Myth of the Spartoí

Dear Readers,

Earlier this week, in some of my explanations of neo-Aegean society, I discussed the development of different types of constructed soldiers in that time stream. One early type, which the local contemps will call spartoí, will essentially be clones made for warfare. In the original, spartoí means "sown men," and the name is based on an Ancient Greek myth.

In the original myth, Cadmus, future founder and King of Thebes, visits the Oracle at Delphi. Augury at the Orcale (though extremely rudimentary Augury) tells Cadmus to follow a cow until it stops, and then found a city there. During his attempt to do this, Cadmus and his men ran into a dragon, which Cadmus killed. Athena, who stopped by to have a look, took the dragon's teeth and gave half of them to Cadmus, and told him to plant them. She saved to other half for an adventure with Jason, of Argonaut fame, later on.

Unfortunately, this dragon was sacred to Ares. When Cadmus planted the teeth, men grew from them. These men were the spartoí. In some versions, Cadmus tricked them into fighting each other, and the five survivors helped him found Thebes. In other versions, only five arose to begin with. Either way, it made Ares angry, and Cadmus had to make up for this, but that's another story.

I tell you this background because today's myth, translated from my neo-Aegean Augury data, builds on the myth of the spartoí, though it is not an alternative myth of them. This story, as far as I can tell, is one of many stories that will be written by Civet the Storyteller, a neo-Aegean bard with similar fame to Ancient Greece's Homer, Spain's Lope de Vega, or England's William Shakespeare (the latter two, at least, in time streams where the Spanish Armada lost). Civet's writings, like most neo-Aegean myths, are a mixture of Ancient Greek stories and elements from across the cultural history of the humans of neo-Aegeea. From these references, I am able to surmise that the neo-Aegeans descend from your time stream, or something very close to it.

Story translated below. The manuscript is intended to be read aloud by a storyteller, from memory, and some performance notes appear italicized in brackets.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

Gather round, deck apes and Pilots alike! Hear the story of the Spartoí, from the greatest story-teller in all Aegea! [It is recommended that one compliment the audience at this point. Jokes also help your audience grow.]

In the days before the Clone War with Nemesis, the Great Engineer Cadmus lived in Aegea. he was so respected that all Cities begged him to serve as their Chief Engineer, but each he refused. Instead, he traveled all of Aegea in a Golden Bathyscaph, almost the size of a small colony in itself, in search of the greatest Oracle. While he possessed some skill with augury, everyone knows that you can never see your own future, and so he needed someone else to read his fate.

In those days, the City of Oz held the best augur-Engineers in the Ocean, and so Cadmus followed the rumors to their Machine Shop. There, he met Tiresias, the blind augur and Oracle of Oz. [Some storytellers tell this dialogue; that lacks style. Act it out!]

Cadmus entered Tiresias's Great Hall, shrouded in complete darkness. The seer preferred it that way. He also demanded that his guests remain silent until addressed.

After three days of waiting without food or water, Tiresias's voice boomed from the darkness, "A SUPPLICANT HERE HAS DARK HAIR AND GREEN EYES, LIKE A NOBLEMAN, BUT LIGHT SKIN, LIKE A PEASANT. HE IS CADMUS, THE GREAT ENGINEER. COME FORWARD, CADMUS."

Shocked that the blind seer could know his features in the dark, Cadmus walked forward several paces. His footsteps echoed through the cavernous chamber.

He began, "Great seer, I-"

"I KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE, CADMUS. YOU WISH TO FOUND YOUR OWN CITY, FOR YOUR SON, TUT, TO RULE. YOU WILL FOUND THIS CITY, CADMUS, AND YOU WILL NAME IT THEBES. WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE, YOU WILL FIND A SCHOOL OF SELKIES. ALL WILL CHANGE COLOR AS YOU APPROACH, SAVE ONE. FOLLOW THAT ONE TO THE ENDS OF AEGEA, AND THERE, FOUND YOUR CITY. NOW GO. I WILL FIND YOU WHEN YOUR CITY IS FOUNDED."

Cadmus, still in awe of the great seer, followed his instructions exactly, and departed as soon as he saw the selkie that did not change color. They followed it as it swam away. His bathyscaph traveled for forty-one days and forty-one nights, to the ends of Aegea itself, just as Tiresias predicted.

On the forty-second night, the selkie stopped in a deep cavern on the sea floor. Cadmus saw this and knew that they found the place to build his City. "Stop the bathyscaph, Thistle," he told his chiliarch, "We shall build it here. First, though, we must find petrol to burn this selkie as an offering to the gods who brought us to this place."

Thus, he and his men put on pressure suits and wandered out in search of a source of petrol for their offering. It was not to be so. Instead of petrol, they found a great beast that breathed like a Promethean Sling, and shot out fire that could burn even underwater. They called this beast Smog, for it choked out black clouds of charcoal and fire into the water around it.

From the moment they saw it, Smog killed hundreds of Cadmus's men with his fiery breath. Enraged, Cadmus pulled out a weapon that he built many years before, with Athena's help. A saber made of Aegis-light, it would kill anyone or anything which did not possess the Engineer's bloodline. He ran the beast Smog through with his saber, and though it tried to belch its flame upon him, the blade proved too much for the creature, and it instantly died.

When it fell, the sea floor rocked and petrol shot up from vents beneath. As the ground quaked, Cadmus and his men were knocked unconscious, and cast into a deep sleep. In dream, Athena visited Cadmus.

"You have come back to me, Cadmus," he glory and beauty were so strong, that she did not need to say these words. Cadmus merely looked upon the goddess, and knew her warm greeting.

Then she spoke, and the power of it almost killed him, "You will take Smog's teeth, and plant them near your City. From these teeth will grow men, the spartoí, who will become your soldiers. You can grow more, also. They can be copied, like any other men. You will need them for the times to come, or too many of your people will die in war. You have done something terrible, Cadmus."

"What have I done?" he wept before her. [This is the point of greatest suspense; your audience wants to know what will happen next! Make them pay you to hear it, since later, they will not feel so generous!]

"Smog was sacred to Ares, Cadmus, and you have slain this creature. The god of war does not forget, Cadmus. War will come, between the Engineers and the City of Nemesis, who do not follow the gods, but follow anger and hatred instead. This war will be called the Clone War, and it will be because of you. Prepare yourself!"

Cadmus awakened, the air in his suit almost empty. He gathered his men, and they returned to the Golden Bathyscaph. They returned to gather the dragon's teeth, and ust as Athena said, they grew into soldiers in just hours. These were the spartoí, the first grown soldiers of Aegea. The Thalassians you know today descended from these soldiers. Each of you might have known war in your lifetimes, if not for Cadmus, who invented the spartoí, so that men would not fight and die in war. [Here you may advertise that you will tell battle stories if your audience stays longer, or if they come back tomorrow.]