"Even the very gods can bend, and theirs withal is loftier majesty and honour and might. Their hearts by incense and reverent vows and drink-offering and burn-offering men turn with prayer, so oft any transgresseth and doeth sin. Moreover Prayers of penitence are daughters of great Zeus, halting and wrinkled and of eyes askance, that have their task withal to go in the steps of Sin. For Sin is strong and fleet of foot, wherefore she far outrunneth all prayers, and goeth before them over all of the earth making men fall, and Prayers follow behind to heal the harm." (The Iliad, Book XI-161)
And Sin fell many here in the realm of Dendom where the roar has been heard and interpreted for mortal eyes and ears and the spirit of those lofty immortal spirits is seen in all of their facets and faces, even to those that most mortals would shy away from due to written word or misguidance that lead to cowardess rather than courage.
It was Sin who mused the cleansing wrath of the crown bestowed and Sin that fell the innocent as well as the defiant betrayers who were so empowered by ego and forces thought to be unseen by their own perspectives but are known none the less. And silent prayers followed them as they were felled but did nothing to fill the holes left behind.
A repetitive deed done many times over that the Goddess Athena was inclined to yield less the future be altered by those unseen hands that creep and in shadows dwell. So inclined was she to guide and protect the integrity of what she herself had been trying to weave in a world of unweaving that she sent a blessing upon a great chain bearing the silver symbol of all the magics of the world and all things ancient returned and hung it about the neck of the king. And by her softest touch drove the wrath of Sin deep into the earth where in the realm of Hades it was held by black hands.
Then come the Fates to fell the great door of the great temple where the warrior spirits and prides dwell. But a moment before there arrival the great doors opened of their own accord and the Fates had been tricked twice. For in their distraction a thread was taken from the loom chamber and cloaked beyond immortal site by the soft hand of Athena who then wove it by her own hidden design, leaving no trace for which the Fates could follow.
The Chain of Olympus was made heavy and strong. Enough so that it held the ability to bind an immortal as it had the same structure and integrity of the binding on great and felled Titans. Yet the free will of mortals could not be denied and it was only by choice and deed that the chain was thus applied. Not in such a punishment for the wrath of Sin but in order to gain a step ahead of the great pain.
But the deed of the chain was not the deed done in the sight of the goddess but it was the words of her soft lips alone that led to the truest deed.
"You must hold your wrath at bay, would be king, and let all come great and small, good and evil with both wonder and tests in their hearts. Take on their challenges and blessings as if they are the same. Walk this path while holding the cleansing fires of the prideful, lamed and silent at bay in the dark realm of Hades. Where it shall be held by black hands, bound there and tempered, by this that I alone have gifted you, in purgatory with no ground to stand upon nor a single soul to burn.
Do this and you will be favored. Do it not and your crown shall crumble by forces that even the Gods can not foresee or counter because it is the deeds of mortals that choose the future in this Age and you will become one of them. Without gift, or might, or any honours which I and others have bestowed on you in the past.
It is not the forms of men that you should hold your wrath for, wise warrior, but the Erinyes themselves. Those three sisters that have been unleashed and set upon you by the Fates who have sided against you. You must bear the Chain of Olympus until the thread of Destiny is found broken and the true form of defiance is revealed. In this deed the chain must never be broken but placed about it's very neck. Then you shall witness the nature of thy own wrath and be helpless against it."
The deed was done and the Chain of Olympus applied bringing the mighty to humbled knees with the weight of Sin pressing in upon him lashing out at the Chain. And the Fates turned while Prayers followed, easing the pain.
(Angel Snowden - 2011)
