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“Selene.” Again, I should’ve shouted. Again, I couldn’t.
She tipped her head. “As we speak, my allies are carrying you through the final chamber. Hesta’s.” Turning away from me, her smile fell on the paintings. “Hestia is the goddess of home and hearth. Her grand contribution to my hell was to create a safe and warm place. A home,” she whispered. “If my would-be rescuers achieved the grand feat of making it this far, this place would be their undoing.
“For what do young and small, man and women, mortal and god, seek above all?” she asked. “What else but a place where we are loved and accepted? A home where we are safe. This trap by far is most effective”—her expression changed—“and the most cruel.
“This place was also made as a respite for me, during the long, lonely years that I wasted away. Imagine that from your prisoner. Your destroyer.” She scoffed. “Of all things, pity.”
“Is my mother here?” I asked.
Selene shook herself, refocusing on me. “She is not. This is my haven. I share it with you now because I would like to tell a story. One final story before we part ways for the final time.”
“Okay.” It was so nice here. So quiet and peaceful. A story sounded lovely.
“The woman on the wall.” Selene gestured with her chin. “Do you know her?”
I shook my head.
“I’m not surprised you don’t. Many have forgotten her story.” Her gaze roamed the temple. “That’s why it’s only me here, day after day.”
“I would like to hear her story,” I said.
“Tell me, do you know of Pandora? The first woman on earth.”
I nodded. “She was created to punish man for accepting the gift of fire. Zeus gave her a box and told her never to open it, knowing one day curiosity would get the best of her. Finally, it did and she opened the box. Out flew greed, hatred, poverty, death, war, and all the ills that plague the human race. Quickly she slammed it closed, leaving only hope behind. It’s why through all our pain and struggles, humans can still hold on to hope.”
She smiled. “Very good. That is the tale of Pandora... and it is a complete lie.”
“What?”
“Lies,” she said, motioning high. “Pandora was no lowly human who fell prey to Zeus’s trickery. She was a goddess.”
“Pandora was a goddess?” I beheld the statue in new light. “How come I didn’t know this?”
“You weren’t meant to know. These walls will tell you why.” I didn’t stop her taking my hand, leading me to the painting of the maiden rising from the primordial pool. “Pandora was one of the first beings to spring from the weaving fabric of the universe.She stood aside as the Titans claimed rule of the world, and when they ultimately fell to the Olympian gods.”
We passed the scene, taking in the fall of the Titans, and the rise of Zeus.
“The Olympians had no quarrel with Pandora until the birth of man. You see, the humans’ faith and worship made her stronger as it did the Olympians. She became a mother,” the woman breathed, tracing a description of Pandora holding a babe. “She birthed many children. Geras, Apate, Moras, Momos, Eris, Nemesis, Oizys, and Keres.”
My brows rose with every name. “But— But they— They’re the spirits of old age, deceit, doom, blame, strife, revenge, suffering, and carnage.”
“They are.”
“So, Pandora didn’t release these spirits from a box of trickery. She birthed them. They were her children.”
“And they were despised by the Olympian gods,” she said, moving on. “Her children caused untold harm to their pet humans, but not even they came close to the suffering she brought on them.”
“No wonder she wasn’t a favorite among the gods,” I mused.
“Oh?” She faced me, head cocked. “Were the gods any kinder? Was Hera the sweet, benevolent queen—cursing and killing Zeus’s mistresses? Was Athena the wise and noble beauty when she punished Medusa for being raped by Poseidon? Was Poseidon the rapist an honorable god?
“Make no mistake, young one. The gods were never a friend to man.”
“That’s true,” I heard myself say. I couldn’t say anything else. Demigods only existed because humans couldn’t stand the cruelty of the gods for a moment longer.
“When man forced the gods from Mount Olympus,” she said, following my thought. “Scattering was their last and final hope. There was only one issue: Pandora.”
“Why her?”
