Helios and Mariám

Mariám was of the water. A maniform water nymph, who played in pools and on the seafoam when the day was brightest, their carefree laugh like a bubbling brook. That was how Helios had met them, frolicking in the midday sun off the coast of Rhodes, their brown skin sparkling with salt. It was summer, when the god's chariot ride across the world was slow… surely he could afford to stay awhile and talk.

When he called to them they chided, "Titan! Why do you stop? Do you not have a chariot to drive?"

Helios felt himself blush. "Aye, nymph, but my horses are restless, and drag me to the ocean to cool their hooves on the long summer rides. May we stay awhile by your shores?"

"No-one can own a shore, but you and your steeds may visit." Mariám beckoned.

Helios thanked them and brought his four-horsed chariot out of the sky to the very edge of the water. The horses pawed at the seafoam with coal-bright hooves. "What do I call such a generous nymph?" he murmured, hiding his eyes.

"I am Mariám."

All-seeing Helios blinked in surprise. "You are a maid?"

The nymph laughed. "Perish the thought! I'm neither a maid nor a man," they said, swimming rings around the god, "I simply am. And of course, I know your name, but who are they?" they gestured towards the horses.

Helios beamed. "The yolk-bearing mares are Thunder and Lightning, and the trace stallions are Sky-Turner and Scorched Earth. Have you animals? Family?" he looked down once more. "Companionship?"

Mariám laughed. "I am a water nymph! I own nothing, but I talk with the creatures of the shallows, I have siblings scattered yonder whom I love dearly, I am married to no-one and consort with whom I please. Does that satisfy your curiosity, titan?"

To Mariám's surprise Helios looked sad as he returned to his chariot. "It must be wonderful to live so carefree, not beholden to anyone..." he gestured at the reins in his hands. "Not something I can know."

Mariám pulled themself out of the water, wrapping their hands around Helios' arm. "But not a life that has to stay a mystery to you, if you don't want." they leaned up and kissed his blazing, duty-blistered face with their icy lips. "At night I rest in the freshwater, and I always have time to sit awhile and talk."

Helios nodded, a little stunned, as he urged his horses into the sky. When it was safe for him to guide them with only one hand, he reached up and touched his cheek where the nymph had kissed him. His skin felt cool for the first time in aeons.

Helios returned to Mariám that very night, and sat with them in a rushing stream, the water coming up to his waist. The next day he walked tall and untiring. The next night, as his sister rode across the sky he stayed by Mariám in a rich, slow-moving lake. Sure enough, the next day his arms and torso felt refreshed, and he could stand confidently in his chariot. A month later, when they consorted for the first time, Mariám rolled Helios completely under the water in a passionate embrace. The next day, the titan felt a strength in himself he thought lost since pledging his loyalty to Olympus. When he rode his chariot across the sky he was at great peace with the power he held. He was no longer fighting it, but embracing it. The sun-chariot's radiance now shone through him as a force that was his rather than something he fought to control. Now his deep dark skin was burnished, not hidden, by his sunlight; his thick lustrous hair gleamed in brilliance. His heart felt a joy he'd not known since his son had passed into starlight.

The sun god loved Mariám as an equal, and showered them with gifts. At their request, they were tutored in the healing arts by Hermes. They were introduced to the nymphs of the earth. They were invited to the Dionysia and danced with Dionysus themself under a fever-moon, euphoric on wine and song. But most of all, Mariám and Helios talked. Of their lives. Their work. Their dreams, their friends and their enemies. That was how Mariám came to know of Aphrodite's curse.

In the earliest days of Olympus, when Helios and his sisters were still ostracised by most Olympians for their titan heritage, Hephaestus; the surly disfigured god of the furnace, whom the vein Olympians shunned for his appearance, had been one of their earliest friends, alongside the stoic Hades (whom the Olympians found too grim), and mischievous Hermes (whom the Olympians found too unpredictable.) And so the Olympians no-one wanted and the titans no-one trusted became firm friends. So when Helios, all-seeing, saw Hephaestus' wife, Aphrodite, consorting with Ares, he had told Hephaestus, whose heart broke, though he never blamed the messenger. Aphrodite had no such qualms, and cursed not only Helios but his sisters, to take their loves away one-by-one. Eos and Selene had already had their hearts broken, now he was the last one.

Centuries had passed, Eos and Selene had found love again, but Helios still lived in fear, now more than ever, of Aphrodite's wrath. But Mariám shushed him whenever he started to fret,

"Do not fear, my love, for Aphrodite's wrath is flash-flame, and I am water. We will outlast her anger. You must trust me."

Helios wanted to believe them, but although Aphrodite's wrath was flash-flame, her thirst for vengeance was as slow and patient as groundwater. She was a force to be reckoned with and a power he dare not trifle with.

