Philoctetes, wounding him severely with a powerful and very poisonous venom. Hades laughed, having won the battle against Philoctetes and his heroes.

“Do not kill Philoctetes!” declared Hades
to all his warriors. “Let him return to report his failure. He will live only long enough to report.”

Indeed, this occasion was saddest amongst all occasions for Philoctetes, for all of Philoct
etes’ heroes had failed, destined to serve Hades.

Meanwhile Hades let Philoctetes return to Kin
g Odysseus and report to him what had occurred. Odysseus mocked him, saying, “You failed against Hades’ armies, even with your great heroes to aid you. You are not as great as I supposed! Go, you are banished from this land henceforth!” And so Philoctetes was forced to leave his homeland as an outcast, still severely wounded from the snake bite. Without anyone to go to for help Philoctetes took his ship and sailed east. He surely believed that it would be his destiny to die in his ship on the sea. And, sadly enough, this is what Philoctetes wanted at this time. In these moments death was the only way that Philoctetes could escape the pain of the poisonous wound and the shame of his failure against Hades and his armies. But just before all was lost and Philoctetes saw the rays of heaven’s sunlight, he found that his ship had landed on a foreign land. The place was called the Island of Lemnos. It was a place that Philoctetes found had the power to heal his wounds. How, he did not know. Miraculously, after he came aground on the island he found that he had greater strength flowing through him. He had enough strength to get up and explore the island and it was here that he found his new home. After he lingered there on that island for a short period of time he found that the island, although miraculous in its healing powers, had the odd ability to transform him into something very hideous and ugly. He figured that this island was a cursed island, an island that heals and preserves only to curse.

Now Hercules was flying with Pegasus to the very same island.
  Apparently Pegasus knew where Philoctetes was. Perhaps Zeus had told him. Hercules didn’t know. However, after several hours of flying through the air they both descended down onto the Island of Lemnos.

As the two descended onto the island Hercules was awed at what he saw.
Strange vegetation, unlike anything he had ever before seen, grew up from the depths of the earth. It was large and tinted a dark brownish-orange hue. A foggy, almost black, soot hovered in the air like a poisonous fume. Beyond the layer of fog Hercules could see fallen stone monuments and statues that made the large island look like it once was a thriving metropolis. Once Hercules stopped and stepped out onto the ground he also noticed that a battle must have occurred here on this island long ago, for old swords and shields littered the ground. Hercules even found that there were still the bone remains of many of the warriors. He paused for a moment and wondered what kind of trainer of heroes could live on such an obscure island.

Hercules smiled as he looked back at Pegasus, although Pegasus didn’t look at all happy to be there.
“Are you sure that this is the Island of Lemnos, where Philoctetes lives?” Pegasus nodded.  He seemed to possess no doubt, as if he possessed a keen Godlike understanding of location. “Very well, then we must move forward. But be wary of what creatures we may find on this island, for many of them may be bad.”

So t
he two continued forward through the vegetation for several miles moving south-east through mountainous terrain until they arrived on top of a very large mountain and looked down to see a long valley plain below. The two traveled down the mountain, where they saw a small stream and, beyond the stream, the bare back of what they thought was a massive man foraging in the bushes. Hercules was amazed at how tall the man was, at least twenty-five feet, and wide, at least five feet. All he had on was a ragged tunic that went down to his knees, with only one strap around his shoulder. The man had tan skin and appeared to be completely bald.  Hercules and Pegasus both hid behind the tree, and watched as this massive man managed to pluck out a bunch of berries (although they were quite large to be able to fit them in his fingers) and drop them into his mouth.  They both watched this giant eat.  Suddenly he stopped eating and turned around, where he began the attempt to itch his back.  Once he was turned Hercules noticed that he only had one large eye near the center of his face.  From what Hercules had heard and read this could only be one creature.

“A Cyclops,” whispered Hercules to Pegasus.
“Very dangerous creatures, Cyclops are, from what I hear at least. This could not be Philoctetes. Come, we must go quietly around.” But as soon as Hercules had said that he felt himself thrown upside down.

Hercules looked up to see that another massive Cyclops
had grabbed him by his feet and hung him towards the ground as he walked into the open prairie. Hercules looked to his right and saw that the same Cyclops that grabbed him had also grabbed poor Pegasus and propped him under his shoulder, so that his wings could not extend outwards.

Hercules tried to struggle free, but the creature’s large hand was not budging.

Then the Cyclops that had Hercules and Pegasus began to speak, in a harsh mumble to the other one. “Look what I have here…some foolish trespassers on our island…they think that they can just take our eating spot…” He spoke very gruffly, but also in a stupid and prideful sort of tone.

