Chapter 6 – The Staff and the Serpent

Chapter 6 – The Staff and the Serpent The Gospel According to Zeus > And lo, I beheld my servant, who wandered the sands with dust upon his brow, his people broken beneath the lash of foreign kings. To him I gave not a sword, nor an army, but a rod of my own storm-forged wood, cut from the tree that swayed in Olympus’s wind. “With this,” I thundered, “you shall speak to the earth, and it shall tremble at your word.” Before the throne of the oppressor, he cast the rod upon the marble floor, and I filled it with the coil of living lightning — its form twisting into the serpent of my will, fangs dripping with the promise of death. Their magicians mimicked the act, yet their serpents were shadows beside mine. For my serpent swallowed theirs whole, as the sky swallows the stars at dawn. Then I stretched forth my hand over the waters, and though it was the Sea-God’s domain, the tides obeyed my command. The rivers ran red as the blood of the first giants, the frogs leapt from the depths, the storms carried pestilence upon their wings. And when the tyrant’s heart turned to stone, I split the waters themselves. Walls of the deep rose up in awe, parting before my servant’s steps, and the sea stood still in reverence. But when the oppressor pursued, I released the tide with the roar of the heavens, and the depths returned to claim them. Let it be known: the sea may belong to my brother, but the storm rules all that moves upon it.