Then one day, Helios awoke to take the reins from Eos the Dawn as normal, but in a bizarre haze. It seemed impossible, but there was something wrong with his eyes. He blinked and rubbed them, but the all-seeing god of sight could not focus. He called for Mariám. There was no reply. Panicking, Helios leapt to his feet and ran from stream to lake to open sea calling for them, but to no avail. When he tried to focus on one of their favourite haunts his vision swam even more.

He wished to spend all day searching for them but Eos was nearing the end of her journey and Zeus would not tolerate an absent sun, so he was forced into the sky dizzy and half-blind. Once he was in the air and away from the coastline of Rhodes his vision cleared slightly which confirmed his worst fears: this was Aphrodite's revenge. He completed his circuit of the world as quickly as possible, then loosed his most trusted sky-horse, the eldest mare, Lightning, and rode her around the world, calling for his beloved.

All through the night he rode and called. He called for them until he could no longer speak, and rode until Lightning had no chase left to give, then returned her to her stable and ran through the sky, screaming voicelessly for Mariám. They never answered, and he was now almost blind. At the darkest hour of the night, his strength failed him and he started to fall out of the sky, worn and bloodied from the elements, with no strength to stop his fall, terrified of the destruction he'd cause if he fell to earth.

But as if from the bottom of a well, he heard a voice call out to him, and felt two hands pluck him from the air, over a stone window ledge and inside. He was too weak to protest when his armour was loosed, and water applied to his wounds and brought to his lips. He opened his eyes to see an anxious young Persian woman tending his wounds.

"Thank you for saving me." he whispered.

"I only did what anyone would do." she said, before asking through a chewed lip "Are the gods at war? What else could cause the sun to fall from the sky?"

"Lost love..." he murmured, and was about to ask after Mariám when the door to her chambers burst open and in walked an elderly man dressed in finery. Next to him, in the form of a handmaiden, was an all-too-familiar face, smiling with eyes that glittered with malice. Aphrodite.

"Princess Leucothoe!" the man boomed at the young woman, who leapt away from Helios' side. "I return home early only to find my daughter draped over a topless stranger?!"

"Father, it's not how you think, please listen - " cried Leucothoe, but the king held up his hand.

"Silence! For this disgraceful behaviour, you must be punished."

"Please, no!" said Helios, getting to his hands and knees to prostrate himself before the king, as Aphrodite smirked in her disguise behind the king's shoulder. "This is all a horrible misunderstanding, I am the Helios, I fell from the sky and in catching me your daughter saved your whole kingdom!"

"Don't try to protect her." the king hissed. "My mind is made up. For bringing the reputation of the crown and the gods into disrepute, I'm afraid this calls for the most severe punishment... death."

"Father, what are you saying?! That's madness, there's nothing in our laws - " but the king put his hand over Leucothoe's mouth before she could say more.

The princess protested as Helios continued to plead on her behalf whilst Aphrodite giggled.

Pinching his brow, the king sighed. "This is a sordid, tragic mess." he turned to Aphrodite. "And one I must resolve privately. You are dismissed, maiden." and Aphrodite bowed and left the room. They heard some cursing, a hearty laugh, then a rush of air as she ran out into the night and back to Olympus.

"Good, know that she's had her fun, let's sort this out." said the king, suddenly sounding much less like an elderly monarch. As Helios and Leucothoe watched, the king seemed to shrink and grow thinner, until Hermes stood before them in his white tunic and golden sandals.

He knelt by the princess. "I'm terribly sorry to have put a descendent of Perseus through such an ordeal, but I assure you you are quite safe. To make up for it, I bless your house with long and healthy lives. How's that sound?" he winked.

Leucothoe nodded in stunned silence as Hermes turned to Helios.

"How are you faring? Vision returning alright?"

"Yes, actually..." Helios grabbed Hermes' arm. "But where's Mariám?! Aphrodite can't have let me off that easily."

Hermes smiled, but with a slight sadness. "Come with me, old friend." he said as he reached out his hand. Helios took it, and Hermes whisked them away to the coast of Rhodes in an instant.

"Here." he said, and gestured at a patch of earth near one of Mariám's favourite lakes. "Aphrodite fully intended to kill them, but she couldn't find them. They were clever..." Hermes grinned. "Clever enough to outlast Aphrodite's curse."

Helios stared at the deserted lake. "Then where are they?"

Hermes squeezed his shoulder. "In the earth as a seed, for now, but you'll see their new form in nine days, and they'll return to you as they were in winter."

Helios knelt in the lake, tears pricking his eyes. "They transformed themselves?"

"For nine months out of every twelve. To stay with you forever."

Helios understood, but he could not stop weeping for his love every night.

On the ninth night, a marigold bloomed where his tears had fallen. Through the summer and autumn the flower watched him travel through the sky. In the winter, it died, and Mariám was there once more, and for three months that year, and every year after, the lovers were reunited, and spent their nights together as they had that first summer, all those centuries ago.

*

The common Greek marigold is a subspecies of heliotrope. It is a flower with an annual life cycle. All parts of the plant have medicinal properties.