Free The Song of Orpheus by Tracy Barrett

Slowly and shakily, he stood. He looked around, bewildered, and then he raised his hands to the gods in thanks as the blood flowed back through him.
    Tylos lived for a long time after that, but on his face and body, he always carried the deep scars that the drakon had inflicted on him.
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    Dragons
    The noun δράκων comes from the verb δέρκεσθαι (
derkesthai
), meaning “to see clearly.” Many snakes have poor eyesight, though.
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    A Tough Baby
    The Cretan goddess of childbirth gave Damasen a shield on his first day of life, and the goddess of strife and discord was his nanny. His name means “the subduer.”

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
    I’m running out of ideas! Let’s see…the last story was about coming back to life. How about something similar for number eleven—about a guy who was born twice. Does that sound too strange?
    I have to admit that once you really look at them, some of the stories my people told don’t make a lot of sense. Sometimes that’s because the Greeks were great travelers; they went to a lot of different lands, and when they got home, they’d tell the stories they’d heard. If they didn’t really understand what was going on, they’d make up something to explain whatever it was they didn’t get.
    Once in a while, a tale they brought home had something in common with a story already known in Greece, and the two got mixed together. That’s why you’ll read a myth that says someone’s mother is a particular goddess, and in another version, the mother is someone else. Or someone will die in one myth, but in another one, that person is still alive a long time later. These contradictions didn’t seem to bother anyone in my day, and I don’t see why they should bother anyone now.
    That kind of confusion looks like what happened with the tale of Zagreus, which might have come from Turkey. It got mixed up with a myth about Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. Sometimes you hear that Zagreus and Dionysos are the same god with two different names; other times, they’re two separate gods. You can believe whichever version you want. Or neither one.
    Anyway, Zagreus, according to the blended myth, was the son of Zeus, king of the gods. His mother was Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. Given this parentage, you’d think Zagreus would be no ordinary baby, and you’d be right. He was born with horns on his head, and when he was just a few hours old, he climbed onto a tiny throne and grasped miniature thunderbolts, a gift from his proud father, in his pudgy hand.
    Zeus declared that this son would be his heir, although it’s hard to imagine what he would need with an heir. Zeus is immortal—what’s the point of being his heir if he’s never going to die? See what I mean about the myths not always making sense?
    Sorry, back to the story. In any event, it’s an honor to be declared someone’s heir, and Zeus’s wife, Hera, became enraged at this insult to Ares, her own son with Zeus.
    “I’ve just about had it with my husband!” Hera declared. “It’s bad enough that he sneaks around chasing one girl after another, but when he puts their children above mine, well, that’s going too far.”
    She made up her mind to get rid of the baby. Zeus was well aware of his wife’s jealousy, so he summoned a gang of spirits of the wilderness, the Kouretes, to guard the child. These wild spirits performed ferocious dances around Zagreus’s throne, brandishing their weapons to scare off anyone who might try to harm him. Whenever he cried, they clashed their shields and spears together so that no one, especially Hera, would hear him.
    To keep his son content to stay put and not go wandering into danger, Zeus gave him lovely toys: a spinning top, a ball that returned on its own to the hand that had thrown it, dolls with moving legs and arms so cunningly crafted that the little god thought he was playing with living beings. Nymphs brought him golden apples, and many others gave presents to