The Original Star-Crossed Lovers

This is the result of an assignment I did on Greek mythology for my English class. I don't know if it's any good but whatever. Enjoy.

Introduction

According to reliable sources (dictionary.com), lovers whose relationship is doomed to fail are said to be “star-crossed”(frustrated by the stars), because those who believe in astrology claim that the stars control human destiny. William Shakespeare used the phrase to describe the lovers in Romeo and Juliet. According to the same source, this is the official definition of star-crossed lovers. This is also one of the first times that this term was used. But the only reason for that is because the gods didn’t think of the term to describe Ecstasia, goddess of euphoria and Alprazolum, god of depression, the star-crossed lovers of ancient Greek mythology. By their titles alone, you can guess why they were star-crossed lovers along with the fact that the gods said so and whatever the gods say goes.

Ecstasia was just leaving Mount Olympus, bubbly as always, to go visit her favorite city (well, one of them), the city of Athens. One thing about Ecstasia that you must know is that she goes everywhere. So, when she heard of Athens, the city everyone (mostly Athena, her dear friend) had been raving about, she just had to go. And once she finally went, she understood the commotion. It was a lovely little city, with marketplaces and mostly nice people. The niceness of a person always depended on the person and the day, but, usually, everyone was pretty neighborly, friendly, and cheerful, like Ecstasia. Another thing that you must know about Ecstasia is that she is the goddess of euphoria. If you do not know what euphoria means, I shall tell you. Simply, euphoria is a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. Ecstasia always was intensely happy and always brought intense happiness to others. Some gods bring harm and hurt to others, but not Ecstasia. Her life goal was to bring happiness to everyone she met, every single day. It wasn’t hard really. Her just opening up her mouth to speak or to laugh made people get tingly with extreme merriment, almost to the point of laughter themselves. She never had a bad day and always made other people’s days brighter, gods too.

This particular day, Ecstasia went to Athens in search of something interesting. She had been in the city many times over and she had sworn she’d seen everything. She wanted to prove herself wrong As she was walking through the marketplace, she saw something quick move from stand to stand. None of the vendors or customers seemed to notice the person (or whatever it was [you could never be sure in Greek mythology]) in the cloak except for her. She was about to yell at him/her/it and say hello when she remembered what Athena had said the other day about Ecstasia’s tendency to be overly excited about random things, or random strangers, and how it scared some people. So, she kept her mouth shut and decided to sneakily follow him/her/it instead. A smile grew on her face. She had never had to be sneaky and it was exhilarating. She made a note to herself that she should follow strangers around more often.

From the angle that Ecstasia was at, she couldn’t particularly see who was under the cloak but, from the way he/she/it walked, she made a prediction that he/she/it was a he. She continued to follow this “he” until they reached a narrow little alley hidden away from the rest of town. There was nowhere for Ecstasia to hide so she crouched down on the ground and put her hands on her head. She closed her eyes and maybe, just maybe, this “he” wouldn’t be able to see her because she couldn’t see anything. It was quite childish, especially for an Olympian goddess like herself but it did work. The “he” had no idea that she was there and that she had followed him. What gave it away was her laughter. She had found what she was doing to be quite enjoyable and she tried to contain her laughter but ultimately ended up falling on her butt and bursting out into a fit of chuckling and chortling. The figure turned around and it seemed that she was right. It was a he! And a handsome one at that. She looked astonished at how correct her prediction was. She stood and pointed her finger at him saying, “Aha! I was right! I knew I’d be right!” The man just looked confused. Then sad. Then confused again.

For a while, nobody spoke. They were trying to figure out who the other was without just right out asking. Then the man nodded like he had figured out the puzzle. Ecstasia walked up to him like a puppy and said, “What, what?” clearly noticing his facial expression. He spoke slowly, softly, and in an unenthused voice. “You must be the goddess of euphoria, Ecstasia,” he said matter-of-factly. It was no question. There was no mortal that could be acting like this wearing the fancy garments that she had. It must’ve been her. “Yes, yes, yes. You are correct good sir. But I cannot, for the life of me, figure out who you are.” She cocked her head to the side in thought. Her father, Zeus, knew who every god (he had created most of them) and who every mortal (he had created some of those, too) was and she had never seen anyone like this man or heard of anyone that matched his description. After a minute, the man said, “Well it was nice to meet you goddess, but I must depart.” He turned to leave when Ecstasia yelled, “No! I want to get to know you. What’s your name at least?” She was interested in this gorgeous young man and didn’t want to give up on him just yet. He shook his head. “You don’t want to know my name.” “Of course I do. I just said so, silly goose.” She laughed at his blatant foolishness. He sighed once she was done and said, “My name is Alprazolum.”

At first, she still couldn’t recognize the man until she remembered something Athena had taught her about the lost god of Mount Olympus. It just seemed like a stupid fable told for fun, but, now that she thought about it, he matched the description perfectly. “Alprazolum, the god of depression?” She had to be sure that this was the right Alprazolum. When he nodded his head, her suspicion was confirmed and she was floored.

