Page 2 of Styx

Until I reached my grandmother, Gaia,

maker of this earth, who refused to hold me.

Instead, she stared at me, tiny, in my mother’s arms

and whispered, like a premonition,

‘She will never be beautiful.

One day, this will be her ruin.’

I defied this prophecy.

In the end, I defied everything

my family expected of me.

Genesis

Before my birth,

there were my parents:

oldest of twelve golden Titans

born of my grandmother Gaia’s womb.

My father, Oceanus,

was the Great River

that surrounded

Gaia’s whole earth.

It would be from his great river

that every sea and ocean

and lake and river

would be born.

And my mother, Tethys,

was the Goddess

of Fresh Water that nourished

the forests and animals

on Gaia’s green earth.

Before the Titans,

it had been Gaia and Ouranos,

the great sky, that ruled over all.