Part 15 (1/2)

Misogyny could not obscure, however, the essence of clear-mindedness that is Athena's special gift of fertility. Artist of real-world crafts, Athena, the Great Weaver, came to embody the complex skills of planning and follow through in domestic and political arenas. Hers was the might of civilization itself.

I wrote this new myth for Athena in honor of plumbing, the stupendous, invisible weaving of pipes beneath every city, without which vast numbers of people living closely together cannot healthily function. As Queen of Sanitation Engineering, Athena is similar to the Roman Cloaca, an aspect of Juno (see story), who was Queen of Sewers and Excrement.

Athena, called Minerva by the Romans, Empress of Architectural Brilliance, is the G.o.ddess I call on to help me plan, edit, and organize. It has been enormously important to me to return this masculinized realm to the Great Mother. That act, on a cultural scale, will begin to heal the shocking damage that invariably results when we split production from consequence and use from waste.

The Weaving of the Streets and Plumbing The G.o.ddess Athena got up in the morning and tied an apartment house onto each foot. She climbed into Her skirt made of hospitals and libraries and pulled a s.h.i.+rt of towers over Her head. She belted Her waist and tied back Her hair with two pillars. Into Her pockets She stuffed streets and pipes.

Today was the day to finish Her two great tapestries. Today in the cities, She would weave the last of Her mighty threads. First She pulled the streets from Her pocket. Bending and turning, She poked and pressed them into the huge grid of roads She had made.

Then She walked down into the Earth. There gleamed the net of pipes She had strung down the walls of the buildings, under the halls, past the steel and brick foundations. From every tub, every sink, and every toilet angled the pipes, curving and pointing out to the sea. Under the Earth, Athena squatted.

Using the last of Her pipes from Her pocket, she measured, chopped, and screwed them until they fit just so.

The people had gathered. Hundreds waited on foot and with carts at the sides of Her roads. Hundreds waited at the edge of the sea beside the huge vats that would catch the waters of Athena's pipe weaving.

Hundreds stood high on the mountain where the waters began.

Athena climbed out of the Earth and stood at the center of the cities where all could see Her. She loosed the pillar from Her hair, and a rush of air lifted the ma.s.s of it and settled it into the clouds.

”It is finished!” Athena shouted.

”My tapestries are finished!”

The people cheered.

”Now hear the story of My tapestries,” said Athena.

The people listened.

”My roads I call My transportation tapestry,” said Athena. Her voice was loud and strong.

”Without the streets of My tapestry, your travel is clumsy and long.

With My streets, your travel is easy. With My streets, your travel is free of rocks and thorns. When you visit and work or gather and carry, you go straight and true to each other.”

The people waved branches and raised their voices. They tossed flowers by the thousands into Athena's great transportation tapestry.

Athena spoke again.

”I call My pipe tapestry plumbing,” She said.

”My plumbing carries away your wastes and your filth. Without my plumbing your cities stink and are full of disease. With My plumbing, your cities are clean and your air fresh.”

The people clamored at their beautiful Athena. They called Her name and cheered. Then the man who stood at the great spigot at the top of the mountain waved a white cloth high.

”We are ready, Athena!” the man yelled. He raised his huge hammer.

”We are ready to start the waters flowing in Your great plumbing tapestry!”

”Wait!” thundered Athena.

”You are not ready!”