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I was rather annoyed, and hungry..., or something. Again I felt if I could just look into their eyes. With nothing better to do, I decided there was no harm in telling them what I knew. “Well, they say the site was found a few years ago actually. Some hikers, maybe lost, went into an area that the locals avoided for as far back as anyone could research. Numerous legends dating back hundreds of years, any number of campfire tales in more modern times, but the earliest written accounts dated back to around 1300 to 1500 B.C.. And even those tales suggested that the area was being avoided for hundreds of years already. What they found though looked Greek in origin, they took a number of pictures, spent the night, and then left. The pictures made their way to the archeology department at Reading where they confirmed the location by satellite and eventually began working on putting a team together and getting the necessary permits.”
“Would you say it was a Greek Temple?” he asked.
“We soon referred to it as such, there was eventually a theory that 'Oracle' might be more accurate, but it'll take years to decide which, if either is most appropriate. Even the idea of a tomb or palace was thrown around, but we tried to stop speculating and see where the facts would actually lead us. You'd be better off asking Dr. Winford, he's the one in charge of the team.”
“That doesn't seem possible at the moment I'm afraid, he was killed at some point. We're trying to make positive I. D.s of all the dead, but so far, you're the only survivor anyone has found.”
“Dead? But... you have any idea at all what happened?” I tried to remember something. Anything. But there was nothing, not even some cutoff point where something fishy even began to happen. What the hell was going on? I found it hard to believe Peter was dead. Could everyone else be dead too? Though they didn't actually come out and say so, I had the impression there were lots of dead soldiers as well. And if not terrorists or some other group come to raid the site for artifacts, what could have killed two rescue teams and some of a third before being stopped?
“We're trying to piece things together, but between strange evidence, and a lack of information altogether, it's hard to guess what could have taken place. So a Greek Temple or something, in Romania. The location is pretty out of the way, isn't it?”
“Yeah. It shouldn't have been so far north, but it was definitely Greek, or at least partially so. There was no mistaking the columns, or architecture. It could be the Greek part was built on top of something older, but that still didn't explain what any Greeks were doing so far north, to build anything at least. You see, from the outside, it was all Greek, but once inside, it went into the mountain itself and became more carved out then built. So while still somewhat Greek at least, we don't know if they changed style for some reason or adding to something else.”
“Okay, so never-minding where it was located for the moment, what was built, and for what purpose?” he asked.
“Hmm, it's hard to explain much if you don't have a background in ancient Greek history, but I assume you know Greek mythology?”
“Fairly well, movies, stories, and so on, I know the major characters and maybe a few minor ones.”
“Alright, well, what the Greeks built there, they built to match the Greek mythology of the time, and might even have been the beginning of some Greek myths, basically putting their imprint, as we know it today, on something far, far older. So what they built seemed to have been a 'temple' to Scylla at first, the mother of many other Greek monsters. But she was never anything close to a god and not even Cthonic cults ever worshiped her, at least not that has ever been found. A Cthonic cult being a group that worshiped a 'dark' or 'underworld' side of one of the Greek gods. We found evidence that it could have been a Cthonic temple to Scylla, but that was just one of many things to be investigate further.”
“Cthonic cult? Are they evil or something?
“Not necessarily. They were never the 'good guys', but not always 'bad guys' either. The Cthonic cults would practice ritual sacrifice. Anything from wine, to grain, to an effigy of a human figure. But it's been disputed whether or not the Greeks ever practiced human sacrifice in even their rarest moments. We did find an altar with what may have been blood stains on it though. We took some samples, but as old as it is, who knows if we can ever tell for sure if it's human, let alone if it's even blood at all.”
“So far it doesn't sound like any of it could lead us to where we are now, so you must have found something more?” he said.
“Right, the blood, if that's even what it was that was, was 10-20 centuries old at least, no one had been keeping things going obviously. Beyond the altar in the next room was where things got interesting. It was there we found a wall or door. It would take us months to get it open. In the mean time we worked out how to do so as well as explore the rest of the temple as well as translate the tale carved into the buildings at the site.”
“So just what tale did you uncover?”
“This would be my field of expertise. Although I can translate one language into another, my specialty is translating pictographic narratives into a written narrative. This involves a deep knowledge of the culture that wrote it of course. Upon closer examination, I found that the carving on the arch outside said here 'lies', or 'dwells', 'a child of Scylla'. So a few things here. That's where the idea of a tomb or palace comes from, but also, this wasn't a temple to Scylla at all, but one of her children, or something the Greeks decided must be one of her children. After that, nothing really matched Greek mythology. The story they seemed to write came close, but just didn't line up with anything. It obviously came close to the story of Medusa, but not like we know it today. At best, the story we found here was an original, or different version from the one we know today. It was pretty exciting at first, but we also had to wonder if it would ever really fit in with Greek history as we knew it, or would it be considered some local anomalous temple based on the original tale that somehow made it's way north.”
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