51. The Athenian Golden Age

With the dragon defeated

Athens was left to grow and prosper.

It turned into a great and shining polis.

A flame of democracy to light the rest of the world

With Athena smiling down

In her golden temple.

Many other poets

Came to the land of Athena

Singing her praises.

Greece grew rich in trade

They grew rich in freedom

They grew rich in culture

They grew rich in thought

Aeschylus begot Sophocles

Who begot Euripides

Who begot Aristophanes.

People came to Athens to speak their minds

Discussing their world and all things in it.

Socrates who drank the hemlock

Begot Plato who wrote the Republic

Plato begot Aristotle who taught the man who punished of Persia.

History gave Herodotus his muse.

Pericles, the statesman,

The great orator

Came to Athens

Standing among his people for forty years

Speaking like a lion.

Preaching Pan-Hellenism

Showing off his Apennine son to the west

Inviting others to come help raise him.

Bringing peace for thirty years.

He reformed his government

Molding it like a lump of clay.

Leading the infant

To new political maturity.

He helped Athena’s imperial grasp to spread out into the Aegean.

Becoming a pillar in the temple of democracy.

Pericles was exalted by the people.

Elected many times.

He became the embodiment of the Athenian Golden Age

As Delean gold was moved to his “high city”

Stored in Athena’s house

He heard the rumblings of war to the south.

When he died

Peace died with him.

50. The Dragon's Defeat

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,

That here, obeying their commands we lie.” (Epitaph attributed to Simonides)

Leonidas,

The great warrior king

Came to his people’s rescue.

Having the cunning of Odysseus.

Having the courage of Theseus.

Bringing seven thousand men

To draw swords and protect the fatherland.

A secret guarded path

To the gates of Thermopylae

Revealed by a traitor

To the dragon’s “immortals”.

Ares’ men and allies fought bravely on that day.

Killing many immortal men

To protect Thermopylae.

While the fight was fierce,

Leonidas brave,

He didn’t last.

The dragon ate the city by the bay.

Then it was off to Athens

Where he let fire fall onto the goddess’s flowing gown.

Refugees in Salamis

Who saw their goddess in trouble

Sent ships to save her.

The dragon learned of his great mistake

Then quickly called for retreat.

Greece rejoiced

At their victory

But didn’t soon forget.

Another will come to slay that mighty beast.

49. Xerxes

Persia licked his wounds

Anger still festered deep inside

At the failed invasion of Greece.

His loyal servant, Darius passed away

With words to the scaly beast:

“Take my son Xerxes,” he said in dying breath,

“He will get the revenge you seek.”

Xerxes!

The powerful!

Xerxes!

The ruthless!

Xerxes!

The immortal!

Xerxes!

The conqueror!

Xerxes!

The vengeful!

Xerxes!

The conqueror!

As good as his father’s word

He built the dragon ships

By the thousands.

He raised armies

By the millions.

Attempted to bridge the Hellespont

But Poseidon wouldn’t cooperate.

He sent his mighty storms

To disrupt the dragon’s ships.

Xerxes whipped the mighty sea god

Three hundred times.

Then the god let them pass.

Knowing of Ares’ mighty men on the other side.

As Athena prepared her great wooden shield

The dragon sent heralds

Demanding sacrifices and offerings.

When they didn’t comply

They were marked for the dragon’s mighty fire.

Athena and Ares prepared for war.

Ares was given command of all forces.

Odds were against Greece.

Even Apollo at Delphi

Predicted they’d lose

Unless a mighty king made a great sacrifice.

48. Marathon

The dragon looked toward Greece.

The pain of Sardis was still fresh.

Darius was constantly reminded

With the dragon’s nightly grumblings.

“We must punish those that defy us,”

The dragon said to him.

Darius agreed.

The dragon snapped at Greece.

Gaining the horn of Thrace.

With his teeth still freshly bloodied from Thracian blood

He snapped up Eretria.

The dragon wasn’t satisfied.

His hunger and anger at the Greeks

Raged within him.

Thrace and Eretria were just appetizers.

He roared with rage toward the city of Marathon.

Athena rushed to the city to protect it.

A shield made of ships blocked the dragon from her people.

The messenger,

Philippides,

Ran to Sparta

Dying on Ares’ doorstep

With his last breath.

A warning of incoming Persia.

Ares looked at the man wishing he could help.

It would be rude to leave the feast table of Apollo.

Athena was left to fend for herself.

She stood alone against the great beast.

With sword in one hand

Shield in the other

She bravely charged the dragon and his forces

Letting out her enormous battle cry

Among clashing phalanxian armor.

Startled by the attack

The dragon fled from the armored goddess.

Many were lost on the Greek side

But the dragon lost a lot more.

The Greek dead were cremated.

A stone erected

So that the glorious grove of Marathon can tell of his valor

As can the long haired Persian,

Who well remembers it.

The dragon did remember it.

With every passing day

It festered

Turning and churning in his stomach.

At every meal Darius replied

“Lord, remember the Athenians.”

47. The Ionian Revolt

Cyrus the Great died

Passing the dragon onto his son Darius

One day emissaries appeared before the dragon.

The people of the gray eyed goddess feared for their lives.

The war god was stirring up trouble in the south.

They brought offerings of food for the dragon

In exchange for protection.

“But who in the world are these people?”

The dragon asked,

“Where do they live that they want an alliance with me?”

With that the dragon sent them away.

Life under the dragon and king was great for some of the people they ruled over.

Not for the Greeks.

The Ionians were put to use as slaves.

He demanded tribute

He demanded temples to worship him.

He dipped his claws into Greek pools

Spying on them.

Trying to control them.

The Ionians came to resent the dragon and his spokesperson.

They revolted.

A reformed tyrant left his Ionian home

To persuade the dreaded war god

To follow into war with the dragon.

“A march of three days,”

The man said,

“Will give you all the riches of the world.”

The man presented a chart

Detailing the dragon’s cuts of meat.

Ares wouldn’t hear of it.

“No cut of dragon meat is rich enough to be worthy of a three month march.”

Athena was much more agreeable.

She sent her ships to help her Ionian brothers

Miletus was a loss for the goddess.

The dragon angrily snapped up those people

Scattering them like dust in the wind.

Sardis was burned in retaliation

The dragon never forgot that day.