“I don’t think so,” said the other Cyclops, now very excited that they had something else to eat besides berries.
“Come, we must start a fire and cook these things! I don’t think I have had a man and bird to eat in a long time.”

“I don’t know if that is a bird,” said the Cyclops that had Hercules and Pegasus in his hands.  “It is more like a horse.”

“Huh, well a weird creature it is indeed,” said the other Cyclops.  “A delicacy perhaps.”

“You will not ea
t us!” declared Hercules boldly.

“Ah, it speaks,” said the Cyclops who had just finished eating his berries.

“Not as dumb as the ones that normally come onto this island,” said the Cyclops that held both of them in his arms.

“They all taste the same though,” said the other.

“Good, then let us eat them both, although I don’t know how the one that looks like a bird will taste.”

The other Cyclops grumbled and made his way over to a large tree, where with one massive pull of his arm he pulled the tree from out of the grou
nd and laid it on the ground. Then he ripped the tree in two and said, “Let us start a fire!”

And so they both continued making preparations for a fire when suddenly
an arrow came flying through the air. It hit the one that was trying to start the fire right in the eye, to which he ran around frantically trying to pull it out, screaming like a girl…“My eyes! My eyes! My eyes!”

The other one just yelled,
“You don’t have eyes you idiot!  You only have one!”

Another arrow came flying through
the air. This arrow hit one in the rear end. “Ouch!” yelled the other Cyclops as he immediately dropped Hercules and Pegasus to the ground. “Where are they coming from?”

Another arrow came from the trees, but in a different spot.
“Ah, all over the place! There must be many of them,” said the Cyclops, bouncing and prancing around in fear. More arrows continued to fire from different directions throughout the forest.

“Ah, they aren’t worth it, let’s get
out of here,” mumbled the Cyclops as he tossed Hercules and Pegasus to the ground and took off in the other direction. Then the other Cyclops followed, leaving Hercules and Pegasus alone with some kind of mysterious arrow shooters.

Hercules and Pegasus
took a deep breathe.  They were relieved to be out of the hands of horrifying Cyclops, but were wary at whatever scared them off. The forest from which the arrows came was dark and, with the sun now setting, things were getting even more dark and mysterious.

“Reveal yourself!
” said Hercules boldly, as he squinted into the deep depths of the forest. They both waited, but there was no response.

“I take orders from no foreigner,” said a gruff voice in the distance.

Hercules looked in the direction of the voice but could see no man. “Please,” said Hercules. “Help us…Pegasus and I am here on a great mission to see Philoctetes.”

Suddenly there was a long moment of
silence. “Philoctetes you seek…” said the voice. “Interesting that you seek Philoctetes, for there are far more dangerous creatures on this island than Cyclops that you could have ran into before you found him. Come!  Follow me through the forest! We must go before darkness completely descends upon us!”

“But who are you?” asked Hercules.
“And how do we know that we can trust you?”

“Trust me,” laughed the voice.
“Or linger here in the darkness where far more dangerous creatures emerge. The choice is yours.”

Pegasus nudged Hercules towards the voice.
“I agree,” said Hercules. After that they both moved towards the voice in the forest.

“Good choice,” said the voice.
“Now follow my voice as I will show you where you must go!”

Hercules didn’t know why the voice wouldn’t actually let him see him, but
, considering the two really had no other option, he agreed to follow the voice through the dark forest. And so Hercules and Pegasus both followed the voice as it moved swiftly through the trees.  Whatever it was that spoke seemed to act much more like a monkey than a human being. He was moving faster and faster through the trees, grabbing tree branches as he swung through the trees.  Finally the voice seemed to slow and descend downwards. They both then quickly ran through a small river and towards a small cave with two torchlights near its entrance. And it was here where they saw their guide descend, cloaked and covered partially in a dark fur.

“Come in quickly,” exclaimed the mysterious figure.  “Into the cave you must go!  There are more creatures here than just the Cyclops and we do not want to attract them.”

The mysterious, hooded figure beckoned Hercules and Pegasus to enter into the cave.  They both nodded and entered the cave, although Hercules could tell Pegasus was not very happy about it.  He didn’t like being stuck in such a small space.  Hercules tried to comfort him.  “Be calm Pegasus...it will be alright.”

The first thing Hercules and Pegasus both noticed is that the cave was terribly dark and damp and smelled of death.  All that Hercules could see was a small round opening
no wider than three feet in diameter at the top of the cave for what little light remained to shine down through.