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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 06/05/2016
  • 278 Words
  • 1,075 Views
  • 6 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Tower, and other pieces - 10. Once upon a time

Once upon a time, man and the gods lived in peace. The world was a paradise where no ambition or greed could alter the natural course of love's progress.

In those days lived the original man. Each person had two hearts, two head, four legs and arms, and one soul. These people were of three kinds: men, women, and those of a conflicted nature who were half man and half woman.

One day a terrible conceit came to the mind of man and he decided to wage war against nature. At the last battle on the slopes of Mount Olympus, Zeus rallied the gods and man was defeated. All the gods said these creatures should be exterminated as fit punishment for their treachery, but as Zeus was raising a lightning bolt to do so, Aphrodite whispered something in his ear.

Zeus sneered, saying to the goddess of love: "Yes sister, we shall punish them forever. Fetch that sword."

In an instant Aphrodite was with her one-time lover, the forge-master of the world who had made a terrible weapon on her orders in the fires of hell. This she brought to Zeus and he used it to cut each of the Round People into two.

Since that day, man is born into this world looking and searching for that which will make him complete again. Many mistake this drive as ambition to make money, or to become famous, or to control the lives of others. But poets know better. We are born to find our other halves and to rejoin them in this life; not until we find him can we ever be truly happy.

 

         

Copyright © 2017 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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skinnydragon

A familiar myth -- it is grotesque

 

Like most myths -- it is fantastic

 

As in the crux of any myth -- it is incontrovertable

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AC Benus
On 06/05/2016 01:38 PM, skinnydragon said:

A familiar myth -- it is grotesque

 

Like most myths -- it is fantastic

 

As in the crux of any myth -- it is incontrovertable

Thanks, skinny. I don't think Plato or Hesiod could have summed it up any better.

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AC Benus
On 06/05/2016 01:50 PM, Mikiesboy said:

Loved it and it explains much. Gods have a lot to answer for. Wonderful AC!

tim xo

Thanks, Tim! I'm glad you liked this tasty tidbit of gruesome deliciousness :)

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Parker Owens

An interesting myth, a Just So story in the manner of Kipling. 'And so this is why...' I have often enjoyed such tales, as they are easily as interesting as the science that also explains the natural conditions they describe. There is a fascinating part to this particular one; that we are severed people, people fated to search for another. Is that why I'm such a romantic? Thank you for this.

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AC Benus
On 06/06/2016 04:30 AM, Parker Owens said:

An interesting myth, a Just So story in the manner of Kipling. 'And so this is why...' I have often enjoyed such tales, as they are easily as interesting as the science that also explains the natural conditions they describe. There is a fascinating part to this particular one; that we are severed people, people fated to search for another. Is that why I'm such a romantic? Thank you for this.

Thanks, Parker. Although not for the faint of heart, this piece relates to the theme and title of my first novel. http://www.gayauthors.org/story/ac-benus/theroundpeople-anovel

 

We're both romantics, Parker, so thank you for your great and awesome support. You're the best!

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