Why Volcanoes Erupt

[Petey]

It was a fantastic day outside. The sun was shinning and the grass was green. Artemis went for a walk with some wood nymphs, when a group of hunters came into the clearing. Artemis turned them to stone with a gentle wave of her hand for glancing upon her before continuing on her way. That night when she got back to Mt. Olympus, she and Zeus got into a titanic argument.

“You will turn them back to their true forms or you will be turned to stone,” Zeus angrily discharged.

“No, you can turn me to stone for all I care, but I will never turn them back. They saw me in my true form and should be punished. It would be a Burden of Sisyphus to do what you ask.”

“A Burden of Sisyphus, huh? It is chaos down there as it is. The task I asked you to do would help destroy that chaos. You want something pointless to do, sharpen my thunderbolts.” Zeus was beginning to lose his temper with Artemis.

The wise and beautiful goddess Athena came to Artemis’ aid. “Zeus you are being immoral. You know no mortals are to look upon a god or goddess in their true form. Artemis has the winning case. I vote that they stay stone as a reminder not to look at a god or goddess.”

“Athena, my dear, your wise words are wrong. You see it is for the best of all the mortals that they be turned back.”

“Are you insane?” Artemis exploded. “How can it be if you have them turned back? They will tell everyone what we look like. You don’t have a problem because they don’t see you in your true form when you go and have children with everyone but Hera. O great father, why do you not punish them for looking upon me?”

When Artemis had finished Hera angrily exclaimed, “For the best of all the mortals. That is the brother of the river goddess you were seeing behind my back. You want to make him feel like the gods are friends with him. You want him to feel special. It is for you that you are doing this.”

“Hera, you are being unfair. This is not for me or for him but for all the mortals,” Zeus was calming down.

Artemis wanted to test Zeus. “Let us see how many gods agree with you and how many agree with me. Athena and Hera will not vote for they are now in this argument.”

“Wiser words than Athena, Artemis. I will go along with your scheme.” Zeus was trying to find the best way to beat Artemis because he just had to win. Hera was right on everything that she had said. He wanted the brother of the river goddess to think that he had found way with the gods. “We shall have them vote in eight days. Then what needs to be done will be done.”

Artemis, seeing what he was doing, agreed to it. She already had a plan up her sleeve. All she had to do was to get Poseidon on her side and she could do that easily.

When she was sure she was out of earshot of Zeus, she went to the island of Atlantis where she found Daedalus. She had him build a labyrinth and when he was done she put the people she had turned to stone in it. Then she turned Daedalus to stone and put him in the labyrinth. After she had finished that she put the last of the Minotaurs into it.

When she had finished that she went back to Mt. Olympus to find Poseidon. “Poseidon, Zeus had Daedalus build a labyrinth on the island of Atlantis,” Artemis told him in a dreamful voice. “He put the last Minotaur in it along with a group of hunters that he turned to stone. He then sent me to tell you that he wants to meet you at the very center as soon as the new day dawns.”

“Are you sure, Artemis?” Poseidon asked her in this lovingly deep bass voice. “I was just talking to Zeus; he said that you were going to send me to the Chek Republic so I wouldn’t be able to vote when the eighth day dawns. Is this what you two are doing to get everyone to vote for you?” Poseidon was getting tired of all the fighting that was going on.

Artemis and Zeus had been fighting for six days now. “That is what Zeus told me to tell you. I tell you the truth. Zeus is just trying to get you to do something regrettable because he knows I’m right,” Artemis said in her dreamy voice.

“Alright, I will believe you. You have not spoken a truer word than Zeus for so long…it’s at dawn right?” Artemis nodded her head gently to show him that she had nothing to lose.

At dawn, Poseidon went to the labyrinth on the island of Atlantis. When he reached the very center and found the Minotaur he knew that he was lied to, so he sank the island of Atlantis.

When Zeus heard that this happened, he grew extremely angry. “What did they do to deserve this? For this you will be punished.” He called for Hephaestus. “Dear Hephaestus, you see that mountains that I have put holes in? I would like it if you, seeing as you are the god of fire, could make fire flow from it to the oceans and the seas.”

“Why? I haven’t seen the mortals do anything wrong. Why should they be punished?” Hephaestus was still trying to figure it out but was failing miserably.

“It wasn’t the mortals that did something wrong, it was Poseidon. He sank the island of Atlantis and now will lose parts of his kingdom forever.” Zeus thought that he had finished everything but what he forgot about was the voting.

“Artemis and Zeus have had an argument about the people who glanced upon Artemis in her true form, as you know. They have called us forward,” Hera had a titanic smile on her face, “to find out who is right. Off in that room,“ Hera pointed to her left, “is a piece of parchment that you will put on the name of the person who you think is right. Then you will put the parchment into the jar sitting beside it. Once everyone but Athena, Artemis, Zeus, and I have voted I will go and collect the votes. Apollo you will go first.”

Apollo, Dionysus, Eris, and Hermes voted for Zeus, while voting for Artemis was Demeter, Persephone, Eros, Aphrodite, Ares, Hades, Hephaestus, Hestia, and Poseidon. “I think the voting we just did was of no use,” Apollo pointed out happily, “Poseidon sank the island they were on. Even if Zeus would have won, they would still be stone.”

“Zeus would have gotten them out of the sea,” Artemis proudly gloated. “As the lord of the sun you should know what our father is capable of. Why do you think he defeated his own father and against his mother’s wishes married his sister? Then, my dear brother, he cheated on his wife like his mother said he would do.”