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Ecstasia went back to Alprazolum’s underground abode with him and asked him question after question after question. There was no end to her curiosity and with every answer came a sigh. As beautiful as the goddess was, Alprazolum started to get annoyed. He knew everything about her already. There was nothing for him to ask. He had known who she was for years now while Ecstasia was just meeting him. (All you, reader, need to know about Alprazolum is that he was a son of Zeus and Hera and that when he was 11 years old, he was kicked out of Mount Olympus due to his attitude and effect on everyone. He was the god of depression after all. He was older than Ecstasia and watched the beginning of her life before he left home. He had kept up with her, his father, Hera, and the other olympian gods and goddess, one day hoping to return to Mount Olympus.) But, as annoying as Ecstasia was, he didn’t completely mind. She started to grow on him in the short hour that they spent talking with each other. He liked her and he usually didn’t like people at all. Maybe the reason they got along so well was because they were destined to be married when they were older (Yes, brothers and sisters got married in greek mythology. That’s just how it is). At least that's what the gods said. But that’s just a theory. Anyway, Ecstasia ended up staying with Alprazolum for the rest of the night. and in that short time, somehow, they fell in love. It seems impossible, and for mere mortals is, but they weren’t mere mortals.

Right before Ecstasia was about to leave, something magical happened. For a brief moment, time stood still. Ectsasia and Alprazolum stood in place, still as boards, and both fell to the ground at the same time. No one quite knows what happened, but it's certain that something supernatural happened. When they stand, Alprazolum starts laughing uncontrollably and Ecstasia started sobbing. No one knows much about Alprazolum, but, we can assume that he's never laughed due to the fact that he's the god of depression, but, everyone knows that not in a day of her life has Ecstasia ever sobbed. They had switched.

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As Ecstasia made her way back to Mount Olympus, she questioned what had happened. She felt weird inside like nothing was ever possible. She wanted to laugh but she couldn't. She wanted to dance around and sing aloud happily but she didn't know how anymore. She didn't know what to do and she hated the feeling. When she met with Athena, she didn't have time to go over the situation. She didn't have time to tell her what had just happened to her. She didn't even have time to tell her where she had been all this time. Dionysus was having a party and Athena wasn't going to miss it. She wanted to see how stupid he would act this time and Ecstasia always came along with her. After all, next to Dionysus, Ecstasia was the life of the party. But, surprisingly, Ecstasia was not feeling like partying. She just wanted to go home and crawl into bed and stay there for a million years which she probably could do anyway since she's immortal. But Athena dragged her anyway. When they got there, Ecstasia was feeling horrible. She wanted to cry and scream and die all at once. She didn't know what to do. So she did the only thing she knew how to do. She cried. But this isn't any soft, ordinary cry. She sobbed. She sobbed so much that she flooded Dionysus’s party. Then she started screaming. Her screams blew people to the edges of the walls. Nobody knew what was happening. Everyone was so confused. Ecstasia was bubbly and happy. The life of the party, always. They had never seen her upset not once in her life. So, when someone you know so well starts doing something so unexpected, you go into a type of shock. No one tried to stop her. They didn't know how. And, even if they did, the way she was acting seemed helpless.

Athena watched her, confused as everyone else. But that's when she remembered that she knew her friend. She knew this was not normal and that something must have happened in Ecstasia’s absence. She didn’t know what, but she knew that this was the result of magic. Athena slowly got out her bow and arrows and aimed for Ecstasia’s arm. She didn’t want to badly hurt her friend, but she needed to get everyone out of here safely. When the arrow hit Ecstasia, she hit the ground, her screams turning into groans until there were whimpering and silence. Everyone moved from the walls and started to move the water from the flood outside. Athena moved towards her unconscious friend and called Dionysus to go get Asclepius, the god of healing, and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. She knew they were going to be needed.

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Ecstasia was barely awake, but she was awake enough to tell Athena why she did what she did. She told her all about her sneaking around to follow Alprazolum and remembering who he was and learning all these wonderful things about him. Then she remembered falling in love with him as quick as the sun had set and how just before she left, something unexplainable happened. That’s when Hecate arrived to explain the unexplainable. She said that, due to the extreme differences in realm that Ecstasia and Alprazolum had, their falling in love caused something to happen between their souls. They wanted to become closer to each other but because of the difference, they switched instead. She said that the only way to reverse the “enchantment”, for lack of a better term, was to get the two of them together and to have them feel that same feeling of love so that the souls can meet and switch back. As Asclepius started to heal Ecstasia a few moments later, Alprazolum shows up to see her. When his eyes land on her, he smiles and runs toward her saying, “I’m so happy to see you! It’s great to know that you’re going to be ok.” He was as cheery as Ecstasia usually is, which makes sense due to the circumstances. They held hands until it happened again. They stood still completely before going completely limp and lifeless. Then, they both stood up. Ecstasia was smiling, happy to be herself again and so was Alprazolum, but he didn’t smile. There were always too many dark thoughts floating in his head for him to ever really smile. But, nonetheless, they were back to normal.

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Days after Ecstasia’s incident, her and Alprazolum met on a hill in Athens, overlooking the city. They both held a small vial filled with a special concoction they found in Zeus’s secret chambers. They knew it was from Hades due to the smell and the look of the vials. They looked over the beautiful city in which they had met in and sighed simultaneously. They were going to miss this city, this world. But they knew that the only way to be together was to do this. Their extreme difference in realms could cause havoc among many and they didn’t want that for anybody. They looked into each other’s eyes passionately before sharing one last kiss. Their last few days together had been full of them. Then they opened up the vials and held hands. They were about to drink the most dangerous thing for gods and goddesses to ever drink. But they were doing it for a good reason. Alprazolum counted from three. “One, two, three. I love you.” Then they gulped down the liquid and collapsed onto each other peacefully. They looked like they were asleep. And they were. Forever.