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Category: Waypoints

  • The Ballad of Bill and Bud

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in

    Bill lived free in his truck-bed camper.  Every summer he’d roll into town with his wife and two daughters, stock up at the local grocery store, and park under the Ponderosa pines, where he lived free of rent and indoor plumbing in the shadow of the volcano. He was not a tall man, but he…

  • Black Swans and Sacrificial Goats (5.5)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    Falsifiable propositions do not inspire us to flee—Oedipus-like—out of anxiety or the fear of finding them true.  They do not oppress. They invite our questions and tell us how to test them. They submit to criticism, allowing us to discover and correct errors.

  • Not Every Riddle (5.4)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    But Oedipus could not let it go. Something in the old man’s words… “Send for the servant.” She reached for him again, took his hands, and searched his face. “Let it be. He begged to leave the city.” “The city suffers. I will know.” He turned to his guards. “Bring him to me.” “Not every…

  • The Man You Seek (5.3)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in , ,

    After entering Thebes, Oedipus learned that the people mourned the loss of their king, and feared who would fill his throne: Laius had left no heir. Then the Sphinx arrived with her riddle, demanding an answer. She killed those who could not provide one, piling at her feet the bones of the bold.

  • The Riddle of the Gate (5.2)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    Descending from Mount Parnassus along the Pythian way, Oedipus traveled east toward the sunrise. By midday he had reached the triple meeting of roads. Behind him rose Delphi. Before him two roads diverged. One bent toward Daulia’s quieter fields. The other led to the great city of Thebes.

  • Nine Moons Certain (5.1)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    Laius, King of Thebes, went to Delphi seeking counsel about his house. The oracle declared that if he fathered a son, that boy would kill him—and take Jocasta, his wife, as his own. Even so, one evening he lay with her and forged his fate. Nine moons waned, and the news was delivered: Jocasta had…

  • The Dolphin’s Always Right (4.6)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    Like Apollo, Dionysus was a child of infidelity. This time, jealous Hera sent the Titans to destroy him. They tore the child to pieces and devoured him—all but his heart. Athena rescued it and returned it to Zeus, who swallowed it. In time, the god was born again.

  • Only the God Changed (4.5)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in

    The life of a god is but a mythical parting of the eternal dark.  About fourteen centuries before Christ’s eastern star pierced Pagan skies, a goat fell into a chasm, and began to bleat strangely.  This perplexed its shepherd.  Having got his goat safely out, he climbed back in, and down, to inhale the vapors…

  • The Oracle at Dolphin (4.4)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in

    A dragoness born of mud—a child of Gaia named Python—guarded this cave from which her mother’s oracle spoke, at Pytho. Legend tells that the dragoness was drawn into the jealousy of Zeus’s sister-wife, Hera. Gentle Leto carried the faithless Zeus’s twins—Artemis and Apollo—in her womb. In her jealousy, Hera set the serpent upon the Titaness.

  • The Wombstone (4.3)

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    by

    K. L. Homme
    in ,

    Cronus swallowed his children. The prophecy had foretold that, just as he had overthrown his own father, Uranus, so one of his own children would overthrow him. This foreknowledge tormented him. Transformed him.