Today I want to tell you a story, the story of how all the gods became human and lived those new lives they had acquired.
It all began at the banquet of all the deities that is held every 5 centuries, a very important event to see who is still there and who is no longer.
As the centuries progressed, the need for humans to believe in gods faded away, and so also the memory of the deity in question, with the result that less important gods were often at risk of extinction.
Well... that was none of my business. Being a fairly known and studied Egyptian deity meant that my disappearance was not as simple as that of the gods of ancient civilizations now almost forgotten.
Going back to the history I want to make a premise: we were arrogant and full of ourselves, looking at everyone from above thinking that we are better than all existing life forms.
But we were wrong.
And that was the beginning of our story.
As I said before we were all at the banquet celebrating with delicious food and fine wines, singing and dancing. In short we were having fun.
New deities (not only the old ones disappeared but also new ones were born) presented themselves at the center of the banquet to all the other gods specifying who they were and what their role was.
At this banquet, far fewer new deities had appeared than before like usual but as always no one wanted to go and see what was the cause of this decline of the gods.
Suddenly a new deity drew our attention because of its filthy and patched clothes and its limping step.
In seeing him, Loky, god of cunning and deceit, decided to take the word and with sarcasm said:
"Heaven spare us the sight of this wreck! Tell the god of scrap that we have found one of his belongings!"
Everyone burst out laughing... All except the strange god who looked at us.
In silence.
Then Ares exclaimed: "Maybe he's the god himself since he's not reacting."
As all the gods screamed with laughter Momus added: "Right! And he thought that this is a place lowly gods like himself!"
And another deity said: "Instead of standing at the banquet this one should go begging so maybe some human will pity him"
And down again a round of laughter.
All the gods present at this feast laughed for fun but a warning bell started to ring in my head telling me that we should never harass him like this and that we should never make him angry.
Sadly enough, at that time, we didn't know we shouldn't do it.
The deity had not yet presented himself and once again endured the provocations.
In silence.
Again.
Not wanting this situation to go on i said to the god with a gentle voice: "Why don't you present yourself?"
"Presenti himself? Looking at his clothes he probably doesn't even know how to speak!" Said Momus again.
And someone else: "Yeah. He probably was doing some kind of shady work li..."
"ENOUGH! Enough. ... Child, present yourself."
"Child?" Muttered Eris "Who is your child! Do you think he's a lost pup that need your help to live? So you can pamper him like how you do with your cats? He's just a dog that doesn't even know how to behave and where he do belongs! He should ne..."
"I SAID ENOUGH!! DO NOT DARE TO SPREAD YOUR DEVILISH VENOM HERE!!"
So saying, I struck her with my gaze and she had no more courage to open her mouth. Then i looked toward the strange god.
"Now, you can speak child"
Athena and Eir were giving me a good-job sign while all the other gods were looking at me in disbelief.
Once they were all in silence he began to speak: "With your poor hospitality, my dear gods, I won't tell you my name, you don't deserve it! But I have decided to tell you one thing: I am the god of despair and joy, of reason and justice, of hope and pain and can influence human beings ... and gods."
A deathly silence fell over the banquet and almost everyone trembled with anger.
Unlike them I was feeling worried and, I have to admit it, afraid for something that even us gods should fear and respect.
Irate Zeus stood up: "YOU DARE IN THIS SACRED PLACE UTTER SUCH NONSENSES? DAMNED YOU AND ALL YOUR BELIEVERS!"
"I'll be damned, but so will all of you!"
Then all of the deities began to shout : "YUO DARE!!", "GET HIM OUT OF HERE!", " SOMEONE MAKE HIM SHUT-UP!" and all kind of other tings.
The strange god then said: "You will never be able to shout me up. But i decided to be clement. I will tell you four truth. One; you despise me and human beings, so, you will have to experiment human hardships."
The ceiling started shaking and the sight of some deities began to blur.
"What's happening?", "The hell?" and "What's this?" could be heard from the now scared gods.
"Two. Your powers and some of your memories will be sealed."
"HOW DARE YOU!!" someone shouted in fear.
Half of the gods were now on the floor, barely conscious.
"Tree. You will have to take a decision that will change all of you. A very difficult one."
"How can ..."
Only the strongest gods hadn't alredy fainted and I was trying to remain concious and listen to the strange god. I knew that what he was going to say was the most important thing.
"Four. Until you found ... never be able ... realm."
Then I fainted with a gentle voice that lulled me saying I would be happy with what i desired the most.
When I woke up I was in a strange white room with a big window overlooking a garden from which, from the bed, you could see only trees.
Two joung girls were seated next to where I was lying and they were looking stright at me.
The jounger toke my hand and said:
"Mom?"