"I'll talk to you later okay? Bye." She ended the call a lot more abruptly that she had intended but the shout from the dig had piqued her interest. They'd finally found something. Pocketing her mobile phone, Cassie hurried to the main core of activity.
There were more archaeologists on this site that any other she'd worked on. There was also an atmosphere of anticipation here, stronger and thicker than any she'd ever experienced before. It was as if everyone were holding their breath. They all knew they'd find something, it was just a question of when and whether it would be of any value. By the sounds of the excited shouting the waiting was over.
Cassie arrived to find chaos as her colleagues argued over who would be first inside the tomblike structure. Smiling to herself Cassie walked into the midst of the arguing men. "What's going on?" She asked, not at all perturbed by the fact that the shortest of the men dwarfed her by at least six inches.
Mallory answered, she knew that he would. He was always the first to speak, the first with an idea, or the first to shoot somebody else's theory down in flames. "They've found the door, Cassie! It's sealed but it won't be difficult to open without damaging it!" Mallory said unable to contain his excitement.
Cassie felt as if she were surrounded by a playground full of hyperactive boys instead of the cream of the world's archaeologists. "Good. Then we'd better check everything's secure and get all that rubble clear and we'll enter in the morning."
An unasked question hung in the air. Cassie, the one woman amongst men was in charge of this dig and her word would be final, she was not the kind of woman to cross. Relenting a little she smiled, "I'll be first in, with Ryan and Kurt." Seeing the disappointed faces around her she felt a need to cheer them up, "Don't worry, you'll all get your chances, but the three of us discovered this site, it's our right to be first to see what that room holds."
Nobody could argue with the logic of that statement and early the next morning the archaeologists waited patiently by the doorway, the ruins behind this one remaining solid structure glowing pink in the early light. It had taken them nearly two years to get to this moment, and for Cassie they knew that today was the culmination of a lifetime's work.
Ever since the first dig she had worked on in Greece, as a young and enthusiastic student, ever since she had first stood on this site she had known that there was something special here. Years of research, and even more years of bullying various Universities and Research facilities into funding her dream and finally they would all see what her dreams had led to.
Cassie couldn't remember ever being so nervous, even her wedding day paled into insignificance compared to this. Nobody had taken her seriously; nobody had wanted to listen to a short, round-faced woman who kept harping on about a wonderful site not far from Delphi. There was nothing new to discover in Greece, all the ruins had been catalogued and carefully checked years ago. But Cassie knew different.
The first time she'd set eyes on this site at Meassia, she'd known that there was something wrong with the picture. The crumbling ruins of a large and imposing structure, possibly a palace stood in an open and relatively flat clearing, behind her was a hill on top of which the remains of a temple to Athena had been found. But there was something amiss, the ruins looked wrong somehow.
It wasn't until the third week of the dig that Cassie had realised what was bothering her. The remains of a stone staircase led to what must have been a grand entrance, but there were only five steps. The staircase was wide and the steps shallow, it should be a long sweeping affair not a short stubby little thing. Cassie suggested to Dr. Travis, the rather domineering leader of the dig, that perhaps they should dig even deeper and look for the base of the steps. She argued that it was strange that this great palace stood in the centre of nothing, shouldn't there be other structures, shouldn't there be something?
But Dr. Travis was adamant, this was a temple and there were no other structures. On a cursory look around the base of the steps he had found nothing of value and certainly no evidence that there were more below ground. And anyway, in this area the artefacts were not being found a metre down they were on the surface, if anything the earth had eroded away around them. Dr. Travis dismissed the young student's suggestion as laughable and all the experienced people on his team duly laughed.
'But whose going to get the last laugh?' Cassie wondered as she allowed her team-mates to finally pull the heavy door open.
The air inside was cool and musty, stale with age. Cassie wrinkled her nose and inhaled deeply as the air escaped its prison and enveloped her, this was a scent better than any perfume to her archaeologist heart. Here was where real adventure lay, nothing like Indiana Jones but so very exiting all the same.
With great reverence Cassie took the first step into darkness. It wasn't until she was inside that she raised her hand and flicked the torch on. Swinging it around in a big arc she couldn't help but feel disappointment. She hadn't expected hoards of fabulous jewellery or amphorae with their seals intact, but she had expected something. Instead the low beam illuminated nothing, except... Cassie moved the torch back as she felt Ryan and Kurt move to stand beside her.
There was a huge square of marble with steps leading upward and as she began to raise the torch she could see that on top of the platform was a plinth of the same marble. Cassie knew that her companions were holding their breath just as she was. She raised the light slowly to see what stood on top of the plinth. Bronze feet came into the circle of light, one was resting on something that lay broken on the ground, and the other planted firmly on the marble. The torch continued its journey upward, no one yet daring to breathe.
Two strong, muscular legs and on upward, the bronze glinting warmly in the first light that had touched it in millennia. The Statue's hands were relaxed at its side; one was holding what looked like a whip the handle white, perhaps ivory, and intricately carved. The other hand, loosely holding the leather of the lash, but the whip had been broken. The leather had been purposely cut in the middle before it was dipped in the bronze and so the two pieces of leather hung harmlessly down to the ground. Symbolic of something, Cassie wondered what it could be.
