#fenixtj

"And that, my friends, is how is how Apollo cheated on the music contest and tried to rob Pan of the title god of music. It was a music contest, not the wide wide world of sports" Zane explains. Obviously greek myths need be be sugar coated some for younger ones, but Zane still puts twists on it

"Ohhhh. What a jerk!"

"Major jerk... and you have to watch out for folks who claim they have the right ot change the rules on you" A nod

Ellie nods.

"of course, most of the myths are focused on the guys, and it's really annoying I know becausee if Zeus had like a dozen demi god sons, he had to have at least one demi god daughter right? And the others too but you never hear of them"

"Well, maybe they were more sensible."

"Hercules sounds very reckless."

"He could be, and the Disney version is nicer than the usual tale, I'll be honest, but even he was nicer than some, but as a matter of fact, Satyr mythologists have looked into the daughters of Pan and Dionysisus with pride. Not sure who to tell you about first... the story where a daughter of Pan protected the young sheep of a village from raiders... Pan was a god of shepherds, you know? Or the one where a daughter of Dionyisys grew a maze of grapes with great thorns, and then trapped a son of aries in it so he could not hurt her mother"

"Oh, I like her!"

"Probably the grapes are purple I'll bet" Ariel grins at her friend

"The best grapes are."

"As a matter of fact, the grapes were varied, but yes, over half of them were purple, and not just 'a' purple, but every shade of purple, some so dark a purple they were almost black but for the flecks in sunlight, others of such a pale lavender that the grapes looked see through, but then, Stafýli could grow grapes like few could."

"We should grow grapes!"

"Stafýli did not know who her father was, for the longest time, she knew only that one niight her mother had gone to a great party in a vinyard, and when she returned, she was pregnant. Now, the greek gods did not pay much attention to their mortal born daughters, they were more interested in sons, sorry to say... and yet, they can be as vain as anything, so as Stafýli grew up, some noticed that she had a gift for vinyards. The vines seemed to gift generously at her slightest touch"

The satyr smiles "I think might not have room here at the hold. Maybe elsewhere outside the city when you're older? Or ask Diego to take you to one."

"Maybe she was like a Kubera? They can grow plants..."

"She was definitely flesh, Kubera are dreams of the plant themselves, but it IS said that many of the vines she grew and tended to were given life by her and so were like daughters of the green. If you meet a Kubera tied to grapevines, it could very well be one of the daughters of stafýli, but you have to ask a Kubera" Zane has a little sister

"Oh, I bet miss ever green would know" Ariel gushes

"She's nicer than the Scarecrow."

"She might" Zane leaves it that, and goes on "Sadly, for every sweet harmless daughter of a god you don't hear of, there's a Lothro. Lothro was a son of Aries, and the reason you didn't hear of him is because our heroine stopped him.. but I get ahead of myself.. for you , Lothro wanted the golden bowl..."

"Aries is war, but not the war like Athena is war?"

"Athena is tactics, and guardianship, and usually her wars are more just. Aries is battle lust, bullying, and carnage. The romans tried to clean him up some as Mars, and maybe he became better, but to the Greeks, Aries was a collosal jerk... and Lothro shared that much in common" And he spins a tale of a golden bowl that was drunk once from the gods and discarded. To the gods it meant little, but to Lothro, he thought it was his ticket to Olympus. And if he drank from it, he could claim to be an equal to the Olympians or at least worthy of notice.... "But he wasn't just going to drink wine from the cup, on no. He thought he'd drink BLOOD the blood of those he defeated in this town of helpless villagers.. Yeah, even though cannibalism was a big no no and that would count. "

"Grooosssssssss."

"BLAH" Ariel agrees

Fortunately Tex the redcap is off camping iwth the other redcaps or he might say it sounded like Lothro was cool

Zane nods "Sicko city..... now, Stafýli's mother happened to be the caretaker of the bowl. Which made her the main target.. she did not keep it for herself, but rather at a small shrine... a holy place.... but one day, Stafýli was by the vinyard, and she pricked her thumb.. a drop of blood welled on her thumb and .. it spoke! The little drop whispered to her in a voice like a sluagh, but grand as a sidhe, and said... 'Ware, one comes who will want the rest of it, all of it, bowls and bowls of THE bowl... beware little daughter of Dionysisus"

"GOSH she must have freaked out" Ariel observes

"She sure did. She didn't know she was a demi-goddess after all" A nod

"What a way to find out!"

"I suppose in a way, it was like the start of her Dream dance, things get weird, wondeerful, and sometimes..terrifying" he explians

Ellie nods. "Especially for humans, right?"

"Especially, and when Stafýli told her story, her warnings, she was laughed at, or treated like a monster... by people who knew her all her life. She soon realized she would have to count on herself... so.. she decided to steal the bowl. Just her, so her mom wouldn't get in trouble"

"Ohhh... oh, yes. People don't like that."

"It scares them. Or they want to press and press to know more."

"This was long before the right of ignorance" Zane nods

"Did she steal the bowl? This better not be a sad story where she saves the village but her mom dies..." Ariel gives her fellow satyr a glare

"I mean, warnings - omens, things like that."

Zane holds up his hand "to know the story, one must hear the story... do you want to hear it, good or bad, sad or happy?"

"Yes please!"

"Well ,if you're sure" A smile slips, then he goes on telling how the girl stole the bowl, and escaped angry villagers... how she took the bowl and filled iwth with grape seeds... and called on her father to finally act like a dad and help.... "And the seeds burst into new life, whole vines spinning.. and she came up wit ha plan... her father had helped, but she still had to think of a plan. So she wove a great maze, a grand maze... full of grapes and thorns and vines... and it was easy to get into... and Lothro charged in for her heard her laughing 'oh son of Aries, the juice from the bowl is SO good. My father is talking to me already, is yours?'"

Ariel grins "She traash talked him"

"YUP.." Zane says

And Jessica might be hearing from the hallway

Salma is rapt with the story... clearly memorizing it.

"She mocked and belittled him, and Lothro was furious. He charged in... and found himself in the maze.. and her voice was here, no it was there.... for you see, her gift was limited to the vines and the grapes, but... that included throwing her voice in them"

"Behind him, the great maze closed... and by her will... the grapes grew as poisonous as hemlock...the vines thorny and hard... and oh so confusing, had Lothro been a god of cunning, he would have worked his way out, had he been a god of flight, well, easy right? But instead he hacked and hewed, tring to MAKE a path... but the plants regrew as fast as he cut them... and Lothro, was no Prince Phillip"

"No one is." Sighs Salma.

Jessica does indeed hear voices as she walks, and pauses to look in.

"Stafýli was not your typical greek heroine, while she was as passionate as anyone, and felt vengeful, she told him that if swore and Oath to Zeus, to never seek the bowl again, and to go far far away, she would let him go. In truth, she was getting tired ,and feared she might pass out before he did. But also... she did not WANT to kill if she iddn't have to. Lothro however, while not bright, said that she had to sleep sometime, and the bowl would be his. . and the blood would flow into it .. HER blood, since surely it would be wortth more even if she was 'just a girl'"

"Pro tip, a lot of times, if a guy tells you that you're 'just a girl' it means what really really scares him is that youre' going to embarrass him," Zane throws in "Or even call him on embarrassing himself."