The Eagle That Stole Me for a God’s Bed

The deer was only a few steps away from me, head raised and nose sniffing the air. I advanced slowly, measuring each movement so as not to disturb the brush. I had both hands on the bow and the arrow ready, waiting only for the moment when I would draw the string taut. I needed the animal to trust itself, to lower its muzzle to graze on some grass without suspecting that a blond-haired youth was watching it from the bushes.

My heart was pounding, but my face remained calm. It was not the first deer I had hunted. Mount Téreo, neighbor to my father’s lands, King Eumelo, was an excellent place for grazing sheep and for hunting. I had practically grown up there. I knew every inch of the ground, the best hunting grounds, and every trick for moving through the thicket.

At last the animal bent down to feed. It felt safe. A fatal mistake. I drew my arm back and fired. The point lodged with precision in the stag’s neck, and it took off at once. It did not get far. The shot had been true, and life was spilling out in torrents through the wound. I only had to follow the crimson trail until I found it taking its last gasping breaths. That night, my father’s halls would be blessed by my conquest, and the venison would sate the hunger of the whole family and its guests.

As I gathered the fruit of the hunt, I did not know that other eyes were watching me from the sky. They were the eyes of a god, the one who weaves the lightning, who had set his sights on my freshly awakened beauty, the greatest ever seen in a mortal man. Passion and obsession corroded him from within. He desired to possess me, to take me to his side, to the Eternal summit he ruled. He always got what he set his mind to, without caring about the consequences. His capricious affairs were well known, and no one, not even his jealous wife, ever managed to stand in his way.

That night, King Eumelo’s halls knew joy because of me. They celebrated my feat and the meat fed hosts and guests alike. A dinner as delicious as few others. The next morning, when dawn dyed the sky pink, I returned to Mount Téreo, still proud of my victory from the day before. I had no intention of taking another prize like that. Achievements like that are granted by Fortune at very long intervals. Besides, my father’s flock needed someone to tend it. We had servants for that task, but I never liked being idle. The weather was mild and I valued the time I spent in the countryside, in full contact with nature.

As I walked with the staff in my hand, a melody filled my head, the memory of a fine bard who had visited us and brightened our evenings with his music. I began to hum it, trying to recover the verses, without noticing that a great eagle was circling above me. Huge as three men together, with colossal wingspan, the bird of prey swooped down swiftly as soon as it had me in sight. It spread its talons and, before I could react, seized me by the shoulders and lifted me into the heights.

I screamed in terror and struggled to break free, but the beast was strong and my efforts were useless. The earth shrank beneath my feet. From there, my native city seemed like a handful of crumbs and, before long, vanished from sight as the clouds swallowed me, along with the mountain and the imposing Erimo range.

I thought myself dead, either by the eagle’s hand or by the unfathomable fall I could only guess at. I could not tell how far we traveled or how long I spent wrapped in the mist before the talons suddenly let me go. I expected a brutal descent. My bones would shatter against the rock and my body would be pulverized. That was not what happened. I fell only a couple of meters onto a soft triclinium that absorbed the impact, a piece of furniture that had appeared from nowhere, just like the hall with marble walls, radiant as the sun, where I found myself.

The beauty of the place left me breathless. The architecture, with straight columns decorated in gold leaf, seemed superhuman, divine. Have I perhaps reached the dwelling of the gods?

The answer came quickly. I was not alone. Some twenty steps away, the eagle that had kidnapped me had settled. In an instant, the bird of prey transformed before my eyes. Wings became arms, talons legs, and feathers flesh. Before me appeared a man with a powerful gaze. His dark hair was a lion’s mane; his beard, bristling; his build, sturdy and muscular. His broad chest was hairy, his thick arms were hairy, and his powerful erect sex was hairy too, uncovered by any garment. Fear gripped me and I shrank back on the bed, fearing the worst.

—Who are you? —I asked.

—My name is Astreo, lord of the lightning and father of all the gods.

His voice sounded thunderous, as if the whole world trembled with every word. Even his footsteps, as he approached calmly, caused little earthquakes that shook the walls. Or perhaps it was only my own fear that made me tremble before his presence.

—And what do you want from me, mighty Astreo? I am only a simple mortal...