The statue was exquisitely finished the detail of the hands and definition of muscles beautifully crafted. Slowly the torchlight caressed the naked statue, reaching upward, ever upward, until it reached the head. Cassie's hand stopped its movement. Three held breaths were exhaled in sighs. Cassie looked into blue eyes and felt her heart pull.
He was beautiful; he was perfect, even the lapis and ivory inlay had remained in place, so that the statue's blue eyes watched her reflectively. Sad eyes, that told of so much, but that laughed as she looked up at him. She was almost convinced that if she watched for long enough her statue would grin and begin to laugh. His hair framed his face in a riot of waves glinting gold. The sculptor had taken great care to highlight the hair with gold. He had even given the man eyelashes and had dipped them in gold before placing them. Whoever this statue was of, he'd been blue eyed and golden haired. Unusual in this part of the world. He had also, obviously been very important to the Meassians. But who was he? And what did the whip and whatever he was resting his foot on mean?
For the next several hours the team got down to the nitty gritty of discovery. They catalogued everything they found; they painstakingly mapped the room. They photographed everything - the walls, the ceiling, and every inch and angle of the statue. Close up, and full length, there wasn't anything left out.
Whilst all of this was going on Cassie concentrated on her job, keeping tight reign on her imagination and trying not to listen to the wild theories her colleagues were bandying about.
"Well he's none of the usual deities, or one of the kings or great warriors that we've come across before, there's no Lion skin or club so he's not Hercules. I wish we knew what scale this statue was made to but I've got the impression this guy was of slight build." Mallory stood beside the statue on the cold marble platform as he talked, mostly to himself but he didn't mind there being an audience. "This whip is the real thing - did you realise that? Probably this guy really used it at one time, or then again - it's broken - so maybe it was him that stopped the use of it? Has anyone found any markings yet?"
Cassie wished they would - the man that stood before her was a complete enigma to them all. Who was he? What did the whip and the broken circle under his foot represent? Why had they built a statue to him and then shut it away in a tomb-like chamber, sealed until now.
Ryan gave a whoop just as Cassie was about to tell them to call it a night. "Over here, see? Just under his foot, there's some writing. Bring me more light someone!"
Cassie pushed past Mallory to look over Ryan's shoulder; he was brushing dust from the side of the plinth below the statue's left foot. How could they have missed this? It was a name and as she read it aloud Cassie realised just how important this find could be. "Iolaus of Thebes. Saviour of Meassia and friend to Hercules. We shall never forget." A simple declaration leaving the archaeologists with many more questions than answers, but they knew one thing now, they knew their bronze friend's name - Iolaus.
It was late and Cassie knew that she should be sleeping but the statue wouldn't leave her alone. She picked up her pen and opened her journal; maybe writing it down would clear her mind.
"The others have so many theories and wild ideas regarding Iolaus. This could turn everything we know of him on its head. He's called Hercules' friend and not his nephew; there's no sign that he's a charioteer but a hero in his own right. Which he was but ... 'Saviour of Meassia'? What happened here? Why that evil looking whip and the broken circle with a cross through it. Ryan says it looks like a brand to him, but surely it's too big?
"Maybe the Hercules they mention isn't the same Hercules as in our myths, but then, they say 'friend to Hercules' as if the whole of Greece would know who he was, which leads me to think that he was 'the' Hercules. But everything indicates that this statue is of a man they knew, which means what? That the son of Zeus really did walk the land being the hero with his 'friend' Iolaus?
"I don't know what to think. It's at a time like this that I think of my childhood dreams of owning a time machine. It would solve everything if I could only go back to see the real Iolaus for myself. Oh, if only I could.
"I can be honest with you Journal can't I? You won't tell anyone, not even James. God, what would he think of me obsessing over a statue? No, that's not honest enough, it's not the statue I'm obsessed with it's the man it represents. Iolaus, golden haired and blue eyed. Iolaus, beautifully proportioned and muscled. The sculptor may have taken liberties but I don't think so, the face is lined and the hands callused, if he took that much care to be accurate with those details he would have done the same with everything else.
If I could see the flesh and blood hero I think I'd fall in love at first sight. His eyes - how can I express what his eyes do to me? And if the inanimate eyes of his statue have such power what would the real thing do?
I have started to harbour a suspicion that this statue is by Phidias and if I'm right then this find will take the community by storm. I think it'll do that anyway. It indicates that some of the Herculean myths are wrong. The man standing inside the shade of that room for so long is a warrior in his own right, a hero at a relatively young age in his own right. I don't think this can be the restored to youth Iolaus, I think this is the 'real' Iolaus. And possibly a man who lived during the same period as Phidias. What does that mean? It turns everything on its head.
If only I could ask him, if only Iolaus could somehow talk to me down the long corridor of time and tell me his true story. If only I could... but that's a stupid and futile fantasy. I'm a grown woman with more grey that brown in my hair now; too old for this kind of hero worship.
I wonder if the Meassians worshipped Iolaus. I wonder why he was shut away from the sun, was he always like that or did the building encasing him come later?"
Cassie lay down her pen, so many questions that they may never have answers to. She knew one thing though; Iolaus had to have been a very special man indeed.
That night Cassie dreamed of Iolaus the golden haired hero of Meassia. In her dreams he smiled at her and giggled as he donned a worn purple vest and leather trousers. She smiled in her sleep, even as she dreamed she wondered where she'd thought up those clothes; they certainly didn't belong in the Ancient Greek world.
The End
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