209. ‘You Object, Styx?’
‘You Object, Styx?’
There was a dangerous edge to Zeus’s voice.
But I had faced a powerful God
and protested his decisions before.
I stepped forward and said,
‘Leave the Titanides alone.
They did not fight against you.’
Zeus’s eyes turned thunderous.
‘But they did. They stayed loyal
to husbands and sons and fathers
who stood against us. That is
a declaration enough.’
I shook my head.
‘Many did not have a choice.’
Zeus walked in my direction
and I felt Pallas’s eyes on me.
I knew what he was thinking.
If Zeus decided to punish me
for speaking against him,
there would be nothing he could do.
But Zeus instead put his hand
on my shoulder and said,
‘They all had a choice, Styx.
Just as you did. And you chose correctly.’
I grimaced at his fingers touching me.
I wanted to claw at them till he removed
his unwanted grip on my shoulder.
But instead, I said calmly,
‘You said you would not be like your father.’
Before I could stop myself, I continued,
‘But do you not see how this is worse?’
Zeus gave me a smile, but there was
no warmth in it. Instead, he boomed,
‘Let me show you how I am better
than my father ever was.
You, Styx, will have the goddesshood
you always desired. For your poisonous tongue,
your bitterness, your capacity to turn
on those you claim to love so easily…
I name you the Goddess of Hatred.’
My inside felt like it was wilting.
I stared at Zeus, my fury and humiliation
rendering me unable to speak.
He continued, ‘But look, there is more.
Your children, powerful, brilliant
as they are, will stay here on Olympus.
My most exalted warriors,
deified forever as my own.’
A hum rose from the collected Titans.
But I knew very well what Zeus was doing.
My children were too powerful.
He was separating them from me,
the one who had openly showed
she would stand against him
in defence of fallen Titanides.
To separate a family
is to have power over it.
My children were to be taken from me.
For I had dared
to defy
a God-King.