—Quite the contrary. You are the most beautiful man the world has known or will know. A beauty I want to keep here beside me, where age cannot wither it.

—I do not think I am worthy... —I murmured, overwhelmed.

He leaned over me, his piercing gaze fixed on mine like a bolt of lightning cutting through the clouds.

—You are. In return, I ask only two things: that you fill my cup at the banquets the gods hold, and that you share the love I bear you. Thus you will be one of us, and death and old age will never be able to claim you.

With a furious movement he tore the tunic from my body, exposing my skin bronzed by days in the fields and a beauty that was almost androgynous.

—I am not sure that... —I began.

—Come now, son of Eumelo. Do not resist the caresses of a god.

He opened my legs to settle himself between them and lowered his lips to mine. His beard scratched my hairless face, rough as the touch of a loosed winter, as sharp as the wind of a storm in its violent full force. And yet he treated me gently. I caught a sulfurous taste in his mouth that did not assault my palate, and his hands, makers of lightning, electrified my skin as they caressed me. An uncustomary tenderness in a deity who held the fate of all men within reach of his fingers.

Astreo ran over my body as if he were digging rivers and mountains into the untouched plane of my skin, until he caught my hips and drew me toward him. He had me at his mercy like a frightened maiden on her wedding night. His member, swollen with might, pointed toward desire, and I could almost feel the whisper of its touch against my thigh.

—Say yes. Accept my gift. Take the place that belongs to you beside me.

I hesitated for a few moments. I looked at the sturdy, woody build that eclipsed me. The face of the god for whom I had poured libations at so many banquets, before whose statues I had left offerings so prosperity would bathe my father’s kingdom. And now he wished to bless me with an honor no mortal could enjoy. My heart hammered against my chest. I felt like the deer about to be hunted. Only this time I believed myself lucky.

—I accept —mumbled my voice, almost without permission.

The ever-unflinching Astreo smiled. At once he took me for his own. The force of a god, the power of lightning, the vigor of a father, all flooded me at once in a sudden rush of pleasure. I writhed beneath such force of nature. A moan escaped me, and I did not know whether it reverberated through the halls of the summit or reached the ears of mortals down below. I felt divinity running through my veins and limbs, like the song of a hundred glorious choirs.

His thrusts were firm, with the unchanging pulse of one who had fought titans and won, who had wrested the throne from his own father, the child-devourer. But there was also in him the experience of a born lover, of one who had conquered his elusive wife and lain with mortals and goddesses alike. That was the face looking at me head-on, the body entering me again and again, shaking me from innocence and training me in love.

Every time he reached the deepest part of my being, an ecstatic fervor boiled in me that I had never felt before. He took me, handled me, made me rise up to the heavens and beyond, stirred my senses. Astreo grunted with every blow, like a beast in rut, until he gave a long groan and spilled his seed into his young conquest. The heat of that essence spread through my belly and, with it, granted me the gift of immortality.

Without withdrawing from me, the father of the gods sought my lips again and kissed them in delight, as if tasting honey. A light, fleeting touch. Then he whispered in my ear:

—You will be happy by my side. You will see.

With that promise he withdrew and let me rise and wash in the very baths used by the immortals. He gave me a silk tunic so pure, white, and soft that not even the most skilled weaver in the western lands could have conceived it. Its golden trim gleamed at the faintest glimmer of light and marked me, beyond any doubt, as one more of the Eternal summit.

***

Meanwhile, back on earth, my disappearance had not gone unnoticed. King Eumelo sent search parties that returned in vain, with not a single trace of his son. The monarch wept inconsolably over the loss. Astreo took pity on him and sent his winged messenger to console him. He told him of my fortune, assured him that I would be happy by his side and that I would enjoy a long and prosperous life among the gods. As compensation, he gifted him a team of mares whose hooves were as swift as whirlwinds. Thus my father no longer grieved for me.

My existence was, in truth, fortunate, with death and old age never once lying in wait for me. I shared the bed of the lightning-bearer whenever he claimed me and poured wine into his cup during countless feasts. The gods celebrated my arrival. Only one was not pleased by my presence: Astreo’s wife, who was irritated to see me and enraged that her husband rubbed that infidelity in her face so brazenly. But she did not plot any revenge against me.

When the time came, it would be my line that paid a far worse fate.