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Helikaon

Odysseus moved away from the cliff edge and sat down on a grassy bank. "There is no courage without fear, Aeneas. A man who rushes into battle fearlessly is not a hero. He is merely a strong man with a big sword. An act of courage requires the overcoming of fear." Raising his hand, palm outward, he instructed the boy to do likewise. Then he reached out and pressed his palm to the boy's. "Push against my hand," he said. Aeneas did so. Odysseus resisted the push. "Now, this is how courage and fear work, lad. Both will always be pushing. They are never still." Dropping his hand, he looked out over the sea. "And a man cannot choose to stop pushing. For if he backs away, the fear will come after him and push him back another step and then another. Men who give in to fear are like kings who trust in castles to keep out enemies rather than attacking them on open ground and scattering them. So the enemies camp around the castle, and now the king cannot get out. Slowly his food runs out, and he discovers the castle is not a very safe place to be. You built a castle in your mind. But fear seeped through gaps in the walls, and now there is nowhere else to hide. Deep down you know this, for the hero I see in you keeps telling you."

"Perhaps there is no hero inside me. What if I am as my father tells me?"

"Oh, there is a hero, boy! You still hear his voice. Every time your father asks you to ride a horse or do some daring thing, the hero in you longs to obey him, yearns for a smile from him or a word of praise. Is that not so?"

The boy's head dropped forward. "Yes" he admitted.

"Good! That is a beginning. Now all you need is to do is seek out that hero, boy, and embrace him. I can help you, for I know his name."

"His name?"

"The hero inside you. You want to know his name so that you can call for him?

"Yes," answered Aeneas, and Odysseus saw the desperation in his eyes.

"His name is Helikaon."

The boy's face crumpled, and Odysseus saw tears begin to fall. "No one calls me that anymore" he said. Then he angrily brushed the tears away. "Look at me! I cry like a child!"

"Damn, boy! Everyone cries at some time. I wept for weeks when my son died. Blubbed until I had no strength left. But we are losing the breeze here. You need to find Helikaon."

"And how do I do that?"

"Why, you sally from the castle and scatter your fears. He will be there waiting for you."
"Speak plainly, for there are no castles."

Odysseus felt sympathy for the youngster, but he realized that the damage caused to him by years of abuse from his father could not be undone with a few fanciful notions. In truth, he thought, it will take years, and Odysseus did not have years to spend on a boy with a crippled heart.

Equally he could not take him on the Penelope and kill him no matter what riches Anchises dangled before him.

He decided on one last gambit. "If I asked you to dive from this cliff to the sea, a hundred feet or more below, you wouldn't do it, would you?"

"No," Aeneas replied, his eyes wide with fear even at the thought.

"Of course not. It is a long way down, and there may be hidden rocks there that would dash a man to pieces. Yet that is where Helikaon waits for you, lad. So I am going to give you a reason to make that dive."

"Nothing will make me do that!" said Aeneas.

"Perhaps not. But I am going to jump from this cliff into the sea. I cannot swim, so if you do not come for me, I will drown."

"You cannot do this!" Aeneas said, surging to his feet as Odysseus rose.

"Of course I can. Helikaon and I will be waiting, boy." Then, without another word, he ran to the cliff edge.

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