Hedylogos: God of Sweet-Talk and Flattery (winged_flattery) wrote in history_dot_com, @ 2013-10-07 21:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~hedylogos, ~hera |
Misplaced Affections -550 BCE -Samos, Greece [tag: Hera]
Hedylogos was standing in the temenos, looking at the dressed and adorned statue with not only an affection but a deep level of concentration. There was, unfortunately, a limit to what he could do or say. The temple had been not only rebuilt, but redesigned. It was much larger, much more elegant and even though he had no hand in the planning or the labor involved in the build, he still felt it was not enough. When one considered the great temples of Zeus that graced the known world, this was not sufficient. But, Flattery was limited.
It was unfortunate, he often thought, how women were treated. The mortals saw them as nothing, and in the case of the Athenians, were preferred to not exist as anything other than a birthing machine. The men looked to Zeus, his king, for how to behave. It was why mortal men -especially the Athenians, philandered with frequency, sired bastards as will, sometimes beat their wives and then... sometimes even worse.
If he ever married, Hedylogos knew he would never be so cruel. It wasn't in him and above all, he respected women. How could man not see that woman alone was capable of giving life? He would not exist without his mother. Hermes may have sired him, and did love his father, but it was his mother who had carried him, birthed him, nurtured him and raised him. He would never understand.
Leaning over a small wooden table in the temenos, he began to write on a bit of parchment. I speak now of the Samian, of she whose hand is above, of she most high among the theoi... It was a start. Not much, but once finished it would be rolled up and presented with the priest who was in charge of the great festival coming to celebrate the goddess the temple was erected for: Hera. The hymn was not commissioned from him, it was something Hedylogos was doing entirely of his own accord and even he wasn't entirely sure why.
She was never going to return his affections. In fact, he preferred she never even know about them. For as much as Flattery felt a stirring his heart for his Queen, he equally feared her wrath.
Even so, he thought her reputation was a bit unfair to her. Grandfather to him or not, Hedylogos thought Zeus was a colossal ass when it came to dealing with his wife. Hera was a strong, powerful, intelligent, passionate and beautiful goddess. Surely Zeus knew this, which was why he had selected her out of his expansive directory of lovers to rule Olympos with him. And while so many were quick to judge the actions of the Olympic Queen as her being a jealous shrew, Hedylogos thought there was something more there. She loved her family fiercely, and likely Zeus as well. Her actions where out of hurt, he was sure, not just blind rage. Which, even though it was just a theory, was one of the reasons he was trying to change her image in the eyes of the mortals.
The other reason was his misplaced affections, but there was nothing he could do about that which did not require spilling his heart to his mother, or his father, or his brothers or Peitho. There was absolutely no way that would not end terribly for him. Someone would tell her, then he'd have to face Hera, and since she also scared him it was likely he would die on the spot. So, as discreetly as he could manage, he wrote hymns and gifted them to mortals to present. True authorship or credit didn't matter. Hedylogos was no great or important god. As long as there was a modicum of success, everything was just fine.
Basileia of heaven, most beautiful she who dwells on high... Then he stalled. “Baopis,” he said quietly in the empty temenos and looked up from the parchment to the cult image of his Queen before him. “There must be something more...” Hedylogos sighed, “something other than repeating baopis time and again.”