The Four Goddesses

The Goddesses conspire to trick a greedy mortal man.

Once upon a time, the Goddesses looked down and saw a greedy man, who stole from the poor and the sick, and from their sacred shrines. He wanted more and more and his hunger never ended, and the Goddesses sought to punish him. However, only the Gods could punish men in the mortal state. The Goddesses were forced to wait until a man’s soul departed from his body to administer punishment.

The Goddesses asked the Gods to punish the greedy man for his crimes, but the man had fooled them with falsified devoutness, and pretended reverence for the Gods.

The Goddesses grew angrier and angrier as they watched the mortal man commit these crimes, and begin terrorizing mortal women. They felt helpless because they could not punished him until he died, until one of them devised a plan.

“Though we can not cleanse him of his darkness through the fires of our wrath, perhaps we can harness that void already in his heart to swallow him up,” said the wisest Goddess.

One night while the man was praying to the Gods with his words, but set on the mortal world with his heart, a Goddess appeared to him in the shrine. Her skin glowed a radiant white and her gown shown with the light of purest iridescent silver. She was more beautiful than any mortal woman who had ever lived, and she reached out her hand.

“Because of the respect you have shown to the Gods,” she told the man, “You are being blessed with a are opportunity. For this night, and the three to follow after it, you shall be visited by a Goddess. From these four Goddesses you may select a wife. However, if you do not choose a Goddess to wife on her night, she will disappear to you forever. It will continue on in this way and if you have not chosen by the final night, the fourth Goddess will be your bride.”

The man’s breath was taken away by the magnificence of the Goddess. He was very tempted to ask her to be his wife right at that very moment. However, his curiosity stopped him from being to hasty. For if he picked her, he would never see the other three Goddesses.

“I am the Goddess of the Stars, and the first of your possible brides,” she explained.

The man spent the rest of the night talking to the sweet tempered and breath taking goddess. He spun sweet lies from his lips in hopes to swoon her and capture her heart. When the day broke the Goddess presented the man his two choices.

“Good sir,” she said, “You may either marry me, or you may be visited this night by my elder sister, one who’s status and glory is even higher than my own.”

The man wanted very much to take the Goddess as his wife, but he couldn’t help his feelings of greed. For if her sister was even more beautiful, surely he should wait. So he turned down the Goddess of the Stars and she disappeared to him forever.

That second night, the man returned again to the holy shrine, taking care not to speak to anyone about the offer he’d been given. He even blocked all entries to the shrine, lest a more devout person enter and claim the prize.

“Good sir, I am the Goddess of the Moon,” said the wondrous goddess who appeared before him once all the light had gone out of the sky. Her entire person seemed to sparkle and shimmer with the brilliance of diamonds. She was ten times as bright and beautiful as her sister had been, and the man could not help but be over whelmed to the point of trembling. He could barely speak much at all to the Goddess that night, but when the sun arose, he was presented with the same question.

“Good sir,” she said, “You may either marry me, or you may be visited this night by my elder sister, one who’s status and glory is even higher than my own.”

The man still wanted to say yes, but this time it was easier to say no. For as glorious as she was, then surely, the third sister would be beyond all imagination.

On this day, the man only left the shrine for food which he purchased with money stolen from a mortal woman. Then he hurried back to the shrine and awaited the third sister.

Once the sun had set completely, in that instant the shrine became filled with a light so bright that the entire town was filled as if night had never come. At first the man could scarcely even make out a human form in the flood of light until she dimmed her radiance for his sake. Even dulled enough so that his eyes could comprehend her, the third Goddess was so magnificent and radiant that the man fell to his knees in awe.

“I am the Goddess of the Sun,” she explained with a voice more melodic than the sweetest mortal music. She was bursting forth with the light and energy of the sun itself, her hair shining of fine spun gold and her eyes shining with every color of the rainbow. She was easily one hundred times as bright as her younger sisters had been.

The man could not speak, nor even move for how magnificent she was. All he could manage to do was weep in reverenced awe over what he was seeing.

However, when the natural sun rose that morning, he was presented with the same question. 

“Good sir,” she said, “You may either marry me, or you may be visited this night by my elder sister, one who’s status and glory is even higher than my own.”

Although it was difficult for the man to think at all in her presence, he knew if he waited for the fourth and final sister, he would end up with her and never see the amazing Sun Goddess again. However, if her glory was even higher than the Sun Goddess’s, then he may very well die of happiness from the mere sight of her, and then go on to live with her in bliss in the eternal realm- or so was his thought. Therefore, he must turn the Sun Goddess away. 

Still in the presence of the Sun Goddess, all he could do was mouth ‘no’, meaning he would not marry her. 

After she left, the man stayed all day in the shrine, refusing to leave for even a moment, no matter what need arose. He grew more impatient and more greedy by the moment, his mouth watering in anticipation. for surely he would have not only the finest wife in the mortal world, but even in the eternal realm, becoming a veritable god himself.

That night, however, once the sun set, there was no brilliant light which entered the room. Instead he could feel the floorboards creaking and bending underneath of him, finally erupting in a wet brown mess that shot up from under the ground.

The man hid in fear in the corner of the shrine, thinking some demonic presence had come to interfere with the God’s will. He watched however, as the wet sticky mud began to rise up and take the shape of a woman. Finally she became formed enough to speak, but was hideous and naked, made of live moving mud and dirt and twigs.

“I am the Goddess of the Earth,” she said with much difficulty as mud from her own viscous form continually poured down the corners of her mouth, “I live in the earth and am of the earth and so shall you be.”

The remaining mud on the floor sprang up as if given it’s own life and completely encased the man. The new couple then both sank down into the earth, with nothing but a hole in the shrine’s floor to prove that anything had ever happened.

Even in his new form as part of the earth, the greedy man could not love his hideous bride and ran from her when she tried to be with him. To this day he still runs from her, the two chasing each other in circles around the globe. They say every time the earth quake’s it’s because she’s grabbed a hold of him and he must struggle to get free. 

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Copyright No One Special 2010

Author's Note

This story is from the collection 'No One Special Fairy Tales'. If you liked it, I recommend the first story in the collection, 'Cinderella and Juliet'.

Reviews

[Omegax45]

Very nice. Good twist and perfect execution of the ending.

[Amanda]

Wow! This is very imaginative and fabulously told. You certainly have a gift for writing fairytales.