The Naxos Quartet

We know the Greek gods from mythology, and assume their stories ended there. They did not. This is a compelling new story about the Olympic gods in our century.

Here Artemis's nymph Timessa fully embraces her transformation into the Great Goddess, a primal being who was worshipped throughout the ancient world. Her powers are second only to Gaia's, and she doesn't know what to do with them. She's gotten as far as understanding that humans and gods are part of the same family tree, and that humans are the mortal variation of the Homo species. Unlike Homo divinitas — what she calls the Greek gods — humans spend most of their lives worrying about death. That's not an issue to the Olympians, whose lifetime seems immeasurable.

Like all of us, Timessa as the Great Goddess struggles to find purpose. She implements a plan to bestow happiness on the hundreds of young female models who adore her, and then to women everywhere. To do so she revives the ancient Eleusinian mysteries, rituals that saved ancient Athenians from extinction at death. As she anticipates, the rites work, but their use puts her in Gaia's crosshairs. Artemis and Apollo, Dionysos, Hephaistos, and other divinities see her as "the new wave" in the gods's development, and provide assistance. Her attempts to ease human suffering set us up for one of the greatest love stories of all time.