The Shepherds Beneath Mount Olympus

THE AURELIOTAI

At the eastern edge of Herculanum lies Aurelion, where fishermen mend their nets beneath the road to Heaven. Mount Olympus rises above the country, impossibly high, its upper reaches passing from stone into cloud and from cloud into the realm of the divine. The Aureliotai accept this with considerably less astonishment than their visitors.

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At the mountain’s foot stands Dion, holy city of the Olympetic faith and the spiritual heart of Herculanum. Pilgrims, priests, philosophers, ambassadors, and kings climb its ancient roads. Within Dion resides the Patriarch, whose blessing grants rulers divine legitimacy and whose displeasure can loosen crowns. An Aureliotai shepherd may own twelve sheep and a leaking roof, yet live closer to the source of imperial authority than the monarchs who seek the Patriarch’s favor.

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The Olympetic faithful worship Zeus as the supreme ruler of Heaven, with Hercules serving as the great intermediary between mortal and divine. Athena, Ares, Diana, Dionysus, and the other heavenly powers receive candles, prayers, and requests for intercession. The distinction is carefully explained by theologians and less carefully understood by nearly everyone else.

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Aurelion was once the heartland of the Laconian Empire, the first great Olympetic dominion. From Laconis, its armies ruled all Herculanum and much of Egypt before Saro conquered the conquerors. The empire is gone, but its roads, temples, monuments, heroic names, and certainty of historical importance remain in excellent condition.

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One might therefore expect Aurelion to be a country of marble palaces and jeweled princes. It is instead a land of fishermen, shepherds, olive growers, village priests, and scholars whose robes have been mended more often than their arguments. Its worldly power diminished centuries ago. Its religious and philosophical influence never did.

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The Aureliotai possess an affection for debate that borders upon physical necessity. Questions of justice, virtue, divine law, good government, and the proper nature of courage are discussed in temples, fishing boats, vineyards, and roadside shade. I once asked an old goatherd for directions and received a complete argument concerning whether any traveler can truly know his destination.

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Their names carry prayers for wisdom, beauty, strength, victory, justice, and divine favor. Grand heroic names belong as readily to washerwomen and fishermen as to judges or ancient families. In Aurelion, a person need not possess an empire to inherit its language.

The Aureliotai live among the remains of greatness without pretending that greatness still feeds them. Their boats remain small, their fields rocky, and their villages poor. Yet above every ordinary task stands Olympus, and through Dion their quiet country still speaks into every throne room in Herculanum. Aurelion no longer rules the known world. It merely tells much of that world which rulers Heaven recognizes.

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—Lantern of the Thirteenth Word