A Different Blue(10)

both knew I would agree. I always did.





Chapter Two





OCTOBER 2010



Maybe it was the stories I was drawn to. Every day it was a new story. And quite frequently, the

stories were about women in history, or told from the perspective of the women. Maybe it was

just Mr. Wilson's obvious love of he subject he taught. Maybe it was simply his cool accent and

his youth. The entire student body tried to mimic him. Girls crowded around him, and the boys

watched him, fascinated, as if a rockstar had descended into our midsts. He was the talk of the

school, an overnight sensation, instantly beloved because he was a novelty – and a very

attractive novelty if you liked slightly unruly hair and grey eyes and British accents, which I

told myself I did not. He was definitely not my type. Still, I found myself looking forward to

my last class of the day with irritating impatience and was probably more adversarial than I

would have otherwise been simply because I was puzzled by his allure.

Mr. Wilson had spent an entire month on the ancient Greeks. We had discussed epic battles, deep

thinkers, architecture, and art, but today Wilson was detailing the different gods and what each

represented. It was actually pretty fascinating, I had to admit, but incredibly irrelevant. I

volunteered this observation, of course.

“This isn't exactly history,” I pointed out.

“The myths may not be historical fact, but the fact that the Greeks believed in them is,”

Wilson responded patiently. “You must understand that Greek gods are an intrinsic part of Greek

mythology. Our introduction to the ancient Greek gods can be traced all the way back to the

writings of Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many scholars believe that the myths were

actually influenced by the Mycenaean culture that existed in Greece between 1700 and 1100 BC.

There is also evidence that the beginnings of Greek mythology can be traced back to the ancient

Middle Eastern cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia because of the similarities between the

mythology of these ancient Middle Eastern cultures and the ancient Greeks.”

We all just stared at him. What he'd said was about as clear as mud. He seemed to take note of

our “huh?” expressions.

“The Greeks had a god to explain everything.” Wilson wasn't about to be deterred, and he dug

into his argument. “The sunrises, the sunsets, their tragedies and their triumphs were all

connected to the existence of these gods. In many ways, their gods brought sense to a senseless

world. A strangely-shaped rock could be said to be a god disguised as a stone, or an unusually

large tree might be a god in disguise as well. And that tree would be worshipped for fear that

the god would retaliate. There were gods everywhere, and everything could be used as evidence of

their existence. Wars were started in the names of the gods, oracles were consulted and their

advice heeded, however hurtful or strange or bizarre that advice might be. Even the storm winds

were personified. They were thought to be harpies – winged women who snatched things up, just

like the wind, never to be seen again. Storm winds and the weather that came with them were

blamed on these winged creatures.”

[page]“I thought a harpy was just an old-fashioned word for witch,” a pimply kid named Bart

volunteered. I was thinking the same thing but was glad someone else decided to speak up.