The Rebellion of Crito: Defying the Gods

A story for teens based on young Socrates

Here are the first few chapters of a story I’ve been writing. It’s for teens. Based on a young Socrates, Crito escapes from the gods’ slavery and then travels the land while he foments a rebellion. Crito, however, has a superpower…

1. Exit

No slave had ever escaped the gods. It was impossible.

Cages full of rare and deadly beasts encircled the palace walls. One step too close and the swipe of a griffin claw or a burst of chimera fire would spell a slave’s end. Even if someone did, somehow, make it past them, the palace sat in the middle of a scorching desert. Sand baking under a red sun spread as far as the eye could see.

When he wasn’t in one of his moods, Zeus would tell the story of the palace. In his booming voice, he described how the Earth Spirit, so overwhelmed by the glory of the gods, had created the palace in their honor. The Sky Spirit, jealous of her sister, built the palace higher and higher, so tall that its turrets scraped her clouds and that she too could honor the gods.

Of course, Crito knew every word was a lie. When he wasn’t setting the tables for elaborate dinner parties, or feeding caged animals, Athena, goddess of war and strategy, would send him to cart massive cinder blocks up the palace to help in the construction of the new observation tower. Why they bothered with such an obvious lie about Spirits he had no idea.

Originally, feeding the beasts hadn’t even been his job, but the last two slaves sent to feed them had been eaten, and the gods had forgotten to assign someone else. It was either take the risk of feeding them or watch them starve. Crito felt an odd kinship with the creatures. They may have been fierce and fire-breathing and wing-having, but they were as much slaves as he was. Also, feeding them gave him an excuse to leave the palace gates every day.

***

Ares and Aphrodite were set to return from the war in the east, and Zeus had ordered a feast in their honor. The mood among the palace slaves was sour. Crito stood in the slaves’ kitchen with Glykeria, his only friend in the palace, as they prepared what little food could be spared for the caged minotaurs.

“Crito, every time she comes home she takes from us what little,” Glykeria hushed her voice, terrified a god would overhear her. “She takes from us what little freedom we have.” Crito’s eyes went wide and he whirled around. If they were heard using a forbidden word…

It was sufficient to say the gods were less than forgiving.

The last time Aphrodite had been in the palace, a slave had collapsed from hunger while refilling her bath. He had been executed. Afterward, she had declared that the slaves were too skinny and she never wanted to see another too-thin slave. Briefly, there was joy in the palace as the slaves, Crito included, thought they might no longer go hungry at night. In the end, there was no talk of food, and instead Aphrodite had designed new outfits for the slaves to wear which covered all skin but for a thin strip around their eyes. Under the brutal desert sun it had caused more than one person to faint from heat stroke.

“Glykeria… what if, what if it wasn’t this way?” Crito had to keep his words careful. He trusted Glykeria, but the gods would reward any slave who betrayed someone. It never hurt to be too careful.

Glykeria held his eyes for a moment. “Do you mean…” She trailed off.

Crito nodded.

She put down her basket and turned to face him fully, ignoring the thud of the vegetables as they rolled onto the floor. Her expression was something caught between despair and shock. “Crito… I… Of course I won’t say anything to anyone, don’t worry, but… I don’t want to die.” She paused, biting her lip. “If you do this, you do it alone.”

It hurt to hear his only friend say that, to see his friend feel that, but Crito understood. He had no guarantee his escape would succeed, and if it didn’t work and the gods discovered him, he had no doubt they would execute him. But he would try anyway. For Crito, the chance at freedom, however slim, was so much better than a life of slavery.

So he hatched his plan.