Zeus then remembered a little of the past.
It was 332 B.C. The Hellenic gods had gathered in Pantheon, Zeus’s royal palace, to discuss the progress of Hellenic culture throughout the world.
Pantheon was a gigantic white palace, so white that anyone who looked upon the columns or walls of that building would see themselves reflected in them.
The gigantic palace stood atop a snowy mountain, where snow and clouds mingled with one another. A gigantic double staircase allowed entry into the grand palace, which had two enormous floors.
On the lower floor was a vast round hall. It was the council chamber, where the gods sat around an esplanade. When one of the gods wished to speak, they would stand on the esplanade to be heard by everyone. This hall had twelve thrones, the seats of the twelve Olympian gods, the highest-ranking gods in Olympus. Of these thrones, two were golden, one adorned at the top with a golden eagle and the other with a golden peacock. They were the seats of Zeus and his wife Hera.
The other thrones were white, but smaller, and were likewise made of ivory and oak; their seats had purple cushion-like coverings.
Facing the twelve thrones, several oak seats with red cushions were scattered around the entire esplanade. There were three rows in total, where various gods, nymphs, titans, and heroes sat. That day, the gods were speaking about the progress their little champion, Alexander the Great, was making.
Morpheus, son of the god of sleep, confessed that he had been speaking in dreams with the Macedonian king, telling him that he had to reach the ends of the world to spread their religion. A world where everyone worshiped the Greek gods would make them, unquestionably, the most powerful heavenly kingdom in the universe.
However, not everyone was pleased, and that was the case with Athena, who sat to Zeus’s left. The goddess wore her distinctive white strapped dress, which covered her down to her ankles, as well as a simple bronze tiara upon her forehead.
When Morpheus finished speaking and went to sit down, the goddess rose in anger and placed herself on the esplanade. She looked defiantly at her father.
“But how can you dare celebrate the actions of that tyrant?!” Athena shouted furiously, and then turned to look at all the gods around the esplanade.
“I have just received news that this individual invaded a city in the Levant called Tyre, where he massacred and enslaved the entire population only because they did not let him make a sacrifice to that place’s local god,” the goddess continued explaining furiously.
“Sister, it is war, and in war there is death and violence,” Ares interrupted. “Besides, what does it matter? They are foreigners who do not have Hellenic blood.”
“Ares is right,” Apollo added. “Should you not be happy, since you are also a goddess of war?”
All the gods began murmuring negatively toward Athena, who remained angry, her face completely red.
“I would be the happiest person in Olympus if I knew that the art and knowledge of my people were spreading throughout the world. But I am certain that this violent way, this erasure of local cultures, is not the answer,” she said.
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The goddess then turned to look at her father and stared at him defiantly.
“Some years ago, I supported the project begun in my polis, Athens, where people chose their leaders by vote and not by inheritance. In addition, all decisions were made by the people in an agora, not by a group of noblemen and bureaucratic priests,” Athena said, turning to look at all the gods.
“Your experiment was a failure!” Apollo said. “Besides, that supposed democracy only ended up bringing to power a loudmouth named Themistocles, who even ended up selling secrets to our enemies in Persia.”
Athena sighed melancholically.
“I know. The system still needed to be refined further and based more on intellectualism… but it was a step forward in ending our foolish internal wars among ourselves,” Athena confessed.
Then Ares began to laugh.
“Your plan was so useless that the Athenians themselves ended up rejecting your democracy when they saw my human troops, the Spartans, take your stupid shitty polis, older sister,” Ares said in a mocking tone.
Then Apollo and Artemis also began laughing.
“Sister, you are a bitter hypocrite,” Artemis said, laughing. “You keep crying over the fall of your precious Athens and spout nonsense about Alexander, but when the Achaean soldiers ravaged Crete, the Aegean and Anatolia, you did not make a sound.”
“In fact, I remember that you supported the Trojan War,” Poseidon added while stroking his beard. “The event that catapulted the destruction of civilizations in that region and brought an age of darkness to the human world.”
“Sister, surely if it were not ‘Alexander,’ and it were ‘Pericles’ massacring Syrians and Persians, you would be the first to support those seas of blood,” Apollo said sarcastically.
Everyone in the hall began mocking and insulting the goddess. Athena was furious, her face completely red.
“I made poor decisions and mistakes in the past. I am not perfect,” Athena confessed. “That is why I want things to change, not only in the human world, but among ourselves.”
But no one listened to her, and they all continued mocking the goddess. At that moment, Zeus raised his scepter, and everyone fell silent. They knew that the final verdict would always come from the wisdom of the great anunnaki of Olympus.
“Some years ago,” Zeus said in a calm and welcoming voice, “we would not have been able to sit together in this hall because of the fighting between the various Hellenic poleis.”
Zeus pointed at Ares, Apollo, and Artemis. The three of them were seated on Hera’s right side.
“The three of them supported Sparta in that war, while my son Dionysus supported Thebes, and you supported Athens,” the god said.
Athena remained standing on the esplanade, somewhat nervous and ashamed.
“However, it was I who took Macedonia from the Thracians and educated that region, seeing the enormous potential it possessed,” Zeus added. “Thanks to my investment in that region, Alexander unified all Hellenic territories, and, in addition, he is propelling us toward becoming the dominant kingdom in the universe, thanks to the power of human faith.”
Then Zeus stared directly at his daughter.
“Athena, my daughter,” he said, “do you truly consider the lives of those foreigners more important than those of your humans, the Hellenes? Do you consider war between us more important than peace?”
Athena fell silent, and then the goddess took a deep breath.
“All human life is precious. They are not power farms. They are beings with feelings and emotions. We must watch over their prosperity,” she said imperatively.
The gods began laughing at Athena’s ideas, which they considered ridiculous. The goddess, her face red, left the esplanade, but she did not return to her seat. She opened the door of the chamber and withdrew.
“That was the last time I saw my daughter until she was captured on Pallas,” Zeus thought as he continued staring at Astarté’s surprised gaze.
“If I had listened to what my daughter had to say, none of these tragedies would have happened. In the end, we returned to fighting one another, and my daughter’s ideas were radicalized in Persia,” the king of Olympus thought. “We wanted only power, and it blinded us completely.”