Maybe The Slickster fashions himself to be like Zeus:
(taken from hcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu with only slight editing)
The Hellespont
The Hellespont(Dardanelles), the strait between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, takes its name from Helle, daughter of Athamas, king of Thebes, and Nephele, goddess of the clouds. Helle and her brother Phryxus were hated by their step-mother Ino, whom Athamas had married after casting aside Nephele. Ino went to a great deal of trouble to get rid of the children. First she caused a famine in Thebes by roasting grain intended for seeds so that it would not grow.
Then she rigged a false oracle which advised Athamas to sacrifice his son Phryxus to make the gods relieve his people's sufferings. Just before the sacrifice, Nephele, who kept guard disguised as a cloud, sent a golden ram to rescue her children.
They climbed aboard the ram and started for Colchis, on the far eastern end of Black Sea. Phryxus kept a tight hold on the wool of the flying sheep, but poor Helle was frightened and probably air-sick. She fell off and was drowned in what is now known as the Hellespont, Phryxus, who was not apparently disturbed when his golden ram lost a passenger, flew on to Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram, skinned it, and hung its golden fleece on a tree, guarded by a fierce dragon.
Ino, having got rid of her step-children, seems to have reformed a bit. At any rate, Zeus, king of the gods, turned over to her his son, Dionysus. Ino took very good care of the future god of wine, no doubt because she expected something handsome from Zeus, who had a careless way of scattering his illegitimate children about the earth. The queen of the gods, Hera, as always annoyed by her spouse's affairs with earth-ladies, tried to get to the infant Dionysus, but Zeus sent Hermes to take him safely out of the way. Hera revenged herself on Ino by making her husband insane. Like a wild animal Athamas chased Ino and her children and killed one of his sons. Ino, to escape his fury, threw herself and another child into the ocean and was drowned. The gods did better by her than she deserved, after her early dirty work. They turned her into a goddess of the sea, with the new name of Leucothea. Poor Helle, who had never done harm to anybody, drowned in a very lonely way. She should have been the goddess, but all she got out of it was her name in geography books.
The Bosphorus
The name of this beautiful strait, which connects the sea of Marmara with the Black Sea, giving to the city of Istanbul its magnificent setting, means cow-crossing. Another translation of the name would give us Oxford. The city in England was no doubt named for a similar use, though a cow crossing the Thames would certainly have an easier time than one swimming the Bosphorus, more than half a mile wide.
It seems that a lovely young lady named Io who was turned into a heifer through no fault of her own, wandered forlornly about the world. Her journey from Europe to Asia, across the Bosphorus, was celebrated in the name it still bears. Io moved about a great deal during her career as a cow. The Ionian Sea, west of Greece, is also named after her.
The story of Io, like that of Semele, Dionysus's mother, is centered in Hera's jealousy of Zeus. Io, the daughter of a river god, caught the roving eye of Zeus, who spent far more time on earth courting pretty girls than he did in heaven, paying attention to his wife and his job of hurling thunderbolts. After a great deal of experience, he had learned to be cautious in his romances. To keep his affair with Io from the watchful eyes of Hera, he spread a neat little cloud between Mt. Olympus and the place where he met Io. He also usually waited until Hera took her afternoon nap.
One day Zeus, bored with his own splendor, seeing that Hera had dozzed off, pulled a cloud after him and made a call on Io.
"Good afternoon, Io" he said as he settled upon the earth.
"My goodness, Zeus!" she exclaimed with a start. "I wish you'd tell me when you're coming. You scare me to death appearing suddenly like that."
"I am sorry" he apologized. "But I never know when I can get away. There is a lot of responsibility being king of gods. So many disputes. Such a lot of major decisions to make about wars and all that sort of thing. I didn't come down here to talk business, however. Let's take a little walk."
"It was terribly hot" she answered. "You're very thoughtful to bring with you that cloud that shades us so nicely."
Just as they started out, hand in hand, along the river-bank, Hera woke up and looked around for Zeus. Not finding him around the palace, she cast a suspicious eye on the earth. That tom-catting husband of hers! Wouldn't he ever learn not to get mixed up with mortal women or daughters of minor gods? Seeing a very unlikely looking cloud below, she said to herself. "Oh, oh!" and made a quick descent, right through the middle of the cloud.
Zeus, alert to all emergencies, had just enough time to turn Io into a heifer before Hera arrived. Hera asked him what he was doing. "The nectar up on Olympus has been a little flat lately" he said. "I think we should shift to milk for a while."
Hera, not in the least fooled by his story, pretended to agree with him. "What a darling heifer!" she said. "You must give her to me. I'll see that you get fresh milk every morning."
"Oh no" Hera told him. "You have been looking rather peaked lately. Milk is just the thing for you. Full of vitamins."
There was nothing Zeus to do but turn over Io to Hera, who took the miserable creature to Olympus and put her under the strict guard of a fabulous monster named Argus. Having a hundred eyes, Argus never closed all of them at one time. He took very good care of Io, never letting her get close enough to change Io back to her normal self. Zeus didn't dare try any tricks for fear Argus would report him to Hera.
Finally, after several days of anxiety, knowing that Io was uncomfortable walking on four legs, munching grass, and probably taking a beating from Hera who he knew was not easily fooled, Zeus called his son Hermes to him. Hermes himself was an extra-marital product of a romantic interlude with Mia, goddess of the plains. For some reason, however, Hera had no grudge against him, as she usually had against her husband's love-children, especially Heracles. Smart young Hermes with his winged heels and magic caduceus was accepted as the messenger of the gods, god of eloquence and commerce, and the patron of travelers and thieves.
"Think of something, Hermes" commanded Zeus after telling his story. "I can't have that poor girl chewing her cud like an ordinary cow a day longer. You'll have to be careful. That confounded Argus has eyes in the back of his head, and he'll put Hera's wind up in a minute if he guesses we're trying any funny business."
"Leave it to me, Sir" said Hermes, who was very respectful with his father.
Picking an armful of poppies from the slopes of Olympus, Hermes casually strolled down th where Argus was guarding Io.
"I have heard a couple of new stories" he told Argus. "Want to hear them?"
Argus, tired of being nurse-maid to a cow, gladly agreed to listen. Hermes, usually a fascinating story-teller, was so long-winded and monotonous, however, that half of Argus's eyes closed in sleep. Cautiously, Hermes shook the poppies over the other eyes until they too rested in an opium dream. Whipping out his sword, Hermes cut off Argus's head.
While he was driving Io away, Hera found her monster dead. Sorrowfully, she took his eyes and put them into the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock. Then she sent a vicious gadfly to torment Io, who rushed madly from one country to another, suffering savage stings all the way. In her wanderings she crossed the Bosphorus and, finally, the Ionian Sea. After arriving Egypt, Zeus turned her back into a woman again. There she became the mother of a son, Epaphus, who was to be the first king and founder of Memphis. It is unlikely that Io ever drank milk or tasted a beefsteak after her terrible experience. |
